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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/38779-8.txt b/38779-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef51153 --- /dev/null +++ b/38779-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17485 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3), by +Thomas Carlyle + +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: Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) + Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Release Date: February 6, 2012 [EBook #38779] +[Last updated: January 6, 2014] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN + +BY + +THOMAS CARLYLE. + + + +UNIFORM WITH HIS COLLECTED WORKS. + + + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. III. + +MUSÆUS, TIECK, RICHTER. + + + + LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED), + 11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. + + + + +TALES + +BY + +MUSÆUS, TIECK, RICHTER. + + + +TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN + +BY + +THØMAS CARLYLE. + + + +[1827.] + + + + LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED), + 11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + MUSÆUS: + PAGE + DUMB LOVE 3 + LIBUSSA 58 + MELECHSALA 98 + + + TIECK: + + THE FAIR-HAIRED ECKBERT 159 + THE TRUSTY ECKART 175 + THE RUNENBERG 200 + THE ELVES 220 + THE GOBLET 238 + + + RICHTER: + + SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLÆTZ 257 + LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN 305 + + + + +MUSÆUS. + + + + +DUMB LOVE.[1] + + +There was once a wealthy merchant, Melchior of Bremen by name, who used +to stroke his beard with a contemptuous grin, when he heard the Rich Man +in the Gospel preached of, whom, in comparison, he reckoned little +better than a petty shopkeeper. Melchior had money in such plenty, that +he floored his dining-room all over with a coat of solid dollars. In +those frugal times, as in our own, a certain luxury prevailed among the +rich; only then it had a more substantial shape than now. But though +this pomp of Melchior's was sharply censured by his fellow-citizens and +consorts, it was, in truth, directed more to trading speculation than to +mere vain-glory. The cunning Bremer easily observed, that those who +grudged and blamed this seeming vanity, would but diffuse the reputation +of his wealth, and so increase his credit. He gained his purpose to the +full; the sleeping capital of old dollars, so judiciously set up to +public inspection in the parlour, brought interest a hundredfold, by the +silent surety which it offered for his bargains in every market; yet, at +last, it became a rock on which the welfare of his family made +shipwreck. + + [1] Prefatory Introduction to Musæus, _suprà_, at p. 316, Vol. VI. + of _Works_ (Vol. I. of _Miscellanies_). + +Melchior of Bremen died of a surfeit at a city-feast, without having +time to set his house in order; and left all his goods and chattels to +an only son, in the bloom of life, and just arrived at the years when +the laws allowed him to take possession of his inheritance. Franz +Melcherson was a brilliant youth, endued by nature with the best +capacities. His exterior was gracefully formed, yet firm and sinewy +withal; his temper was cheery and jovial, as if hung-beef and old French +wine had joined to influence his formation. On his cheeks bloomed +health; and from his brown eyes looked mirthfulness and love of joy. He +was like a marrowy plant, which needs but water and the poorest ground +to make it grow to strength; but which, in too fat a soil, will shoot +into luxuriant overgrowth, without fruit or usefulness. The father's +heritage, as often happens, proved the ruin of the son. Scarce had he +felt the joy of being sole possessor and disposer of a large fortune, +when he set about endeavouring to get rid of it as of a galling burden; +began to play the Rich Man in the Gospel to the very letter; went +clothed in fine apparel, and fared sumptuously every day. No feast at +the bishop's court could be compared for pomp and superfluity with his; +and never while the town of Bremen shall endure, will such another +public dinner be consumed, as it yearly got from him; for to every +burgher of the place he gave a Krusel-soup and a jug of Spanish wine. +For this, all people cried: Long life to him! and Franz became the hero +of the day. + +In this unceasing whirl of joviality, no thought was cast upon the +Balancing of Entries, which, in those days, was the merchant's +vade-mecum, though in our times it is going out of fashion, and for want +of it the tongue of the commercial beam too frequently declines with a +magnetic virtue from the vertical position. Some years passed on without +the joyful Franz's noticing a diminution in his incomes; for at his +father's death every chest and coffer had been full. The voracious host +of table-friends, the airy company of jesters, gamesters, parasites, and +all who had their living by the prodigal son, took special care to keep +reflection at a distance from him; they hurried him from one enjoyment +to another; kept him constantly in play, lest in some sober moment +Reason might awake, and snatch him from their plundering claws. + +But at last their well of happiness went suddenly dry; old Melchior's +casks of gold were now run off even to the lees. One day, Franz ordered +payment of a large account; his cash-keeper was not in a state to +execute the precept, and returned it with a protest. This +counter-incident flashed keenly through the soul of Franz; yet he felt +nothing else but anger and vexation at his servant, to whose +unaccountable perversity, by no means to his own ill husbandry, he +charged the present disorder in his finances. Nor did he give himself +the trouble to investigate the real condition of the business; but after +flying to the common Fool's-litany, and thundering out some scores of +curses, he transmitted to his shoulder-shrugging steward the laconic +order: Find means. + +Bill-brokers, usurers and money-changers now came into play. For high +interest, fresh sums were poured into the empty coffers; the silver +flooring of the dining-room was then more potent in the eyes of +creditors, than in these times of ours the promissory obligation of the +Congress of America, with the whole thirteen United States to back it. +This palliative succeeded for a season; but, underhand, the rumour +spread about the town, that the silver flooring had been privily +removed, and a stone one substituted in its stead. The matter was +immediately, by application of the lenders, legally inquired into, and +discovered to be actually so. Now, it could not be denied, that a +marble-floor, worked into nice Mosaic, looked much better in a parlour, +than a sheet of dirty, tarnished dollars: the creditors, however, paid +so little reverence to the proprietor's refinement of taste, that on the +spot they, one and all, demanded payment of their several moneys; and as +this was not complied with, they proceeded to procure an act of +bankruptcy; and Melchior's house, with its appurtenances, offices, +gardens, parks and furniture, were sold by public auction, and their +late owner, who in this extremity had screened himself from jail by some +chicanery of law, judicially ejected. + +It was now too late to moralise on his absurdities, since philosophical +reflections could not alter what was done, and the most wholesome +resolutions would not bring him back his money. According to the +principles of this our cultivated century, the hero at this juncture +ought to have retired with dignity from the stage, or in some way +terminated his existence; to have entered on his travels into foreign +parts, or opened his carotid artery; since in his native town he could +live no longer as a man of honour. Franz neither did the one nor the +other. The _qu'en-dira-t-on_, which French morality employs as bit and +curb for thoughtlessness and folly, had never once occurred to the +unbridled squanderer in the days of his profusion, and his sensibility +was still too dull to feel so keenly the disgrace of his capricious +wastefulness. He was like a toper, who has been in drink, and on +awakening out of his carousal, cannot rightly understand how matters are +or have been with him. He lived according to the manner of unprospering +spendthrifts; repented not, lamented not. By good fortune, he had picked +some relics from the wreck; a few small heir-looms of the family; and +these secured him for a time from absolute starvation. + +He engaged a lodging in a remote alley, into which the sun never shone +throughout the year, except for a few days about the solstice, when it +peeped for a short while over the high roofs. Here he found the little +that his now much-contracted wants required. The frugal kitchen of his +landlord screened him from hunger, the stove from cold, the roof from +rain, the four walls from wind; only from the pains of tedium he could +devise no refuge or resource. The light rabble of parasites had fled +away with his prosperity; and of his former friends there was now no one +that knew him. Reading had not yet become a necessary of life; people +did not yet understand the art of killing time by means of those amusing +shapes of fancy which are wont to lodge in empty heads. There were yet +no sentimental, pedagogic, psychologic, popular, simple, comic, or moral +tales; no novels of domestic life, no cloister-stories, no romances of +the middle ages; and of the innumerable generation of our Henrys, and +Adelaides, and Cliffords, and Emmas, no one had as yet lifted up its +mantua-maker voice, to weary out the patience of a lazy and discerning +public. In those days, knights were still diligently pricking round the +tilt-yard; Dietrich of Bern, Hildebrand, Seyfried with the Horns, +Rennewart the Strong, were following their snake and dragon hunt, and +killing giants and dwarfs of twelve men's strength. The venerable epos, +_Theuerdank_, was the loftiest ideal of German art and skill, the latest +product of our native wit, but only for the cultivated minds, the poets +and thinkers of the age. Franz belonged to none of those classes, and +had therefore nothing to employ himself upon, except that he tuned his +lute, and sometimes twanged a little on it; then, by way of variation, +took to looking from the window, and instituted observations on the +weather; out of which, indeed, there came no inference a whit more +edifying than from all the labours of the most rheumatic meteorologist +of this present age. Meanwhile his turn for observation ere long found +another sort of nourishment, by which the vacant space in his head and +heart was at once filled. + +In the narrow lane right opposite his window dwelt an honest matron, +who, in hope of better times, was earning a painful living by the long +threads, which, assisted by a marvellously fair daughter, she winded +daily from her spindle. Day after day the couple spun a length of yarn, +with which the whole town of Bremen, with its walls and trenches, and +all its suburbs, might have been begirt. These two spinners had not been +born for the wheel; they were of good descent, and had lived of old in +pleasant affluence. The fair Meta's father had once had a ship of his +own on the sea, and, freighting it himself, had yearly sailed to +Antwerp; but a heavy storm had sunk the vessel, "with man and mouse," +and a rich cargo, into the abysses of the ocean, before Meta had passed +the years of her childhood. The mother, a staid and reasonable woman, +bore the loss of her husband and all her fortune with a wise composure; +in her need she refused, out of noble pride, all help from the +charitable sympathy of her relations and friends; considering it as +shameful alms, so long as she believed, that in her own activity she +might find a living by the labour of her hands. She gave up her large +house, and all her costly furniture, to the rigorous creditors of her +ill-fated husband, hired a little dwelling in the lane, and span from +early morning till late night, though the trade went sore against her, +and she often wetted the thread with her tears. Yet by this diligence +she reached her object, of depending upon no one, and owing no mortal +any obligation. By and by she trained her growing daughter to the same +employment; and lived so thriftily, that she laid-by a trifle of her +gainings, and turned it to account by carrying on a little trade in +flax. + +She, however, nowise purposed to conclude her life in these poor +circumstances; on the contrary, the honest dame kept up her heart with +happy prospects into the future, and hoped that she should once more +attain a prosperous situation, and in the autumn of her life enjoy her +woman's-summer. Nor were these hopes grounded altogether upon empty +dreams of fancy, but upon a rational and calculated expectation. She saw +her daughter budding up like a spring rose, no less virtuous and modest +than she was fair; and with such endowments of art and spirit, that the +mother felt delight and comfort in her, and spared the morsel from her +own lips, that nothing might be wanting in an education suitable to her +capacities. For she thought, that if a maiden could come up to the +sketch which Solomon, the wise friend of woman, has left of the ideal of +a perfect wife, it could not fail that a pearl of such price would be +sought after, and bidden for, to ornament some good man's house; for +beauty combined with virtue, in the days of Mother Brigitta, were as +important in the eyes of wooers, as, in our days, birth combined with +fortune. Besides, the number of suitors was in those times greater; it +was then believed that the wife was the most essential, not, as in our +refined economical theory, the most superfluous item in the household. +The fair Meta, it is true, bloomed only like a precious rare flower in +the greenhouse, not under the gay, free sky; she lived in maternal +oversight and keeping, sequestered and still; was seen in no walk, in no +company; and scarcely once in the year passed through the gate of her +native town; all which seemed utterly to contradict her mother's +principle. The old Lady E * * of Memel understood it otherwise, in her +time. She sent the itinerant Sophia, it is clear as day, from Memel into +Saxony, simply on a marriage speculation, and attained her purpose +fully. How many hearts did the wandering nymph set on fire, how many +suitors courted her! Had she stayed at home, as a domestic modest +maiden, she might have bloomed away in the remoteness of her virgin +cell, without even making a conquest of Kubbuz the schoolmaster. Other +times, other manners. Daughters with us are a sleeping capital, which +must be put in circulation if it is to yield any interest; of old, they +were kept like thrifty savings, under lock and key; yet the bankers +still knew where the treasure lay concealed, and how it might be come +at. Mother Brigitta steered towards some prosperous son-in-law, who +might lead her back from the Babylonian captivity of the narrow lane +into the land of superfluity, flowing with milk and honey; and trusted +firmly, that in the urn of Fate, her daughter's lot would not be coupled +with a blank. + +One day, while neighbour Franz was looking from the window, making +observations on the weather, he perceived the charming Meta coming with +her mother from church, whither she went daily, to attend mass. In the +times of his abundance, the unstable voluptuary had been blind to the +fairer half of the species; the finer feelings were still slumbering in +his breast; and all his senses had been overclouded by the ceaseless +tumult of debauchery. But now the stormy waves of extravagance had +subsided; and in this deep calm, the smallest breath of air sufficed to +curl the mirror surface of his soul. He was enchanted by the aspect of +this, the loveliest female figure that had ever flitted past him. He +abandoned from that hour the barren study of the winds and clouds, and +now instituted quite another set of Observations for the furtherance of +Moral Science, and one which afforded to himself much finer occupation. +He soon extracted from his landlord intelligence of this fair neighbour, +and learned most part of what we know already. + +Now rose on him the first repentant thought for his heedless +squandering; there awoke a secret good-will in his heart to this new +acquaintance; and for her sake he wished that his paternal inheritance +were his own again, that the lovely Meta might be fitly dowered with it. +His garret in the narrow lane was now so dear to him, that he would not +have exchanged it with the Schudding itself.[2] Throughout the day he +stirred not from the window, watching for an opportunity of glancing at +the dear maiden; and when she chanced to show herself, he felt more +rapture in his soul than did Horrox in his Liverpool Observatory, when +he saw, for the first time, Venus passing over the disk of the Sun. + + [2] One of the largest buildings in Bremen, where the meetings of + the merchants are usually held. + +Unhappily the watchful mother instituted counter-observations, and ere +long discovered what the lounger on the other side was driving at; and +as Franz, in the capacity of spendthrift, already stood in very bad +esteem with her, this daily gazing angered her so much, that she +shrouded her lattice as with a cloud, and drew the curtains close +together. Meta had the strictest orders not again to appear at the +window; and when her mother went with her to mass, she drew a rain-cap +over her face, disguised her like a favourite of the Grand Signior, and +hurried till she turned the corner with her, and escaped the eyes of the +lier-in-wait. + +Of Franz, it was not held that penetration was his master faculty; but +Love awakens all the talents of the mind. He observed, that by his +imprudent spying, he had betrayed himself; and he thenceforth retired +from the window, with the resolution not again to look out at it, though +the _Venerabile_ itself were carried by. On the other hand, he meditated +some invention for proceeding with his observations in a private manner; +and without great labour, his combining spirit mastered it. + +He hired the largest looking-glass that he could find, and hung it up in +his room, with such an elevation and direction, that he could distinctly +see whatever passed in the dwelling of his neighbours. Here, as for +several days the watcher did not come to light, the screens by degrees +went asunder; and the broad mirror now and then could catch the form of +the noble maid, and, to the great refreshment of the virtuoso, cast it +truly back. The more deeply love took root in his heart,[3] the more +widely did his wishes extend. It now struck him that he ought to lay his +passion open to the fair Meta, and investigate the corresponding state +of her opinions. The commonest and readiest way which lovers, under such +a constellation of their wishes, strike into, was in his position +inaccessible. In those modest ages, it was always difficult for Paladins +in love to introduce themselves to daughters of the family; toilette +calls were not in fashion; trustful interviews tête-à-tête were punished +by the loss of reputation to the female sharer; promenades, esplanades, +masquerades, pic-nics, goutés, soupés, and other inventions of modern +wit for forwarding sweet courtship, had not then been hit upon; yet, +notwithstanding, all things went their course, much as they do with us. +Gossipings, weddings, lykewakes, were, especially in our Imperial +Cities, privileged vehicles for carrying on soft secrets, and expediting +marriage contracts; hence the old proverb, _One wedding makes a score._ +But a poor runagate no man desired to number among his baptismal +relatives; to no nuptial dinner, to no wakesupper, was he bidden. The +by-way of negotiating, with the woman, with the young maid, or any other +serviceable spirit of a go-between, was here locked up. Mother Brigitta +had neither maid nor woman; the flax and yarn trade passed through no +hands but her own; and she abode by her daughter as closely as her +shadow. + + [3] [Greek: Apo tou horan erchetai to eran.] + +In these circumstances, it was clearly impossible for neighbour Franz to +disclose his heart to the fair Meta, either verbally or in writing. Ere +long, however, he invented an idiom, which appeared expressly calculated +for the utterance of the passions. It is true, the honour of the first +invention is not his. Many ages ago, the sentimental Celadons of Italy +and Spain had taught melting harmonies, in serenades beneath the +balconies of their dames, to speak the language of the heart; and it is +said that this melodious pathos had especial virtue in love-matters; +and, by the confession of the ladies, was more heart-affecting and +subduing, than of yore the oratory of the reverend Chrysostom, or the +pleadings of Demosthenes and Tully. But of all this the simple Bremer +had not heard a syllable; and consequently the invention of expressing +his emotions in symphonious notes, and trilling them to his beloved +Meta, was entirely his own. + +In an hour of sentiment, he took his lute: he did not now tune it merely +to accompany his voice, but drew harmonious melodies from its strings; +and Love, in less than a month, had changed the musical scraper to a new +Amphion. His first efforts did not seem to have been noticed; but soon +the population of the lane were all ear, every time the dilettante +struck a note. Mothers hushed their children, fathers drove the noisy +urchins from the doors, and the performer had the satisfaction to +observe that Meta herself, with her alabaster hand, would sometimes open +the window as he began to prelude. If he succeeded in enticing her to +lend an ear, his voluntaries whirled along in gay _allegro_, or skipped +away in mirthful jigs; but if the turning of the spindle, or her thrifty +mother, kept her back, a heavy-laden _andante_ rolled over the bridge of +the sighing lute, and expressed, in languishing modulations, the feeling +of sadness which love-pain poured over his soul. + +Meta was no dull scholar; she soon learned to interpret this expressive +speech. She made various experiments to try whether she had rightly +understood it, and found that she could govern at her will the +dilettante humours of the unseen lute-twanger; for your silent modest +maidens, it is well known, have a much sharper eye than those giddy +flighty girls, who hurry with the levity of butterflies from one object +to another, and take proper heed of none. She felt her female vanity a +little flattered; and it pleased her that she had it in her power, by a +secret magic, to direct the neighbouring lute, and tune it now to the +note of joy, now to the whimpering moan of grief. Mother Brigitta, on +the other hand, had her head so constantly employed with her traffic on +the small scale, that she minded none of these things; and the sly +little daughter took especial care to keep her in the dark respecting +the discovery; and, instigated either by some touch of kindness for her +cooing neighbour, or perhaps by vanity, that she might show her +hermeneutic penetration, meditated on the means of making some +symbolical response to these harmonious apostrophes to her heart. She +expressed a wish to have flower-pots on the outside of the window; and +to grant her this innocent amusement was a light thing for the mother, +who no longer feared the coney-catching neighbour, now that she no +longer saw him with her eyes. + +Henceforth Meta had a frequent call to tend her flowers, to water them, +to bind them up, and guard them from approaching storms, and watch their +growth and flourishing. With inexpressible delight the happy Franz +explained this hieroglyphic altogether in his favour; and the speaking +lute did not fail to modulate his glad emotions, through the alley, into +the heedful ear of the fair friend of flowers. This, in her tender +virgin heart, worked wonders. She began to be secretly vexed, when +Mother Brigitta, in her wise table-talk, in which at times she spent an +hour chatting with her daughter, brought their melodious neighbour to +her bar, and called him a losel and a sluggard, or compared him with the +Prodigal in the Gospel. She always took his part; threw the blame of his +ruin on the sorrowful temptations he had met with; and accused him of +nothing worse than not having fitly weighed the golden proverb, _A penny +saved is a penny got_. Yet she defended him with cunning prudence; so +that it rather seemed as if she wished to help the conversation, than +took any interest in the thing itself. + +While Mother Brigitta within her four walls was inveighing against the +luckless spendthrift, he on his side entertained the kindest feelings +towards her; and was considering diligently how he might, according to +his means, improve her straitened circumstances, and divide with her the +little that remained to him, and so that she might never notice that a +portion of his property had passed over into hers. This pious outlay, in +good truth, was specially intended not for the mother, but the daughter. +Underhand he had come to know, that the fair Meta had a hankering for a +new gown, which her mother had excused herself from buying, under +pretext of hard times. Yet he judged quite accurately, that a present of +a piece of stuff, from an unknown hand, would scarcely be received, or +cut into a dress for Meta; and that he should spoil all, if he stept +forth and avowed himself the author of the benefaction. Chance afforded +him an opportunity to realise this purpose in the way he wished. + +Mother Brigitta was complaining to a neighbour, that flax was very dull; +that it cost her more to purchase than the buyers of it would repay; and +that hence this branch of industry was nothing better, for the present, +than a withered bough. Eaves-dropper Franz did not need a second +telling; he ran directly to the goldsmith, sold his mother's ear-rings, +bought some stones of flax, and, by means of a negotiatress, whom he +gained, had it offered to the mother for a cheap price. The bargain was +concluded; and it yielded so richly, that on All-Saints' day the fair +Meta sparkled in a fine new gown. In this decoration, she had such a +splendour in her watchful neighbour's eyes, that he would have +overlooked the Eleven Thousand Virgins, all and sundry, had it been +permitted him to choose a heart's-mate from among them, and fixed upon +the charming Meta. + +But just as he was triumphing in the result of his innocent deceit, the +secret was betrayed. Mother Brigitta had resolved to do the +flax-retailer, who had brought her that rich gain, a kindness in her +turn; and was treating her with a well-sugared rice-pap, and a +quarter-stoop of Spanish sack. This dainty set in motion not only the +toothless jaw, but also the garrulous tongue of the crone: she engaged +to continue the flax-brokerage, should her consigner feel inclined, as +from good grounds she guessed he would. One word produced another; +Mother Eve's two daughters searched, with the curiosity peculiar to +their sex, till at length the brittle seal of female secrecy gave way. +Meta grew pale with affright at the discovery, which would have charmed +her, had her mother not partaken of it. But she knew her strict ideas of +morals and decorum; and these gave her doubts about the preservation of +her gown. The serious dame herself was no less struck at the tidings, +and wished, on her side too, that she alone had got intelligence of the +specific nature of her flax-trade; for she dreaded that this neighbourly +munificence might make an impression on her daughter's heart, which +would derange her whole calculations. She resolved, therefore, to root +out the still tender germ of this weed, in the very act, from the maiden +heart. The gown, in spite of all the tears and prayers of its lovely +owner, was first hypothecated, and next day transmitted to the +huckster's shop; the money raised from it, with the other profits of the +flax speculation, accurately reckoned up, were packed together, and +under the name of an old debt, returned to "Mr. Franz Melcherson, in +Bremen," by help of the Hamburg post. The receiver, nothing doubting, +took the little lot of money as an unexpected blessing; wished that all +his father's debtors would clear off their old scores as conscientiously +as this honest unknown person; and had not the smallest notion of the +real position of affairs. The talking brokeress, of course, was far from +giving him a true disclosure of her blabbing; she merely told him that +Mother Brigitta had given up her flax-trade. + +Meanwhile, the mirror taught him, that the aspects over the way had +altered greatly in a single night. The flower-pots were entirely +vanished; and the cloudy veil again obscured the friendly horizon of the +opposite window. Meta was seldom visible; and if for a moment, like the +silver moon, from among her clouds in a stormy night, she did appear, +her countenance was troubled, the fire of her eyes was extinguished, and +it seemed to him, that, at times, with her finger, she pressed away a +pearly tear. This seized him sharply by the heart; and his lute +resounded melancholy sympathy in soft Lydian mood. He grieved, and +meditated to discover why his love was sad; but all his thinking and +imagining were vain. After some days were past, he noticed, to his +consternation, that his dearest piece of furniture, the large mirror, +had become entirely useless. He set himself one bright morning in his +usual nook, and observed that the clouds over the way had, like natural +fog, entirely dispersed; a sign which he at first imputed to a general +washing; but ere long he saw that, in the chamber, all was waste and +empty; his pleasing neighbours had in silence withdrawn the night +before, and broken up their quarters. + +He might now, once more, with the greatest leisure and convenience, +enjoy the free prospect from his window, without fear of being +troublesome to any; but for him it was a dead loss to miss the kind +countenance of his Platonic love. Mute and stupefied, he stood, as of +old his fellow-craftsman, the harmonious Orpheus, when the dear shadow +of his Eurydice again vanished down to Orcus; and if the bedlam humour +of those "noble minds," who raved among us through the bygone lustre, +but have now like drones disappeared with the earliest frost, had then +been ripened to existence, this calm of his would certainly have passed +into a sudden hurricane. The least he could have done, would have been +to pull his hair, to trundle himself about upon the ground, or run his +head against the wall, and break his stove and window. All this he +omitted; from the very simple cause, that true love never makes men +fools, but rather is the universal remedy for healing sick minds of +their foolishness, for laying gentle fetters on extravagance, and +guiding youthful giddiness from the broad way of ruin to the narrow path +of reason; for the rake whom love will not recover is lost +irrecoverably. + +When once his spirit had assembled its scattered powers, he set on foot +a number of instructive meditations on the unexpected phenomenon, but +too visible in the adjacent horizon. He readily conceived that he was +the lever which had effected the removal of the wandering colony: his +money-letter, the abrupt conclusion of the flax-trade, and the +emigration which had followed thereupon, were like reciprocal exponents +to each other, and explained the whole to him. He perceived that Mother +Brigitta had got round his secrets, and saw from every circumstance that +he was not her hero; a discovery which yielded him but little +satisfaction. The symbolic responses of the fair Meta, with her +flower-pots, to his musical proposals of love; her trouble, and the tear +which he had noticed in her bright eyes shortly before her departure +from the lane, again animated his hopes, and kept him in good heart. His +first employment was to go in quest, and try to learn where Mother +Brigitta had pitched her residence, in order to maintain, by some means +or other, his secret understanding with the daughter. It cost him little +toil to find her abode; yet he was too modest to shift his own lodging +to her neighbourhood; but satisfied himself with spying out the church +where she now attended mass, that he might treat himself once each day +with a glance of his beloved. He never failed to meet her as she +returned, now here, now there, in some shop or door which she was +passing, and salute her kindly; an equivalent for a _billet-doux_, and +productive of the same effect. + +Had not Meta been brought up in a style too nunlike, and guarded by her +rigid mother as a treasure, from the eyes of thieves, there is little +doubt that neighbour Franz, with his secret wooing, would have made no +great impression on her heart. But she was at the critical age, when +Mother Nature and Mother Brigitta, with their wise nurture, were +perpetually coming into collision. The former taught her, by a secret +instinct, the existence of emotions, for which she had no name, and +eulogised them as the panacea of life; the latter warned her to beware +of the surprisals of a passion, which she would not designate by its +true title, but which, as she maintained, was more pernicious and +destructive to young maidens than the small-pox itself. The former, in +the spring of life, as beseemed the season, enlivened her heart with a +genial warmth; the latter wished that it should always be as cold and +frosty as an ice-house. These conflicting pedagogic systems of the two +good mothers gave the tractable heart of the daughter the direction of a +ship which is steered against the wind, and follows neither the wind nor +the helm, but a course between the two. She maintained the modesty and +virtue which her education, from her youth upwards, had impressed upon +her; but her heart continued open to all tender feelings. And as +neighbour Franz was the first youth who had awakened these slumbering +emotions, she took a certain pleasure in him, which she scarcely owned +to herself, but which any less unexperienced maiden would have +recognised as love. It was for this that her departure from the narrow +lane had gone so near her heart; for this that the little tear had +trickled from her beautiful eyes; for this that, when the watchful +Franz saluted her as she came from church, she thanked him so kindly, +and grew scarlet to the ears. The lovers had in truth never spoken any +word to one another; but he understood her, and she him, so perfectly, +that in the most secret interview they could not have explained +themselves more clearly; and both contracting parties swore in their +silent hearts, each for himself, under the seal of secrecy, the oath of +faithfulness to the other. + +In the quarter, where Mother Brigitta had now settled, there were +likewise neighbours, and among these likewise girl-spiers, whom the +beauty of the charming Meta had not escaped. Right opposite their +dwelling lived a wealthy Brewer, whom the wags of the part, as he was +strong in means, had named the Hop-King. He was a young stout widower, +whose mourning year was just concluding, so that now he was entitled, +without offending the precepts of decorum, to look about him elsewhere +for a new helpmate to his household. Shortly after the departure of his +whilom wife, he had in secret entered into an engagement with his Patron +Saint, St. Christopher, to offer him a wax-taper as long as a hop-pole, +and as thick as a mashing-beam, if he would vouchsafe in this second +choice to prosper the desire of his heart. Scarcely had he seen the +dainty Meta, when he dreamed that St. Christopher looked in upon him, +through the window of his bedroom in the second story,[4] and demanded +payment of his debt. To the quick widower this seemed a heavenly call to +cast out the net without delay. Early in the morning he sent for the +brokers of the town, and commissioned them to buy bleached wax; then +decked himself like a Syndic, and set forth to expedite his marriage +speculation. He had no musical talents, and in the secret symbolic +language of love he was no better than a blockhead; but he had a rich +brewery, a solid mortgage on the city-revenues, a ship on the Weser, and +a farm without the gates. With such recommendations he might have +reckoned on a prosperous issue to his courtship, independently of all +assistance from St. Kit, especially as his bride was without dowry. + + [4] St. Christopher never appears to his favourites, like the other + Saints, in a solitary room, encircled with a glory: there is no + room high enough to admit him; thus the celestial Son of Anak is + obliged to transact all business with his wards outside the window. + +According to old use and wont, he went directly to the master hand, and +disclosed to the mother, in a kind neighbourly way, his christian +intentions towards her virtuous and honourable daughter. No angel's +visit could have charmed the good lady more than these glad tidings. She +now saw ripening before her the fruit of her prudent scheme, and the +fulfilment of her hope again to emerge from her present poverty into her +former abundance; she blessed the good thought of moving from the +crooked alley, and in the first ebullition of her joy, as a thousand gay +ideas were ranking themselves up within her soul, she also thought of +neighbour Franz, who had given occasion to it. Though Franz was not +exactly her bosom-youth, she silently resolved to gladden him, as the +accidental instrument of her rising star, with some secret gift or +other, and by this means likewise recompense his well-intended +flax-dealing. + +In the maternal heart the marriage-articles were as good as signed; but +decorum did not permit these rash proceedings in a matter of such +moment. She therefore let the motion lie _ad referendum_, to be +considered by her daughter and herself; and appointed a term of eight +days, after which "she hoped she should have it in her power to give the +much-respected suitor a reply that would satisfy him;" all which, as the +common manner of proceeding, he took in good part, and with his usual +civilities withdrew. No sooner had he turned his back, than +spinning-wheel and reel, swingling-stake and hatchel, without regard +being paid to their faithful services, and without accusation being +lodged against them, were consigned, like some luckless Parliament of +Paris, to disgrace, and dismissed as useless implements into the +lumber-room. On returning from mass, Meta was astonished at the sudden +catastrophe which had occurred in the apartment; it was all decked out +as on one of the three high Festivals of the year. She could not +understand how her thrifty mother, on a work-day, had so neglectfully +put her active hand in her bosom; but before she had time to question +the kindly-smiling dame concerning this reform in household affairs, she +was favoured by the latter with an explanation of the riddle. Persuasion +rested on Brigitta's tongue; and there flowed from her lips a stream of +female eloquence, depicting the offered happiness in the liveliest hues +which her imagination could lay on. She expected from the chaste Meta +the blush of soft virgin bashfulness, which announces the novitiate in +love; and then a full resignation of herself to the maternal will. For +of old, in proposals of marriage, daughters were situated as our +princesses are still; they were not asked about their inclination, and +had no voice in the selection of their legal helpmate, save the Yes +before the altar. + +But Mother Brigitta was in this point widely mistaken; the fair Meta did +not at the unexpected announcement grow red as a rose, but pale as +ashes. An hysterical giddiness swam over her brain, and she sank +fainting in her mother's arms. When her senses were recalled by the +sprinkling of cold water, and she had in some degree recovered strength, +her eyes overflowed with tears, as if a heavy misfortune had befallen +her. From all these symptoms, the sagacious mother easily perceived that +the marriage-trade was not to her taste; at which she wondered not a +little, sparing neither prayers nor admonitions to her daughter to +secure her happiness by this good match, not flout it from her by +caprice and contradiction. But Meta could not be persuaded that her +happiness depended on a match, to which her heart gave no assent. The +debates between the mother and the daughter lasted several days, from +early morning to late night; the term for decision was approaching; the +sacred taper for St. Christopher, which Og King of Bashan need not have +disdained had it been lit for him as a marriage-torch at his espousals, +stood in readiness, all beautifully painted with living flowers like a +many-coloured light, though the Saint had all the while been so inactive +in his client's cause, that the fair Meta's heart was still bolted and +barred against him fast as ever. + +Meanwhile she had bleared her eyes with weeping, and the maternal +rhetoric had worked so powerfully, that, like a flower in the sultry +heat, she was drooping together, and visibly fading away. Hidden grief +was gnawing at her heart; she had prescribed herself a rigorous fast, +and for three days no morsel had she eaten, and with no drop of water +moistened her parched lips. By night sleep never visited her eyes; and +with all this she grew sick to death, and began to talk about extreme +unction. As the tender mother saw the pillar of her hope wavering, and +bethought herself that she might lose both capital and interest at once, +she found, on accurate consideration, that it would be more advisable to +let the latter vanish, than to miss them both; and with kindly +indulgence plied into the daughter's will. It cost her much constraint, +indeed, and many hard battles, to turn away so advantageous an offer; +yet at last, according to established order in household governments, +she yielded unconditionally to the inclination of her child, and +remonstrated no more with her beloved patient on the subject. As the +stout widower announced himself on the appointed day, in the full trust +that his heavenly deputy had arranged it all according to his wish, he +received, quite unexpectedly, a negative answer, which, however, was +sweetened with such a deal of blandishment, that he swallowed it like +wine-of-wormwood mixed with sugar. For the rest, he easily accommodated +himself to his destiny; and discomposed himself no more about it, than +if some bargain for a ton of malt had chanced to come to nothing. Nor, +on the whole, had he any cause to sorrow without hope. His native town +has never wanted amiable daughters, who come up to the Solomonic sketch, +and are ready to make perfect spouses; besides, notwithstanding this +unprospered courtship, he depended with firm confidence upon his Patron +Saint; who in fact did him such substantial service elsewhere, that ere +a month elapsed, he had planted with much pomp his devoted taper at the +friendly shrine. + +Mother Brigitta was now fain to recall the exiled spinning-tackle from +its lumber-room, and again set it in action. All once more went its +usual course. Meta soon bloomed out anew, was active in business, and +diligently went to mass; but the mother could not hide her secret +grudging at the failure of her hopes, and the annihilation of her +darling plan; she was splenetic, peevish and dejected. Her ill-humour +had especially the upper hand that day when neighbour Hop-King held his +nuptials. As the wedding company proceeded to the church, with the +town-band bedrumming and becymballing them in the van, she whimpered and +sobbed as in the evil hour when the Job's-news reached her, that the +wild sea had devoured her husband, with ship and fortune. Meta looked at +the bridal pomp with great equanimity; even the royal ornaments, the +jewels in the myrtle-crown, and the nine strings of true pearls about +the neck of the bride, made no impression on her peace of mind; a +circumstance in some degree surprising, since a new Paris cap, or any +other meteor in the gallery of Mode, will so frequently derange the +contentment and domestic peace of an entire parish. Nothing but the +heart-consuming sorrow of her mother discomposed her, and overclouded +the gay look of her eyes; she strove by a thousand caresses and little +attentions to work herself into favour; and she so far succeeded that +the good lady grew a little more communicative. + +In the evening, when the wedding-dance began, she said, "Ah, child! this +merry dance it might have been thy part to lead off. What a pleasure, +hadst thou recompensed thy mother's care and toil with this joy! But +thou hast mocked thy happiness, and now I shall never see the day when I +am to attend thee to the altar."--"Dear mother," answered Meta, "I +confide in Heaven; and if it is written above that I am to be led to the +altar, you will surely deck my garland: for when the right wooer comes, +my heart will soon say Yes."--"Child, for girls without dowry there is +no press of wooers; they are heavy ware to trade with. Nowadays the +bachelors are mighty stingy; they court to be happy, not to make happy. +Besides, thy planet bodes thee no good; thou wert born in April. Let us +see how it is written in the Calendar: 'A damsel born in this month is +comely of countenance, slender of shape, but of changeful humour, has a +liking to men. Should have an eye upon her maiden garland, and so a +laughing wooer come, not miss her fortune.' Alas, it answers to a hair! +The wooer has been here, comes not again: thou hast missed him."--"Ah, +mother! let the planet say its pleasure, never mind it; my heart says to +me that I should love and honour the man who asks me to be his wife: and +if I do not find that man, or he do not seek me, I will live in good +courage by the labour of my hands, and stand by you, and nurse you in +your old age, as beseems a good daughter. But if the man of my heart do +come, then bless my choice, that it may be well with your daughter on +the Earth; and ask not whether he is noble, rich, or famous, but whether +he is good and honest, whether he loves and is loved."--"Ah, daughter! +Love keeps a sorry kitchen, and feeds one poorly, along with bread and +salt."--"But yet Unity and Contentment delight to dwell with him, and +these season bread and salt with the cheerful enjoyment of our days." + +The pregnant subject of bread and salt continued to be sifted till the +night was far spent, and the last fiddle in the wedding-dance was +resting from its labours. The moderation of the prudent Meta, who, with +youth and beauty on her side, pretended only to an altogether bounded +happiness, after having turned away an advantageous offer, led the +mother to conjecture that the plan of some such salt-trade might already +have been sketched in the heart of the virgin. Nor did she fail to guess +the trading-partner in the lane, of whom she never had believed that he +would be the tree for rooting in the lovely Meta's heart. She had looked +upon him only as a wild tendril, that stretches out towards every +neighbouring twig, to clamber up by means of it. This discovery +procured her little joy; but she gave no hint that she had made it. +Only, in the spirit of her rigorous morality, she compared a maiden who +lets love, before the priestly benediction, nestle in her heart, to a +worm-eaten apple, which is good for the eye, but no longer for the +palate, and is laid upon a shelf and no more heeded, for the pernicious +worm is eating its internal marrow, and cannot be dislodged. She now +despaired of ever holding up her head again in Bremen; submitted to her +fate, and bore in silence what she thought was now not to be altered. + +Meanwhile the rumour of the proud Meta's having given the rich Hop-King +the basket, spread over the town, and sounded even into Franz's garret +in the alley. Franz was transported with joy to hear this tale +confirmed; and the secret anxiety lest some wealthy rival might expel +him from the dear maiden's heart tormented him no more. He was now +certain of his object; and the riddle, which for every one continued an +insoluble problem, had no mystery for him. Love had already changed a +spendthrift into a dilettante; but this for a bride-seeker was the very +smallest of recommendations, a gift which in those rude times was +rewarded neither with such praise nor with such pudding, as it is in our +luxurious century. The fine arts were not then children of superfluity, +but of want and necessity. No travelling professors were at that time +known, save the Prague students, whose squeaking symphonies solicited a +charitable coin at the doors of the rich. The beloved maiden's sacrifice +was too great to be repaid by a serenade. And now the feeling of his +youthful dissipation became a thorn in the soul of Franz. Many a +touching monodrama did he begin with an O and an Ah, besighing his past +madness: "Ah, Meta," said he to himself, "why did I not know thee +sooner! Thou hadst been my guardian angel, thou hadst saved me from +destruction. Could I live my lost years over again, and be what I was, +the world were now Elysium for me, and for thee I would make it an Eden! +Noble maiden, thou sacrificest thyself to a wretch, to a beggar, who has +nothing in the world but a heart full of love, and despair that he can +offer thee no happiness such as thou deservest." Innumerable times, in +the paroxysms of these pathetic humours, he struck his brow in fury, +with the repentant exclamation: "O fool! O madman! thou art wise too +late." + +Love, however, did not leave its working incomplete. It had already +brought about a wholesome fermentation in his spirit, a desire to put +in use his powers and activity, to try if he might struggle up from his +present nothingness: it now incited him to the attempt of executing +these good purposes. Among many speculations he had entertained for the +recruiting of his wrecked finances, the most rational and promising was +this: To run over his father's ledgers, and there note down any small +escheats which had been marked as lost, with a view of going through the +land, and gleaning, if so were that a lock of wheat might still be +gathered from these neglected ears. With the produce of this enterprise, +he would then commence some little traffic, which his fancy soon +extended over all the quarters of the world. Already, in his mind's eye, +he had vessels on the sea, which were freighted with his property. He +proceeded rapidly to execute his purpose; changed the last golden +fragment of his heritage, his father's hour-egg,[5] into money, and +bought with it a riding nag, which was to bear him as a Bremen merchant +out into the wide world. + + [5] The oldest watches, from the shape they had, were named + hour-eggs. + +Yet the parting with his fair Meta went sore against his heart. "What +will she think," said he to himself, "of this sudden disappearance, when +thou shalt no more meet her in the church-way? Will she not regard thee +as faithless, and banish thee from her heart?" This thought afflicted +him exceedingly; and for a great while he could think of no expedient +for explaining to her his intention. But at last inventive Love +suggested the idea of signifying to her from the pulpit itself his +absence and its purpose. With this view, in the church, which had +already favoured the secret understanding of the lovers, he bought a +Prayer "for a young Traveller, and the happy arrangement of his +affairs;" which was to last, till he should come again and pay his +groschen for the Thanksgiving. + +At the last meeting, he had dressed himself as for the road; he passed +quite near his sweetheart; saluted her expressively, and with less +reserve than before; so that she blushed deeply; and Mother Brigitta +found opportunity for various marginal notes, which indicated her +displeasure at the boldness of this ill-bred fop, in attempting to get +speech of her daughter, and with which she entertained the latter not in +the most pleasant style the livelong day. From that morning Franz was no +more seen in Bremen, and the finest pair of eyes within its circuit +sought for him in vain. Meta often heard the Prayer read, but she did +not heed it, for her heart was troubled because her lover had become +invisible. This disappearance was inexplicable to her; she knew not what +to think of it. After the lapse of some months, when time had a little +softened her secret care, and she was suffering his absence with a +calmer mind, it happened once, as the last appearance of her love was +hovering upon her fancy, that this same Prayer struck her as a strange +matter. She coupled one thing with another, she guessed the true +connexion of the business, and the meaning of that notice. And although +church litanies and special prayers have not the reputation of extreme +potency, and for the worthy souls that lean on them are but a supple +staff, inasmuch as the fire of devotion in the Christian flock is wont +to die out at the end of the sermon; yet in the pious Meta's case, the +reading of the last Prayer was the very thing which fanned that fire +into a flame; and she never neglected, with her whole heart, to +recommend the young traveller to his guardian angel. + +Under this invisible guidance, Franz was journeying towards Brabant, to +call in some considerable sums that were due him at Antwerp. A journey +from Bremen to Antwerp, in the time when road-blockades were still in +fashion, and every landlord thought himself entitled to plunder any +traveller who had purchased no safe-conduct, and to leave him pining in +the ward-room of his tower, was an undertaking of more peril and +difficulty, than in our days would attend a journey from Bremen to +Kamtschatka: for the _Land-fried_ (or Act for suppressing Private Wars), +which the Emperor Maximilian had proclaimed, was in force through the +Empire, rather as a law than an observance. Nevertheless our solitary +traveller succeeded in arriving at the goal of his pilgrimage, without +encountering more than a single adventure. + +Far in the wastes of Westphalia, he rode one sultry day till nightfall, +without reaching any inn. Towards evening stormy clouds towered up at +the horizon, and a heavy rain wetted him to the skin. To the fondling, +who from his youth had been accustomed to all possible conveniences, +this was a heavy matter, and he felt himself in great embarrassment how +in this condition he should pass the night. To his comfort, when the +tempest had moved away, he saw a light in the distance; and soon after, +reached a mean peasant hovel, which afforded him but little consolation. +The house was more like a cattle-stall than a human habitation; and the +unfriendly landlord refused him fire and water, as if he had been an +outlaw. For the man was just about to stretch himself upon the straw +among his steers; and too tired to relight the fire on his hearth, for +the sake of a stranger. Franz in his despondency uplifted a mournful +_miserere_, and cursed the Westphalian steppes with strong maledictions: +but the peasant took it all in good part; and blew out his light with +great composure, troubling himself no farther about the stranger; for in +the laws of hospitality he was altogether uninstructed. But as the +wayfarer, standing at the door, would not cease to annoy him with his +lamentations, he endeavoured in a civil way to get rid of him, consented +to answer, and said: "Master, if you want good entertainment, and would +treat yourself handsomely, you could not find what you are seeking here. +But ride there to the left hand, through the bushes; a little way +behind, lies the Castle of the valiant Eberhard Bronkhorst, a knight who +lodges every traveller, as a Hospitaller does the pilgrims from the Holy +Sepulchre. He has just one maggot in his head, which sometimes twitches +and vexes him; he lets no traveller depart from him unbasted. If you do +not lose your way, though he may dust your jacket, you will like your +cheer prodigiously." + +To buy a mess of pottage, and a stoup of wine, by surrendering one's +ribs to the bastinado, is in truth no job for every man, though your +spungers and plate-lickers let themselves be tweaked and snubbed, and +from rich artists willingly endure all kinds of tar-and-feathering, so +their palates be but tickled for the service. Franz considered for a +while, and was undetermined what to do; at last he resolved on fronting +the adventure. "What is it to me," said he, "whether my back be broken +here on miserable straw, or by the Ritter Bronkhorst? The friction will +expel the fever which is coming on, and shake me tightly if I cannot dry +my clothes." He put spurs to his nag, and soon arrived before a +castle-gate of old Gothic architecture; knocked pretty plainly on the +iron door, and an equally distinct "Who's there?" resounded from within. +To the freezing passenger, the long entrance ceremonial of this +door-keeper precognition was as inconvenient, as are similar delays to +travellers who, at barriers and gates of towns, bewail or execrate the +despotism of guards and tollmen. Nevertheless he must submit to use and +wont, and patiently wait to see whether the philanthropist in the Castle +was disposed that night for cudgelling a guest, or would choose rather +to assign him a couch under the open canopy. + +The possessor of this ancient tower had served, in his youth, as a stout +soldier in the Emperor's army, under the bold Georg von Fronsberg, and +led a troop of foot against the Venetians; had afterwards retired to +repose, and was now living on his property; where, to expiate the sins +of his campaigns, he employed himself in doing good works; in feeding +the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, lodging pilgrims, and +cudgelling his lodgers out of doors. For he was a rude wild son of war; +and could not lay aside his martial tone, though he had lived for many +years in silent peace. The traveller, who had now determined for good +quarters to submit to the custom of the house, had not waited long till +the bolts and locks began rattling within, and the creaking gate-leaves +moved asunder, moaning in doleful notes, as if to warn or to deplore the +entering stranger. Franz felt one cold shudder after the other running +down his back, as he passed in; nevertheless he was handsomely received; +some servants hastened to assist him in dismounting; speedily unbuckled +his luggage, took his steed to the stable, and its rider to a large +well-lighted chamber, where their master was in waiting. + +The warlike aspect of this athletic gentleman,--who advanced to meet his +guest, and shook him by the hand so heartily, that he was like to shout +with pain, and bade him welcome with a Stentor's voice, as if the +stranger had been deaf, and seemed withal to be a person still in the +vigour of life, full of fire and strength,--put the timorous wanderer +into such a terror, that he could not hide his apprehensions, and began +to tremble over all his body. + +"What ails you, my young master," asked the Ritter, with a voice of +thunder, "that you quiver like an aspen-leaf, and look as pale as if +Death had you by the throat?" + +Franz plucked up a spirit; and considering that his shoulders had at all +events the score to pay, his poltroonery passed into a species of +audacity. + +"Sir," replied he, "you perceive that the rain has soaked me, as if I +had swum across the Weser. Let me have my clothes dried or changed; and +get me, by way of luncheon, a well-spiced aleberry, to drive away the +ague-fit that is quaking through my nerves; then I shall come to heart, +in some degree." + +"Good!" replied the Knight; "demand what you want; you are at home +here." + +Franz made himself be served like a bashaw; and having nothing else but +currying to expect, he determined to deserve it; he bantered and +bullied, in his most imperious style, the servants that were waiting on +him; it comes all to one, thought he, in the long-run. "This waistcoat," +said he, "would go round a tun; bring me one that fits a little better: +this slipper burns like a coal against my corns; pitch it over the +lists: this ruff is stiff as a plank, and throttles me like a halter; +bring one that is easier, and is not plastered with starch." + +At this Bremish frankness, the landlord, far from showing any anger, +kept inciting his servants to go briskly through with their commands, +and calling them a pack of blockheads, who were fit to serve no +stranger. The table being furnished, the Ritter and his guest sat down +to it, and both heartily enjoyed their aleberry. The Ritter asked: +"Would you have aught farther, by way of supper?" + +"Bring us what you have," said Franz, "that I may see how your kitchen +is provided." + +Immediately appeared the Cook, and placed upon the table a repast with +which a duke might have been satisfied. Franz diligently fell to, +without waiting to be pressed. When he had satisfied himself: "Your +kitchen," said he, "is not ill-furnished, I perceive; if your cellar +corresponds to it, I shall almost praise your housekeeping." + +Bronkhorst nodded to his Butler, who directly filled the cup of welcome +with common table wine, tasted, and presented it to his master, and the +latter cleared it at a draught to the health of his guest. Franz pledged +him honestly, and Bronkhorst asked: "Now, fair sir, what say you to the +wine?" + +"I say," answered Franz, "that it is bad, if it is the best sort in your +catacombs; and good, if it is your meanest number." + +"You are a judge," replied the Ritter: "Here, Butler, bring us of the +mother-cask." + +The Butler put a stoup upon the table, as a sample, and Franz having +tasted it, said, "Ay, this is genuine last year's growth; we will stick +by this." + +The Ritter made a vast pitcher of it be brought in; soon drank himself +into hilarity and glee beside his guest; began to talk of his campaigns, +how he had been encamped against the Venetians, had broken through their +barricado, and butchered the Italian squadrons, like a flock of sheep. +In this narrative he rose into such a warlike enthusiasm, that he hewed +down bottles and glasses, brandishing the carving-knife like a lance, +and in the fire of action came so near his messmate with it, that the +latter was in fright for his nose and ears. + +It grew late, but no sleep came into the eyes of the Ritter; he seemed +to be in his proper element, when he got to speak of his Venetian +campaigns. The vivacity of his narration increased with every cup he +emptied; and Franz was afraid that this would prove the prologue to the +melodrama, in which he himself was to play the most interesting part. To +learn whether it was meant that he should lodge within the Castle, or +without, he demanded a bumper by way of good-night. Now, he thought, his +host would first force him to drink more wine, and if he refused, would, +under pretext of a drinking quarrel, send him forth, according to the +custom of the house, with the usual _viaticum_. Contrary to his +expectation, the request was granted without remonstrance; the Ritter +instantly cut asunder the thread of his narrative, and said: "Time will +wait on no one; more of it tomorrow!" + +"Pardon me, Herr Ritter," answered Franz, "tomorrow by sunrise I must +over hill and dale; I am travelling a far journey to Brabant, and must +not linger here. So let me take leave of you tonight, that my departure +may not disturb you in the morning." + +"Do your pleasure," said the Ritter; "but depart from this you shall +not, till I am out of the feathers, to refresh you with a bit of bread, +and a toothful of Dantzig, then attend you to the door, and dismiss you +according to the fashion of the house." + +Franz needed no interpretation of these words. Willingly as he would +have excused his host this last civility, attendance to the door, the +latter seemed determined to abate no whit of the established ritual. He +ordered his servants to undress the stranger, and put him in the +guest's-bed; where Franz, once settled on elastic swan's down, felt +himself extremely snug, and enjoyed delicious rest; so that ere he fell +asleep, he owned to himself that, for such royal treatment, a moderate +bastinado was not too dear a price. Soon pleasant dreams came hovering +round his fancy. He found his charming Meta in a rosy grove, where she +was walking with her mother, plucking flowers. Instantly he hid himself +behind a thick-leaved hedge, that the rigorous duenna might not see him. +Again his imagination placed him in the alley, and by his looking-glass +he saw the snow-white hand of the maiden busied with her flowers; soon +he was sitting with her on the grass, and longing to declare his +heartfelt love to her, and the bashful shepherd found no words to do it +in. He would have dreamed till broad mid-day, had he not been roused by +the sonorous voice and clanking spurs of the Ritter, who, with the +earliest dawn, was holding a review of kitchen and cellar, ordering a +sufficient breakfast to be readied, and placing every servant at his +post, to be at hand when the guest should awake, to dress him, and wait +upon him. + +It cost the happy dreamer no small struggling to forsake his safe and +hospitable bed. He rolled to this side and to that; but the pealing +voice of the worshipful Knight came heavy on his heart; and dally as he +might, the sour apple must at last be bit. So he rose from his down; and +immediately a dozen hands were busy dressing him. The Ritter led him +into the parlour, where a small well-furnished table waited them; but +now, when the hour of reckoning had arrived, the traveller's appetite +was gone. The host endeavoured to encourage him. "Why do you not get to? +Come, take somewhat for the raw foggy morning." + +"Herr Ritter," answered Franz, "my stomach is still too full of your +supper; but my pockets are empty; these I may fill for the hunger that +is to come." + +With this he began stoutly cramming, and stowed himself with the +daintiest and best that was transportable, till all his pockets were +bursting. Then, observing that his horse, well curried and equipt, was +led past, he took a dram of Dantzig for good-b'ye, in the thought that +this would be the watch-word for his host to catch him by the neck, and +exercise his household privileges. + +But, to his astonishment, the Ritter shook him kindly by the hand, as at +his first entrance, wished him luck by the way, and the bolted door was +thrown open. He loitered not in putting spurs to his nag; and, tip! tap! +he was without the gate, and no hair of him harmed. + +A heavy stone was lifted from his heart as he found himself in safety, +and saw that he had got away with a whole skin. He could not understand +how the landlord had trusted him the shot, which, as he imagined, must +have run pretty high on the chalk; and he embraced with warm love the +hospitable man, whose club-law arm he had so much dreaded; and he felt a +strong desire to search out, at the fountain-head, the reason or +unreason of the ill report which had affrighted him. Accordingly he +turned his horse, and cantered back. The Knight was still standing in +the gate, and descanting with his servants, for the forwarding of the +science of horse-flesh, on the breed, shape and character of the nag, +and his hard pace: he supposed the stranger must have missed something +in his travelling gear, and he already looked askance at his servants +for such negligence. + +"What is it, young master," cried he, "that makes you turn again, when +you were for proceeding?" + +"Ah! yet a word, valiant Knight," cried the traveller. "An ill report +has gone abroad, that injures your name and breeding. It is said that +you treat every stranger that calls upon you with your best; and then, +when he leaves you, let him feel the weight of your strong fists. This +story I have credited, and spared nothing to deserve my due from you. I +thought within myself, His worship will abate me nothing; I will abate +him as little. But now you let me go, without strife or peril; and that +is what surprises me. Pray tell me, is there any shadow of foundation +for the thing; or shall I call the foolish chatter lies next time I hear +it?" + +The Ritter answered: "Report has nowise told you lies; there is no +saying that circulates among the people but contains in it some grain of +truth. Let me tell you accurately how the matter stands. I lodge every +stranger that comes beneath my roof, and divide my morsel with him, for +the love of God. But I am a plain German man, of the old cut and +fashion; speak as it lies about my heart, and require that my guest also +should be hearty and confiding; should enjoy with me what I have, and +tell frankly what he wants. Now, there is a sort of people that vex me +with all manner of grimaces; that banter me with smirkings, and bows, +and crouchings; put all their words to the torture; make a deal of talk +without sense or salt; think they will cozen me with smooth speeches; +behave at dinner as women at a christening. If I say, Help yourself! out +of reverence, they pick you a fraction from the plate which I would not +offer to my dog: if I say, Your health! they scarcely wet their lips +from the full cup, as if they set God's gifts at naught. Now, when the +sorry rabble carry things too far with me, and I cannot, for the soul of +me, know what they would be at, I get into a rage at last, and use my +household privilege; catch the noodle by the spall, thrash him +sufficiently, and pack him out of doors. This is the use and wont with +me, and I do so with every guest that plagues me with these freaks. But +a man of your stamp is always welcome: you told me plump out in plain +German what you thought, as is the fashion with the Bremers. Call on me +boldly again, if your road lead you hither. And so, God be with you." + +Franz now moved on, with a joyful humour, towards Antwerp; and he wished +that he might everywhere find such a reception as he had met with from +the Ritter Eberhard Bronkhorst. On approaching the ancient queen of the +Flemish cities, the sail of his hope was swelled by a propitious breeze. +Riches and superfluity met him in every street; and it seemed as if +scarcity and want had been exiled from the busy town. In all +probability, thought he, there must be many of my father's debtors who +have risen again, and will gladly make me full payment whenever I +substantiate my claims. After resting for a while from his fatigues, he +set about obtaining, in the inn where he was quartered, some preliminary +knowledge of the situation of his debtors. + +"How stands it with Peter Martens?" inquired he one day of his +companions at table; "is he still living, and doing much business?" + +"Peter Martens is a warm man," answered one of the party; "has a brisk +commission trade, and draws good profit from it." + +"Is Fabian van Plürs still in good circumstances?" + +"O! there is no end to Fabian's wealth. He is a Councillor; his woollen +manufactories are thriving incredibly." + +"Has Jonathan Frischkier good custom in his trade?" + +"Ah! Jonathan were now a brisk fellow, had not Kaiser Max let the French +chouse him out of his Princess.[6] Jonathan had got the furnishing of +the lace for the bride's dress; but the Kaiser has left poor Frischkier +in the lurch, as the bride has left himself. If you have a fair one, +whom you would remember with a bit of lace, he will give it you at +half-price." + + [6] Anne of Brittany. + +"Is the firm Op de Bütekant still standing, or has it sunk?" + +"There was a crack in the beams there some years ago; but the Spanish +caravelles have put a new prop to it, and it now holds fast." + +Franz inquired about several other merchants who were on his list; found +that most of them, though in his father's time they had "failed," were +now standing firmly on their legs; and inferred from this, that a +judicious bankruptcy has, from of old, been the mine of future gains. +This intelligence refreshed him mightily: he hastened to put his +documents in order, and submit them to the proper parties. But with the +Antwerpers, he fared as his itinerating countrymen do with shopkeepers +in the German towns: they find everywhere a friendly welcome at their +first appearance, but are looked upon with cheerfulness nowhere when +they come collecting debts. Some would have nothing to do with these +former sins; and were of opinion, that by the tender of the legal +five-per-cent composition they had been entirely abolished: it was the +creditor's fault if he had not accepted payment in time. Others could +not recollect any Melchior of Bremen; opened their Infallible Books; +found no debtor-entry marked for this unknown name. Others, again, +brought out a strong counter-reckoning; and three days had not passed +till Franz was sitting in the Debtors' Ward, to answer for his father's +credit, not to depart till he had paid the uttermost farthing. + +These were not the best prospects for the young man, who lad set his +hope and trust upon the Antwerp patrons of his fortune, and now saw the +fair soap-bubble vanish quite away. In his strait confinement, he felt +himself in the condition of a soul in Purgatory, now that his skiff had +run ashore and gone to pieces, in the middle of the haven where he +thought to find security. Every thought of Meta was as a thorn in his +heart; there was now no shadow of a possibility, that from the whirlpool +which had sunk him, he could ever rise, and stretch out his hand to her; +nor, suppose he should get his head above water, was it in poor Meta's +power to pull him on dry land. He fell into a sullen desperation; had no +wish but to die speedily, and give his woes the slip at once; and, in +fact, he did attempt to kill himself by starvation. But this is a sort +of death which is not at the beck of every one, so ready as the shrunk +Pomponius Atticus found it, when his digestive apparatus had already +struck work. A sound peptic stomach does not yield so tamely to the +precepts of the head or heart. After the moribund debtor had abstained +two days from food, a ravenous hunger suddenly usurped the government of +his will, and performed, of its own authority, all the operations which, +in other cases, are directed by the mind. It ordered his hand to seize +the spoon, his mouth to receive the victual, his inferior maxillary jaw +to get in motion, and itself accomplished the usual functions of +digestion, unordered. Thus did this last resolve make shipwreck, on a +hard bread-crust; for, in the seven-and-twentieth year of life, it has +a heroism connected with it, which in the seven-and-seventieth is +entirely gone. + +At bottom, it was not the object of the barbarous Antwerpers to squeeze +money from the pretended debtor, but only to pay him none, as his +demands were not admitted to be liquid. Whether it were, then, that the +public Prayer in Bremen had in truth a little virtue, or that the +supposed creditors were not desirous of supporting a superfluous boarder +for life, true it is, that after the lapse of three months Franz was +delivered from his imprisonment, under the condition of leaving the city +within four-and-twenty hours, and never again setting foot on the soil +and territory of Antwerp. At the same time, he received five crowns for +travelling expenses from the faithful hands of Justice, which had taken +charge of his horse and luggage, and conscientiously balanced the +produce of the same against judicial and curatory expenses. + +With heavy-laden heart, in the humblest mood, with his staff in his +hand, he left the rich city, into which he had ridden some time ago with +high-soaring hopes. Broken down, and undetermined what to do, or rather +altogether without thought, he plodded through the streets to the +nearest gate, not minding whither the road into which chance conducted +him might lead. He saluted no traveller, he asked for no inn, except +when fatigue or hunger forced him to lift up his eyes, and look around +for some church-spire, or sign of human habitation, when he needed human +aid. Many days he had wandered on, as if unconsciously; and a secret +instinct had still, by means of his uncrazed feet, led him right forward +on the way to home; when, all at once, he awoke as from an oppressive +dream, and perceived on what road he was travelling. + +He halted instantly, to consider whether he should proceed or turn back. +Shame and confusion took possession of his soul, when he thought of +skulking about in his native town as a beggar, branded with the mark of +contempt, and claiming the charitable help of his townsmen, whom of old +he had eclipsed by his wealth and magnificence. And how in this form +could he present himself before his fair Meta, without disgracing the +choice of her heart? He did not leave his fancy time to finish this +doleful picture; but wheeled about to take the other road, as hastily as +if he had been standing even then at the gate of Bremen, and the ragged +apprentices had been assembling to accompany him with jibes and mockery +through the streets. His purpose was formed: he would make for the +nearest seaport in the Netherlands; engage as sailor in a Spanish ship, +to work his passage to the new world; and not return to his country, +till in the Peruvian land of gold he should have regained the wealth, +which he had squandered so heedlessly, before he knew the worth of +money. In the shaping of this new plan, it is true, the fair Meta fell +so far into the background, that even to the sharpest prophetic eye she +could only hover as a faint shadow in the distance; yet the wandering +projector pleased himself with thinking that she was again interwoven +with the scheme of his life; and he took large steps, as if by this +rapidity he meant to reach her so much the sooner. + +Already he was on the Flemish soil once more; and found himself at +sunset not far from Rheinberg, in a little hamlet, Rummelsburg by name, +which has since, in the Thirty-Years War, been utterly destroyed. A +caravan of carriers from Lyke had already filled the inn, so that Mine +Host had no room left, and referred him to the next town; the rather +that he did not draw too flattering a presage from his present vagabond +physiognomy, and held him to be a thieves' purveyor, who had views upon +the Lyke carriers. He was forced, notwithstanding his excessive +weariness, to gird himself for march, and again to take his bundle on +his back. + +As in retiring, he was muttering between his teeth some bitter +complaints and curses of the Landlord's hardness of heart, the latter +seemed to take some pity on the forlorn wayfarer, and called after him, +from the door: "Stay, neighbour, let me speak to you: if you wish to +rest here, I can accommodate you after all. In that Castle there are +empty rooms enow, if they be not too lonely; it is not inhabited, and I +have got the keys." Franz accepted the proposal with joy, praised it as +a deed of mercy, and requested only shelter and a supper, were it in a +castle or a cottage. Mine Host, however, was privily a rogue, whom it +had galled to hear the stranger drop some half-audible contumelies +against him, and meant to be avenged on him, by a Hobgoblin that +inhabited the old fortress, and had many long years before expelled the +owners. + +The Castle lay hard by the hamlet, on a steep rock, right opposite the +inn, from which it was divided merely by the highway, and a little +gurgling brook. The situation being so agreeable, the edifice was still +kept in repair, and well provided with all sorts of house-gear; for it +served the owner as a hunting-lodge, where he frequently caroused all +day; and so soon as the stars began to twinkle in the sky, retired with +his whole retinue, to escape the mischief of the Ghost, who rioted about +in it the whole night over, but by day gave no disturbance. Unpleasant +as the owner felt this spoiling of his mansion by a bugbear, the +nocturnal sprite was not without advantages, for the great security it +gave from thieves. The Count could have appointed no trustier or more +watchful keeper over the Castle, than this same Spectre, for the rashest +troop of robbers never ventured to approach its station. Accordingly he +knew of no safer place for laying up his valuables, than this old tower, +in the hamlet of Rummelsburg, near Rheinberg. + +The sunshine had sunk, the dark night was coming heavily on, when Franz, +with a lantern in his hand, proceeded to the castle-gate, under the +guidance of Mine Host, who carried in his hand a basket of victuals, +with a flask of wine, which he said should not be marked against him. He +had also taken along with him a pair of candlesticks, and two +wax-lights; for in the whole Castle there was neither lamp nor taper, as +no one ever stayed in it after twilight. In the way, Franz noticed the +creaking heavy-laden basket, and the wax-lights, which he thought he +should not need, and yet must pay for. Therefore he said: "What is this +superfluity and waste, as at a banquet? The light in the lantern is +enough to see with, till I go to bed; and when I awake, the sun will be +high enough, for I am tired completely, and shall sleep with both eyes." + +"I will not hide from you," replied the Landlord, "that a story runs of +there being mischief in the Castle, and a Goblin that frequents it. You, +however, need not let the thing disturb you; we are near enough, you +see, for you to call us, should you meet with aught unnatural; I and my +folks will be at your hand in a twinkling, to assist you. Down in the +house there we keep astir all night through, some one is always moving. +I have lived here these thirty years; yet I cannot say that I have ever +seen aught. If there be now and then a little hurly-burlying at nights, +it is nothing but cats and martins rummaging about the granary. As a +precaution, I have provided you with candles: the night is no friend of +man; and the tapers are consecrated, so that sprites, if there be such +in the Castle, will avoid their shine." + +It was no lying in Mine Host to say that he had never seen anything of +spectres in the Castle; for by night he had taken special care not once +to set foot in it; and by day the Goblin did not come to sight. In the +present case, too, the traitor would not risk himself across the border. +After opening the door, he handed Franz the basket, directed him what +way to go, and wished him good-night. Franz entered the lobby without +anxiety or fear; believing the ghost-story to be empty tattle, or a +distorted tradition of some real occurrence in the place, which idle +fancy had shaped into an unnatural adventure. He remembered the stout +Ritter Eberhard Bronkhorst, from whose heavy arm he had apprehended such +maltreatment, and with whom, notwithstanding, he had found so hospitable +a reception. On this ground he had laid it down as a rule deduced from +his travelling experiences, when he heard any common rumour, to believe +exactly the reverse, and left the grain of truth, which, in the opinion +of the wise Knight, always lies in such reports, entirely out of sight. + +Pursuant to Mine Host's direction, he ascended the winding stone stair; +and reached a bolted door, which he opened with his key. A long dark +gallery, where his footsteps resounded, led him into a large hall, and +from this, a side-door, into a suite of apartments, richly provided with +all furniture for decoration or convenience. Out of these he chose the +room which had the friendliest aspect, where he found a well-pillowed +bed; and from the window could look right down upon the inn, and catch +every loud word that was spoken there. He lit his wax-tapers, furnished +his table, and feasted with the commodiousness and relish of an +Otaheitean noble. The big-bellied flask was an antidote to thirst. So +long as his teeth were in full occupation, he had no time to think of +the reported devilry in the Castle. If aught now and then made a stir in +the distance, and Fear called to him, "Hark! hark! there comes the +Goblin;" Courage answered: "Stuff! it is cats and martins bickering and +caterwauling." But in the digestive half-hour after meat, when the sixth +sense, that of hunger and thirst, no longer occupied the soul, she +directed her attention from the other five exclusively upon the sense of +hearing; and already Fear was whispering three timid thoughts into the +listener's ear, before Courage had time to answer once. + +As the first resource, he locked the door, and bolted it; made his +retreat to the walled seat in the vault of the window. He opened this, +and to dissipate his thoughts a little, looked out on the spangled sky, +gazed at the corroded moon, and counted how often the stars snuffed +themselves. On the road beneath him all was void; and in spite of the +pretended nightly bustle in the inn, the doors were shut, the lights +out, and everything as still as in a sepulchre. On the other hand, the +watchman blew his horn, making his "List, gentlemen!" sound over all the +hamlet; and for the composure of the timorous astronomer, who still kept +feasting his eyes on the splendour of the stars, uplifted a rusty +evening-hymn right under his window; so that Franz might easily have +carried on a conversation with him, which, for the sake of company, he +would willingly have done, had he in the least expected that the +watchman would make answer to him. + +In a populous city, in the middle of a numerous household, where there +is a hubbub equal to that of a bee-hive, it may form a pleasant +entertainment for the thinker to philosophise on Solitude, to decorate +her as the loveliest playmate of the human spirit, to view her under all +her advantageous aspects, and long for her enjoyment as for hidden +treasure. But in scenes where she is no exotic, in the isle of Juan +Fernandez, where a solitary eremite, escaped from shipwreck, lives with +her through long years; or in the dreary night-time, in a deep wood, or +in an old uninhabited castle, where empty walls and vaults awaken +horror, and nothing breathes of life, but the moping owl in the ruinous +turret; there, in good sooth, she is not the most agreeable companion +for the timid anchorite that has to pass his time in her abode, +especially if he is every moment looking for the entrance of a spectre +to augment the party. In such a case it may easily chance that a window +conversation with the watchman shall afford a richer entertainment for +the spirit and the heart, than a reading of the most attractive eulogy +on solitude. If Ritter Zimmermann had been in Franz's place, in the +castle of Rummelsburg, on the Westphalian marches, he would doubtless in +this position have struck out the fundamental topics of as interesting a +treatise on _Society_, as, inspired to all appearance by the irksomeness +of some ceremonious assembly, he has poured out from the fulness of his +heart in praise of _Solitude_. + +Midnight is the hour at which the world of spirits acquires activity and +life, when hebetated animal nature lies entombed in deep slumber. Franz +inclined getting through this critical hour in sleep rather than awake; +so he closed his window, went the rounds of his room once more, spying +every nook and crevice, to see whether all was safe and earthly; snuffed +the lights to make them burn clearer; and without undressing or +delaying, threw himself upon his bed, with which his wearied person felt +unusual satisfaction. Yet he could not get asleep so fast as he wished. +A slight palpitation at the heart, which he ascribed to a tumult in the +blood, arising from the sultriness of the day, kept him waking for a +while; and he failed not to employ this respite in offering up such a +pithy evening prayer as he had not prayed for many years. This produced +the usual effect, that he softly fell asleep while saying it. + +After about an hour, as he supposed, he started up with a sudden terror; +a thing not at all surprising when there is tumult in the blood. He was +broad awake: he listened whether all was quiet, and heard nothing but +the clock strike twelve; a piece of news which the watchman forthwith +communicated to the hamlet in doleful recitative. Franz listened for a +while, turned on the other side, and was again about to sleep, when he +caught, as it were, the sound of a door grating in the distance, and +immediately it shut with a stifled bang. "Alake! alake!" bawled Fright +into his ear; "this is the Ghost in very deed!"--"'Tis nothing but the +wind," said Courage manfully. But quickly it came nearer, nearer, like +the sound of heavy footsteps. Clink here, clink there, as if a criminal +were rattling his irons, or as if the porter were walking about the +Castle with his bunch of keys. Alas, here was no wind business! Courage +held his peace; and quaking Fear drove all the blood to the heart, and +made it thump like a smith's fore-hammer. + +The thing was now beyond jesting. If Fear would still have let Courage +get a word, the latter would have put the terror-struck watcher in mind +of his subsidiary treaty with Mine Host, and incited him to claim the +stipulated assistance loudly from the window; but for this there was a +want of proper resolution. The quaking Franz had recourse to the +bed-clothes, the last fortress of the timorous, and drew them close over +his ears, as Bird Ostrich sticks his head in the grass, when he can no +longer escape the huntsman. Outside it came along, door up, door to, +with hideous uproar; and at last it reached the bed-room. It jerked +sharply at the lock, tried several keys till it found the right one; yet +the bar still held the door, till a bounce like a thunder-clap made bolt +and rivet start, and threw it wide open. Now stalked in a long lean man, +with a black beard, in ancient garb, and with a gloomy countenance, his +eyebrows hanging down in deep earnestness from his brow. Over his right +shoulder he had a scarlet cloak; and on his head he wore a peaked hat. +With a heavy step he walked thrice in silence up and down the chamber; +looked at the consecrated tapers, and snuffed them that they might burn +brighter. Then he threw aside his cloak, girded on a scissor-pouch which +he had under it, produced a set of shaving-tackle, and immediately began +to whet a sharp razor on the broad strap which he wore at his girdle. + +Franz perspired in mortal agony under his coverlet; recommended himself +to the keeping of the Virgin; and anxiously speculated on the object of +this manoeuvre, not knowing whether it was meant for his throat or his +beard. To his comfort, the Goblin poured some water from a silver flask +into a basin of silver, and with his skinny hand lathered the soap into +light foam; then set a chair, and beckoned with a solemn look to the +quaking looker-on to come forth from his recess. + +Against so pertinent a sign, remonstrance was as bootless as it is +against the rigorous commands of the Grand Turk, when he transmits an +exiled vizier to the Angel of Death, the Capichi Bashi with the Silken +Cord, to take delivery of his head. The most rational procedure that can +be adopted in this critical case, is to comply with necessity, put a +good face on a bad business, and with stoical composure let one's throat +be noosed. Franz honoured the Spectre's order; the coverlet began to +move, he sprang sharply from his couch, and took the place pointed out +to him on the seat. However strange this quick transition from the +uttermost terror to the boldest resolution may appear, I doubt not but +Moritz in his _Psychological Journal_ could explain the matter till it +seemed quite natural. + +Immediately the Goblin Barber tied the towel about his shivering +customer; seized the comb and scissors, and clipped off his hair and +beard. Then he soaped him scientifically, first the beard, next the +eyebrows, at last the temples and the hind-head; and shaved him from +throat to nape as smooth and bald as a Death's-head. This operation +finished, he washed his head, dried it clean, made his bow, and +buttoned-up his scissor-pouch; wrapped himself in his scarlet mantle, +and made for departing. The consecrated tapers had burnt with an +exquisite brightness through the whole transaction; and Franz, by the +light of them, perceived in the mirror that the shaver had changed him +into a Chinese pagoda. In secret he heartily deplored the loss of his +fair brown locks; yet now took fresh breath, as he observed that with +this sacrifice the account was settled, and the Ghost had no more power +over him. + +So it was in fact; Redcloak went towards the door, silently as he had +entered, without salutation or good-b'ye; and seemed entirely the +contrast of his talkative guild-brethren. But scarcely was he gone three +steps, when he paused, looked round with a mournful expression at his +well-served customer, and stroked the flat of his hand over his black +bushy beard. He did the same a second time; and again, just as he was in +the act of stepping out at the door. A thought struck Franz that the +Spectre wanted something; and a rapid combination of ideas suggested, +that perhaps he was expecting the very service he himself had just +performed. + +As the Ghost, notwithstanding his rueful look, seemed more disposed for +banter than for seriousness, and had played his guest a scurvy trick, +not done him any real injury, the panic of the latter had now almost +subsided. So he ventured the experiment, and beckoned to the Ghost to +take the seat from which he had himself just risen. The Goblin instantly +obeyed, threw off his cloak, laid his barber tackle on the table, and +placed himself in the chair, in the posture of a man that wishes to be +shaved. Franz carefully observed the same procedure which the Spectre +had observed to him, clipped his beard with the scissors, cropt away his +hair, lathered his whole scalp, and the Ghost all the while sat steady +as a wig-block. The awkward journeyman came ill at handling the razor: +he had never had another in his hand; and he shore the beard right +against the hair; whereat the Goblin made as strange grimaces as +Erasmus's Ape, when imitating its master's shaving. Nor was the +unpractised bungler himself well at ease, and he thought more than once +of the sage aphorism, _What is not thy trade make not thy business_; yet +he struggled through the task, the best way he could, and scraped the +Ghost as bald as he himself was. + +Hitherto the scene between the Spectre and the traveller had been played +pantomimically; the action now became dramatic. "Stranger," said the +Ghost, "accept my thanks for the service thou hast done me. By thee I am +delivered from the long imprisonment, which has chained me for three +hundred years within these walls; to which my departed soul was doomed, +till a mortal hand should consent to retaliate on me what I practised on +others in my lifetime. + +"Know that of old a reckless scorner dwelt within this tower, who took +his sport on priests as well as laics. Count Hardman, such his name, was +no philanthropist, acknowledged no superior and no law, but practised +vain caprice and waggery, regarding not the sacredness of hospitable +rights: the wanderer who came beneath his roof, the needy man who asked +a charitable alms of him, he never sent away unvisited by wicked joke. I +was his Castle Barber, still a willing instrument, and did whatever +pleased him. Many a pious pilgrim, journeying past us, I allured with +friendly speeches to the hall; prepared the bath for him, and when he +thought to take good comfort, shaved him smooth and bald, and packed him +out of doors. Then would Count Hardman, looking from the window, see +with pleasure how the foxes' whelps of children gathered from the hamlet +to assail the outcast, and to cry as once their fellows to Elisha: +'Baldhead! Baldhead!' In this the scoffer took his pleasure, laughing +with a devilish joy, till he would hold his pot-paunch, and his eyes ran +down with water. + +"Once came a saintly man, from foreign lands; he carried, like a +penitent, a heavy cross upon his shoulder, and had stamped five +nail-marks on his hands, and feet, and side; upon his head there was a +ring of hair like to the Crown of Thorns. He called upon us here, +requesting water for his feet, and a small crust of bread. Immediately I +took him to the bath, to serve him in my common way; respected not the +sacred ring, but shore it clean from off him. Then the pious pilgrim +spoke a heavy malison upon me: 'Know, accursed man, that when thou +diest, Heaven, and Hell, and Purgatory's iron gate, are shut against thy +soul. As goblin it shall rage within these walls, till unrequired, +unbid, a traveller come and exercise retaliation on thee.' + +"That hour I sickened, and the marrow in my bones dried up; I faded like +a shadow. My spirit left the wasted carcass, and was exiled to this +Castle, as the saint had doomed it. In vain I struggled for deliverance +from the torturing bonds that fettered me to Earth; for thou must know, +that when the soul forsakes her clay, she panteth for her place of rest, +and this sick longing spins her years to æons, while in foreign element +she languishes for home. Now self-tormenting, I pursued the mournful +occupation I had followed in my lifetime. Alas! my uproar soon made +desolate this house! But seldom came a pilgrim here to lodge. And though +I treated all like thee, no one would understand me, and perform, as +thou, the service which has freed my soul from bondage. Henceforth shall +no hobgoblin wander in this Castle; I return to my long-wished-for rest. +And now, young stranger, once again my thanks, that thou hast loosed me! +Were I keeper of deep-hidden treasures, they were thine; but wealth in +life was not my lot, nor in this Castle lies there any cash entombed. +Yet mark my counsel. Tarry here till beard and locks again shall cover +chin and scalp; then turn thee homewards to thy native town; and on the +Weser-bridge of Bremen, at the time when day and night in Autumn are +alike, wait for a Friend, who there will meet thee, who will tell thee +what to do, that it be well with thee on Earth. If from the golden horn +of plenty, blessing and abundance flow to thee, then think of me; and +ever as the day thou freedst me from the curse comes round, cause for my +soul's repose three masses to be said. Now fare thee well. I go, no more +returning."[7] + + [7] I know not whether the reader has observed that our Author + makes the Spectre speak in _iambics_; a whim which here and there + comes over him in other tales also.--WIELAND. + +With these words the Ghost, having by his copiousness of talk +satisfactorily attested his former existence as court-barber in the +Castle of Rummelsburg, vanished into air, and left his deliverer full of +wonder at the strange adventure. He stood for a long while motionless; +in doubt whether the whole matter had actually happened, or an unquiet +dream had deluded his senses; but his bald head convinced him that here +had been a real occurrence. He returned to bed, and slept, after the +fright he had undergone, till the hour of noon. The treacherous Landlord +had been watching since morning, when the traveller with the scalp was +to come forth, that he might receive him with jibing speeches under +pretext of astonishment at his nocturnal adventure. But as the stranger +loitered too long, and mid-day was approaching, the affair became +serious; and Mine Host began to dread that the Goblin might have treated +his guest a little harshly, have beaten him to a jelly perhaps, or so +frightened him that he had died of terror; and to carry his wanton +revenge to such a length as this had not been his intention. He +therefore rang his people together, hastened out with man and maid to +the tower, and reached the door of the apartment where he had observed +the light on the previous evening. He found an unknown key in the lock; +but the door was barred within; for after the disappearance of the +Goblin, Franz had again secured it. He knocked with a perturbed +violence, till the Seven Sleepers themselves would have awoke at the +din. Franz started up, and thought in his first confusion that the Ghost +was again standing at the door, to favour him with another call. But +hearing Mine Host's voice, who required nothing more but that his guest +would give some sign of life, he gathered himself up and opened the +room. + +With seeming horror at the sight of him, Mine Host, striking his hands +together, exclaimed: "By Heaven and all the saints! Redcloak" (by this +name the Ghost was known among them) "_has_ been here, and has shaved +you bald as a block! Now, it is clear as day that the old story is no +fable. But tell me how looked the Goblin: what did he say to you? what +did he do?" + +Franz, who had now seen through the questioner, made answer: "The Goblin +looked like a man in a red cloak; what he did is not hidden from you, +and what he said I well remember: 'Stranger,' said he, 'trust no +innkeeper who is a Turk in grain. What would befall thee here he knew. +Be wise and happy. I withdraw from this my ancient dwelling, for my time +is run. Henceforth no goblin riots here; I now become a silent Incubus, +to plague the Landlord; nip him, tweak him, harass him, unless the Turk +do expiate his sin; do freely give thee prog and lodging till brown +locks again shall cluster round thy head.'"[8] + + [8] Here too, on the Spectre's score, Franz makes extempore + _iambics_.--WIELAND. + +The Landlord shuddered at these words, cut a large cross in the air +before him, vowed by the Holy Virgin to give the traveller free board so +long as he liked to continue, led him over to his house, and treated him +with the best. By this adventure, Franz had well-nigh got the reputation +of a conjuror, as the spirit thenceforth never once showed face. He +often passed the night in the tower; and a desperado of the village once +kept him company, without having beard or scalp disturbed. The owner of +the place, having learned that Redcloak no longer walked in Rummelsburg, +was, of course, delighted at the news, and ordered that the stranger, +who, as he supposed, had laid him, should be well taken care of. + +By the time when the clusters were beginning to be coloured on the vine, +and the advancing autumn reddened the apples, Franz's brown locks were +again curling over his temples, and he girded up his knapsack; for all +his thoughts and meditations were turned upon the Weser-bridge, to seek +the Friend, who, at the behest of the Goblin Barber, was to direct him +how to make his fortune. When about taking leave of Mine Host, that +charitable person led from his stable a horse well saddled and equipt, +which the owner of the Castle had presented to the stranger, for having +made his house again habitable; nor had the Count forgot to send a +sufficient purse along with it, to bear its travelling charges; and so +Franz came riding back into his native city, brisk and light of heart, +as he had ridden out of it twelve months ago. He sought out his old +quarters in the alley, but kept himself quite still and retired; only +inquiring underhand how matters stood with the fair Meta, whether she +was still alive and unwedded. To this inquiry he received a satisfactory +answer, and contented himself with it in the mean while; for, till his +fate were decided, he would not risk appearing in her sight, or making +known to her his arrival in Bremen. + +With unspeakable longing, he waited the equinox; his impatience made +every intervening day a year. At last the long-wished-for term appeared. +The night before, he could not close an eye, for thinking of the wonders +that were coming. The blood was whirling and beating in his arteries, as +it had done at the Castle of Rummelsburg, when he lay in expectation of +his spectre visitant. To be sure of not missing his expected Friend, he +rose by daybreak, and proceeded with the earliest dawn to the +Weser-bridge, which as yet stood empty and untrod by passengers. He +walked along it several times in solitude, with that presentiment of +coming gladness, which includes in it the real enjoyment of all +terrestrial felicity; for it is not the attainment of our wishes, but +the undoubted hope of attaining them, which offers to the human soul the +full measure of highest and most heartfelt satisfaction. He formed many +projects as to how he should present himself to his beloved Meta, when +his looked-for happiness should have arrived; whether it would be better +to appear before her in full splendour, or to mount from his former +darkness with the first gleam of morning radiance, and discover to her +by degrees the change in his condition. Curiosity, moreover, put a +thousand questions to Reason in regard to the adventure. Who can the +Friend be that is to meet me on the Weser-bridge? Will it be one of my +old acquaintances, by whom, since my ruin, I have been entirely +forgotten? How will he pave the way to me for happiness? And will this +way be short or long, easy or toilsome? To the whole of which Reason, +in spite of all her thinking and speculating, answered not a word. + +In about an hour, the Bridge began to get awake; there was riding, +driving, walking to and fro on it; and much commercial ware passing this +way and that. The usual day-guard of beggars and importunate persons +also by degrees took up this post, so favourable for their trade, to +levy contributions on the public benevolence; for of poor-houses and +work-houses, the wisdom of the legislature had as yet formed no scheme. +The first of the tattered cohort that applied for alms to the jovial +promenader, from whose eyes gay hope laughed forth, was a discharged +soldier, provided with the military badge of a timber leg, which had +been lent him, seeing he had fought so stoutly in former days for his +native country, as the recompense of his valour, with the privilege of +begging where he pleased; and who now, in the capacity of physiognomist, +pursued the study of man upon the Weser-bridge, with such success, that +he very seldom failed in his attempts for charity. Nor did his +exploratory glance in anywise mislead him in the present instance; for +Franz, in the joy of his heart, threw a white engel-groschen into the +cripple's hat. + +During the morning hours, when none but the laborious artisan is busy, +and the more exalted townsman still lies in sluggish rest, he scarcely +looked for his promised Friend; he expected him in the higher classes, +and took little notice of the present passengers. About the +council-hour, however, when the Proceres of Bremen were driving past to +the hall, in their gorgeous robes of office, and about exchange-time, he +was all eye and ear; he spied the passengers from afar; and when a right +man came along the bridge, his blood began to flutter, and he thought +here was the creator of his fortune. Meanwhile hour after hour passed +on; the sun rose high; ere long the noontide brought a pause in +business; the rushing crowd faded away; and still the expected Friend +appeared not. Franz now walked up and down the Bridge quite alone; had +no society in view but the beggars, who were serving out their cold +collations, without moving from the place. He made no scruple to do the +same; and, not being furnished with provisions, he purchased some fruit, +and took his dinner _inter ambulandum_. + +The whole club that was dining on the Bridge had remarked the young man, +watching here from early morning till noon, without addressing any one, +or doing any sort of business. They held him to be a lounger; and +though all of them had tasted his bounty, he did not escape their +critical remarks. In jest, they had named him the Bridge-bailiff. The +physiognomist with the timber-toe, however, noticed that his countenance +was not now so gay as in the morning; he appeared to be reflecting +earnestly on something; he had drawn his hat close over his face; his +movement was slow and thoughtful; he had nibbled at an apple-rind for +some time, without seeming to be conscious that he was doing so. From +this appearance of affairs, the man-spier thought he might extract some +profit; therefore he put his wooden and his living leg in motion, and +stilted off to the other end of the Bridge, and lay in wait for the +thinker, that he might assail him, under the appearance of a new +arrival, for a fresh alms. This invention prospered to the full: the +musing philosopher gave no heed to the mendicant, put his hand into his +pocket mechanically, and threw a six-groat piece into the fellow's hat, +to be rid of him. + +In the afternoon, a thousand new faces once more came abroad. The +watcher was now tired of his unknown Friend's delaying, yet hope still +kept his attention on the stretch. He stept into the view of every +passenger, hoped that one of them would clasp him in his arms; but all +proceeded coldly on their way; the most did not observe him at all, and +few returned his salute with a slight nod. The sun was already verging +to decline, the shadows were becoming longer, the crowd upon the Bridge +diminished; and the beggar-piquet by degrees drew back into their +barracks in the Mattenburg. A deep sadness sank upon the hopeless Franz, +when he saw his expectation mocked, and the lordly prospect which had +lain before him in the morning vanish from his eyes at evening. He fell +into a sort of sulky desperation; was on the point of springing over the +parapet, and dashing himself down from the Bridge into the river. But +the thought of Meta kept him back, and induced him to postpone his +purpose till he had seen her yet once more. He resolved to watch next +day when she should go to church, for the last time to drink delight +from her looks, and then forthwith to still his warm love forever in the +cold stream of the Weser. + +While about to leave the Bridge, he was met by the invalided pikeman +with the wooden leg, who, for pastime, had been making many speculations +as to what could be the young man's object, that had made him watch upon +the Bridge from dawn to darkness. He himself had lingered beyond his +usual time, that he might wait him out; but as the matter hung too long +upon the pegs, curiosity incited him to turn to the youth himself, and +question him respecting it. + +"No offence, young gentleman," said he: "allow me to ask you a +question." + +Franz, who was not in a very talking humour, and was now meeting, from +the mouth of a cripple, the address which he had looked for with such +longing from a friend, answered rather testily: "Well, then, what is it? +Speak, old graybeard!" + +"We two," said the other, "were the first upon the Bridge today, and +now, you see, we are the last. As to me and others of my kidney, it is +our vocation brings us hither, our trade of alms-gathering; but for you, +in sooth you are not of our guild; yet you have watched here the whole +blessed day. Now I pray you, tell me, if it is not a secret, what it is +that brings you hither; or what stone is lying on your heart, that you +wished to roll away." + +"What good were it to thee, old blade," said Franz bitterly, "to know +where the shoe pinches me, or what concern is lying on my heart? It will +give thee small care." + +"Sir, I have a kind wish towards you, because you opened your hand to +me, and twice gave me alms, for which God reward you; but your +countenance at night was not so cheerful as in the morning, and that +grieves my heart." + +The kindly sympathy of this old warrior pleased the misanthrope, so that +he willingly pursued the conversation. + +"Why, then," answered he, "if thou wouldst know what has made me battle +here all day with tedium, thou must understand that I was waiting for a +Friend, who appointed me hither, and now leaves me to expect in vain." + +"Under favour," answered Timbertoe, "if I might speak my mind, this +Friend of yours, be who he like, is little better than a rogue, to lead +you such a dance. If he treated _me_ so, by my faith, his crown should +get acquainted with my crutch next time we met. If he could not keep his +word, he should have let you know, and not bamboozled you as if you were +a child." + +"Yet I cannot altogether blame this Friend," said Franz, "for being +absent; he did not promise; it was but a dream that told me I should +meet him here." + +The goblin-tale was too long for him to tell, so he veiled it under +cover of a dream. + +"Ah! that is another story," said the beggar; "if you build on dreams, +it is little wonder that your hope deceives you. I myself have dreamed +much foolish stuff in my time; but I was never such a madman as to heed +it. Had I all the treasures that have been allotted to me in dreams, I +might buy the city of Bremen, were it sold by auction. But I never +credited a jot of them, or stirred hand or foot to prove their worth or +worthlessness: I knew well it would be lost. Ha! I must really laugh in +your face, to think that on the order of an empty dream, you have +squandered a fair day of your life, which you might have spent better at +a merry banquet." + +"The issue shows that thou art right, old man, and that dreams many +times deceive. But," continued Franz, defensively, "I dreamed so vividly +and circumstantially, above three months ago, that on this very day, in +this very place, I should meet a Friend, who would tell me things of the +deepest importance, that it was well worth while to go and see if it +would come to pass." + +"O, as for vividness," said Timbertoe, "no man can dream more vividly +than I. There is one dream I had, which I shall never in my life forget. +I dreamed, who knows how many years ago, that my Guardian Angel stood +before my bed in the figure of a youth, with golden hair, and two silver +wings on his back, and said to me: 'Berthold, listen to the words of my +mouth, that none of them be lost from thy heart. There is a treasure +appointed thee, which thou shalt dig, to comfort thy heart withal for +the remaining days of thy life. Tomorrow, about evening, when the sun is +going down, take spade and shovel on thy shoulder; go forth from the +Mattenburg on the right, across the Tieber, by the Balkenbrücke, past +the Cloister of St. John's, and on to the Great Roland.[9] Then take thy +way over the Court of the Cathedral, through the Schüsselkorb, till thou +arrive without the city at a garden, which has this mark, that a stair +of three stone steps leads down from the highway to its gate. Wait by a +side, in secret, till the sickle of the moon shall shine on thee, then +push with the strength of a man against the weak-barred gate, which will +resist thee little. Enter boldly into the garden, and turn thee to the +vine-trellises which overhang the covered-walk; behind this, on the +left, a tall apple-tree overtops the lowly shrubs. Go to the trunk of +this tree, thy face turned right against the moon: look three ells +before thee on the ground, thou shalt see two cinnamon-rose bushes; +there strike in, and dig three spans deep, till thou find a stone plate; +under this lies the treasure, buried in an iron chest, full of money and +money's worth. Though the chest be heavy and clumsy, avoid not the +labour of lifting it from its bed; it will reward thy trouble well, if +thou seek the key which lies hid beneath it.'" + + [9] The rude figure of a man in armour, usually erected in the + public square or market-place of old German towns, is called the + _Rolandsäule_, or _Rutlandsäule_, from its supposed reference to + Roland the famous peer of Charlemagne. The proper and ancient name, + it seems, is _Rügelandsäule_, or Pillar of Judgment; and the stone + indicated, of old, that the town possessed an independent + jurisdiction.--ED. + +In astonishment at what he heard, Franz stared and gazed upon the +dreamer, and could not have concealed his amazement, had not the dusk of +night been on his side. By every mark in the description, he had +recognised his own garden, left him by his father. It had been the good +man's hobby in his life; but on this account had little pleased his son; +according to the rule that son and father seldom sympathise in their +favourite pursuit, unless indeed it be a vice, in which case, as the +adage runs, the apple often falls at no great distance from the trunk. +Father Melchior had himself laid out this garden, altogether to his own +taste, in a style as wonderful and varied as that of his +great-great-grandson, who has immortalised his paradise by an original +description in _Hirschfeld's Garden-Calendar_. He had not, it is true, +set up in it any painted menagerie for the deception of the eye; but he +kept a very large one, notwithstanding, of springing-horses, +winged-lions, eagles, griffins, unicorns and other wondrous beasts, all +stamped on pure gold, which he carefully concealed from _every_ eye, and +had hid in their iron case beneath the ground. This paternal Tempe the +wasteful son, in the days of his extravagance, had sold for an old song. + +To Franz the pikeman had at once become extremely interesting, as he +perceived that this was the very Friend, to whom the Goblin in the +Castle of Rummelsburg had consigned him. Gladly could he have embraced +the veteran, and in the first rapture called him friend and father: but +he restrained himself, and found it more advisable to keep his thoughts +about this piece of news to himself. So he said: "Well, this is what I +call a circumstantial dream. But what didst thou do, old master, in the +morning, on awakening? Didst thou not follow whither thy Guardian Angel +beckoned thee?" + +"Pooh," said the dreamer, "why should I toil, and have my labour for my +pains? It was nothing, after all, but a mere dream. If my Guardian +Angel had a fancy for appearing to me, I have had enow of sleepless +nights in my time, when he might have found me waking. But he takes +little charge of me, I think, else I should not, to his shame, be going +hitching here on a wooden leg." + +Franz took out the last piece of silver he had on him: "There," said he, +"old Father, take this other gift from me, to get thee a pint of wine +for evening-cup: thy talk has scared away my ill humour. Neglect not +diligently to frequent this Bridge; we shall see each other here, I +hope, again." + +The lame old man had not gathered so rich a stock of alms for many a +day, as he was now possessed of; he blessed his benefactor for his +kindness, hopped away into a drinking-shop, to do himself a good turn; +while Franz, enlivened with new hope, hastened off to his lodging in the +alley. + +Next day he got in readiness everything that is required for +treasure-digging. The unessential equipments, conjurations, magic +formulas, magic girdles, hieroglyphic characters, and suchlike, were +entirely wanting: but these are not indispensable, provided there be no +failure in the three main requisites: shovel, spade, and, before all, a +treasure underground. The necessary implements he carried to the place a +little before sunset, and hid them for the mean while in a hedge; and as +to the treasure itself, he had the firm conviction that the Goblin in +the Castle, and the Friend on the Bridge, would prove no liars to him. +With longing impatience he expected the rising of the moon; and no +sooner did she stretch her silver horns over the bushes, than he briskly +set to work; observing exactly everything the Invalid had taught him; +and happily accomplished the raising of the treasure, without meeting +any adventure in the process; without any black dog having frightened +him, or any bluish flame having lighted him to the spot. + +Father Melchior, in providently burying this penny for a rainy day, had +nowise meant that his son should be deprived of so considerable a part +of his inheritance. The mistake lay in this, that Death had escorted the +testator out of the world in another way than said testator had +expected. He had been completely convinced, that he should take his +journey, old and full of days, after regulating his temporal concerns +with all the formalities of an ordinary sick-bed; for so it had been +prophesied to him in his youth. In consequence he purposed, when, +according to the usage of the Church, extreme unction should have been +dispensed to him, to call his beloved son to his bed-side, having +previously dismissed all bystanders; there to give him the paternal +blessing, and by way of farewell memorial direct him to this treasure +buried in the garden. All this, too, would have happened in just order, +if the light of the good old man had departed, like that of a wick whose +oil is done; but as Death had privily snuffed him out at a feast, he +undesignedly took along with him his Mammon secret to the grave; and +almost as many fortunate concurrences were required before the secreted +patrimony could arrive at the proper heir, as if it had been forwarded +to its address by the hand of Justice itself. + +With immeasurable joy the treasure-digger took possession of the +shapeless Spanish pieces, which, with a vast multitude of other finer +coins, the iron chest had faithfully preserved. When the first +intoxication of delight had in some degree evaporated, he bethought him +how the treasure was to be transported, safe and unobserved, into the +narrow alley. The burden was too heavy to be carried without help; thus, +with the possession of riches, all the cares attendant on them were +awakened. The new Croesus found no better plan, than to intrust his +capital to the hollow trunk of a tree that stood behind the garden, in a +meadow: the empty chest he again buried under the rose-bush, and +smoothed the place as well as possible. In the space of three days, the +treasure had been faithfully transmitted by instalments from the hollow +tree into the narrow alley; and now the owner of it thought he might +with honour lay aside his strict incognito. He dressed himself with the +finest; had his Prayer displaced from the church; and required, instead +of it, "a Christian Thanksgiving for a Traveller, on returning to his +native town, after happily arranging his affairs." He hid himself in a +corner of the church, where he could observe the fair Meta, without +himself being seen; he turned not his eye from the maiden, and drank +from her looks the actual rapture, which in foretaste had restrained him +from the break-neck somerset on the Bridge of the Weser. When the +Thanksgiving came in hand, a glad sympathy shone forth from all her +features, and the cheeks of the virgin glowed with joy. The customary +greeting on the way homewards was so full of emphasis, that even to the +third party who had noticed them, it would have been intelligible. + +Franz now appeared once more on the Exchange; began a branch of trade +which in a few weeks extended to the great scale; and as his wealth +became daily more apparent, Neighbour Grudge, the scandal-chewer, was +obliged to conclude, that in the cashing of his old debts, he must have +had more luck than sense. He hired a large house, fronting the Roland, +in the Market-place; engaged clerks and warehousemen, and carried on his +trade unweariedly. Now the sorrowful populace of parasites again +diligently handled the knocker of his door; appeared in crowds, and +suffocated him with assurances of friendship, and joy-wishings on his +fresh prosperity; imagined they should once more catch him in their +robber claws. But experience had taught him wisdom; he paid them in +their own coin, feasted their false friendship on smooth words, and +dismissed them with fasting stomachs; which sovereign means for scaring +off the cumbersome brood of pickthanks and toadeaters produced the +intended effect, that they betook them elsewhither. + +In Bremen, the remounting Melcherson had become the story of the day; +the fortune which in some inexplicable manner he had realised, as was +supposed, in foreign parts, was the subject-matter of all conversations +at formal dinners, in the Courts of Justice and at the Exchange. But in +proportion as the fame of his fortune and affluence increased, the +contentedness and peace of mind of the fair Meta diminished. The friend +_in petto_ was now, in her opinion, well qualified to speak a plain +word. Yet still his Love continued Dumb; and except the greeting on the +way from church, he gave no tidings of himself. Even this sort of visit +was becoming rarer, and such aspects were the sign not of warm, but of +cold weather in the atmosphere of Love. Jealousy,[10] the baleful Harpy, +fluttered round her little room by night, and when sleep was closing her +blue eyes, croaked many a dolorous presage into the ear of the +re-awakened Meta. "Forego the flattering hope of binding an inconstant +heart, which, like a feather, is the sport of every wind. He loved thee, +and was faithful to thee, while his lot was as thy own: like only draws +to like. Now a propitious destiny exalts the Changeful far above thee. +Ah! now he scorns the truest thoughts in mean apparel, now that pomp, +and wealth, and splendour dazzle him once more; and courts who knows +what haughty fair one that disdained him when he lay among the pots, and +now with siren call allures him back to her. Perhaps her cozening voice +has turned him from thee, speaking with false words: 'For thee, God's +garden blossoms in thy native town: friend, thou hast now thy choice of +all our maidens; choose with prudence, not by the eye alone. Of girls +are many, and of fathers many, who in secret lie in wait for thee; none +will withhold his darling daughter. Take happiness and honour with the +fairest; likewise birth and fortune. The councillor dignity awaits thee, +where vote of friends is potent in the city.'" + + [10] Jealousy too (at bottom a very sad spectre, but not here + introduced as one) now _croaks_ in iambics, as the Goblin Barber + lately spoke in them.--WIELAND. + +These suggestions of Jealousy disturbed and tormented her heart without +ceasing: she reviewed her fair contemporaries in Bremen, estimated the +ratio of so many splendid matches to herself and her circumstances; and +the result was far from favourable. The first tidings of her lover's +change of situation had in secret charmed her; not in the selfish view +of becoming participatress in a large fortune; but for her mother's +sake, who had abdicated all hopes of earthly happiness, ever since the +marriage project with neighbour Hop-King had made shipwreck. But now +poor Meta wished that Heaven had not heard the Prayer of the Church, or +granted to the traveller any such abundance of success; but rather kept +him by the bread and salt, which he would willingly have shared with +her. + +The fair half of the species are by no means calculated to conceal an +inward care: Mother Brigitta soon observed the trouble of her daughter; +and without the use of any great penetration, likewise guessed its +cause. The talk about the re-ascending star of her former +flax-negotiator, who was now celebrated as the pattern of an orderly, +judicious, active tradesman, had not escaped her, any more than the +feeling of the good Meta towards him; and it was her opinion, that if he +loved in earnest, it was needless to hang off so long, without +explaining what he meant. Yet out of tenderness to her daughter, she let +no hint of this discovery escape her; till at length poor Meta's heart +became so full, that of her own accord she made her mother the +confidante of her sorrow, and disclosed to her its true origin. The +shrewd old lady learned little more by this disclosure than she knew +already. But it afforded opportunity to mother and daughter for a full, +fair and free discussion of this delicate affair. Brigitta made her no +reproaches on the subject; she believed that what was done could not be +undone; and directed all her eloquence to strengthen and encourage the +dejected Meta to bear the failure of her hopes with a steadfast mind. + +With this view, she spelt out to her the extremely reasonable moral, +_a_, _b_, _ab_; discoursing thus: "My child, thou hast already said _a_, +thou must now say _b_ too; thou hast scorned thy fortune when it sought +thee, now thou must submit when it will meet thee no longer. Experience +has taught me, that the most confident Hope is the first to deceive us. +Therefore, follow my example; abandon the fair cozener utterly, and thy +peace of mind will no longer be disturbed by her. Count not on any +improvement of thy fate; and thou wilt grow contented with thy present +situation. Honour the spinning-wheel, which supports thee: what are +fortune and riches to thee, when thou canst do without them?" + +Close on this stout oration followed a loud humming symphony of +snap-reel and spinning-wheel, to make up for the time lost in speaking. +Mother Brigitta was in truth philosophising from the heart. After her +scheme for the restoration of her former affluence had gone to ruin, she +had so simplified the plan of her life, that Fate could not perplex it +any more. But Meta was still far from this philosophical centre of +indifference; and hence this doctrine, consolation and encouragement +affected her quite otherwise than had been intended: the conscientious +daughter now looked upon herself as the destroyer of her mother's fair +hopes, and suffered from her own mind a thousand reproaches for this +fault. Though she had never adopted the maternal scheme of marriage, and +had reckoned only upon bread and salt in her future wedlock; yet, on +hearing of her lover's riches and spreading commerce, her diet-project +had directly mounted to six plates; and it delighted her to think, that +by her choice she should still realise her good mother's wish, and see +her once more planted in her previous abundance. + +This fair dream now vanished by degrees, as Franz continued silent. To +make matters worse, there spread a rumour over all the city, that he was +furnishing his house in the most splendid fashion for his marriage with +a rich Antwerp lady, who was already on her way to Bremen. This +Job's-news drove the lovely maiden from her last defence: she passed on +the apostate sentence of banishment from her heart; and vowed from that +hour never more to think of him; and as she did so, wetted the twining +thread with her tears. + +In a heavy hour she was breaking this vow, and thinking, against her +will, of the faithless lover: for she had just spun off a rock of flax; +and there was an old rhyme which had been taught her by her mother for +encouragement to diligence: + + 'Spin, daughterkin, spin; + Thy sweetheart's within!' + +which she always recollected when her rock was done; and along with it +the memory of the Deceitful necessarily occurred to her. In this heavy +hour, a finger rapped with a most dainty patter at the door. Mother +Brigitta looked forth: the sweetheart was without. And who could it be? +Who else but neighbour Franz, from the alley? He had decked himself with +a gallant wooing-suit; and his well-dressed, thick brown locks shook +forth perfume. This stately decoration boded, at all events, something +else than flax-dealing. Mother Brigitta started in alarm; she tried to +speak, but words failed her. Meta rose in trepidation from her seat, +blushed like a purple rose, and was silent. Franz, however, had the +power of utterance; to the soft _adagio_ which he had in former days +trilled forth to her, he now appended a suitable text, and explained his +dumb love in clear words. Thereupon he made solemn application for her +to the mother; justifying his proposal by the statement, that the +preparations in his house had been meant for the reception of a bride, +and that this bride was the charming Meta. + +The pointed old lady, having brought her feelings once more into +equilibrium, was for protracting the affair to the customary term of +eight days for deliberation; though joyful tears were running down her +cheeks, presaging no impediment on her side, but rather answer of +approval. Franz, however, was so pressing in his suit, that she fell +upon a middle path between the wooer's ardour and maternal use and wont, +and empowered the gentle Meta to decide in the affair according to her +own good judgment. In the virgin heart there had occurred, since Franz's +entrance, an important revolution. His presence here was the most +speaking proof of his innocence; and as, in the course of conversation, +it distinctly came to light, that his apparent coldness had been nothing +else than zeal and diligence in putting his commercial affairs in order, +and preparing what was necessary for the coming nuptials, it followed +that the secret reconciliation would proceed forthwith without any stone +of stumbling in its way. She acted with the outlaw, as Mother Brigitta +with her disposted spinning gear, or the First-born Son of the Church +with an exiled Parliament; recalled him with honour to her high-beating +heart, and reinstated him in all his former rights and privileges there. +The decisive three-lettered little word, that ratifies the happiness of +love, came gliding with such unspeakable grace from her soft lips, that +the answered lover could not help receiving it with a warm melting kiss. + +The tender pair had now time and opportunity for deciphering all the +hieroglyphics of their mysterious love; which afforded the most pleasant +conversation that ever two lovers carried on. They found, what our +commentators ought to pray for, that they had always understood and +interpreted the text aright, without once missing the true sense of +their reciprocal proceedings. It cost the delighted bridegroom almost as +great an effort to part from his charming bride, as on the day when he +set out on his crusade to Antwerp. However, he had an important walk to +take; so at last it became time to withdraw. + +This walk was directed to the Weser-bridge, to find Timbertoe, whom he +had not forgotten, though he had long delayed to keep his word to him. +Sharply as the physiognomist, ever since his interview with the +open-handed Bridge-bailiff, had been on the outlook, he could never +catch a glimpse of him among the passengers, although a second visit had +been faithfully promised. Yet the figure of his benefactor had not +vanished from his memory. The moment he perceived the fair-apparelled +youth from a distance, he stilted towards him, and gave him kindly +welcome. Franz answered his salutation, and said: "Friend, canst thou +take a walk with me into the Neustadt, to transact a small affair? Thy +trouble shall not be unpaid." + +"Ah! why not?" replied the old blade; "though I have a wooden leg, I can +step you with it as stoutly as the lame dwarf that crept round the +city-common;[11] for the wooden leg, you must know, has this good +property, it never tires. But excuse me a little while till Graycloak is +come: he never misses to pass along the Bridge between day and night." + + [11] There is an old tradition, that a neighbouring Countess + promised in jest to give the Bremers as much land as a cripple, who + was just asking her for alms, would creep round in a day. They took + her at her word; and the cripple crawled so well, that the town + obtained this large common by means of him. + +"What of Graycloak?" inquired Franz: "let me know about him." + +"Graycloak brings me daily about nightfall a silver groschen, I know not +from whom. It is of no use prying into things, so I never mind. +Sometimes it occurs to me Graycloak must be the devil, and means to buy +my soul with the money. But devil or no devil, what care I? I did not +strike him on the bargain, so it cannot hold." + +"I should not wonder," answered Franz, with a smile, "if Graycloak were +a piece of a knave. But do thou follow me: the silver groschen shall not +fail thee." + +Timbertoe set forth, hitched on briskly after his guide, who conducted +him up one street and down another, to a distant quarter of the city, +near the wall; then halted before a neat little new-built house, and +knocked at the door. When it was opened: "Friend," said he, "thou madest +one evening of my life cheerful; it is just that I should make the +evening of thy life cheerful also. This house, with its appurtenances, +and the garden where it stands, are thine; kitchen and cellar are full; +an attendant is appointed to wait upon thee; and the silver groschen, +over and above, thou wilt find every noon lying under thy plate. Nor +will I hide from thee that Graycloak was my servant, whom I sent to give +thee daily an honourable alms, till I had got this house made ready for +thee. If thou like, thou mayest reckon me thy proper Guardian Angel, +since the other has not acted to thy satisfaction." + +He then led the old man into his dwelling, where the table was standing +covered, and everything arranged for his convenience and comfortable +living. The grayhead was so astonished at his fortune, that he could not +understand or even believe it. That a rich man should take such pity on +a poor one, was incomprehensible: he felt disposed to take the whole +affair for magic or jugglery, till Franz removed his doubts. A stream of +thankful tears flowed down the old man's cheeks; and his benefactor, +satisfied with this, did not wait till he should recover from his +amazement and thank him in words, but, after doing this angel-message, +vanished from the old man's eyes, as angels are wont; and left him to +piece together the affair as he best could. + +Next morning, in the habitation of the lovely Meta, all was as a fair. +Franz dispatched to her a crowd of merchants, jewellers, milliners, +lace-dealers, tailors, sutors and sempstresses, in part to offer her all +sorts of wares, in part their own good services. She passed the whole +day in choosing stuffs, laces and other requisites for the condition of +a bride, or being measured for her various new apparel. The dimensions +of her dainty foot, her beautifully-formed arm, and her slim waist, were +as often and as carefully meted, as if some skilful statuary had been +taking from her the model for a Goddess of Love. Meanwhile the +bridegroom went to appoint the bans; and before three weeks were past, +he led his bride to the altar, with a solemnity by which even the +gorgeous wedding-pomp of the Hop-King was eclipsed. Mother Brigitta had +the happiness of twisting the bridal-garland for her virtuous Meta; she +completely attained her wish of spending her woman's-summer in +propitious affluence; and deserved this satisfaction, as a recompense +for one praiseworthy quality which she possessed: She was the most +tolerable mother-in-law that has ever been discovered. + + + + +LIBUSSA.[12] + + +Deep in the Bohemian forest, which has now dwindled to a few scattered +woodlands, there abode, in the primeval times, while it stretched its +umbrage far and wide, a spiritual race of beings, airy and avoiding +light, incorporeal also, more delicately fashioned than the clay-formed +sons of men; to the coarser sense of feeling imperceptible, but to the +finer, half-visible by moonlight; and well known to poets by the name of +Dryads, and to ancient bards by that of Elves. From immemorial ages, +they had dwelt here undisturbed; till all at once the forest sounded +with the din of warriors, for Duke Czech of Hungary, with his Sclavonic +hordes, had broken over the mountains, to seek in these wild tracts a +new habitation. The fair tenants of the aged oaks, of the rocks, clefts +and grottos, and of the flags in the tarns and morasses, fled before the +clang of arms and the neighing of chargers: the stout Erl-King himself +was annoyed by the uproar, and transferred his court to more sequestered +wildernesses. One solitary Elf could not resolve to leave her darling +oak; and as the wood began here and there to be felled for the purposes +of cultivation, she alone undertook to defend her tree against the +violence of the strangers, and chose the towering summit of it for her +residence. + + [12] From _Jo. Dubravii Historia Bohemica_, and _Æneæ Sylvii + Cardinalis de Bohemarum Origine ac Gestis Historia_. + +Among the retinue of the Duke was a young Squire, Krokus by name, full +of spirit and impetuosity; stout and handsome, and of noble mien, to +whom the keeping of his master's stud had been entrusted, which at times +he drove far into the forest for their pasture. Frequently he rested +beneath the oak which the Elf inhabited: she observed him with +satisfaction; and at night, when he was sleeping at the root, she would +whisper pleasant dreams into his ear, and announce to him in expressive +images the events of the coming day. When any horse had strayed into the +desert, and the keeper had lost its tract, and gone to sleep with +anxious thoughts, he failed not to see in vision the marks of the hidden +path, which led him to the spot where his lost steed was grazing. + +The farther the new colonists extended, the nearer came they to the +dwelling of the Elf; and as by her gift of divination, she perceived how +soon her life-tree would be threatened by the axe, she determined to +unfold this sorrow to her guest. One moonshiny summer evening, Krokus +had folded his herd somewhat later than usual, and was hastening to his +bed under the lofty oak. His path led him round a little fishy lake, on +whose silver face the moon was imaging herself like a gleaming ball of +gold; and across this glittering portion of the water, on the farther +side, he perceived a female form, apparently engaged in walking by the +cool shore. This sight surprised the young warrior: What brings the +maiden hither, thought he, by herself, in this wilderness, at the season +of the nightly dusk? Yet the adventure was of such a sort, that, to a +young man, the more strict investigation of it seemed alluring rather +than alarming. He redoubled his steps, keeping firmly in view the form +which had arrested his attention; and soon reached the place where he +had first noticed it, beneath the oak. But now it looked to him as if +the thing he saw were a shadow rather than a body; he stood wondering +and motionless, a cold shudder crept over him; and he heard a sweet soft +voice address to him these words: "Come hither, beloved stranger, and +fear not; I am no phantasm, no deceitful shadow: I am the Elf of this +grove, the tenant of the oak, under whose leafy boughs thou hast often +rested. I rocked thee in sweet delighting dreams, and prefigured to thee +thy adventures; and when a brood-mare or a foal had chanced to wander +from the herd, I told thee of the place where thou wouldst find it. +Repay this favour by a service which I now require of thee; be the +Protector of this tree, which has so often screened thee from the shower +and the scorching heat; and guard the murderous axes of thy brethren, +which lay waste the forest, that they harm not this venerable trunk." + +The young warrior, restored to self-possession by this soft still voice, +made answer: "Goddess or mortal, whoever thou mayest be, require of me +what thou pleasest; if I can, I will perform it. But I am a man of no +account among my people, the servant of the Duke my lord. If he tell me +today or tomorrow, Feed here, feed there, how shall I protect thy tree +in this distant forest? Yet if thou commandest me, I will renounce the +service of princes, and dwell under the shadow of thy oak, and guard it +while I live." + +"Do so," said the Elf: "thou shalt not repent it." + +Hereupon she vanished; and there was a rustling in the branches above, +as if some breath of an evening breeze had been entangled in them, and +had stirred the leaves. Krokus, for a while, stood enraptured at the +heavenly form which had appeared to him. So soft a female, of such +slender shape and royal bearing, he had never seen among the short squat +damsels of his own Sclavonic race. At last he stretched himself upon the +moss, but no sleep descended on his eyes; the dawn overtook him in a +whirl of sweet emotions, which were as strange and new to him as the +first beam of light to the opened eye of one born blind. With the +earliest morning he hastened to the Court of the Duke, required his +discharge, packed up his war-accoutrements, and, with rapid steps, his +burden on his shoulders, and his head full of glowing enthusiasm, hied +him back to his enchanted forest-hermitage. + +Meanwhile, in his absence, a craftsman among the people, a miller by +trade, had selected for himself the round straight trunk of the oak to +be an axle, and was proceeding with his mill-men to fell it. The +affrighted Elf sobbed bitterly, as the greedy saw began with iron tooth +to devour the foundations of her dwelling. She looked wildly round, from +the highest summit, for her faithful guardian, but her glance could find +him nowhere; and the gift of prophecy, peculiar to her race, was in the +present case so ineffectual, that she could as little read the fate that +stood before her, as the sons of Æsculapius, with their vaunted +prognosis, can discover ways and means for themselves when Death is +knocking at their own door. + +Krokus, however, was approaching, and so near the scene of this +catastrophe, that the screeching of the busy saw did not escape his ear. +Such a sound in the forest boded no good: he quickened his steps, and +beheld before his eyes the horror of the devastation that was visiting +the tree which he had taken under his protection. Like a fury he rushed +upon the wood-cutters, with pike and sword, and scared them from their +work; for they concluded he must be a forest-demon, and fled in great +precipitation. By good fortune, the wound of the tree was still curable; +and the scar of it disappeared in a few summers. + +In the solemn hour of evening, when the stranger had fixed upon the spot +for his future habitation; had meted out the space for hedging round as +a garden, and was weighing in his mind the whole scheme of his future +hermitage; where, in retirement from the society of men, he purposed to +pass his days in the service of a shadowy companion, possessed +apparently of little more reality than a Saint of the Calendar, whom a +pious friar chooses for his spiritual paramour,--the Elf appeared before +him at the brink of the lake, and with gentle looks thus spoke: + +"Thanks to thee, beloved stranger, that thou hast turned away the +wasteful arms of thy brethren from ruining this tree, with which my life +is united. For thou shalt know that Mother Nature, who has granted to my +race such varied powers and influences, has combined the fortune of our +life with the growth and duration of the oak. By us the sovereign of the +forest raises his venerable head above the populace of other trees and +shrubs; we further the circulation of the sap through his trunk and +boughs, that he may gain strength to battle with the tempest, and for +long centuries to defy destructive Time. On the other hand, our life is +bound to his: when the oak, which the lot of Destiny has appointed for +the partner of our existence, fades by years, we fade along with him; +and when he dies, we die, and sleep, like mortals, as it were a sort of +death-sleep, till, by the everlasting cycle of things, Chance, or some +hidden provision of Nature, again weds our being to a new germ; which, +unfolded by our enlivening virtue, after the lapse of long years, +springs up to be a mighty tree, and affords us the enjoyment of +existence anew. From this thou mayest perceive what a service thou hast +done me by thy help, and what gratitude I owe thee. Ask of me the +recompense of thy noble deed; disclose to me the wish of thy heart, and +this hour it shall be granted thee." + +Krokus continued silent. The sight of the enchanting Elf had made more +impression on him than her speech, of which, indeed, he understood but +little. She noticed his embarrassment; and, to extricate him from it, +plucked a withered reed from the margin of the lake, broke it into three +pieces, and said: "Choose one of these three stalks, or take one without +a choice. In the first, lie Honour and Renown; in the second, Riches +and the wise enjoyment of them; in the third is happiness in Love laid +up for thee." + +The young man cast his eyes upon the ground, and answered: "Daughter of +Heaven, if thou wouldst deign to grant the desire of my heart, know that +it lies not in these three stalks which thou offerest me; the recompense +I aim at is higher. What is Honour but the fuel of Pride? what are +Riches but the root of Avarice? and what is Love but the trap-door of +Passion, to ensnare the noble freedom of the heart? Grant me my wish, to +rest under the shadow of thy oak-tree from the toils of warfare, and to +hear from thy sweet mouth the lessons of wisdom, that I may understand +by them the secrets of the future." + +"Thy request," replied the Elf, "is great; but thy deserving toward me +is not less so: be it then as thou hast asked. Nor, with the fruit, +shall the shell be wanting to thee; for the wise man is also honoured; +he alone is rich, for he desires nothing more than he needs, and he +tastes the pure nectar of Love without poisoning it by polluted lips." + +So saying, she again presented him the three reed-stalks, and vanished +from his sight. + +The young Eremite prepared his bed of moss, beneath the oak, exceedingly +content with the reception which the Elf had given him. Sleep came upon +him like a strong man; gay morning dreams danced round his head, and +solaced his fancy with the breath of happy forebodings. On awakening, he +joyfully began his day's work; ere long he had built himself a pleasant +hermit's-cottage; had dug his garden, and planted in it roses and +lilies, with other odoriferous flowers and herbs; not forgetting pulse +and cole, and a sufficiency of fruit-trees. The Elf never failed to +visit him at twilight; she rejoiced in the prospering of his labours; +walked with him, hand in hand, by the sedgy border of the lake; and the +wavering reeds, as the wind passed through them, whispered a melodious +evening salutation to the trustful pair. She instructed her attentive +disciple in the secrets of Nature; showed him the origin and causes of +things; taught him their common and their magic properties and effects; +and formed the rude soldier into a thinker and philosopher. + +In proportion as the feelings and senses of the young man grew refined +by this fair spiritual intercourse, it seemed as if the tender form of +the Elf were condensing, and acquiring more consistency; her bosom +caught warmth and life; her brown eyes sparkled with the fire of love; +and with the shape, she appeared to have adopted the feelings of a young +blooming maiden. The sentimental hour of dusk, which is as if expressly +calculated to awaken slumbering feelings, had its usual effect; and +after a few moons from their first acquaintance, the sighing Krokus +found himself possessed of the happiness in Love, which the Third +Reed-stalk had appointed him; and did not repent that by the trap-door +of Passion the freedom of his heart had been ensnared. Though the +marriage of the tender pair took place without witnesses, it was +celebrated with as much enjoyment as the most tumultuous espousal; nor +were speaking proofs of love's recompense long wanting. The Elf gave her +husband three daughters at a birth; and the father, rejoicing in the +bounty of his better half, named, at the first embrace, the eldest +infant, Bela; the next born, Therba; and the youngest, Libussa. They +were all like the Genies in beauty of form; and though not moulded of +such light materials as the mother, their corporeal structure was finer +than the dull earthy clay of the father. They were also free from all +the infirmities of childhood; their swathings did not gall them; they +teethed without epileptic fits, needed no calomel taken inwardly, got no +rickets; had no small-pox, and, of course, no scars, no scum-eyes, or +puckered faces: nor did they require any leading-strings; for after the +first nine days, they ran like little partridges; and as they grew up, +they manifested all the talents of the mother for discovering hidden +things, and predicting what was future. + +Krokus himself, by the aid of time, grew skilful in these mysteries +also. When the wolf had scattered the flocks through the forest, and the +herdsmen were seeking for their sheep and horses; when the woodman +missed an axe or bill, they took counsel from the wise Krokus, who +showed them where to find what they had lost. When a wicked prowler had +abstracted aught from the common stock; had by night broken into the +pinfold, or the dwelling of his neighbour, and robbed or slain him, and +none could guess the malefactor, the wise Krokus was consulted. He led +the people to a green; made them form a ring; then stept into the midst +of them, set the faithful sieve a-running, and so failed not to discover +the misdoer. By such acts his fame spread over all the country of +Bohemia; and whoever had a weighty care, or an important undertaking, +took counsel from the wise Krokus about its issue. The lame and the +sick, too, required from him help and recovery; even the unsound cattle +of the fold were driven to him; and his gift of curing sick kine by his +shadow, was not less than that of the renowned St. Martin of Schierbach. +By these means the concourse of the people to him grew more frequent, +day by day, no otherwise than if the Tripod of the Delphic Apollo had +been transferred to the Bohemian forest: and though Krokus answered all +inquiries, and cured the sick and afflicted, without fee or reward, yet +the treasure of his secret wisdom paid him richly, and brought him in +abundant profit; the people crowded to him with gifts and presents, and +almost oppressed him with testimonies of their good-will. It was he that +first disclosed the mystery of washing gold from the sands of the Elbe; +and for his recompense he had a tenth of all the produce. By these means +his wealth and store increased; he built strongholds and palaces; had +vast herds of cattle; possessed fertile pasturages, fields and woods; +and thus found himself imperceptibly possessed of all the Riches which +the beneficently foreboding Elf had enclosed for him in the Second Reed. + +One fine summer evening, when Krokus with his train was returning from +an excursion, having by special request been settling the disputed +marches of two townships, he perceived his spouse on the margin of the +sedgy lake, where she had first appeared to him. She waved him with her +hand; so he dismissed his servants, and hastened to clasp her in his +arms. She received him, as usual, with tender love; but her heart was +sad and oppressed; from her eyes trickled down ethereal tears, so fine +and fugitive, that as they fell they were greedily inhaled by the air, +and not allowed to reach the ground. Krokus was alarmed at this +appearance; he had never seen his wife's fair eyes otherwise than +cheerful, and sparkling with youthful gaiety. "What ails thee, beloved +of my heart?" said he; "black forebodings overcast my soul. Speak, say +what mean those tears." + +The Elf sobbed, leaned her head sorrowfully on his shoulder, and said: +"Beloved husband, in thy absence I have looked into the Book of Destiny; +a doleful chance overhangs my life-tree; I must part from thee forever. +Follow me into the Castle, till I bless my children; for from this day +you will never see me more." + +"Dearest wife," said Krokus, "chase away these mournful thoughts. What +misfortune is it that can harm thy tree? Behold its sound boughs, how +they stretch forth loaded with fruit and leaves, and how it raises its +top to the clouds. While this arm can move, it shall defend thy tree +from any miscreant that presumes to wound its stem." + +"Impotent defence," replied she, "which a mortal arm can yield! Ants can +but secure themselves from ants, flies from flies, and the worms of +Earth from other earthly worms. But what can the mightiest among you do +against the workings of Nature, or the unalterable decisions of Fate? +The kings of the Earth can heap up little hillocks, which they name +fortresses and castles; but the weakest breath of air defies their +authority, blows where it lists, and mocks at their command. This +oak-tree thou hast guarded from the violence of men; canst thou likewise +forbid the tempest that it rise not to disleaf its branches; or if a +hidden worm is gnawing in its marrow, canst thou draw it out, and tread +it under foot?" + +Amid such conversation they arrived at the Castle. The slender maidens, +as they were wont at the evening visit of their mother, came bounding +forth to meet them; gave account of their day's employments, produced +their needlework, and their embroideries, to prove their diligence: but +now the hour of household happiness was joyless. They soon observed that +the traces of deep suffering were imprinted on the countenance of their +father; and they looked with sympathising sorrow at their mother's +tears, without venturing to inquire their cause. The mother gave them +many wise instructions and wholesome admonitions; but her speech was +like the singing of a swan, as if she wished to give the world her +farewell. She lingered with her husband, till the morning-star went up +in the sky; then she embraced him and her children with mournful +tenderness; and at dawn of day retired, as was her custom, through the +secret door, to her oak-tree, and left her friends to their own sad +forebodings. + +Nature stood in listening stillness at the rising sun; but heavy black +clouds soon veiled his beaming head. The day grew sultry and oppressive; +the whole atmosphere was electric. Distant thunder came rolling over the +forest; and the hundred-voiced Echo repeated, in the winding valleys, +its baleful sound. At the noontide, a forked thunderbolt struck +quivering down upon the oak; and in a moment shivered with resistless +force the trunk and boughs, and the wreck lay scattered far around it in +the forest. When Father Krokus was informed of this, he rent his +garments, went forth with his daughters to deplore the life-tree of his +spouse, and to collect the fragments of it, and preserve them as +invaluable relics. But the Elf from that day was not seen any more. + +In some few years, the tender girls had waxed in stature; their maiden +forms blossomed forth, as the rose pushing up from the bud; and the fame +of their beauty spread abroad over all the land. The noblest youths of +the people crowded round, with cases to submit to Father Krokus for his +counsel; but at bottom, these their specious pretexts were directed to +the fair maidens, whom they wished to get a glimpse of; as is the mode +with young men, who delight to have some business with the master of the +household, when his daughters are beautiful. The three sisters lived in +great simplicity and unity together; as yet but little conscious of +their talents. The gift of prophecy had been communicated to them in an +equal degree; and all their words were oracles, although they knew it +not. Yet soon their vanity awoke at the voice of flattery; word-catchers +eagerly laid hold of every sound proceeding from their lips; Celadons +noted down every look, spied out the faintest smile, explored the aspect +of their eyes, and drew from it more or less favourable prognostics, +conceiving that their own destiny was to be read by means of it; and +from this time, it has become the mode with lovers to deduce from the +horoscope of the eyes the rising or declining of their star in +courtship. Scarcely had Vanity obtained a footing in the virgin heart, +till Pride, her dear confidante, with her wicked rabble of a train, +Self-love, Self-praise, Self-will, Self-interest, were standing at the +door; and all of them in time sneaked in. The elder sisters struggled to +outdo the younger in their arts; and envied her in secret her +superiority in personal attractions. For though they all were very +beautiful, the youngest was the most so. Fräulein Bela turned her chief +attention to the science of plants; as Fräulein Medea did in earlier +times. She knew their hidden virtues, could extract from them poisons +and antidotes; and farther, understood the art of making from them sweet +or nauseous odours for the unseen Powers. When her censer steamed, she +allured to her Spirits out of the immeasurable depth of æther, from +beyond the Moon, and they became her subjects, that with their fine +organs they might be allowed to snuff these delicious vapours: and when +she scattered villanous perfumes upon the coals, she could have smoked +away with it the very Zihim and the Ohim from the Wilderness. + +Fräulein Therba was inventive as Circe in devising magic formulas, +which could command the elements, could raise tempests and whirlwinds, +also hail and thunder; could shake the bowels of the Earth, or lift +itself from the sockets of its axle. She employed these arts to terrify +the people, and be feared and honoured by them as a goddess; and she +could, in fact, arrange the weather more according to the wish and taste +of men than wise old Nature does. Two brothers quarrelled on this +subject, for their wishes never were the same. The one was a husbandman, +and still desired rain for the growth and strengthening of his crops. +The other was a potter, and desired constant sunshine to dry his dishes, +which the rain destroyed. And as Heaven never could content them in +disposing of this matter, they repaired one day with rich presents to +the Castle of the wise Krokus; and submitted their petitions to Therba. +The daughter of the Elf gave a smile over their unquiet grumbling at the +wise economy of Nature; and contented the demands of each: she made rain +fall on the seed-lands of the cultivator; and the sun shone on the +potter-field close by. By these enchantments both the sisters gained +much fame and riches, for they never used their gifts without a fee. +With their treasures they built castles and country-houses; laid out +royal pleasure-gardens; to their festivals and divertisements there was +no end. The gallants, who solicited their love, they gulled and laughed +at. + +Fräulein Libussa was no sharer in the vain proud disposition of her +sisters. Though she had the same capacities for penetrating the secrets +of Nature, and employing its hidden powers in her service, she remained +contented with the gifts she had derived from her maternal inheritance, +without attempting to increase them, or turn them to a source of gain. +Her vanity extended not beyond the consciousness that she was beautiful; +she cared not for riches; and neither longed to be feared nor to be +honoured like her sisters. Whilst these were gadding up and down among +their country-houses, hastening from one tumultuous pleasure to another, +with the flower of the Bohemian chivalry fettered to their +chariot-wheels, she abode in her father's house, conducting the economy, +giving counsel to those who begged it, friendly help to the afflicted +and oppressed; and all from good-will, without remuneration.[13] Her +temper was soft and modest, and her conduct virtuous and discreet, as +beseems a noble virgin. She might secretly rejoice in the victories +which her beauty gained over the hearts of men, and accept the sighing +and cooing of her languishing adorers as a just tribute to her charms; +but none dared speak a word of love to her, or venture on aspiring to +her heart. Yet Amor, the roguish urchin, takes a pleasure in exerting +his privileges on the coy; and often hurls his burning torch upon the +lowly straw-roof, when he means to set on fire a lofty palace. + + [13] _Nulla Crocco virilis sexûs proles fuit, sed moriturus tres a + morte suâ filias superstites reliquit, omnes ut ipse erat + fatidicas, vel magas potius, qualis Medea et Circe fuerant. Nam + Bela natu filiarum maxima herbis incantandis Medeam imitabatur, + Tetcha (Therba) natu minor carminibus magicis Circem reddebat. Ad + utramque frequens multitudinis concursus; dum alii amores sibi + conciliare, alii cum bonâ valetudine in gratiam redire, alii res + amissas recuperare cupiunt. Illa arcem Belinam, hæc altera arcem + Thetin ex mercenariâ pecuniâ, nihil enim gratuito faciebant, + ædificandam curavit. Liberalior in hac re Lybussa natu minima + apparuit, ut quæ a nemine quidquam extorquebat, et potius fata + publica omnibus, quam privata singulis, præcinebat: quâ + liberalitate, et quia non gratuitâ solùm sed etiam minus fallace + prædictione utebatur, assecuta est ut in locum patris Crocci + subrogaretur_.--DUBRAVIUS. + +Far in the bosom of the forest lived an ancient Knight, who had come +into the land with the host of Czech. In this seclusion he had fixed his +settlement; reduced the desert under cultivation, and formed for himself +a small estate, where he thought to pass the remainder of his days in +peace, and live upon the produce of his husbandry. A strong-handed +neighbour took forcible possession of the land, and expelled the owner, +whom a hospitable peasant sheltered in his dwelling. The distressed old +Knight had a son, who now formed the sole consolation and support of his +age; a bold active youth, but possessed of nothing save a hunting-spear +and a practised arm, for the sustenance of his gray-haired father. The +injustice of their neighbour stimulated him to revenge, and he had been +prepared for resisting force by force; but the command of the anxious +father, unwilling to expose his son to danger, had disarmed him. Yet ere +long he resumed his former purpose. Then the father called him to his +presence, and said: + +"Pass over, my son, to the wise Krokus, or to the cunning virgins his +daughters, and ask counsel whether the gods approve thy undertaking, and +will grant it a prosperous issue. If so, gird on thy sword, and take the +spear in thy hand, and go forth to fight for thy inheritance. If not, +stay here till thou hast closed my eyes and laid me in the earth; then +do what shall seem good to thee." + +The youth set forth, and first reached Bela's palace, a building like a +temple for the habitation of a goddess. He knocked at the door, and +desired to be admitted; but the porter observing that he came +empty-handed, dismissed him as a beggar, and shut the door in his face. +He went forward in sadness, and reached the house of sister Therba, +where he knocked and requested an audience. The porter looked upon him +through his window, and said: "If thou bringest gold in thy bag, which +thou canst weigh out to my mistress, she will teach thee one of her good +saws to read thy fortune withal. If not, then go and gather of it in the +sands of the Elbe as many grains as the tree hath leaves, the sheaf +ears, and the bird feathers, then will I open thee this gate." The +mocked young man glided off entirely dejected; and the more so, as he +learned that Seer Krokus was in Poland, arbitrating the disputes of some +contending Grandees. He anticipated from the third sister no more +flattering reception; and as he descried her father's castle from a hill +in the distance, he could not venture to approach it, but hid himself in +a thicket to pursue his bitter thoughts. Ere long he was roused by an +approaching noise; he listened, and heard a sound of horses' hoofs. A +flying roe dashed through the bushes, followed by a lovely huntress and +her maids on stately steeds. She hurled a javelin from her hand; it flew +whizzing through the air, but did not hit the game. Instantly the +watchful young man seized his bow, and launched from the twanging cord a +bolt, which smote the deer through the heart, and stretched it lifeless +on the spot. The lady, in astonishment at this phenomenon, looked round +to find her unknown hunting partner: and the archer, on observing this, +stept forward from his bush, and bent himself humbly before her to the +ground. Fräulein Libussa thought she had never seen a finer man. At the +first glance, his figure made so deep an impression on her, that she +could not but award him that involuntary feeling of goodwill, which a +beautiful appearance claims as its prerogative. "Tell me, fair +stranger," said she to him, "who art thou, and what chance is it that +leads thee to these groves?" The youth guessed rightly that his lucky +star had brought him what he was in search of; he disclosed his case to +her in modest words; not hiding how disgracefully her sisters had +dismissed him, or how the treatment had afflicted him. She cheered his +heart with friendly words. "Follow me to my abode," said she; "I will +consult the Book of Fate for thee, and answer thy demand tomorrow by the +rising of the sun." + +The young man did as he was ordered. No churlish porter here barred for +him the entrance of the palace; the fair lady exercised the rights of +hospitality with generous attention. He was charmed by this benignant +reception, but still more by the beauty of his gentle hostess. Her +enchanting figure hovered all night before his eyes; he carefully +defended himself from sleep, that he might not for a moment lose from +his thoughts the delightful events of the day. Fräulein Libussa, on the +contrary, enjoyed soft slumber: for seclusion from the influences of the +external senses, which disturb the finer presentiments of the future, is +an indispensable condition for the gift of prophecy. The glowing fancy +of the maiden blended the form of this young stranger with all the +dreaming images which hovered through her mind that night. She found him +where she had not looked for him, in connexion with affairs in which she +could not understand how this unknown youth had come to be involved. + +On her early awakening, at the hour when the fair prophetess was wont to +separate and interpret the visions of the night, she felt inclined to +cast away these phantasms from her mind, as errors which had sprung from +a disturbance in the operation of her prophetic faculty, and were +entitled to no heed from her. Yet a dim feeling signified that this +creation of her fancy was not idle dreaming; but had a significant +allusion to certain events which the future would unravel; and that last +night this presaging Fantasy had spied out the decrees of Fate, and +blabbed them to her, more successfully than ever. By help of it, she +found that her guest was inflamed with warm love to her; and with equal +honesty her heart confessed the same thing in regard to him. But she +instantly impressed the seal of silence on the news; as the modest youth +had, on his side, set a guard upon his lips and his eyes, that he might +not expose himself to a contemptuous refusal; for the chasm which +Fortune had interposed between him and the daughter of the wise Krokus +seemed impassable. + +Although the fair Libussa well knew what she had to say in answer to the +young man's question, yet it went against her heart to let him go from +her so soon. At sunrise she called him to her in her garden, and said: +"The curtain of darkness yet hangs before my eyes; abide with me till +sunset;" and at night she said: "Stay till sunrise;" and next morning: +"Wait another day;" and the third day: "Have patience till tomorrow." On +the fourth day she at last dismissed him; finding no more pretexts for +detaining him, with safety to her secret. At parting, she gave him his +response in friendly words: "The gods will not that thou shouldst +contend with a man of violence in the land; to bear and suffer is the +lot of the weaker. Return to thy father; be the comfort of his old age; +and support him by the labour of thy diligent hand. Take two white +Steers as a present from my herd; and this Staff to drive them; and when +it blossoms and bears fruit, the spirit of prophecy will descend on +thee." + +The young man felt himself unworthy of the gentle virgin's gift; and +blushed that he should receive it and make no return. With ineloquent +lips, but with looks so much the more eloquent, he took mournful leave +of her; and at the gate below found two white Steers awaiting him, as +sleek and glittering as of old the godlike Bull, on whose smooth back +the virgin Europa swam across the blue sea waves. Joyfully he loosed +them from the post, and drove them softly on before him. The distance +home seemed but a few ells, so much was his spirit busied with the fair +Libussa: and he vowed, that as he never could obtain her love, he would +love no other all his days. The old Knight rejoiced in the return of his +son; and still more in learning that the oracle of the fair heiress +agreed so completely with his own wishes. As husbandry had been +appointed by the gods for the young man's trade, he lingered not in +harnessing his white Steers, and yoking them to the plough. The first +trial prospered to his wish: the bullocks had such strength and alacrity +that they turned over in a single day more land than twelve yoke of oxen +commonly can master: for they were fiery and impetuous, as the Bull is +painted in the Almanac, where he rushes from the clouds in the sign of +April; not sluggish and heavy like the Ox, who plods on with his holy +consorts, in our Gospel-Book, phlegmatically, as a Dutch skipper in a +calm. + +Duke Czech, who had led the first colony of his people into Bohemia, was +now long ago committed to his final rest, yet his descendants had not +been promoted to succeed him in his princely dignity. The Magnates had +in truth, at his decease, assembled for a new election; but their wild +stormy tempers would admit of no reasonable resolution. Self-interest +and self-sufficiency transformed the first Bohemian Convention of +Estates into a Polish Diet: as too many hands laid hold of the princely +mantle, they tore it in pieces, and no one of them obtained it. The +government had dwindled to a sort of Anarchy; every one did what was +right in his own eyes; the strong oppressed the weak, the rich the +poor, the great the little. There was now no public security in the +land; yet the frank spirits of the time thought their new republic very +well arranged: "All is in order," said they, "every thing goes on its +way with us as well as elsewhere; the wolf eats the lamb, the kite the +dove, the fox the cock." This artless constitution could not last: when +the first debauch of fancied freedom had gone off, and the people were +again grown sober, reason asserted its rights; the patriots, the honest +citizens, whoever in the nation loved his country, joined together to +destroy the idol Hydra, and unite the people once more under a single +head. "Let us choose a Prince," said they, "to rule over us, after the +manner of our fathers, to tame the froward, and exercise right and +justice in the midst of us. Not the strongest, the boldest, or the +richest; the wisest be our Duke!" The people, wearied out with the +oppressions of their petty tyrants, had on this occasion but one voice, +and loudly applauded the proposal. A meeting of Estates was convoked; +and the choice unanimously fell upon the wise Krokus. An embassy of +honour was appointed, inviting him to take possession of the princely +dignity. Though he had never longed for lofty titles, he hesitated not +about complying with the people's wish. Invested with the purple, he +proceeded, with great pomp, to Vizegrad, the residence of the Dukes; +where the people met him with triumphant shouting, and did reverence to +him as their Regent. Whereby he perceived, that now the third Reed-stalk +of the bountiful Elf was likewise sending forth its gift upon him. + +His love of justice, and his wise legislation, soon spread his fame over +all the surrounding countries. The Sarmatic Princes, incessantly at feud +with one another, brought their contention from afar before his +judgment-seat. He weighed it with the undeceitful weights of natural +Justice, in the scales of Law; and when he opened his mouth, it was as +if the venerable Solon, or the wise Solomon from between the Twelve +Lions of his throne, had been pronouncing sentence. Some seditious +instigators having leagued against the peace of their country, and +kindled war among the Poles, he advanced at the head of his army into +Poland; put an end to the civil strife; and a large portion of the +people, grateful for the peace which he had given them, chose him for +their Duke also. He there built the city Cracow, which is called by his +name, and has the privilege of crowning the Polish Kings, even to the +present time. Krokus ruled with great glory to the end of his days. +Observing that he was now near their limit, and must soon set out, he +caused a coffin to be made from the fragments of the oak which his +spouse the Elf had inhabited; and then departed in peace, bewept by the +Princesses his three daughters, who deposited the Ducal remains in the +coffin, and consigned him to the Earth as he had commanded; and the +whole land mourned for him. + +When the obsequies were finished, the Estates assembled to deliberate +who should now possess the vacant throne. The people were unanimous for +one of Krokus's daughters; but which of the three they had not yet +determined. Fräulein Bela had, on the whole, the fewest adherents; for +her heart was not good; and her magic-lantern was too frequently +employed in doing sheer mischief. But she had raised such a terror of +herself among the people, that no one liked to take exception at her, +lest he might draw down her vengeance on him. When the vote was called, +therefore, the Electors all continued dumb; there was no voice for her, +but also none against her. At sunset the representatives of the people +separated, adjourning their election to another day. Then Fräulein +Therba was proposed: but confidence in her incantations had made +Fräulein Therba's head giddy; she was proud and overbearing; required to +be honoured as a goddess; and if incense did not always smoke for her, +she grew peevish, cross, capricious; displaying all the properties by +which the fair sex, when they please, can cease to be fair. She was less +feared than her elder sister, but not on that account more loved. For +these reasons, the election-field continued silent as a lykewake; and +the vote was never called for. On the third day came Libussa's turn. No +sooner was this name pronounced, than a confidential hum was heard +throughout the electing circle; the solemn visages unwrinkled and +brightened up, and each of the Electors had some good to whisper of the +Fräulein to his neighbour. One praised her virtue, another praised her +modesty, a third her prudence, a fourth her infallibility in prophecy, a +fifth her disinterestedness in giving counsel, a tenth her chastity, +other ninety her beauty, and the last her gifts as a housewife. When a +lover draws out such a catalogue of the perfections of his mistress, it +remains still doubtful whether she is really the possessor of a single +one among them; but the public seldom errs on the favourable side, +however often on the other, in the judgments it pronounces on good fame. +With so many universally acknowledged praiseworthy qualities, Fräulein +Libussa was undoubtedly the favoured candidate, at least _in petto_, of +the sage Electors: but the preference of the younger sister to the elder +has so frequently, in the affair of marriage, as experience testifies, +destroyed the peace of the house, that reasonable fear might be +entertained lest in affairs of still greater moment it might disturb the +peace of the country. This consideration put the sapient guardians of +the people into such embarrassment, that they could come to no +conclusion whatever. There was wanting a speaker, to hang the +clock-weight of his eloquence upon the wheel of the Electors' favourable +will, before the business could get into motion, and the good +disposition of their minds become active and efficient; and this speaker +now appeared, as if appointed for the business. + +Wladomir, one of the Bohemian Magnates, the highest after the Duke, had +long sighed for the enchanting Libussa, and wooed her during Father +Krokus's lifetime. The youth being one of his most faithful vassals, and +beloved by him as a son, the worthy Krokus could have wished well that +love would unite this pair; but the coyness of the maiden was +insuperable, and he would in nowise force her inclination. Prince +Wladomir, however, would not be deterred by these doubtful aspects; but +still hoped, by fidelity and constancy, to tire out the hard heart of +the Fräulein, and by his tender attentions make it soft and pliant. He +continued in the Duke's retinue to the end, without appearing by this +means to have advanced a hair's-breadth towards the goal of his desires. +But now, he thought, an opportunity was offered him for opening her +closed heart by a meritorious deed, and earning from her noble-minded +gratitude what love did not seem inclined to grant him voluntarily. He +determined on braving the hatred and vengeance of the two dreaded +sisters, and raising his beloved to her paternal throne. Observing the +indecision of the wavering assembly, he addressed them, and said: + +"If ye will hear me, ye courageous Knights and Nobles from among the +people, I will lay before you a similitude, by which you shall perceive +how this coming choice may be accomplished, to the weal and profit of +the land." + +Silence being ordered, he proceeded thus: + +"The Bees had lost their Queen, and the whole hive sat sad and moping; +they flew seldom and sluggishly out, had small heart or activity in +honey-making, and their trade and sustenance fell into decay. Therefore +they resolved upon a new sovereign, to rule over their community, that +discipline and order might not be lost from among them. Then came the +Wasp flying towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your Queen, I am +mighty and terrible; the strong horse is afraid of my sting; with it I +can even defy the lion, your hereditary foe, and prick him in the snout +when he approaches your store: I will watch you and defend you.' This +speech was pleasant to the Bees; but after deeply considering it, the +wisest among them answered: 'Thou art stout and dreadful, but even the +sting which is to guard us we fear: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then +the Humble-bee came buzzing towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your +Queen; hear ye not that the sounding of my wings announces loftiness and +dignity? Nor is a sting wanting to me, wherewith to protect you.' The +Bees answered: 'We are a peaceable and quiet people; the proud sounding +of thy wings would annoy us, and disturb the continuance of our +diligence: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then the Royal-bee requested +audience: 'Though I am larger and stronger than you,' said she, 'my +strength cannot hurt or damage you; for, lo, the dangerous sting is +altogether wanting. I am soft of temper, a friend of order and thrift, +can guide your honey-making, and further your labour.' 'Then,' said the +Bees, 'thou art worthy to rule over us: we obey thee; be our Queen.'" + +Wladomir was silent. The whole assembly guessed the meaning of his +speech, and the minds of all were in a favourable tone for Fräulein +Libussa. But at the moment when the vote was to be put, a croaking raven +flew over their heads: this evil omen interrupted all deliberations, and +the meeting was adjourned till the morrow. It was Fräulein Bela who had +sent this bird of black augury to stop their operations, for she well +knew how the minds of the Electors were inclining; and Prince Wladomir +had raised her bitterest spleen against him. She held a secret +consultation with her sister Therba; when it was determined to take +vengeance on their common slanderer, and to dispatch a heavy Incubus to +suffocate the soul from his body. The stout Knight, dreaming nothing of +this danger, went, as he was wont, to wait upon his mistress, and was +favoured by her with the first friendly look; from which he failed not +to presage for himself a heaven of delight; and if anything could still +have increased his rapture, it must have been the gift of a rose, which +was blooming on the Fräulein's breast, and which she reached him, with +an injunction to let it wither on his heart. He interpreted these words +quite otherwise than they were meant; for of all the sciences, there is +none so deceitful as the science of expounding in matters of love: here +errors, as it were, have their home. The enamoured Knight was anxious to +preserve his rose as long as possible in freshness and bloom; he put it +in a flower-pot among water, and fell asleep with the most flattering +hopes. + +At gloomy midnight, the destroying angel sent by Fräulein Bela glided +towards him; with panting breath blew off the bolts and locks of his +apartment; lighted like a mountain of lead upon the slumbering Knight, +and so squeezed him together, that he felt on awakening as if a +millstone had been hung about his neck. In this agonising suffocation, +thinking that the last moment of his life was at hand, he happily +remembered the rose, which was standing by his bed in a flower-pot, and +pressed it to his breast, saying: "Wither with me, fair rose, and die on +my chilled bosom, as a proof that my last thought was directed to thy +gentle mistress." In an instant all was light about his heart; the heavy +Incubus could not withstand the magic force of the flower; his crushing +weight would not now have balanced a feather; his antipathy to the +perfume soon scared him from the chamber; and the narcotic virtue of +this rose-odour again lulled the Knight into refreshing sleep. He rose +with the sun next morning, fresh and alert, and rode to the field, to +see what impression his similitude had made on the Electors, and to +watch what course the business was about to take; determined at all +hazards, should a contrary wind spring up, and threaten with shipwreck +the vessel of his hopes, to lay his hand upon the rudder, and steer it +into port. + +For the present this was not required. The electing Senate had +considered Wladomir's parable, and so sedulously ruminated and digested +it overnight, that it had passed into their hearts and spirits. A stout +Knight, who espied this favourable crisis, and who sympathised in the +concerns of his heart with the enamoured Wladomir, was endeavouring to +snatch away, or at least to share with him, the honour of exalting +Fräulein Libussa to the throne. He stept forth, and drew his sword, and +with a loud voice proclaimed Libussa Duchess of Bohemia, calling upon +all who thought as he did, to draw their swords and justify the choice. +In a moment hundreds of swords were gleaming through the field; a loud +huzza announced the new Regent, and on all sides arose the joyful shout: +"Libussa be our Duchess!" A commission was appointed, with Wladomir and +the stout sword-drawer at its head, to acquaint the Fräulein with her +exaltation to the princely rank. With that modest blush, which gives the +highest grace to female charms, she accepted the sovereignty over the +people; and the magic of her enrapturing look made all hearts subject to +her. The nation celebrated the event with vast rejoicings: and although +her two sisters envied her, and employed their secret arts to obtain +revenge on her and their country for the slight which had been put upon +them, and endeavoured by the leaven of criticism, by censuring all the +measures and transactions of their sister, to produce a hurtful +fermentation in the state, yet Libussa was enabled wisely to encounter +this unsisterly procedure, and to ruin all the hostile projects, magical +or other, of these ungentle persons; till at last, weary of assailing +her in vain, they ceased to employ their ineffectual arts against her. + +The sighing Wladomir awaited, in the mean time, with wistful longing, +the unfolding of his fate. More than once he had tried to read the final +issue of it in the fair eyes of his Princess; but Libussa had enjoined +them strict silence respecting the feelings of her heart; and for a +lover, without prior treaty with the eyes and their significant glances, +to demand an oral explanation, is at all times an unhappy undertaking. +The only favourable sign, which still sustained his hopes, was the +unfaded rose; for after a year had passed away, it still bloomed as +fresh as on the night when he received it from her fair hand. A flower +from a lady's hand, a nosegay, a ribbon, or a lock of hair, is certainly +in all cases better than an empty nut; yet all these pretty things are +but ambiguous pledges of love, if they have not borrowed meaning from +some more trustworthy revelation. Wladomir had nothing for it but to +play in silence the part of a sighing shepherd, and to watch what Time +and Chance might in the long-run do to help him. The unquiet Mizisla +pursued his courtship with far more vivacity: he pressed forward on +every occasion where he could obtain her notice. At the coronation, he +had been the first that took the oath of fealty to the Princess; he +followed her inseparably, as the Moon does the Earth, to express by +unbidden offices of zeal his devotion to her person; and on public +solemnities and processions, he flourished his sword before her, to keep +its good services in her remembrance. + +Yet Libussa seemed, like other people in the world, to have very +speedily forgotten the promoters of her fortune; for when an obelisk is +once standing perpendicular, one heeds not the levers and implements +which raised it; so at least the claimants of her heart explained the +Fräulein's coldness. Meanwhile both of them were wrong in their opinion: +the Fräulein was neither insensible nor ungrateful; but her heart was no +longer a free piece of property, which she could give or sell according +to her pleasure. The decree of Love had already passed in favour of the +trim Forester with the sure cross-bow. The first impression, which the +sight of him had made upon her heart, was still so strong, that no +second could efface it. In a period of three years, the colours of +imagination, in which that Divinity had painted the image of the +graceful youth, had no whit abated in their brightness; and love +therefore continued altogether unimpaired. For the passion of the fair +sex is of this nature, that if it can endure three moons, it will then +last three times three years, or longer if required. In proof of this, +see the instances occurring daily before our eyes. When the heroes of +Germany sailed over distant seas, to fight out the quarrel of a +self-willed daughter of Britain with her motherland, they tore +themselves from the arms of their dames with mutual oaths of truth and +constancy; yet before the last Buoy of the Weser had got astern of them, +the heroic navigators were for most part forgotten of their Chloes. The +fickle among these maidens, out of grief to find their hearts +unoccupied, hastily supplied the vacuum by the surrogate of new +intrigues; but the faithful and true, who had constancy enough to stand +the Weser-proof, and had still refrained from infidelity when the +conquerors of their hearts had got beyond the Black Buoy, these, it is +said, preserved their vow unbroken till the return of the heroic host +into their German native country; and are still expecting from the hand +of Love the recompense of their unwearied perseverance. + +It is therefore less surprising that the fair Libussa, under these +circumstances, could withstand the courting of the brilliant chivalry +who struggled for her love, than that Penelope of Ithaca could let a +whole cohort of wooers sigh for her in vain, when her heart had nothing +in reserve but the gray-headed Ulysses. Rank and birth, however, had +established such a difference in the situations of the Fräulein and of +her beloved youth, that any closer union than Platonic love, a shadowy +business which can neither warm nor nourish, was not readily to be +expected. Though in those distant times, the pairing of the sexes was as +little estimated by parchments and genealogical trees, as the chaffers +were arranged by their antennæ and shell-wings, or the flowers by their +pistils, stamina, calix and honey-produce; it was understood that with +the lofty elm the precious vine should mate itself, and not the rough +tangleweed which creeps along the hedges. A misassortment of marriage +from a difference of rank an inch in breadth excited, it is true, less +uproar than in these our classic times; yet a difference of an ell in +breadth, especially when rivals occupied the interstice, and made the +distance of the two extremities more visible, was even then a thing +which men could notice. All this, and much more, did the Fräulein +accurately ponder in her prudent heart; therefore she granted Passion, +the treacherous babbler, no audience, loudly as it spoke in favour of +the youth whom Love had honoured. Like a chaste vestal, she made an +irrevocable vow to persist through life in her virgin closeness of +heart; and to answer no inquiry of a wooer, either with her eyes, or her +gestures, or her lips; yet reserving to herself, as a just +indemnification, the right of platonising to any length she liked. This +nunlike system suited the aspirants' way of thought so ill, that they +could not in the least comprehend the killing coldness of their +mistress; Jealousy, the confidant of Love, whispered torturing suspicion +in their ears; each thought the other was the happy rival, and their +penetration spied about unweariedly to make discoveries, which both of +them recoiled from. Yet Fräulein Libussa weighed out her scanty graces +to the two valiant Ritters with such prudence and acuteness, on so fair +a balance, that the scale of neither rose above the other. + +Weary of this fruitless waiting, both of them retired from the Court of +their Princess, and settled, with secret discontent, upon the +affeoffments which Duke Krokus had conferred on them. They brought so +much ill-humour home with them, that Wladomir was an oppression to all +his vassals and his neighbours; and Ritter Mizisla, on the other hand, +became a hunter, followed deer and foxes over the seed-fields and fences +of his subjects, and often with his train, to catch one hare, would ride +ten acres of corn to nothing. In consequence, arose much sobbing and +bewailing in the land; yet no righteous judge stepped forth to stay the +mischief; for who would willingly give judgment against the stronger? +And so the sufferings of the people never reached the throne of the +Duchess. By the virtue of her second-sight, however, no injustice done +within the wide limits of her sway could escape her observation; and the +disposition of her mind being soft, like the sweet features of her +face, she sorrowed inwardly at the misdeeds of her vassals, and the +violence of the powerful. She took counsel with herself how the evil +might be remedied, and her wisdom suggested an imitation of the gods, +who, in their judicial procedure, do not fall upon the criminal, and cut +him off as it were with the red hand; though vengeance, following with +slow steps, sooner or later overtakes him. The young Princess appointed +a general Convention of her Chivalry and States, and made proclamation, +that whoever had a grievance or a wrong to be righted, should come +forward free and fearless, under her safe-conduct. Thereupon, from every +end and corner of her dominions, the maltreated and oppressed crowded +towards her; the wranglers also, and litigious persons, and whoever had +a legal cause against his neighbour. Libussa sat upon her throne, like +the goddess Themis, and passed sentence, without respect of persons, +with unerring judgment; for the labyrinthic mazes of chicane could not +lead her astray, as they do the thick heads of city magistrates; and all +men were astonished at the wisdom with which she unravelled the +perplexed hanks of processes for _meum_ and _tuum_, and at her unwearied +patience in picking out the threads of justice, never once catching a +false end, but passing them from side to side of their embroilments, and +winding them off to the uttermost thrum. + +When the tumult of the parties at her bar had by degrees diminished, and +the sittings were about to be concluded, on the last day of these +assizes audience was demanded by a free neighbour of the potent +Wladomir, and by deputies from the subjects of the hunter Mizisla. They +were admitted, and the Freeholder first addressing her, began: "An +industrious planter," said he, "fenced-in a little circuit, on the bank +of a broad river, whose waters glided down with soft rushing through the +green valley; for, he thought, The fair stream will be a guard to me on +this side, that no hungry wild-beast eat my crops, and it will moisten +the roots of my fruit-trees, that they flourish speedily and bring me +fruit. But when the earnings of his toil were about to ripen, the +deceitful stream grew troubled; its still waters began to swell and +roar, it overflowed its banks, and carried one piece after another of +the fruitful soil along with it; and dug itself a bed through the middle +of the cultivated land; to the sorrow of the poor planter, who had to +give up his little property to the malicious wasting of his strong +neighbour, the raging of whose waves he himself escaped with difficulty. +Puissant daughter of the wise Krokus, the poor planter entreats of thee +to command the haughty river no longer to roll its proud billows over +the field of the toilsome husbandman, or wash away the fruit of his +weary arms, his hope of glad harvest; but to flow peacefully along +within the limits of its own channel." + +During this speech, the cheerful brow of the fair Libussa became +overclouded; manly rigour gleamed from her eyes, and all around was ear +to catch her sentence, which ran thus: "Thy cause is plain and straight; +no force shall disturb thy rightful privileges. A dike, which it shall +not overpass, shall set bounds to the tumultuous river; and from its +fishes thou shalt be repaid sevenfold the plunder of its wasteful +billows." Then she beckoned to the eldest of the Deputies, and he bowed +his face to the earth, and said: "Wise daughter of the far-famed Krokus, +Whose is the grain upon the field, the sower's, who has hidden the +seed-corn in the ground that it spring up and bear fruit; or the +tempest's, which breaks it and scatters it away?" She answered: "The +sower's."--"Then command the tempest," said the spokesman, "that it +choose not our corn-fields for the scene of its caprices, to uproot our +crops and shake the fruit from our trees."--"So be it," said the +Duchess; "I will tame the tempest, and banish it from your fields; it +shall battle with the clouds, and disperse them, where they are rising +from the south, and threatening the land with hail and heavy weather." + +Prince Wladomir and Ritter Mizisla were both assessors in the general +tribunal. On hearing the complaint, and the rigorous sentence passed +regarding it, they waxed pale, and looked down upon the ground with +suppressed indignation; not daring to discover how sharply it stung them +to be condemned by a decree from female lips. For although, out of +tenderness to their honour, the complainants had modestly overhung the +charge with an allegorical veil, which the righteous sentence of the +fair President had also prudently respected, yet the texture of this +covering was so fine and transparent, that whoever had an eye might see +what stood behind it. But as they dared not venture to appeal from the +judgment-seat of the Princess to the people, since the sentence passed +upon them had excited universal joy, they submitted to it, though with +great reluctance. Wladomir indemnified his freeholding neighbour +sevenfold for the mischief done him; and Nimrod Mizisla engaged, on the +honour of a knight, no more to select the corn-fields of his subjects as +a chase for hare-catching. Libussa, at the same time, pointed out to +them a more respectable employment, for occupying their activity, and +restoring to their fame, which now, like a cracked pot when struck, +emitted nothing but discords, the sound ring of knightly virtues. She +placed them at the head of an army, which she was dispatching to +encounter Zornebock, the Prince of the Sorbi, a giant, and a powerful +magician withal, who was then meditating war against Bohemia. This +commission she accompanied with the penance, that they were not to +appear again at Court, till the one could offer her the plume, the other +the golden spurs, of the monster, as tokens of their victory. + +The unfading rose, during this campaign, displayed its magic virtues +once more. By means of it, Prince Wladomir was as invulnerable to mortal +weapons, as Achilles the Hero; and as nimble, quick and dextrous, as +Achilles the Light-of-foot. The armies met upon the southern boundaries +of the Kingdom, and joined in fierce battle. The Bohemian heroes flew +through the squadrons, like storm and whirlwind; and cut down the thick +spear-crop, as the scythe of the mower cuts a field of hay. Zornebock +fell beneath the strong dints of their falchions; they returned in +triumph with the stipulated spoils to Vizegrad; and the spots and +blemishes, which had soiled their knightly virtue, were now washed clean +away in the blood of their enemies. Libussa bestowed on them every mark +of princely honour, dismissed them to their homes when the army was +discharged; and gave them, as a new token of her favour, a purple-red +apple from her pleasure-garden, for a memorial of her by the road, +enjoining them to part the same peacefully between them, without cutting +it in two. They then went their way; put the apple on a shield, and had +it borne before them as a public spectacle, while they consulted +together how the parting of it might be prudently effected, according to +the meaning of its gentle giver. + +While the point where their roads divided lay before them at a distance, +they proceeded with their partition-treaty in the most accommodating +mood; but at last it became necessary to determine which of the two +should have the apple in his keeping, for both had equal shares in it, +and only one could get it, though each promised to himself great wonders +from the gift, and was eager to obtain possession of it. They split in +their opinions on this matter; and things went so far, that it appeared +as if the sword must decide, to whom this indivisible apple had been +allotted by the fortune of arms. But a shepherd driving his flock +overtook them as they stood debating; him they selected (apparently in +imitation of the Three Goddesses, who also applied to a shepherd to +decide their famous apple-quarrel), and made arbiter of their dispute, +and laid the business in detail before him. The shepherd thought a +little, then said: "In the gift of this apple lies a deep-hidden +meaning; but who can bring it out, save the sage Virgin who hid it +there? For myself, I conceive the apple is a treacherous fruit, that has +grown upon the Tree of Discord, and its purple skin may prefigure bloody +feud between your worshipful knightships; that each is to cut off the +other, and neither of you get enjoyment of the gift. For, tell me, how +is it possible to part an apple, without cutting it in twain?" The +Knights took the shepherd's speech to heart, and thought there was a +deal of truth in it. "Thou hast judged rightly," said they: "Has not +this base apple already kindled anger and contention between us? Were we +not standing harnessed to fight, for the deceitful gift of this proud +Princess? Did she not put us at the head of her army, with intention to +destroy us? And having failed in this, she now arms our hands with the +weapons of discord against each other! We renounce her crafty present; +neither of us will have the apple. Be it thine, as the reward of thy +righteous sentence: to the judge belongs the fruit of the process, and +to the parties the rind." + +The Knights then went their several ways, while the herdsman consumed +the _objectum litis_ with all the composure and conveniency common among +judges. The ambiguous present of the Duchess cut them to the heart; and +as they found, on returning home, that they could no longer treat their +subjects and vassals in the former arbitrary fashion, but were forced to +obey the laws, which Fräulein Libussa had promulgated for the general +security among her people, their ill humour grew more deep and +rancorous. They entered into a league offensive and defensive with each +other; made a party for themselves in the country; and many mutinous +wrongheads joined them, and were sent abroad in packs to decry and +calumniate the government of women. "Shame! Shame!" cried they, "that we +must obey a woman, who gathers our victorious laurels to decorate a +distaff with them! The Man should be master of the house, and not the +Wife; this is his special right, and so it is established everywhere, +among all people. What is an army without a Duke to go before his +warriors, but a helpless trunk without a head? Let us appoint a Prince, +who may be ruler over us, and whom we may obey." + +These seditious speeches were no secret to the watchful Princess; nor +was she ignorant what wind blew them thither, or what its sounding +boded. Therefore she convened a deputation of the States; entered their +assembly with the stateliness of an earthly goddess, and the words of +her mouth dropped like honey from her virgin lips. "A rumour flies about +the land," said she, "that you desire a Duke to go before you to battle, +and that you reckon it inglorious to obey me any longer. Yet, in a free +and unconstrained election, you yourselves did not choose a man from +among you; but called one of the daughters of the people, and clothed +her with the purple, to rule over you according to the laws and customs +of the land. Whoso can accuse me of error in conducting the government, +let him step forward openly and freely, and bear witness against me. But +if I, after the manner of my father Krokus, have done prudently and +justly in the midst of you, making crooked things straight, and rough +places plain; if I have secured your harvests from the spoiler, guarded +the fruit-tree, and snatched the flock from the claws of the wolf; if I +have bowed the stiff neck of the violent, assisted the down-pressed, and +given the weak a staff to rest on; then will it beseem you to live +according to your covenant, and be true, gentle and helpful to me, as in +doing fealty to me you engaged. If you reckon it inglorious to obey a +woman, you should have thought of this before appointing me to be your +Princess; if there is disgrace here, it is you alone who ought to bear +it. But your procedure shows you not to understand your own advantage: +for woman's hand is soft and tender, accustomed only to waft cool air +with the fan; and sinewy and rude is the arm of man, heavy and +oppressive when it grasps the supreme control. And know ye not that +where a woman governs, the rule is in the power of men? For she gives +heed to wise counsellors, and these gather round her. But where the +distaff excludes from the throne, there is the government of females; +for the women, that please the king's eyes, have his heart in their +hand. Therefore, consider well of your attempt, lest ye repent your +fickleness too late." + +The fair speaker ceased; and a deep reverent silence reigned throughout +the hall of meeting; none presumed to utter a word against her. Yet +Prince Wladomir and his allies desisted not from their intention, but +whispered in each other's ear: "The sly Doe is loath to quit the fat +pastures; but the hunter's horn shall sound yet louder, and scare her +forth."[14] Next day they prompted the knights to call loudly on the +Princess to choose a husband within three days, and by the choice of her +heart to give the people a Prince, who might divide with her the cares +of government. At this unexpected requisition, coming as it seemed from +the voice of the nation, a virgin blush overspread the cheeks of the +lovely Princess; her clear eye discerned all the sunken cliffs, which +threatened her with peril. For even if, according to the custom of the +great world, she should determine upon subjecting her inclination to her +state-policy, she could only give her hand to one suitor, and she saw +well that all the remaining candidates would take it as a slight, and +begin to meditate revenge. Besides, the private vow of her heart was +inviolable and sacred in her eyes. Therefore she endeavoured prudently +to turn aside this importunate demand of the States; and again attempted +to persuade them altogether to renounce their schemes of innovation. +"The eagle being dead," said she, "the birds chose the Ring-dove for +their queen, and all of them obeyed her soft cooing call. But light and +airy, as is the nature of birds, they soon altered their determination, +and repented them that they had made it. The proud Peacock thought that +it beseemed him better to be ruler; the keen Falcon, accustomed to make +the smaller birds his prey, reckoned it disgraceful to obey the peaceful +Dove; they formed a party, and appointed the weak-eyed Owl to be the +spokesman of their combination, and propose a new election of a +sovereign. The sluggish Bustard, the heavy-bodied Heath-cock, the lazy +Stork, the small-brained Heron, and all the larger birds chuckled, +flapped, and croaked applause to him; and the host of little birds +twittered, in their simplicity, and chirped out of bush and grove to the +same tune. Then arose the warlike Kite, and soared boldly up into the +air, and the birds cried out: 'What a majestic flight! The brave, strong +Kite shall be our King!' Scarcely had the plundering bird taken +possession of the throne, when he manifested his activity and courage on +his winged subjects, in deeds of tyranny and caprice: he plucked the +feathers from the larger fowls, and eat the little songsters." + + [14] _Invita de lætioribus pascuis, autor seditionis inquit, bucula + ista decedit; sed jam vi inde deturbanda est, si suâ sponte loco + suo concedere viro alicui principi noluerit_.--DUBRAVIUS. + +Significant as this oration was, it made but a small impression on the +minds of the people, hungering and thirsting after change; and they +abode by their determination, that within three days, Fräulein Libussa +should select herself a husband. At this, Prince Wladomir rejoiced in +heart; for now, he thought, he should secure the fair prey, for which he +had so long been watching in vain. Love and ambition inflamed his +wishes, and put eloquence into his mouth, which had hitherto confined +itself to secret sighing. He came to Court, and required audience of the +Duchess. + +"Gracious ruler of thy people and my heart," thus he addressed her, +"from thee no secret is hidden; thou knowest the flames which burn in +this bosom, holy and pure as on the altar of the gods, and thou knowest +also what fire has kindled them. It is now appointed, that at the behest +of thy people, thou give the land a Prince. Wilt thou disdain a heart, +which lives and beats for thee? To be worthy of thy love, I risked my +life to put thee on the throne of thy father. Grant me the merit of +retaining thee upon it by the bond of tender affection: let us divide +the possession of thy throne and thy heart; the first be thine, the +second be mine, and my happiness will be exalted beyond the lot of +mortals." + +Fräulein Libussa wore a most maidenlike appearance during this oration, +and covered her face with her veil, to hide the soft blush which +deepened the colour of her cheeks. On its conclusion, she made a sign +with her hand, not opening her lips, for the Prince to step aside; as if +she would consider what she should resolve upon, in answer to his suit. + +Immediately the brisk Knight Mizisla announced himself, and desired to +be admitted. + +"Loveliest of the daughters of princes," said he, as he entered the +audience-chamber, "the fair Ring-dove, queen of the air, must no longer, +as thou well knowest, coo in solitude, but take to herself a mate. The +proud Peacock, it is talked, holds up his glittering plumage in her +eyes, and thinks to blind her by the splendour of his feathers; but she +is prudent and modest, and will not unite herself with the haughty +Peacock. The keen Falcon, once a plundering bird, has now changed his +nature; is gentle and honest, and without deceit; for he loves the fair +Dove, and would fain that she mated with him. That his bill is hooked +and his talons, sharp, must not mislead thee: he needs them to protect +the fair Dove his darling, that no bird hurt her, or disturb the +habitation of her rule; for he is true and kindly to her, and first +swore fealty on the day when she was crowned. Now tell me, wise +Princess, if the soft Dove will grant to her trusty Falcon the love +which he longs for?" + +Fräulein Libussa did as she had done before; beckoned to the Knight to +step aside; and, after waiting for a space, she called the two rivals +into her presence, and spoke thus: + +"I owe you great thanks, noble Knights, for your help in obtaining me +the princely crown of Bohemia, which my father Krokus honourably wore. +The zeal, of which you remind me, had not faded from my remembrance; nor +is it hid from my knowledge, that you virtuously love me, for your looks +and gestures have long been the interpreters of your feelings. That I +shut up my heart against you, and did not answer love with love, regard +not as insensibility; it was not meant for slight or scorn, but for +harmoniously determining a choice which was doubtful. I weighed your +merits, and the tongue of the trying balance bent to neither side. +Therefore I resolved on leaving the decision of your fate to yourselves; +and offered you the possession of my heart, under the figure of an +enigmatic apple; that it might be seen to which of you the greater +measure of judgment and wisdom had been given, in appropriating to +himself this gift, which could not be divided. Now tell me without +delay, In whose hands is the apple? Whichever of you has won it from the +other, let him from this hour receive my throne and my heart as the +prize of his skill." + +The two rivals looked at one another with amazement; grew pale, and held +their peace. At last, after a long pause, Prince Wladomir broke silence, +and said: + +"The enigmas of the wise are, to the foolish, a nut in a toothless +mouth, a pearl which the cock scratches from the sand, a lantern in the +hand of the blind. O Princess, be not wroth with us, that we neither +knew the use nor the value of thy gift; we misinterpreted thy purpose; +thought that thou hadst cast an apple of contention on our path, to +awaken us to strife and deadly feud; therefore each gave up his share, +and we renounced the divisive fruit, whose sole possession neither of us +would have peaceably allowed the other!" + +"You have given sentence on yourselves," replied the Fräulein: "if an +apple could inflame your jealousy, what fighting would ye not have +fought for a myrtle-garland twined about a crown!" + +With this response she dismissed the Knights, who now lamented that +they had given ear to the unwise arbiter, and thoughtlessly cast away +the pledge of love, which, as it appeared, had been the casket of their +fairest hopes. They meditated severally how they might still execute +their purpose, and by force or guile get possession of the throne, with +its lovely occupant. + +Fräulein Libussa, in the mean while, was not spending in idleness the +three days given her for consideration; but diligently taking counsel +with herself, how she might meet the importunate demand of her people, +give Bohemia a Duke, and herself a husband according to the choice of +her heart. She dreaded lest Prince Wladomir might still more pressingly +assail her, and perhaps deprive her of the throne. Necessity combined +with love to make her execute a plan, with which she had often +entertained herself as with a pleasant dream; for what mortal's head has +not some phantom walking in it, towards which he turns in a vacant hour, +to play with it as with a puppet? There is no more pleasing pastime for +a strait-shod maiden, when her galled corns are resting from the toils +of the pavement, than to think of a stately and commodious equipage; the +coy beauty dreams gladly of counts sighing at her feet; Avarice gets +prizes in the Lottery; the debtor in the jail falls heir to vast +possessions; the squanderer discovers the Hermetic Secret; and the poor +woodcutter finds a treasure in the hollow of a tree; all merely in +fancy, yet not without the enjoyment of a secret satisfaction. The gift +of prophecy has always been united with a warm imagination; thus the +fair Libussa had, like others, willingly and frequently given heed to +this seductive playmate, which, in kind companionship, had always +entertained her with the figure of the young Archer, so indelibly +impressed upon her heart. Thousands of projects came into her mind, +which Fancy palmed on her as feasible and easy. At one time she formed +schemes of drawing forth her darling youth from his obscurity, placing +him in the army, and raising him from one post of honour to another; and +then instantly she bound a laurel garland about his temples, and led +him, crowned with victory and honour, to the throne she could have been +so glad to share with him. At other times, she gave a different turn to +the romance: she equipped her darling as a knight-errant, seeking for +adventures; brought him to her Court, and changed him into a Huon of +Bourdeaux; nor was the wondrous furniture wanting, for endowing him as +highly as Friend Oberon did his ward. But when Common Sense again got +possession of the maiden's soul, the many-coloured forms of the magic +lantern waxed pale in the beam of prudence, and the fair vision vanished +into air. She then bethought her what hazards would attend such an +enterprise; what mischief for her people, when jealousy and envy raised +the hearts of her grandees in rebellion against her, and the alarum +beacon of discord gave the signal for uproar and sedition in the land. +Therefore she sedulously hid the wishes of her heart from the keen +glance of the spy, and disclosed no glimpse of them to any one. + +But now, when the people were clamouring for a Prince, the matter had +assumed another form: the point would now be attained, could she combine +her wishes with the national demand. She strengthened her soul with +manly resolution; and as the third day dawned, she adorned herself with +all her jewels, and her head was encircled with the myrtle crown. +Attended by her maidens, all decorated with flower garlands, she +ascended the throne, full of lofty courage and soft dignity. The +assemblage of knights and vassals around her stood in breathless +attention, to learn from her lips the name of the happy Prince with whom +she had resolved to share her heart and throne. "Ye nobles of my +people," thus she spoke, "the lot of your destiny still lies untouched +in the urn of concealment; you are still free as my coursers that graze +in the meadows, before the bridle and the bit have curbed them, or their +smooth backs have been pressed by the burden of the saddle and the +rider. It now rests with you to signify, Whether, in the space allowed +me for the choice of a spouse, your hot desire for a Prince to rule over +you has cooled, and given place to more calm scrutiny of this intention; +or you still persist inflexibly in your demand." She paused for a +moment; but the hum of the multitude, the whispering and buzzing, and +looks of the whole Senate, did not long leave her in uncertainty, and +their speaker ratified the conclusion, that the vote was still for a +Duke. "Then be it so!" said she; "the die is cast, the issue of it +stands not with me! The gods have appointed, for the kingdom of Bohemia, +a Prince who shall sway its sceptre with justice and wisdom. The young +cedar does not yet overtop the firm-set oaks; concealed among the trees +of the forest it grows, encircled with ignoble shrubs; but soon it shall +send forth branches to give shade to its roots; and its top shall touch +the clouds. Choose a deputation, ye nobles of the people, of twelve +honourable men from among you, that they hasten to seek out the Prince, +and attend him to the throne. My steed will point out your path; +unloaded and free it shall course on before you; and as a token that +you have found what you are sent forth to seek, observe that the man +whom the gods have selected for your Prince, at the time when you +approach him, will be eating his repast on an iron table, under the open +sky, in the shadow of a solitary tree. To him you shall do reverence, +and clothe his body with the princely robe. The white horse will let him +mount it, and bring him hither to the Court, that he may be my husband +and your lord." + +She then left the assembly, with the cheerful yet abashed countenance +which brides wear, when they look for the arrival of the bridegroom. At +her speech there was much wondering; and the prophetic spirit breathing +from it worked upon the general mind like a divine oracle, which the +populace blindly believe, and which thinkers alone attempt +investigating. The messengers of honour were selected, the white horse +stood in readiness, caparisoned with Asiatic pomp, as if it had been +saddled for carrying the Grand Signior to mosque. The cavalcade set +forth, attended by the concourse, and the loud huzzaing of the people; +and the white horse paced on before. But the train soon vanished from +the eyes of the spectators: and nothing could be seen but a little cloud +of dust whirling up afar off: for the spirited courser, getting to its +mettle when it reached the open air, began a furious gallop, like a +British racer, so that the squadron of deputies could hardly keep in +sight of it. Though the quick steed seemed abandoned to its own +guidance, an unseen power directed its steps, pulled its bridle, and +spurred its flanks. Fräulein Libussa, by the magic virtues inherited +from her Elfine mother, had contrived so to instruct the courser, that +it turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from its path, but +with winged steps hastened on to its destination: and she herself, now +that all combined to the fulfilment of her wishes, awaited its returning +rider with tender longing. + +The messengers had in the mean time been soundly galloped; already they +had travelled many leagues, up hill and down dale; had swum across the +Elbe and the Moldau; and as their gastric juices made them think of +dinner, they recalled to mind the strange table, at which, according to +the Fräulein's oracle, their new Prince was to be feeding. Their glosses +and remarks on it were many. A forward knight observed to his +companions: "In my poor view of it, our gracious lady has it in her eye +to bilk us, and make April messengers of us; for who ever heard of any +man in Bohemia that ate his victuals off an iron table? What use is it? +our sharp galloping will bring us nothing but mockery and scorn." +Another, of a more penetrating turn, imagined that the iron table might +be allegorical; that they should perhaps fall in with some +knight-errant, who, after the manner of the wandering brotherhood, had +sat down beneath a tree, and spread out his frugal dinner on his shield. +A third said, jesting: "I fear our way will lead us down to the workshop +of the Cyclops; and we shall find the lame Vulcan, or one of his +journeymen, dining from his stithy, and must bring _him_ to our Venus." + +Amid such conversation, they observed their guiding quadruped, which had +got a long start of them, turn across a new-ploughed field, and, to +their wonder, halt beside the ploughman. They dashed rapidly forward, +and found a peasant sitting on an upturned plough, and eating his black +bread from the iron ploughshare, which he was using as a table, under +the shadow of a fresh pear-tree. He seemed to like the stately horse; he +patted it, offered it a bit of bread, and it eat from his hand. The +Embassy, of course, was much surprised at this phenomenon; nevertheless, +no member of it doubted but that they had found their man. They +approached him reverently, and the eldest among them opened his lips, +and said: "The Duchess of Bohemia has sent us hither, and bids us +signify to thee the will and purpose of the gods, that thou change thy +plough with the throne of this kingdom, and thy goad with its sceptre. +She selects thee for her husband, to rule with her over the Bohemians." +The young peasant thought they meant to banter him; a thing little to +his taste, especially as he supposed that they had guessed his +love-secret, and were now come to mock his weakness. Therefore he +answered somewhat stoutly, to meet mockery with mockery: "But is your +dukedom worth this plough? If the prince cannot eat with better relish, +drink more joyously, or sleep more soundly than the peasant, then in +sooth it is not worth while to change this kindly furrow-field with the +Bohemian kingdom, or this smooth ox-goad with its sceptre. For, tell me, +Are not three grains of salt as good for seasoning my morsel as three +bushels?" + +Then one of the Twelve answered: "The purblind mole digs underground for +worms to feed upon; for he has no eyes which can endure the daylight, +and no feet which are formed for running like the nimble roe; the scaly +crab creeps to and fro in the mud of lakes and marshes, delights to +dwell under tree-roots and shrubs by the banks of rivers, for he wants +the fins for swimming; and the barn-door cock, cooped up within his +hen-fence, risks no flight over the low wall, for he is too timorous to +trust in his wings, like the high-soaring bird of prey. Have eyes for +seeing, feet for going, fins for swimming, and pinions for flight been +allotted thee, thou wilt not grub like a mole underground; nor hide +thyself like a dull shell-fish among mud; nor, like the king of the +poultry, be content with crowing from the barn-door: but come forward +into day; run, swim, or fly into the clouds, as Nature may have +furnished thee with gifts. For it suffices not the active man to +continue what he is; but he strives to become what he may be. Therefore, +do thou try being what the gods have called thee to; then wilt thou +judge rightly whether the Bohemian kingdom is worth an acre of corn-land +in barter, yea or not." + +This earnest oration of the Deputy, in whose face no jesting feature was +to be discerned; and still more the insignia of royalty, the purple +robe, the sceptre and the golden sword, which the ambassadors brought +forward as a reference and certificate of their mission's authenticity, +at last overcame the mistrust of the doubting ploughman. All at once, +light rose on his soul; a rapturous thought awoke in him, that Libussa +had discovered the feelings of his heart; had, by her skill in seeing +what was secret, recognised his faithfulness and constancy: and was +about to recompense him, so as he had never ventured even in dreams to +hope. The gift of prophecy predicted to him by her oracle, then came +into his mind; and he thought that now or never it must be fulfilled. +Instantly he grasped his hazel staff; stuck it deep into the ploughed +land; heaped loose mould about it, as you plant a tree; and, lo, +immediately the staff got buds, and shot forth sprouts and boughs with +leaves and flowers. Two of the green twigs withered, and their dry +leaves became the sport of the wind; but the third grew up the more +luxuriantly, and its fruits ripened. Then came the spirit of prophecy +upon the rapt ploughman; he opened his mouth, and said: "Ye messengers +of the Princess Libussa and of the Bohemian people, hear the words of +Primislaus the son of Mnatha, the stout-hearted Knight, for whom, blown +upon by the spirit of prophecy, the mists of the Future part asunder. +The man who guided the ploughshare, ye have called to seize the handles +of your princedom, before his day's work was ended. O that the glebe had +been broken by the furrow, to the boundary--stone; so had Bohemia +remained an independent kingdom to the utmost ages! But since ye have +disturbed the labour of the plougher too early, the limits of your +country will become the heritage of your neighbour, and your distant +posterity will be joined to him in unchangeable union. The three twigs +of the budding Staff are three sons which your Princess shall bear me: +two of them, as unripe shoots, shall speedily wither away; but the third +shall inherit the throne, and by him shall the fruit of late +grandchildren be matured, till the Eagle soar over your mountains and +nestle in the land; yet soon fly thence, and return as to his own +possession. And then, when the Son of the Gods arises,[15] who is his +plougher's friend, and smites the slave-fetters from his limbs, then +mark it, Posterity, for thou shalt bless thy destiny! For when he has +trodden under his feet the Dragon of Superstition, he will stretch out +his arm against the waxing moon, to pluck it from the firmament, that he +may himself illuminate the world as a benignant star." + + [15] Emperor Joseph II. + +The venerable deputation stood in silent wonder, gazing at the prophetic +man, like dumb idols: it was as if a god were speaking by his lips. He +himself turned away from them to the two white steers, the associates of +his toilsome labour; he unyoked and let them go in freedom from their +farm-service; at which they began frisking joyfully upon the grassy lea, +but at the same time visibly decreased in bulk; like thin vapour melted +into air, and vanished out of sight. Then Primislaus doffed his peasant +wooden shoes, and proceeded to the brook to clean himself. The precious +robes were laid upon him; he begirt himself with the sword, and had the +golden spurs put on him like a knight; then stoutly sprang upon the +white horse, which bore him peaceably along. Being now about to quit his +still asylum, he commanded the ambassadors to bring his wooden shoes +after him, and keep them carefully, as a token that the humblest among +the people had once been exalted to the highest dignity in Bohemia; and +as a memorial for his posterity to bear their elevation meekly, and, +mindful of their origin, to respect and defend the peasantry, from which +themselves had sprung. Hence came the ancient practice of exhibiting a +pair of wooden shoes before the Kings of Bohemia on their coronation; a +custom held in observance till the male line of Primislaus became +extinct. + +The planted hazel rod bore fruit and grew; striking roots out on every +side, and sending forth new shoots, till at last the whole field was +changed into a hazel copse; a circumstance of great advantage to the +neighbouring township, which included it within their bounds; for, in +memory of this miraculous plantation, they obtained a grant from the +Bohemian Kings, exempting them from ever paying any public contribution +in the land, except a pint of hazel nuts; which royal privilege their +late descendants, as the story runs, are enjoying at this day.[16] + + [16] Æneas Sylvius affirms that he saw, with his own eyes, a + renewal of this charter from Charles IV. _Vidi inter privilegia + regni literas Caroli Quarti, Romanorum Imperatoris, divi Sigumundi + patris in quibus (villæ illius incolæ) libertate donantur; nec plus + tributi pendere jubentur, quam nucum illius arboris exiguam + mensuram._ + +Though the white courser, which was now proudly carrying the bridegroom +to his mistress, seemed to outrun the winds, Primislaus did not fail now +and then to let him feel the golden spurs, to push him on still faster. +The quick gallop seemed to him a tortoise-pace, so keen was his desire +to have the fair Libussa, whose form, after seven years, was still so +new and lovely in his soul, once more before his eyes; and this not +merely as a show, like some bright peculiar anemone in the variegated +bed of a flower-garden, but for the blissful appropriation of victorious +love. He thought only of the myrtle-crown, which, in the lover's +valuation, far outshines the crown of sovereignty; and had he balanced +love and rank against each other, the Bohemian throne without Libussa +would have darted up, like a clipped ducat in the scales of the +money-changer. + +The sun was verging to decline, when the new Prince, with his escort, +entered Vizegrad. Fräulein Libussa was in her garden, where she had just +plucked a basket of ripe plums, when her future husband's arrival was +announced to her. She went forth modestly, with all her maidens, to meet +him; received him as a bridegroom conducted to her by the gods, veiling +the election of her heart under a show of submission to the will of +Higher Powers. The eyes of the Court were eagerly directed to the +stranger; in whom, however, nothing could be seen but a fair handsome +man. In respect of outward form, there were several courtiers who, in +thought, did not hesitate to measure with him; and could not understand +why the gods should have disdained the anti-chamber, and not selected +from it some accomplished and ruddy lord, rather than the sunburnt +ploughman, to assist the Princess in her government. Especially in +Wladomir and Mizisla, it was observable that their pretensions were +reluctantly withdrawn. It behoved the Fräulein then to vindicate the +work of the gods; and show that Squire Primislaus had been indemnified +for the defect of splendid birth, by a fair equivalent in sterling +common sense and depth of judgment. She had caused a royal banquet to be +prepared, no whit inferior to the feast with which the hospitable Dido +entertained her pious guest Æneas. The cup of welcome passed diligently +round, the presents of the Princess had excited cheerfulness and +good-humour, and a part of the night had already vanished amid jests and +pleasant pastime, when Libussa set on foot a game at riddles; and, as +the discovery of hidden things was her proper trade, she did not fail to +solve, with satisfactory decision, all the riddles that were introduced. + +When her own turn came to propose one, she called Prince Wladomir, +Mizisla and Primislaus to her, and said: "Fair sirs, it is now for you +to read a riddle, which I shall submit to you, that it may be seen who +among you is the wisest and of keenest judgment. I intended, for you +three, a present of this basket of plums, which I plucked in my garden. +One of you shall have the half, and one over; the next shall have the +half of what remains, and one over; the third shall again have the half, +and three over. Now, if so be that the basket is then emptied, tell me, +How many plums are in it now?" + +The headlong Ritter Mizisla took the measure of the fruit with his eye, +not the sense of the riddle with his understanding, and said: "What can +be decided with the sword I might undertake to decide; but thy riddles, +gracious Princess, are, I fear, too hard for me. Yet at thy request I +will risk an arrow at the bull's-eye, let it hit or miss: I suppose +there is a matter of some three score plums in the basket." + +"Thou hast missed, dear Knight," said Fräulein Libussa. "Were there as +many again, half as many, and a third part as many as the basket has in +it, and five over, there would then be as many above three score as +there are now below it." + +Prince Wladomir computed as laboriously and anxiously, as if the post of +Comptroller-General of Finances had depended on a right solution; and at +last brought out the net product five-and-forty. The Fräulein then said: + +"Were there a third, and a half, and a sixth as many again of them, the +number would exceed forty-five as much as it now falls short of it." + +Though, in our days, any man endowed with the arithmetical faculty of a +tapster, might have solved this problem without difficulty, yet, for an +untaught computant, the gift of divination was essential, if he meant to +get out of the affair with honour, and not stick in the middle of it +with disgrace. As the wise Primislaus was happily provided with this +gift, it cost him neither art nor exertion to find the answer. + +"Familiar companion of the heavenly Powers," said he, "whoso undertakes +to pierce thy high celestial meaning, undertakes to soar after the eagle +when he hides himself in the clouds. Yet I will pursue thy hidden +flight, as far as the eye, to which thou hast given its light, will +reach. I judge that of the plums which thou hast laid in the basket, +there are thirty in number, not one fewer, and none more." + +The Fräulein cast a kindly glance on him, and said: "Thou tracest the +glimmering ember, which lies deep-hid among the ashes; for thee light +dawns out of darkness and vapour: thou hast read my riddle." + +Thereupon she opened her basket, and counted out fifteen plums, and one +over, into Prince Wladomir's hat, and fourteen remained. Of these she +gave Ritter Mizisla seven and one over, and there were still six in the +basket; half of these she gave the wise Primislaus and three over, and +the basket was empty. The whole Court was lost in wonder at the fair +Libussa's ciphering gift, and at the penetration of her cunning spouse. +Nobody could comprehend how human wit was able, on the one hand, to +enclose a common number so mysteriously in words; or, on the other hand, +to drag it forth so accurately from its enigmatical concealment. The +empty basket she conferred upon the two Knights, who had failed in +soliciting her love, to remind them that, their suit was voided. Hence +comes it, that when a wooer is rejected, people say, _His love has given +him the basket_, even to the present day. + +So soon as all was ready for the nuptials and coronation, both these +ceremonies were transacted with becoming pomp. Thus the Bohemian people +had obtained a Duke, and the fair Libussa had obtained a husband, each +according to the wish of their hearts; and what was somewhat wonderful, +by virtue of Chicane, an agent who has not the character of being too +beneficent or prosperous. And if either of the parties had been +overreached in any measure, it at least was not the fair Libussa. +Bohemia had a Duke in name, but the administration now, as formerly, +continued in the female hand. Primislaus was the proper pattern of a +tractable obedient husband, and contested with his Duchess neither the +direction of her house nor of her empire. His sentiments and wishes +sympathised with hers, as perfectly as two accordant strings, of which +when the one is struck, the other voluntarily trembles to the self-same +note. Nor was Libussa like those haughty overbearing dames, who would +pass for great matches; and having, as they think, made the fortune of +some hapless wight, continually remind him of his wooden shoes: but she +resembled the renowned Palmyran Queen; and ruled, as Zenobia did her +kindly Odenatus, by superiority of mental talent. + +The happy couple lived in the enjoyment of unchangeable love; according +to the fashion of those times, when the instinct which united hearts was +as firm and durable, as the mortar and cement with which they built +their indestructible strongholds. Duke Primislaus soon became one of the +most accomplished and valiant knights of his time, and the Bohemian +Court the most splendid in Germany. By degrees, many knights and nobles, +and multitudes of people from all quarters of the empire, drew to it; so +that Vizegrad became too narrow for its inhabitants; and, in +consequence, Libussa called her officers before her, and commanded them +to found a city, on the spot where they should find a man at noontide +making the wisest use of his teeth. They set forth, and at the time +appointed found a man engaged in sawing a block of wood. They judged +that this industrious character was turning his saw-teeth, at noontide, +to a far better use than the parasite does his jaw-teeth by the table of +the great; and doubted not but they had found the spot, intended by the +Princess for the site of their town. They marked out a space upon the +green with the ploughshare, for the circuit of the city walls. On asking +the workman what he meant to make of his sawed timber, he replied, +"Prah," which in the Bohemian language signifies a door-threshold. So +Libussa called her new city Praha, that is Prague, the well-known +capital upon the Moldau. In process of time, Primislaus's predictions +were punctually fulfilled. His spouse became the mother of three +Princes; two died in youth, but the third grew to manhood, and from him +went forth a glorious royal line, which flourished for long centuries on +the Bohemian throne. + + + + +MELECHSALA. + + +Father Gregory, the ninth of the name who sat upon St. Peter's chair, +had once, in a sleepless night, an inspiration from the spirit, not of +prophecy, but of political chicane, to clip the wings of the German +Eagle, lest it rose above the head of his own haughty Rome. No sooner +had the first sunbeam enlightened the venerable Vatican, than his +Holiness summoned his attendant chamberlain, and ordered him to call a +meeting of the Sacred College; where Father Gregory, in his pontifical +apparel, celebrated high mass, and after its conclusion moved a new +Crusade; to which all his cardinals, readily surmising the wise objects +of this armament for God's glory and the common weal of Christendom, +gave prompt and cordial assent. + +Thereupon, a cunning Nuncio started instantly for Naples, where the +Emperor Frederick of Swabia had his Court; and took with him in his +travelling-bag two boxes, one of which was filled with the sweet honey +of persuasion; the other with tinder, steel and flint, to light the fire +of excommunication, should the mutinous son of the Church hesitate to +pay the Holy Father due obedience. On arriving at Court, the Legate +opened his sweet box, and copiously gave out its smooth confectionery. +But the Emperor Frederick was a man delicate in palate; he soon smacked +the taste of the physic hidden in this sweetness, and he knew too well +its effects on the alimentary canal; so he turned away from the +treacherous mess, and declined having any more of it. Then the Legate +opened his other box, and made it spit some sparks, which singed the +Imperial beard, and stung the skin like nettles; whereby the Emperor +discovered that the Holy Father's finger might, ere long, be heavier on +him than the Legate's loins; therefore plied himself to the purpose, +engaged to lead the armies of the Lord against the Unbelievers in the +East, and appointed his Princes to assemble for an expedition to the +Holy Land. The Princes communicated the Imperial order to the Counts, +the Counts summoned out their vassals, the Knights and Nobles; the +Knights equipped their Squires and Horsemen; all mounted, and collected, +each under his proper banner. + +Except the night of St. Bartholomew, no night has ever caused such +sorrow and tribulation in the world, as this, which God's Vicegerent +upon Earth had employed in watching to produce a ruinous Crusade. Ah, +how many warm tears flowed, as knight and squire pricked off, and +blessed their dears! A glorious race of German heroes never saw the +light, because of this departure; but languished in embryo, as the germs +of plants in the Syrian desert, when the hot Sirocco has passed over +them. The ties of a thousand happy marriages were violently torn +asunder; ten thousand brides in sorrow hung their garlands, like the +daughters of Jerusalem, upon the Babylonian willow-trees, and sat and +wept; and a hundred thousand lovely maidens grew up for the bridegroom +in vain, and blossomed like a rose-bed in a solitary cloister garden, +for there was no hand to pluck them, and they withered away unenjoyed. +Among the sighing spouses, whom this sleepless night of his Holiness +deprived of their husbands, were St. Elizabeth, the Landgraf of +Thuringia's lady, and Ottilia, Countess of Gleichen; a wife not +standing, it is true, in the odour of sanctity, yet in respect of +personal endowments, and virtuous conduct, inferior to none of her +contemporaries. + +Landgraf Ludwig, a trusty feudatory of the Emperor, had issued general +orders for his vassals to collect, and attend him to the camp. But most +of them sought pretexts for politely declining this honour. One was +tormented by the gout, another by the stone; one had got his horses +foundered, another's armoury had been destroyed by fire. Count Ernst of +Gleichen, however, with a little troop of stout retainers, who were free +and unencumbered, and took pleasure in the prospect of distant +adventures, equipped their squires and followers, obeyed the orders of +the Landgraf, and led their people to the place of rendezvous. The Count +had been wedded for two years; and in this period his lovely consort had +presented him with two children, a little master and a little miss, +which, according to the custom of those stalwart ages, had been born +without the aid of science, fair and softly as the dew from the +Twilight. A third pledge, which she carried under her heart, was, by +virtue of the Pope's insomnolency, destined, when it saw the light, to +forego the embraces of its father. Although Count Ernst put on the +rugged aspect of a man, Nature maintained her rights in him, and he +could not hide his strong feelings of tenderness, when at parting he +quitted the embraces of his weeping spouse. As in dumb sorrow he was +leaving her, she turned hastily to the cradle of her children; plucked +out of it her sleeping boy; pressed it softly to her breast, and held it +with tearful eyes to the father, to imprint a parting kiss on its +unconscious cheek. With her little girl she did the same. This gave the +Count a sharp twinge about the heart: his lips began to quiver, his +mouth visibly increased in breadth; and sobbing aloud, he pressed the +infants to his steel cuirass, under which there beat a very soft and +feeling heart; kissed them from their sleep, and recommended them, +together with their much loved mother, to the keeping of God and all the +Saints. As he winded down along the castle road with his harnessed troop +from the high fortress of Gleichen, she looked after him with desolate +sadness, till his banner, upon which she herself had wrought the +Red-cross with fine purple silk, no longer floated in her vision. + +Landgraf Ludwig was exceedingly contented as he saw his stately vassal, +and his knights and squires, advancing with their flag unfurled; but on +viewing him more narrowly, and noticing his trouble, he grew wroth; for +he thought the Count was faint of heart, and out of humour with the +expedition, and following it against his will. Therefore his brow +wrinkled down into frowns, and the landgraphic nostrils sniffed +displeasure. Count Ernst had a fine pathognomic eye; he soon observed +what ailed his lord, and going boldly up, disclosed to him the reason of +his cloudy mood. His words were as oil on the vinegar of discontent; the +Landgraf, with honest frankness, seized his vassal's hand, and said: +"Ah, is it so, good cousin? Then the shoe pinches both of us in one +place; Elizabeth's good-b'ye has given me a sore heart too. But be of +good cheer! While we are fighting abroad, our wives will be praying at +home, that we may return with renown and glory." Such was the custom of +the country in those days: while the husband took the field, the wife +continued in her chamber, solitary and still, fasting and praying, and +making vows without end, for his prosperous return. This old usage is +not universal in the land at present; as the last crusade of our German +warriors to the distant West,[17] by the rich increase of families +during the absence of their heroic heads, has sufficiently made +manifest. + + [17] Of the Hessian troops to America, during the Revolutionary + War.--ED. + +The pious Elizabeth felt no less pain at parting from her husband than +her fair companion in distress, the Countess of Gleichen. Though her +lord the Landgraf was rather of a stormy disposition, she had lived with +him in the most perfect unity: and his terrestrial mass was by degrees +so imbued with the sanctity of his helpmate, that some beneficent +historians have appended to him likewise the title of Saint; which, +however, must be looked on rather as a charitable compliment than a real +statement of the truth; as with us, in these times, the epithets of +great, magnanimous, immortal, erudite, profound, for the most part +indicate no more than a little outward edge-gilding. So much appears +from all the circumstances, that the elevated couple did not always +harmonise in works of holiness; nay, that the Powers of Heaven had to +interfere at times in the domestic differences thence arising, to +maintain the family peace: as the following example will evince. The +pious lady, to the great dissatisfaction of her courtiers and +lip-licking pages, had the custom of reserving from the Landgraf's table +the most savoury dishes for certain hungry beggars, who incessantly +beleaguered the castle; and she used to give herself the satisfaction, +when the court dinner was concluded, of distributing this kind donation +to the poor with her own hands. According to the courtly system, whereby +thrift on the small scale is always to make up for wastefulness on the +great, the meritorious cook-department every now and then complained of +this as earnestly as if the whole dominions of Thuringia had run the +risk of being eaten up by these lank-sided guests; and the Landgraf, who +dabbled somewhat in economy, regarded it as so important an affair, +that, in all seriousness, he strictly forbade his consort this labour of +love, which had through time become her spiritual hobby. Nevertheless, +one day the impulse of benevolence, and the temptation to break through +her husband's orders in pursuit of it, became too strong to be resisted. +She beckoned to her women, who were then uncovering the table, to take +off some untouched dishes, with a few rolls of wheaten bread, and keep +them as smuggled goods. These she packed into a little basket, and stole +out with it by a postern gate. + +But the watchers had got wind of it, and betrayed it to the Landgraf, +who gave instant orders for a strict guard upon all the outlets of the +castle. Being told that his lady had been seen gliding with a heavy load +through the postern, he proceeded with majestic strides across the +court-yard, and stept out upon the drawbridge, as if to take a mouthful +of fresh air. Alas! The pious lady heard the jingling of his golden +spurs; and fear and terror came upon her, till her knees trembled, and +she could not move another footstep. She concealed the victual-basket +under her apron, that modest covering of female charms and roguery; but +whatever privileges this inviolable asylum may enjoy against excisemen +and officers of customs, it is no wall of brass for a husband. The +Landgraf, smelling mischief, hastened to the place; his sunburnt cheeks +were reddened with indignation, and the veins swelled fearfully upon his +brow. + +"Wife," said he, in a hasty tone, "what hast thou in the basket thou art +hiding from me? Is it victuals from my table, for thy vile crew of +vagabonds and beggars?" + +"Not at all, dear lord," replied Elizabeth, meekly, but with +embarrassment, who held herself entitled, without prejudice to her +sanctity, to make a little slip in the present critical position of +affairs: "it is nothing but a few roses that I gathered in the garden." + +Had the Landgraf been one of our contemporaries, he must have believed +his lady on her word of honour, and desisted from farther search; but in +those wild times the minds of men were not so polished. + +"Let us see," said the imperious husband, and sharply pulled the apron +to a side. The tender wife had no defence against this violence but by +recoiling: "O! softly, softly, my dear husband!" said she, and blushed +for shame at being detected in a falsehood, in presence of her servants. +But, O wonder upon wonder! the _corpus delicti_ was in very deed +transformed into the fairest blooming roses; the rolls had changed to +white roses, the sausages to red, the omelets to yellow ones! With +joyful amazement the saintly dame observed this metamorphosis, and knew +not whether to believe her eyes; for she had never given credit to her +Guardian Angel for such delicate politeness, as to work a miracle in +favour of a lady, when the point was to cajole a rigorous husband, and +make good a female affirmation. + +So visible a proof of innocence allayed the fierceness of the Lion. He +now turned his tremendous looks on the down-stricken serving-men, who, +as it was apparent, had been groundlessly calumniating his angelic wife; +he scornfully rated them, and swore a deep oath, that the first +eaves-dropping pickthank who again accused his virtuous wife to him, he +would cast into the dungeon, and there let him lie and rot. This done, +he took a rose from the basket, and stuck it in his hat, in triumph for +his lady's innocence. History has not certified us, whether, on the +following day, he found a withered rose or a cold sausage there: in the +mean time it assures us, that the saintly wife, when her lord had left +her with the kiss of peace, and she herself had recovered from her +fright, stept down the hill, much comforted in heart, to the meadow +where her nurslings, the lame and blind, the naked and the hungry, were +awaiting her, to dole out among them her intended bounty. For she well +knew that the miraculous deception would again vanish were she there, as +in reality it did; for, on opening her victual-magazine she found no +roses at all, but in their stead the nutritious crumbs which she had +snatched from the teeth of the castle bone-polishers. + +Though now, by the departure of her husband, she was to be freed from +his rigorous superintendence, and obtain free scope to execute her +labours of love in secret or openly, when and where it pleased her, yet +she loved her imperious husband so faithfully and sincerely, that she +could not part from him without the deepest sorrow. Ah! she foreboded +but too well, that in this world she should not see him any more. And +for the enjoyment of him in the other, the aspect of affairs was little +better. A canonised Saint has such preferment there, that all other +Saints compared with her are but a heavenly mob. + +High as the Landgraf had been stationed in this sublunary world, it was +a question whether, in the courts of Heaven, he might be found worthy to +kneel on the footstool of her throne, and raise his eyes to his former +bedmate. Yet, many vows as she made, many good works as she did, much as +her prayers in other cases had availed with all the Saints, her credit +in the upper world was not sufficient to stretch out her husband's term +a span. He died on this march, in the bloom of life, of a malignant +fever, at Otranto, before he had acquired the knightly merit of chining +a single Saracen. While he was preparing for departure, and the time was +come for him to give the world his blessing, he called Count Ernst from +among his other servants and vassals to his bedside; appointed him +commander of the troops which he himself had led thus far, and made him +swear that he would not return till he had thrice drawn his sword +against the Infidel. Then he took the holy viaticum from the hands of +his marching chaplain; and ordering as many masses for his soul, as +might have brought himself and all his followers triumphantly into the +New Jerusalem, he breathed his last. Count Ernst had the corpse of his +lord embalmed: he enclosed it in a silver coffin, and sent it to the +widowed lady, who wore mourning for her husband like a Roman Empress, +for she never laid her weeds aside while she continued in this world. + +Count Ernst of Gleichen forwarded the pilgrimage as much as possible, +and arrived in safety with his people in the camp at Ptolemais. Here, it +was rather a theatrical emblem of war than a serious campaign that met +his view. For as on our stages, when they represent a camp or field of +battle, there are merely a few tents erected in the foreground, and a +little handful of players scuffling together; but in the distance many +painted tents and squadrons to assist the illusion, and cheat the eye, +the whole being merely intended for an artificial deception of the +senses; so also was the crusading army a mixture of fiction and reality. +Of the numerous heroic hosts that left their native country, it was +always the smallest part that reached the boundaries of the land they +had gone forth to conquer. But few were devoured by the swords of the +Saracens. These Infidels had powerful allies, whom they sent beyond +their frontiers, and who made brisk work among their enemies, though +getting neither wages nor thanks for their good service. These allies +were, Hunger and Nakedness, Perils by land and water and among bad +brethren, Frost and Heat, Pestilence and malignant Boils; and the +grinding Home-sickness also fell at times like a heavy Incubus upon the +steel harness, and crushed it together like soft pasteboard, and spurred +the steed to a quick return. Under these circumstances, Count Ernst had +little hope of speedily fulfilling his oath, and thrice dyeing his +knightly sword in unbelieving blood, as must be done before he thought +of returning. For three days' journey round the camp, no Arab archer was +to be seen; the weakness of the Christian host lay concealed behind its +bulwarks and entrenchments; they did not venture out to seek the distant +enemy, but waited for the slow help of his slumbering Holiness, who, +since the wakeful night that gave rise to this Crusade, had enjoyed +unbroken sleep, and about the issue of the Holy War had troubled +himself very little. + +In this inaction, as inglorious to the Christian army, as of old that +loitering was to the Greeks before the walls of bloody but courageous +Troy, where the godlike Achilles, with his confederates, moped so long +about his fair Briseis,--the chivalry of Christendom kept up much +jollity and recreation in their camp, to kill lazy time, and scare away +the blue devils; the Italians, with song and harping, to which the +nimble-footed Frenchmen danced; the solemn Spaniards with chess; the +English with cock-fighting; the Germans with feasting and wassail. + +Count Ernst, taking small delight in any of these pastimes, amused +himself with hunting; made war on the foxes in the dry wildernesses, and +pursued the shy chamois into the barren mountains. The knights of his +train "disagreed" with the glowing sun by day, and the damp evening air +under the open sky, and sneaked to a side when their lord called for his +horses; therefore, in his hunting expeditions, he was generally attended +only by his faithful Squire, named the mettled Kurt, and a single groom. +Once, his eagerness in clambering after the chamois, had carried him to +such a distance, that the sun was dipping in the Mid-sea wave before he +thought of returning; and, fast as he hastened homewards, night came +upon him at a distance from the camp. The appearance of some treacherous +_ignes fatui_, which he mistook for the watch-fires, led him off still +farther. On discovering his error, he resolved to rest beneath a tree +till daybreak. The trusty Squire prepared a bed of soft moss for his +lord, who, wearied by the heat of the day, fell asleep before he could +lift his hand to bless himself, according to custom, with the sign of +the cross. But to the mettled Kurt there came no wink of sleep, for he +was by nature watchful like a bird of darkness; and though this gift had +not belonged to him, his faithful care for his lord would have kept him +waking. The night, as usual in the climate of Asia, was serene and +still; the stars twinkled in pure diamond light; and solemn silence, as +in the Valley of Death, reigned over the wide desert. No breath of air +was stirring, yet the nocturnal coolness poured life and refreshment +over herb and living thing. But about the third watch, when the morning +star had begun to announce the coming day, there arose a din in the +dusky remoteness, like the voice of a forest stream rushing over some +steep precipice. The watchful squire listened eagerly, and sent his +other senses also out for tidings, as his sharp eye could not pierce the +veil of darkness. He hearkened, and snuffed at the same time, like a +bloodhound, for a scent came towards him as of sweet-smelling herbs and +trodden grass, and the strange noise appeared to be approaching. He laid +his ear to the ground, and heard a trampling as of horses' hoofs, which +led him to conclude that the Infernal Chase was hunting in these parts. +A cold shudder passed over him, and his terror grew extreme. He shook +his master from sleep; and the latter, having roused himself, soon saw +that here another than a spectral host was to be fronted. Whilst his +groom girded up the horses, the Count had his harness buckled on in all +haste. + +The dim shadows gradually withdrew, and the advancing morning tinted the +eastern hem of the horizon with purple light. The Count now discovered, +what he had anticipated, a host of Saracens approaching, all equipped +for fight, to snatch some booty from the Christians. To escape their +hands was hopeless, and the hospitable tree in the wide solitary plain +gave no shelter to conceal horse and man behind it. Unluckily the massy +steed was not a Hippogryph, but a heavy-bodied Frieslander, to which, by +reason of its make, the happy talent of bearing off its master on the +wings of the wind had not been allotted; therefore the gallant hero gave +his soul to the keeping of God and the Holy Virgin, and resolved on +dying like a knight. He bade his servants follow him, and sell their +lives as dear as might be. Thereupon he pricked the Frieslander boldly +forward, and dashed right into the middle of the hostile squadron, who +had been expecting no such sudden onset from a single knight. The Pagans +started in astonishment, and flew asunder like light chaff when +scattered by the wind. But seeing that the enemy was only three men +strong, their courage rose, and there began an unequal battle, in which +valour was surpassed by number. The Count meanwhile kept plunging yarely +through the ranks; the point of his lance gleamed death and destruction +to the Infidel; and when it found its man, he flew inevitably from his +saddle. Their Captain himself, who ran at him with grim fury, his manly +arm laid low, and with his victorious spear transfixed him writhing in +the dust, as St. George of England did the Dragon. The mettled Kurt went +on with no less briskness; though availing little for attack, he was a +master in the science of dispatching, and sent all to pot who did not +make resistance; as a modern critic butchers the defenceless rabble of +the lame and halt, who venture with such courage in our days into the +literary tilt-yard: and if now and then some fainting invalid, with +furious aim, like an exasperated Reviewer-hunter, did hurl a stone at +him with enfeebled fist, he heeded it little; for he knew well that his +basnet and iron jack would turn a moderate thump. The groom, too, did +his best to make clear ground about him, and kept his master's back +unharmed. But as nine gad-flies will beat the strongest horse; four +Caffre bulls an African lion; and, by the common tale, one troop of mice +an archbishop, as the _Mäusethurm_, or Mouse-tower, on the Rhine, by +Hübner's account, gives open testimony; so the Count of Gleichen, after +doing knightly battle, was at length overpowered by the number of his +enemies. His arm grew weary, his lance was shivered into splinters, his +sword became blunt, and his Friesland horse at last staggered down upon +the gory battle-field. The Knight's fall was the watch-word of victory; +a hundred valiant arms stormed in on him to wrench away his sword, and +his hand had no longer any strength for resistance. As the mettled Kurt +observed the Knight come down, his own courage sank also, and along with +it the pole-axe, wherewith he had so magnanimously hammered in the +Saracenic skulls. He surrendered at discretion, and pressingly entreated +quarter. The groom stood in blank rumination; bore himself enduringly; +and awaited with oxlike equanimity the stroke of some mace upon his +basnet, which should crush him to the ground. + +But the Saracens were less inhuman victors than the conquered could have +expected; they disarmed their three prisoners of war, and did them no +bodily harm whatever. This mild usage took its rise not in any movement +of philanthropy, but in mere spy's-mercy: from a dead enemy there is +nothing to be learnt, and the special object of this roaming troop had +been to get correct intelligence about the state of matters in the +Christian host at Ptolemais. The captives, being questioned and heard, +were next, according to the Asiatic fashion, furnished with +slave-fetters; and as a ship was just then lying ready to set sail for +Alexandria, the Bey of Asdod sent them off with it as a present to the +Sultan of Egypt, to confirm at Court their description of the Christian +resources and position. The rumour of the bold Frank's valour had +arrived before him at the gates of Grand Cairo; and so pugnacious a +prisoner might, on entering the hostile metropolis, have merited as +pompous a reception as the Twelfth of April saw bestowed upon the Comte +de Grasse in London, where the merry capital emulously strove to let the +conquered sea-hero feel the honour which their victory had done him: but +Moslem self-conceit allows no justice to foreign merit. Count Ernst, in +the garb of a felon, loaded with heavy chains, was quietly locked into +the Grated Tower, where the Sultan's slaves were wont to be kept. + +Here, in long painful nights, and mournful solitary days, he had time +and leisure to survey the grim stony aspect of his future life; and it +required as much steadfastness and courage to bear up under these +contemplations, as to tilt it on the battle-field among a wandering +horde of Arabs. The image of his former domestic happiness kept hovering +before his eyes; he thought of his gentle wife, and the tender shoots of +their chaste love. Ah! how he cursed the miserable feud of Mother-church +with the Gog and Magog of the East, which had robbed him of his fair lot +in existence, and fettered him in slave-shackles never to be loosed! In +such moments he was ready to despair altogether; and his piety had +well-nigh made shipwreck on this rock of offence. + +In the days of Count Ernst there was current, among anecdotic persons, a +wondrous story of Duke Henry the Lion, which at that period, as a thing +that had occurred within the memory of man, found great credence in the +German Empire. The Duke, so runs the tale, while proceeding over sea to +the Holy Land, was, in a tempest, cast away upon a desert part of the +African coast; where, escaping alone from shipwreck, he found shelter +and succour in the den of a hospitable Lion. This kindness in the savage +owner of the cave had its origin not in the heart, but in the left +hind-paw; while hunting in the Libyan wilderness, he had run a thorn +into his foot, which so tormented him, that he could hardly move, and +had entirely forgotten his natural voracity. The acquaintance being +formed, and mutual confidence established between the parties, the Duke +assumed the office of chirurgeon to the royal beast, and laboriously +picked out the thorn from his foot. The patient rapidly recovered, and, +mindful of the service, entertained his lodger with his best from the +produce of his plunder; and, though a Lion, was as friendly and +officious towards him as a lap-dog. + +The Duke, however, soon grew weary of the cold collations of his +four-footed landlord, and began to long for the flesh-pots of his own +far-distant kitchen; for in readying the game handed in to him, he by no +means rivalled his Brunswick cook. Then the home-sickness came upon him +like a heavy load; and seeing no possibility of ever getting back to his +paternal heritage, the thought of this so grieved his soul, that he +wasted visibly, and pined like a wounded hart. Thereupon the Tempter, +with his wonted impudence in desert places, came before him, in the +figure of a little swart wrinkled manikin, whom the Duke at first sight +took for an ourang-outang; but it was the Devil himself, Satan in proper +person, and he grinned, and said: "Duke Henry, what ails thee? If thou +trust to me, I will put an end to all thy sorrow, and take thee home to +thy wife to sup with her this night in the Castle of Brunswick; for a +lordly supper is making ready there, seeing she is about to wed another +man, having lost hope of thy life." + +This despatch came rolling like a thunder-clap into the Duke's ear, and +cut him through the heart like a sharp two-edged sword. Rage burnt in +his eyes like flames of fire, and desperation uproared in his breast. If +Heaven will not help me in this crisis, thought he, then let Hell! It +was one of those entangling situations which the Arch-crimp, with his +consummate skill in psychological science, can employ so dextrously when +the enlisting of a soul that he has cast an eye on is to prosper in his +hands. The Duke, without hesitation, buckled on his golden spurs, girded +his sword about his loins, and put himself in readiness. "Quick, my good +fellow!" said he; "carry me, and this my trusty Lion, to Brunswick, +before the varlet reach my bed!"--"Well!" answered Blackbeard, "but dost +thou know the carriage-dues?"--"Ask what thou wilt!" said Duke Henry; +"it shall be given thee at thy word."--"Thy soul at sight in the other +world," replied Beelzebub.--"Done! Be it so!" cried furious jealousy, +from Henry's mouth. + +The bargain was forthwith concluded in legal form, between the two +contracting parties. The Infernal Kite directly changed himself into a +winged Griffin, and seizing the Duke in the one clutch, and the trusty +Lion in the other, conveyed them both in one night from the Libyan coast +to Brunswick, the towering city, founded on the lasting basis of the +Harz, which even the lying prophecies of the Zillerfeld vaticinator have +not ventured to overthrow. There he set down his burden safely in the +middle of the market-place, and vanished, just as the watchman was +blowing his horn with intent to proclaim the hour of midnight, and then +carol forth a superannuated bridal-song from his rusty mum-washed +weasand. The ducal palace, and the whole city, still gleamed like the +starry heaven with the nuptial illumination; every street resounded with +the din and tumult of the gay people streaming forward to gaze on the +decorated bride, and the solemn torch-dance with which the festival was +to conclude. The Aeronaut, unwearied by his voyage, pressed on amid the +crowding multitude through the entrance of the Palace; advanced with +clanking spurs, under the guidance of his trusty Lion, to the +banquet-chamber; drew his sword, and cried: "With me, whoever stands by +Duke Henry; and to traitors, death and hell!" The Lion also bellowed, as +if seven thunders had been uttering their united voices; shook his awful +mane, and furiously erected his tail, as the signal of attack. The +cornets and kettle-drums struck silent suddenly, and a horrid sound of +battle pealed from the tumult in the wedding-hall, up to the very Gothic +roof, till the walls rang with it, and the thresholds shook. + +The golden-haired bridegroom, and his party-coloured butterflies of +courtiers, fell beneath the sword of the Duke, as the thousand +Philistines beneath the ass's jaw-bone, in the sturdy fist of the son of +Manoah; and he who escaped the sword, rushed into the Lion's throat, and +was butchered like a defenceless lamb. When the forward wooer and his +retinue of serving-men and nobles were abolished, Duke Henry, having +used his household privilege as sternly as of old the wise Ulysses to +the wooing-club of his chaste Penelope, sat down to table, refreshed in +spirit, beside his wife, who was just beginning to recover from the +deadly fright his entrance had caused her. While briskly enjoying the +dainties of his cook, which had not been prepared for him, he cast a +glance of triumph on his new conquest, and perceived that she was bathed +in ambiguous tears, which might as well refer to loss as to gain. +However, like a man that knew the world, he explained them wholly to his +own advantage; and merely reproving her in gentle words for the hurry of +her heart, he from that hour entered upon all his former rights. + +Count Ernst had often listened to this strange story, from the lips of +his nurse; yet in riper years, as an enlightened sceptic, entertained +doubts of its truth. But in the dreary loneliness of his Grated Tower, +the whole incident acquired a form of possibility, and his wavering +nursery belief increased almost to conviction. A transit through the air +appeared to him the simplest thing in nature, if the Prince of Darkness, +in the gloomy midnight, chose to lend his bat-wings for the purpose. +Though in obedience to his religious principles, he no night neglected +to cut a large cross before him as he went to sleep; yet a secret +longing awoke in his heart, without its own distinct consciousness, to +accomplish the same adventure. If a wandering mouse in the night-season +happened to scratch upon the wainscot, he immediately supposed the +Hellish Proteus was announcing his arrival, and at times in thought he +went so far as settling the freight charges beforehand. But except the +illusion of a dream, which juggled him into an aerial journey to his +German native land, the Count gained nothing by his nursery faith, +except employing with these fantasies a few vacant hours; and like a +reader of novels, transporting himself into the situation of the acting +hero. Why old Abaddon showed himself so sluggish in this case, when the +kidnapping of a soul was in the wind, and in all likelihood the +enterprise must have succeeded, may be accounted for in two ways. Either +the Count's Guardian Angel was more watchful than the one to whom Duke +Henry had intrusted the keeping of his soul, and resisted so stoutly +that the Evil One could get no advantage over him; or the Prince of the +Air had grown disgusted with the transport-trade in this his own +element, having been bubbled out of his stipulated freightage by Duke +Henry after all their engagements; for when it came to the point with +Henry, his soul was found to have so many good works on her side of the +account, that the scores on the Infernal tally were altogether cancelled +by them. + +Whilst Count Ernst was weaving in romantic dreams a feeble shadow of +hope for deliverance from his captivity, and for a few moments in the +midst of them forgetting his dejection and misery, his returning +servants brought the Countess tidings that their master had vanished +from the camp, and none knew what had become of him. Some supposed that +he had been the prey of snakes or dragons; others that a pestilential +blast of wind had met him in the Syrian desert, and killed him; others +that he had been robbed and murdered, or taken captive, by some +plundering troop of Arabs. In one point all agreed: That he was to be +held _pro mortuo_, dead in law, and that the Countess was entirely +relieved and enfranchised from her matrimonial engagements. But to the +Countess herself, a secret foreboding still whispered that her lord was +alive notwithstanding. Nor did she by any means repress this thought, +which so solaced her heart; for hope is always the stoutest stay of the +afflicted, and the sweetest dream of life. To maintain it, she secretly +equipped a trusty servant, and sent him out for tidings, over sea into +the Holy Land. Like the raven from the Ark, this scout flew to and fro +upon the waters, and was no more heard of. Then she sent another forth; +who returned after several years' cruising over sea and land; but no +olive-leaf of hope was in his bill. Nevertheless the steadfast lady +doubted not in the least that she should yet meet her lord in the land +of the living: for she had a firm persuasion that so tender and true a +husband could not possibly have left the world without in the +catastrophe remembering his wife and little children at home, and giving +them some token of his death. Now, since the Count's departure, there +had nothing happened in the Castle; neither in the armoury by rattling +of the harness, nor in the garret by a rolling joist, nor in the +bed-chamber by a faint footstep, or heavy-booted tread. Nor had any +nightly moaning chanted its _Nænia_ down from the high battlements of +the palace; nor had the baleful bird Kreideweiss ever issued its +lugubrious death-summons. In the absence of all these signs of evil +omen, she inferred by the principles of female common-sense philosophy, +which even in our own times are by no means fallen into such desuetude +among the fair sex, as Father Aristotle's _Organum_ is among the male, +that her much-loved husband was still living; a conclusion, which we +know was perfectly correct. The fruitless issue of her first two +missions of discovery, the object of which was more important to her +than the finding of the Southern Polar Continent is to us, she allowed +not in the least to deter her from sending out a third Apostle into All +the World. This third was of a slow turn, and had imprinted on his mind +the adage, _As soon gets the snail to his bed as the swallow_; therefore +he called at every inn, and treated himself well. And it being +infinitely more convenient that the people whom he was to question about +his master should come to him, than that he should go tracking and +spying them out in the wide world, he determined on choosing a position +where he could examine every passenger from the East, with the insolent +inquisitiveness of a toll-man behind his barrier; and fixed his quarters +by the harbour of Venice. This Queen of the Waters was at that time, as +it were, the general gate, which all pilgrims and crusaders from the +Holy Land passed through in their way home. Whether this shrewd genius +chose the best or the worst means for discharging his appointed +function, will appear in the sequel. + +After a seven-years narrow custody in the Grated Tower at Grand +Cairo,--a term which to the Count seemed far longer than to the Seven +Sleepers their seventy-years sleep in the Roman catacombs,--he concluded +himself to be forsaken of Heaven and Hell, and utterly gave up hope of +ever getting out in the body from this melancholy cage, where the kind +face of the sun was not allowed to visit him, and the broken daylight +struggled faintly in through a window secured with iron bars. His +devil-romance was long ago concluded; and his faith in miraculous +assistance from his Guardian Saint was lighter than a mustard-seed. He +vegetated rather than lived; and if in these circumstances any wish +arose in him, it was the wish to be annihilated. + +From this lethargic stupor he was suddenly aroused by the rattling of a +bunch of keys, before the door of his cell. Since the day of his +entrance, his jailor had never more performed for him the office of +turnkey; for all the necessaries of the prisoner had been conveyed +through a trap-board in the door. Accordingly, it was not without long +resistance, and the bribery of a little vegetable oil, that the rusty +bolt obeyed him. But the creaking of the iron hinges, as the door went +up with reluctant grating, was to the Count a compound of more melodious +notes than ever came from the Harmonica of Franklin. A foreboding +palpitation of the heart set his stagnant blood in motion; and he +expected with impatient longing the intelligence of a change in his +fate: for the rest, it was indifferent to him whether it brought life or +death. Two black slaves entered with his jailor, at whose signal they +loosed the fetters from the prisoner; and a second mute sign from the +solemn graybeard commanded him to follow. He obeyed with faltering +steps; his feet refused their service, and he needed the support of the +two slaves, to totter down the winding stone stair. He was then +conducted to the Captain of the Prison, who, looking at him with a +reproachful air, thus spoke: "Obstinate Frank, what made thee hide the +craft thou art acquainted with, when thou wert put into the Grated +Tower? One of thy fellow-prisoners has betrayed thee, and informed us +that thou art a master in the art of gardening. Go, whither the will of +the Sultan calls thee; lay out a garden in the manner of the Franks, and +watch over it like the apple of thy eye; that the Flower of the World +may blossom in it pleasantly, for the adorning of the East." + +If the Count had got a call to Paris to be Rector of the Sorbonne, the +appointment could not have astonished him more, than this of being +gardener to the Sultan of Egypt. About gardening he understood as little +as a laic about the secrets of the Church. In Italy, it is true, he had +seen many gardens; and at Nürnberg, where the dawn of that art was now +first penetrating into Germany, though the horticultural luxury of the +Nürnbergers did not yet extend much farther than a bowling-green, and a +few beds of roman lettuce. But about the planning of gardens, and the +cultivation of plants, like a martial nobleman, he had never troubled +his head; and his botanic science was so limited, that the Flower of the +World had never once come under his inspection. Hence he knew not in the +least by what method it was to be treated; whether like the aloe it must +be brought to blossom by the aid of art, or like a common marigold by +the genial virtue of nature alone. Nevertheless, he did not venture to +acknowledge his ignorance, or decline the preferment offered him; being +reasonably apprehensive that they might convince him of his fitness for +the post, by a bastinading on the soles. + +A pleasant park was assigned him, which he was to change into a European +garden. The spot had, either by the hand of bountiful Nature, or of +ancient cultivation, been so happily disposed and ornamented already, +that the new Abdalonymus, let him cudgel his brains as he would, could +perceive no error or defect in it, nothing that admitted of improvement. +Besides, the aspect of living and active nature, which for seven long +years in his dreary prison he had been obliged to forego, affected him +at once so powerfully, that he inhaled rapture from every grass-flower, +and looked at all things around him with delight, like the First Man in +Paradise, to whom the scientific thought of censuring anything in the +arrangement of his Eden did not occur. The Count therefore found himself +in no small embarrassment about discharging his commission creditably; +he feared that every change would rob the garden of a beauty, and were +he detected as a botcher, he must travel back into his Grated Tower. + +In the mean time, as Shiek Kiamel, Overseer of the Gardens and favourite +of the Sultan, was diligently stimulating him to begin the work, he +required fifty slaves, as necessary for the execution of his enterprise. +Next morning at dawn, they were all ready, and passed muster before +their new commander, who as yet saw not how he should employ a man of +them. But how great was his joy as he perceived the mottled Kurt and the +ponderous Groom, his two companions of misfortune, ranked among the +troop! A hundredweight of lead rolled off his heart, the wrinkle of +dejection vanished from his brow, and his eyes were enlightened, as if +he had dipt his staff in honey and tasted thereof. He led the trusty +Squire aside, and frankly informed him into what a heterogeneous element +he had been cast by the caprices of fate, where he could neither fly nor +swim; nor could he in the least comprehend what enigmatical mistake had +exchanged his knightly sword with the gardener's spade. No sooner had he +done speaking, than the mettled Kurt, with wet eyes, fell at his feet, +then lifted up his voice and said: "Pardon, dear master! It is I that +have caused your perplexity and your deliverance from the rascally +Grated Tower, which has kept you so long in ward. Be not angry that the +innocent deceit of your servant has brought you out of it; be glad +rather that you see God's sky again above your head. The Sultan required +a garden after the manner of the Franks, and had proclamation made to +all the Christian captives in the Bazam, that the proper man should step +forth, and expect great recompense if the undertaking prospered. No one +of them durst meddle with it; but I recollected your heavy durance. Then +some good spirit whispered me the lie of announcing you as an adept in +the art of gardening, and it has succeeded perfectly. And now never vex +yourself about the way of managing the business: the Sultan, like the +great people of the world, has a fancy not for something better than he +has already, but for something different, that may be new and singular. +Therefore, delve and devastate, and cut and carve, in this glorious +field, according to your pleasure; and depend upon it, everything you do +or purpose will be right in his eyes." + +This speech was as the murmur of a running brook in the ears of a tired +wanderer in the desert. The Count drew balsam to his soul from it, and +courage to commence with boldness the ungainly undertaking. He set his +men to work at random, without plan; and proceeded with the well-ordered +shady park, as one of your "bold geniuses" proceeds with an antiquated +author, who falls into his creative hands, and, nill he will he, must +submit to let himself be modernised, that is to say, again made readable +and likeable; or as a new pedagogue with the ancient forms of the +Schools. He jumbled in variegated confusion what he found before him, +making all things different, nothing better. The profitable fruit-trees +he rooted out, and planted rosemary and valerian, and exotic shrubs, or +scentless amaranths, in their stead. The rich soil he dug away, and +coated the naked bottom with many-coloured gravel, which he carefully +stamped hard, and smoothed like a threshing-floor, that no blade of +grass might spring in it. The whole space he divided into various +terraces, which he begirt with a hem of green; and through these a +strangely-twisted flower-bed serpentised along, and ended in a knot of +villanously-smelling boxwood. And as from his ignorance of botany, he +paid no heed to the proper seasons for sowing and planting, his garden +project hovered for a long time between life and death, and had the +aspect of a suit of clothes _à feuille mourante_. + +Shiek Kiamel, and the Sultan himself, allowed the Western gardener to +take his course, without deranging his conception by their interference +or their dictatorial opinion, and by premature hypercriticism +interrupting the procedure of his horticultural genius. In this they +acted more wisely than our obstreperous public, which, from our famous +philanthropic scheme of sowing acorns, expected in a summer or two a +stock of strong oaks, fit to be masts for three-deckers; while the +plantation was as yet so soft and feeble, that a few frosty nights might +have sent it to destruction. Now, indeed, almost in the middle of the +second decade of years from the commencement of the enterprise, when the +first fruits must certainly be over-ripe, it were in good season for a +German Kiamel to step forward with the question: "Planter, what art thou +about? Let us see what thy delving, and the loud clatter of thy cars and +wheelbarrows have produced?" And if the plantation stood before him like +that of the Gleichic Garden at Grand Cairo, in the sere and yellow leaf, +then were he well entitled, after due consideration of the matter, like +the Shiek, to shake his head in silence, to spit a squirt through his +teeth, and think within himself: If this be all, it might have stayed as +it was. For one day, as the gardener was surveying his new creation with +contentment, sitting in judgment on himself, and pronouncing that the +work praised the master, and that, everything considered, it had fallen +out better than he could have anticipated, his whole ideal being before +his eyes, not only what was then, but what was to be made of it,--the +Overseer, the Sultan's favourite, stept into the garden, and said: +"Frank, what art thou about? And how far art thou got with thy labour?" +The Count easily perceived that the produce of his genius would now have +to stand a rigorous criticism; however, he had long been ready for this +accident. He collected all his presence of mind, and answered +confidently: "Come, sir, and see! This former wilderness has obeyed the +hand of art, and is now moulded, after the pattern of Paradise, into a +scene which the Houris would not disdain to select for their abode." The +Shiek, hearing a professed artist speak with such apparent warmth and +satisfaction of his own performance, and giving the master credit for +deeper insight in his own sphere than he himself possessed, restrained +the avowal of his discontentment with the whole arrangement, modestly +ascribing this dislike to his inacquaintance with foreign taste, and +leaving the matter to rest on its own basis. Nevertheless, he could not +help putting one or two questions, for his own information; to which the +garden satrap was not in the least behindhand with his answers. + +"Where are the glorious fruit-trees," began the Shiek, "which stood on +this sandy level, loaded with peaches and sweet lemons, which solaced +the eye, and invited the promenader to refreshing enjoyment?" + +"They are all hewn away by the surface, and their place is no longer to +be found." + +"And why so?" + +"Could the garden of the Sultan admit such trash of trees, which the +commonest citizen of Cairo cultivates, and the fruit of which is offered +for sale by assloads every day?" + +"What moved thee to desolate the pleasant grove of dates and tamarinds, +which was the wanderer's shelter against the sultry noontide, and gave +him coolness and refection under the vault of its shady boughs?" + +"What has shade to do in a garden which, while the sun shoots forth +scorching beams, stands solitary and deserted, and only exhales its +balsamic odours when fanned by the cool breeze of evening?" + +"But did not this grove cover, with an impenetrable veil, the secrets of +love, when the Sultan, enchanted by the charms of a fair Circassian, +wished to hide his tenderness from the jealous eyes of her companions?" + +"An impenetrable veil is to be found in that bower, overarched with +honeysuckle and ivy; or in that cool grotto, where a crystal fountain +gushes out of artificial rocks into a basin of marble; or in that +covered walk with its trellises of clustering vines; or on the sofa, +pillowed with soft moss, in the rustic reed-house by the pond; nor will +any of these secret shrines afford lodging for destructive worms, and +buzzing insects, or keep away the wafting air, or shut up the free +prospect, as the gloomy grove of tamarinds did." + +"But why hast thou planted sage, and hyssop which grows upon the wall, +here on this spot where formerly the precious balm-tree of Mecca +bloomed?" + +"Because the Sultan wanted no Arabian, but a European garden. In Italy, +and in the German gardens of the Nürnbergers, no dates are ripened, nor +does any balm-tree of Mecca bloom." + +To this last argument no answer could be made. As neither the Shiek nor +any of the Heathen in Cairo had ever been at Nürnberg, he had nothing +for it but to take this version of the garden from Arabic into German, +on the word of the interpreter. Only, he could not bring himself to +think that the present horticultural reform had been managed by the +pattern of the Paradise, appointed by the Prophet for believing +Mussulmans; and, allowing the pretension to be true, he promised to +himself, from the joys of the future life, no very special consolation. +There was nothing for him, therefore, but, in the way above mentioned, +to shake his head, contemplatively squirt a dash of liquid out over his +beard, and go the way whence he had come. + +The Sultan who at that time swayed the Egyptian sceptre was the gallant +Malek al Aziz Othman, a son of the renowned Saladin. The fame of Sultan +Malek rests less upon his qualities in the field or the cabinet, than +upon the unexampled numerousness of his offspring. Of princes he had so +many, that had every one of them been destined to wear a crown, he might +have stocked with them all the kingdoms of the then known world. +Seventeen years ago, however, this copious spring had, one hot summer, +finally gone dry. Princess Melechsala terminated the long series of the +Sultanic progeny; and, in the unanimous opinion of the Court, she was +the jewel of the whole. She enjoyed to its full extent the prerogative +of youngest children, preference to all the rest; and this distinction +was enhanced by the circumstance, that of all the Sultan's daughters, +she alone had remained in life; while Nature had adorned her with so +many charms, that they enchanted even the paternal eye. For this must in +general be conceded to the Oriental Princes, that in the scientific +criticism of female beauty they are infinitely more advanced than our +Occidentals, who are every now and then betraying their imperfect +culture in this point.[18] Melechsala was the pride of the Sultan's +family; her brothers themselves were unremitting in attentions to her, +and in efforts to outdo each other in affectionate regard. The grave +Divan was frequently employed in considering what Prince, by means of +her, might be connected, in the bonds of love, with the interest of the +Egyptian state. This her royal father made his smallest care; he was +solely and incessantly concerned to grant this darling of his heart her +every wish, to keep her spirit always in a cheerful mood, that no cloud +might overcast the serene horizon of her brow. + + [18] _Journal of Fashions_, June 1786. + +The first years of childhood she had passed under the superintendence of +a nurse, who was a Christian, and of Italian extraction. This slave had +in early youth been kidnapped from the beach of her native town by a +Barbary pirate; sold in Alexandria; and, by the course of trade, +transmitted from one hand to another, till at last she had arrived in +the palace of the Sultan, where her hale constitution recommended her to +this office, which she filled with the greatest reputation. Though less +tuneful than the French court-nurse, who used to give the signal for a +general chorus over all Versailles, whenever she uplifted, with +melodious throat, her _Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre_; yet nature had +sufficiently indemnified her by a glibness of tongue, in which she was +unrivalled. She knew as many tales and stories as the fair Sheherazade +in the Thousand-and-one Nights; a species of entertainment for which it +would appear the race of Sultans, in the privacy of their seraglios, +have considerable liking. The Princess, at least, found pleasure in it, +not for a thousand nights, but for a thousand weeks; and when once a +maiden has attained the age of a thousand weeks, she can no longer be +contented with the histories of others, for she sees materials in +herself to make a history of her own. In process of time, the gifted +waiting-woman changed her nursery-tales with the theory of European +manners and customs; and being herself a warm patriot, and recollecting +her native country with delight, she painted the superiorities of Italy +so vividly, that the fancy of her tender nursling became filled with the +subject, and the pleasant impression never afterwards faded from her +memory. The more this fair Princess grew in stature, the stronger grew +in her the love for foreign decoration; and her whole demeanour shaped +itself according to the customs of Europe rather than of Egypt. + +From youth upwards she had been a great lover of flowers: part of her +occupation had consisted in forming, according to the manner of the +Arabs, a constant succession of significant nosegays and garlands; with +which, in delicate expressiveness, she used to disclose the emotions of +her heart. Nay, she at last grew so inventive, that, by combining +flowers of various properties, she could compose, and often very +happily, whole sentences and texts of the Koran. These she would then +submit to her playmates for interpretation, which they seldom failed to +hit. Thus one day, for example, she formed with Chalcedonic Lychnis the +figure of a heart; surrounded it with white Roses and Lilies; fastened +under it two mounting Kingsweeds, enclosing a beautifully marked Anemone +between them; and her women, when she showed them, the wreath, +unanimously read: Innocence of heart is above Birth and Beauty. She +frequently presented her slaves with fresh nosegays: and these +flower-donations commonly included praise or blame for their receivers. +A garland of Peony-roses censured levity; the swelling Poppy, dulness +and vanity; a bunch of odoriferous Hyacinths, with drooping bells, was a +panegyric for modesty; the gold Lily, which shuts her leaves at sunset, +for prudence; the Marine Convolvulus rebuked eye-service; and the +blossoms of the Thorn-Apple, with the Daisy whose roots are poisonous, +indicated slander and private envy. + +Father Othman took a secret pleasure in this sprightly play of his +daughter's fancy, though he himself had no talent for deciphering these +witty hieroglyphics, and was frequently obliged to look with the +spectacles of his whole Divan before he could pierce their meaning. The +exotic taste of the Princess was not hidden from him; and though, as a +plain Mussulman, he could not sympathise with her in it, he endeavoured, +as a tender and indulgent parent, rather to maintain than to suppress +this favourite tendency of his daughter. He fell upon the project of +combining her passion for flowers with her preference for foreign parts, +and laying out a garden for her in the taste of the Franks. This idea +appeared to him so happy, that he lost not a moment in imparting it to +his favourite, Shiek Kiamel, and pressing him with the strictest +injunctions to realise it as speedily as possible. The Shiek, well +knowing that his master's wishes were for him commands, which he must +obey without reply, presumed not to mention the difficulties which he +saw in the attempt. He himself understood as little about European +gardens as the Sultan; and in all Cairo there was no mortal known to +him, with whom he might find counsel in the business. Therefore he made +search among the Christian slaves for a man skilful in gardening; and +lighted exactly on the wrong hand for extricating him from his +difficulty. It was no wonder, then, that Shiek Kiamel shook his head +contemplatively as he inspected the procedure of this horticultural +improvement; for he was apprehensive, that if it delighted the Sultan as +little as it did himself, he might be involved in a heavy +responsibility, and his favouriteship, at the very least, might take +wings and fly away. + +At Court, this project had hitherto been treated as a secret, and the +entrance of the place prohibited to every one in the seraglio. The +Sultan purposed to surprise his daughter with this present on her +birthday; to conduct her with ceremony into the garden, and make it over +to her as her own. This day was now approaching; and his Highness had a +wish to take a view of everything beforehand, to get acquainted with the +new arrangements; that he might give himself the happiness of pointing +out in person to his daughter the peculiar beauties of her garden. He +communicated this to the Shiek, whom the tidings did not much +exhilarate; and who, in consequence, composed a short defensive oration, +which he fondly hoped might extricate his head from the noose, if the +Sultan showed himself dissatisfied with the appearance of his Christian +garden. + +"Commander of the Faithful," he purposed to say, "thy nod is the +director of my path; my feet hasten whither thou leadest them, and my +hand holds fast what thou committest to it. Thou wishedst a garden after +the manner of the Franks: here stands it before thy eyes. These +untutored barbarians have no gardens; but meagre wastes of sand, which, +in their own rude climate, where no dates or lemons ripen, and there is +neither Kalaf nor Bahobab,[19] they plant with grass and weeds. For the +curse of the Prophet has smitten with perpetual barrenness the plains of +the Unbeliever, and forbidden him any foretaste of Paradise by the +perfume of the Mecca balm-tree, or the enjoyment of spicy fruits." + + [19] _Kalaf_, a shrub, from whose blossoms a liquor is extracted, + resembling our cherry-water, and much used in domestic medicine. + _Bahobab_, a sort of fruit, in great esteem among the Egyptians. + +The day was far spent, when the Sultan, attended only by the Shiek, +stept into the garden, in high expectation of the wonders he was to +behold. A wide unobstructed prospect over a part of the city, and the +mirror surface of the Nile with its _Musherns_, _Shamdecks_ and +_Sheomeons_[20] sailing to and fro; in the background, the +skyward-pointing pyramids, and a chain of blue vapoury mountains, met +his eye from the upper terrace, no longer shrouded-in by the leafy grove +of palms. A refreshing breath of air was also stirring in the place, and +fanning him agreeably. Crowds of new objects pressed on him from every +side. The garden had in truth got a strange foreign aspect; and the old +park which had been his promenade from youth upwards, and had long since +wearied him by its everlasting sameness, was no longer to be recognised. +The knowing Kurt had judged wisely, that the charm of novelty would have +its influence. The Sultan tried this horticultural metamorphosis not by +the principles of a critic, but by its first impression on the senses; +and as these are easily decoyed into contentment by the bait of +singularity, the whole seemed good and right to him there as he found +it. Even the crooked unsymmetrical walks, overlaid with hard stamped +gravel, gave his feet an elastic force, and a light firm tread, +accustomed as he was to move on nothing else but Persian carpets, or on +the soft greensward. He could not satisfy himself with wandering up and +down the labyrinthic walks; and he showed himself especially contented +with the rich variety of wild flowers, which had been fostered and +cultivated with the greatest care, though they were blossoming of their +own accord, outside the wall, with equal luxuriance and in greater +multitude. + + [20] Various sorts of sailing craft in use there. + +At last, having placed himself upon a seat, he turned to the Shiek with +a cheerful countenance, and said: "Kiamel, thou hast not deceived my +expectation: I well anticipated that thou wouldst transform me this old +park into something singular, and diverse from the fashion of the land; +and now I will not hide my satisfaction from thee. Melechsala may accept +thy work as a garden after the manner of the Franks." + +The Shiek, when he heard his despot talk in this dialect, marvelled much +that all things took so well; and blessed himself that he had held his +tongue, and retained his defensive oration to himself. Perceiving that +the Sultan seemed to look upon the whole as his invention, he directly +turned the rudder of his talk to the favourable breeze which was +rustling his sails, and spoke thus: "Puissant Commander of the Faithful, +be it known to thee that thy obedient slave took thought with himself +day and night how he might produce out of this old date-grove, at thy +beck and order, something unexampled, the like of which had never been +in Egypt before. Doubtless it was an inspiration of the Prophet that +suggested the idea of planning it according to the pattern of Paradise; +for I trusted, that by so doing I should not fail to meet the intention +of thy Highness." + +The worthy Sultan's conception of the Paradise, which to all appearance +by the course of nature he must soon become possessed of, had still been +exceedingly confused; or rather, like the favoured of fortune, who take +their ease in this lower world, he had never troubled himself much about +the other. But whenever any Dervish or Iman, or other spiritual person, +mentioned Paradise, some image of his old park used to rise on his +fancy; and the park was not by any means his favourite scene. Now, +however, his imagination had been steered on quite a different tack. The +new picture of his future happiness filled his soul with joy; at least +he could now suppose that Paradise might not be so dull as he had +hitherto figured it: and believing that he now possessed a model of it +on the small scale, he formed a high opinion of the garden; and +expressed this forthwith, by directly making Shiek Kiamel a Bey, and +presenting him with a splendid caftan. Your thorough-paced courtier +belies his nature in no quarter of the world: Kiamel, without the +slightest hesitation, modestly appropriated the reward of a service +which his functionary had performed; not uttering a syllable about him +to the Sultan, and thinking him rather too liberally rewarded by a few +aspers which he added to his daily pay. + +About the time when the Sun enters the Ram, a celestial phenomenon, +which in our climates is the watch-word for winter to commence his +operation; but under the milder sky of Egypt announces the finest season +of the year, the Flower of the World stept forth into the garden which +had been prepared for her, and found it altogether to her foreign taste. +She herself was, in truth, its greatest ornament: any scene where she +had wandered, had it been a desert in Arabia the Stony, or a Greenland +ice-field, would, in the eyes of a gallant person, have been changed +into Elysium at her appearance. The wilderness of flowers, which chance +had mingled in interminable rows, gave equal occupation to her eye and +her spirit: the disorder itself she assimilated, by her sprightly +allegories, to methodical arrangement. + +According to the custom of the country, every time she entered the +garden, all specimens of the male sex, planters, diggers, +water-carriers, were expelled by her guard of Eunuchs. The Grace for +whom our artist worked was thus hidden from his eyes, much as he could +have wished for once to behold this Flower of the World, which had so +long been a riddle in his botany. But as the Princess used to overstep +the fashions of the East in many points, so by degrees, while she grew +to like the garden more and more, and to pay it several visits daily, +she began to feel obstructed and annoyed by the attendance of her guard +sallying out before her in solemn parade, as if the Sultan had been +riding to Mosque in the Bairam festival. She frequently appeared alone, +or leaning on the arm of some favourite waiting-woman; always, however, +with a thin veil over her face, and a little rush basket in her hand: +she wandered up and down the walks, plucking flowers, which, according +to custom, she arranged into emblems of her thoughts, and distributed +among her people. + +One morning, before the hot season of the day, while the dewdrops were +still reflecting all the colours of the rainbow from the grass, she +visited her Tempe to enjoy the cool morning air, just as her gardener +was employed in lifting from the ground some faded plants, and replacing +them by others newly blown, which he was carefully transporting in +flower-pots, and then cunningly inserting in the soil with all their +appurtenances, as if by a magic vegetation they had started from the +bosom of the earth in a single night. The Princess noticed with pleasure +this pretty deception of the senses, and having now found out the secret +of the flowers which she plucked away being daily succeeded by fresh +ones, so that there was never any want, she thought of turning her +discovery to advantage, and instructing the gardener how and when to +arrange them, and make them blossom. On raising his eyes, the Count +beheld this female Angel, whom he took for the possessor of the garden, +for she was encircled with celestial charms as with a halo. He was so +surprised by this appearance that he dropped a flower-pot from his +hands, forgetful of the precious colocassia contained in it, which ended +its tender life as tragically as the Sieur Pilastre de Rosier, though +both only fell into the bosom of their mother Earth. + +The Count stood petrified like a statue without life or motion; one +might have broken off his nose, as the Turks do with stone statues in +temples and gardens, and never have aroused him. But the sweet voice of +the Princess, who opened her purple lips, recalled him to his senses. +"Christian," said she, "be not afraid! It is my blame that thou art here +beside me; go forward with thy work, and order thy flowers as I shall +bid thee."--"Glorious Flower of the World!" replied the gardener, "in +whose splendour all the colours of this blossomy creation wax pale, thou +reignest here as in thy firmament, like the Star-queen on the +battlements of Heaven. Let thy nod enliven the hand of the happiest +among thy slaves, who kisses his fetters, so thou think him worthy to +perform thy commands." The Princess had not expected that a slave would +open his mouth to her, still less pay her compliments, and her eyes had +been directed rather to the flowers than the planter. She now deigned to +cast a glance on him, and was astonished to behold a man of the most +noble form, surpassing in masculine grace all that she had ever seen or +dreamed of. + +Count Ernst of Gleichen had been celebrated for his manly beauty over +all Germany. At the tournament of Würzburg, he had been the hero of the +dames. When he raised his visor to take air, the running of the boldest +spearman was lost for every female eye; all looked on him alone; and +when he closed his helmet to begin a course, the chastest bosom heaved +higher, and all hearts beat anxious sympathy with the lordly Knight. The +partial hand of the Duke of Bavaria's love-sick niece had crowned him +with a guerdon, which the young man blushed to receive. His seven years' +durance in the Grated Tower, had indeed paled his blooming cheeks, +relaxed his firm-set limbs, and dulled the fire of his eyes; but the +enjoyment of the free atmosphere, and Labour, the playmate of Health, +had now made good the loss, with interest. He was flourishing like a +laurel, which has pined throughout the long winter in the greenhouse, +and at the return of spring sends forth new leaves, and gets a fair +verdant crown. + +With her predilection for all foreign things, the Princess could not +help contemplating with satisfaction the attractive figure of the +stranger; and it never struck her that the sight of an Endymion may have +quite another influence on a maiden's heart, than the creation of a +milliner, set up for show in her booth. With kind gentle voice, she gave +her handsome gardener orders how to manage the arrangement of his +flowers; often asked his own, advice respecting it, and talked with him +so long as any horticultural idea was in her head. She left him at +length, but scarcely was she gone five paces when she turned to give +him fresh commissions; and as she took a promenade along the +serpentine-walk, she called him again to her, and put new questions to +him, and proposed new improvements before she went away. As the day +began to cool, she again felt the want of fresh air, and scarcely had +the sun returned to gild the waxing Nile, when a wish to see the +awakening flowers unfold their blossoms, brought her back into the +garden. Day after day her love of fresh air and awakening flowers +increased; and in these visits she never failed to go directly to the +place where her florist was labouring, and give him new orders, which he +strove punctually and speedily to execute. + +One day the Bostangi,[21] when she came to see him, was not to be found; +she wandered up and down the intertwisted walks, regardless of the +flowers that were blooming around her, and, by the high tints of their +colours and the balmy air of their perfumes, as if striving with each +other to attract her attention; she expected him behind every bush, +searched every branching plant that might conceal him, fancied she +should find him in the grotto, and, on his failing to appear, made a +pilgrimage to all the groves in the garden, hoping to surprise him +somewhere asleep, and enjoying the embarrassment which he would feel +when she awoke him; but the head-gardener nowhere met her eye. By chance +she came upon the stoical Viet, the Count's Groom, a dull piece of +mechanism, whom his master had been able to make nothing out of but a +drawer of water. On perceiving her, he wheeled with his water-cans to +the left-about, that he might not meet her, but she called him to her, +and asked, Where the Bostangi was? "Where else," said he, in his sturdy +way, "but in the hands of the Jewish quack-salver, who will sweat the +soul from his body in a trice?" These tidings cut the lovely Princess to +the heart, for she had never dreamed that it was sickness which +prevented her Bostangi from appearing at his post. She immediately +returned to her palace, where her women saw, with consternation, that +the serene brow of their mistress was overcast, as when the moist breath +of the south wind has dimmed the mirror of the sky, and the hovering +vapours have collected into clouds. In retiring to the Seraglio, she had +plucked a variety of flowers, but all were of a mournful character, and +bound with cypress and rosemary, indicating clearly enough the sadness +of her mood. She did the same for several days, which brought her +council of women into much perplexity, and many deep debates about the +cause of their fair Melechsala's grief; but withal, as in female +consultations too often happens, they arrived at no conclusion, as in +calling for the vote there was such a dissonance of opinions, that no +harmonious note could be discovered in them. The truth was, Count +Ernst's too zealous efforts to anticipate every nod of the Princess, and +realise whatever she expressed the faintest hint of, had so acted on a +frame unused to labour, that his health suffered under it, and he was +seized with a fever. Yet the Jewish pupil of Galen, or rather the +Count's fine constitution, mastered the disease, and in a few days he +was able to resume his tasks. The instant the Princess noticed him, the +clouds fled away from her brow; and her female senate, to whom her +melancholy humour had remained an inexplicable riddle, now unanimously +voted that some flower-plant, of whose progress she had been in doubt, +had now taken root and begun to thrive,--a conclusion not inaccurate, if +taken allegorically. + + [21] Head-gardener. + +Princess Melechsala was still as innocent in heart as she had come from +the hands of Nature. She had never got the smallest warning or +foreboding of the rogueries, which Amor is wont to play on inexperienced +beauties. Hitherto, on the whole, there has been a want of _Hints for +Princesses and Maidens_ in regard to love; though a satisfactory theory +of that kind might do infinitely greater service to the world than any +_Hints for the Instructors of Princes_;[22] a class of persons who +regard no hint, however broad, nay sometimes take it ill; whereas +maidens never fail to notice every hint, and pay heed to it, their +perception being finer, and a secret hint precisely their affair. The +Princess was still in the first novitiate of love, and had not the +slightest knowledge of its mysteries. She therefore yielded wholly to +her feelings, without scrupling in the least, or ever calling a Divan of +the three confidantes of her heart, Reason, Prudence and Reflection, to +deliberate on the business. Had she done so, doubtless the concern she +felt in the circumstances of the Bostangi would have indicated to her +that the germ of an unknown passion was already vegetating strongly in +her heart, and Reason and Reflection would have whispered to her that +this passion was _love_. Whether in the Count's heart there was any +similar process going on in secret, we have no diplomatic evidence +before us: his over-anxious zeal to execute the commands of his +mistress might excite some such conjecture; and if so, a bunch of Lovage +with a withered stalk of Honesty, tied up together, might have befitted +him as an allegorical nosegay. Perhaps, however, it was nothing but an +innocent chivalrous feeling which occasioned this distinguished +alacrity; for in those times it was the most inviolable law of +Knighthood, that its professors should in all things rigorously conform +to the injunctions of the fair. + + [22] Allusion to a small Treatise, which, about the time Musæus + wrote his story, had appeared under that title.--WIELAND. + +No day now passed without the good Melechsala's holding trustful +conversation with her Bostangi. The soft tone of her voice delighted his +ear, and every one of her expressions seemed to say something flattering +to him. Had he been endowed with the self-confidence of a court lord, he +would have turned so fair a situation to profit for making farther +advances: but he constantly restrained himself within the bounds of +modesty. And as the Princess was entirely inexperienced in the science +of coquetry, and knew not how to set about encouraging the timid +shepherd to the stealing of her heart, the whole intrigue revolved upon +the axis of mutual good-will; and might undoubtedly have long continued +so revolving, had not Chance, which we all know commonly officiates as +_primum mobile_ in every change of things, ere long given the scene +another form. + +About sunset, one very beautiful day, the Princess visited the garden; +her soul was as bright as the horizon; she talked delightfully with her +Bostangi about many indifferent matters, for the mere purpose of +speaking to him; and after he had filled her flower-basket, she seated +herself in a grove, and bound up a nosegay, with which she presented +him. The Count, as a mark of reverence to his fair mistress, fastened +it, with a look of surprise and delight, to the breast of his waistcoat, +without ever dreaming that the flowers might have a secret import; for +these hieroglyphics were hidden from his eyes, as from the eyes of a +discerning public the secret wheel-work of the famous Wooden +Chess-player. And as the Princess did not afterwards expound that secret +import, it has withered away with the blossoms, and been lost to the +knowledge of posterity. Meanwhile she herself supposed that the language +of flowers must be as plain to all mortals as their mother-tongue; she +never doubted, therefore, but her favourite had understood the whole +quite right; and as he looked at her with such an air of reverence when +he took the nosegay, she accepted his gestures as expressions of modest +thanks for the praise of his activity and zeal, which, in all +probability, the flowers had been meant to convey. She now took a +thought of putting his inventiveness to proof in her turn, and trying +whether in this flowery dialect of thanks he could pay a pretty +compliment; or, in a word, translate the present aspect of his +countenance, which betrayed the feelings of his heart, into +flower-writing; and accordingly, she asked him for a nosegay of his +composition. The Count, affected by such a proof of condescending +goodness, darted to the end of the garden, into a remote greenhouse, +where he had established his flower-dépôt, and out of which he was in +the habit of transferring his plants to the soil as they came into +blossom, without stirring them from their pots. There chanced to be an +aromatic plant just then in bloom, a flower named _Mushirumi_[23] by the +Arabs, and which hitherto had not appeared in the garden. With this +novelty Count Ernst imagined he might give a little harmless pleasure to +his fair florist; and accordingly, for want of a salver, having put a +broad fig-leaf under it, he held it to her on his knees, with a look +expressive of humility, yet claiming a little merit; for he thought to +earn a word of praise by it. But, with the utmost consternation, he +perceived that the Princess turned away her face, and, so far as he +could notice through the veil, cast down her eyes as if ashamed, and +looked on the ground, without uttering a word. She hesitated, and seemed +embarrassed in accepting it; not deigning to cast a look on it, but +laying it beside her on the seat. Her gay humour had departed; she +assumed a majestic attitude, announcing haughty earnestness; and after a +few moments left the grove, without taking any farther notice of her +favourite, not, however, leaving her _Mushirumi_ behind her, but +carefully concealing it under her veil. + + [23] _Hyacinthus Muscari_. + +The Count was thunderstruck at this enigmatical catastrophe; he could +not for his life understand the meaning of this strange behaviour, and +continued sitting on his knees, in the position of a man doing penance, +for some time after his Princess had left the place. It grieved him to +the heart that he should have displeased and alienated this divinity, +whom, for her condescending kindness, he venerated as a Saint of Heaven. +When his first consternation had subsided, he slunk home to his +dwelling, timid and rueful, like a man conscious of some heavy crime. +The mettled Kurt had supper on the table; but his master would not +bite, and kept forking about in the plate, without carrying a morsel to +his lips. By this the trusty _Dapifer_ perceived that all was not right +with the Count; wherefore he vanished speedily from the room, and +uncorked a flask of Chian wine; which Grecian care-dispeller did not +fail in its effect. The Count became communicative, and disclosed to his +faithful Squire the adventure in the garden. Their speculations on it +were protracted to a late hour, without affording any tenable hypothesis +for the displeasure of the Princess; and as with all their pondering +nothing could be discovered, master and servant betook them to repose. +The latter found it without difficulty; the former sought it in vain, +and watched throughout the painful night, till the dawn recalled him to +his employments. + +At the hour when Melechsala used to visit him, the Count kept an eager +eye on the entrance, but the door of the Seraglio did not open. He +waited the second day; then the third: the door of the Seraglio was as +if walled up within. Had not the Count of Gleichen been a sheer idiot in +flower-language, he would readily have found the key to this surprising +behaviour of the Princess. By presenting the flower to her, he had, in +fact, without knowing a syllable of the matter, made a formal +declaration of love, and that in no Platonic sense. For when an Arab +lover, by some trusty hand, privily transmits a _Mushirumi_ flower to +his mistress, he gives her credit for penetration enough to discover the +only rhyme which exists in the Arabian language for the word. This rhyme +is _Ydskerumi_, which, delicately rendered, means _reward of love_.[24] +To this invention it must be conceded, that there cannot be a more +compendious method of proceeding in the business than this of the +_Mushirumi_, which might well deserve the imitation of our Western +lovers. The whole insipid scribbling of _Billets-doux_, which often cost +their authors so much toil and brain-beating, often when they come into +the wrong hand are pitilessly mangled by hard-hearted jesters, often by +the fair receivers themselves mistreated or falsely interpreted, might +by this means be dispensed with. It need not be objected that the +_Mushirumi_, or _Muscadine-hyacinth_, flowers but rarely and for a short +time in our climates; because an imitation of it might be made by our +Parisian or native gumflower-makers, to supply the wants of lovers at +all seasons of the year; and an inland trade in this domestic +manufacture might easily afford better profit than our present +speculations with America. Nor would a Chevalier in Europe have to +dread that the presenting of so eloquent a flower might be charged upon +him as a capital offence, for which his life might have to answer, as in +the East could very simply happen. Had not Princess Melechsala been so +kind and soft a soul, or had not omnipotent Love subdued the pride of +the Sultan's daughter, the Count, for this flower-gallantry, innocently +as on his part it was intended, must have paid with his head. But the +Princess was in the main so little indignant at receiving this +expressive flower, that on the contrary the fancied proffer struck a +chord in her heart, which had long been vibrating before, and drew from +it a melodious tone. Yet her virgin modesty was hard put to proof, when +her favourite, as she supposed, presumed to entreat of her the reward of +love. It was on this account that she had turned away her face at his +proposal. A purple blush, which the veil had hidden from the Count, +overspread her tender cheeks, her snow-white bosom heaved, and her heart +beat higher beneath it. Bashfulness and tenderness were fighting a +fierce battle within it, and her embarrassment was such that she could +not utter a word. For a time she had been in doubt what to do with the +perplexing _Mushirumi_; to disdain it, was to rob her lover of all hope; +to accept it, was the promise that his wishes should be granted. The +balance of resolution wavered, now to this side, now to that, till at +length love decided; she took the flower with her, and this at least +secured the Count's head, in the first place. But in her solitary +chamber, there doubtless ensued much deep deliberation about the +consequences which this step might produce; and the situation of the +Princess was the more difficult, that in her ignorance of the concerns +of the heart, she knew not how to act of herself; and durst not risk +disclosing the affair to any other, if she would not leave the life of +her beloved and her own fate at the caprice of a third party. + + [24] Hasselquist's _Travels in Palestine_. + +It is easier to watch a goddess at the bath than to penetrate the +secrets of an Oriental Princess in the bedchamber of the Seraglio. It is +therefore difficult for the historian to determine whether Melechsala +left the _Mushirumi_ which she had accepted of to wither on her +dressing-table; or put it in fresh water, to preserve it for the solace +of her eyes as long as possible. In like manner, it is difficult to +discover whether this fair Princess spent the night asleep, with gay +dreams dancing round her, or awake, a victim to the wasting cares of +love. The latter is more probable, since early in the morning there +arose great dole and lamentation in the Palace, as the Princess made +her appearance with pale cheeks and languid eyes; so that her female +council dreaded the approach of grievous sickness. The Court Physician +was called in; the same bearded Hebrew who had floated off the Count's +fever in his sweat-bath; he was now to examine the pulse of a more +delicate patient. According to the custom of the country, she was lying +on a sofa, with a large screen in front of it, provided with a little +opening, through which she stretched her beautifully turned arm, twice +and three times wrapt with fine muslin, to protect it from the profane +glance of a masculine eye, "God help me!" whispered the Doctor into the +chief waiting-woman's ear: "Things have a bad look with her Highness; +the pulse is quivering like a mouse-tail." At the same time, with +practical policy, he shook his head dubitatingly, as cunning doctors are +wont; ordered abundance of Kalaf and other cordials, and with a shrug of +the shoulders predicted a dangerous fever. + +Nevertheless, these alarming symptoms, which the medical gentleman +considered as so many heralds announcing the approach of a malignant +distemper, appeared to be nothing more than the consequences of a bad +night's-rest; for the patient having taken her _siesta_ about noon, +found herself, to the Israelite's astonishment, out of danger in the +evening; needed no more drugs, and by the orders of her Æsculapius was +required merely to keep quiet for a day or two. This space she employed +in maturely deliberating her intrigue, and devising ways and means for +fulfilling the demands of the _Mushirumi_. She was diligently occupied, +inventing, proving, choosing and rejecting. One hour fancy smoothed away +the most impassable mountains; and the next, she saw nothing but clefts +and abysses, from the brink of which she shuddered back, and over which +the boldest imagination could not build a bridge. Yet on all these rocks +of offence she grounded the firm resolution to obey the feelings of her +heart, come what come might; a piece of heroism, not unusual with Mother +Eve's daughters; which in the mean time they often pay for with the +happiness and contentment of their lives. + +The bolted gate of the Seraglio at last went up, and the fair Melechsala +again passed through it into the garden, like the gay Sun through the +portals of the East. The Count observed her entrance from behind a grove +of ivy; and there began a knocking in his heart as in a mill; a thumping +and hammering as if he had just run a race. Was it joy, was it fear, or +anxious expecting of what this visit would announce to him--forgiveness +or disfavour? Who can unfold so accurately the heart of man, as to trace +the origin and cause of every start and throb in this irritable muscle? +In short, Count Ernst did feel considerable palpitations of the heart, +so soon as he descried the Princess from afar; but of their Whence or +Why, he could give his own mind no account. She very soon dismissed her +suite; and from all the circumstances it was clear that poetical +anthology was not her business in the present case. She bent her course +to the grove; and as the Count was not playing hide-and-seek with much +adroitness or zeal, she found him with great ease. While she was still +at some distance, he fell upon his knees with mute eloquence before her, +not venturing to raise his eyes, and looked as ruefully as a delinquent +when the judge is ready to pass sentence on him. The Princess, however, +with a soft voice and friendly gesture, said to him: "Bostangi, rise and +follow me into this grove." Bostangi obeyed in silence; and she having +taken her seat, spoke thus: "The will of the Prophet be done! I have +called on him three days and three nights long, to direct me by a sign +if my conduct were wavering between error and folly. He is silent; and +approves the purpose of the Ringdove to free the captive Linnet from the +chain with which he toilsomely draws water, and to nestle by his side. +The Daughter of the Sultan has not disdained the _Mushirumi_ from thy +fettered hand. My lot is cast! Loiter not in seeking the Iman, that he +lead thee to the Mosque, and confer on thee the Seal of the Faithful. +Then will my Father, at my request, cause thee to grow as the +Nile-stream, when it oversteps its narrow banks, and pours itself into +the valley. And when thou art governing a Province as its Bey, thou +mayest confidently raise thy eyes to the throne: the Sultan will not +reject the son-in-law whom the Prophet has appointed for his daughter." + +Like the conjuration of some potent Fairy, this address again +transformed the Count into the image of a stone statue; he gazed at the +Princess without life or motion; his cheeks grew pale, and his tongue +was chained. On the whole, he had caught the meaning of the speech: but +how he was to reach the unexpected honour of becoming the Sultan of +Egypt's son-in-law was an unfathomable mystery. In this predicament, he +certainly, for an accepted wooer, did not make the most imposing figure +in the world; but awakening love, like the rising sun, coats everything +with gold. The Princess took his dumb astonishment for excess of +rapture, and attributed his visible perplexity of spirit to the +overwhelming feeling of his unexpected success. Yet in her heart there +arose some virgin scruples lest she might have gone too fast to work +with the ultimatum of the courtship, and outrun the expectations of her +lover; therefore she again addressed him, and said: "Thou art silent, +Bostangi? Let it not surprise thee that the perfume of thy _Mushirumi_ +breathes back on thee the odour of my feelings; in the curtain of deceit +my heart has never been shrouded. Ought I by wavering hope to increase +the toil of the steep path, which thy foot must climb before the bridal +chamber can be opened to thee?" + +During this speech the Count had found time to recover his senses; he +roused himself, like a warrior from sleep when the alarm is sounded in +the camp. "Resplendent Flower of the East," said he, "how shall the tiny +herb that grows among the thorns presume to blossom under thy shadow? +Would not the watchful hand of the gardener pluck it out as an unseemly +weed, and cast it forth, to be trodden under foot on the highway, or +withered in the scorching sun? If a breath of air stir up the dust, that +it soil thy royal diadem, are not a hundred hands in instant employment +wiping it away? How should a slave desire the precious fruit, which +ripens in the garden of the Sultan for the palate of Princes? At thy +command I sought a pleasant flower for thee, and found the _Mushirumi_, +the name of which was as unknown to me, as its secret import still is. +Think not that I meant aught with it but to obey thee." + +This response distorted the fair plan of the Princess very considerably. +She had not expected that it could be possible for a European not to +combine with the _Mushirumi_, when presented to a lady, the same thought +which the two other quarters of the world unite with it. The error was +now clear as day; but love, which had once for all taken root in her +heart, now dextrously winded and turned the matter; as a seamstress does +a piece of work which she has cut wrong, till at last she makes ends +meet notwithstanding. The Princess concealed her embarrassment by the +playing of her fair hands with the hem of her veil; and, after a few +moments' silence, she said, with gentle gracefulness: "Thy modesty +resembles the night-violet, which covets not the glitter of the sun, yet +is loved for its aromatic odour. A happy chance has been the interpreter +of thy heart, and elicited the feelings of mine. They are no longer hid +from thee. Follow the doctrine of the Prophet, and thou art on the way +to gain thy wish." + +The Count now began to perceive the connection of the matter more and +more distinctly; the darkness vanished from his mind by degrees, as the +shades of night before the dawn. Here, then, the Tempter, whom, in the +durance of the Grated Tower, he had expected under the mask of a horned +satyr, or a black shrivelled gnome, appeared to him in the figure of +winged Cupid, and was employing all his treacherous arts, persuading him +to deny his faith, to forsake his tender spouse, and forget the pledges +of her chaste love. "It stands in thy power," said he, "to change thy +iron fetters with the kind ties of love. The first beauty in the world +is smiling on thee, and with her the enjoyment of all earthly happiness! +A flame, pure as the fire of Vesta, burns for thee in her bosom, and +would waste her life, should folly and caprice overcloud thy soul to the +refusing her favour. Conceal thy faith a little while under the turban; +Father Gregory has water enough in his absolution-cistern to wash thee +clean from such a sin. Who knows but thou mayest earn the merit of +saving the pure maiden's soul, and leading it to the Heaven for which it +was intended?" To this deceitful oration the Count would willingly have +listened longer, had not his good Angel twitched him by the ear, and +warned him to give no farther heed to the voice of temptation. So he +thought that he must not speak with flesh and blood any longer, but by +one bold effort gain the victory over himself. The word died away more +than once in his mouth; but at last he took heart, and said: "The +longing of the wanderer, astray in the Libyan wilderness, to cool his +parched lips in the fountains of the Nile, but aggravates the torments +of his thirsty heart, when he must still languish in the torrid waste. +Therefore think not, O best and gentlest of thy sex, that such a wish +has awakened within me, which, like a gnawing worm, would consume my +heart, since I could not nourish it with hope. Know that, in my home, I +am already joined by the indissoluble tie of marriage to a virtuous +wife, and her three tender children lisp their father's name. How could +a heart, torn asunder by sadness and longing, aspire to the Pearl of +Beauty, and offer her a divided love?" + +This explanation was distinct; and the Count believed that, as it were +by one stroke, and in the spirit of true knighthood, he had ended this +strife of love. He conceived that the Princess would now see her +over-hasty error, and renounce her plan. But here he was exceedingly +mistaken. The Princess could not bring herself to think that the Count, +a young blooming man, could be without eyes for her; she knew that she +was lovely; and this frank exposition of the state of his heart made no +impression on her whatever. According to the fashion of her country, she +had no thought of appropriating to herself the sole possession of it; +for, in the parabolic sport of the Seraglio, she had often heard, that +man's love is like a thread of silk, which may be split and parted, so +that every filament shall still remain a whole. In truth, a sensible +similitude; which the wit of our Occidental ladies has never yet lighted +on! Her father's Harem, had also, from her earliest years, set before +her numerous instances of sociality in love; the favourites of the +Sultan lived there with one another in the kindest unity. + +"Thou namest me the Flower of the World," replied the Princess; "but +behold, in this garden there are many flowers blossoming beside me, to +delight eye and heart by their variety of loveliness; nor do I forbid +thee to partake in this enjoyment along with me. Should I require of +thee, in thy own garden, to plant but a single flower, with the constant +sight of which thy eye would grow weary? Thy wife shall be sharer of the +happiness I am providing for thee; thou shalt bring her into thy Harem; +to me she shall be welcome; for thy sake she shall become my dearest +companion, and for thy sake she will love me in return. Her little +children also shall be mine; I will give them shade, that they bud +pleasantly, and take root in this foreign soil." + +The doctrine of Toleration in Love has, in our enlightened century, made +far slower progress than that of Toleration in Religion; otherwise this +declaration of the Princess could not seem to my fair readers so +repulsive, as in all probability it will. But Melechsala was an +Oriental; and under that mild sky, Megæra Jealousy has far less +influence on the lovelier half of the species than on the stronger; +whom, in return, she does indeed rule with an iron sceptre. + +Count Ernst was affected by this meek way of thinking; and who knows +what he might have resolved on, could he have depended on an equal +liberality of sentiment from his Ottilia at home, and contrived in any +way to overleap the other stone of stumbling which fronted him,--the +renunciation of his creed? He by no means hid this latter difficulty +from the goddess who was courting him so frankly; and, easy as it had +been for her to remove all previous obstacles, the present was beyond +her skill. The confidential session was adjourned, without any +settlement of this contested point. When the conference broke up, the +proposals stood as in a frontier conference between two neighbouring +states, where neither party will relinquish his rights, and the +adjustment of the matter is postponed to another term, while the +commissioners in the interim again live in peace with each other, and +enjoy good cheer together. + +In the secret conclave of the Count, the mettled Kurt, as we know, had a +seat and vote; his master opened to him in the evening the whole +progress of his adventure, for he was much disquieted; and it is very +possible that some spark of love may have sputtered over from the heart +of the Princess into his, too keen for the ashes of his lawful fire to +quench. An absence of seven years, the relinquished hope of ever being +re-united with the first beloved, and the offered opportunity of +occupying the heart as it desires, are three critical circumstances, +which, in so active a substance as love, may easily produce a +fermentation that shall quite change its nature. The sagacious Squire +pricked up his ears at hearing of these interesting events; and, as if +the narrow passage of the auditory nerves had not been sufficient to +convey the tidings fast enough into his brain, he likewise opened the +wide doorway of his mouth, and both heard and tasted the unexpected news +with great avidity. After maturely weighing everything, his vote ran +thus: To lay hold of the seeming hope of release with both hands, and +realise the Princess's plan; meanwhile, to do nothing either for it or +against it, and leave the issue to Heaven. "You are blotted out from the +book of the living," said he, "in your native land; from the abyss of +slavery there is no deliverance, if you do not hitch yourself up by the +rope of love. Your spouse, good lady, will never return to your +embraces. If, in seven years, sorrow for your loss has not overpowered +her and cut her off, Time has overpowered her sorrow, and she is happy +by the side of another. But, to renounce your religion! That is a hard +nut, in good sooth; too hard for you to crack. Yet there are means for +this, too. In no country on Earth is it the custom for the wife to teach +the husband what road to take for Heaven; no, she follows his steps, and +is led and guided by him as the cloud by the wind; looks neither to the +right hand nor to the left, nor behind her, like Lot's wife, who was +changed into a pillar of salt: for where the husband arrives, there is +her abode. I have a wife at home, too; but think you, if I were stuck in +Purgatory, she would hesitate to follow me, and waft fresh air upon my +poor soul with her fan? So, depend on it, the Princess will renounce her +false Prophet. If she love you truly, she will, to a certainty, be glad +to change her Paradise for ours." + +The mettled Kurt added much farther speaking to persuade his master that +he ought not to resist this royal passion, but to forget all other ties, +and free himself from his captivity. It did not strike him, that by his +confidence in the affection of his wife, he had recalled to his master's +memory the affection of his own amiable spouse; a remembrance which it +was his object to abolish. The heart of the Count felt crushed as in a +press; he rolled to this side and that on his bed; and his thoughts and +purposes ran athwart each other in the strangest perplexity, till, +towards morning, wearied out by this internal tumult, he fell into a +dead sleep. He dreamed that his fairest front-tooth had dropped, out, at +which he felt great grief and heaviness of heart; but on looking at the +gap in the mirror, to see whether it deformed him much, a fresh tooth +had grown forth in its place, fair and white as the rest, and the loss +could not be observed. So soon as he awoke, he felt a wish to have his +dream interpreted. The mettled Kurt soon hunted out a prophetic Gipsy, +who by trade read fortunes from the hand and brow, and also had the +talent of explaining dreams. The Count related his to her in all its +circumstances; and the dingy wrinkled Pythoness, after meditating long +upon it, opened her puckered mouth, and said: "What was dearest to thee +death has taken away, but fate will soon supply thy loss." + +Now, then, it was plain that the sage Squire's suppositions had been no +idle fancies, but that the good Ottilia, from sorrow at the loss of her +beloved husband, had gone down to the grave. The afflicted widower, who +as little doubted of this tragic circumstance as if it had been notified +to him on black-edged paper with seal and signature, felt all that a man +who values the integrity of his jaw must feel when he loses a tooth, +which bountiful Nature is about to replace by another; and comforted +himself under this dispensation with the well-known balm of widowers: +"It is the will of God; I must submit to it!" And now, holding himself +free and disengaged, he bent all his sails, hoisted his flags and +streamers, and steered directly for the haven of happy love. At the +next interview, he thought the Princess lovelier than ever; his looks +languished towards her, and her slender form enchanted his eye, and her +light soft gait was like the gait of a goddess, though she actually +moved the one foot past the other, in mortal wise, and did not, in the +style of goddesses, come hovering along the variegated sand-walk with +unbent limbs. "Bostangi," said she, with melodious voice, "hast thou +spoken to the Iman?" The Count was silent for a moment; he cast down his +beaming eyes, laid his hand submissively on his breast, and sank on his +knee before her. In this humble attitude, he answered resolutely: +"Exalted daughter of the Sultan! my life is at thy nod, but not my +faith. The former I will joyfully offer up to thee; but leave me the +latter, which is so interwoven with my soul, that only death can part +them." From this, it was apparent to the Princess that her fine +enterprise was verging towards shipwreck; wherefore she adopted a +heroical expedient, undoubtedly of far more certain effect than our +animal magnetism, with all its renowned virtues: she unveiled her face. +There stood she, in the full radiance of beauty, like the Sun when he +first raised his head from Chaos to hurl his rays over the gloomy Earth. +Soft blushes overspread her cheeks, and higher purple glowed upon her +lips; two beautifully-curved arches, on which love was sporting like the +many-coloured Iris on the rainbow, shaded her spirit-speaking eyes; and +two golden tresses kissed each other on her lily breast. The Count was +astonished and speechless; the Princess addressed him, and said: + +"See, Bostangi, whether this form pleases thy eyes, and whether it +deserves the sacrifice which I require of thee." + +"It is the form of an Angel," answered he, with looks of the highest +rapture, "and deserves to shine, encircled with a glory, in the courts +of the Christian Heaven, compared with which, the delights of the +Prophet's Paradise are empty shadows." + +These words, spoken with warmth and visible conviction, found free +entrance into the open heart of the Princess: especially, the glory, it +appeared to her, must be a sort of head-dress that would sit not ill +upon the face. Her quick fancy fastened on this idea, which she asked to +have explained; and the Count with all eagerness embraced this +opportunity of painting the Christian Heaven to her as charming as he +possibly could; he chose the loveliest images his mind would suggest; +and spoke with as much confidence as if he had descended directly from +the place on a mission to the Princess. Now, as it has pleased the +Prophet to endow the fair sex with very scanty expectations in the other +world, our apostolic preacher failed the less in his intentions; though +it cannot be asserted that he was preëminently qualified for the +missionary duty. But whether it were that Heaven itself favoured the +work of conversion, or that the foreign tastes of the Princess extended +to the spiritual conceptions of the Western nations, or that the person +of this Preacher to the Heathen mixed in the effect, certain it is she +was all ear, and would have listened to her pedagogue with pleasure for +many hours longer, had not the approach of night cut short their lesson. +For the present, she hastily dropped her veil, and retired to the +Seraglio. + +It is a well-known fact, that the children of princes are always very +docile, and make giant steps in every branch of profitable knowledge, as +our Journals often plainly enough testify; while the other citizens of +this world must content themselves with dwarf steps. It was not +surprising, therefore, that the Sultan of Egypt's daughter had in a +short space mastered the whole synopsis of Church doctrine as completely +as her teacher could impart it, bating a few heresies, which, in his +inacquaintance with the delicate shades of faith, he had undesignedly +mingled with it. Nor did this acquisition remain a dead letter with her; +it awakened the most zealous wish for proselytising. Accordingly, the +plan of the Princess had now in so far altered, that she no longer +insisted on converting the Count, but rather felt inclined to let +herself be converted by him; and this not only in regard to unity in +faith, but also to the purposed unity in love. The whole question now +was, by what means this intention could be realised. She took counsel +with Bostangi, he with the mettled Kurt, in their nocturnal +deliberations on this weighty matter; and the latter voted distinctly to +strike the iron while it was hot; to inform the fair proselyte of the +Count's rank and birth; propose to her to run away with him; instantly +to cross the water for the European shore; and live together in +Thuringia as Christian man and wife. + +The Count clapped loud applause to this well-grounded scheme of his wise +Squire; it was as if the mettled Kurt had read it in his master's eyes. +Whether the fulfilment of it might be clogged with difficulties or not, +was a point not taken into view in the first fire of the romantic +project: Love removes all mountains, overleaps walls and trenches, +bounds across abyss and chasm, and steps the barrier of a city as +lightly as it does a straw. At the next lecture, the Count disclosed the +plan to his beloved catechumena. + +"Thou reflection of the Holy Virgin," said he, "chosen of Heaven from an +outcast people, to gain the victory over prejudice and error, and +acquire a lot and inheritance in the Abodes of Felicity, hast thou the +courage to forsake thy native country, then prepare for speedy flight. I +will guide thee to Rome, where dwells the Porter of Heaven, St. Peter's +deputy, to whom are committed the keys of Heaven's gate; that he may +receive thee into the bosom of the Church, and bless the covenant of our +love. Fear not that thy father's potent arm may reach us; every cloud +above our heads will be a ship manned with angelic hosts, with diamond +shields and flaming swords; invisible indeed to mortal eye, but armed +with heavenly might, and appointed to watch and guard thee. Nor will I +conceal any longer, that I am, by birth and fortune, all that the +Sultan's favour could make me; a Count, that is a Bey born, who rules +over land and people. The limits of my lordship include towns and +villages, palaces also and strongholds. Knights and squires obey me; +horses and carriages stand ready for my service. In my native land, thou +thyself, enclosed by no walls of a seraglio, shalt live and rule in +freedom as a queen." + +This oration of the Count the Princess thought a message from above; she +entertained no doubts of his truth; and it seemed to please her that the +Ringdove was to nestle, not beside a Linnet, but beside a bird of the +family of the Eagle. Her warm fancy was filled with such sweet +anticipations, that she consented, with all the alacrity of the Children +of Israel, to forsake the land of Egypt, as if a new Canaan, in another +quarter of the world, had been waiting her beyond the sea. Confident in +the protection of the unseen life-guard promised to her, she would have +followed her conductor from the precincts of the Palace forthwith, had +he not instructed her that many preparations were required, before the +great enterprise could be engaged in with any hope of a happy issue. + +Among all privateering transactions by sea or land, there is none more +ticklish, or combined with greater difficulties, than that of kidnapping +the Grand Signior's favourite from his arms. Such a masterstroke could +only be imagined by the teeming fancy of a W*z*l,[25] nor could any but +a Kakerlak achieve it. Yet the undertaking of Count Ernst of Gleichen +to carry off the Sultan of Egypt's daughter, was environed with no fewer +difficulties; and as these two heroes come, to a certain extent, into +competition in this matter, we must say, that the adventure of the Count +was infinitely bolder, seeing everything proceeded merely by the course +of Nature, and no serviceable Fairy put a finger in the pie: +nevertheless, the result of both these corresponding enterprises, in the +one as well as in the other, came about entirely to the wish of parties. +The Princess filled her jewel-box sufficiently with precious stones; +changed her royal garment with a Kaftan; and one evening, under the +safe-conduct of her beloved, his trusty Squire and the phlegmatic +Water-drawer, glided forth from the Palace into the Garden, unobserved, +to enter on her far journey to the West. Her absence could not long +remain concealed; her women sought her, as the proverb runs, like a lost +pin; and as she did not come to light, the alarm in the Seraglio became +boundless. Hints here and there had already been dropped, and surmises +made, about the private audiences of the Bostangi; supposition and fact +were strung together; and the whole produced, in sooth, no row of +pearls, but the horrible discovery of the real nature of the case. The +Divan of Dames had nothing for it but to send advice of the occurrence +to the higher powers. Father Sultan, whom the virtuous Melechsala, +everything considered, might have spared this pang, and avoided flying +her country to make purchase of a glory, demeaned himself at this +intelligence like an infuriated lion, who shakes his brown mane with +dreadful bellowing, when by the uproar of the hunt, and the baying of +the hounds, he is frightened from his den. He swore by the Prophet's +beard that he would utterly destroy every living soul in the Seraglio, +if at sunrise the Princess were not again in her father's power. The +Mameluke guard had to mount, and gallop towards the four winds, in chase +of the fugitives, by every road from Cairo; and a thousand oars were +lashing the broad back of the Nile, in case she might have taken a +passage by water. + + [25] J. K. Wetzel, author of some plays and novels; among the + latter, of _Kakerlak_.--ED. + +Under such efforts, to elude the far-stretching arm of the Sultan was +impossible, unless the Count possessed the secret of rendering himself +and his travelling party invisible; or the miraculous gift of smiting +all Egypt with blindness. But of these talents neither had been lent +him. Only the mettled Kurt had taken certain measures, which, in regard +to their effect, might supply the place of miracles. He had rendered his +flying caravan invisible, by the darkness of an unlighted cellar in the +house of Adullam the sudorific Hebrew. This Jewish Hermes did not +satisfy himself with practising the healing art to good advantage, but +drew profit likewise from the gift which he had received by inheritance +from his fathers; and thus honoured Mercury in all his three qualities, +of Patron to Doctors, to Merchants, and to Thieves. He drove a great +trade in spiceries and herbs with the Venetians, from which he had +acquired much wealth; and he disdained no branch of business whereby +anything was to be made. This worthy Israelite, who for money and +money's worth, stood ready, without investigating moral tendencies, for +any sort of deed, the trusty Squire had prevailed on, by a jewel from +the casket of the Princess, to undertake the transport of the Count, +whose rank and intention were not concealed from him, with three +servants, to a Venetian ship that was loading at Alexandria; but it had +prudently been hidden from him, that in the course of this contraband +transaction, he must smuggle out his master's daughter. On first +inspecting his cargo, the figure of the fair youth struck him somewhat; +but he thought no ill of it, and took him for a page of the Count's. Ere +long the report of the Princess Melechsala's disappearance sounded over +all the city: then Adullam's eyes were opened; deadly terror took +possession of his heart, so that his gray beard began to stir, and he +wished with all his soul that his hands had been free of this perilous +concern. But now it was too late; his own safety required him to summon +all his cunning, and conduct this breakneck business to a happy end. In +the first place, he laid his subterranean lodgers under rigorous +quarantine; and then, after the sharpest of the search was over, the +hope of finding the Princess considerably faded, and the zeal in seeking +for her cooled, he packed the whole caravan neatly up in four bales of +herbs, put them on board a Nile-boat, and sent them with a proper +invoice, under God's guidance, safe and sound to Alexandria; where so +soon as the Venetian had gained the open sea, they were liberated, all +and sundry, from their strait confinement in the herb-sacks.[26] + + [26] The invention of travelling in a sack was several times + employed during the Crusades. Dietrich the Hard-bested, Markgraf of + Meissen (Misnia), returned from Palestine to his hereditary + possessions, under this incognito, and so escaped the snares of the + Emperor Henry VI., who had an eye to the productive mines of + Freyberg.--M. + +Whether the celestial body-guard, with diamond shields and flaming +swords, posted on a gorgeous train of clouds, did follow the swift ship, +could not now, as they were invisible, be properly substantiated in a +court of justice; yet there are not wanting symptoms in the matter which +might lead to some such conjecture. All the four winds of Heaven seem to +have combined to make the voyage prosperous; the adverse held their +breath; and the favourable blew so gaily in the sails, that the vessel +ploughed the soft-playing billows with the speed of an arrow. The +friendly moon was stretching her horns from the clouds for the second +time, when the Venetian, glad in heart, ran into moorings in the harbour +of his native town. + +Countess Ottilia's watchful spy was still at Venice; undismayed by the +fruitless toil of vain inquiries, from continuing his diets of +examination, and diligently questioning all passengers from the Levant. +He was at his post when the Count, with the fair Melechsala, came on +land. His master's physiognomy was so stamped upon his memory, that he +would have undertaken to discover it among a thousand unknown faces. +Nevertheless the foreign garb, and the finger of Time, which in seven +years produces many changes, made him for some moments doubtful. To be +certain of his object, he approached the stranger's suite, made up to +the trusty Squire, and asked him: "Comrade, whence come you?" + +The mettled Kurt rejoiced to meet a countryman, and hear the sound of +his mother-tongue; but saw no profit in submitting his concerns to the +questioning of a stranger, and answered briefly: "From sea." + +"Who is the gentleman thou followest?" + +"My master." + +"From what country come you?" + +"From the East." + +"Whither are you going?" + +"To the West." + +"To what province?" + +"To our home." + +"Where is it?" + +"Miles of road from this." + +"What is thy name?" + +"Start-the-game, that is my name. Strike-for-a-word, people call my +sword. Sorrow-of-life, so hight my wife. Rise, Lig-a-bed, she cries to +her maid. Still-at-a-stand, that is my man. Hobbletehoy, I christened +my boy. Lank-i'-the-bag, I scold my nag. Shamble-and-stalk, we call his +walk. Trot-i'-the-bog, I whistle my dog. Saw-ye-that, so jumps my cat. +Snug-in-the-rug, he is my bug. Now thou knowest me, with wife and child, +and all my household." + +"Thou seemest to me to be a queer fellow." + +"I am no fellow at all, for I follow no handicraft." + +"Answer me one question." + +"Let us hear it." + +"Hast thou any news of Count Ernst of Gleichen, from the East?" + +"Wherefore dost thou ask?" + +"Therefore." + +"Twiddle, twaddle! Wherefore, therefore!" + +"Because I am sent into all the world by the Countess Ottilia his wife, +to get her word whether her husband is still living, and in what corner +of the Earth he may be found." + +This answer put the mettled Kurt into some perplexity; and tuned him to +another key. "Wait a little, neighbour," said he; "perhaps my master +knows about the thing." Thereupon he ran to the Count, and whispered the +tidings in his ear. The feeling they awoke was complex; made up in equal +proportions of joy and consternation. Count Ernst perceived that his +dream, or the interpretation of it, had misled him; and that the conceit +of marrying his fair travelling companion might easily be baulked. On +the spur of the moment he knew not how he should get out of this +embroiled affair: meanwhile, the desire to learn how matters stood at +home outweighed all scruples. He beckoned to the emissary, whom he soon +recognised for his old valet; and who wetted with joyful tears the hand +of his recovered master, and told in many words what jubilee the +Countess would make, when she received the happy message of her +husband's return. The Count took him with the rest to the inn; and there +engaged in earnest meditation on the singular state of his heart, and +considered deeply what was to be done with his engagements to the fair +Saracen. Without loss of time the watchful spy was dispatched to the +Countess with a letter, containing a true statement of the Count's +fortunes in slavery at Cairo, and of his deliverance by means of the +Sultan's daughter; how she had abandoned throne and country for his +sake, under the condition that he was to marry her, which he himself, +deceived by a dream, had promised. By this narrative he meant not only +to prepare his wife for a participatress in her marriage rights; but +also endeavoured, in the course of it, by many sound arguments, to gain +her own consent to the arrangement. + +Countess Ottilia was standing at the window in her mourning weeds, as +the news-bringer for the last time gave his breathless horse the spur, +to hasten it up the steep Castle-path. Her sharp eye recognised him in +the distance; and he too being nothing of a blinkard,--a class of +persons very rare in the days of the Crusades,--recognised the Countess +also, raised the letter-bag aloft over his head, and waved it like a +standard in token of good news; and the lady understood his signal, as +well as if the Hanau _Synthematograph_ had been on duty there. "Hast +thou found him, the husband of my heart?" cried she, as he approached. +"Where lingers he, that I may rise and wipe the sweat from his brow, and +let him rest in my faithful arms from his toilsome journeying?"--"Joy to +you, my lady," said the post; "his lordship is well. I found him in the +Port of Venice, from which he sends you this under his hand and seal, to +announce his arrival himself." The Countess could not hastily enough +undo the seal; and at sight of her husband's hand, she felt as if the +breath of life were coming back to her. Three times she pressed the +letter to her beating heart, and three times touched it with her +languishing lips. A shower of joyful tears streamed over the parchment, +as she began reading: but the farther she read, the drops fell the +slower; and before the reading was completed, the fountain of tears had +dried up altogether. + +The contents of the letter could not all interest the good lady equally; +her husband's proposed partition treaty of his heart had not the +happiness to meet with her approval. Greatly as the spirit of partition +has acquired the upper hand nowadays, so that parted love and parted +provinces have become the device of our century; these things were +little to the taste of old times, when every heart had its own key, and +a master-key that would open several was regarded as a scandalous +thief-picklock. The intolerance of the Countess in this point was at +least a proof of her unvarnished love: "Ah! that doleful Crusade," cried +she, "is the cause of it all. I lent the Holy Church a Loaf, of which +the Heathen have eaten; and nothing but a Crust of it returns to me." A +vision of the night, however, soothed her troubled mind, and gave her +whole view of the affair another aspect. She dreamed that there came +two pilgrims from the Holy Sepulchre up the winding Castle-road, and +begged a lodging, which she kindly granted them. One of them threw off +his cloak, and behold it was the Count her lord! She joyfully embraced +him, and was in raptures at his return. The children too came in, and he +clasped them in his paternal arms, pressed them to his heart, and +praised their looks and growth. Meanwhile his companion laid aside his +travelling pouch; drew from it golden chains and precious strings of +jewelry, and hung them round the necks of the little ones, who showed +delighted with these glittering presents. The Countess was herself +surprised at this munificence, and asked the stranger who he was. He +answered: "I am the Angel Raphael, the guide of the loving, and have +brought thy husband to thee out of foreign lands." His pilgrim garments +melted away; and a shining angel stood before her, in an azure robe, +with two golden wings on his shoulders. Thereupon she awoke, and, in the +absence of an Egyptian Sibyl, herself interpreted the dream according to +her best skill; and found so many points of similarity between the Angel +Raphael and the Princess Melechsala, that she doubted not the latter had +been shadowed forth to her in vision under the figure of the former. At +the same time she took into consideration the fact that, without her +help, the Count could scarcely ever have escaped from slavery. And as it +behoves the owner of a lost piece of property to deal generously with +the finder, who might have kept it all to himself, she no longer +hesitated to resolve on the surrender. The water-bailiff, well rewarded +for his watchfulness, was therefore dispatched forthwith back into +Italy, with the formal consent of the Countess for her husband to +complete the trefoil of his marriage without loss of time. + +The only question now was, whether Father Gregory at Rome would give his +benediction to this matrimonial anomaly; and be persuaded, for the +Count's sake, to refound, by the word of his mouth, the substance, form +and essence of the Sacrament of Marriage. The pilgrimage accordingly set +forth from Venice to Rome, where the Princess Melechsala solemnly +abjured the Koran, and entered into the bosom of the Church. At this +spiritual conquest the Holy Father testified as much delight as if the +kingdom of Antichrist had been entirely destroyed, or reduced under +subjection to the Romish chair; and after the baptism, on which occasion +she had changed her Saracenic name for the more orthodox _Angelica_, he +caused a pompous _Te-deum_ to be celebrated in St. Peter's. These happy +aspects Count Ernst endeavoured to improve for his purpose, before the +Pope's good-humour should evaporate. He brought his matrimonial concern +to light without delay: but, alas! no sooner asked than rejected. The +conscience of St. Peter's Vicar was so tender in this case, that he +reckoned it a greater heresy to advocate triplicity in marriage than +Tritheism itself. Many plausible arguments as the Count brought forward +to accomplish an exception from the common rule in his own favour, they +availed no jot in moving the exemplary Pope to wink with one eye of his +conscience, and vouchsafe the petitioned dispensation: a result which +cut Count Ernst to the heart. His sly counsel, the mettled Kurt, had in +the mean time struck out a bright expedient for accomplishing the +marriage of his master with the fair convert, to the satisfaction of the +Pope and Christendom in general; only he had not risked disclosing it, +lest it might cost him his master's favour. Yet at last he found his +opportunity, and put the matter into words. "Dear master," said he, "do +not vex yourself so much about the Pope's perverseness. If you cannot +get round him on the one side, you must try him on the other: there are +more roads to the wood than one. If the Holy Father has too tender a +conscience to permit your taking two wives, then it is fair for you also +to have a tender conscience, though you are no priest but a layman. +Conscience is a cloak that covers every hole, and has withal the quality +that it can be turned according to the wind: at present, when the wind +is cross, you must put the cloak on the other shoulder. Examine whether +you are not related to the Countess Ottilia within the prohibited +degrees: if so, as will surely be the case, if you have a tender +conscience, then the game is your own. Get a divorce; and who the deuce +can hinder you from wedding the Princess then?" + +The Count had listened to his Squire till the sense of his oration was +completely before him; then he answered it with two words, shortly and +clearly: "Peace, Dog!" In the same moment, the mettled Kurt found +himself lying at full length without the door, and seeking for a tooth +or two which had dropped from him in this rapid transit. "Ah! the +precious tooth," cried he from without, "has been sacrificed to my +faithful zeal!" This tooth monologue reminded the Count of his dream. +"Ah! the cursed tooth," cried he from within, "which I dreamed of +losing, has been the cause of all this mischief!" His heart, between +self-reproaches for unfaithfulness to his amiable wife, and for +prohibited love to the charming Angelica, kept wavering like a bell, +which yields a sound on both sides, when set in motion. Still more than +the flame of his passion, the fire of indignation burnt and gnawed him, +now that he saw the visible impossibility of ever keeping his word to +the Princess, and taking her in wedlock. All which distresses, by the +way, led him to the just experimental conclusion, that a parted heart is +not the most desirable of things; and that the lover, in these +circumstances, but too much resembles the Ass Baldwin between his two +bundles of hay. + +In such a melancholy posture of affairs, he lost his jovial humour +altogether, and wore the aspect of an atrabiliar, whom in bad weather +the atmosphere oppresses till the spleen is like to crush the soul out +of his body. Princess Angelica observed that her lover's looks were no +longer as yesterday, and ere-yesterday: it grieved her soft heart, and +moved her to resolve on making trial whether she should not be more +successful, if she took the dispensation business in her own hand. She +requested audience of the conscientious Gregory; and appeared before him +closely veiled, according to the fashion of her country. No Roman eye +had yet seen her face, except the priest who baptised her. His Holiness +received the new-born daughter of the Church with all suitable respect, +offered her the palm of his right hand to kiss, and not his perfumed +slipper. The fair stranger raised her veil a little to touch the sacred +hand with her lips; then opened her mouth, and clothed her petition in a +touching address. Yet this insinuation through the Papal ear seemed not +sufficiently to know the interior organisation of the Head of the +Church; for instead of taking the road to the heart, it passed through +the other ear out into the air. Father Gregory expostulated long with +the lovely supplicant; and imagined he had found a method for in some +degree contenting her desire of union with a bridegroom, without offence +to the ordinations of the Church: he proposed to her a spiritual +wedlock, if she could resolve on a slight change of the veil, the +Saracenic for the Nun's. This proposal suddenly awakened in the Princess +such a horror at veils, that she directly tore away her own; sank full +of despair before the holy footstool, and with uplifted hands and +tearful eyes, conjured the venerable Father by his sacred slipper, not +to do violence to her heart, and constrain her to bestow it elsewhere. + +The sight of her beauty was more eloquent than her lips; it enraptured +all present; and the tear which gathered in her heavenly eye fell like a +burning drop of naphtha on the Holy Father's heart, and kindled the +small fraction of earthly tinder that still lay hid there, and warmed it +into sympathy for the petitioner. "Rise, beloved daughter," said he, +"and weep not! What has been determined in Heaven, shall be fulfilled in +thee on Earth. In three days thou shalt know whether this thy first +prayer to the Church can be granted by that gracious Mother, or must be +denied." Thereupon he summoned an assembly of all the Casuists in Rome; +had a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine distributed to each; and locked +them up in the Rotunda, with the warning that no one of them should be +let out again till the question had been determined unanimously. So long +as the loaves and wine held out, the disputes were so violent, that all +the Saints, had they been convened in the church, could not have argued +with greater noise. But so soon as the Digestive Faculty began to have a +voice in the meeting, he was listened to with the deepest attention, and +happily he spoke in favour of the Count, who had got a sumptuous feast +made ready for the entertainment of the casuistic Doctors, when the +Papal seal should be removed from their door. The Bull of Dispensation +was drawn out in proper form of law; in furtherance of which the fair +Angelica had, not at all reluctantly, inflicted a determined cut upon +the treasures of Egypt. Father Gregory bestowed his benediction on the +noble pair, and sent them away betrothed. They lost no time in leaving +Peter's Patrimony for the territories of the Count, to celebrate their +nuptials on arriving. + +When Count Ernst, on this side the Alps, again inhaled his native air, +and felt it come soft and kindly round his heart, he mounted his steed; +galloped forward, attended only by the heavy Groom, and left the +Princess, under the escort of the mettled Kurt, to follow him by easy +journeys. + +His heart beat high within him, when he saw in azure distance the three +towers of Gleichen. He meant to take his gentle Countess by surprise; +but the news of his approach had preceded him, as on the wings of the +wind; she went forth with man and maid, and met her husband a furlong +from the Castle, in a pleasant green, which, in memory of this event, is +called the Freudenthal, or Valley of Joy, to this day. The meeting on +both sides was as trustful and tender, as if no partition treaty had +ever been thought of: for Countess Ottilia was a proper pattern of the +pious wife, that obeys without commentary the marriage precept of +subjecting her will to the will of her husband. If at times there did +arise some small sedition in her heart, she did not on the instant ring +the alarm-bell; but she shut door and window, that no mortal eye might +look in and see what passed; and then summoned the rebel Passion to the +bar of Reason; gave it over in custody to Prudence, and imposed on +herself a voluntary penance. + +She could not pardon her heart for having murmured at the rival sun that +was to shine beside her on the matrimonial horizon; and to expiate the +offence, she had secretly commissioned a triple bedstead, with stout fir +posts, painted green, the colour of Hope; and a round vaulted tester, in +the form of a dome, adorned with winged puffy-cheeked heads of angels. +On the silken coverlet, which lay for show over the downy quilts, was +exhibited in fine embroidery, the Angel Raphael, as he had appeared to +her in vision, beside the Count in pilgrim weeds. This speaking proof of +her ready matrimonial complaisance affected her husband to the soul. He +clasped her to his breast, and overpowered her with kisses, at the sight +of this arrangement for the completion of his wedded joys. + +"Glorious wife!" cried he with rapture, "this temple of love exalts thee +above thousands of thy sex; as an honourable memorial, it will transmit +thy name to future ages; and while a splinter of this wood remains, +husbands will recount to their wives thy exemplary conduct." + +In a few days afterwards, the Princess also arrived in safety, and was +received by the Count in full gala. Ottilia came to meet her with open +arms and heart, and conducted her into the Palace, as the partner in all +its privileges. The double bridegroom then set out to Erfurt, for the +Bishop to perform the marriage ceremony. This pious prelate was +extremely shocked at the proposal, and signified, that in his diocese no +such scandal could be tolerated. But, on Count Ernst's bringing out the +papal dispensation, signed and sealed in due form, it acted as a lock on +his Reverence's lips; though his doubting looks, and shaking of the +head, still indicated that the Steersman of the bark of the universal +Church had bored a hole in the keel, which bade fair to swamp the +vessel, and send it to the bottom of the sea. + +The nuptials were celebrated with becoming pomp and splendour; Countess +Ottilia, who acted as mistress of the ceremonies, had invited widely; +and the counts and knights, over all Thuringia, far and wide, came +crowding to assist at this unusual wedding. Before the Count led his +bride to the altar, she opened her jewel-box, and consigned to him all +its treasures that remained from the expenses of the dispensation, as a +dowry; in return for which, he conferred on her the lands of Ehrenstein, +by way of jointure. The chaste myrtle twined itself about the golden +crown, which latter ornament the Sultan's daughter, as a testimony of +her high birth, retained through life; and was, in consequence, +invariably named the Queen by her subjects, and by her domestics +reverenced and treated like a queen. + +If any of my readers ever purchased for himself, for fifty guineas, the +costly pleasure of resting a night in Doctor Graham's _Celestial Bed_ at +London, he may form some slender conception of the Count's delight, when +the triple bed at Gleichen opened its elastic bosom to receive the +twice-betrothed, with both his spouses. Seven days long the nuptial +festivities continued; and the Count declared himself richly compensated +by them for the seven dreary years which he had been obliged to spend in +the Grated Tower at Grand Cairo. Nor would this appear to have been an +empty compliment on his part to his two faithful wives, if the +experimental apophthegm is just, that a single day of gladness sweetens +into oblivion the bitter dole and sorrow of a troublous year. + +Next to the Count, there was none who relished this exhilarating period +better than his trusty Squire, the mettled Kurt, who, in the well-stored +kitchen and cellar, found the elements of royal cheer, and stoutly +emptied the cup of joy which circulated fast among the servants; while +the full table pricked up their ears as he opened his lips, his inner +man once satisfied with good things, and began to recount them his +adventures. But when the Gleichic economy returned to its customary +frugal routine, he requested permission to set out for Ordruff, to visit +his kind wife, and overwhelm her with joy at his unexpected return. +During his long absence, he had constantly maintained a rigorous +fidelity, and he now longed for the just reward of so exemplary a walk +and conversation. Fancy painted to his mind's eye the image of his +virtuous Rebecca in the liveliest colours; and the nearer he approached +the walls which enclosed her, the brighter grew these hues. He saw her +stand before him in the charms which had delighted him on his +wedding-day; he saw how excess of joy at his happy arrival would +overpower her spirits, and she would sink in speechless rapture into his +arms. + +Encircled with this fair retinue of dreams, he arrived at the gate of +his native town, without observing it, till the watchful guardian of +public tranquillity let down his beam in front of him, and questioned +the stranger, Who he was, what business had brought him to the town, and +whether his intentions were peaceable or not? The mettled Kurt gave +ready answer; and now rode along the streets at a soft pace, lest his +horse's tramp might too soon betray the secret of his coming. He +fastened his beast to the door-ring, and stole, without noise, into the +court of his dwelling, where the old chained house-dog first received +him with joyful bark. Yet he wondered somewhat at the sight of two +lively chub-faced children, like the Angels in the Gleichen bed-tester, +frisking to and fro upon the area. He had no time to speculate on the +phenomenon, for the mistress of the house, in her carefulness, stept out +of doors to see who was there. Alas, what a difference between ideal and +original! The tooth of Time had, in these seven years, been mercilessly +busy with her charms; yet the leading features of her physiognomy had +been in so far spared, that to the eye of the critic she was still +recognisable, like the primary stamp of a worn coin. Joy at meeting +somewhat veiled this want of beauty from the mettled Kurt, and the +thought that sorrow for his absence had so furrowed the smooth face of +his consort put him into a sentimental mood; he embraced her with great +cordiality, and said: "Welcome, dear wife of my heart! Forget all thy +sorrow. See, I am still alive; thou hast got me back!" + +The pious Rebecca answered this piece of tenderness by a heavy thwack on +the short ribs, which thwack made the mettled Kurt stagger to the wall; +then raised loud shrieks, and shouted to her servants for help against +violence, and scolded and stormed like an Infernal Fury. The loving +husband excused this unloving reception, on the score of his virtuous +spouse's delicacy, which his bold kiss of welcome had offended, she not +knowing who he was; and tore his lungs with bawling to undo this error; +but his preaching was to deaf ears, and he soon found that there was no +misunderstanding in the case. "Thou shameless varlet," cried she, in +shrieking treble, "after wandering seven long years up and down the +world, following thy wicked courses with other women, dost thou think +that I will take thee back to my chaste bed? Off with thee! Did not I +publicly cite thee at three church-doors, and wert not thou, for thy +contumacious non-appearance, declared to be dead as mutton? Did not the +High Court authorise me to put aside my widow's chair, and marry +Bürgermeister Wipprecht? Have not we lived six years as man and wife, +and received these children as a blessing of our wedlock? And now comes +the Marpeace to perplex my house! Off with thee! Pack, I say, this +instant, or the Amtmann shall crop thy ears, and put thee in the +pillory, to teach such vagabonds, that run and leave their poor tender +wives." This welcome from his once-loved helpmate was a sword's-thrust +through the heart of the mettled Kurt; but the gall poured itself as a +defence into his blood. + +"O thou faithless strumpet!" answered he; "what holds me that I do not +take thee and thy bastards, and wring your necks this moment? Dost thou +recollect thy promise, and the oath thou hast so often sworn in the +trustful marriage-bed, that death itself should not part thee from me? +Didst thou not engage, unasked, that should thy soul fly up directly +from thy mouth to Heaven, and I were roasting in Purgatory, thou wouldst +turn again from Heaven's gate, and come down to me, to fan cool air upon +me till I were delivered from the flames? Devil broil thy false tongue, +thou gallows carrion!" + +Though the Prima Donna of Ordruff was endowed with a glib organ, which, +in the faculty of cursing, yielded no whit to that of the tumultuous +pretender, she did not judge it good to enter into farther debate with +him, but gave her menials an expressive sign; and, in an instant, man +and maid seized hold of the mettled Kurt, and _brevi manu_ ejected his +body from the house; in which act of domestic jurisdiction Dame Rebecca +herself bore a hand with the besom, and so swept away this discarded +helpmate from the premises. The mettled Kurt, half-broken on the wheel, +then mounted his horse, and dashed full gallop down the street, which he +had rode along so gingerly some minutes before. + +As his blood, when he was on the road home, began to cool, he counted +loss and gain, and found himself not ill contented with the balance; for +he found, that except the comfort of having cool air fanned upon his +soul in Purgatory after death, his smart amounted to nothing. He never +more returned to Ordruff, but continued with the Count at Gleichen all +his life, and was an eye-witness of the most incredible occurrence, that +two ladies shared the love of one man without quarrelling or jealousy, +and this even under one bed-tester! The fair Angelica continued +childless, yet she loved and watched over her associate's children as if +they had been her own, and divided with Ottilia the care of their +education. In the trefoil of this happy marriage, she was the first leaf +which faded away in the autumn of life. Countess Ottilia soon followed +her; and the afflicted widower, now all too lonely in his large castle +and wide bed, lingered but a few months longer. The firmly-established +arrangement of these noble spouses in the marriage-bed through life, was +maintained unaltered after their death. They rest all three in one +grave, in front of the Gleichen Altar, in St. Peter's Church at Erfurt, +on the Hill; where their place of sepulture is still to be seen, +overlaid with a stone, on which the noble group are sculptured after the +life. To the right lies the Countess Ottilia, with a mirror in her hand, +the emblem of her praiseworthy prudence; on the left Angelica, adorned +with a royal crown; and in the midst, the Count reposing on his +coat-of-arms, the lion-leopard.[27] Their famous triple bedstead is +still preserved as a relic in the old Castle; it stands in the room +called the Junkernkammer, or Knight's Chamber; and a splinter of it, +worn by way of busk in a lady's bodice, is said to have the virtue of +dispelling every movement of jealousy from her heart. + + [27] A plate of this tombstone may be seen in Falkenstein's + _Analecta Nordgaviensia_.--M. + + + + +LUDWIG TIECK. + + + + +THE FAIR-HAIRED ECKBERT.[28] + + +In a district of the Harz dwelt a Knight, whose common designation in +that quarter was the Fair-haired Eckbert. He was about forty years of +age, scarcely of middle stature, and short light-coloured locks lay +close and sleek round his pale and sunken countenance. He led a retired +life, had never interfered in the feuds of his neighbours; indeed, +beyond the outer wall of his castle he was seldom to be seen. His wife +loved solitude as much as he; both seemed heartily attached to one +another; only now and then they would lament that Heaven had not blessed +their marriage with children. + +Few came to visit Eckbert; and when guests did happen to be with him, +their presence made but little alteration in his customary way of life. +Temperance abode in his household, and Frugality herself appeared to be +the mistress of the entertainment. On these occasions Eckbert was always +cheerful and lively; but when he was alone, you might observe in him a +certain mild reserve, a still, retiring melancholy. + +His most frequent guest was Philip Walther; a man to whom he had +attached himself, from having found in him a way of thinking like his +own. Walther's residence was in Franconia; but he would often stay for +half a year in Eckbert's neighbourhood, gathering plants and minerals, +and then sorting and arranging them. He lived on a small independency, +and was connected with no one. Eckbert frequently attended him in his +sequestered walks; year after year a closer friendship grew betwixt +them. + + [28] Prefatory Introduction to Tieck, _suprà_, at p. 330, Vol. VI. + of _Works_ (Vol. I. of _Miscellanies_). + +There are hours in which a man feels grieved that he should have a +secret from his friend, which, till then, he may have kept with niggard +anxiety; some irresistible desire lays hold of our heart to open itself +wholly, to disclose its inmost recesses to our friend, that so he may +become our friend still more. It is in such moments that tender souls +unveil themselves, and stand face to face; and at times it will happen, +that the one recoils affrighted from the countenance of the other. + +It was late in Autumn, when Eckbert, one cloudy evening, was sitting, +with his friend and his wife Bertha, by the parlour fire. The flame cast +a red glimmer through the room, and sported on the ceiling; the night +looked sullenly in through the windows, and the trees without rustled in +wet coldness. Walther complained of the long road he had to travel; and +Eckbert proposed to him to stay where he was, to while away half of the +night in friendly talk, and then to take a bed in the house till +morning. Walther agreed, and the whole was speedily arranged: by and by +wine and supper were brought in; fresh wood was laid upon the fire; the +talk grew livelier and more confidential. + +The cloth being removed, and the servants gone, Eckbert took his +friend's hand, and said to him: "Now you must let my wife tell you the +history of her youth; it is curious enough, and you should know it." +"With all my heart," said Walther; and the party again drew round the +hearth. + +It was now midnight; the moon looked fitfully through the breaks of the +driving clouds. "You must not reckon me a babbler," began the lady. "My +husband says you have so generous a mind, that it is not right in us to +hide aught from you. Only do not take my narrative for a fable, however +strangely it may sound. + +"I was born in a little village; my father was a poor herdsman. Our +circumstances were not of the best; often we knew not where to find our +daily bread. But what grieved me far more than this, were the quarrels +which my father and mother often had about their poverty, and the bitter +reproaches they cast on one another. Of myself too, I heard nothing said +but ill; they were forever telling me that I was a silly stupid child, +that I could not do the simplest turn of work; and in truth I was +extremely inexpert and helpless; I let things fall; I neither learned to +sew nor spin; I could be of no use to my parents; only their straits I +understood too well. Often I would sit in a corner, and fill my little +heart with dreams, how I would help them, if I should all at once grow +rich; how I would overflow them with silver and gold, and feast myself +on their amazement; and then spirits came hovering up, and showed me +buried treasures, or gave me little pebbles which changed into precious +stones; in short, the strangest fancies occupied me, and when I had to +rise and help with anything, my inexpertness was still greater, as my +head was giddy with these motley visions. + +"My father in particular was always very cross to me; he scolded me for +being such a burden to the house; indeed he often used me rather +cruelly, and it was very seldom that I got a friendly word from him. In +this way I had struggled on to near the end of my eighth year; and now +it was seriously fixed that I should begin to do or learn something. My +father still maintained that it was nothing but caprice in me, or a lazy +wish to pass my days in idleness: accordingly he set upon me with +furious threats; and as these made no improvement, he one day gave me a +most cruel chastisement, and added that the same should be repeated day +after day, since I was nothing but a useless sluggard. + +"That whole night I wept abundantly; I felt myself so utterly forsaken, +I had such a sympathy with myself that I even longed to die. I dreaded +the break of day; I knew not on earth what I was to do or try. I wished +from my very heart to be clever, and could not understand how I should +be worse than the other children of the place. I was on the borders of +despair. + +"At the dawn of day I arose, and scarcely knowing what I did, unfastened +the door of our little hut. I stept upon the open field; next minute I +was in a wood, where the light of the morning had yet hardly penetrated. +I ran along, not looking round; for I felt no fatigue, and I still +thought my father would catch me, and in his anger at my flight would +beat me worse than ever. + +"I had reached the other side of the forest, and the sun was risen a +considerable way; I saw something dim lying before me, and a thick fog +resting over it. Ere long my path began to mount, at one time I was +climbing hills, at another winding among rocks; and I now guessed that I +must be among the neighbouring Mountains; a thought that made me shudder +in my loneliness. For, living in the plain country, I had never seen a +hill; and the very word Mountains, when I heard talk of them, had been a +sound of terror to my young ear. I had not the heart to go back, my fear +itself drove me on; often I looked round affrighted when the breezes +rustled over me among the trees, or the stroke of some distant woodman +sounded far through the still morning. And when I began to meet with +charcoal-men and miners, and heard their foreign way of speech, I had +nearly fainted for terror. + +"I passed through several villages; begging now and then, for I felt +hungry and thirsty; and fashioning my answers as I best could when +questions were put to me. In this manner I had wandered on some four +days, when I came upon a little footpath, which led me farther and +farther from the highway. The rocks about me now assumed a different and +far stranger form. They were cliffs so piled on one another, that it +looked as if the first gust of wind would hurl them all this way and +that. I knew not whether to go on or stop. Till now I had slept by night +in the woods, for it was the finest season of the year, or in some +remote shepherd's hut; but here I saw no human dwelling at all, and +could not hope to find one in this wilderness; the crags grew more and +more frightful; I had many a time to glide along by the very edge of +dreadful abysses; by degrees my footpath became fainter, and at last all +traces of it vanished from beneath me. I was utterly comfortless; I wept +and screamed; and my voice came echoing back from the rocky valleys with +a sound that terrified me. The night now came on, and I sought out a +mossy nook to lie down in. I could not sleep; in the darkness I heard +the strangest noises; sometimes I took them to proceed from wild-beasts, +sometimes from wind moaning through the rocks, sometimes from unknown +birds. I prayed; and did not sleep till towards morning. + +"When the light came upon my face, I awoke. Before me was a steep rock; +I clomb up, in the hope of discovering some outlet from the waste, +perhaps of seeing houses or men. But when I reached the top, there was +nothing still, so far as my eye could reach, but a wilderness of crags +and precipices; all was covered with a dim haze; the day was gray and +troubled, and no tree, no meadow, not even a bush could I find, only a +few shrubs shooting up stunted and solitary in the narrow clefts of the +rocks. I cannot utter what a longing I felt but to see one human +creature, any living mortal, even though I had been afraid of hurt from +him. At the same time I was tortured by a gnawing hunger; I sat down, +and made up my mind to die. After a while, however, the desire of living +gained the mastery; I roused myself, and wandered forward amid tears and +broken sobs all day; in the end, I hardly knew what I was doing; I was +tired and spent; I scarcely wished to live, and yet I feared to die. + +"Towards night the country seemed to grow a little kindlier; my +thoughts, my desires revived, the wish for life awoke in all my veins. I +thought I heard the rushing of a mill afar off; I redoubled my steps; +and how glad, how light of heart was I, when at last I actually gained +the limits of the barren rocks, and saw woods and meadows lying before +me, with soft green hills in the distance! I felt as if I had stept out +of hell into a paradise; my loneliness and helplessness no longer +frightened me. + +"Instead of the hoped-for mill, I came upon a waterfall, which, in +truth, considerably damped my joy. I was lifting a drink from it in the +hollow of my hand, when all at once I thought I heard a slight cough +some little way from me. Never in my life was I so joyfully surprised as +at this moment: I went near, and at the border of the wood I saw an old +woman sitting resting on the ground. She was dressed almost wholly in +black; a black hood covered her head, and the greater part of her face; +in her hand she held a crutch. + +"I came up to her, and begged for help; she made me sit by her, and gave +me bread, and a little wine. While I ate, she sang in a screeching tone +some kind of spiritual song. When she had done, she told me I might +follow her. + +"The offer charmed me, strange as the old woman's voice and look +appeared. With her crutch she limped away pretty fast, and at every step +she twisted her face so oddly, that at first I was like to laugh. The +wild rocks retired behind us more and more: I never shall forget the +aspect and the feeling of that evening. All things were as molten into +the softest golden red; the trees were standing with their tops in the +glow of the sunset; on the fields lay a mild brightness; the woods and +the leaves of the trees were standing motionless; the pure sky looked +out like an opened paradise, and the gushing of the brooks, and, from +time to time, the rustling of the trees, resounded through the serene +stillness, as in pensive joy. My young soul was here first taken with a +forethought of the world and its vicissitudes. I forgot myself and my +conductress; my spirit and my eyes were wandering among the shining +clouds. + +"We now mounted an eminence planted with birch-trees; from the top we +looked into a green valley, likewise full of birches; and down below, in +the middle of them, was a little hut. A glad barking reached us, and +immediately a little nimble dog came springing round the old woman, +fawned on her, and wagged its tail; it next came to me, viewed me on all +sides, and then turned back with a friendly look to its old mistress. + +"On reaching the bottom of the hill, I heard the strangest song, as if +coming from the hut, and sung by some bird. It ran thus: + + Alone in wood so gay + 'Tis good to stay, + Morrow like today, + Forever and aye: + O, I do love to stay + Alone in wood so gay. + +"These few words were continually repeated, and to describe the sound, +it was as if you heard forest-horns and shalms sounded together from a +far distance. + +"My curiosity was wonderfully on the stretch; without waiting for the +old woman's orders, I stept into the hut. It was already dusk; here all +was neatly swept and trimmed; some bowls were standing in a cupboard, +some strange-looking casks or pots on a table; in a glittering cage, +hanging by the window, was a bird, and this in fact proved to be the +singer. The old woman coughed and panted: it seemed as if she never +would get over her fatigue: she patted the little dog, she talked with +the bird, which only answered her with its accustomed song; and for me, +she did not seem to recollect that I was there at all. Looking at her +so, many qualms and fears came over me; for her face was in perpetual +motion; and, besides, her head shook from old age, so that, for my life, +I could not understand what sort of countenance she had. + +"Having gathered strength again, she lit a candle, covered a very small +table, and brought out supper. She now looked round for me, and bade me +take a little cane-chair. I was thus sitting close fronting her, with +the light between us. She folded her bony hands, and prayed aloud, still +twisting her countenance, so that I was once more on the point of +laughing; but I took strict care that I might not make her angry. + +"After supper she again prayed, then showed me a bed in a low narrow +closet; she herself slept in the room. I did not watch long, for I was +half stupefied; but in the night I now and then awoke, and heard the old +woman coughing, and between whiles talking with her dog and her bird, +which last seemed dreaming, and replied with only one or two words of +its rhyme. This, with the birches rustling before the window, and the +song of a distant nightingale, made such a wondrous combination, that I +never fairly thought I was awake, but only falling out of one dream into +another still stranger. + +"The old woman awoke me in the morning, and soon after gave me work. I +was put to spin, which I now learned very easily; I had likewise to take +charge of the dog and the bird. I soon learned my business in the house: +I now felt as if it all must be so; I never once remembered that the old +woman had so many singularities, that her dwelling was mysterious, and +lay apart from all men, and that the bird must be a very strange +creature. Its beauty, indeed, always struck me, for its feathers +glittered with all possible colours; the fairest deep blue, and the most +burning red, alternated about his neck and body; and when singing, he +blew himself proudly out, so that his feathers looked still finer. + +"My old mistress often went abroad, and did not come again till night; +on these occasions I went out to meet her with the dog, and she used to +call me child and daughter. In the end I grew to like her heartily; as +our mind, especially in childhood, will become accustomed and attached +to anything. In the evenings, she taught me to read; and this was +afterwards a source of boundless satisfaction to me in my solitude, for +she had several ancient-written books, that contained the strangest +stories. + +"The recollection of the life I then led is still singular to me: +Visited by no human creature, secluded in the circle of so small a +family; for the dog and the bird made the same impression on me which in +other cases long-known friends produce. I am surprised that I have never +since been able to recall the dog's name, a very odd one, often as I +then pronounced it. + +"Four years I had passed in this way (I must now have been nearly +twelve), when my old dame began to put more trust in me, and at length +told me a secret. The bird, I found, laid every day an egg, in which +there was a pearl or a jewel. I had already noticed that she often went +to fettle privately about the cage, but I had never troubled myself +farther on the subject. She now gave me charge of gathering these eggs +in her absence, and carefully storing them up in the strange-looking +pots. She would leave me food, and sometimes stay away longer, for +weeks, for months. My little wheel kept humming round, the dog barked, +the bird sang; and withal there was such a stillness in the +neighbourhood, that I do not recollect of any storm or foul weather all +the time I stayed there. No one wandered thither; no wild-beast came +near our dwelling: I was satisfied, and worked along in peace from day +to day. One would perhaps be very happy, could he pass his life so +undisturbedly to the end. + +"From the little that I read, I formed quite marvellous notions of the +world and its people; all taken from myself and my society. When I read +of witty persons, I could not figure them but like the little shock; +great ladies, I conceived, were like the bird; all old women like my +mistress. I had read somewhat of love, too; and often, in fancy, I would +sport strange stories with myself. I figured out the fairest knight on +Earth; adorned him with all perfections, without knowing rightly, after +all my labour, how he looked: but I could feel a hearty pity for myself +when he ceased to love me; I would then, in thought, make long melting +speeches, or perhaps aloud, to try if I could win him back. You smile! +These young days are, in truth, far away from us all. + +"I now liked better to be left alone, for I was then sole mistress of +the house. The dog loved me, and did all I wanted; the bird replied to +all my questions with his rhyme; my wheel kept briskly turning, and at +bottom I had never any wish for change. When my dame returned from her +long wanderings, she would praise my diligence; she said her house, +since I belonged to it, was managed far more perfectly; she took a +pleasure in my growth and healthy looks; in short, she treated me in all +points like her daughter. + +"'Thou art a good girl, child,' said she once to me, in her creaking +tone; 'if thou continuest so, it will be well with thee: but none ever +prospers when he leaves the straight path; punishment will overtake him, +though it may be late.' I gave little heed to this remark of hers at the +time, for in all my temper and movements I was very lively; but by night +it occurred to me again, and I could not understand what she meant by +it. I considered all the words attentively; I had read of riches, and at +last it struck me that her pearls and jewels might perhaps be something +precious. Ere long this thought grew clearer to me. But the straight +path, and leaving it? What could she mean by this? + +"I was now fourteen; it is the misery of man that he arrives at +understanding through the loss of innocence. I now saw well enough that +it lay with me to take the jewels and the bird in the old woman's +absence, and go forth with them and see the world which I had read of. +Perhaps, too, it would then be possible that I might meet that fairest +of all knights, who forever dwelt in my memory. + +"At first this thought was nothing more than any other thought; but when +I used to be sitting at my wheel, it still returned to me, against my +will; and I sometimes followed it so far, that I already saw myself +adorned in splendid attire, with princes and knights around me. On +awakening from these dreams, I would feel a sadness when I looked up, +and found myself still in the little cottage. For the rest, if I went +through my duties, the old woman troubled herself little about what I +thought or felt. + +"One day she went out again, telling me that she should be away on this +occasion longer than usual; that I must take strict charge of +everything, and not let the time hang heavy on my hands. I had a sort of +fear on taking leave of her, for I felt as if I should not see her any +more. I looked long after her, and knew not why I felt so sad; it was +almost as if my purpose had already stood before me, without myself +being conscious of it. + +"Never did I tend the dog and the bird with such diligence as now; they +were nearer to my heart than formerly. The old woman had been gone some +days, when I rose one morning in the firm mind to leave the cottage, and +set out with the bird to see this world they talked so much of. I felt +pressed and hampered in my heart; I wished to stay where I was, and yet +the thought of that afflicted me; there was a strange contention in my +soul, as if between two discordant spirits. One moment my peaceful +solitude would seem to me so beautiful; the next the image of a new +world, with its many wonders, would again enchant me. + +"I knew not what to make of it; the dog leaped up continually about me; +the sunshine spread abroad over the fields; the green birch-trees +glittered; I always felt as if I had something I must do in haste; so I +caught the little dog, tied him up in the room, and took the cage with +the bird under my arm. The dog writhed and whined at this unusual +treatment; he looked at me with begging eyes, but I feared to have him +with me. I also took one pot of jewels, and concealed it by me; the rest +I left. + +"The bird turned its head very strangely when I crossed the threshold; +the dog tugged at his cord to follow me, but he was forced to stay. + +"I did not take the road to the wild rocks, but went in the opposite +direction. The dog still whined and barked, and it touched me to the +heart to hear him; the bird tried once or twice to sing; but as I was +carrying him, the shaking put him out. + +"The farther I went, the fainter grew the barking, and at last it +altogether ceased. I wept, and had almost turned back, but the longing +to see something new still hindered me. + +"I had got across the hills, and through some forests, when the night +came on, and I was forced to turn aside into a village. I blushed +exceedingly on entering the inn; they showed me to a room and bed; I +slept pretty quietly, only that I dreamed of the old woman, and her +threatening me. + +"My journey had not much variety; the farther I went, the more was I +afflicted by the recollection of my old mistress and the little dog; I +considered that in all likelihood the poor shock would die of hunger, +and often in the woods I thought my dame would suddenly meet me. Thus +amid tears and sobs I went along; when I stopped to rest, and put the +cage on the ground, the bird struck up his song, and brought but too +keenly to my mind the fair habitation I had left. As human nature is +forgetful, I imagined that my former journey, in my childhood, had not +been so sad and woful as the present; I wished to be as I was then. + +"I had sold some jewels; and now, after wandering on for several days, I +reached a village. At the very entrance I was struck with something +strange; I felt terrified and knew not why; but I soon bethought myself, +for it was the village where I was born! How amazed was I! How the tears +ran down my cheeks for gladness, for a thousand singular remembrances! +Many things were changed: new houses had been built, some just raised +when I went away, were now fallen, and had marks of fire on them; +everything was far smaller and more confined than I had fancied. It +rejoiced my very heart that I should see my parents once more after such +an absence. I found their little cottage, the well-known threshold; the +door-latch was standing as of old; it seemed to me as if I had shut it +only yesternight. My heart beat violently, I hastily lifted that latch; +but faces I had never seen before looked up and gazed at me. I asked for +the shepherd Martin; they told me that his wife and he were dead three +years ago. I drew back quickly, and left the village weeping aloud. + +"I had figured out so beautifully how I would surprise them with my +riches: by the strangest chance, what I had only dreamed in childhood +was become reality; and now it was all in vain, they could not rejoice +with me, and that which had been my first hope in life was lost forever. + +"In a pleasant town I hired a small house and garden, and took to myself +a maid. The world, in truth, proved not so wonderful as I had painted +it: but I forgot the old woman and my former way of life rather more, +and, on the whole, I was contented. + +"For a long while the bird had ceased to sing; I was therefore not a +little frightened, when one night he suddenly began again, and with a +different rhyme. He sang: + + Alone in wood so gay, + Ah, far away! + But thou wilt say + Some other day, + 'Twere best to stay + Alone in wood so gay. + +"Throughout the night I could not close an eye; all things again +occurred to my remembrance; and I felt, more than ever, that I had not +acted rightly. When I rose, the aspect of the bird distressed me +greatly; he looked at me continually, and his presence did me ill. There +was now no end to his song; he sang it louder and more shrilly than he +had been wont. The more I looked at him, the more he pained and +frightened me; at last I opened the cage, put in my hand, and grasped +his neck; I squeezed my fingers hard together, he looked at me, I +slackened them; but he was dead. I buried him in the garden. + +"After this, there often came a fear over me for my maid; I looked back +upon myself, and fancied she might rob me or murder me. For a long while +I had been acquainted with a young knight, whom I altogether liked: I +bestowed on him my hand; and with this, Sir Walther, ends my story." + +"Ay, you should have seen her then," said Eckbert warmly; "seen her +youth, her loveliness, and what a charm her lonely way of life had given +her. I had no fortune; it was through her love these riches came to me; +we moved hither, and our marriage has at no time brought us anything but +good." + +"But with our tattling," added Bertha, "it is growing very late; we must +go to sleep." + +She rose, and proceeded to her chamber; Walther, with a kiss of her +hand, wished her good-night, saying: "Many thanks, noble lady; I can +well figure you beside your singing bird, and how you fed poor little +_Strohmian_." + +Walther likewise went to sleep; Eckbert alone still walked in a restless +humour up and down the room. "Are not men fools?" said he at last: "I +myself occasioned this recital of my wife's history, and now such +confidence appears to me improper! Will he not abuse it? Will he not +communicate the secret to others? Will he not, for such is human nature, +cast unblessed thoughts on our jewels, and form pretexts and lay plans +to get possession of them?" + +It now occurred to his mind that Walther had not taken leave of him so +cordially as might have been expected after such a mark of trust: the +soul once set upon suspicion finds in every trifle something to confirm +it. Eckbert, on the other hand, reproached himself for such ignoble +feelings to his worthy friend; yet still he could not cast them out. All +night he plagued himself with such uneasy thoughts, and got very little +sleep. + +Bertha was unwell next day, and could not come to breakfast; Walther did +not seem to trouble himself much about her illness, but left her husband +also rather coolly. Eckbert could not comprehend such conduct; he went +to see his wife, and found her in a feverish state; she said her last +night's story must have agitated her. + +From that day, Walther visited the castle of his friend but seldom; and +when he did appear, it was but to say a few unmeaning words and then +depart. Eckbert was exceedingly distressed by this demeanour: to Bertha +or Walther he indeed said nothing of it; but to any person his internal +disquietude was visible enough. + +Bertha's sickness wore an aspect more and more serious; the Doctor grew +alarmed; the red had vanished from his patient's cheeks, and her eyes +were becoming more and more inflamed. One morning she sent for her +husband to her bedside; the nurses were ordered to withdraw. + +"Dear Eckbert," she began, "I must disclose a secret to thee, which has +almost taken away my senses, which is ruining my health, unimportant +trifle as it may appear. Thou mayest remember, often as I talked of my +childhood, I could never call to mind the name of the dog that was so +long beside me: now, that night on taking leave, Walther all at once +said to me: 'I can well figure you, and how you fed poor little +_Strohmian_.' Is it chance? Did he guess the name; did he know it, and +speak it on purpose? If so, how stands this man connected with my +destiny? At times I struggle with myself, as if I but imagined this +mysterious business; but, alas! it is certain, too certain. I felt a +shudder that a stranger should help me to recall the memory of my +secrets. What sayest thou, Eckbert?" + +Eckbert looked at his sick and agitated wife with deep emotion; he stood +silent and thoughtful; then spoke some words of comfort to her, and went +out. In a distant chamber, he walked to and fro in indescribable +disquiet. Walther, for many years, had been his sole companion; and now +this person was the only mortal in the world whose existence pained and +oppressed him. It seemed as if he should be gay and light of heart, were +that one thing but removed. He took his bow, to dissipate these +thoughts; and went to hunt. + +It was a rough stormy winter-day; the snow was lying deep on the hills, +and bending down the branches of the trees. He roved about; the sweat +was standing on his brow; he found no game, and this embittered his +ill-humour. All at once he saw an object moving in the distance; it was +Walther gathering moss from the trunks of trees. Scarce knowing what he +did, he bent his bow; Walther looked round, and gave a threatening +gesture, but the arrow was already flying, and he sank transfixed by it. + +Eckbert felt relieved and calmed, yet a certain horror drove him home to +his castle. It was a good way distant; he had wandered far into the +woods. On arriving, he found Bertha dead: before her death, she had +spoken much of Walther and the old woman. + +For a great while after this occurrence, Eckbert lived in the deepest +solitude: he had all along been melancholy, for the strange history of +his wife disturbed him, and he dreaded some unlucky incident or other; +but at present he was utterly at variance with himself. The murder of +his friend arose incessantly before his mind; he lived in the anguish of +continual remorse. + +To dissipate his feelings, he occasionally moved to the neighbouring +town, where he mingled in society and its amusements. He longed for a +friend to fill the void in his soul; and yet, when he remembered +Walther, he would shudder at the thought of meeting with a friend; for +he felt convinced that, with any friend, he must be unhappy. He had +lived so long with his Bertha in lovely calmness; the friendship of +Walther had cheered him through so many years; and now both of them were +suddenly swept away. As he thought of these things, there were many +moments when his life appeared to him some fabulous tale, rather than +the actual history of a living man. + +A young knight, named Hugo, made advances to the silent melancholy +Eckbert, and appeared to have a true affection for him. Eckbert felt +himself exceedingly surprised; he met the knight's friendship with the +greater readiness, the less he had anticipated it. The two were now +frequently together; Hugo showed his friend all possible attentions; one +scarcely ever went to ride without the other; in all companies they got +together. In a word, they seemed inseparable. + +Eckbert was never happy longer than a few transitory moments: for he +felt too clearly that Hugo loved him only by mistake; that he knew him +not, was unacquainted with his history; and he was seized again with the +same old longing to unbosom himself wholly, that he might be sure +whether Hugo was his friend or not. But again his apprehensions, and the +fear of being hated and abhorred, withheld him. There were many hours in +which he felt so much impressed with his entire worthlessness, that he +believed no mortal not a stranger to his history, could entertain regard +for him. Yet still he was unable to withstand himself: on a solitary +ride, he disclosed his whole history to Hugo, and asked if he could love +a murderer. Hugo seemed touched, and tried to comfort him. Eckbert +returned to town with a lighter heart. + +But it seemed to be his doom that, in the very hour of confidence, he +should always find materials for suspicion. Scarcely had they entered +the public hall, when, in the glitter of the many lights, Hugo's looks +had ceased to satisfy him. He thought he noticed a malicious smile; he +remarked that Hugo did not speak to him as usual; that he talked with +the rest, and seemed to pay no heed to him. In the party was an old +knight, who had always shown himself the enemy of Eckbert, had often +asked about his riches and his wife in a peculiar style. With this man +Hugo was conversing; they were speaking privately, and casting looks at +Eckbert. The suspicions of the latter seemed confirmed; he thought +himself betrayed, and a tremendous rage took hold of him. As he +continued gazing, on a sudden he discerned the countenance of Walther, +all his features, all the form so well known to him; he gazed, and +looked, and felt convinced that it was none but Walther who was talking +to the knight. His horror cannot be described; in a state of frenzy he +rushed out of the hall, left the town overnight, and after many +wanderings, returned to his castle. + +Here, like an unquiet spirit, he hurried to and fro from room to room; +no thought would stay with him; out of one frightful idea he fell into +another still more frightful, and sleep never visited his eyes. Often he +believed that he was mad, that a disturbed imagination was the origin of +all this terror; then, again, he recollected Walther's features, and the +whole grew more and more a riddle to him. He resolved to take a journey, +that he might reduce his thoughts to order; the hope of friendship, the +desire of social intercourse, he had now forever given up. + +He set out, without prescribing to himself any certain route; indeed, he +took small heed of the country he was passing through. Having hastened +on some days at the quickest pace of his horse, he, on a sudden, found +himself entangled in a labyrinth of rocks, from which he could discover +no outlet. At length he met an old peasant, who took him by a path +leading past a waterfall: he offered him some coins for his guidance, +but the peasant would not have them. "What use is it?" said Eckbert. "I +could believe that this man, too, was none but Walther." He looked round +once more, and it was none but Walther. Eckbert spurred his horse as +fast as it could gallop, over meads and forests, till it sank exhausted +to the earth. Regardless of this, he hastened forward on foot. + +In a dreamy mood he mounted a hill: he fancied he caught the sound of +lively barking at a little distance; the birch-trees whispered in the +intervals, and in the strangest notes he heard this song: + + Alone in wood so gay, + Once more I stay; + None dare me slay, + The evil far away: + Ah, here I stay, + Alone in wood so gay. + +The sense, the consciousness of Eckbert had departed; it was a riddle +which he could not solve, whether he was dreaming now, or had before +dreamed of a wife and friend. The marvellous was mingled with the +common: the world around him seemed enchanted, and he himself was +incapable of thought or recollection. + +A crooked, bent old woman, crawled coughing up the hill with a crutch. +"Art thou bringing me my bird, my pearls, my dog?" cried she to him. +"See how injustice punishes itself! No one but I was Walther, was Hugo." + +"God of Heaven!" said Eckbert, muttering to himself; "in what frightful +solitude have I passed my life?" + +"And Bertha was thy sister." + +Eckbert sank to the ground. + +"Why did she leave me deceitfully? All would have been fair and well; +her time of trial was already finished. She was the daughter of a +knight, who had her nursed in a shepherd's house; the daughter of thy +father." + +"Why have I always had a forecast of this dreadful thought?" cried +Eckbert. + +"Because in early youth thy father told thee: he could not keep this +daughter by him for his second wife, her stepmother." + +Eckbert lay distracted and dying on the ground. Faint and bewildered, he +heard the old woman speaking, the dog barking, the bird repeating its +song. + + + + +THE TRUSTY ECKART. + + + Brave Burgundy no longer + Could fight for fatherland; + The foe they were the stronger, + Upon the bloody sand. + + He said: "The foe prevaileth, + My friends and followers fly, + My striving naught availeth, + My spirits sink and die. + + No more can I exert me, + Or sword and lance can wield; + O, why did he desert me, + Eckart, our trusty shield! + + In fight he used to guide me, + In danger was my stay; + Alas, he's not beside me, + But stays at home today! + + The crowds are gathering faster, + Took captive shall I be? + I may not run like dastard, + I'll die like soldier free." + + Thus Burgundy so bitter, + Has at his breast his sword; + When, see, breaks-in the Ritter + Eckart, to save his lord! + + With cap and armour glancing, + Bold on the foe he rides, + His troop behind him prancing, + And his two sons besides. + + Burgundy sees their token, + And cries: "Now, God be praised! + Not yet we're beat or broken, + Since Eckart's flag is raised." + + Then like a true knight, Eckart + Dash'd gaily through the foe: + But with his red blood flecker'd, + His little son lay low. + + And when the fight was ended, + Then Burgundy he speaks: + "Thou hast me well befriended, + Yet so as wets my cheeks. + + The foe is smote and flying; + Thou'st saved my land and life; + But here thy boy is lying, + Returns not from the strife." + + Then Eckart wept almost, + The tear stood in his eye; + He clasp'd the son he'd lost, + Close to his breast the boy. + + "Why diedst thou, Heinz, so early, + And scarce wast yet a man? + Thou'rt fallen in battle fairly; + For thee I'll not complain. + + Thee, Prince, we have deliver'd; + From danger thou art free: + The boy and I are sever'd; + I give my son to thee." + + Then Burgundy our chief, + His eyes grew moist and dim; + He felt such joy and grief, + So great that love to him. + + His heart was melting, flaming, + He fell on Eckart's breast, + With sobbing voice exclaiming: + "Eckart, my champion best, + + Thou stoodst when every other + Had fled from me away; + Therefore thou art my brother + Forever from this day. + + The people shall regard thee + As wert thou of my line; + And could I more reward thee, + How gladly were it thine!" + + And when we heard the same, + We joy'd as did our prince; + And Trusty Eckart is the name + We've call'd him ever since. + +The voice of an old peasant sounded over the rocks, as he sang this +ballad; and the Trusty Eckart sat in his grief, on the declivity of the +hill, and wept aloud. His youngest boy was standing by him: "Why weepest +thou aloud, my father Eckart?" said he: "Art thou not great and strong, +taller and braver than any other man? Whom, then, art thou afraid of?" + +Meanwhile the Duke of Burgundy was moving homewards to his Tower. +Burgundy was mounted on a stately horse, with splendid trappings; and +the gold and jewels of the princely Duke were glittering in the evening +sun; so that little Conrad could not sate himself with viewing and +admiring the magnificent procession. The Trusty Eckart rose, and looked +gloomily over it; and young Conrad, when the hunting train had +disappeared, struck up this stave: + + On good steed, + Sword and shield + Wouldst thou wield, + With spear and arrow; + Then had need + That the marrow + In thy arm, + That thy heart and blood, + Be good, + To save thy head from harm. + +The old man clasped his son to his bosom, looking with wistful +tenderness on his clear blue eyes. "Didst thou hear that good man's +song?" said he. + +"Ay, why not?" answered Conrad: "he sang it loud enough, and thou art +the Trusty Eckart thyself, so I liked to listen." + +"That same Duke is now my enemy," said Eckart; "he keeps my other son in +prison, nay has already put him to death, if I may credit what the +people say." + +"Take down thy broad-sword, and do not suffer it," cried Conrad; "they +will tremble to see thee, and all the people in the whole land will +stand by thee, for thou art their greatest hero in the land." + +"Not so, my son," said the other; "I were then the man my enemies have +called me; I dare not be unfaithful to my liege; no, I dare not break +the peace which I have pledged to him, and promised on his hand." + +"But what wants he with us, then?" said Conrad, impatiently. + +Eckart sat down again, and said: "My son, the entire story of it would +be long, and thou wouldst scarcely understand it. The great have always +their worst enemy in their own hearts, and they fear it day and night; +so Burgundy has now come to think that he has trusted me too far; that +he has nursed in me a serpent in his bosom. People call me the stoutest +warrior in our country; they say openly that he owes me land and life; I +am named the Trusty Eckart; and thus oppressed and suffering persons +turn to me, that I may get them help. All this he cannot suffer. So he +has taken up a grudge against me; and every one that wants to rise in +favour with him increases his distrust; so that at last he has quite +turned away his heart from me." + +Hereupon the hero Eckart told, in smooth words, how Burgundy had +banished him from his sight, how they had become entire strangers to +each other, as the Duke suspected that he even meant to rob him of his +dukedom. In trouble and sorrow, he proceeded to relate how the Duke had +cast his son into confinement, and was threatening the life of Eckart +himself, as of a traitor to the land. + +But Conrad said to his father: "Wilt thou let me go, my old father, and +speak with the Duke, to make him reasonable and kind to thee? If he has +killed my brother, then he is a wicked man, and thou must punish him; +but that cannot be, for he could not so falsely forget the great service +thou hast done him." + +"Dost thou know the old proverb?" said Eckart: + + "Doth the king require thy aid, + Thou'rt a friend can ne'er be paid; + Hast thou help'd him through his trouble + Friendship's grown an empty bubble. + +Yes; my whole life has been wasted in vain. Why did he make me great, to +cast me down the deeper? The friendship of princes is like a deadly +poison, which can only be employed against our enemies, and with which +at last we unwarily kill ourselves." + +"I will to the Duke," cried Conrad: "I will call back into his soul all +that thou hast done, that thou hast suffered for him; and he will again +be as of old." + +"Thou hast forgot," said Eckart, "that they look on us as traitors. +Therefore let us fly together to some foreign country, where a better +fortune may betide us." + +"At thy age," said Conrad, "wilt thou turn away thy face from thy kind +home? I will to Burgundy; I will quiet him, and reconcile him to thee. +What can he do to me, even though he still hate and fear thee?" + +"I let thee go unwillingly," said Eckart; "for my soul forebodes no +good; and yet I would fain be reconciled to him, for he is my old +friend; and fain save thy brother, who is pining in the dungeon beside +him." + +The sun threw his last mild rays on the green Earth: Eckart sat +pensively leaning back against a tree; he looked long at Conrad, then +said: "If thou wilt go, my little boy, go now, before the night grow +altogether dark. The windows in the Duke's Castle are already glittering +with lights, and I hear afar off the sound of trumpets from the feast; +perhaps his son's bride may have arrived, and his mind may be friendlier +to us." + +Unwillingly he let him go, for he no longer trusted to his fortune: but +Conrad's heart was light; for he thought it would be an easy task to +turn the mind of Burgundy, who had played with him so kindly but a short +while before. "Wilt thou come back to me, my little boy?" sobbed Eckart: +"if I lose thee, no other of my race remains." The boy consoled him; +flattered him with caresses: at last they parted. + +Conrad knocked at the gate of the Castle, and was let in; old Eckart +stayed without in the night alone. "Him too have I lost," moaned he in +his solitude; "I shall never see his face again." + +Whilst he so lamented, there came tottering towards him a gray-haired +man; endeavouring to get down the rocks; and seeming, at every step, to +fear that he should stumble into the abyss. Seeing the old man's +feebleness, Eckart held out his hand to him, and helped him to descend +in safety. + +"Which way come ye?" inquired Eckart. + +The old man sat down, and began to weep, so that the tears came running +over his cheeks. Eckart tried to soothe him and console him with +reasonable words; but the sorrowful old man seemed not at all to heed +these well-meant speeches, but to yield himself the more immoderately to +his sorrows. + +"What grief can it be that lies so heavy on you as to overpower you +utterly?" said Eckart. + +"Ah, my children!" moaned the old man. + +Then Eckart thought of Conrad, Heinz and Dietrich, and was himself +altogether comfortless. "Yes," said he, "if your children are dead, your +misery in truth is very great." + +"Worse than dead," replied the old man, with his mournful voice; "for +they are not dead, but lost forever to me. O, would to Heaven that they +were but dead!" + +These strange words astonished Eckart, and he asked the old man to +explain the riddle; whereupon the latter answered: "The age we live in +is indeed a marvellous age, and surely the last days are at hand; for +the most dreadful signs are sent into the world, to threaten it. Every +sort of wickedness is casting off its old fetters, and stalking bold and +free about the Earth; the fear of God is drying up and dispersing, and +can find no channel to unite in; and the Powers of Evil are rising +audaciously from their dark nooks, and celebrating their triumph. Ah, my +dear sir! we are old, but not old enough for such prodigious things. You +have doubtless seen the Comet, that wondrous light in the sky, that +shines so prophetically down upon us? All men predict evil; and no one +thinks of beginning the reform with himself, and so essaying to turn off +the rod. Nor is this enough; but portents are also issuing from the +Earth, and breaking mysteriously from the depths below, even as the +light shines frightfully on us from above. Have you never heard of the +Hill, which people call the Hill of Venus?" + +"Never," said Eckart, "far as I have travelled." + +"I am surprised at that," replied the old man; "for the matter is now +grown as notorious as it is true. To this Mountain have the Devils fled, +and sought shelter in the desert centre of the Earth, according as the +growth of our Holy Faith has cast down the idolatrous worship of the +Heathen. Here, they say, before all others, Lady Venus keeps her court, +and all her hellish hosts of worldly Lusts and forbidden Wishes gather +round her, so that the Hill has been accursed since time immemorial." + +"But in what country lies the Hill?" inquired Eckart. + +"There is the secret," said the old man, "that no one can tell this, +except he have first given himself up to be Satan's servant; and, +indeed, no guiltless person ever thinks of seeking it out. A wonderful +Musician on a sudden issues from below, whom the Powers of Hell have +sent as their ambassador; he roams through the world, and plays, and +makes music on a pipe, so that his tones sound far and wide. And whoever +hears these sounds is seized by him with visible yet inexplicable force, +and drawn on, on, into the wilderness; he sees not the road he travels; +he wanders, and wanders, and is not weary; his strength and his speed +go on increasing; no power can restrain him; but he runs frantic into +the Mountain, from which he can nevermore return. This power has, in our +day, been restored to Hell; and in this inverse direction, the +ill-starred, perverted pilgrims are travelling to a Shrine where no +deliverance awaits them, or can reach them any more. For a long while, +my two sons had given me no contentment; they were dissolute and +immoral; they despised their parents, as they did religion; but now the +Sound has caught and carried them off, they are gone into unseen +kingdoms; the world was too narrow for them, they are seeking room in +Hell." + +"And what do you intend to do in such a mystery?" said Eckart. + +"With this crutch I set out," replied the old man, "to wander through +the world, to find them again, or die of weariness and woe." + +So saying, he tore himself from his rest with a strong effort; and +hastened forth with his utmost speed, as if he had found himself +neglecting his most precious earthly hope; and Eckart looked with +compassion on his vain toil, and rated him in his thoughts as mad. + +It had been night, and was now day, and Conrad came not back. Eckart +wandered to and fro among the rocks, and turned his longing eyes on the +Castle; still he did not see him. A crowd came issuing through the gate; +and Eckart no longer heeded to conceal himself; but mounted his horse, +which was grazing in freedom; and rode into the middle of the troop, who +were now proceeding merrily and carelessly across the plain. On his +reaching them, they recognised him; but no one laid a hand on him, or +said a hard word to him; they stood mute for reverence, surrounded him +in admiration, and then went their way. One of the squires he called +back, and asked him: "Where is my Conrad?" + +"O! ask me not," replied the squire; "it would but cause you sorrow and +lamenting." + +"And Dietrich!" cried the father. + +"Name not their names any more," said the aged squire, "for they are +gone; the wrath of our master was kindled against them, and he meant to +punish you in them." + +A hot rage mounted up in Eckart's soul; and, for sorrow and fury, he was +no longer master of himself. He dashed the spurs into his horse, and +rode through the Castle-gate. All drew back, with timid reverence, from +his way; and thus he rode on to the front of the Palace. He sprang from +horseback, and mounted the great steps with wavering pace. "Am I here in +the dwelling of the man," said he, within himself, "who was once my +friend?" He endeavoured to collect his thoughts; but wilder and wilder +images kept moving in his eye, and thus he stept into the Prince's +chamber. + +Burgundy's presence of mind forsook him, and he trembled as Eckart stood +in his presence. "Art thou the Duke of Burgundy?" said Eckart to him. To +which the Duke answered, "Yes." + +"And thou hast killed my son Dietrich?" The Duke said, "Yes." + +"And my little Conrad too," cried Eckart, in his grief, "was not too +good for thee, and thou hast killed him also?" To which the Duke again +answered, "Yes." + +Here Eckart was unmanned, and said, in tears: "O! answer me not so, +Burgundy; for I cannot bear these speeches. Tell me but that thou art +sorry, that thou wishest it were yet undone, and I will try to comfort +myself; but thus thou art utterly offensive to my heart." + +The Duke said: "Depart from my sight, false traitor; for thou art the +worst enemy I have on Earth." + +Eckart said: "Thou hast of old called me thy friend; but these thoughts +are now far from thee. Never did I act against thee; still have I +honoured and loved thee as my prince; and God forbid that I should now, +as I well might, lay my hand upon my sword, and seek revenge of thee. +No, I will depart from thy sight, and die in solitude." + +So saying, he went out; and Burgundy was moved in his mind; but at his +call, the guards appeared with their lances, who encircled him on all +sides, and motioned to drive Eckart from the chamber with their weapons. + + To horse the hero springs, + Wild through the hills he rideth: + "Of hope in earthly things, + Now none with me abideth. + + My sons are slain in youth, + I have no child or wife; + The Prince suspects my truth, + Has sworn to take my life." + + Then to the wood he turns him, + There gallops on and on; + The smart of sorrow burns him, + He cries: "They're gone, they're gone + + All living men from me are fled, + New friends I must provide me, + To the oaks and firs beside me, + Complain in desert dead. + + There is no child to cheer me, + By cruel wolves they're slain; + Once three of them were near me, + I see them not again." + + As Eckart cried thus sadly, + His sense it pass'd away; + He rides in fury madly + Till dawning of the day. + + His horse in frantic speed + Sinks down at last exhausted; + And naught does Eckart heed, + Or think or know what caused it; + + But on the cold ground lie, + Not fearing, loving longer; + Despair grows strong and stronger, + He wishes but to die. + +No one about the Castle knew whither Eckart had gone; for he had lost +himself in the waste forests, and let no man see him. The Duke dreaded +his intentions; and he now repented that he had let him go, and not laid +hold of him. So, one morning, he set forth with a great train of hunters +and attendants, to search the woods, and find out Eckart; for he +thought, that till Eckart were destroyed, there could be no security. +All were unwearied, and regardless of toil; but the sun set without +their having found a trace of Eckart. + +A storm came on, and great clouds flew blustering over the forest; the +thunder rolled, and lightning struck the tall oaks: all present were +seized with an unquiet terror, and they gradually dispersed among the +bushes, or the open spaces of the wood. The Duke's horse plunged into +the thicket; his squires could not follow him: the gallant horse rushed +to the ground; and Burgundy in vain called through the tempest to his +servants; for there was no one that could hear him. + +Like a wild man had Eckart roamed about the woods, unconscious of +himself or his misfortunes; he had lost all thought, and in blank +stupefaction satisfied his hunger with roots and herbs: the hero could +not now be recognised by any one, so sore had the days of his despair +defaced him. As the storm came on, he awoke from his stupefaction, and +again felt his existence and his woes, and saw the misery that had +befallen him. He raised a loud cry of lamentation for his children; he +tore his white hair; and called out, in the bellowing of the storm: +"Whither, whither are ye gone, ye parts of my heart? And how is all +strength departed from me, that I could not even avenge your death? Why +did I hold back my arm, and did not send to death him who had given my +heart these deadly stabs? Ha, fool, thou deservest that the tyrant +should mock thee, since thy powerless arm and thy silly heart withstood +not the murderer. Now, O now were he with me! But it is in vain to wish +for vengeance, when the moment is gone by." + +Thus came on the night, and Eckart wandered to and fro in his sorrow. +From a distance he heard as it were a voice calling for help. Directing +his steps by the sound, he came up to a man in the darkness, who was +leaning on the stem of a tree, and mournfully entreating to be guided to +his road. Eckart started at the voice, for it seemed familiar to him; +but he soon recovered, and perceived that the lost wayfarer was the Duke +of Burgundy. Then he raised his hand to his sword, to cut down the man +who had been the murderer of his children; his fury came on him with new +force, and he was upon the point of finishing his bloody task, when all +at once he stopped, for his oath and the word he had pledged came into +his mind. He took his enemy's hand, and led him to the quarter where he +thought the road must be. + + The Duke foredone and weary + Sank in the wilder'd breaks; + Him in the tempest dreary + He on his shoulders takes. + + Said Burgundy: "I'm giving + Much toil to thee, I fear." + Eckart replied: "The living + On Earth have much to bear." + + "Yet," said the Duke, "believe me, + Were we out of the wood, + Since now thou dost relieve me, + Thy sorrows I'll make good." + + The hero at this promise + Felt on his cheek the tear; + Said he: "Indeed I nowise + Do look for payment here." + + "Harder our plight is growing," + The Duke cries, dreading scath, + "Now whither are we going? + Who art thou? Art thou Death?" + + "Not Death," said he, still weeping, + "Or any fiend am I; + Thy life is in God's keeping, + Thy ways are in his eye." + + "Ah," said the Duke, repenting, + "My breast is foul within; + I tremble, while lamenting, + Lest God requite my sin. + + My truest friend I've banish'd, + His children have I slain, + In wrath from me he vanish'd, + As foe he comes again. + + To me he was devoted, + Through good report and bad; + My rights he still promoted, + The truest man I had. + + Me he can never pardon, + I kill'd his children dear; + This night to pay my guerdon, + I' th' wood he lurks, I fear. + + This does my conscience teach me, + A threat'ning voice within; + If here to-night he reach me, + I die a child of sin." + + Said Eckart: "The beginning + Of our woes is guilt; + My grief is for thy sinning, + And for the blood thou'st spilt. + + And that the man will meet thee + Is likewise surely true; + Yet fear not, I entreat thee, + He'll harm no hair of you." + +Thus were they going forward talking, when another person in the forest +met them; it was Wolfram, the Duke's Squire, who had long been looking +for his master. The dark night was still lying over them, and no star +twinkled from between the wet black clouds. The Duke felt weaker, and +longed to reach some lodging, where he might sleep till day; besides, he +was afraid that he might meet with Eckart, who stood like a spectre +before his soul. He imagined he should never see the morning; and +shuddered anew when the wind again rustled through the high trees, and +the storm came down from the hollows of the mountains, and went rushing +over his head. "Wolfram," cried the Duke, in his anguish, "climb one of +these tall pines, and look about if thou canst spy no light, no house or +cottage, whither we may turn." + +The Squire, at the hazard of his life, clomb up a lofty pine, which the +storm was waving from the one side to the other, and ever and anon +bending down the top of it to the very ground; so that the Squire +wavered to and fro upon it like a little squirrel. At last he reached +the top, and cried: "Down there, in the valley, I see the glimmer of a +candle; thither must we turn." So he descended and showed the way; and +in a while, they all perceived the cheerful light; at which the Duke +once more took heart. Eckart still continued mute, and occupied within +himself; he spoke no word, and looked at his inward thoughts. On +arriving at the hut, they knocked; and a little old housewife let them +in: as they entered, the stout Eckart set the Duke down from his +shoulders, who threw himself immediately upon his knees, and in a +fervent prayer thanked God for his deliverance. Eckart took his seat in +a dark corner; and there he found fast asleep the poor old man, who had +lately told him of his great misery about his sons, and the search he +was making for them. + +When the Duke had done praying, he said: "Very strange have my thoughts +been this night, and the goodness of God and his almighty power never +showed themselves so openly before to my obdurate heart: my mind also +tells me that I have not long to live; and I desire nothing save that +God would pardon me my manifold and heavy sins. You two, also, who have +led me hither, I could wish to recompense, so far as in my power, before +my end arrive. To thee, Wolfram, I give both the castles that are on +these hills beside us; and in future, in remembrance of this awful +night, thou shalt call them the Tannenhäuser, or Pine-houses. But who +art thou, strange man," continued he, "that hast placed thyself there in +the nook, apart? Come forth, that I may also pay thee for thy toil." + + Then rose the hero from his place, + And stept into the light before them; + Deep lines of woe were on his face, + But with a patient mind he bore them. + + And Burgundy, his heart forsook him, + To see that mild old gray-hair'd man; + His face grew pale, a trembling took him, + He swoon'd and sank to earth again. + + "O, saints of heaven," he wakes and cries, + "Is't thou that art before my eyes? + How shall I fly? Where shall I hide me? + Was't thou that in the wood didst guide me? + I kill'd thy children young and fair, + Me in thy arms how couldst thou bear?" + + Thus Burgundy goes on to wail, + And feels the heart within him fail; + Death is at hand, remorse pursues him, + With streaming eyes he sinks on Eckart's bosom; + And Eckart whispers to him low: + "Henceforth I have forgot the slight, + So thou and all the world may know, + Eckart was still thy trusty knight." + +Thus passed the hours till morning, when some other servants of the Duke +arrived, and found their dying master. They laid him on a mule, and took +him back to his castle. Eckart he could not suffer from his side; he +would often take his hand and press it to his breast, and look at him +with an imploring look. Then Eckart would embrace him, and speak a few +kind words to him, and so the Prince would feel composed. At last he +summoned all his Council, and declared to them that he appointed Eckart, +the trusty man, to be guardian of his sons, seeing he had proved himself +the noblest of all. And thus he died. + +Thenceforward Eckart took on him the government with all zeal; and every +person in the land admired his high manly spirit. Not long afterwards a +rumour spread abroad in all quarters, of a strange Musician, who had +come from Venus-Hill, who was travelling through the whole land, and +seducing men with his playing, so that they disappeared, and no one +could find any traces of them. Many credited the story, others not; +Eckart recollected the unhappy old man. + +"I have taken you for my sons," said he to the young Princes, as he once +stood with them on the hill before the Castle; "your happiness must now +be my posterity; when dead, I shall still live in your joy." They lay +down on the slope, from which the fair country was visible for many a +league; and here Eckart had to guard himself from speaking of his +children; for they seemed as if coming towards him from the distant +mountains, while he heard afar off a lovely sound. + + "Comes it not like dreams + Stealing o'er the vales and streams? + Out of regions far from this, + Like the song of souls in bliss?" + + This to the youths did Eckart say, + And caught the sound from far away; + And as the magic tones came nigher, + A wicked strange desire + Awakens in the breasts of these pure boys, + That drives them forth to seek for unknown joys. + + "Come, let's to the fields, to the meadows and mountains, + The forests invite us, the streams and the fountains; + Soft voices in secret for loitering chide us, + Away to the Garden of Pleasure they'll guide us." + + The Player comes in foreign guise, + Appears before their wondering eyes; + And higher swells the music's sound, + And brighter glows the emerald ground; + The flowers appear as drunk, + Twilight red has on them sunk; + And through the green grass play, with airy lightness, + Soft, fitful, blue and golden streaks of brightness. + Like a shadow, melts and flits away + All that bound men to this world of clay; + In Earth all toil and tumult cease, + Like one bright flower it blooms in peace; + The mountains rock in purple light, + The valleys shout as with delight; + All rush and whirl in the music's noise, + And long to share of these offer'd joys; + The soul of man is allured to gladness, + And lies entranced in that blissful madness. + + The Trusty Eckart felt it, + But wist not of the cause; + His heart the music melted, + He wondered what it was. + + The world seems new and fairer, + All blooming like the rose; + Can Eckart be a sharer + In raptures such as those? + + "Ha! Are those tones restoring + My wife and bonny sons? + All that I was deploring, + My lost beloved ones?" + + Yet soon his sense collected + Brought doubt within his breast; + These hellish arts detected, + A horror him possessed. + + And now he sees the raging + Of his young princes dear; + Themselves to Hell engaging, + His voice no more they hear. + + And forth, in wild commotion, + They rush, not knowing where; + In tumult like the ocean, + When mad his billows are. + + Then, as these things assail'd him, + He wist not what to do; + His knighthood almost fail'd him + Amid that hellish crew. + + Then to his soul appeareth + The hour the Duke did die; + His friend's faint prayer he heareth, + He sees his fading eye. + + And so his mind's in armour, + And hope is conquering fear; + When see, the fiendish Charmer + Himself comes piping near! + + His sword to draw he essayeth, + And smite the caitiff dead; + But as the music playeth, + His strength is from him fled. + + And from the mountains issue + Crowds of distorted forms, + Of Dwarfs a boundless tissue + Come simmering round in swarms. + + The youths, possess'd, are running + As frantic in the crowd: + In vain is force or cunning; + In vain to call aloud. + + And hurries on by castle, + By tower and town, the rout; + Like imps in hellish wassail, + With cackling laugh and shout. + + He too is in the rabble; + May not resist their force, + Must hear their deafening babble, + Attend their frantic course. + + But now the Hill appeareth, + And music comes thereout; + And as the Phantoms hear it, + They halt, and raise a shout. + + The Mountain starts asunder, + A motley crowd is seen; + This way and that they wander, + In red unearthly sheen. + + Then his broad-sword he drew it, + And says: "Still true, though lost!" + And with mad force he heweth + Through that Infernal host. + + His youths he sees (how gladly!) + Escaping through the vale; + The Fiends are fighting madly, + And threatening to prevail. + + The Dwarfs, when hurt, fly downward, + And rise up cured again; + And other crowds rush onward, + And fight with might and main. + + Then saw he from a distance + The children safe, and cried: + "They need not my assistance, + I care not what betide." + + His good broad-sword doth glitter + And flash i' th' noontide ray; + The Dwarfs, with wailing bitter, + And howls, depart away. + + Safe at the valley's ending, + The youths far off he spies; + Then faint and wounded, bending, + The hero falls and dies. + + So his last hour o'ertook him, + Fighting like lion brave; + His truth, it ne'er forsook him, + He was faithful to the grave. + + Now Eckart having perish'd, + The eldest son bore sway; + His memory still he cherish'd, + With grateful heart would say: + + "From foes and wreck to save me, + Like lion grim he fought; + My throne, my life, he gave me, + And with his heart's blood bought." + + And soon a wondrous rumour + The country round did fill, + That when a desp'rate humour + Doth send one to the Hill, + + There straight a Shape will meet him, + The Trusty Eckart's ghost, + And wistfully entreat him + To turn, and not be lost. + + There he, though dead, yet ever + True watch and ward doth hold; + Upon the Earth shall never + Be man so true and bold. + + +PART II. + +More than four centuries had elapsed since the Trusty Eckart's death, +when a noble Tannenhäuser, in the station of Imperial Counsellor, was +living at Court in the highest estimation. The son of this knight +surpassed in beauty all the other nobles of the land, and on this + +account was loved and prized by every one. Suddenly, however, after some +mysterious incidents had been observed to happen to him, the young man +disappeared; and no one knew or guessed what was become of him. Since +the times of the Trusty Eckart, there had always been a story current in +the land about the Venus-Hill; and many said that he had wandered +thither, and was lost forever. + +One of those that most lamented him was his young friend Friedrich von +Wolfsburg. They had grown up together, and their mutual attachment +seemed to each of them to have become a necessary of life. +Tannenhäuser's old father died: Friedrich married some years afterwards; +already was a ring of merry children round him, and still he heard no +tidings of his youthful friend; so that, in the end, he was forced to +conclude him dead. + +He was standing one evening under the gate of his Castle, when he +perceived afar off a pilgrim travelling towards the mansion. The +wayfaring man was clad in a strange garb; and his gait and gestures the +Knight thought extremely singular. On his approaching nearer, Wolfsburg +thought that he knew him; and at last he became convinced that the +stranger was no other than his long-lost friend, the Tannenhäuser. He +felt amazed, and a secret horror took possession of him, as he +recognised distinctly these much-altered features. + +The two friends embraced; then started back next moment; and gazed +astonished at each other as at unknown beings. Of questions, of +perplexed replies, were many. Friedrich often shuddered at the wild look +of his friend, which seemed to burn as with unearthly light. The +Tannenhäuser had reposed himself a day or two, when Friedrich learned +that he was on a pilgrimage to Rome. + +The two friends by and by renewed their former intimacy; took up their +old topics, and told stories to each other of their youth; but the +Tannenhäuser always carefully concealed where he had been since then. +Friedrich, however, pressed him to disclose it, now that they were once +more on their ancient confidential footing: the other long endeavoured +to ward off the friendly prayer; but at last he exclaimed: "Well, be it +so; thy will be done! Thou shalt know all; but cast no reproaches on me +after, should the story fill thee with inquietude and horror." + +They went into the open air, and walked a little in a green wood of the +pleasure-grounds, where at last they sat down; and now the Tannenhäuser +hid his face among the grass, and, with loud sobs, held back his right +hand to his friend, who pressed it tenderly in his. The woe-worn pilgrim +raised himself, and began his story in the following words: + +"Believe me, Wolfsburg, many a man has, at his birth, an Evil Spirit +linked to him, that vexes him through life, and never lets him rest, +till he has reached his black destination. So has it been with me; my +whole existence has been but a continuing birth-pain, and my awakening +will be in Hell. For this have I already wandered so many weary steps, +and have so many yet before me on the pilgrimage which I am making to +the Holy Father, that I may endeavour to obtain forgiveness at Rome. In +his presence will I lay down the heavy burden of my sins; or fall +beneath it, and die despairing." + +Friedrich attempted to console him, but the Tannenhäuser seemed to pay +little heed to what he said; and, after a short while, he proceeded in +the following words: "There is an old legend of a Knight who is said to +have lived many centuries ago, under the name of the Trusty Eckart. They +tell how, in those days, a Musician issued from some marvellous Hill; +and, by his magic tones, awoke in the hearts of all that heard him so +deep a longing, such wild wishes, that he led them irresistibly along +with his music, and forced them to rush in with him to the Hill. Hell +had then opened wide her gates to poor mortals, and enticed them in with +seductive music. In boyhood I often heard this story, and at first +without particularly minding it; yet ere long it so took hold of me, +that all Nature, every sound, every flower, recalled to me the story of +these heart-subduing tones. I cannot tell thee what a sadness, what an +unutterable longing used to seize me, when I looked on the driving of +the clouds, and saw the light lordly blue peering out between them; or +what remembrances the meadows and the woods would awaken in my deepest +heart. Oftentimes the loveliness and fulness of royal Nature so affected +me, that I stretched out my arms, as if to fly away with wings; that I +might pour myself out like the Spirit of Nature over mountain and +valley; that I might brood over grass and forest, and inhale the riches +of her blessedness. And if by day the free landscape charmed me, by +night dark dreaming fantasies tormented me; and set themselves in +louring grimness before me, as if to shut up my path of life forever. +Above all, there was one dream that left an ineffaceable impression on +my feelings, though I never could distinctly call the forms of it to +memory. Methought there was a vast tumult in the streets; I heard +confused unintelligible speaking; it was dark night; I went to my +parents' house; none but my father was there, and he sick. Next morning +I clasped my parents in my arms, and pressed them with melting +tenderness to my breast, as if some hostile power had been about to tear +them from me. 'Am I to lose thee?' said I to my father. 'O! how wretched +and lonely were I without thee in this world!' They tried to comfort me, +but could not wipe away the dim image from my remembrance. + +"I grew older, still keeping myself apart from other boys of my age. I +often roamed solitary through the fields: and it happened one morning, +in my rambles, that I had lost my way; and so was wandering to and fro +in a thick wood, not knowing whither to turn. After long seeking vainly +for a road, I at last on a sudden came upon an iron-grated fence, within +which lay a garden. Through the bars, I saw fair shady walks before me; +fruit-trees and flowers; and close by me were rose-bushes glittering in +the sun. A nameless longing for these roses seized me; I could not help +rushing on; I pressed myself by force through between the bars, and was +now standing in the garden. Immediately I sank on my knees; clasped the +bushes in my arms; kissed the roses on their red lips, and melted into +tears. I had knelt a while, absorbed in a sort of rapture, when there +came two maidens through the alleys; the one of my own years, the other +elder. I awoke from my trance, to fall into a higher ecstasy. My eye +lighted on the younger, and I felt at this moment as if all my unknown +woe was healed. They took me to the house; their parents, having learned +my name, sent notice to my father, who, in the evening, came himself, +and brought me back. + +"From this day, the uncertain current of my life had got a fixed +direction; my thoughts forever hastened back to the castle and the +maiden; for here, it seemed to me, was the home of all my wishes. I +forgot my customary pleasures, I forsook my playmates, and often +visited the garden, the castle and Emma. Here I had, in a little time, +grown, as it were, an inmate of the house, so that they no longer +thought it strange to see me; and Emma was becoming dearer to me every +day. Thus passed my hours; and a tenderness had taken my heart captive, +though I myself was not aware of it. My whole destination seemed to me +fulfilled; I had no wish but still to come again; and when I went away, +to have the same prospect for the morrow. + +"Matters were in this state, when a young knight became acquainted in +the family; he was a friend of my parents; and he soon, like me, +attached himself to Emma. I hated him, from that moment, as my deadly +enemy; but nothing can describe my feelings, when I fancied I perceived +that Emma liked him more than me. From this hour, it was as if the +music, which had hitherto accompanied me, went silent in my bosom. I +meditated but on death and hatred; wild thoughts now awoke in my breast, +when Emma sang her well-known songs to her lute. Nor did I hide the +aversion which I felt; and when my parents tried to reason and +remonstrate with me, I grew fierce and contradictory. + +"I now roved about the woods and rocky wastes, infuriated against +myself. The death of my rival was a thing I had determined on. The young +knight, after some few months, made a formal offer of himself to the +parents of my mistress, and she was betrothed to him. All that was rare +and beautiful in Nature, all that had charmed me in her magnificence, +had been united in my soul with Emma's image; I fancied, knew or wished +for no other happiness but Emma; nay I had wilfully determined that the +day, which brought the loss of her, should also bring my own +destruction. + +"My parents sorrowed in heart at such perversion; my mother had fallen +sick, but I paid no heed to this; her situation gave me little trouble, +and I saw her seldom. The wedding-day of my enemy was coming on; and +with its approach increased the agony of mind which drove me over woods +and mountains. I execrated Emma and myself with the most horrid curses. +At this time I had no friend; no man would take any charge of me, for +all had given me up for lost. + +"The fearful marriage-eve came on. I had wandered deep among the cliffs, +I heard the rushing of the forest-streams below; I often shuddered at +myself. When the morning came, I saw my enemy proceeding down the +mountains; I assailed him with injurious speeches; he replied; we drew +our swords, and he soon fell beneath my furious strokes. + +"I hastened on, not looking after him, but his attendants took the +corpse away. At night, I hovered round the dwelling which enclosed my +Emma; and a few days afterwards, I heard in the neighbouring cloister +the sound of the funeral-bell, and the grave-song of the nuns. I +inquired; and was told that Fräulein Emma, out of sorrow for her +bridegroom's death, was dead. + +"I could stay no longer; I doubted whether I was living, whether it was +all truth or not. I hastened back to my parents; and came next night, at +a late hour, to the town where they lived. Here all was in confusion; +horses and military wagons filled the streets, soldiers were jostling +one another this way and that, and speaking in disordered haste: the +Emperor was on the point of undertaking a campaign against his enemies. +A solitary light was burning in my father's house when I entered; a +strangling oppression lay upon my breast. As I knocked, my father +himself, with slow, thoughtful steps, advanced to meet me; and +immediately I recollected the old dream of my childhood; and felt, with +cutting emotion, that now it was receiving its fulfilment. In +perplexity, I asked: 'Why are you up so late, Father?' He led me in, and +said: 'I may well be up, for thy mother is even now dead.' + +"His words struck through my soul like thunderbolts. He took a seat with +a meditative air; I sat down beside him. The corpse was lying in a bed, +and strangely wound in linen. My heart was like to burst. 'I wake here,' +said the old man, 'for my wife is still sitting by me.' My senses +failed; I fixed my eyes upon a corner; and, after a little while, there +rose, as it were, a vapour; it mounted and wavered; and the well-known +figure of my mother gathered itself visibly together from the midst of +it, and looked at me with an earnest mien. I wished to go, but I could +not; for the form of my mother beckoned to me, and my father held me in +his arms, and whispered to me, in a low voice: 'She died of grief for +thee.' I embraced him with a childlike transport of affection; I poured +burning tears on his breast. He kissed me; and I shuddered; for his +lips, as they touched me, were cold, like the lips of one dead. 'How art +thou, Father?' cried I, in horror. He writhed painfully together, and +made no reply. In a few moments, I felt him growing colder; I laid my +hand on his heart, but it was still; and, in wailing delirium, I held +the body fast clasped in my embrace. + +"As it were a gleam, like the first streak of dawn, went through the +dark room; and behold, the spirit of my father sat beside my mother's +form; and both looked at me compassionately, as I held the dear corpse +in my arms. After this my consciousness was over: exhausted and +delirious, the servants found me next morning in the chamber of the +dead." + +So far the Tannenhäuser had proceeded with his narrative: Friedrich was +listening to him with the deepest astonishment, when all on a sudden he +broke off, and paused with an expression of the keenest pain. Friedrich +felt embarrassed and immersed in thought; they both returned in company +to the Castle, but stayed in the same room apart from others. + +The Tannenhäuser had kept silence for a while, then he again began: "The +remembrance of those hours still agitates me deeply; I understand not +how I have survived them. The world, and its life, now appeared to me as +if dead and utterly desolate; without thoughts or wishes I lived on from +day to day. I then became acquainted with a set of wild young people; +and endeavoured, in the whirl of pleasure and intoxication, to lay the +tumultuous Evil Spirit that was in me. My ancient burning impatience +again awoke; and I could no longer understand myself or my wishes. A +debauchee, named Rudolf, had become my confidant; he, however, always +laughed to scorn my longings and complaints. About a year had passed in +this way, when my misery of spirit rose to desperation; there was +something drove me onwards, onwards, into unknown space; I could have +dashed myself down from the high mountains into the glowing green of the +meadows, into the cool rushing of the waters, to slake the burning +thirst, to stay the insatiability of my soul: I longed for annihilation; +and again, like golden morning clouds, did hope and love of life arise +before me, and entice me on. The thought then struck me, that Hell was +hungering for me, and was sending me my sorrows as well as my pleasures +to destroy me; that some malignant Spirit was directing all the powers +of my soul to the Infernal Abode; and leading me, as with a bridle, to +my doom. And I surrendered to him; that so these torments, these +alternating raptures and agonies, might leave me. In the darkest night, +I mounted a lofty hill; and called on the Enemy of God and man, with all +the energies of my heart, so that I felt he would be forced to hear me. +My words brought him: he stood suddenly before me, and I felt no horror. +Then in talking with him, the belief in that strange Hill again rose +within me; and he taught me a Song, which of itself would lead me by the +straight road thither. He disappeared, and for the first time since I +had begun to live, I was alone with myself; for I now understood my +wandering thoughts, which rushed as from a centre to find out another +world. I set forth on my journey; and the Song, which I sang with a loud +voice, led me over strange deserts; but all other things besides myself +I had forgotten. There was something carrying me, as on the strong wings +of desire, to my home: I wished to escape the shadow which, amid the +sunshine, threatens us; the wild tones which, amid the softest music, +chide us. So travelling on, I reached the Mountain, one night when the +moon was shining faintly from behind dim clouds. I proceeded with my +Song; and a giant form stood by me, and beckoned me back with his staff. +I went nearer: 'I am the Trusty Eckart,' said the superhuman figure; 'by +God's goodness, I am placed here as watchman, to warn men back from +their sinful rashness.'--I pressed through. + +"My path was now as in a subterraneous mine. The passage was so narrow, +that I had to press myself along; I caught the gurgling of hidden +waters; I heard spirits forming ore, and gold and silver, to entice the +soul of man; I found here concealed and separate the deep sounds and +tones from which earthly music springs: the farther I went, the more did +there fall, as it were, a veil from my sight. + +"I rested, and saw other forms of men come gliding towards me; my friend +Rudolf was among the number. I could not understand how they were to +pass me, so narrow was the way; but they went along, through the middle +of the rock, without perceiving me. + +"Anon I heard the sound of music; but music altogether different from +any that had ever struck my ear before. My thoughts within me strove +towards the notes: I came into an open space; and strange radiant +colours glittered on me from every side. This it was that I had always +been in search of. Close to my heart I felt the presence of the +long-sought, now-discovered glory; and its ravishments thrilled into me +with all their power. And then the whole crowd of jocund Pagan gods came +forth to meet me, Lady Venus at their head, and all saluted me. They +have been banished thither by the power of the Almighty; their worship +is abolished from the Earth; and now they work upon us from their +concealment. + +"All pleasures that Earth affords I here possessed and partook of in +their fullest bloom; insatiable was my heart, and endless my enjoyment. +The famed Beauties of the ancient world were present; what my thought +coveted was mine; one delirium of rapture was followed by another; and +day after day, the world appeared to burn round me in more glorious +hues. Streams of the richest wine allayed my fierce thirst; and +beauteous forms sported in the air, and soft eyes invited me; vapours +rose enchanting around my head: as if from the inmost heart of blissful +Nature, came a music and cooled with its fresh waves the wild tumult of +desire; and a horror, that glided faint and secret over the rose-fields, +heightened the delicious revel. How many years passed over me in this +abode I know not: for here there was no time and no distinctions; the +flowers here glowed with the charms of women; and in the forms of the +women bloomed the magic of flowers; colours here had another language; +the whole world of sense was bound together into one blossom, and the +spirits within it forever held their rejoicing. + +"Now, how it happened, I can neither say nor comprehend; but so it was, +that in all this pomp of sin, a love of rest, a longing for the old +innocent Earth, with her scanty joys, took hold of me here, as keenly as +of old the impulse which had driven me hither. I was again drawn on to +live that life which men, in their unconsciousness, go on leading: I was +sated with this splendour, and gladly sought my former home once more. +An unspeakable grace of the Almighty permitted my return; I found myself +suddenly again in the world; and now it is my intention to pour out my +guilty breast before the chair of our Holy Father in Rome; that so he +may forgive me, and I may again be reckoned among men." + +The Tannenhäuser ceased; and Friedrich long viewed him with an +investigating look, then took his hand, and said: "I cannot yet recover +from my wonder, nor can I understand thy narrative; for it is impossible +that all thou hast told me can be aught but an imagination. Emma still +lives, she is my wife; thou and I never quarrelled, or hated one +another, as thou thinkest: yet before our marriage, thou wert gone on a +sudden from the neighbourhood; nor didst thou ever tell me, by a single +hint, that Emma was dear to thee." + +Hereupon he took the bewildered Tannenhäuser by the hand, and led him +into another room to his wife, who had just then returned from a visit +to her sister, which had kept her for the last few days from home. The +Tannenhäuser spoke not, and seemed immersed in thought; he viewed in +silence the form and face of the lady, then shook his head, and said: +"By Heaven, that is the strangest incident of all!" + +Friedrich, with precision and connectedness, related all that had +befallen him since that time; and tried to make his friend perceive that +it had been some singular madness which had, in the mean while, harassed +him. "I know very well how it stands," exclaimed the Tannenhäuser. "It +is now that I am crazy; and Hell has cast this juggling show before me, +that I may not go to Rome, and seek the pardon of my sins." + +Emma tried to bring his childhood to his recollection; but the +Tannenhäuser would not be persuaded. He speedily set out on his journey; +that he might the sooner get his absolution from the Pope. + +Friedrich and Emma often spoke of the mysterious pilgrim. Some months +had gone by, when the Tannenhäuser, pale and wasted, in a tattered +pilgrim's dress, and barefoot, one morning entered Friedrich's chamber, +while the latter was in bed asleep. He kissed his lips, and then said, +in breathless haste: "The Holy Father cannot, and will not, forgive me; +I must back to my old dwelling." And with this he went hurriedly away. + +Friedrich roused himself; but the ill-fated pilgrim was already gone. He +went to his lady's room; and her maids rushed out to meet him, crying +that the Tannenhäuser had pressed into the apartment early in the +morning, with the words: "She shall not obstruct me in my course!"--Emma +was lying murdered. + +Friedrich had not yet recalled his thoughts, when a horror came over +him: he could not rest; he ran into the open air. They wished to keep +him back; but he told them that the pilgrim had kissed his lips, and +that the kiss was burning him till he found the man again. And so, with +inconceivable rapidity, he ran away to seek the Tannenhäuser, and the +mysterious Hill; and, since that day, he was never seen any more. People +say, that whoever gets a kiss from any emissary of the Hill, is +thenceforth unable to withstand the lure that draws him with magic force +into the subterraneous chasm. + + + + +THE RUNENBERG. + + +A young hunter was sitting in the heart of the Mountains, in a +thoughtful mood, beside his fowling-floor, while the noise of the waters +and the woods was sounding through the solitude. He was musing on his +destiny; how he was so young, and had forsaken his father and mother, +and accustomed home, and all his comrades in his native village, to seek +out new acquaintances, to escape from the circle of returning habitude; +and he looked up with a sort of surprise that he was here, that he found +himself in this valley, in this employment. Great clouds were passing +over him, and sinking behind the mountains; birds were singing from the +bushes, and an echo was replying to them. He slowly descended the hill; +and seated himself on the margin of a brook, that was gushing down among +the rocks with foamy murmur. He listened to the fitful melody of the +water; and it seemed to him as if the waves were saying to him, in +unintelligible words, a thousand things that concerned him nearly; and +he felt an inward trouble that he could not understand their speeches. +Then again he looked aloft, and thought that he was glad and happy; so +he took new heart, and sang aloud this hunting-song: + + Blithe and cheery through the mountains + Goes the huntsman to the chase, + By the lonesome shady fountains, + Till he finds the red-deer's trace. + + Hark! his trusty dogs are baying + Through the bright-green solitude; + Through the groves the horns are playing: + O, thou merry gay green wood! + + In some dell, when luck hath blest him, + And his shot hath stretch'd the deer, + Lies he down, content, to rest him, + While the brooks are murmuring clear. + + Leave the husbandman his sowing, + Let the shipman sail the sea; + None, when bright the morn is glowing, + Sees its red so fair as he, + + Wood and wold and game that prizes, + While Diana loves his art; + And, at last, some bright face rises: + Happy huntsman that thou art! + +Whilst he sung, the sun had sunk deeper, and broad shadows fell across +the narrow glen. A cooling twilight glided over the ground; and now only +the tops of the trees, and the round summits of the mountains, were +gilded by the glow of evening. Christian's heart grew sadder and sadder: +he could not think of going back to his birdfold, and yet he could not +stay; he felt himself alone, and longed to meet with men. He now +remembered with regret those old books, which he used to see at home, +and would never read, often as his father had advised him to it: the +habitation of his childhood came before him, his sports with the youth +of the village, his acquaintances among the children, the school that +had afflicted him so much; and he wished he were again amid these +scenes, which he had wilfully forsaken, to seek his fortune in unknown +regions, in the mountains, among strange people, in a new employment. +Meanwhile it grew darker; and the brook rushed louder; and the birds of +night began to shoot, with fitful wing, along their mazy courses. +Christian still sat disconsolate, and immersed in sad reflection; he was +like to weep, and altogether undecided what to do or purpose. +Unthinkingly, he pulled a straggling root from the earth; and on the +instant, heard, with affright, a stifled moan underground, which winded +downwards in doleful tones, and died plaintively away in the deep +distance. The sound went through his inmost heart; it seized him as if +he had unwittingly touched the wound, of which the dying frame of Nature +was expiring in its agony. He started up to fly; for he had already +heard of the mysterious mandrake-root, which, when torn, yields such +heart-rending moans, that the person who has hurt it runs distracted by +its wailing. As he turned to go, a stranger man was standing at his +back, who looked at him with a friendly countenance, and asked him +whither he was going. Christian had been longing for society, and yet he +started in alarm at this friendly presence. + +"Whither so fast?" said the stranger again. + +The young hunter made an effort to collect himself, and told how all at +once the solitude had seemed so frightful to him, he had meant to get +away; the evening was so dark, the green shades of the wood so dreary, +the brook seemed uttering lamentations, and his longing drew him over to +the other side of the hills. + +"You are but young," said the stranger, "and cannot yet endure the +rigour of solitude: I will accompany you, for you will find no house or +hamlet within a league of this; and in the way we may talk, and tell +each other tales, and so your sad thoughts will leave you: in an hour +the moon will rise behind the hills; its light also will help to chase +away the darkness of your mind." + +They went along, and the stranger soon appeared to Christian as if he +had been an old acquaintance. "Who are you?" said the man; "by your +speech I hear that you belong not to this part." + +"Ah!" replied the other, "upon this I could say much, and yet it is not +worth the telling you, or talking of. There was something dragged me, +with a foreign force, from the circle of my parents and relations; my +spirit was not master of itself: like a bird which is taken in a net, +and struggles to no purpose, so my soul was meshed in strange +imaginations and desires. We dwelt far hence, in a plain, where all +round you could see no hill, scarce even a height: few trees adorned the +green level; but meadows, fertile corn-fields, gardens stretched away as +far as the eye could reach; and a broad river glittered like a potent +spirit through the midst of them. My father was gardener to a nobleman, +and meant to breed me to the same employment. He delighted in plants and +flowers beyond aught else, and could unweariedly pass day by day in +watching them and tending them. Nay he went so far as to maintain, that +he could almost speak with them; that he got knowledge from their growth +and spreading, as well as from the varied form and colour of their +leaves. To me, however, gardening was a tiresome occupation; and the +more so as my father kept persuading me to take it up, or even attempted +to compel me to it with threats. I wished to be a fisherman, and tried +that business for a time; but a life on the waters would not suit me: I +was then apprenticed to a tradesman in the town; but soon came home from +this employment also. My father happened to be talking of the Mountains, +which he had travelled over in his youth; of the subterranean mines and +their workmen; of hunters and their occupation; and that instant there +arose in me the most decided wish, the feeling that at last I had found +out the way of life which would entirely fit me. Day and night I +meditated on the matter; representing to myself high mountains, chasms +and pine-forests; my imagination shaped wild rocks; I heard the tumult +of the chase, the horns, the cry of the hounds and the game; all my +dreams were filled with these things, and they left me neither peace nor +rest any more. The plain, our patron's castle, and my father's little +hampered garden, with its trimmed flower-beds; our narrow dwelling; the +wide sky which stretched above us in its dreary vastness, embracing no +hill, no lofty mountain, all became more dull and odious to me. It +seemed as if the people about me were living in most lamentable +ignorance; that every one of them would think and long as I did, should +the feeling of their wretchedness but once arise within their souls. +Thus did I bait my heart with restless fancies; till one morning I +resolved on leaving my father's house directly and forever. In a book I +had found some notice of the nearest mountains, some charts of the +neighbouring districts, and by them I shaped my course. It was early in +spring, and I felt myself cheerful, and altogether light of heart. I +hastened on, to get away the faster from the level country; and one +evening, in the distance, I descried the dim outline of the Mountains, +lying on the sky before me. I could scarcely sleep in my inn, so +impatient did I feel to have my foot upon the region which I regarded as +my home: with the earliest dawn I was awake, and again in motion. By the +afternoon, I had got among my beloved hills; and here, as if +intoxicated, I went on, then stopped a while, looked back; and drank, as +in inspiring draughts, the aspect of these foreign yet well-known +objects. Ere long, the plain was out of sight; the forest-streams were +rushing down to meet me; the oaks and beeches sounded to me from their +steep precipices with wavering boughs; my path led me by the edge of +dizzy abysses; blue hills were standing vast and solemn in the distance. +A new world was opened to me; I was never weary. Thus, after some days, +having roamed over great part of the Mountains, I reached the dwelling +of an old forester, who consented, at my urgent request, to take me in, +and instruct me in the business of the chase. It is now three months +since I entered his service. I took possession of the district where I +was to live, as of my kingdom. I got acquainted with every cliff and +dell among the mountains; in my occupation, when at dawn of day we moved +to the forest, when felling trees in the wood, when practising my +fowling-piece, or training my trusty attendants, our dogs, to do their +feats, I felt completely happy. But for the last eight days I have +stayed up here at the fowling-floor, in the loneliest quarter of the +hills; and tonight I grew so sad as I never was in my life before; I +seemed so lost, so utterly unhappy; and even yet I cannot shake aside +that melancholy humour." + +The stranger had listened with attention, while they both wandered on +through a dark alley of the wood. They now came out into the open +country, and the light of the moon, which was standing with its horns +over the summit of the hill, saluted them like a friend. In +undistinguishable forms, and many separated masses, which the pale gleam +again perplexingly combined, lay the cleft mountain-range before them; +in the background a steep hill, on the top of which an antique weathered +ruin rose ghastly in the white light. "Our roads part here," said the +stranger; "I am going down into this hollow; there, by that old +mine-shaft, is my dwelling: the metal ores are my neighbours; the +mine-streams tell me wonders in the night; thither thou canst not follow +me. But look, there stands the Runenberg, with its wild ragged walls; +how beautiful and alluring the grim old rock looks down on us! Wert thou +never there?" + +"Never," said the hunter. "Once I heard my old forester relating strange +stories of that hill, which I, like a fool, have forgotten; only I +remember that my mind that night was full of dread and unearthly +notions. I could like to mount the hill some time; for the colours there +are of the fairest, the grass must be very green, the world around one +very strange; who knows, too, but one might chance to find some curious +relic of the ancient time up there?" + +"You could scarcely fail," replied the stranger; "whoever knows how to +seek, whoever feels his heart drawn towards it with a right inward +longing, will find friends of former ages there, and glorious things, +and all that he wishes most." With these words the stranger rapidly +descended to a side, without bidding his companion farewell; he soon +vanished in the tangles of the thicket, and after some few instants, the +sound of his footsteps also died away. The young hunter did not feel +surprised, he but went on with quicker speed towards the Runenberg: +thither all things seemed to beckon him; the stars were shining towards +it; the moon pointed out as it were a bright road to the ruins; light +clouds rose up to them; and from the depths, the waters and sounding +woods spoke new courage into him. His steps were as if winged; his heart +throbbed; he felt so great a joy within him, that it rose to pain. He +came into places he had never seen before; the rocks grew steeper; the +green disappeared; the bald cliffs called to him, as with angry voices, +and a lone moaning wind drove him on before it. Thus he hurried forward +without pause; and late after midnight he came upon a narrow footpath, +which ran along by the brink of an abyss. He heeded not the depth which +yawned beneath, and threatened to swallow him forever; so keenly was he +driven along by wild imaginations and vague wishes. At last his perilous +track led him close by a high wall, which seemed to lose itself in the +clouds; the path grew narrower every step; and Christian had to cling by +projecting stones to keep himself from rushing down into the gulf. Ere +long, he could get no farther; his path ended underneath a window: he +was obliged to pause, and knew not whether he should turn or stay. +Suddenly he saw a light, which seemed to move within the ruined edifice. +He looked towards the gleam; and found that he could see into an ancient +spacious hall, strangely decorated, and glittering in manifold +splendour, with multitudes of precious stones and crystals, the hues of +which played through each other in mysterious changes, as the light +moved to and fro; and this was in the hand of a stately female, who kept +walking with a thoughtful aspect up and down the apartment. She seemed +of a different race from mortals; so large, so strong was her form, so +earnest her look; yet the enraptured huntsman thought he had never seen +or fancied such surpassing beauty. He trembled, yet secretly wished she +might come near the window and observe him. At last she stopped, set +down the light on a crystal table, looked aloft, and sang with a +piercing voice: + + What can the Ancient keep + That they come not at my call? + The crystal pillars weep, + From the diamonds on the wall + The trickling tear-drops fall; + And within is heard a moan, + A chiding fitful tone: + In these waves of brightness, + Lovely changeful lightness, + Has the Shape been form'd, + By which the soul is charm'd, + And the longing heart is warm'd. + Come, ye Spirits, at my call, + Haste ye to the Golden Hall; + Raise, from your abysses gloomy, + Heads that sparkle; faster + Come, ye Ancient Ones, come to me! + Let your power be master + Of the longing hearts and souls, + Where the flood of passion rolls, + Let your power be master! + +On finishing the song, she began undressing; laying her apparel in a +costly press. First, she took a golden veil from her head; and her long +black hair streamed down in curling fulness over her loins: then she +loosed her bosom-dress; and the youth forgot himself and all the world +in gazing at that more than earthly beauty. He scarcely dared to +breathe, as by degrees she laid aside her other garments: at last she +walked about the chamber naked; and her heavy waving locks formed round +her, as it were, a dark billowy sea, out of which, like marble, the +glancing limbs of her form beamed forth, in alternating splendour. After +a while, she went forward to another golden press; and took from it a +tablet, glittering with many inlaid stones, rubies, diamonds and all +kinds of jewels; and viewed it long with an investigating look. The +tablet seemed to form a strange inexplicable figure, from its individual +lines and colours; sometimes, when the glance of it came towards the +hunter, he was painfully dazzled by it; then, again, soft green and blue +playing over it, refreshed his eye: he stood, however, devouring the +objects with his looks, and at the same time sunk in deep thought. +Within his soul, an abyss of forms and harmony, of longing and +voluptuousness, was opened: hosts of winged tones, and sad and joyful +melodies flew through his spirit, which was moved to its foundations: he +saw a world of Pain and Hope arise within him; strong towering crags of +Trust and defiant Confidence, and deep rivers of Sadness flowing by. He +no longer knew himself: and he started as the fair woman opened the +window; handed him the magic tablet of stones, and spoke these words: +"Take this in memory of me!" He caught the tablet; and felt the figure, +which, unseen, at once went through his inmost heart; and the light, and +the fair woman, and the wondrous hall, had disappeared. As it were, a +dark night, with curtains of cloud, fell down over his soul: he searched +for his former feelings, for that inspiration and unutterable love; he +looked at the precious tablet, and the sinking moon was imaged in it +faint and bluish. + +He had still the tablet firmly grasped in his hands when the morning +dawned; and he, exhausted, giddy and half-asleep, fell headlong down the +precipice.-- + +The sun shone bright on the face of the stupefied sleeper; and, +awakening, he found himself upon a pleasant hill. He looked round, and +saw far behind him, and scarce discernible at the extreme horizon, the +ruins of the Runenberg; he searched for his tablet, and could find it +nowhere. Astonished and perplexed, he tried to gather his thoughts, and +connect together his remembrances; but his memory was as if filled with +a waste haze, in which vague irrecognisable shapes were wildly jostling +to and fro. His whole previous life lay behind him, as in a far +distance; the strangest and the commonest were so mingled, that all his +efforts could not separate them. After long struggling with himself, he +at last concluded that a dream, or sudden madness, had come over him +that night; only he could never understand how he had strayed so far +into a strange and remote quarter. + +Still scarcely waking, he went down the hill; and came upon a beaten +way, which led him out from the mountains into the plain country. All +was strange to him: he at first thought that he would find his old home; +but the country which he saw was quite unknown to him; and at length he +concluded that he must be upon the south side of the Mountains, which, +in spring, he had entered from the north. Towards noon, he perceived a +little town below him: from its cottages a peaceful smoke was mounting +up; children, dressed as for a holiday, were sporting on the green; and +from a small church came the sound of the organ, and the singing of the +congregation. All this laid hold of him with a sweet, inexpressible +sadness; it so moved him, that he was forced to weep. The narrow +gardens, the little huts with their smoking chimneys, the +accurately-parted corn-fields, reminded him of the necessities of poor +human nature; of man's dependence on the friendly Earth, to whose +benignity he must commit himself; while the singing, and the music of +the organ, filled the stranger's heart with a devoutness it had never +felt before. The desires and emotions of the bygone night seemed +reckless and wicked; he wished once more, in childlike meekness, +helplessly and humbly to unite himself to men as to his brethren, and +fly from his ungodly purposes and feelings. The plain, with its little +river, which, in manifold windings, clasped itself about the gardens and +meadows, seemed to him inviting and delightful: he thought with fear of +his abode among the lonely mountains amid waste rocks; he wished that +he could be allowed to live in this peaceful village; and so feeling, he +went into its crowded church. + +The psalm was just over, and the preacher had begun his sermon. It was +on the kindness of God in regard to Harvest; how His goodness feeds and +satisfies all things that live; how marvellously He has, in the fruits +of the Earth, provided support for men; how the love of God incessantly +displays itself in the bread He sends us; and how the humble Christian +may therefore, with a thankful spirit, perpetually celebrate a Holy +Supper. The congregation were affected; the eyes of the hunter rested on +the pious priest, and observed, close by the pulpit, a young maiden, who +appeared beyond all others reverent and attentive. She was slim and +fair; her blue eye gleamed with the most piercing softness; her face was +as if transparent, and blooming in the tenderest colours. The stranger +youth had never been as he now was; so full of charity, so calm, so +abandoned to the stillest, most refreshing feelings. He bowed himself in +tears, when the clergyman pronounced his blessing; he felt these holy +words thrill through him like an unseen power; and the vision of the +night drew back before them to the deepest distance, as a spectre at the +dawn. He issued from the church; stopped beneath a large lime-tree; and +thanked God, in a heartfelt prayer, that He had saved him, sinful and +undeserving, from the nets of the Wicked Spirit. + +The people were engaged in holding harvest-home that day, and every one +was in a cheerful mood; the children, with their gay dresses, were +rejoicing in the prospect of the sweetmeats and the dance; in the +village square, a space encircled with young trees, the youths were +arranging the preparations for their harvest sport; the players were +seated, and essaying their instruments. Christian went into the fields +again, to collect his thoughts and pursue his meditations; and on his +returning to the village, all had joined in mirth, and actual +celebration of their festival. The fair-haired Elizabeth was there, too, +with her parents; and the stranger mingled in the jocund throng. +Elizabeth was dancing; and Christian, in the mean time, had entered into +conversation with her father, a farmer, and one of the richest people in +the village. The man seemed pleased with his youth and way of speech; +so, in a short time, both of them agreed that Christian should remain +with him as gardener. This office Christian could engage with; for he +hoped that now the knowledge and employments, which he had so much +despised at home, would stand him in good stead. + +From this period a new life began for him. He went to live with the +farmer, and was numbered among his family. With his trade, he likewise +changed his garb. He was so good, so helpful and kindly; he stood to his +task so honestly, that ere long every member of the house, especially +the daughter, had a friendly feeling to him. Every Sunday, when he saw +her going to church, he was standing with a fair nosegay ready for +Elizabeth; and then she used to thank him with blushing kindliness: he +felt her absence, on days when he did not chance to see her; and at +night, she would tell him tales and pleasant histories. Day by day they +grew more necessary to each other; and the parents, who observed it, did +not seem to think it wrong; for Christian was the most industrious and +handsomest youth in the village. They themselves had, at first sight, +felt a touch of love and friendship for him. After half a year, +Elizabeth became his wife. Spring was come back; the swallows and the +singing-birds had revisited the land; the garden was standing in its +fairest trim; the marriage was celebrated with abundant mirth; bride and +bridegroom seemed intoxicated with their happiness. Late at night, when +they retired to their chamber, the husband whispered to his wife: "No, +thou art not that form which once charmed me in a dream, and which I +never can entirely forget; but I am happy beside thee, and blessed that +thou art mine." + +How delighted was the family, when, within a year, it became augmented +by a little daughter, who was baptised Leonora. Christian's looks, +indeed, would sometimes take a rather grave expression as he gazed on +the child; but his youthful cheeriness continually returned. He scarcely +ever thought of his former way of life, for he felt himself entirely +domesticated and contented. Yet, some months afterwards, his parents +came into his mind; and he thought how much his father, in particular, +would be rejoiced to see his peaceful happiness, his station as +husbandman and gardener; it grieved him that he should have utterly +forgotten his father and mother for so long a time; his own only child +made known to him the joy which children afford to parents; so at last +he took the resolution to set out, and again revisit home. + +Unwillingly he left his wife; all wished him speed; and the season being +fine, he went off on foot. Already at the distance of a few miles, he +felt how much the parting grieved him; for the first time in his life, +he experienced the pains of separation; the foreign objects seemed to +him almost savage; he felt as if he had been lost in some unfriendly +solitude. Then the thought came on him, that his youth was over; that he +had found a home to which he now belonged, in which his heart had taken +root; he was almost ready to lament the lost levity of younger years; +and his mind was in the saddest mood, when he turned aside into a +village inn to pass the night. He could not understand how he had come +to leave his kind wife, and the parents she had given him; and he felt +dispirited and discontented, when he rose next morning to pursue his +journey. + +His pain increased as he approached the hills: the distant ruins were +already visible, and by degrees grew more distinguishable; many summits +rose defined and clear amid the blue vapour. His step grew timid; +frequently he paused, astonished at his fear; at the horror which, with +every step, fell closer on him. "Madness!" cried he, "I know thee well, +and thy perilous seductions; but I will withstand thee manfully. +Elizabeth is no vain dream; I know that even now she thinks of me, that +she waits for me, and fondly counts the hours of my absence. Do I not +already see forests like black hair before me? Do not the glancing eyes +look to me from the brook? Does not the stately form step towards me +from the mountains?" So saying, he was about to lay himself beneath a +tree, and take some rest; when he perceived an old man seated in the +shade of it, examining a flower with extreme attention; now holding it +to the sun, now shading it with his hands, now counting its leaves; as +if striving in every way to stamp it accurately in his memory. On +approaching nearer, he thought he knew the form; and soon no doubt +remained that the old man with the flower was his father. With an +exclamation of the liveliest joy, he rushed into his arms; the old man +seemed delighted, but not much surprised, at meeting him so suddenly. + +"Art thou with me already, my son?" said he: "I knew that I should find +thee soon, but I did not think such joy had been in store for me this +very day." + +"How did you know, father, that you would meet me?" + +"By this flower," replied the old gardener; "all my days I have had a +wish to see it; but never had I the fortune; for it is very scarce, and +grows only among the mountains. I set out to seek thee, for thy mother +is dead, and the loneliness at home made me sad and heavy. I knew not +whither I should turn my steps; at last I came among the mountains, +dreary as the journey through them had appeared to me. By the road, I +sought for this flower, but could find it nowhere; and now, quite +unexpectedly, I see it here, where the fair plain is lying stretched +before me. From this I knew that I should meet thee soon; and, lo, how +true the fair flower's prophecy has proved!" + +They embraced again, and Christian wept for his mother; but the old man +grasped his hand, and said: "Let us go, that the shadows of the +mountains may be soon out of view; it always makes me sorrowful in the +heart to see these wild steep shapes, these horrid chasms, these +torrents gurgling down into their caverns. Let us get upon the good, +kind, guileless level ground again." + +They went back, and Christian recovered his cheerfulness. He told his +father of his new fortune, of his child and home: his speech made +himself as if intoxicated; and he now, in talking of it, for the first +time truly felt that nothing more was wanting to his happiness. Thus, +amid narrations sad and cheerful, they returned into the village. All +were delighted at the speedy ending of the journey; most of all, +Elizabeth. The old father stayed with them, and joined his little +fortune to their stock; they formed the most contented and united circle +in the world. Their crops were good, their cattle throve; and in a few +years Christian's house was among the wealthiest in the quarter. +Elizabeth had also given him several other children. + +Five years had passed away in this manner, when a stranger halted from +his journey in their village; and took up his lodging in Christian's +house, as being the most respectable the place contained. He was a +friendly, talking man; he told them many stories of his travels; sported +with the children, and made presents to them: in a short time, all were +growing fond of him. He liked the neighbourhood so well, that he +proposed remaining in it for a day or two; but the days grew weeks, and +the weeks months. No one seemed to wonder at his loitering; for all of +them had grown accustomed to regard him as a member of the family. +Christian alone would often sit in a thoughtful mood; for it seemed to +him as if he knew this traveller of old, and yet he could not think of +any time when he had met with him. Three months had passed away, when +the stranger at last took his leave, and said: "My dear friends, a +wondrous destiny, and singular anticipations, drive me to the +neighbouring mountains; a magic image, not to be withstood, allures me: +I leave you now, and I know not whether I shall ever see you any more. I +have a sum of money by me, which in your hands will be safer than in +mine; so I ask you to take charge of it; and if within a year I come not +back, then keep it, and accept my thanks along with it for the kindness +you have shown me." + +So the traveller went his way, and Christian took the money in charge. +He locked it carefully up; and now and then, in the excess of his +anxiety, looked over it; he counted it to see that none was missing, and +in all respects took no little pains with it. "This sum might make us +very happy," said he once to his father; "should the stranger not +return, both we and our children were well provided for." + +"Heed not the gold," said the old man; "not in it can happiness be +found: hitherto, thank God, we have never wanted aught; and do thou put +away such thoughts far from thee." + +Christian often rose in the night to set his servants to their labour, +and look after everything himself: his father was afraid lest this +excessive diligence might harm his youth and health; so one night he +rose to speak with him about remitting such unreasonable efforts; when, +to his astonishment, he found him sitting with a little lamp at his +table, and counting, with the greatest eagerness, the stranger's gold. +"My son," said the old man, full of sadness, "must it come to this with +thee? Was this accursed metal brought beneath our roof to make us +wretched? Bethink thee, my son, or the Evil One will consume thy blood +and life out of thee." + +"Yes," replied he; "it is true, I know myself no more; neither day nor +night does it give me any rest: see how it looks on me even now, till +the red glance of it goes into my very heart! Hark how it clinks, this +golden stuff! It calls me when I sleep; I hear it when music sounds, +when the wind blows, when people speak together on the street; if the +sun shines, I see nothing but these yellow eyes, with which it beckons +to me, as it were, to whisper words of love into my ear: and therefore I +am forced to rise in the night-time, though it were but to satisfy its +eagerness; and then I feel it triumphing and inwardly rejoicing when I +touch it with my fingers; in its joy it grows still redder and lordlier. +Do but look yourself at the glow of its rapture!" The old man, +shuddering and weeping, took his son in his arms; he said a prayer, and +then spoke: "Christel, thou must turn again to the Word of God; thou +must go more zealously and reverently to church, or else, alas! my poor +child, thou wilt droop and die away in the most mournful wretchedness." + +The money was again locked up; Christian promised to take thought and +change his conduct, and the old man was composed. A year and more had +passed, and no tidings had been heard of the stranger: the old man at +last gave in to the entreaties of his son; and the money was laid out in +land, and other property. The young farmer's riches soon became the talk +of the village; and Christian seemed contented and comfortable, and his +father felt delighted at beholding him so well and cheerful; all fear +had now vanished from his mind. What then must have been his +consternation, when Elizabeth one evening took him aside; and told him, +with tears, that she could no longer understand her husband; how he +spoke so wildly, especially at night; how he dreamed strange dreams, and +would often in his sleep walk long about the room, not knowing it; how +he spoke strange things to her, at which she often shuddered. But what +terrified her most, she said, was his pleasantry by day; for his laugh +was wild and hollow, his look wandering and strange. The father stood +amazed, and the sorrowing wife proceeded: "He is always talking of the +traveller, and maintaining that he knew him formerly, and that the +stranger man was in truth a woman of unearthly beauty; nor will he go +any more into the fields or the garden to work, for he says he hears +underneath the ground a fearful moaning when he but pulls out a root; he +starts and seems to feel a horror at all plants and herbs." + +"Good God!" exclaimed the father, "is the frightful hunger in him grown +so rooted and strong, that it is come to this? Then is his spell-bound +heart no longer human, but of cold metal; he who does not love a flower, +has lost all love and fear of God." + +Next day the old man went to walk with his son, and told him much of +what Elizabeth had said; calling on him to be pious, and devote his soul +to holy contemplations. "Willingly, my father," answered Christian; "and +I often do so with success, and all is well with me: for long periods of +time, for years, I can forget the true form of my inward man, and lead a +life that is foreign to me, as it were, with cheerfulness: but then on a +sudden, like a new moon, the ruling star, which I myself am, arises +again in my heart, and conquers this other influence. I might be +altogether happy; but once, in a mysterious night, a secret sign was +imprinted through my hand deep on my soul; frequently the magic figure +sleeps and is at rest; I imagine it has passed away; but in a moment, +like a poison, it darts up and lives over all its lineaments. And then I +can think or feel nothing else but it; and all around me is transformed, +or rather swallowed up, by this subduing shape. As the rabid man recoils +at the sight of water, and the poison in him grows more fell; so too it +is with me at the sight of any cornered figure, any line, any gleam of +brightness; anything will then rouse the form that dwells in me, and +make it start into being; and my soul and body feel the throes of birth; +for as my mind received it by a feeling from without, she strives in +agony and bitter labour to work it forth again into an outward feeling, +that she may be rid of it, and at rest." + +"It was an evil star that took thee from us to the Mountains," said the +old man; "thou wert born for calm life, thy mind inclined to peace and +the love of plants; then thy impatience hurried thee away to the company +of savage stones: the crags, the torn cliffs, with their jagged shapes, +have overturned thy soul, and planted in thee the wasting hunger for +metals. Thou shouldst still have been on thy guard, and kept thyself +away from the view of mountains; so I meant to bring thee up, but it has +not so been to be. Thy humility, thy peace, thy childlike feeling, have +been thrust away by scorn, boisterousness and caprice." + +"No," said the son; "I remember well that it was a plant which first +made known to me the misery of the Earth; never, till then, did I +understand the sighs and lamentations one may hear on every side, +throughout the whole of Nature, if one but give ear to them. In plants +and herbs, in trees and flowers, it is the painful writhing of one +universal wound that moves and works; they are the corpse of foregone +glorious worlds of rock, they offer to our eye a horrid universe of +putrefaction. I now see clearly it was this, which the root with its +deep-drawn sigh was saying to me; in its sorrow it forgot itself, and +told me all. It is because of this that all green shrubs are so enraged +at me, and lie in wait for my life; they wish to obliterate that lovely +figure in my heart; and every spring, with their distorted deathlike +looks, they try to win my soul. Truly it is piteous to consider how they +have betrayed and cozened thee, old man; for they have gained complete +possession of thy spirit. Do but question the rocks, and thou wilt be +amazed when thou shalt hear them speak." + +The father looked at him a long while, and could answer nothing. They +went home again in silence, and the old man was as frightened as +Elizabeth at Christian's mirth; for it seemed a thing quite foreign; and +as if another being from within were working out of him, awkwardly and +ineffectually, as out of some machine. + +The harvest-home was once more to be held; the people went to church, +and Elizabeth, with her little ones, set out to join the service; her +husband also seemed intending to accompany them, but at the threshold of +the church he turned aside; and with an air of deep thought, walked out +of the village. He set himself on the height, and again looked over upon +the smoking cottages; he heard the music of the psalm and organ coming +from the little church; children, in holiday dresses, were dancing and +sporting on the green. "How have I lost my life as in a dream!" said he +to himself: "years have passed away since I went down this hill to the +merry children; they who were then sportful on the green, are now +serious in the church; I also once went into it, but Elizabeth is now no +more a blooming childlike maiden; her youth is gone; I cannot seek for +the glance of her eyes with the longing of those days; I have wilfully +neglected a high eternal happiness, to win one which is finite and +transitory." + +With a heart full of wild desire, he walked to the neighbouring wood, +and immersed himself in its thickest shades. A ghastly silence +encompassed him; no breath of air was stirring in the leaves. Meanwhile +he saw a man approaching him from a distance, whom he recognised for the +stranger; he started in affright, and his first thought was, that the +man would ask him for his money. But as the form came nearer, he +perceived how greatly he had been mistaken; for the features, which he +had imagined known to him, melted into one another; an old woman of the +utmost hideousness approached; she was clad in dirty rags; a tattered +clout bound up her few gray hairs; she was limping on a crutch. With a +dreadful voice she spoke to him, and asked his name and situation; he +replied to both inquiries, and then said, "But who art thou?" + +"I am called the Woodwoman," answered she; "and every child can tell of +me. Didst thou never see me before?" With the last words she whirled +about, and Christian thought he recognised among the trees the golden +veil, the lofty gait, the large stately form which he had once beheld +of old. He turned to hasten after her, but nowhere was she to be seen. + +Meanwhile something glittered in the grass, and drew his eye to it. He +picked it up; it was the magic tablet with the coloured jewels, and the +wondrous figure, which he had lost so many years before. The shape and +the changeful gleams struck over all his senses with an instantaneous +power. He grasped it firmly, to convince himself that it was really once +more in his hands, and then hastened back with it to the village. His +father met him. "See," cried Christian, "the thing which I was telling +you about so often, which I thought must have been shown to me only in a +dream, is now sure and true." + +The old man looked a long while at the tablet, and then said: "My son, I +am struck with horror in my heart when I view these stones, and dimly +guess the meaning of the words on them. Look here, how cold they +glitter, what cruel looks they cast from them, bloodthirsty, like the +red eye of the tiger! Cast this writing from thee, which makes thee cold +and cruel, which will turn thy heart to stone: + + See the flowers, when morn is beaming, + Waken in their dewy place; + And, like children roused from dreaming, + Smiling look thee in the face. + + By degrees, that way and this, + To the golden Sun they're turning, + Till they meet his glowing kiss, + And their hearts with love are burning: + + For, with fond and sad desire, + In their lover's looks to languish, + On his melting kisses to expire, + And to die of love's sweet anguish: + + This is what they joy in most; + To depart in fondest weakness; + In their lover's being lost, + Faded stand in silent meekness. + + Then they pour away the treasure + Of their perfumes, their soft souls, + And the air grows drunk with pleasure, + As in wanton floods it rolls. + + Love comes to us here below, + Discord harsh away removing; + And the heart cries: Now I know + Sadness, Fondness, Pain of Loving." + +"What wonderful incalculable treasures," said the other, "must there +still be in the depths of the Earth! Could one but sound into their +secret beds and raise them up, and snatch them to one's-self! Could one +but clasp this Earth like a beloved bride to one's bosom, so that in +pain and love she would willingly grant one her costliest riches! The +Woodwoman has called me; I go to seek for her. Near by is an old ruined +shaft, which some miner has hollowed out many centuries ago; perhaps I +shall find her there!" + +He hastened off. In vain did the old man strive to detain him; in a few +moments Christian had vanished from his sight. Some hours afterwards, +the father, with a strong effort, reached the ruined shaft: he saw +footprints in the sand at the entrance, and returned in tears; persuaded +that his son, in a state of madness, had gone in and been drowned in the +old collected waters and horrid caves of the mine. + +From that day his heart seemed broken, and he was incessantly in tears. +The whole neighbourhood deplored the fortune of the young farmer. +Elizabeth was inconsolable, the children lamented aloud. In half a year +the aged gardener died; the parents of Elizabeth soon followed him; and +she was forced herself to take charge of everything. Her multiplied +engagements helped a little to withdraw her from her sorrow; the +education of her children, and the management of so much property, left +little time for mourning. After two years, she determined on a new +marriage; she bestowed her hand on a young light-hearted man, who had +loved her from his youth. But, ere long, everything in their +establishment assumed another form. The cattle died; men and maid +servants proved dishonest; barns full of grain were burnt; people in the +town who owed them sums of money, fled and made no payment. In a little +while, the landlord found himself obliged to sell some fields and +meadows; but a mildew, and a year of scarcity, brought new +embarrassments. It seemed as if the gold, so strangely acquired, were +taking speedy flight in all directions. Meanwhile the family was on the +increase; and Elizabeth, as well as her husband, grew reckless and +sluggish in this scene of despair: he fled for consolation to the +bottle, he was often drunk, and therefore quarrelsome and sullen; so +that frequently Elizabeth bewailed her state with bitter tears. As their +fortune declined, their friends in the village stood aloof from them +more and more; so that after some few years they saw themselves +entirely forsaken, and were forced to struggle on, in penury and +straits, from week to week. + +They had nothing but a cow and a few sheep left them; these Elizabeth +herself, with her children, often tended at their grass. She was sitting +one day with her work in the field, Leonora at her side, and a sucking +child on her breast, when they saw from afar a strange-looking shape +approaching towards them. It was a man with a garment all in tatters, +barefoot, sunburnt to a black-brown colour in the face, deformed still +farther by a long matted beard: he wore no covering on his head; but had +twisted a garland of green branches through his hair, which made his +wild appearance still more strange and haggard. On his back he bore some +heavy burden in a sack, very carefully tied, and as he walked he leaned +upon a young fir. + +On coming nearer, he put down his load, and drew deep draughts of +breath. He bade Elizabeth good-day; she shuddered at the sight of him, +the girl crouched close to her mother. Having rested for a little while, +he said: "I am getting back from a very hard journey among the wildest +mountains of the Earth; but to pay me for it, I have brought along with +me the richest treasures which imagination can conceive, or heart +desire. Look here, and wonder!" Thereupon he loosed his sack, and shook +it empty: it was full of gravel, among which were to be seen large bits +of chuck-stone, and other pebbles. "These jewels," he continued, "are +not ground and polished yet, so they want the glance and the eye; the +outward fire, with its glitter, is too deeply buried in their inmost +heart; yet you have but to strike it out and frighten them, and show +that no deceit will serve, and then you see what sort of stuff they +are." So saying, he took a piece of flinty stone, and struck it hard +against another, till they gave red sparks between them. "Did you see +the glance?" cried he. "Ay, they are all fire and light; they illuminate +the darkness with their laugh, though as yet it is against their will." +With this he carefully repacked his pebbles in the bag, and tied it hard +and fast. "I know thee very well," said he then, with a saddened tone; +"thou art Elizabeth." The woman started. + +"How comest thou to know my name?" cried she, with a forecasting +shudder. + +"Ah, good God!" said the unhappy creature, "I am Christian, he that was +a hunter: dost thou not know me, then?" + +She knew not, in her horror and deepest compassion, what to say. He +fell upon her neck and kissed her. Elizabeth exclaimed: "O Heaven! my +husband is coming!" + +"Be at thy ease," said he; "I am as good as dead to thee: in the forest, +there, my fair one waits for me; she that is tall and stately, with the +black hair and the golden veil. This is my dearest child, Leonora. Come +hither, darling: come, my pretty child; and give me a kiss, too; one +kiss, that I may feel thy mouth upon my lips once again, and then I +leave you." + +Leonora wept; she clasped close to her mother, who, in sobs and tears, +half held her towards the wanderer, while he half drew her towards him, +took her in his arms, and pressed her to his breast. Then he went away +in silence, and in the wood they saw him speaking with the hideous +Woodwoman. + +"What ails you?" said the husband, as he found mother and daughter pale +and melting in tears. Neither of them answered. + +The ill-fated creature was never seen again from that day. + + + + +THE ELVES. + + +"Where is our little Mary?" said the father. + +"She is playing out upon the green there with our neighbour's boy," +replied the mother. + +"I wish they may not run away and lose themselves," said he; "they are +so thoughtless." + +The mother looked for the little ones, and brought them their evening +luncheon. "It is warm," said the boy; "and Mary had a longing for the +red cherries." + +"Have a care, children," said the mother, "and do not run too far from +home, and not into the wood; Father and I are going to the fields." + +Little Andres answered: "Never fear, the wood frightens us; we shall sit +here by the house, where there are people near us." + +The mother went in, and soon came out again with her husband. They +locked the door, and turned towards the fields to look after their +labourers, and see their hay-harvest in the meadow. Their house lay upon +a little green height, encircled by a pretty ring of paling, which +likewise enclosed their fruit and flower garden. The hamlet stretched +somewhat deeper down, and on the other side lay the castle of the Count. +Martin rented the large farm from this nobleman; and was living in +contentment with his wife and only child; for he yearly saved some +money, and had the prospect of becoming a man of substance by his +industry, for the ground was productive, and the Count not illiberal. + +As he walked with his wife to the fields, he gazed cheerfully round, +and said: "What a different look this quarter has, Brigitta, from the +place we lived in formerly! Here it is all so green; the whole village +is bedecked with thick-spreading fruit-trees; the ground is full of +beautiful herbs and flowers; all the houses are cheerful and cleanly, +the inhabitants are at their ease: nay I could almost fancy that the +woods are greener here than elsewhere, and the sky bluer; and, so far as +the eye can reach, you have pleasure and delight in beholding the +bountiful Earth." + +"And whenever you cross the stream," said Brigitta, "you are, as it +were, in another world, all is so dreary and withered; but every +traveller declares that our village is the fairest in the country far +and near." + +"All but that fir-ground," said her husband; "do but look back to it, +how dark and dismal that solitary spot is lying in the gay scene: the +dingy fir-trees with the smoky huts behind them, the ruined stalls, the +brook flowing past with a sluggish melancholy." + +"It is true," replied Brigitta; "if you but approach that spot, you grow +disconsolate and sad, you know not why. What sort of people can they be +that live there, and keep themselves so separate from the rest of us, as +if they had an evil conscience?" + +"A miserable crew," replied the young Farmer: "gipsies, seemingly, that +steal and cheat in other quarters, and have their hoard and hiding-place +here. I wonder only that his Lordship suffers them." + +"Who knows," said the wife, with an accent of pity, "but perhaps they +may be poor people, wishing, out of shame, to conceal their poverty; +for, after all, no one can say aught ill of them; the only thing is, +that they do not go to church, and none knows how they live; for the +little garden, which indeed seems altogether waste, cannot possibly +support them; and fields they have none." + +"God knows," said Martin, as they went along, "what trade they follow; +no mortal comes to them; for the place they live in is as if bewitched +and excommunicated, so that even our wildest fellows will not venture +into it." + +Such conversation they pursued, while walking to the fields. That gloomy +spot they spoke of lay aside from the hamlet. In a dell, begirt with +firs, you might behold a hut, and various ruined office-houses; rarely +was smoke seen to mount from it, still more rarely did men appear +there; though at times curious people, venturing somewhat nearer, had +perceived upon the bench before the hut, some hideous women, in ragged +clothes, dandling in their arms some children equally dirty and +ill-favoured; black dogs were running up and down upon the boundary; +and, of an evening, a man of monstrous size was seen to cross the +footbridge of the brook, and disappear in the hut; and, in the darkness, +various shapes were observed, moving like shadows round a fire in the +open air. This piece of ground, the firs and the ruined huts, formed in +truth a strange contrast with the bright green landscape, the white +houses of the hamlet, and the stately new-built castle. + +The two little ones had now eaten their fruit; it came into their heads +to run races; and the little nimble Mary always got the start of the +less active Andres. "It is not fair," cried Andres at last: "let us try +it for some length, then we shall see who wins." + +"As thou wilt," said Mary; "only to the brook we must not run." + +"No," said Andres; "but there, on the hill, stands the large pear-tree, +a quarter of a mile from this. I shall run by the left, round past the +fir-ground; thou canst try it by the right over the fields; so we do not +meet till we get up, and then we shall see which of us is swifter." + +"Done," cried Mary, and began to run; "for we shall not mar one another +by the way, and my father says it is as far to the hill by that side of +the Gipsies' house as by this." + +Andres had already started, and Mary, turning to the right, could no +longer see him. "It is very silly," said she to herself: "I have only to +take heart, and run along the bridge, past the hut, and through the +yard, and I shall certainly be first." She was already standing by the +brook and the clump of firs. "Shall I? No; it is too frightful," said +she. A little white dog was standing on the farther side, and barking +with might and main. In her terror, Mary thought the dog some monster, +and sprang back. "Fy! fy!" said she: "the dolt is gone half way by this +time, while I stand here considering." The little dog kept barking, and, +as she looked at it more narrowly, it seemed no longer frightful, but, +on the contrary, quite pretty: it had a red collar round its neck, with +a glittering bell; and as it raised its head, and shook itself in +barking, the little bell sounded with the finest tinkle. "Well, I must +risk it!" cried she: "I will run for life; quick, quick, I am through; +certainly to Heaven, they cannot eat me up alive in half a minute!" And +with this, the gay, courageous little Mary sprang along the footbridge; +passed the dog, which ceased its barking and began to fawn on her; and +in a moment she was standing on the other bank, and the black firs all +round concealed from view her father's house, and the rest of the +landscape. + +But what was her astonishment when here! The loveliest, most variegated +flower-garden, lay round her; tulips, roses and lilies were glittering +in the fairest colours; blue and gold-red butterflies were wavering in +the blossoms; cages of shining wire were hung on the espaliers, with +many-coloured birds in them, singing beautiful songs; and children, in +short white frocks, with flowing yellow hair and brilliant eyes, were +frolicking about; some playing with lambkins, some feeding the birds, or +gathering flowers, and giving them to one another; some, again, were +eating cherries, grapes and ruddy apricots. No hut was to be seen; but +instead of it, a large fair house, with a brazen door and lofty statues, +stood glancing in the middle of the space. Mary was confounded with +surprise, and knew not what to think; but, not being bashful, she went +right up to the first of the children, held out her hand, and wished the +little creature good-even. + +"Art thou come to visit us, then?" said the glittering child; "I saw +thee running, playing on the other side, but thou wert frightened at our +little dog." + +"So you are not gipsies and rogues," said Mary, "as Andres always told +me? He is a stupid thing, and talks of much he does not understand." + +"Stay with us," said the strange little girl; "thou wilt like it well." + +"But we are running a race." + +"Thou wilt find thy comrade soon enough. There, take and eat." + +Mary ate, and found the fruit more sweet than any she had ever tasted in +her life before; and Andres, and the race, and the prohibition of her +parents, were entirely forgotten. + +A stately woman, in a shining robe, came towards them, and asked about +the stranger child. "Fairest lady," said Mary, "I came running hither by +chance, and now they wish to keep me." + +"Thou art aware, Zerina," said the lady, "that she can be here but for +a little while; besides, thou shouldst have asked my leave." + +"I thought," said Zerina, "when I saw her admitted across the bridge, +that I might do it; we have often seen her running in the fields, and +thou thyself hast taken pleasure in her lively temper. She will have to +leave us soon enough." + +"No, I will stay here," said the little stranger; "for here it is so +beautiful, and here I shall find the prettiest playthings, and store of +berries and cherries to boot. On the other side it is not half so +grand." + +The gold-robed lady went away with a smile; and many of the children now +came bounding round the happy Mary in their mirth, and twitched her, and +incited her to dance; others brought her lambs, or curious playthings; +others made music on instruments, and sang to it. + +She kept, however, by the playmate who had first met her; for Zerina was +the kindest and loveliest of them all. Little Mary cried and cried +again: "I will stay with you forever; I will stay with you, and you +shall be my sisters;" at which the children all laughed, and embraced +her. "Now we shall have a royal sport," said Zerina. She ran into the +Palace, and returned with a little golden box, in which lay a quantity +of seeds, like glittering dust. She lifted of it with her little hand, +and scattered some grains on the green earth. Instantly the grass began +to move, as in waves; and, after a few moments, bright rose-bushes +started from the ground, shot rapidly up, and budded all at once, while +the sweetest perfume filled the place. Mary also took a little of the +dust, and, having scattered it, she saw white lilies, and the most +variegated pinks, pushing up. At a signal from Zerina, the flowers +disappeared, and others rose in their room. "Now," said Zerina, "look +for something greater." She laid two pine-seeds in the ground, and +stamped them in sharply with her foot. Two green bushes stood before +them. "Grasp me fast," said she; and Mary threw her arms about the +slender form. She felt herself borne upwards; for the trees were +springing under them with the greatest speed; the tall pines waved to +and fro, and the two children held each other fast embraced, swinging +this way and that in the red clouds of the twilight, and kissed each +other; while the rest were climbing up and down the trunks with quick +dexterity, pushing and teasing one another with loud laughter when they +met; if any one fell down in the press, it flew through the air, and +sank slowly and surely to the ground. At length Mary was beginning to +be frightened; and the other little child sang a few loud tones, and the +trees again sank down, and set them on the ground as gradually as they +had lifted them before to the clouds. + +They next went through the brazen door of the palace. Here many fair +women, elderly and young, were sitting in the round hall, partaking of +the fairest fruits, and listening to glorious invisible music. In the +vaulting of the ceiling, palms, flowers and groves stood painted, among +which little figures of children were sporting and winding in every +graceful posture; and with the tones of the music, the images altered +and glowed with the most burning colours; now the blue and green were +sparkling like radiant light, now these tints faded back in paleness, +the purple flamed up, and the gold took fire; and then the naked +children seemed to be alive among the flower-garlands, and to draw +breath, and emit it through their ruby-coloured lips; so that by fits +you could see the glance of their little white teeth, and the lighting +up of their azure eyes. + +From the hall, a stair of brass led down to a subterranean chamber. Here +lay much gold and silver, and precious stones of every hue shone out +between them. Strange vessels stood along the walls, and all seemed +filled with costly things. The gold was worked into many forms, and +glittered with the friendliest red. Many little dwarfs were busied +sorting the pieces from the heap, and putting them in the vessels; +others, hunchbacked and bandy-legged, with long red noses, were +tottering slowly along, half-bent to the ground, under full sacks, which +they bore as millers do their grain; and, with much panting, shaking out +the gold-dust on the ground. Then they darted awkwardly to the right and +left, and caught the rolling balls that were like to run away; and it +happened now and then that one in his eagerness overset the other, so +that both fell heavily and clumsily to the ground. They made angry +faces, and looked askance, as Mary laughed at their gestures and their +ugliness. Behind them sat an old crumpled little man, whom Zerina +reverently greeted; he thanked her with a grave inclination of his head. +He held a sceptre in his hand, and wore a crown upon his brow, and all +the other dwarfs appeared to regard him as their master, and obey his +nod. + +"What more wanted?" asked he, with a surly voice, as the children came a +little nearer. Mary was afraid, and did not speak; but her companion +answered; they were only come to look about them in the chambers. +"Still your old child's tricks!" replied the dwarf: "Will there never be +an end to idleness?" With this, he turned again to his employment, kept +his people weighing and sorting the ingots; some he sent away on +errands, some he chid with angry tones. + +"Who is the gentleman?" said Mary. + +"Our Metal-Prince," replied Zerina, as they walked along. + +They seemed once more to reach the open air, for they were standing by a +lake, yet no sun appeared, and they saw no sky above their heads. A +little boat received them, and Zerina steered it diligently forwards. It +shot rapidly along. On gaining the middle of the lake, the stranger saw +that multitudes of pipes, channels and brooks, were spreading from the +little sea in every direction. "These waters to the right," said Zerina, +"flow beneath your garden, and this is why it blooms so freshly; by the +other side we get down into the great stream." On a sudden, out of all +the channels, and from every quarter of the lake, came a crowd of little +children swimming up; some wore garlands of sedge and water-lily; some +had red stems of coral, others were blowing on crooked shells; a +tumultuous noise echoed merrily from the dark shores; among the children +might be seen the fairest women sporting in the waters, and often +several of the children sprang about some one of them, and with kisses +hung upon her neck and shoulders. All saluted the strangers; and these +steered onwards through the revelry out of the lake, into a little +river, which grew narrower and narrower. At last the boat came aground. +The strangers took their leave, and Zerina knocked against the cliff. +This opened like a door, and a female form, all red, assisted them to +mount. "Are you all brisk here?" inquired Zerina. "They are just at +work," replied the other, "and happy as they could wish; indeed, the +heat is very pleasant." + +They went up a winding stair, and on a sudden Mary found herself in a +most resplendent hall, so that as she entered, her eyes were dazzled by +the radiance. Flame-coloured tapestry covered the walls with a purple +glow; and when her eye had grown a little used to it, the stranger saw, +to her astonishment, that, in the tapestry, there were figures moving up +and down in dancing joyfulness; in form so beautiful, and of so fair +proportions, that nothing could be seen more graceful; their bodies were +as of red crystal, so that it appeared as if the blood were visible +within them, flowing and playing in its courses. They smiled on the +stranger, and saluted her with various bows; but as Mary was about +approaching nearer them, Zerina plucked her sharply back, crying: "Thou +wilt burn thyself, my little Mary, for the whole of it is fire." + +Mary felt the heat. "Why do the pretty creatures not come out," said +she, "and play with us?" + +"As thou livest in the Air," replied the other, "so are they obliged to +stay continually in Fire, and would faint and languish if they left it. +Look now, how glad they are, how they laugh and shout; those down below +spread out the fire-floods everywhere beneath the earth, and thereby the +flowers, and fruits, and wine, are made to flourish; these red streams +again, are to run beside the brooks of water; and thus the fiery +creatures are kept ever busy and glad. But for thee it is too hot here; +let us return to the garden." + +In the garden, the scene had changed since they left it. The moonshine +was lying on every flower; the birds were silent, and the children were +asleep in complicated groups, among the green groves. Mary and her +friend, however, did not feel fatigue, but walked about in the warm +summer night, in abundant talk, till morning. + +When the day dawned, they refreshed themselves on fruit and milk, and +Mary said: "Suppose we go, by way of change, to the firs, and see how +things look there?" + +"With all my heart," replied Zerina; "thou wilt see our watchmen too, +and they will surely please thee; they are standing up among the trees +on the mound." The two proceeded through the flower-garden by pleasant +groves, full of nightingales; then they ascended a vine-hill; and at +last, after long following the windings of a clear brook, arrived at the +firs, and the height which bounded the domain. "How does it come," said +Mary, "that we have to walk so far here, when without, the circuit is so +narrow?" + +"I know not," said her friend; "but so it is." + +They mounted to the dark firs, and a chill wind blew from without in +their faces; a haze seemed lying far and wide over the landscape. On the +top were many strange forms standing; with mealy, dusty faces; their +misshapen heads not unlike those of white owls; they were clad in folded +cloaks of shaggy wool; they held umbrellas of curious skins stretched +out above them; and they waved and fanned themselves incessantly with +large bat's wings, which flared out curiously beside the woollen +roquelaures. "I could laugh, yet I am frightened," cried Mary. + +"These are our good trusty watchmen," said her playmate; "they stand +here and wave their fans, that cold anxiety and inexplicable fear may +fall on every one that attempts to approach us. They are covered so, +because without it is now cold and rainy, which they cannot bear. But +snow, or wind, or cold air, never reaches down to us; here is an +everlasting spring and summer: yet if these poor people on the top were +not frequently relieved, they would certainly perish." + +"But who are you, then?" said Mary, while again descending to the +flowery fragrance; "or have you no name at all?" + +"We are called the Elves," replied the friendly child; "people talk +about us in the Earth, as I have heard." + +They now perceived a mighty bustle on the green. "The fair Bird is +come!" cried the children to them: all hastened to the hall. Here, as +they approached, young and old were crowding over the threshold, all +shouting for joy; and from within resounded a triumphant peal of music. +Having entered, they perceived the vast circuit filled with the most +varied forms, and all were looking upwards to a large Bird with glancing +plumage, that was sweeping slowly round in the dome, and in its stately +flight describing many a circle. The music sounded more gaily than +before; the colours and lights alternated more rapidly. At last the +music ceased; and the Bird, with a rustling noise, floated down upon a +glittering crown that hung hovering in air under the high window, by +which the hall was lighted from above. His plumage was purple and green, +and shining golden streaks played through it; on his head there waved a +diadem of feathers, so resplendent that they glanced like jewels. His +bill was red, and his legs of a glancing blue. As he moved, the tints +gleamed through each other, and the eye was charmed with their radiance. +His size was as that of an eagle. But now he opened his glittering beak; +and sweetest melodies came pouring from his moved breast, in finer tones +than the lovesick nightingale gives forth; still stronger rose the song, +and streamed like floods of Light, so that all, the very children +themselves, were moved by it to tears of joy and rapture. When he +ceased, all bowed before him; he again flew round the dome in circles, +then darted through the door, and soared into the light heaven, where he +shone far up like a red point, and then soon vanished from their eyes. + +"Why are ye all so glad?" inquired Mary, bending to her fair playmate, +who seemed smaller than yesterday. + +"The King is coming!" said the little one; "many of us have never seen +him, and whithersoever he turns his face, there is happiness and mirth; +we have long looked for him, more anxiously than you look for spring +when winter lingers with you; and now he has announced, by his fair +herald, that he is at hand. This wise and glorious Bird, that has been +sent to us by the King, is called Phoenix; he dwells far off in +Arabia, on a tree, which there is no other that resembles on Earth, as +in like manner there is no second Phoenix. When he feels himself grown +old, he builds a pile of balm and incense, kindles it, and dies singing; +and then from the fragrant ashes, soars up the renewed Phoenix with +unlessened beauty. It is seldom he so wings his course that men behold +him; and when once in centuries this does occur, they note it in their +annals, and expect remarkable events. But now, my friend, thou and I +must part; for the sight of the King is not permitted thee." + +Then the lady with the golden robe came through the throng, and +beckoning Mary to her, led her into a sequestered walk. "Thou must leave +us, my dear child," said she; "the King is to hold his court here for +twenty years, perhaps longer; and fruitfulness and blessings will spread +far over the land, but chiefly here beside us; all the brooks and +rivulets will become more bountiful, all the fields and gardens richer, +the wine more generous, the meadows more fertile, and the woods more +fresh and green; a milder air will blow, no hail shall hurt, no flood +shall threaten. Take this ring, and think of us: but beware of telling +any one of our existence; or we must fly this land, and thou and all +around will lose the happiness and blessing of our neighbourhood. Once +more, kiss thy playmate, and farewell." They issued from the walk; +Zerina wept, Mary stooped to embrace her, and they parted. Already she +was on the narrow bridge; the cold air was blowing on her back from the +firs; the little dog barked with all its might, and rang its little +bell; she looked round, then hastened over, for the darkness of the +firs, the bleakness of the ruined huts, the shadows of the twilight, +were filling her with terror. + +"What a night my parents must have had on my account!" said she within +herself, as she stept on the green; "and I dare not tell them where I +have been, or what wonders I have witnessed, nor indeed would they +believe me." Two men passing by saluted her; and as they went along, she +heard them say: "What a pretty girl! Where can she come from?" With +quickened steps she approached the house: but the trees which were +hanging last night loaded with fruit, were now standing dry and +leafless; the house was differently painted, and a new barn had been +built beside it. Mary was amazed, and thought she must be dreaming. In +this perplexity she opened the door; and behind the table sat her +father, between an unknown woman and a stranger youth. "Good God! +Father," cried she, "where is my mother?" + +"Thy mother!" said the woman, with a forecasting tone, and sprang +towards her: "Ha, thou surely canst not--Yes, indeed, indeed thou art my +lost, long-lost dear, only Mary!" She had recognised her by a little +brown mole beneath the chin, as well as by her eyes and shape. All +embraced her, all were moved with joy, and the parents wept. Mary was +astonished that she almost reached to her father's stature; and she +could not understand how her mother had become so changed and faded; she +asked the name of the stranger youth. "It is our neighbour's Andres," +said Martin. "How comest thou to us again, so unexpectedly, after seven +long years? Where hast thou been? Why didst thou never send us tidings +of thee?" + +"Seven years!" said Mary, and could not order her ideas and +recollections. "Seven whole years?" + +"Yes, yes," said Andres, laughing, and shaking her trustfully by the +hand; "I have won the race, good Mary; I was at the pear-tree and back +again seven years ago, and thou, sluggish creature, art but just +returned!" + +They again asked, they pressed her; but remembering her instruction, she +could answer nothing. It was they themselves chiefly that, by degrees, +shaped a story for her: How, having lost her way, she had been taken up +by a coach, and carried to a strange remote part, where she could not +give the people any notion of her parents' residence; how she was +conducted to a distant town, where certain worthy persons brought her up +and loved her; how they had lately died, and at length she had +recollected her birthplace, and so returned. "No matter how it is!" +exclaimed her mother; "enough, that we have thee again, my little +daughter, my own, my all!" + +Andres waited supper, and Mary could not be at home in anything she saw. +The house seemed small and dark; she felt astonished at her dress, +which was clean and simple, but appeared quite foreign; she looked at +the ring on her finger, and the gold of it glittered strangely, +enclosing a stone of burning red. To her father's question, she replied +that the ring also was a present from her benefactors. + +She was glad when the hour of sleep arrived, and she hastened to her +bed. Next morning she felt much more collected; she had now arranged her +thoughts a little, and could better stand the questions of the people in +the village, all of whom came in to bid her welcome. Andres was there +too with the earliest, active, glad, and serviceable beyond all others. +The blooming maiden of fifteen had made a deep impression on him; he had +passed a sleepless night. The people of the castle likewise sent for +Mary, and she had once more to tell her story to them, which was now +grown quite familiar to her. The old Count and his Lady were surprised +at her good-breeding; she was modest, but not embarrassed; she made +answer courteously in good phrases to all their questions; all fear of +noble persons and their equipage had passed away from her; for when she +measured these halls and forms by the wonders and the high beauty she +had seen with the Elves in their hidden abode, this earthly splendour +seemed but dim to her, the presence of men was almost mean. The young +lords were charmed with her beauty. + +It was now February. The trees were budding earlier than usual; the +nightingale had never come so soon; the spring rose fairer in the land +than the oldest men could recollect it. In every quarter, little brooks +gushed out to irrigate the pastures and meadows; the hills seemed +heaving, the vines rose higher and higher, the fruit-trees blossomed as +they had never done; and a swelling fragrant blessedness hung suspended +heavily in rosy clouds over the scene. All prospered beyond expectation: +no rude day, no tempest injured the fruits; the wine flowed blushing in +immense grapes; and the inhabitants of the place felt astonished, and +were captivated as in a sweet dream. The next year was like its +forerunner; but men had now become accustomed to the marvellous. In +autumn, Mary yielded to the pressing entreaties of Andres and her +parents; she was betrothed to him, and in winter they were married. + +She often thought with inward longing of her residence behind the +fir-trees; she continued serious and still. Beautiful as all that lay +around her was, she knew of something yet more beautiful; and from the +remembrance of this, a faint regret attuned her nature to soft +melancholy. It smote her painfully when her father and mother talked +about the gipsies and vagabonds, that dwelt in the dark spot of ground. +Often she was on the point of speaking out in defence of those good +beings, whom she knew to be the benefactors of the land; especially to +Andres, who appeared to take delight in zealously abusing them: yet +still she repressed the word that was struggling to escape her bosom. So +passed this year; in the next, she was solaced by a little daughter, +whom she named Elfrida, thinking of the designation of her friendly +Elves. + +The young people lived with Martin and Brigitta, the house being large +enough for all; and helped their parents in conducting their now +extended husbandry. The little Elfrida soon displayed peculiar faculties +and gifts; for she could walk at a very early age, and could speak +perfectly before she was a twelvemonth old; and after some few years, +she had become so wise and clever, and of such wondrous beauty, that all +people regarded her with astonishment; and her mother could not keep +away the thought that her child resembled one of those shining little +ones in the space behind the Firs. Elfrida cared not to be with other +children; but seemed to avoid, with a sort of horror, their tumultuous +amusements; and liked best to be alone. She would then retire into a +corner of the garden, and read, or work diligently with her needle; +often also you might see her sitting, as if deep sunk in thought; or +violently walking up and down the alleys, speaking to herself. Her +parents readily allowed her to have her will in these things, for she +was healthy, and waxed apace; only her strange sagacious answers and +observations often made them anxious. "Such wise children do not grow to +age," her grandmother, Brigitta, many times observed; "they are too good +for this world; the child, besides, is beautiful beyond nature, and will +never find its proper place on Earth." + +The little girl had this peculiarity, that she was very loath to let +herself be served by any one, but endeavoured to do everything herself. +She was almost the earliest riser in the house; she washed herself +carefully, and dressed without assistance: at night she was equally +careful; she took special heed to pack up her clothes and washes with +her own hands, allowing no one, not even her mother, to meddle with her +articles. The mother humoured her in this caprice, not thinking it of +any consequence. But what was her astonishment, when, happening one +holiday to insist, regardless of Elfrida's tears and screams, on +dressing her out for a visit to the castle, she found upon her breast, +suspended by a string, a piece of gold of a strange form, which she +directly recognised as one of that sort she had seen in such abundance +in the subterranean vault! The little thing was greatly frightened; and +at last confessed that she had found it in the garden, and as she liked +it much, had kept it carefully: she at the same time prayed so earnestly +and pressingly to have it back, that Mary fastened it again on its +former place, and, full of thoughts, went out with her in silence to the +castle. + +Sidewards from the farmhouse lay some offices for the storing of produce +and implements; and behind these there was a little green, with an old +grove, now visited by no one, as, from the new arrangement of the +buildings, it lay too far from the garden. In this solitude Elfrida +delighted most; and it occurred to nobody to interrupt her here, so that +frequently her parents did not see her for half a day. One afternoon her +mother chanced to be in these buildings, seeking for some lost article +among the lumber; and she noticed that a beam of light was coming in, +through a chink in the wall. She took a thought of looking through this +aperture, and seeing what her child was busied with; and it happened +that a stone was lying loose, and could be pushed aside, so that she +obtained a view right into the grove. Elfrida was sitting there on a +little bench, and beside her the well-known Zerina; and the children +were playing, and amusing one another, in the kindliest unity. The Elf +embraced her beautiful companion, and said mournfully: "Ah! dear little +creature, as I sport with thee, so have I sported with thy mother, when +she was a child; but you mortals so soon grow tall and thoughtful! It is +very hard: wert thou but to be a child as long as I!" + +"Willingly would I do it," said Elfrida; "but they all say, I shall come +to sense, and give over playing altogether; for I have great gifts, as +they think, for growing wise. Ah! and then I shall see thee no more, +thou dear Zerina! Yet it is with us as with the fruit-tree flowers: how +glorious the blossoming apple-tree, with its red bursting buds! It looks +so stately and broad; and every one, that passes under it, thinks surely +something great will come of it; then the sun grows hot, and the buds +come joyfully forth; but the wicked kernel is already there, which +pushes off and casts away the fair flower's dress; and now, in pain and +waxing, it can do nothing more, but must grow to fruit in harvest. An +apple, to be sure, is pretty and refreshing; yet nothing to the blossom +of spring. So is it also with us mortals: I am not glad in the least at +growing to be a tall girl. Ah! could I but once visit you!" + +"Since the King is with us," said Zerina, "it is quite impossible; but I +will come to thee, my darling, often, often; and none shall see me +either here or there. I will pass invisible through the air, or fly over +to thee like a bird. O! we will be much, much together, while thou art +still little. What can I do to please thee?" + +"Thou must like me very dearly," said Elfrida, "as I like thee in my +heart. But come, let us make another rose." + +Zerina took the well-known box from her bosom, threw two grains from it +on the ground; and instantly a green bush stood before them, with two +deep-red roses, bending their heads, as if to kiss each other. The +children plucked them smiling, and the bush disappeared. "O that it +would not die so soon!" said Elfrida; "this red child, this wonder of +the Earth!" + +"Give it me here," said the little Elf; then breathed thrice upon the +budding rose, and kissed it thrice. "Now," said she, giving back the +rose, "it will continue fresh and blooming till winter." + +"I will keep it," said Elfrida, "as an image of thee; I will guard it in +my little room, and kiss it night and morning, as if it were thyself." + +"The sun is setting," said the other; "I must home." They embraced +again, and Zerina vanished. + +In the evening, Mary clasped her child to her breast, with a feeling of +alarm and veneration. She henceforth allowed the good little girl more +liberty than formerly; and often calmed her husband, when he came to +search for the child; which for some time he was wont to do, as her +retiredness did not please him; and he feared that, in the end, it might +make her silly, or even pervert her understanding. The mother often +glided to the chink; and almost always found the bright Elf beside her +child, employed in sport, or in earnest conversation. + +"Wouldst thou like to fly?" inquired Zerina once. + +"O well! How well!" replied Elfrida; and the fairy clasped her mortal +playmate in her arms, and mounted with her from the ground, till they +hovered above the grove. The mother, in alarm, forgot herself, and +pushed out her head in terror to look after them; when Zerina, from the +air, held up her finger, and threatened yet smiled; then descended with +the child, embraced her, and disappeared. After this, it happened more +than once that Mary was observed by her; and every time, the shining +little creature shook her head, or threatened, yet with friendly looks. + +Often, in disputing with her husband, Mary had said in her zeal: "Thou +dost injustice to the poor people in the hut!" But when Andres pressed +her to explain why she differed in opinion from the whole village, nay +from his Lordship himself; and how she could understand it better than +the whole of them, she still broke off embarrassed, and became silent. +One day, after dinner, Andres grew more violent than ever; and +maintained that, by one means or another, the crew must be packed away, +as a nuisance to the country; when his wife, in anger, said to him: +"Hush! for they are benefactors to thee and to everyone of us." + +"Benefactors!" cried the other, in astonishment: "These rogues and +vagabonds?" + +In her indignation, she was now at last tempted to relate to him, under +promise of the strictest secrecy, the history of her youth: and as +Andres at every word grew more incredulous, and shook his head in +mockery, she took him by the hand, and led him to the chink; where, to +his amazement, he beheld the glittering Elf sporting with his child, and +caressing her in the grove. He knew not what to say; an exclamation of +astonishment escaped him, and Zerina raised her eyes. On the instant she +grew pale, and trembled violently; not with friendly, but with indignant +looks, she made the sign of threatening, and then said to Elfrida: "Thou +canst not help it, dearest heart; but they will never learn sense, wise +as they believe themselves." She embraced the little one with stormy +haste; and then, in the shape of a raven, flew with hoarse cries over +the garden, towards the Firs. + +In the evening, the little one was very still; she kissed her rose with +tears; Mary felt depressed and frightened, Andres scarcely spoke. It +grew dark. Suddenly there went a rustling through the trees; birds flew +to and fro with wild screaming, thunder was heard to roll, the Earth +shook, and tones of lamentation moaned in the air. Andres and his wife +had not courage to rise; they shrouded themselves within the curtains, +and with fear and trembling awaited the day. Towards morning, it grew +calmer; and all was silent when the Sun, with his cheerful light, rose +over the wood. + +Andres dressed himself; and Mary now observed that the stone of the ring +upon her finger had become quite pale. On opening the door, the sun +shone clear on their faces, but the scene around them they could +scarcely recognise. The freshness of the wood was gone; the hills were +shrunk, the brooks were flowing languidly with scanty streams, the sky +seemed gray; and when you turned to the Firs, they were standing there +no darker or more dreary than the other trees. The huts behind them were +no longer frightful; and several inhabitants of the village came and +told about the fearful night, and how they had been across the spot +where the gipsies had lived; how these people must have left the place +at last, for their huts were standing empty, and within had quite a +common look, just like the dwellings of other poor people: some of their +household gear was left behind. + +Elfrida in secret said to her mother: "I could not sleep last night; and +in my fright at the noise, I was praying from the bottom of my heart, +when the door suddenly opened, and my playmate entered to take leave of +me. She had a travelling-pouch slung round her, a hat on her head, and a +large staff in her hand. She was very angry at thee; since on thy +account she had now to suffer the severest and most painful punishments, +as she had always been so fond of thee; for all of them, she said, were +very loath to leave this quarter." + +Mary forbade her to speak of this; and now the ferryman came across the +river, and told them new wonders. As it was growing dark, a stranger man +of large size had come to him, and hired his boat till sunrise; and with +this condition, that the boatman should remain quiet in his house, at +least should not cross the threshold of his door. "I was frightened," +continued the old man, "and the strange bargain would not let me sleep. +I slipped softly to the window, and looked towards the river. Great +clouds were driving restlessly through the sky, and the distant woods +were rustling fearfully; it was as if my cottage shook, and moans and +lamentations glided round it. On a sudden, I perceived a white streaming +light, that grew broader and broader, like many thousands of falling +stars; sparkling and waving, it proceeded forward from the dark +Fir-ground, moved over the fields, and spread itself along towards the +river. Then I heard a trampling, a jingling, a bustling, and rushing, +nearer and nearer; it went forwards to my boat, and all stept into it, +men and women, as it seemed, and children; and the tall stranger ferried +them over. In the river were by the boat swimming many thousands of +glittering forms; in the air white clouds and lights were wavering; and +all lamented and bewailed that they must travel forth so far, far away, +and leave their beloved dwelling. The noise of the rudder and the water +creaked and gurgled between whiles, and then suddenly there would be +silence. Many a time the boat landed, and went back, and was again +laden; many heavy casks, too, they took along with them, which +multitudes of horrid-looking little fellows carried and rolled; whether +they were devils or goblins, Heaven only knows. Then came, in waving +brightness, a stately freight; it seemed an old man, mounted on a small +white horse, and all were crowding round him. I saw nothing of the horse +but its head; for the rest of it was covered with costly glittering +cloths and trappings: on his brow the old man had a crown, so bright +that, as he came across, I thought the sun was rising there, and the +redness of the dawn glimmering in my eyes. Thus it went on all night; I +at last fell asleep in the tumult, half in joy, half in terror. In the +morning all was still; but the river is, as it were, run off, and I know +not how I am to steer my boat in it now." + +The same year there came a blight; the woods died away, the springs ran +dry; and the scene, which had once been the joy of every traveller, was +in autumn standing waste, naked and bald; scarcely showing here and +there, in the sea of sand, a spot or two where grass, with a dingy +greenness, still grew up. The fruit-trees all withered, the vines faded +away, and the aspect of the place became so melancholy, that the Count, +with his people, next year left the castle, which in time decayed and +fell to ruins. + +Elfrida gazed on her rose day and night with deep longing, and thought +of her kind playmate; and as it drooped and withered, so did she also +hang her head; and before the spring, the little maiden had herself +faded away. Mary often stood upon the spot before the hut, and wept for +the happiness that had departed. She wasted herself away like her child, +and in a few years she too was gone. Old Martin, with his son-in-law, +returned to the quarter where he had lived before. + + + + +THE GOBLET. + + +The forenoon bells were sounding from the high cathedral. Over the wide +square in front of it were men and women walking to and fro, carriages +rolling along, and priests proceeding to their various churches. +Ferdinand was standing on the broad stair, with his eyes over the +multitude, looking at them as they came up to attend the service. The +sunshine glittered on the white stones, all were seeking shelter from +the heat. He alone had stood for a long time leaning on a pillar, amid +the burning beams, without regarding them; for he was lost in the +remembrances which mounted up within his mind. He was calling back his +bygone life; and inspiring his soul with the feeling which had +penetrated all his being, and swallowed up every other wish in itself. +At the same hour, in the past year, had he been standing here, looking +at the women and the maidens coming to mass; with indifferent heart, and +smiling face, he had viewed the variegated procession; many a kind look +had roguishly met his, and many a virgin cheek had blushed; his busy eye +had observed the pretty feet, how they mounted the steps, and how the +wavering robe fell more or less aside, to let the dainty little ankles +come to sight. Then a youthful form had crossed the square: clad in +black; slender, and of noble mien, her eyes modestly cast down before +her, carelessly she hovered up the steps with lovely grace; the silken +robe lay round that fairest of forms, and rocked itself as in music +about the moving limbs; she was mounting the highest step, when by +chance she raised her head, and struck his eye with a ray of the purest +azure. He was pierced as if by lightning. Her foot caught the robe; and +quickly as he darted towards her, he could not prevent her having, for +a moment, in the most charming posture, lain kneeling at his feet. He +raised her; she did not look at him, she was all one blush; nor did she +answer his inquiry whether she was hurt. He followed her into the +church: his soul saw nothing but the image of that form kneeling before +him, and that loveliest of bosoms bent towards him. Next day he visited +the threshold of the church again; for him that spot was consecrated +ground. He had been intending to pursue his travels, his friends were +expecting him impatiently at home; but from henceforth his native +country was here, his heart and its wishes were inverted. He saw her +often, she did not shun him; yet it was but for a few separate and +stolen moments; for her wealthy family observed her strictly, and still +more a powerful and jealous bridegroom. They mutually confessed their +love, but knew not what to do; for he was a stranger, and could offer +his beloved no such splendid fortune as she was entitled to expect. He +now felt his poverty; yet when he reflected on his former way of life, +it seemed to him that he was passing rich; for his existence was +rendered holy, his heart floated forever in the fairest emotion; Nature +was now become his friend, and her beauty lay revealed to him; he felt +himself no longer alien from worship and religion; and he now crossed +this threshold, and the mysterious dimness of the temple, with far other +feelings than in former days of levity. He withdrew from his +acquaintances, and lived only to love. When he walked through her +street, and saw her at the window, he was happy for the day. He had +often spoken to her in the dusk of the evening; her garden was adjacent +to a friend's, who, however, did not know his secret. Thus a year had +passed away. + +All these scenes of his new existence again moved through his +remembrance. He raised his eyes; that noble form was even then gliding +over the square; she shone out of the confused multitude like a sun. A +lovely music sounded in his longing heart; and as she approached, he +retired into the church. He offered her the holy water; her white +fingers trembled as they touched his, she bowed with grateful kindness. +He followed her, and knelt down near her. His whole heart was melting in +sadness and love; it seemed to him as if, from the wounds of longing, +his being were bleeding away in fervent prayers; every word of the +priest went through him, every tone of the music poured new devotion +into his bosom; his lips quivered, as the fair maiden pressed the +crucifix of her rosary to her ruby mouth. How dim had been his +apprehension of this Faith and this Love before! The priest elevated the +Host, and the bell sounded; she bowed more humbly, and crossed her +breast; and, like a flash, it struck through all his powers and +feelings, and the image on the altar seemed alive, and the coloured +dimness of the windows as a light of paradise; tears flowed fast from +his eyes, and allayed the swelling fervour of his heart. + +The service was concluded. He again offered her the consecrated font; +they spoke some words, and she withdrew. He stayed behind, in order to +excite no notice; he looked after her till the hem of her garment +vanished round the corner; and he felt like the wanderer, weary and +astray, from whom, in the thick forest, the last gleam of the setting +sun departs. He awoke from his dream, as an old withered hand slapped +him on the shoulder, and some one called him by name. + +He started back, and recognised his friend, the testy old Albert, who +lived apart from men, and whose solitary house was open to Ferdinand +alone: "Do you remember our engagement?" said the hoarse husky voice. "O +yes," said Ferdinand: "and will you perform your promise today?" + +"This very hour," replied the other, "if you like to follow me." + +They walked through the city to a remote street, and there entered a +large edifice. "Today," said the old man, "you must push through with me +into my most solitary chamber, that we may not be disturbed." They +passed through many rooms, then along some stairs; they wound their way +through passages: and Ferdinand, who had thought himself familiar with +the house, was now astonished at the multitude of apartments, and the +singular arrangement of the spacious building; but still more that the +old man, a bachelor, and without family, should inhabit it by himself, +with a few servants, and never let out any part of the superfluous room +to strangers. Albert at length unbolted the door, and said: "Now, here +is the place." They entered a large high chamber, hung round with red +damask, which was trimmed with golden listings; the chairs were of the +same stuff; and, through heavy red silk curtains covering the windows, +came a purple light. "Wait a little," said the old man, and went into +another room. Ferdinand took up some books: he found them to contain +strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, with many curious +plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to be works on +alchemy; he was aware already that the old man had the reputation of a +gold-maker. A lute was lying on the table, singularly overlaid with +mother-of-pearl, and coloured wood; and representing birds and flowers +in very splendid forms. The star in the middle was a large piece of +mother-of-pearl, worked in the most skilful manner into many +intersecting circular figures, almost like the centre of a window in a +Gothic church. "You are looking at my instrument," said Albert, coming +back; "it is two hundred years old: I brought it with me as a memorial +of my journey into Spain. But let us leave all that, and do you take a +seat." + +They sat down beside the table, which was likewise covered with a red +cloth; and the old man placed upon it something which was carefully +wrapped up. "From pity to your youth," he began, "I promised lately to +predict to you whether you could ever become happy or not; and this +promise I will in the present hour perform, though you hold the matter +only as a jest. You need not be alarmed; for what I purpose will take +place without danger; no dread invocations shall be made by me, nor +shall any horrid apparition terrify your senses. The business I am on +may fail in two ways: either if you do not love so truly as you have +been willing to persuade me; for then my labour is in vain, and nothing +will disclose itself; or, if you shall disturb the oracle and destroy it +by a useless question, or a hasty movement, should you leave your seat +and dissipate the figure; you must therefore promise me to keep yourself +quite still." + +Ferdinand gave his word, and the old man unfolded from its cloths the +packet he had placed on the table. It was a golden goblet, of very +skilful and beautiful workmanship. Round its broad foot ran a garland of +flowers, intertwined with myrtles, and various other leaves and fruits, +worked out in high chasing with dim and with brilliant gold. A +corresponding ring, but still richer, with figures of children, and wild +little animals playing with them, or flying from them, wound itself +about the middle of the cup. The bowl was beautifully turned; it bent +itself back at the top as if to meet the lips; and within, the gold +sparkled with a red glow. Old Albert placed the cup between him and the +youth, whom he then beckoned to come nearer. "Do you not feel +something," said he, "when your eye loses itself in this splendour?" + +"Yes," answered Ferdinand, "this brightness glances into my inmost +heart; I might almost say I felt it like a kiss in my longing bosom." + +"It is right, then!" said the old man. "Now let not your eyes wander any +more, but fix them steadfastly on the glittering of this gold, and think +as intensely as you can of the woman whom you love." + +Both sat quiet for a while, looking earnestly upon the gleaming cup. Ere +long, however, Albert, with mute gestures, began, at first slowly, then +faster, and at last in rapid movements, to whirl his outstretched finger +in a constant circle round the glitter of the bowl. Then he paused, and +recommenced his circles in the opposite direction. After this had lasted +for a little, Ferdinand began to think he heard the sound of music; it +came as from without, in some distant street, but soon the tones +approached, they quivered more distinctly through the air; and at last +no doubt remained with him that they were flowing from the hollow of the +cup. The music became stronger, and of such piercing power, that the +young man's heart was throbbing to the notes, and tears were flowing +from his eyes. Busily old Albert's hand now moved in various lines +across the mouth of the goblet; and it seemed as if sparks were issuing +from his fingers, and darting in forked courses to the gold, and +tinkling as they met it. The glittering points increased; and followed, +as if strung on threads, the movements of his finger to and fro; they +shone with various hues, and crowded more and more together till they +joined in unbroken lines. And now it seemed as if the old man, in the +red dusk, were stretching a wondrous net over the gleaming gold; for he +drew the beams this way and that at pleasure, and wove up with them the +opening of the bowl; they obeyed him, and remained there like a cover, +wavering to and fro, and playing into one another. Having so fixed them, +he again described the circle round the rim; the music then moved off, +grew fainter and fainter, and at last died away. While the tones +departed, the sparkling net quivered to and fro as in pain. In its +increasing agitation it broke in pieces; and the beaming threads rained +down in drops into the cup; but as the drops fell, there arose from them +a ruddy cloud, which moved within itself in manifold eddies, and mounted +over the brim like foam. A bright point darted with exceeding swiftness +through the cloudy circle, and began to form the Image in the midst of +it. On a sudden there looked out from the vapour as it were an eye; +over this came a playing and curling as of golden locks; and soon there +went a soft blush up and down the shadow, and Ferdinand beheld the +smiling face of his beloved, the blue eyes, the tender cheeks, the fair +red mouth. The head waved to and fro; rose clearer and more visible upon +the slim white neck, and nodded towards the enraptured youth. Old Albert +still kept casting circles round the cup; and out of it emerged the +glancing shoulders; and as the fair form mounted more and more from its +golden couch, and bent in lovely kindness this way and that, the soft +curved parted breasts appeared, and on their summits two loveliest +rose-buds glancing with sweet secret red. Ferdinand fancied he felt the +breath, as the beloved form bent waving towards him, and almost touched +him with its glowing lips; in his rapture he forgot his promise and +himself; he started up and clasped that ruby mouth to him with a kiss, +and meant to seize those lovely arms, and lift the enrapturing form from +its golden prison. Instantly a violent trembling quivered through the +lovely shape; the head and body broke away as in a thousand lines; and a +rose was lying at the bottom of the goblet, in whose redness that sweet +smile still seemed to play. The longing young man caught it and pressed +it to his lips; and in his burning ardour it withered and melted into +air. + +"Thou hast kept thy promise badly," said the old man, with an angry +tone; "thou hast none but thyself to blame." He again wrapped up the +goblet, drew aside the curtains, and opened a window: the clear daylight +broke in; and Ferdinand, in sadness, and with many fruitless excuses, +left old Albert still in anger. + +In an agitated mood, he hastened through the streets of the city. +Without the gate, he sat down beneath the trees. She had told him in the +morning that she was to go that night, with some relations, to the +country. Intoxicated with love, he rose, he sat, he wandered in the +wood: that fair kind form was still before him, as it flowed and mounted +from the glowing gold; he looked that she would now step forth to meet +him in the splendour of her beauty, and again that loveliest image broke +away in pieces from his eyes; and he was indignant at himself that, by +his restless passion and the tumult of his senses, he should have +destroyed the shape, and perhaps his hopes, forever. + +As the walk, in the afternoon, became crowded, he withdrew deeper into +the thickets; but he still kept the distant highway in his eye; and +every coach that issued from the gate was carefully examined by him. + +The night approached. The setting sun was throwing forth its red +splendour, when from the gate rushed out the richly gilded coach, +gleaming with a fiery brightness in the glow of evening. He hastened +towards it. Her eye had already seized him. Kindly and smilingly she +leaned her glittering bosom from the window; he caught her soft +salutation and signal; he was standing by the coach, her full look fell +on his, and as she drew back to move away, the rose which had adorned +her bosom flew out, and lay at his feet. He lifted it, and kissed it; +and he felt as if it presaged to him that he should not see his loved +one any more, that now his happiness had faded away from him forever. + + * * * * * + +Hurried steps were passing up stairs and down; the whole house was in +commotion; all was bustle and tumult, preparing for the great +festivities of the morrow. The mother was the gladdest and most active; +the bride heeded nothing, but retired into her chamber to meditate upon +her changing destiny. The family were still looking for their elder son, +the captain, with his wife; and for two elder daughters, with their +husbands: Leopold, the younger, was maliciously busied in increasing the +disorder, and deepening the tumult; perplexing all, while he pretended +to be furthering it. Agatha, his still unmarried sister, was in vain +endeavouring to make him reasonable, and persuade him simply to do +nothing, and to let the rest have peace; but her mother said: "Never +mind him and his folly; for today a little more or less of it amounts to +nothing; only this I beg of one and all of you, that as I have so much +to think about already, you would trouble me with no fresh tidings, +unless it be of something that especially concerns us. I care not +whether any one have let some china fall, whether one spoon or two +spoons are wanting, whether any of the stranger servants have been +breaking windows; with all such freaks as these, I beg you would not vex +me by recounting them. Were these days of tumult over, we will reckon +matters; not till then." + +"Bravely spoken, mother!" cried her son; "these sentiments are worthy of +a governor. And if it chance that any of the maids should break her +neck; the cook get tipsy, or set the chimney on fire; the butler, for +joy, let all the malmsey run upon the floor, or down his throat, you +shall not hear a word of such small tricks. If, indeed, an earthquake +were to overset the house! that, my dear mother, could not be kept +secret." + +"When will he leave his folly!" said the mother: "What must thy sisters +think, when they find thee every jot as riotous as when they left thee +two years ago?" + +"They must do justice to my force of character," said Leopold, "and +grant that I am not so changeable as they or their husbands, who have +altered so much within these few years, and so little to their +advantage." + +The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was +sent to call her. "Has Leopold made my request to you, my dear mother?" +said he. + +"I did, forsooth!" said Leopold. "There is such confusion here among us, +not one of them can think a reasonable thought." + +The bride entered, and the young pair joyfully saluted one another. "The +request I meant," continued the bridegroom, "is this: That you would not +take it ill, if I should bring another guest into your house, which, in +truth, is full enough already." + +"You are aware yourself," replied the mother, "that extensive as it is, +I could scarcely find another chamber." + +"Notwithstanding, I have partly managed it already," cried Leopold; "I +have had the large apartment furbished up." + +"Why, that is quite a miserable place," replied the mother; "for many +years it has been nothing but a lumber-room." + +"But it is splendidly repaired," said Leopold; "and our friend, for whom +it is intended, does not mind such matters, he desires nothing but our +love. Besides, he has no wife, and likes to be alone; it is the very +place for him. We have had enough of trouble in persuading him to come, +and show himself again among his fellow-creatures." + +"Not your dismal conjuror and gold-maker, certainly?" cried Agatha. + +"No other," said the bridegroom, "if you will still call him so." + +"Then do not let him, mother," said the sister. "What should a man like +that do here? I have seen him on the street with Leopold, and I was +positively frightened at his face. The old sinner, too, almost never +goes to church; he loves neither God nor man; and it cannot come to good +to bring such infidels under the roof, on a solemnity like this. Who +knows what may be the consequence!" + +"To hear her talk!" said Leopold, in anger. "Thou condemnest without +knowing him; and because the cut of his nose does not please thee, and +he is no longer young and handsome, thou concludest him a wizard, and a +servant of the Devil." + +"Grant a place in your house, dear mother," said the bridegroom, "to our +old friend, and let him take a part in our general joy. He seems, my +dear Agatha, to have endured much suffering, which has rendered him +distrustful and misanthropic; he avoids all society, his only exceptions +are Leopold and myself. I owe him much; it was he that first gave my +mind a good direction; nay, I may say, it is he alone that has rendered +me perhaps worthy of my Julia's love." + +"He lends me all his books," continued Leopold; "and, what is more, his +old manuscripts; and what is more still, his money, on my bare word. He +is a man of the most christian turn, my little sister. And who knows, +when thou hast seen him better, whether thou wilt not throw off thy +coyness, and take a fancy to him, ugly as he now appears to thee?" + +"Well, bring him to us," said the mother; "I have had to hear so much of +him from Leopold already, that I have a curiosity to be acquainted with +him. Only you must answer for it, that I cannot lodge him better." + +Meantime strangers were announced. They were members of the family, the +married daughters, and the officer; they had brought their children with +them. The good old lady was delighted to behold her grandsons; all was +welcoming, and joyful talk; and Leopold and the bridegroom, having also +given and received their greeting, went away to seek their ancient +melancholic friend. + +The latter lived most part of the year in the country, about a league +from town; but he also kept a little dwelling for himself in a garden +near the gate. Here, by chance, the young men had become acquainted with +him. They now found him in a coffee-house, where they had previously +agreed to meet. As the evening had come on, they brought him, after some +little conversation, directly to the house. + +The stranger met a kindly welcome from the mother; the daughters stood a +little more aloof from him. Agatha especially was shy, and carefully +avoided his looks. But the first general compliments were scarcely +over, when the old man's eye appeared to settle on the bride, who had +entered the apartment later; he seemed as if transported, and it was +observed that he was struggling to conceal a tear. The bridegroom +rejoiced in his joy, and happening sometime after to be standing with +him by a side at the window, he took his hand, and asked him: "Now, what +think you of my lovely Julia? Is she not an angel?" + +"O my friend!" replied the old man, with emotion, "such grace and beauty +I have never seen; or rather, I should say (for that expression was not +just), she is so fair, so ravishing, so heavenly, that I feel as if I +had long known her; as if she were to me, utter stranger though she is, +the most familiar form of my imagination, some shape which had always +been an inmate of my heart." + +"I understand you," said the young man: "yes, the truly beautiful, the +great and sublime, when it overpowers us with astonishment and +admiration, still does not surprise us as a thing foreign, never heard +of, never seen; but, on the other hand, our own inmost nature in such +moments becomes clear to us, our deepest remembrances are awakened, our +dearest feelings made alive." + +The stranger, during supper, mixed but little in the conversation; his +looks were fixed on the bride, so earnestly and constantly, that she at +last became embarrassed and alarmed. The captain told of a campaign +which he had served in; the rich merchant of his speculations and the +bad times; the country gentleman of the improvements which he meant to +make in his estate. + +Supper being done, the bridegroom took his leave, returning for the last +time to his lonely chamber; for in future it was settled that the +married pair were to live in the mother's house, their chambers were +already furnished. The company dispersed, and Leopold conducted the +stranger to his room. "You will excuse us," said he, as they went along, +"for having been obliged to lodge you rather far away, and not so +comfortably as our mother wished; but you see, yourself, how numerous +our family is, and more relations are to come tomorrow. For one thing, +you will not run away from us; there is no finding of your course +through this enormous house." + +They went through several passages, and Leopold at last took leave, and +bade his guest good-night. The servant placed two wax-lights on the +table; then asked the stranger whether he should help him to undress, +and as the latter waived his help in that particular, he also went away, +and the stranger found himself alone. + +"How does it chance, then," said he, walking up and down, "that this +Image springs so vividly from my heart today? I forgot the long past, +and thought I saw herself. I was again young, and her voice sounded as +of old; I thought I was awakening from a heavy dream; but no, I am now +awake, and those fair moments were but a sweet delusion." + +He was too restless to sleep; he looked at some pictures on the walls, +and then round on the chamber. "Today," cried he, "all is so familiar to +me, I could almost fancy I had known this house and this apartment of +old." He tried to settle his remembrances, and lifted some large books +which were standing in a corner. As he turned their leaves, he shook his +head. A lute-case was leaning on the wall; he opened it, and found a +strange old instrument, time-worn, and without the strings. "No, I am +not mistaken!" cried he, in astonishment; "this lute is too remarkable; +it is the Spanish lute of my long-departed friend, old Albert! Here are +his magic books; this is the chamber where he raised for me that +blissful vision; the red of the tapestry is faded, its golden hem is +become dim; but strangely vivid in my heart is all pertaining to those +hours. It was for this the fear went over me as I was coming hither, +through these long complicated passages where Leopold conducted me. O +Heaven! On this very table did the Shape rise budding forth, and grow up +as if watered and refreshed by the redness of the gold. The same image +smiled upon me here, which has almost driven me crazy in the hall +tonight; in that hall where I have walked so often in trustful speech +with Albert!" + +He undressed, but slept very little. Early in the morning he was up, and +looking at the room again; he opened the window, and the same gardens +and buildings were lying before him as of old, only many other houses +had been built since then. "Forty years have vanished," sighed he, +"since that afternoon; and every day of those bright times has a longer +life than all the intervening space." + +He was called to the company. The morning passed in varied talk: at last +the bride entered in her marriage-dress. As the old man noticed her, he +fell into a state of agitation, such that every one observed it. They +proceeded to the church, and the marriage-ceremony was performed. The +party was again at home, when Leopold inquired: "Now, mother, how do you +like our friend, the good morose old gentleman?" + +"I had figured him, by your description," said she, "much more +frightful; he is mild and sympathetic, and might gain from one an honest +trust in him." + +"Trust?" cried Agatha; "in these burning frightful eyes, these +thousandfold wrinkles, that pale sunk mouth, that strange laugh of his, +which looks and sounds so mockingly? No; God keep me from such friends! +If evil spirits ever take the shape of men, they must assume some shape +like this." + +"Perhaps a younger and more handsome one," replied the mother; "but I +cannot recognise the good old man in thy description. One easily +observes that he is of a violent temperament, and has inured himself to +lock up his feelings in his own bosom; perhaps, too, as Leopold was +saying, he may have encountered many miseries; so he is grown +mistrustful, and has lost that simple openness, which is especially the +portion of the happy." + +The rest of the party entered, and broke off their conversation. Dinner +was served up; and the stranger sat between Agatha and the rich +merchant. When the toasts were beginning, Leopold cried out: "Now, stop +a little, worthy friends; we must have the golden goblet down for this, +then let it travel round." + +He was rising, but his mother beckoned him to keep his seat: "Thou wilt +not find it," said she, "for the plate is all stowed elsewhere." She +walked out rapidly to seek it herself. + +"How brisk and busy is our good old lady still!" observed the merchant. +"See how nimbly she can move, with all her breadth and weight, and +reckoning sixty by this time of day. Her face is always bright and +joyful, and today she is particularly happy, for she sees herself made +young again in Julia." + +The stranger gave assent, and the lady entered with the goblet. It was +filled with wine, and began to circulate, each toasting what was dearest +and most precious to him. Julia gave the welfare of her husband, he the +love of his fair Julia; and thus did every one as it became his turn. +The mother lingered, as the goblet came to her. + +"Come, quick with it," said the captain, somewhat hastily and rudely; +"we know, you reckon all men faithless, and not one among them worthy of +a woman's love. What, then, is dearest to you?" + +His mother looked at him, while the mildness of her brow was on a sudden +overspread with angry seriousness. "Since my son," said she, "knows me +so well, and can judge my mind so rigorously, let me be permitted _not_ +to speak what I was thinking of, and let him endeavour, by a life of +constant love, to falsify what he gives out as my opinion." She pushed +the goblet on, without drinking, and the company was for a while +embarrassed and disturbed. + +"It is reported," said the merchant, in a whisper, turning to the +stranger, "that she did not love her husband; but another, who proved +faithless to her. She was then, it seems, the finest woman in the city." + +When the cup reached Ferdinand, he gazed upon it with astonishment; for +it was the very goblet out of which old Albert had called forth to him +the lovely shadow. He looked in upon the gold, and the waving of the +wine; his hand shook; it would not have surprised him, if from the magic +bowl that glowing Form had again mounted up, and brought with it his +vanished youth. "No!" said he, after some time, half-aloud, "it is wine +that is gleaming here!" + +"Ay, what else?" cried the merchant, laughing: "Drink and be merry." + +A thrill of terror passed over the old man; he pronounced the name +"Francesca" in a vehement tone, and set the goblet to his lips. The +mother cast upon him an inquiring and astonished look. + +"Whence is this bright goblet?" said Ferdinand, who also felt ashamed of +his embarrassment. + +"Many years ago, long ere I was born," said Leopold, "my father bought +it, with this house and all its furniture, from an old solitary +bachelor; a silent man, whom the neighbours thought a dealer in the +Black Art." + +The stranger did not say that he had known this old man; for his whole +being was too much perplexed, too like an enigmatic dream, to let the +rest look into it, even from afar. + +The cloth being withdrawn, he was left alone with the mother, as the +young ones had retired to make ready for the ball. "Sit down by me," +said the mother; "we will rest, for our dancing years are past; and if +it is not rude, allow me to inquire whether you have seen our goblet +elsewhere, or what it was that moved you so intensely?" + +"O my lady," said the old man, "pardon my foolish violence and emotion; +but ever since I crossed your threshold, I feel as if I were no longer +myself; every moment I forget that my head is gray, that the hearts +which loved me are dead. Your beautiful daughter, who is now celebrating +the gladdest day of her existence, is so like a maiden whom I knew and +adored in my youth, that I could reckon it a miracle. Like, did I say? +No, she is not like; it is she herself! In this house, too, I have often +been; and once I became acquainted with this cup in a manner I shall not +forget." Here he told her his adventure. "On the evening of that day," +concluded he, "in the park, I saw my loved one for the last time, as she +was passing in her coach. A rose fell from her bosom; this I gathered; +she herself was lost to me, for she proved faithless, and soon after +married." + +"God in Heaven!" cried the lady, violently moved, and starting up, "thou +art not Ferdinand?" + +"It is my name," replied he. + +"I am Francesca," said the lady. + +They sprang forward to embrace, then started suddenly back. Each viewed +the other with investigating looks: both strove again to evolve from the +ruins of Time those lineaments which of old they had known and loved in +one another; and as, in dark tempestuous nights, amid the flight of +black clouds, there are moments when solitary stars ambiguously twinkle +forth, to disappear next instant, so to these two was there shown now +and then from the eyes, from the brow and lips, the transitory gleam of +some well-known feature; and it seemed as if their Youth stood in the +distance, weeping smiles. He bowed down, and kissed her hand, while two +big drops rolled from his eyes. They then embraced each other cordially. + +"Is thy wife dead?" inquired she. + +"I was never married," sobbed the other. + +"Heavens!" cried she, wringing her hands, "then it is I who have been +faithless! But no, not faithless. On returning from the country, where I +stayed two months, I heard from every one, thy friends as well as mine, +that thou wert long ago gone home, and married in thy own country. They +showed me the most convincing letters, they pressed me vehemently, they +profited by my despondency, my indignation; and so it was that I gave my +hand to another, a deserving husband; but my heart and my thoughts were +always thine." + +"I never left this town," said Ferdinand; "but after a while I heard +that thou wert married. They wished to part us, and they have succeeded. +Thou art a happy mother; I live in the past, and all thy children I will +love as if they were my own. But how strange that we should never once +have met!" + +"I seldom went abroad," said she; "and as my husband took another name, +soon after we were married, from a property which he inherited, thou +couldst have no suspicion that we were so near together." + +"I avoided men," said Ferdinand, "and lived for solitude. Leopold is +almost the only one that has attracted me, and led me out amongst my +fellows. O my beloved friend, it is like a frightful spectre-story, to +think how we lost, and have again found each other!" + +As the young people entered, the two were dissolved in tears, and in the +deepest emotion. Neither of them told what had occurred, the secret +seemed too holy. But ever after, the old man was the friend of the +house; and Death alone parted these two beings, who had found each other +so strangely, to reunite them in a short time, beyond the power of +separation. + + + + +JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. + + + + +ARMY-CHAPLAIN SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLÆTZ; + +WITH + +A RUNNING COMMENTARY OF NOTES BY JEAN PAUL.[29] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This, I conceive, may be managed in two words. + +The _first_ word must relate to the Circular Letter of Army-chaplain +Schmelzle, wherein he describes to his friends his Journey to the +metropolitan city of Flätz; after having, in an Introduction, premised +some proofs and assurances of his valour. Properly speaking, the +_Journey_ itself has been written purely with a view that his +courageousness, impugned by rumour, may be fully evinced and +demonstrated by the plain facts which he therein records. Whether, in +the mean-time, there shall not be found certain quick-scented readers, +who may infer, directly contrariwise, that his breast is not everywhere +bomb-proof, especially in the left side: on this point I keep my +judgment suspended. + + [29] Prefatory Introduction to Richter, _suprà_, at p. 354, Vol. + VI. of _Works_ (Vol. I. of _Miscellanies_). + +For the rest, I beg the judges of literature, as well as their +satellites, the critics of literature, to regard this _Journey_, for +whose literary contents I, as Editor, am answerable, solely in the light +of a Portrait (in the French sense), a little Sketch of Character. It is +a voluntary or involuntary comedy-piece, at which I have laughed so +often, that I purpose in time coming to paint some similar Pictures of +Character myself. And, for the present, when could such a little comic +toy be more fitly imparted and set forth to the world, than in these +very days, when the sound both of heavy money and of light laughter has +died away from among us; when, like the Turks, we count and pay merely +with sealed _purses_, and the coin within them has vanished? + +Despicable would it seem to me, if any clownish squire of the +goose-quill should publicly and censoriously demand of me, in what way +this self-cabinet-piece of Schmelzle's has come into my hands? I know it +well, and do not disclose it. This comedy-piece, for which I, at all +events, as my Bookseller will testify, draw the profit myself, I got +hold of so unblamably, that I await, with unspeakable composure, what +the Army-chaplain shall please to say against the publication of it, in +case he say anything at all. My conscience bears me witness, that I +acquired this article, at least by more honourable methods than are +those of the learned persons who steal with their ears, who, in the +character of spiritual auditory-thieves, and classroom cutpurses and +pirates, are in the habit of disloading their plundered Lectures, and +vending them up and down the country as productions of their own. +Hitherto, in my whole life, I have stolen little, except now and then in +youth some--glances. + +The _second_ word must explain or apologise for the singular form of +this little Work, standing as it does on a substratum of Notes. I +myself am not contented with it. Let the World open, and look, and +determine, in like manner. But the truth is, this line of demarcation, +stretching through the whole book, originated in the following accident: +certain thoughts (or digressions) of my own, with which it was not +permitted me to disturb those of the Army-chaplain, and which could only +he allowed to fight behind the lines, in the shape of Notes, I, with a +view to conveniency and order, had written down in a separate paper; at +the same time, as will he observed, regularly providing every Note with +its Number, and thus referring it to the proper page of the main +Manuscript. But, in the copying of the latter, I had forgotten to insert +the corresponding numbers in the Text itself. Therefore, let no man, any +more than I do, cast a stone at my worthy Printer, inasmuch as he +(perhaps in the thought that it was my way, that I had some purpose in +it) took these Notes, just as they stood, pell-mell, without arrangement +of Numbers, and clapped them under the Text; at the same time, by a +praiseworthy artful computation, taking care at least, that, at the +bottom of every page in the Text, there should some portion of this +glittering Note-precipitate make its appearance. Well, the thing at any +rate is done, nay perpetuated, namely printed. After all, I might almost +partly rejoice at it. For, in good truth, had I meditated for years (as +I have done for the last twenty) how to provide for my digression-comets +new orbits, if not focal suns, for my episodes new epopees,--I could +scarce possibly have hit upon a better or more spacious Limbo for such +Vanities than Chance and Printer here accidentally offer me ready-made. +I have only to regret, that the thing has been printed, before I could +turn it to account. Heavens! what remotest allusions (had I known it +before printing) might not have been privily introduced in every +Text-page and Note-number; and what apparent incongruity in the real +congruity between this upper and under side of the cards! How vehemently +and devilishly might one not have cut aloft, and to the right and left, +from these impregnable casemates and covered ways; and what _læsio ultra +dimidium_ (injury beyond the half of the Text) might not, with these +satirical injuries, have been effected and completed! + +But Fate meant not so kindly with me: of this golden harvest-field of +satire I was not to be informed till three days before the Preface. + +Perhaps, however, the writing world, by the little blue flame of this +accident, may be guided to a weightier acquisition, to a larger +subterranean treasure, than I, alas, have dug up! For, to the writer, +there is now a way pointed out of producing in one marbled volume a +group of altogether different works; of writing in one leaf, for both +sexes at the same time, without confounding them, nay, for the five +faculties all at once, without disturbing their limitations; since now, +instead of boiling up a vile fermenting shove-together, fit for nobody, +he has nothing to do but draw his note-lines or partition-lines; and so +on his five-story leaf give board and lodging to the most discordant +heads. Perhaps one might then read many a book for the fourth time, +simply because every time one had read but a fourth part of it. + +On the whole, this Work has at least the property of being a short one; +so that the reader, I hope, may almost run through it, and read it at +the bookseller's counter, without, as in the case of thicker volumes, +first needing to buy it. And why, indeed, in this world of Matter should +anything whatever be great, except only what belongs not to it, the +world of Spirit? + + JEAN PAUL FR. RICHTER. + +_Bayreuth, in the Hay and Peace Month_, 1807. + + + + +SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLÆTZ. + + + _Circular Letter of the proposed Catechetical Professor_ ATTILA + SCHMELZLE _to his Friends; containing some Account of a Holidays' + Journey to Flätz, with an Introduction, touching his Plight and his + Courage as former Army-chaplain._ + +Nothing can be more ludicrous, my esteemed Friends, than to hear people +stigmatising a man as cowardly and hare-hearted, who perhaps is +struggling all the while with precisely the opposite faults, those of a +lion; though indeed the African lion himself, since the time of +Sparrmann's Travels, passes among us for a poltroon. Yet this case is +mine, worthy Friends; and I purpose to say a few words thereupon, before +describing my Journey. + +You in truth are all aware that, directly in the teeth of this calumny, +it is courage, it is desperadoes (provided they be not braggarts and +tumultuous persons), whom I chiefly venerate; for example, my +brother-in-law, the Dragoon, who never in his life bastinadoed one man, +but always a whole social circle at the same time. How truculent was my +fancy, even in childhood, when I, as the parson was toning away to the +silent congregation, used to take it into my head: "How now, if thou +shouldst start up from the pew, and shout aloud: I am here too, Mr. +Parson!" and to paint out this thought in such glowing colours, that for +very dread, I have often been obliged to leave the church! Anything like +Rugenda's battle-pieces; horrid murder-tumults, sea-fights or Stormings +of Toulon, exploding fleets; and, in my childhood, Battles of Prague on +the harpsichord; nay, in short, every map of any remarkable scene of +war: these are perhaps too much my favourite objects; and I read--and +purchase nothing sooner; and doubtless, they might lead me into many +errors, were it not that, my circumstances restrain me. Now, if it be +objected that true courage is something higher than mere thinking and +willing, then you, my worthy Friends, will be the first to recognise +mine, when it shall break forth into, not barren and empty, but active +and effective words, while I strengthen my future Catechetical Pupils, +as well as can be done in a course of College Lectures, and steel them +into Christian heroes. + +[Note 103: Good princes easily obtain good subjects; not so easily +good subjects good princes: thus Adam, in the state of innocence, ruled +over animals all tame and gentle, till simply through his means they +fell and grew savage.] + +[Note 5: For a good Physician saves, if not always from the +disease, at least from a bad Physician.] + +It is well known that, out of care for the preservation of my life, I +never walk within at least ten fields of any shore full of bathers or +swimmers; merely because I foresee to a certainty, that in case one of +them were drowning, I should that moment (for the heart overbalances the +head) plunge after the fool to save him, into some bottomless depth or +other, where we should both perish. And if dreaming is the reflex of +waking, let me ask you, true Hearts, if you have forgotten my relating +to you dreams of mine, which no Cæsar, no Alexander or Luther, need have +felt ashamed of? Have I not, to mention a few instances, taken Rome by +storm; and done battle with the Pope, and the whole elephantine body of +the Cardinal College, at one and the same time? Did I not once on +horseback, while simply looking at a review of military, dash headlong +into a _bataillon quarré_; and then capture, in Aix-la-Chapelle, the +Peruke of Charlemagne, for which the town pays yearly ten reichsthalers +of barber-money; and carrying it off to Halberstadt and Herr Gleim's, +there in like manner seize the Great Frederick's Hat; put both Peruke +and Hat on my head, and yet return home, after I had stormed their +batteries, and turned the cannon against the cannoneers themselves? Did +I not once submit to be made a Jew of, and then be regaled with hams; +though they were ape-hams on the Orinocco (see Humboldt)? And a thousand +such things; for I have thrown the Consistorial President of Flätz; out +of the Palace window; those alarm-fulminators, sold by Heinrich Backofen +in Gotha, at six groschen the dozen, and each going off like a cannon, I +have listened to so calmly that the fulminators did not even awaken me; +and more of the like sort. + +But enough! It is now time briefly to touch that farther slander of my +chaplainship, which unhappily has likewise gained some circulation in +Flätz, but which, as Cæsar did Alexander, I shall now by my touch +dissipate into dust. Be what truth in it there can, it is still little +or nothing. Your great Minister and General in Flätz (perhaps the very +greatest in the world, for there are not many Schabackers) may indeed, +like any other great man, be turned against me, but not with the +Artillery of Truth; for this Artillery I here set before you, my good +Hearts, and do you but fire it off for my advantage! The matter is this: +Certain foolish rumours are afloat in the Flätz country, that I, on +occasion of some important battles, took leg-bail (such is their +plebeian phrase), and that afterwards, on the chaplain's being +called-for to preach a Thanksgiving sermon for the victory, no chaplain +whatever was to be found. The ridiculousness of this story will best +appear, when I tell you that I never was in any action; but have always +been accustomed, several hours prior to such an event, to withdraw so +many miles to the rear, that our men, so soon as they were beaten, would +be sure to find me. A good retreat is reckoned the masterpiece in the +art of war; and at no time can a retreat be executed with such order, +force and security, as just before the battle, when you are not yet +beaten. + +[Note 100: In books lie the Phoenix-ashes of a past Millennium +and Paradise; but War blows, and much ashes are scattered away.] + +[Note 102: Dear Political or Religious Inquisitor! art thou aware +that Turin tapers never rightly begin shining, till thou breakest them, +and then they take fire?] + +It is true, I might perhaps, as expectant Professor of Catechetics, sit +still and smile at such nugatory speculations on my courage; for if by +Socratic questioning I can hammer my future Catechist Pupils into the +habit of asking questions in their turn, I shall thereby have tempered +_them_ into heroes, seeing they have nothing to fight with but +children--(Catechists at all events, though dreading fire, have no +reason to dread light, since in our days, as in London illuminations, it +is only the _unlighted_ windows that are battered in; whereas, in other +ages, it was with nations and light, as it is with dogs and water; if +you give them none for a long time, they at last get a horror at +it);--and on the whole, for Catechists, any park looks kindlier, and +smiles more sweetly, than a sulphurous park of artillery; and the +Warlike Foot, which the age is placed on, is to them the true Devil's +cloven-foot of human nature. + +But for my part I think not so: almost as if the party-spirit influence +of my christian name, Attila, had passed into me more strongly than was +proper, I feel myself impelled still farther to prove my courageousness; +which, dearest Friends! I shall here in a few lines again do. This +proof I could manage by mere inferences and learned citations. For +example, if Galen remarks that animals with large hind-quarters are +timid, I have nothing to do but turn round, and show the enemy my back, +and what is under it, in order to convince him that I am not deficient +in valour, but in flesh. Again, if by well-known experiences it has been +found that flesh-eating produces courage, I can evince, that in this +particular I yield to no officer of the service; though it is the habit +of these gentlemen not only to run up long scores of roast-meat with +their landlords, but also to leave them unpaid, that so at every hour +they may have an open document in the hands of the enemy himself (the +landlord), testifying that they have eaten their own share (with some of +other people's too), and so put common butcher's-meat on a War-footing, +living not like others _by_ bravery, but _for_ bravery. As little have I +ever, in my character of chaplain, shrunk from comparison with any +officer in the regiment, who may be a true lion, and so snatch every +sort of plunder, but yet, like this King of the Beasts, is afraid of +_fire_; or who,--like King James of England, that scampered off at sight +of drawn swords, yet so much the more gallantly, before all Europe, went +out against the storming Luther with book and pen,[2]--does, from a +similar idiosyncrasy, attack all warlike armaments, both by word and +writing. And here I recollect with satisfaction a brave sub-lieutenant, +whose confessor I was (he still owes me the confession-money), and who, +in respect of stout-heartedness, had in him perhaps something of that +Indian dog which Alexander had presented to him, as a sort of +Dog-Alexander. By way of trying this crack dog, the Macedonian made +various heroic or heraldic beasts be let loose against him: first a +stag; but the dog lay still: then a sow; he lay still: then a bear; he +lay still. Alexander was on the point of condemning him; when a lion was +let forth: the dog rose, and tore the lion in pieces. So likewise the +sub-lieutenant. A challenger, a foreign enemy, a Frenchman, are to him +only stag, and sow, and bear, and he lies still in his place; but let +his oldest enemy, his creditor, come and knock at his gate, and demand +of him actual smart-money for long bygone pleasures, thus presuming to +rob him both of past and present; the sub-lieutenant rises, and throws +his creditor down stairs. I, alas, am still standing by the sow; and +thus, naturally enough, misunderstood. + +[Note 86: Very true! In youth we love and enjoy the most +ill-assorted friends, perhaps more than, in old age, the best-assorted.] + +[Note 128: In Love there are Summer Holidays; but in Marriage also +there are Winter Holidays, I hope.] + +[Note 143: Women have weekly at least one active and passive day of +glory, the holy day, the Sunday. The higher ranks alone have more +Sundays than workdays; as in great towns, you can celebrate your Sunday +on Friday with the Turks, on Saturday with the Jews, and on Sunday with +yourself.] + +[Note 2: The good Professor of Catechetics is out here. _Indignor +quandoque bonus dormitat Schmelzlæus!_--ED.] + +_Quo_, says Livy, xii. 5, and with great justice, _quo timoris minus +est, eo minus ferme periculi est_, The less fear you have, the less +danger you are likely to be in. With equal justice I invert the maxim, +and say: The less the danger, the smaller the fear; nay, there may be +situations, in which one has absolutely no knowledge of fear; and, among +these, mine is to be reckoned. The more hateful, therefore, must that +calumny about hare-heartedness appear to me. + +To my Holidays' Journey I shall prefix a few facts, which prove how +easily foresight--that is to say, when a person would not resemble the +stupid marmot, that will even attack a man on horseback--may pass for +cowardice. For the rest, I wish only that I could with equal ease wipe +away a quite different reproach, that of being a foolhardy desperado; +though I trust, in the sequel, I shall be able to advance some facts +which invalidate it. + +What boots the heroic arm, without a hero's eye? The former readily +grows stronger and more nervous; but the latter is not so soon ground +sharper, like glasses. Nevertheless, the merits of foresight obtain from +the mass of men less admiration (nay, I should say, more ridicule) than +those of courage. Whoso, for instance, shall see me walking under quite +cloudless skies, with a wax-cloth umbrella over me, to him I shall +probably appear ridiculous, so long as he is not aware that I carry this +umbrella as a thunder-screen, to keep off any bolt out of the blue +heaven (whereof there are several examples in the history of the Middle +Ages) from striking me to death. My thunder-screen, in fact, is exactly +that of Reimarus: on a long walking-stick, I carry the wax-cloth roof; +from the peak of which depends a string of gold-lace as a conductor; and +this, by means of a key fastened to it, which it trails along the +ground, will lead off every possible bolt, and easily distribute it over +the whole superficies of the Earth. With this _Paratonnerre Portatif_ +in my hand, I can walk about for weeks, under the clear sky, without the +smallest danger. This Diving-bell, moreover, protects me against +something else; against shot. For who, in the latter end of Harvest, +will give me black on white that no lurking ninny of a sportsman +somewhere, when I am out enjoying Nature, shall so fire off his piece, +at an angle of 45°, that in falling down again, the shot needs only +light directly on my crown, and so come to the same as if I had been +shot through the brain from a side? + +[Note 21: Schiller and Klopstock are Poetic Mirrors held up to the +Sun-god: the Mirrors reflect the Sun with such dazzling brightness, that +you cannot find the Picture of the World imaged forth in them.] + +It is bad enough, at any rate, that we have nothing to guard us from the +Moon; which at present is bombarding us with stones like a very Turk: +for this paltry little Earth's trainbearer and errand-maid thinks, in +these rebellious times, that she too must begin, forsooth, to sling +somewhat against her Mother! In good truth, as matters stand, any young +Catechist of feeling may go out o' nights, with whole limbs, into the +moonshine, a-meditating; and ere long (in the midst of his meditation +the villanous Satellite hits him) come home a pounded jelly. By heaven! +new proofs of courage are required of us on every hand! No sooner have +we, with great effort, got thunder-rods manufactured, and comet-tails +explained away, than the enemy opens new batteries in the Moon, or +somewhere else in the Blue! + +Suffice one other story to manifest how ludicrous the most serious +foresight, with all imaginable inward courage, often externally appears +in the eyes of the many. Equestrians are well acquainted with the +dangers of a horse that runs away. My evil star would have it, that I +should once in Vienna get upon a hack-horse; a pretty enough +honey-coloured nag, but old and hard-mouthed as Satan; so that the +beast, in the next street, went off with me; and this in truth--only at +a _walk_. No pulling, no tugging, took effect; I, at last, on the back +of this Self-riding-horse, made signals of distress, and cried: "Stop +him, good people, for God's sake stop him, my horse is off!" But these +simple persons seeing the beast move along as slowly as a Reichshofrath +law-suit, or the Daily Postwagen, could not in the least understand the +matter, till I cried as if possessed: "Stop him then, ye blockheads and +joltheads; don't you see that I cannot hold the nag?" But now, to these +noodles, the sight of a hard-mouthed horse going off with its rider step +by step, seemed ridiculous rather than otherwise; half Vienna gathered +itself like a comet-tail behind my beast and me. Prince Kaunitz, the +best horseman of the century (the last), pulled up to follow me. I +myself sat and swam like a perpendicular piece of drift-ice on my +honey-coloured nag, which stalked on, on, step by step: a many-cornered, +red-coated letter-carrier, was delivering his letters, to the right and +left, in the various stories, and he still crossed over before me again, +with satirical features, because the nag went along too slowly. The +Schwanzschleuderer, or Train-dasher (the person, as you know, who drives +along the streets with a huge barrel of water, and besplashes them with +a leathern pipe of three ells long from an iron trough), came across the +haunches of my horse, and, in the course of his duty, wetted both these +and myself in a very cooling manner, though, for my part, I had too much +cold sweat on me already, to need any fresh refrigeration. On my +infernal Trojan Horse (only I myself was Troy, not beridden but riding +to destruction), I arrived at Malzlein (a suburb of Vienna), or perhaps, +so confused were my senses, it might be quite another range of streets. +At last, late in the dusk, I had to turn into the Prater; and here, long +after the Evening Gun, to my horror, and quite against the police-rules, +keep riding to and fro on my honey-coloured nag; and possibly I might +even have passed the night on him, had not my brother-in-law, the +Dragoon, observed my plight, and so found me still sitting firm as a +rock on my runaway steed. He made no ceremonies; caught the brute; and +put the pleasant question: Why I had not vaulted, and come off by +ground-and-lofty tumbling? though he knew full well, that for this a +wooden-horse, which stands still, is requisite. However, he took me +down; and so, after all this riding, horse and man got home with whole +skins and unbroken bones. + +But now at last to my Journey! + +[Note 34: Women are like precious carved works of ivory; nothing is +whiter and smoother, and nothing sooner grows _yellow_.] + +[Note 72: The Half-learned is adored by the Quarter-learned; the +latter by the Sixteenth-part-learned; and so on; but not the +Whole-learned by the Half-learned.] + + +_Journey to Flätz_. + +You are aware, my friends, that this Journey to Flätz was necessarily to +take place in Vacation time; not only because the Cattle-market, and +consequently the Minister and General von Schabacker, was there then; +but more especially, because the latter (as I had it positively from a +private hand) did annually, on the 23d of July, the market-eve, about +five o'clock, become so full of gaudium and graciousness, that in many +cases he did not so much snarl on people, as listen to them, and grant +their prayers. The cause of this gaudium I had rather not trust to +paper. In short, my Petition, praying that he would be pleased to +indemnify and reward me, as an unjustly deposed Army-chaplain, by a +Catechetical Professorship, could plainly be presented to him at no +better season, than exactly about five o'clock in the evening of the +first dog-day. In less than a week, I had finished writing my Petition. +As I spared neither summaries nor copies of it, I had soon got so far as +to see the relatively best lying completed before me; when, to my +terror, I observed, that, in this paper, I had introduced above thirty +_dashes_, or breaks, in the middle of my sentences! Nowadays, alas, +these stings shoot forth involuntarily from learned pens, as from the +tails of wasps. I debated long within myself whether a private scholar +could justly be entitled to approach a minister with dashes,--greatly as +this level interlineation of thoughts, these horizontal note-marks of +poetical _music_-pieces, and these rope-ladders or Achilles' tendons of +philosophical _see_-pieces, are at present fashionable and +indispensable: but, at last, I was obliged (as erasures may offend +people of quality) to write my best proof-petition over again; and then +to afflict myself for another quarter of an hour over the name Attila +Schmelzle, seeing it is always my principle that this and the address of +the letter, the two cardinal points of the whole, can never be written +legibly enough. + +[Note 35: _Bien écouter c'est presque répondre_, says Marivaux +justly of social circles: but I extend it to round Councillor-tables and +Cabinet-tables, where reports are made, and the Prince listens.] + + +_First Stage; from Neusattel to Vierstädten._ + +The 22d of July, or Wednesday, about five in the afternoon, was now, by +the way-bill of the regular Post-coach, irrevocably fixed for my +departure. I had still half a day to order my house; from which, for two +nights and two days and a half, my breast, its breastwork and palisado, +was now, along with my Self, to be withdrawn. Besides this, my good wife +Bergelchen, as I call my Teutoberga, was immediately to travel after me, +on Friday the 24th, in order to see and to make purchases at the yearly +Fair; nay, she was ready to have gone along with me, the faithful +spouse. I therefore assembled my little knot of domestics, and +promulgated to them the Household Law and Valedictory Rescript, which, +after my departure, in the first place _before_ the outset of my wife, +and in the second place _after_ this outset, they had rigorously to +obey; explaining to them especially whatever, in case of conflagrations, +house-breakings, thunder-storms, or transits of troops, it would behove +them to do. To my wife I delivered an inventory of the best goods in our +little Registership; which goods she, in case the house took fire, had, +in the first place, to secure. I ordered her, in stormy nights (the +peculiar thief-weather), to put our Eolian harp in the window, that so +any villanous prowler might imagine I was fantasying on my instrument, +and therefore awake: for like reasons, also, to take the house-dog +within doors by day, that he might sleep then, and so be livelier at +night. I farther counselled her to have an eye on the focus of every +knot in the panes of the stable-window, nay, on every glass of water she +might set down in the house; as I had already often recounted to her +examples of such accidental burning-glasses having set whole buildings +in flames. I then appointed her the hour when she was to set out on +Friday morning to follow me; and recapitulated more emphatically the +household precepts, which, prior to her departure, she must afresh +inculcate on her domestics. My dear, heart-sound, blooming Berga +answered her faithful lord, as it seemed very seriously: "Go thy ways, +little old one; it shall all be done as smooth as velvet. Wert thou but +away! There is no end of thee!" Her brother, my brother-in-law the +Dragoon, for whom, out of complaisance, I had paid the coach-fare, in +order to have in the vehicle along with me a stout swordsman and hector, +as spiritual relative and bully-rock, so to speak; the Dragoon, I say, +on hearing these my regulations, puckered up (which I easily forgave the +wild soldier and bachelor) his sunburnt face considerably into ridicule, +and said: "Were I in thy place, sister, I should do what I liked, and +then afterwards take a peep into these regulation-papers of his." + +[Note 17: The Bed of Honour, since so frequently whole regiments +lie on it, and receive their last unction, and last honour but one, +really ought from time to time to be new-filled, beaten and sunned.] + +[Note 120: Many a one becomes a free-spoken Diogenes, not when he +dwells in the Cask, but when the Cask dwells in him.] + +[Note 3: Culture makes whole lands, for instance Germany, Gaul, and +others, physically warmer, but spiritually colder.] + +"O!" answered I, "misfortune may conceal itself like a scorpion in any +corner: I might say, we are like children, who, looking at their gaily +painted toy-box, soon pull off the lid, and, pop! out springs a mouse +who has young ones." + +"Mouse, mouse!" said he, stepping up and down. "But, good brother, it is +five o'clock; and you will find, when you return, that all looks exactly +as it does today; the dog like the dog, and my sister like a pretty +woman: _allons donc!_" It was purely his blame that I, fearing his +misconceptions, had not previously made a sort of testament. + +I now packed-in two different sorts of medicines, heating as well as +cooling, against two different possibilities; also my old splints for +arm or leg breakages, in case the coach overset; and (out of foresight) +two times the money I was likely to need. Only here I could have wished, +so uncertain is the stowage of such things, that I had been an Ape with +cheek-pouches, or some sort of Opossum with a natural bag, that so I +might have reposited these necessaries of existence in pockets which +were sensitive. Shaving is a task I always go through before setting out +on journeys; having a rational mistrust against stranger bloodthirsty +barbers: but, on this occasion, I retained my beard; since, however +close shaved, it would have grown again by the road to such a length +that I could have fronted no Minister and General with it. + +With a vehement emotion, I threw myself on the pith-heart of my Berga, +and, with a still more vehement one, tore myself away: in her, however, +this our first marriage-separation seemed to produce less lamentation +than triumph, less consternation than rejoicing; simply because she +turned her eye not half so much on the parting, as on the meeting, and +the journey after me, and the wonders of the Fair. Yet she threw and +hung herself on my somewhat long and thin neck and body, almost +painfully, being indeed a too fleshy and weighty load, and said to me: +"Whisk thee off quick, my charming Attel (Attila), and trouble thy head +with no cares by the way, thou singular man! A whiff or two of ill luck +we can stand, by God's help, so long as my father is no beggar. And for +thee, Franz," continued she, turning with some heat to her brother, "I +leave my Attel on thy soul: thou well knowest, thou wild fly, what I +will do, if thou play the fool, and leave him anywhere in the lurch." +Her meaning here was good, and I could not take it ill: to you also, my +Friends, her wealth and her open-heartedness are nothing new. + +[Note 1: The more Weakness the more Lying: Force goes straight; any +cannonball with holes or cavities in it goes crooked.] + +Melted into sensibility, I said: "Now, Berga, if there be a reunion +appointed for us, surely it is either in Heaven or in Flätz; and I hope +in God, the latter." With these words, we whirled stoutly away. I looked +round through the back-window of the coach at my good little village of +Neusattel, and it seemed to me, in my melting mood, as if its steeples +were rising aloft like an epitaphium over my life, or over my body, +perhaps to return a lifeless corpse. "How will it all be," thought I, +"when thou at last, after two or three days, comest back?" And now I +noticed my Bergelchen looking after us from the garret-window. I leaned +far out from the coach-door, and her falcon eye instantly distinguished +my head; kiss on kiss she threw with both hands after the carriage, as +it rolled down into the valley. "Thou true-hearted wife," thought I, +"how is thy lowly birth, by thy spiritual new-birth, made forgettable, +nay remarkable!" + +I must confess, the assemblage and conversational picnic of the +stage-coach was much less to my taste: the whole of them suspicious, +unknown rabble, whom (as markets usually do) the Flätz cattle-market was +alluring by its scent. I dislike becoming acquainted with strangers: not +so my brother-in-law, the Dragoon; who now, as he always does, had in a +few minutes elbowed himself into close quarters with the whole +ragamuffin posse of them. Beside me sat a person who, in all human +probability, was a Harlot; on her breast, a Dwarf intending to exhibit +himself at the Fair; on the other side was a Ratcatcher gazing at me; +and a Blind Passenger,[3] in a red mantle, had joined us down in the +valley. No one of them, except my brother-in-law, pleased me. That +rascals among these people would not study me and my properties and +accidents, to entangle me in their snares, no man could be my surety. +In strange places, I even, out of prudence, avoid looking long up at any +jail-window; because some losel, sitting behind the bars, may in a +moment call down out of mere malice: "How goes it, comrade Schmelzle?" +or farther, because any lurking catchpole may fancy I am planning a +rescue for some confederate above. From another sort of prudence, little +different from this, I also make a point of never turning round when any +booby calls, Thief! behind me. + +[Note 38: Epictetus advises us to travel, because our old +acquaintances, by the influence of shame, impede our transition to +higher virtues; as a bashful man will rather lay aside his provincial +accent in some foreign quarter, and then return wholly purified to his +own countrymen: in our days, people of rank and virtue follow this +advice, but inversely; and travel because their old acquaintances, by +the influence of shame, would too much deter them from new sins.] + +[Note 3: 'Live Passenger,' 'Nip;' a passenger taken up only by +Jarvie's authority, and for Jarvie's profit.--ED.] + +As to the Dwarf himself, I had no objection to his travelling with me +whithersoever he pleased; but he thought to raise a particular +delectation in our minds, by promising that his Pollux and Brother in +Trade, an extraordinary Giant, who was also making for the Fair to +exhibit himself, would by midnight, with his elephantine pace, +infallibly overtake the coach, and plant himself among us, or behind on +the outside. Both these noodles, it appeared, are in the habit of going +in company to fairs, as reciprocal exaggerators of opposite magnitudes: +the Dwarf is the convex magnifying-glass of the Giant, the Giant the +concave diminishing-glass of the Dwarf. Nobody expressed much joy at the +prospective arrival of this Anti-dwarf, except my brother-in-law, who +(if I may venture on a play of words) seems made, like a clock, solely +for the purpose of _striking_, and once actually said to me: "That if in +the Upper world he could not get a soul to curry and towzle by a time, +he would rather go to the Under, where most probably there would be +plenty of cuffing and to spare." The Ratcatcher, besides the +circumstance that no man can prepossess us much in his favour, who lives +solely by poisoning, like this Destroying Angel of rats, this +mouse-Atropos; and also, which is still worse, that such a fellow bids +fair to become an increaser of the vermin kingdom, the moment he may +cease to be a lessener of it; besides all this, I say, the present +Ratcatcher had many baneful features about him: first, his stabbing +look, piercing you like a stiletto; then the lean sharp bony visage, +conjoined with his enumeration of his considerable stock of poisons; +then (for I hated him more and more) his sly stillness, his sly smile, +as if in some corner he noticed a mouse, as he would notice a man! To +me, I declare, though usually I take not the slightest exception against +people's looks, it seemed at last as if his throat were a Dog-grotto, a +_Grotta del cane_, his cheek-bones cliffs and breakers, his hot breath +the wind of a calcining furnace, and his black hairy breast a kiln for +parching and roasting. + +[Note 32: Our Age (by some called the Paper Age, as if it were made +from the rags of some better-dressed one) is improving in so far, as it +now tears its rags rather into Bandages than into Papers; although, or +because, the Rag-hacker (the Devil as they call it) will not altogether +be at rest. Meanwhile, if Learned Heads transform themselves into Books, +Crowned Heads transform and coin themselves into Government-paper: in +Norway, according to the _Universal Indicator_, the people have even +paper-houses; and in many good German States, the Exchequer Collegium +(to say nothing of the Justice Collegium) keeps its own paper-mills, to +furnish wrappage enough for the meal of its wind-mills. I could wish, +however, that our Collegiums would take pattern from that Glass +Manufactory at Madrid, in which (according to Baumgartner) there were +indeed nineteen clerks stationed, but also eleven workmen.] + +Nor was I far wrong, I believe; for soon after this, he began quite +coolly to inform the company, in which were a dwarf and a female, that, +in his time, he had, not without enjoyment, run ten men through the +body; had with great convenience hewed off a dozen men's arms; slowly +split four heads, torn out two hearts, and more of the like sort; while +none of them, otherwise persons of spirit, had in the least resisted: +"but why?" added he, with a poisonous smile, and taking the hat from his +odious bald pate: "I am invulnerable. Let any one of the company that +chooses lay as much fire on my bare crown as he likes, I shall not mind +it." + +My brother-in-law, the Dragoon, directly kindled his tinder-box, and put +a heap of the burning matter on the Ratcatcher's pole; but the fellow +stood it, as if it had been a mere picture of fire, and the two looked +expectingly at one another; and the former smiled very foolishly, +saying: "It was simply pleasant to him, like a good warming-plaster; for +this was always the wintry region of his body." + +Here the Dragoon groped a little on the naked scull, and cried with +amazement, that "it was as cold as a knee-pan." + +But now the fellow, to our horror, after some preparations, actually +lifted off the quarter-scull and held it out to us, saying: "He had +sawed it off a murderer, his own having accidentally been broken;" and +withal explained, that the stabbing and arm-cutting he had talked of was +to be understood as a jest, seeing he had merely done it in the +character of Famulus at an Anatomical Theatre. However, the jester +seemed to rise little in favour with any of us; and for my part, as he +put his brain-lid and sham-scull on again, I thought to myself; "This +dungbed-bell has changed its place indeed, but not the hemlock it was +made to cover." + +Farther, I could not but reckon it a suspicious circumstance, that he as +well as all the company (the Blind Passenger too) were making for this +very Flätz, to which I myself was bound: much good I could not expect of +this; and, in truth, turning home again would have been as pleasant to +me as going on, had I not rather felt a pleasure in defying the future. + +I come now to the red-mantled Blind Passenger; most probably an _Emigré_ +or _Réfugié_; for he speaks German not worse than he does French; and +his name, I think, was _Jean Pierre_ or _Jean Paul_, or some such thing, +if indeed he had any name. His red cloak, notwithstanding this his +identity of colour with the Hangman, would in itself have remained +heartily indifferent to me, had it not been for this singular +circumstance, that he had already five times, contrary to all +expectation, come upon me in five different towns (in great Berlin, in +little Hof, in Coburg, Meiningen and Bayreuth), and each of these times +had looked at me significantly enough, and then gone his ways. Whether +this _Jean Pierre_ is dogging me with hostile intent or not, I cannot +say; but to our fancy, at any rate, no object can be gratifying that +thus, with corps of observation, or out of loopholes, holds and aims at +us with muskets, which for year after year it shall move to this side +and that, without our knowing on whom it is to fire. Still more +offensive did Redcloak become to me, when he began to talk about his +soft mildness of soul; a thing which seemed either to betoken pumping +you or undermining you. + +I replied: "Sir, I am just come, with my brother-in-law here, from the +field of battle (the last affair was at Pimpelstadt), and so perhaps am +too much of a humour for fire, pluck and war-fury; and to many a one, +who happens to have a roaring waterspout of a heart, it may be well if +his clerical character (which is mine) rather enjoins on him mildness +than wildness. However, all mildness has its iron limit. If any +thoughtless dog chance to anger me, in the first heat of rage I kick my +foot through him; and after me, my good brother here will perhaps drive +matters twice as far, for he is the man to do it. Perhaps it may be +singular; but I confess I regret to this day, that once when a boy I +received three blows from another, without tightly returning them; and +I often feel as if I must still pay them to his descendants. In sooth, +if I but chance to see a child running off like a dastard from the weak +attack of a child like himself, I cannot for my life understand his +running, and can scarcely keep from interfering to save him by a +decisive knock." + +[Note 2: In his Prince, a soldier reverences and obeys at once his +Prince and his Generalissimo; a Citizen only his Prince.] + +The Passenger meanwhile was smiling, not in the best fashion. He gave +himself out for a Legations-Rath, and seemed fox enough for such a post; +but a mad fox will, in the long-run, bite me as rabidly as a mad wolf +will. For the rest, I calmly went on with my eulogy on courage; only +that, instead of ludicrous gasconading, which directly betrays the +coward, I purposely expressed myself in words at once cool, clear and +firm. + +"I am altogether for Montaigne's advice," said I: "Fear nothing but +fear." + +"I again," replied the Legations-man, with useless wire-drawing, "I +should fear again that I did not sufficiently fear fear, but continued +too dastardly." + +"To this fear also," replied I coldly, "I set limits. A man, for +instance, may not in the least believe in, or be afraid of ghosts; and +yet by night may bathe himself in cold sweat, and this purely out of +terror at the dreadful fright he should be in (especially with what +whiffs of apoplexies, falling-sicknesses and so forth, he might be +visited), in case simply his own too vivid fancy should create any wild +fever-image, and hang it up in the air before him." + +"One should not, therefore," added my brother-in-law the Dragoon, +contrary to his custom, moralising a little, "one should not bamboozle +the poor sheep, man, with any ghost-tricks; the hen-heart may die on the +spot." + +A loud storm of thunder, overtaking the stage-coach, altered the +discourse. You, my Friends, knowing me as a man not quite destitute of +some tincture of Natural Philosophy, will easily guess my precautions +against thunder. I place myself on a chair in the middle of the room +(often, when suspicious clouds are out, I stay whole nights on it), and +by careful removal of all conductors, rings, buckles, and so forth, I +here sit thunder-proof, and listen with a cool spirit to this elemental +music of the cloud-kettledrum. These precautions have never harmed me, +for I am still alive at this date; and to the present hour I +congratulate myself on once hurrying out of church, though I had +confessed but the day previous; and running, without more ceremony, and +before I had received the sacrament, into the charnel-house, because a +heavy thunder-cloud (which did, in fact, strike the churchyard +linden-tree) was hovering over it. So soon as the cloud had disloaded +itself, I returned from the charnel-house into the church, and was happy +enough to come in after the Hangman (usually the last), and so still +participate in the Feast of Love. + +[Note 45: Our present writers shrug their shoulders most at those +on whose shoulders they stand; and exalt those most who crawl up along +them.] + +Such, for my own part, is my manner of proceeding: but in the full +stage-coach I met with men to whom Natural Philosophy was no philosophy +at all. For when the clouds gathered dreadfully together over our +coach-canopy, and sparkling, began to play through the air like so many +fire-flies, and I at last could not but request that the sweating +coach-conclave would at least bring out their watches, rings, money and +suchlike, and put them all into one of the carriage-pockets, that none +of us might have a conductor on his body; not only would no one of them +do it, but my own brother-in-law the Dragoon even sprang out, with naked +drawn sword, to the coach-box, and swore that he would conduct the +thunder all away himself. Nor do I know whether this desperate mortal +was not acting prudently; for our position within was frightful, and any +one of us might every moment be a dead man. At last, to crown all, I got +into a half altercation with two of the rude members of our leathern +household, the Poisoner and the Harlot; seeing, by their questions, they +almost gave me to understand that, in our conversational picnic, +especially with the Blind Passenger, I had not always come off with the +best share. Such an imputation wounds your honour to the quick; and in +my breast there was a thunder louder than that above us: however, I was +obliged to carry on the needful exchange of sharp words as quietly and +slowly as possible; and I quarrelled softly, and in a low tone, lest in +the end a whole coachful of people, set in arms against each other, +might get into heat and perspiration; and so, by vapour steaming through +the coach-roof, conduct the too-near thunderbolt down into the midst of +us. At last, I laid before the company the whole theory of Electricity, +in clear words, but low and slow (striving to avoid all emission of +vapour); and especially endeavoured to frighten them away from fear. For +indeed, through fear, the stroke--nay two strokes, the electric or the +apoplectic--might hit any one of us; since in Erxleben and Reimarus, it +is sufficiently proved, that violent fear, by the transpiration it +causes, may attract the lightning. I accordingly, in some fear of my own +and other people's fear, represented to the passengers that now, in a +coach so hot and crowded, with a drawn sword on the coach-box piercing +the very lightning, with the thunder-cloud hanging over us, and even +with so many transpirations from incipient fear; in short, with such +visible danger on every hand, they must absolutely fear nothing, if they +would not, all and sundry, be smitten to death in a few minutes. + +[Note 103: The Great perhaps take as good charge of their posterity +as the Ants: the eggs once laid, the male and female Ants fly about +their business, and confide them to the trusty _working-Ants_.] + +[Note 10: And does Life offer us, in regard to our ideal hopes and +purposes, anything but a prosaic, unrhymed, unmetrical Translation?] + +"O Heaven!" cried I, "Courage! only courage! No fear, not even fear of +fear! Would you have Providence to shoot you here sitting, like so many +hares hunted into a pinfold? Fear, if you like, when you are out of the +coach; fear to your heart's content in other places, where there is less +to be afraid of; only not here, not here!" + +I shall not determine--since among millions scarcely one man dies by +thunder-clouds, but millions perhaps by snow-clouds, and rain-clouds, +and thin mist--whether my Coach-sermon could have made any claim to a +prize for man-saving; however, at last, all uninjured, and driving +towards a rainbow, we entered the town of Vierstädten, where dwelt a +Postmaster, in the only street which the place had. + + +_Second Stage; from Vierstädten to Niederschöna._ + +The Postmaster was a churl and a striker; a class of mortals whom I +inexpressibly detest, as my fancy always whispers to me, in their +presence, that by accident or dislike I might happen to put on a +scornful or impertinent look, and hound these mastiffs on my own throat; +and so, from the very first, I must incessantly watch them. Happily, in +this case (supposing I even had made a wrong face), I could have +shielded myself with the Dragoon; for whose giant force such matter are +a tidbit. This brother-in-law of mine, for example, cannot pass any +tavern where he hears a sound of battle, without entering, and, as he +crosses the threshold, shouting: "Peace, dogs!"--and therewith, under +show of a peace-deputation, he directly snatches up the first chair-leg +in his hand, as if it were an American peace-calumet, and cuts to the +right and left among the belligerent powers, or he gnashes the hard +heads of the parties together (he himself takes no side), catching each +by the hind-lock; in such cases the rogue is in Heaven! + +[Note 78: Our German frame of Government, cased in its harness, had +much difficulty in moving, for the same reason why Beetles cannot fly, +when their _wings_ have _wing-shells_, of very sufficient strength, +and--grown together.] + +[Note 8: Constitutions of Government are like highways: on a new +and quite untrodden one, where every carriage helps in the process of +bruising and smoothing, you are as much jolted and pitched as on an old +worn-out one, full of holes? What is to be done then? Travel on.] + +I, for my part, rather avoid discrepant circles than seek them; as I +likewise avoid all dead or killed people: the prudent man easily +foresees what is to be got by them; either vexatious and injurious +witnessing, or often even (when circumstances conspire) painful +investigation, and suspicions of your being an accomplice. + +In Vierstädten, nothing of importance presented itself, except--to my +horror--a dog without tail, which came running along the town or street. +In the first fire of passion at this sight, I pointed it out to the +passengers, and then put the question, Whether they could reckon a +system of Medical Police well arranged, which, like this of Vierstädten, +allowed dogs openly to scour about, when their tails were wanting? "What +am I to do," said I, "when this member is cut away, and any such beast +comes running towards me, and I cannot, either by the tail being cocked +up or being drawn in, since the whole is snipt off, come to any +conclusion whether the vermin is mad or not? In this way, the most +prudent man may be bit, and become rabid, and so make shipwreck purely +for want of a tail-compass." + +The Blind Passenger (he now got himself inscribed as a Seeing one, God +knows for what objects) had heard my observation; which he now spun out +in my presence almost into ridicule, and at last awakened in me the +suspicion, that by an overdone flattery in imitating my style of speech, +he meant to banter me. "The Dog-tail," said he, "is, in truth, an +alarm-beacon, and finger-post for us, that we come not even into the +outmost precincts of madness: cut away from Comets their tails, from +Bashaws theirs, from Crabs theirs (outstretched it denotes that they are +burst); and in the most dangerous predicaments of life we are left +without clew, without indicator, without hand _in margine_; and we +perish, not so much as knowing how." + +[Note 3: In Criminal Courts, murdered children are often +represented as still-born; in Anticritiques, still-born as murdered.] + +[Note 101: Not only were the Rhodians, from their Colossus, called +Colossians; but also innumerable Germans are, from their Luther, called +Lutherans.] + +For the rest, this stage passed over without quarrelling or peril. About +ten o'clock, the whole party, including even the Postillion, myself +excepted, fell asleep. I indeed pretended to be sleeping, that I might +observe whether some one, for his own good reasons, might not also be +pretending it; but all continued snoring; the moon threw its brightening +beams on nothing but down-pressed eyelids. + +I had now a glorious opportunity of following Lavater's counsel, to +apply the physiognomical ellwand specially to sleepers, since sleep, +like death, expresses the genuine form in coarser lines. Other sleepers +not in stage-coaches I think it less advisable to mete with this +ellwand; having always an apprehension lest some fellow, but pretending +to be asleep, may, the instant I am near enough, start up as in a dream, +and deceitfully plant such a knock on the physiognomical mensurator's +own facial structure, as to exclude it forever from appearing in any +Physiognomical Fragments (itself being reduced to one), either in the +stippled or line style. Nay, might not the most honest sleeper in the +world, just while you are in hand with his physiognomical dissection, +lay about him, spurred on by honour in some cudgelling-scene he may be +dreaming; and in a few instants of clapper-clawing, and kicking, and +trampling, lull you into a much more lasting sleep than that out of +which he was awakened? + +In my _Adumbrating Magic-lantern_, as I have named the Work, the whole +physiognomical contents of this same sleeping stage-coach will be given +to the world: there I shall explain to you at large how the Poisoner, +with the murder-cupola, appeared to me devil-like; the Dwarf +old-childlike; the Harlot languidly shameless; my Brother-in-law +peacefully satisfied, with revenge or food; and the Legations-Rath, +_Jean Pierre_, Heaven only knows why, like a half angel,--though, +perhaps, it might be because only the fair body, not the other half, the +soul, which had passed away in sleep, was affecting me. + +[Note 88: Hitherto I have always regarded the Polemical writings of +our present philosophic and æsthetic Idealist Logic-buffers,--in which, +certainly, a few contumelies, and misconceptions, and misconclusions do +make their appearance,--rather on the fair side; observing in it merely +an imitation of classical Antiquity, in particular of the ancient +Athletes, who (according to Schottgen) besmeared their bodies with +_mud_, that they might not be laid hold of; and filled their hands with +_sand_, that they might lay hold of their antagonists.] + +I had almost forgotten to mention, that in a little village, while my +Brother-in-law and the Postillion were sitting at their liquor, I +happily fronted a small terror, Destiny having twice been on my side. +Not far from a Hunting Box, beside a pretty clump of trees, I noticed a +white tablet, with a black inscription on it. This gave me hopes that +perhaps some little monumental piece, some pillar of honour, some battle +memento, might here be awaiting me. Over an untrodden flowery tangle, I +reach the black on white; and to my horror and amazement, I decipher in +the moonshine: _Beware of Spring-guns_! Thus was I standing perhaps half +a nail's breadth from the trigger, with which, if I but stirred my heel, +I should shoot myself off like a forgotten ramrod, into the other world, +beyond the verge of Time! The first thing I did was to cramp-down my +toe-nails, to bite, and, as it were, eat myself into the ground with +them; since I might at least continue in warm life so long as I pegged +my body firmly in beside the Atropos-scissors and hangman's block, which +lay beside me; then I endeavoured to recollect by what steps the fiend +had let me hither unshot, but in my agony I had perspired the whole of +it, and could remember nothing. In the Devil's village close at hand, +there was no dog to be seen and called to, who might have plucked me +from the water; and my Brother-in-law and the Postillion were both +carousing with full can. However, I summoned my courage and +determination; wrote down on a leaf of my pocket-book my last will, the +accidental manner of my death, and my dying remembrance of Berga; and +then, with full sails, flew helterskelter through the midst of it the +shortest way; expecting at every step to awaken the murderous engine, +and thus to clap over my still long candle of life the _bonsoir_, or +extinguisher, with my own hand. However, I got off without shot. In the +tavern, indeed, there was more than one fool to laugh at me; because, +forsooth, what none but a fool could know, this Notice had stood there +for the last ten years, without any gun, as guns often do without any +notice. But so it is, my Friends, with our game-police, which warns +against all things, only not against warnings. + +[Note 103: Or are all Mosques, Episcopal-churches, Pagodas, +Chapels-of-Ease, Tabernacles and Pantheons, anything else than the +Ethnic Forecourt of the Invisible Temple and its Holy of Holies?] + +[Note 40: The common man is copious only in narration, not in +reasoning; the cultivated man is brief only in the former, not in the +latter: because the common man's reasons are a sort of sensations, +which, as well as things visible, he merely _looks at_; by the +cultivated man, again, both reasons and things visible are rather +_thought_ than looked at.] + +For the rest, throughout the whole stage, I had a constant source of +altercation with the coachman, because he grudged stopping perhaps once +in the quarter of an hour, when I chose to come out for a natural +purpose. Unhappily, in truth, one has little reason to expect +water-doctors among the postillion class, since Physicians themselves +have so seldom learned from Haller's large _Physiology_, that a +postponement of the above operation will precipitate devilish stoneware, +and at last precipitate the proprietor himself; this stone-manufactory +being generally concluded, not by the Lithotomist, but by Death. Had +postillions read that Tycho Brahe died like a bombshell by bursting, +they would rather pull up for a moment; with such unlooked-for +knowledge, they would see it to be reasonable that a man, though +expecting some time to carry his death-stone _on_ him, should not +incline, for the time being, to carry it _in_ him. Nay, have I not +often, at Weimar, in the longest concluding scenes of Schiller, run out +with tears in my eyes; purely that, while his Minerva was melting me on +the whole, I might not by the Gorgon's head on her breast be partially +turned to stone? And did I not return to the weeping playhouse, and fall +into the general emotion so much the more briskly, as now I had nothing +to give vent to but my heart? + +Deep in the dark we arrived at Niederschöna. + + +_Third Stage; from Niederschöna to Flätz._ + +While I am standing at the Posthouse musing, with my eye fixed on my +portmanteau, comes a beast of a watchman, and bellows and brays in his +night-tube so close by my ear, that I start back in trepidation, I whom +even a too hasty accosting will vex. Is there no medical police, then, +against such efflated hour fulminators and alarm-cannon, by which +notwithstanding no gunpowder cannon are saved? In my opinion, nobody +should be invested with the watchman-horn but some reasonable man, who +had already blown himself into an asthma, and who would consequently be +in case to sing out his hour-verse so low, that you could not hear it. + +[Note 9: In any national calamity, the ancient Egyptians took +revenge on the god Typhon, whom they blamed for it, by hurling his +favourites, the Asses, down over rocks. In similar wise have countries +of a different religion now and then taken their revenge.] + +What I had long expected, and the Dwarf predicted, now took place: +deeply stooping, through the high Posthouse door, issued the Giant, and +raised, in the open air, a most unreasonably high figure, heightened by +the ell-long bonnet and feather on his huge jobber-nowl. My +Brother-in-law, beside him, looked but like his son of fourteen years; +the Dwarf like his lap-dog waiting for him on its two hind legs. "Good +friend," said my bantering Brother-in-law, leading him towards me and +the stage-coach, "just step softly in, we shall all be happy to make +room for you. Fold yourself neatly together, lay your head on your knee, +and it will do." The unseasonable banterer would willingly have seen the +almost stupid Giant (of whom he had soon observed that his brain was no +active substance, but in the inverse ratio of his trunk) squeezed in +among us in the post-chest, and lying kneaded together like a sand-bag +before him. "Won't do! Won't do!" said the Giant, looking in. "The +gentleman perhaps does not know," said the Dwarf, "how big the Giant is; +and so he thinks that because _I_ go in--But that is another story; _I_ +will creep into any hole, do but tell me where." + +In short, there was no resource for the Postmaster and the Giant, but +that the latter should plant himself behind, in the character of +luggage, and there lie bending down like a weeping willow over the whole +vehicle. To me such a back-wall and rear-guard could not be particularly +gratifying: and I may refer it, I hope, to any one of you, ye Friends, +if with such ware at your back, you would not, as clearly and earnestly +as I, have considered what manifold murderous projects a knave of a +Giant behind you, a _pursuer_ in all senses, might not maliciously +attempt; say, that he broke in and assailed you by the back-window, or +with Titanian strength laid hold of the coach-roof and demolished the +whole party in a lump. However, this Elephant (who indeed seemed to owe +the similarity more to his overpowering mass than to his quick light of +inward faculty), crossing his arms over the top of the vehicle, soon +began to sleep and snore above us; an Elephant, of whom, as I more and +more joyfully observed, my Brother-in-law the Dragoon could easily be +the tamer and bridle-holder, nay had already been so. + +[Note 70: Let Poetry veil itself in Philosophy, but only as the +latter does in the former. Philosophy in poetised Prose resembles those +tavern drinking-glasses, encircled with parti-coloured wreaths of +figures, which disturb your enjoyment both of the drink, and (often +awkwardly eclipsing and covering each other) of the carving also.] + +As more than one person now felt inclined to sleep, but I, on the +contrary, as was proper, to wake, I freely offered my seat of honour, +the front place in the coach (meaning thereby to abolish many little +flaws of envy in my fellow-passengers), to such persons as wished to +take a nap thereon. The Legations-man accepted the offer with eagerness, +and soon fell asleep there sitting, under the Titan.[4] To me this sort +of coach-sleeping of a diplomatic _chargé d'affaires_ remained a thing +incomprehensible. A man that, in the middle of a stranger and often +barbarously-minded company, permits himself to slumber, may easily, +supposing him to talk in his sleep and coach (think of the Saxon +minister[5] before the Seven-Years War!), blab out a thousand secrets, +and crimes, some of which, perhaps, he has not committed. Should not +every minister, ambassador, or other man of honour and rank, really +shudder at the thought of insanity or violent fevers; seeing no mortal +can be his surety that he shall not in such cases publish the greatest +scandals, of which, it may be, the half are lies? + +[Note 4: _Titan_ is also the title of this Legations-Rath Jean +Pierre or Jean Paul (Friedrich Richter)'s chief novel.--ED.] + +[Note 5: Brühl, I suppose; but the historical edition of the matter +is, that Brühl's treasonable secrets were come at by the more ordinary +means of wax impressions of his keys.--ED.] + +At last, after the long July night, we passengers, together with Aurora, +arrived in the precincts of Flätz, I looked with a sharp yet moistened +eye at the steeples: I believe, every man who has anything decisive to +seek in a town, and to whom it is either to be a judgment-seat of his +hopes, or their anchoring-station, either a battle-field or a +sugar-field, first and longest directs his eye on the steeples of the +town, as upon the indexes and balance-tongues of his future destiny; +these artificial peaks, which, like natural ones, are the thrones of our +Future. As I happened to express myself on this point perhaps too +poetically to _Jean Pierre_, he answered, with sufficient want of taste: +"The steeples of such towns are indeed the Swiss Alpine peaks, on which +we milk and manufacture the Swiss cheese of our Future." Did the +Legations-Peter mean with this style to make me ridiculous, or only +himself? Determine! + +"Here is the place, the town," said I in secret, "where today much and +for many years is to be determined; where thou, this evening, about five +o'clock, art to present thy petition and thyself: May it prosper! May it +be successful! Let Flätz, this arena of thy little efforts among the +rest, become a building-space for fair castles and air-castles to two +hearts, thy own and thy Berga's!" + +At the Tiger Inn I alighted. + + +_First Day in Flätz._ + +No mortal, in my situation at this Tiger-hotel, would have triumphed +much in his more immediate prospects. I, as the only man known to me, +especially in the way of love (of the runaway Dragoon anon!), looked out +from the windows of the overflowing Inn, and down on the rushing sea of +marketers, and very soon began to reflect, that except Heaven and the +rascals and murderers, none knew how many of the latter two classes were +floating among the tide; purposing perhaps to lay hold of the most +innocent strangers, and in part cut their purses, in part their throats. +My situation had a special circumstance against it. My Brother-in-law, +who still comes plump out with everything, had mentioned that I was to +put up at the Tiger: O Heaven, when will such people learn to be secret, +and to cover even the meanest pettinesses of life under mantles and +veils, were it only that a silly mouse may as often give birth to a +mountain, as a mountain to a mouse! The whole rabble of the stage-coach +stopped at the Tiger; the Harlot, the Ratcatcher, _Jean Pierre_, the +Giant, who had dismounted at the Gate of the town, and carrying the huge +block-head of the Dwarf on his shoulders as his own (cloaking over the +deception by his cloak), had thus, like a ninny, exhibited himself +gratis by half a dwarf more gigantic than he could be seen for money. + +[Note 158: Governments should not too often change the penny-trumps +and child's-drums of the Poets for the regimental trumpet and fire-drum: +on the other hand, good subjects should regard many a princely +drum-tendency simply as a disease, in which the patient, by air +insinuating under the skin, has got dreadfully swoln.] + +[Note 89: In great towns, a stranger, for the first day or two +after his arrival, lives purely at his own expense in an inn; +afterwards, in the houses of his friends, without expense: on the other +hand, if you arrive at the Earth, as, for instance, I have done, you are +courteously maintained, precisely for the first few years, free of +charges; but in the next and longer series--for you often stay +sixty--you are actually obliged (I have the documents in my hands) to +pay for every drop and morsel, as if you were in the great Earth Inn, +which indeed you are.] + +And now for each of the Passengers, the question was, how he could make +the Tiger, the heraldic emblem of the Inn, his prototype; and so, what +lamb he might suck the blood of, and tear in pieces, and devour. My +Brother-in-law too left me, having gone in quest of some horse-dealer; +but he retained the chamber next mine for his sister: this, it appeared, +was to denote attention on his part. I remained solitary, left to my own +intrepidity and force of purpose. + +Yet among so many villains, encompassing if not even beleaguering me, I +thought warmly of one far distant, faithful soul, of my Berga in +Neusattel; a true heart of pith, which perhaps with many a weak +marriage-partner might have given protection rather than sought it. + +"Appear, then, quickly tomorrow at noon, Berga," said my heart; "and if +possible before noon, that I may lengthen thy market paradise so many +hours as thou arrivest earlier!" + +A clergyman, amid the tempests of the world, readily makes for a free +harbour, for the church: the church-wall is his casemate-wall and +fortification; and behind are to be found more peaceful and more +accordant souls than on the market-place: in short, I went into the High +Church. However, in the course of the psalm, I was somewhat disturbed by +a Heiduc, who came up to a well-dressed young gentleman sitting opposite +me, and tore the double opera-glass from his nose, it being against rule +in Flätz, as it is in Dresden, to look at the Court with glasses which +diminish and approximate. I myself had on a pair of spectacles, but they +were magnifiers. It was impossible for me to resolve on taking them off; +and here again, I am afraid, I shall pass for a foolhardy person and a +desperado; so much only I reckoned fit, to look invariably into my +psalm-book; not once lifting my eyes while the Court was rustling and +entering, thereby to denote that my glasses were ground convex. For the +rest, the sermon was good, if not always finely conceived for a +Court-church; it admonished the hearers against innumerable vices, to +whose counterparts, the virtues, another preacher might so readily have +exhorted us. During the whole service, I made it my business to exhibit +true deep reverence, not only towards God, but also towards my +illustrious Prince. For the latter reverence I had my private reason: I +wished to stamp this sentiment strongly and openly as with raised +letters on my countenance, and so give the lie to any malicious imp +about Court, by whom my contravention of the _Panegyric on Nero_, and my +free German satire on this real tyrant himself, which I had inserted in +the _Flätz Weekly Journal_, might have been perverted into a secret +characteristic portrait of my own Sovereign. We live in such times at +present, that scarcely can we compose a pasquinade on the Devil in Hell, +but some human Devil on Earth will apply it to an angel. + +[Note 107: Germany is a long lofty mountain--under the sea.] + +[Note 144: The Reviewer does not in reality employ his pen for +writing; but he burns it, to awaken weak people from their swoons, with +the smell; he tickles with it the throat of the plagiary, to make him +render back; and he picks with it his own teeth. He is the only +individual in the whole learned lexicon that can never exhaust himself, +never write himself out, let him sit before the ink-glass for centuries +or tens of centuries. For while the Scholar, the Philosopher, and the +Poet, produce their new book solely from new materials and growth, the +Reviewer merely lays his old gage of taste and knowledge on a thousand +new works; and his light, in the ever-passing, ever-differently-cut +glass-world which he _elucidates_, is still refracted into new colours.] + +When the Court at last issued from church, and were getting into their +carriages, I kept at such a distance that my face could not possibly be +noticed, in case I had happened to assume no reverent look, but an +indifferent or even proud one. God knows, who has kneaded into me those +mad desperate fancies and crotchets, which perhaps would sit better on a +Hero Schabacker than on an Army-chaplain under him. I cannot here +forbear recording to you, my Friends, one of the maddest among them, +though at first it may throw too glaring a light on me. It was at my +ordination to be Army-chaplain, while about to participate in the +Sacrament, on the first day of Easter. Now, here while I was standing, +moved into softness, before the balustrade of the altar, in the middle +of the whole male congregation,--nay, I perhaps more deeply moved than +any among them, since, as a person going to war, I might consider myself +a half-dead man, that was now partaking in the last Feast of Souls, as +it were like a person to be hanged on the morrow,--here then, amid the +pathetic effects of the organ and singing, there rose something--were it +the first Easter-day which awoke in me what primitive Christians called +their Easter-laughter, or merely the contrast between the most devilish +predicaments and the most holy,--in short there rose something in me +(for which reason, I have ever since taken the part of every simple +person, who might ascribe such things to the Devil), and this something +started the question: "Now, could there be aught more diabolical than if +thou, just in receiving the Holy Supper, wert madly and blasphemously to +begin laughing?" Instantly I took to wrestling with this hell-dog of a +thought; neglected the most precious feelings, merely to keep the dog in +my eye, and scare him away; yet was forced to draw back from him, +exhausted and unsuccessful, and arrived at the step of the altar with +the mournful certainty that in a little while I should, without more +ado, begin laughing, let me weep and moan inwardly as I liked. +Accordingly, while I and a very worthy old Bürgermeister were bowing +down together before the long parson, and the latter (perhaps kneeling +on the low cushion, I fancied him too long) put the wafer in my clenched +mouth, I felt all the muscles of laughter already beginning sardonically +to contract; and these had not long acted on the guiltless integument, +till an actual smile appeared there; and as we bowed the second time, I +was grinning like an ape. My companion the Bürgermeister justly +expostulated with me, in a low voice, as we walked round behind the +altar: "In Heaven's name, are you an ordained Preacher of the Gospel, or +a Merry-Andrew? Is it Satan that is laughing out of you?" + +[Note 71: The Youth is singular from caprice, and takes pleasure in +it; the Man is so from constraint, unintentionally, and feels pain in +it.] + +[Note 198: The Populace and Cattle grow giddy on the edge of no +abyss; with the Man it is otherwise.] + +"Ah, Heaven! who else?" said I; and this being over, I finished my +devotions in a more becoming fashion. + +From the church (I now return to the Flätz one), I proceeded to the +Tiger Inn, and dined at the _table-d'hôte_, being at no time shy of +encountering men. Previous to the second course, a waiter handed me an +empty plate, on which, to my astonishment, I noticed a French verse +scratched-in with a fork, containing nothing less than a lampoon on the +Commandant of Flätz. Without ceremony, I held out the plate to the +company; saying, I had just, as they saw, got this lampooning cover +presented to me, and must request them to bear witness that I had +nothing to do with the matter. An officer directly changed plates with +me. During the fifth course, I could not but admire the chemico-medical +ignorance of the company; for a hare, out of which a gentleman extracted +and exhibited several grains of shot, that is to say, therefore, of lead +alloyed with arsenic, and then cleaned by hot vinegar, did, +nevertheless, by the spectators (I excepted) continue to be pleasantly +eaten. + +[Note 11: The Golden Calf of Self-love soon waxes to be a burning +Phalaris' Bull, which reduces its father and adorer to ashes.] + +[Note 103: The male Beau-crop which surrounds the female Roses and +Lilies, must (if I rightly comprehend its flatteries) most probably +presuppose in the fair the manners of the Spaniards and Italians, who +offer any valuable, by way of present, to the man who praises it +excessively.] + +In the course of our table-talk, one topic seized me keenly by my weak +side, I mean by my honour. The law custom of the city happened to be +mentioned, as it affects natural children; and I learned that here a +loose girl may convert any man she pleases to select into the father of +her brat, simply by her oath. "Horrible!" said I, and my hair stood on +end. "In this way may the worthiest head of a family, with a wife and +children, or a clergyman lodging in the Tiger, be stript of honour and +innocence, by any wicked chambermaid whom he may have seen, or who may +have seen him, in the course of her employment!" + +An elderly officer observed: "But will the girl swear herself to the +Devil so readily?" + +What logic! "Or suppose," continued I, without answer, "a man happened +to be travelling with that Vienna Locksmith, who afterwards became a +mother, and was brought to bed of a baby son; or with any disguised +Chevalier d'Eon, who often passes the night in his company, whereby the +Locksmith or the Chevalier can swear to their private interviews: no +delicate man of honour will in the end risk travelling with another; +seeing he knows not how soon the latter may pull off his boots, and pull +on his women's-pumps, and swear his companion into fatherhood, and +himself to the Devil!" + +Some of the company, however, misunderstood my oratorical fire so much, +that they, sheep-wise, gave some insinuations as if I myself were not +strict in this point, but lax. By Heaven! I no longer knew what I was +eating or speaking. Happily, on the opposite side of the table, some +lying story of a French defeat was started: now, as I had read on the +street-corners that French and German Proclamation, calling before the +Court Martial any one who had heard war-rumours (disadvantageous, +namely), without giving notice of them,--I, as a man not willing ever to +forget himself, had nothing more prudent to do in this case, than to +withdraw with empty ears, telling none but the landlord why. + +[Note 199: But not many existing Governments, I believe, do behead +under pretext of trepanning; or sew (in a more choice allegory) the +people's lips together, under pretence of sewing the harelips in them.] + +[Note 67: Hospitable Entertainer, wouldst thou search into thy +guest? Accompany him to another Entertainer, and listen to him. Just so: +Wouldst thou become better acquainted with Mistress in an hour, than by +living with her for a month? Accompany her among her female friends and +female enemies (if that is no pleonasm), and look at her!] + +It was no improper time; for I had previously determined to have my +beard shaven about half-past four, that so, towards five I might present +myself with a chin just polished by the razor smoothing-iron, and sleek +as wove-paper, without the smallest root-stump of a hair left on it. By +way of preparation, like Pitt before Parliamentary debates, I poured a +devilish deal of Pontac into my stomach, with true disgust, and contrary +to all sanitary rules; not so much for fronting the light stranger +Barber, as the Minister and General von Schabacker, with whom I had it +in view to exchange perhaps more than one fiery statement. + +The common Hotel Barber was ushered in to me; but at first view you +noticed in his polygonal zigzag visage, more of a man that would finally +go mad, than of one growing wiser. Now, madmen are a class of persons +whom I hate incredibly; and nothing can take me to see any madhouse, +simply because the first maniac among them may clutch me in his giant +fists if he like; and because, owing to infection, I cannot be sure that +I shall ever get out again with the sense which I brought in. In a +general way, I sit (when once I am lathered) in such a posture on my +chair as to keep both my hands (the eyes I fix intently on the barbering +countenance) lying clenched along my sides, and pointed directly at the +midriff of the barber; that so, on the smallest ambiguity of movement, I +may dash in upon him, and overset him in a twinkling. + +I scarce know rightly how it happened; but here, while I am anxiously +studying the foolish twisted visage of the shaver, and he just then +chanced to lay his long-whetted weapon a little too abruptly against my +bare throat, I gave him such a sudden bounce on the abdominal viscera, +that the silly varlet had well-nigh suicidally slit his own windpipe. +For me, truly, nothing remained but to indemnify the man; and then, +contrary to my usual principles, to tie round a broad stuffed cravat, by +way of cloak to what remained unshorn. + +[Note 80: In the summer of life, men keep digging and filling +ice-pits as well as circumstances will admit; that so, in their Winter, +they may have something in store to give them coolness.] + +[Note 28: It is impossible for me, amid the tendril-forest of +allusions (even this again is a tendril-twig), to state and declare on +the spot whether all the Courts or Heights, the (Bougouer) _Snowline_ of +Europe, have ever been mentioned in my Writings or not; but I could wish +for information on the subject, that if not, I may try to do it still.] + +And now at last I sallied forth to the General, drinking out the remnant +of the Pontac, as I crossed the threshold. I hope, there were plans +lying ready within me for answering rightly, nay for asking. The +Petition I carried in my pocket, and in my right hand. In the left I had +a duplicate of it. My fire of spirit easily helped over the living fence +of ministerial obstructions; and soon I unexpectedly found myself in the +ante-chamber, among his most distinguished lackeys; persons, so far as I +could see, not inclined to change flour for bran with any one. Selecting +the most respectable individual of the number, I delivered him my paper +request, accompanied with the verbal one that he would hand it in. He +took it, but ungraciously: I waited in vain till far in the sixth hour, +at which season alone the gay General can safely be applied to. At last +I pitch upon another lackey, and repeat my request: he runs about +seeking his runaway brother, or my Petition; to no purpose, neither of +them could be found. How happy was it that in the midst of my Pontac, +before shaving, I had written out the duplicate of this paper; and +therefore--simply on the principle that you should always keep a second +wooden leg packed into your knapsack when you have the first on your +body--and out of fear that if the original petition chanced to drop from +me in the way between the Tiger and Schabacker's, my whole journey and +hope would melt into water--and therefore, I say, having stuck the +repeating work of that original paper into my pocket, I had, in any +case, something to hand in, and that something truly a Ditto. I handed +it in. + +[Note 36: And so I should like, in all cases, to be the First, +especially in Begging. The first prisoner-of-war, the first cripple, the +first man ruined by burning (like him who brings the first fire-engine), +gains the head-subscription and the heart; the next-comer finds nothing +but Duty to address; and at last, in this melodious _mancando_ of +sympathy, matters sink so far, that the last (if the last but one may at +least have retired laden with a rich "God help you!") obtains from the +benignant hand nothing more than its fist. And as in Begging the first, +so in Giving I should like to be the last: one obliterates the other, +especially the last the first. So, however, is the world ordered.] + +Unhappily six o'clock was already past. The lackey, however, did not +keep me long waiting; but returned with--I may say, the text of this +whole Circular--the almost rude answer (which you, my Friends, out of +regard for me and Schabacker, will not divulge) that: "In case I were +the Attila Schmelzle of Schabacker's Regiment, I might lift my +pigeon-liver flag again, and fly to the Devil, as I did at Pimpelstadt." +Another man would have dropt dead on the spot: I, however, walked quite +stoutly off, answering the fellow: "With great pleasure indeed, I fly to +the Devil; and so Devil a fly I care." On the road home I examined +myself whether it had not been the Pontac that spoke out of me (though +the very examination contradicted this, for Pontac never examines); but +I found that nothing but I, my heart, my courage perhaps, had spoken: +and why, after all, any whimpering? Does not the patrimony of my good +wife endow me better than ten Catechetical Professorships? And has she +not furnished all the corners of my book of Life with so many golden +clasps, that I can open it forever without wearing it? Let henhearts +cackle and pip; I flapped my pinions, and said: "Dash boldly through it, +come what may!" I felt myself excited and exalted; I fancied Republics, +in which I, as a hero, might be at home; I longed to be in that noble +Grecian time, when one hero readily put up with bastinadoes from +another, and said: "Strike, but hear!" and out of this ignoble one, +where men will scarcely put up with hard words, to say nothing of more. +I painted out to my mind how I should feel, if, in happier +circumstances, I were uprooting hollow Thrones, and before whole nations +mounting on mighty deeds as on the Temple-steps of Immortality; and in +gigantic ages, finding quite other men to outman and outstrip, than the +mite-populace about me, or, at the best, here and there a Vulcanello. I +thought and thought, and grew wilder and wilder, and intoxicated myself +(no Pontac intoxication therefore, which, you know, increases more by +continuance than cessation of drinking), and gesticulated openly, as I +put the question to myself: "Wilt thou be a mere state-lapdog? A +dog's-dog, a _pium desiderium_ of an _impium desiderium_, an Ex-Ex, a +Nothing's-Nothing?--Fire and Fury!" With this, however, I dashed down my +hat into the mud of the market. On lifting and cleaning this old +servant, I could not but perceive how worn and faded it was; and I +therefore determined instantly to purchase a new one, and carry the same +home in my hand. + +[Note 136: If you mount too high above your time, your ears (on the +side of Fame) are little better off than if you sink too deep below it: +in truth, Charles up in his Balloon, and Halley down in his Diving-bell, +felt equally the same strange pain in their ears.] + +I accomplished this; I bought one of the finest cut. Strangely enough, +by this hat, as if it had been a graduation-hat, was my head tried and +examined, in the Ziegengasse or Goat-gate of Flätz. For as General +Schabacker came driving along that street in his carriage, and I (it +need not be said) was determined to avenge myself, not by vulgar +clownishness, but by courtesy, I had here got one of the most ticklish +problems imaginable to solve on the spur of the instant. You observe, if +I swung only the fine hat which I carried in my hand, and kept the faded +one on my head,--I might have the appearance of a perfect clown, who +does not doff at all: if, on the other hand, I pulled the old hat from +my head, and therewith did my reverence, then two hats, both in play at +once (let me swing the other at the same time or not), brought my salute +within the verge of ridicule. Now do you, my Friends, before reading +farther, bethink you how a man was to extricate himself from such a +plight, without losing head! I think, perhaps, by this means: by merely +losing hat. In one word, then, I simply dropped the new hat from my hand +into the mud, to put myself in a condition for taking off the old hat by +itself, and swaying it in needful courtesy, without any shade of +ridicule. + +Arrived at the Tiger,--to avoid misconstructions, I first had the +glossy, fine and superfine hat cleaned, and some time afterwards the +mud-hat or rubbish-hat. + +And now, weighing my momentous Past in the adjusting balance within me, +I walked in fiery mood to and fro. The Pontac must--I know that there is +no unadulterated liquor here below--have been more than usually +adulterated; so keenly did it chase my fancy out of one fire into the +other. I now looked forth into a wide glittering life, in which I lived +without post, merely on money; and which I beheld, as it were, sowed +with the Delphic caves, and Zenonic walks, and Muse-hills of all the +Sciences, which I might now cultivate at my ease. In particular, I +should have it in my power to apply more diligently to writing +Prize-essays for Academies; of which (that is to say, of the +Prize-essays) no author need ever be ashamed, since, in all cases, there +is a whole crowning Academy to stand and blush for the crownee. And even +if the Prize-marksman does not hit the crown, he still continues more +unknown and more anonymous (his Device not being unsealed) than any +other author, who indeed can publish some nameless Long-ear of a book, +but not hinder it from being, by a Literary Ass-burial (_sepultura +asinina_), publicly interred, in a short time, before half the world. + +[Note 25: In youth, like a blind man just couched (and what is +birth but a couching of the sight?), you take the Distant for the Near, +the starry heaven for tangible room-furniture, pictures for objects; +and, to the young man, the whole world is sitting on his very nose, till +repeated bandaging and unbandaging have at last taught him, like the +blind patient, to estimate _Distance_ and _Appearance_.] + +Only one thing grieved me by anticipation; the sorrow of my Berga, for +whom, dear tired wayfarer, I on the morrow must overcloud her arrival, +and her shortened market-spectacle, by my negatory intelligence. She +would so gladly (and who can take it ill of a rich farmer's daughter?) +have made herself somebody in Neusattel, and overshone many a female +dignitary! Every mortal longs for his parade-place, and some earlier +living honour than the last honours. Especially so good a lowly-born +housewife as my Berga, conscious perhaps rather of her metallic than of +her spiritual treasure, would still wish at banquets to be mistress of +some seat or other, and so in place to overtop this or that plucked +goose of the neighbourhood. + +It is in this point of view that husbands are so indispensable. I +therefore resolved to purchase for myself, and consequently for her, one +of the best of those titles, which our Courts in Germany (as in a +Leipzig sale-room) stand offering to buyers, in all sizes and sorts, +from Noble and Half-noble down to Rath or Councillor; and once invested +therewith, to reflect from my own Quarter-nobility such an +Eighth-part-nobility on this true soul, that many a Neusattelitess (I +hope) shall half burst with envy, and say and cry: "Pooh, the stupid +farmer thing! See how it wabbles and bridles! It has forgot how matters +stood when it had no money-bag, and no Hofrath!" For to the Hofrathship +I shall before this have attained. + +But in the cold solitude of my room, and the fire of my remembrances, I +longed unspeakably for my Bergelchen: I and my heart were wearied with +the foreign busy day; no one here said a kind word to me, which he did +not hope to put in the bill. Friends! I languished for my friend, whose +heart would pour out its blood as a balsam for a second heart; I cursed +my over-prudent regulations, and wished that, to have the good Berga at +my side, I had given up the stupid houseware to all thieves and fires +whatsoever: as I walked to and fro, it seemed to me easier and easier to +become all things, an Exchequer-Rath, an Excise-Rath, any Rath in the +world, and whatever she required when she came. + +[Note 125: In the long-run, out of mere fear and necessity, we +shall become the warmest cosmopolites I know of; so rapidly do ships +shoot to and fro, and, like shuttles, weave Islands and Quarters of the +World together. For, let but the political weatherglass fall today in +South America, tomorrow we in Europe have storm and thunder.] + +"See thou take thy pleasure in the town!" had Bergelchen kept saying the +whole week through. But how, without her, can I take any? Our tears of +sorrow friends dry up, and accompany with their own: but our tears of +joy we find most readily repeated in the eyes of our wives. Pardon me, +good Friends, these libations of my sensibility; I am but showing you my +heart and my Berga. If I need an Absolution-merchant, the +Pontac-merchant is the man. + + +_First Night in Flätz._ + +Yet the wine did not take from me the good sense to look under the bed, +before going into it, and examine whether any one was lurking there; for +example, the Dwarf, or the Ratcatcher, or the Legations-Rath; also to +shove the key under the latch (which I reckon the best bolting +arrangement of all), and then, by way of farther assurance, to bore my +night-screws into the door, and pile all the chairs in a heap behind it; +and, lastly, to keep on my breeches and shoes, wishing absolutely to +have no care upon my mind. + +But I had still other precautions to take in regard to sleepwalking. To +me it has always been incomprehensible how so many men can go to bed, +and lie down at their ease there, without reflecting that perhaps, in +the first sleep, they may get up again as Somnambulists, and crawl over +the tops of roofs and the like; awakening in some spot where they may +fall in a moment and break their necks. While at home, there is little +risk in my sleep: because, my right toe being fastened every night with +three ells of tape (I call it in jest our marriage-tie) to my wife's +left hand, I feel a certainty that, in case I should start up from this +bed-arrest, I must with the tether infallibly awaken her, and so by my +Berga, as by my living bridle, be again led back to bed. But here in the +Inn, I had nothing for it but to knot myself once or twice to the +bed-foot, that I might not wander; though in this way, an irruption of +villains would have brought double peril with it.--Alas! so dangerous is +sleep at all times, that every man, who is not lying on his back a +corpse, must be on his guard lest with the general system some limb or +other also fall asleep; in which case the sleeping limb (there are not +wanting examples of it in Medical History) may next morning be lying +ripe for amputation. For this reason, I have myself frequently awakened, +that no part of me fall asleep. + +[Note 19: It is easier, they say, to climb a hill when you ascend +back foremost. This, perhaps, might admit of application to political +eminences; if you still turned towards them that part of the body on +which you sit, and kept your face directed down to the people; all the +while, however, removing and mounting.] + +[Note 26: Few German writers are not original, if we may ascribe +originality (as is at least the conversational practice of all people) +to a man, who merely dishes out his own thoughts without foreign +admixture. For as, between their Memory, where their reading or foreign +matter dwells, and their Imagination or Productive Power, where their +writing or own peculiar matter originates, a sufficient space +intervenes, and the boundary-stones are fixed-in so conscientiously and +firmly that nothing foreign may pass over into their own, or inversely, +so that they may really read a hundred works without losing their own +primitive flavour, or even altering it,--their individuality may, I +believe, be considered as secured; and their spiritual nourishment, +their pancakes, loaves, fritters, caviare and meat-balls, are not +assimilated to their system, but given back pure and unaltered. Often in +my own mind I figure such writers as living but thousandfold more +artificial Ducklings from Vaucanson's Artificial Duck of Wood. For in +fact they are not less cunningly put together than this timber Duck, +which will gobble meat, and apparently void it again, under show of +having digested it, and derived from it blood and juices; though the +secret of the business is, the artist has merely introduced an ingenious +compound ejective matter behind, with which concoction and nourishment +have nothing to do, but which the Duck illusorily gives forth and +publishes to the world.] + +Having properly tied myself to the bed-posts, and at length got under +the coverlid, I now began to be dubious about my Pontac Fire-bath, and +apprehensive of the valorous and tumultuous dreams too likely to ensue; +which, alas, did actually prove to be nothing better than heroic and +monarchic feats, castle-stormings, rock-throwings, and the like. This +point also I am sorry to see so little attended to in medicine. Medical +gentlemen, as well as their customers, all stretch themselves quietly in +their beds, without one among them considering whether a furious rage +(supposing him also directly after to drink cold water in his dream), or +a heart-devouring grief, all which he may undergo in vision, does harm +to life or not. + +Shortly before midnight, I awoke from a heavy dream, to encounter a +ghost-trick much too ghostly for my fancy. My Brother-in-law, who +manufactured it, deserves for such vapid cookery to be named before you +without reserve, as the malt-master of this washy brewage. Had suspicion +been more compatible with intrepidity, I might perhaps, by his moral +maxim about this matter, on the road, as well as by his taking up the +side-room, at the middle door of which stood my couch, have easily +divined the whole. But now, on awakening, I felt myself blown upon by a +cold ghost-breath, which I could nowise deduce from the distant bolted +window; a point I had rightly decided, for the Dragoon was producing the +phenomenon, through the keyhole, by a pair of bellows. Every sort of +coldness, in the night-season, reminds you of clay-coldness and +spectre-coldness. I summoned my resolution, however, and abode the +issue: but now the very coverlid began to get in motion; I pulled it +towards me; it would not stay; sharply I sit upright in my bed, and cry: +"What is that?" No answer; everywhere silence in the Inn; the whole room +full of moonshine. And now my drawing-plaster, my coverlid, actually +rose up, and let in the air; at which I felt like a wounded man whose +cataplasm you suddenly pull off. In this crisis, I made a bold leap from +this Devil's-torus, and, leaping, snapped asunder my somnambulist +tether. "Where is the silly human fool," cried I, "that dares to ape the +unseen sublime world of Spirits, which may, in the instant, open before +him?" But on, above, under the bed, there was nothing to be heard or +seen. I looked out of the window: everywhere spectral moonlight and +street-stillness; nothing moving except (probably from the wind), on the +distant Gallows-hill, a person lately hanged. + +Any man would have taken it for self-deception as well as I: therefore I +again wrapped myself in my passive _lit de justice_ and air-bed, and +waited with calmness to see whether my fright would subside or not. + +[Note 15: After the manner of the fine polished English +folding-knives, there are now also folding-war-swords, or in other +words--Treaties of Peace.] + +[Note 13: _Omnibus una_ SALUS _Sanctis, sed_ GLORIA _dispar:_ that +is to say (as Divines once taught) according to Saint Paul, we have all +the same Beatitude in Heaven, but different degrees of Honour. Here, on +Earth, we find a shadow of this in the writing world; for the Beatitude +of authors once beatified by Criticism, whether they be genial, good, +mediocre, or poor, is the same throughout; they all obtain the same +pecuniary Felicity, the same slender profit. But, Heavens! in regard to +the degrees of Fame, again, how far (in spite of the same emolument and +sale) will a Dunce, even in his lifetime, be put below a Genius! Is not +a shallow writer frequently forgotten in a single Fair, while a deep +writer, or even a writer of genius, will blossom through fifty Fairs, +and so may celebrate his Twenty-five Years' Jubilee, before, late +forgotten, he is lowered into the German Temple of Fame; a Temple +imitating the peculiarity of the _Padri Luichesi_ churches in Naples, +which (according to Volkmann) permit _burials_ under their roofs, but no +_tombstone_.] + +In a few minutes, the coverlid, the infernal Faust's-mantle, again began +flying and towing; also, by way of change, the invisible bed-maker again +lifted me up. Accursed hour!--I should beg to know whether, in the whole +of cultivated Europe, there is one cultivated or uncultivated man, who, +in a case of this kind, would not have lighted on ghost-devilry? I +lighted on it, under my piece of (self) movable property, my coverlid: +and thought Berga had died suddenly, and was now, in spirit, laying hold +of my bed. However, I could not speak to her, nor as little to the +Devil, who might well be supposed to have a hand in the game; but I +turned myself solely to Heaven, and prayed aloud: "To thee I commit +myself; thou alone heretofore hast cared for thy weak servant; and I +swear that I will turn a new leaf,"--a promise which shall be kept +nevertheless, though the whole was but stupid treachery and trick. + +My prayer had no effect with the unchristian Dragoon, who now, once for +all, had got me prisoner in the dragnet of a coverlid; and heeded little +whether a guest's bed were, by his means, made a state-bed and death-bed +or not. He span out my nerves, like gold-wire through smaller and +smaller holes, to utter inanition and evanition; for the bed-clothes at +last literally marched off to the door of the room. + +Now was the moment to rise into the sublime; and to trouble myself no +longer about aught here below, but softly to devote myself to death. +"Snatch me away," cried I, and, without thinking, cut three crosses; +"quick, dispatch me, ye ghosts: I die more innocent than thousands of +tyrants and blasphemers, to whom ye yet appear not, but to unpolluted +me." Here I heard a sort of laugh, either on the street or in the +side-room: at this warm human tone, I suddenly bloomed up again, as at +the coming of a new Spring, in every twig and leaf. Wholly despising the +winged coverlid, which was not now to be picked from the door, I laid +myself down uncovered, but warm and perspiring from other causes, and +soon fell asleep. For the rest, I am not the least ashamed, in the face +of all refined capital cities,--though they were standing here at my +hand,--that by this Devil-belief and Devil-address I have attained some +likeness to our great German Lion, to Luther. + + +_Second Day in Flätz._ + +Early in the morning, I felt myself awakened by the well-known coverlid; +it had laid itself on me like a nightmare: I gaped up; quiet, in a +corner of the room, sat a red, round, blooming, decorated girl, like a +full-blown tulip in the freshness of life, and gently rustling with gay +ribbons as with leaves. + +"Who's there--how came you in?" cried I, half-blind. + +"I covered thee softly, and thought to let thee sleep," said Bergelchen; +"I have walked all night to be here early; do but look!" + +She showed me her boots, the only remnant of her travelling-gear, which, +in the moulting process of the toilette, she had not stript at the gate +of Flätz. + +"Is there," said I, alarmed at her coming six hours sooner, and the +more, as I had been alarmed all night and was still so, at her +mysterious entrance,--"is there some fresh woe come over us, fire, +murder, robbery?" + +She answered: "The old Rat thou hast chased so long died yesterday; +farther, there was nothing of importance." + +"And all has been managed rightly, and according to my Letter of +Instructions, at home?" inquired I. + +"Yes, truly," answered she; "only I did not see the Letter; it is lost; +thou hast packed it among thy clothes." + +Well, I could not but forgive the blooming brave pedestrian all +omissions. Her eye, then her heart was bringing fresh cool morning air +and morning red into my sultry hours. And yet, for this kind soul, +looking into life with such love and hope, I must in a little while +overcloud the merited Heaven of today, with tidings of my failure in the +Catechetical Professorship! I dallied and postponed to the utmost. I +asked how she had got in, as the whole _chevaux-de-frise_ barricado of +chairs was still standing fast at the door. She laughed heartily, +curtseying in village fashion, and said, she had planned it with her +brother the day before yesterday, knowing my precautions in locking, +that he should admit her into my room, that so she might cunningly +awaken me. And now bolted the Dragoon with loud laughter into the +apartment, and cried: "Slept well, brother?" + +[Note 79: Weak and wrong heads are the hardest to change; and their +inward man acquires a scanty covering: thus capons never moult.] + +[Note 89: In times of misfortune, the Ancients supported themselves +with Philosophy or Christianity; the moderns again (for example, in the +reign of Terror), take to Pleasure; as the wounded Buffalo, for bandage +and salve, rolls himself in the mire.] + +In this wise truly the whole ghost-story was now solved and expounded, +as if by the pen of a Biester or a Hennings; I instantly saw through the +entire ghost-scheme, which our Dragoon had executed. With some +bitterness I told him my conjecture, and his sister my story. But he +lied and laughed; nay, attempted shamelessly enough to palm +spectre-notions on me a second time, in open day. I answered coldly, +that in me he had found the wrong man, granting even that I had some +similarity with Luther, with Hobbes, with Brutus, all of whom had seen +and dreaded ghosts. He replied, tearing the facts away from their +originating causes: "All he could say was, that last night he had heard +some poor sinner creaking and lamenting dolefully enough; and from this +he had inferred, it must be an unhappy brother set upon by goblins." + +In the end, his sister's eyes also were opened to the low character +which he had tried to act with me: she sharply flew at him, pushed him +with both hands out of his and my door, and called after him: "Wait, +thou villain, I will mind it!" + +Then hastily turning round, she fell on my neck, and (at the wrong +place) into laughter, and said: "The wild fool! But I could not keep my +laugh another minute, and he was not to see it. Forgive the ninny, thou +a learned man, his ass pranks: what can one expect?" + +I inquired whether she, in her nocturnal travelling, had not met with +any spectral persons; though I knew that to her, a wild beast, a river, +a half abyss, are nothing. No, she had not; but the gay-dressed +town's-people, she said, had scared her in the morning. O! how I do +love these soft Harmonica-quiverings of female fright! + +[Note 181: God be thanked that we live nowhere forever except in +Hell or Heaven; on Earth otherwise we should grow to be the veriest +rascals, and the World a House of Incurables, for want of the dog-doctor +(the Hangman), and the issue-cord (on the Gallows), and the sulphur and +chalybeate medicines (on Battlefields). So that we too find our gigantic +moral force dependent on the _Debt of Nature_ which we have to pay, +exactly as your politicians (for example, the Author of the _New +Leviathan_) demonstrate that the English have their _National Debt_ to +thank for their superiority.] + +At last, however, I was forced to bite or cut the coloquinta-apple, and +give her the half of it; I mean the news of my rejected petition for the +Catechetical Professorship. Wishing to spare this joyful heart the +rudeness of the whole truth, and to subtract something from a heavy +burden, more fit for the shoulders of a man, I began: "Bergelchen, the +Professorship affair is taking another, though still a good enough +course: the General, whom may the Devil and his Grandmother teach sense, +will not be taken except by storm; and storm he shall have, as certainly +as I have on my nightcap." + +"Then, thou art nothing yet?" inquired she. + +"For the moment, indeed, not!" answered I. + +"But before Saturday night?" said she. + +"Not quite," said I. + +"Then am I sore stricken, and could leap out of the window," said she, +and turned away her rosy face, to hide its wet eyes, and was silent very +long. Then, with painfully quivering voice, she began: "Good Christ +stand by me at Neusattel on Sunday, when these high-prancing prideful +dames look at me in church, and I grow scarlet for shame!" + +Here in sympathetic woe I sprang out of bed to the dear soul, over whose +brightly blooming cheeks warm tears were rolling, and cried: "Thou true +heart, do not tear me in pieces so! May I die, if yet in these dog-days +I become not all and everything that thou wishest! Speak, wilt thou be +Mining-räthin, Build-räthin, Court-räthin, War-räthin, Chamber-räthin, +Commerce-räthin, Legations-räthin, or Devil and his Dam's räthin: I am +here, and will buy it, and be it. Tomorrow I send riding posts to Saxony +and Hessia, to Prussia and Russia, to Friesland and Katzenellenbogen, +and demand patents. Nay, I will carry matters farther than another, and +be all things at once, Flachsenfingen Court-rath, Scheerau Excise-rath, +Haarhaar Building-rath, Pestitz[6] Chamber-rath (for we have the cash); +and thus, alone and single-handed, represent with one _podex_ and +_corpus_ a whole Rath-session of select Raths; and stand, a complete +Legion of Honour, on one single pair of legs: the like no man ever did." + +[Note 63: To apprehend danger from the Education of the People, is +like fearing lest the thunderbolt strike into the house because it has +_windows_; whereas the lightning never comes through these, but through +their _lead_ framing, or down by the _smoke_ of the chimney.] + +[Note 6: Cities of Richter's romance kingdom. Flachsenfingen he +sometimes calls _Klein-Wien_, Little Vienna.--ED.] + +"O! now thou art angel-good!" said she, and gladder tears rolled down; +"thou shalt counsel me thyself which are the finest Raths, and these we +will be." + +"No," continued I, in the fire of the moment, "neither shall this serve +us: to me it is not enough that to Mrs. Chaplain thou canst announce +thyself as Building-räthin, to Mrs. Town-parson as Legations-räthin, to +Mrs. Bürgermeister as Court-räthin, to Mrs. Road-and-toll-surveyor as +Commerce-räthin, or how and where thou pleasest----" + +"Ah! my own too good Attelchen!" said she. + +"--But," continued I, "I shall likewise become corresponding member of +the several Learned Societies in the several best capital cities (among +which I have only to choose); and truly no common actual member, but a +whole honorary member; then thee, as another honorary member, growing +out of my honorary membership, I uplift and exalt." + +Pardon me, my Friends, this warm cataplasm, or deception-balsam for a +wounded breast, whose blood is so pure and precious, that one may be +permitted to endeavour, with all possible stanching-lints and +spider-webs, to drive it back into the fair heart, its home. + +But now came bright and brightest hours. I had conquered Time, I had +conquered myself and Berga: seldom does a conqueror, as I did, bless +both the victorious and the vanquished party. Berga called back her +former Heaven, and pulled off her dusty boots, and on her flowery shoes. +Precious morning beverage, intoxicating to a heart that loves! I felt +(if the low figure may be permitted) a double-beer of courage in me, now +that I had one being more to protect. In general it is my nature--which +the honourable Premier seems not to be fully aware of--to grow bolder +not among the bold, but fastest among poltroons, the bad example acting +on me by the rule of contraries. Little touches may in this case shadow +forth man and wife, without casting them into the shade: When the trim +waiter with his green silk apron brought up cracknels for breakfast, +and I told him: "Johann, for two!" Berga said: "He would oblige her very +much," and called him Herr Johann. + +[Note 76: Your economical, preaching Poetry, apparently supposes +that a surgical Stone-cutter is an Artistical one; and a Pulpit or a +Sinai a Hill of the Muses.] + +Bergelchen, more familiar with rural burghs than capital cities, felt a +good deal amazed and alarmed at the coffee-trays, dressing-tables, +paper-hangings, sconces, alabaster inkholders, with Egyptian emblems, as +well as at the gilt bell-handle, lying ready for any one to pull out or +to push in. Accordingly, she had not courage to walk through the hall, +with its lustres, purely because a whistling, whiffling Cap-and-feather +was gesturing up and down in it. Nay, her poor heart was like to fail +when she peeped out of the window at so many gay promenading +town's-people (I was briskly whistling a Gascon air down over them); and +thought that in a little while, at my side, she must break into the +middle of this dazzling courtly throng. In a case like this, reasons are +of less avail than examples. I tried to elevate my Bergelchen, by +reciting some of my nocturnal dream-feats; for example, how, riding on a +whale's back, with a three-pronged fork, I had pierced and eaten three +eagles; and by more of the like sort: but I produced no effect; perhaps, +because to the timid female heart the battle-field was presented rather +than the conqueror, the abyss rather than the overleaper of it. + +At this time a sheaf of newspapers was brought me, full of gallant +decisive victories. And though these happen only on one side, and on the +other are just so many defeats, yet the former somehow assimilate more +with my blood than the latter, and inspire me (as Schiller's _Robbers_ +used to do) with a strange inclination to lay hold of some one, and +thrash and curry him on the spot. Unluckily for the waiter, he had +chanced, even now, like a military host, to stand a triple bell-order +for march, before he would leave his ground and come up. "Sir," began I, +my head full of battle-fields, and my arm of inclination to baste him; +and Berga feared the very worst, as I gave her the well-known anger and +alarm signal, namely, shoved up my cap to my hindhead--"Sir, is this +your way of treating guests? Why don't you come promptly? Don't come so +again; and now be going, friend!" Although his retreat was my victory, +I still kept briskly cannonading on the field of action, and fired the +louder (to let him hear it), the more steps he descended in his flight. +Bergelchen,--who felt quite horrorstruck at my fury, particularly in a +quite strange house, and at a quality waiter with silk apron,--mustered +all her soft words against the wild ones of a man-of-war, and spoke of +dangers that might follow. "Dangers," answered I, "are just what I seek; +but for a man there are none; in all cases he will either conquer or +evade them, either show them front or back." + +[Note 115: According to Smith, the universal measure of economical +value is _Labour_. This fact, at least in regard to spiritual and +poetical value, we Germans had discovered before Smith; and to my +knowledge we have always preferred the learned poet to the poet of +genius, and the heavy book full of labour to the light one full of +sport.] + +I could scarcely lay aside this indignant mood, so sweet was it to me, +and so much did I feel refreshed by the fire of rage, and quickened in +my breast as by a benignant stimulant. It belongs certainly to the class +of Unrecognised Mercies (on which, in ancient times, special sermons +were preached), that one is never more completely in his Heaven and +_Monplaisir_ (a pleasure-palace) than while in the midst of right hearty +storming and indignation. Heavens! what might not a man of weight +accomplish in this new walk of charity! The gall-bladder is for us the +chief swimming-bladder and Montgolfier; and the filling of it costs us +nothing but a contumelious word or two from some bystander. And does not +the whirlwind Luther, with whom I nowise compare myself, confess, in his +_Table-talk_, that he never preached, sung, or prayed so well, as while +in a rage? Truly, he was a man sufficient of himself to rouse many +others into rage. + +The whole morning till noon now passed in viewing sights, and +trafficking for wares; and indeed, for the greatest part, in the broad +street of our Hotel. Berga needed but to press along with me into the +market throng; needed but to look, and see that she was decorated more +according to the fashion than hundreds like her. But soon, in her care +for household gear, she forgot that of dress, and in the potter-market +the toilette-table faded from her thoughts. + +I, for my share, full of true tedium, while gliding after her through +her various marts, with their long cheapenings and chafferings, merely +acted the Philosopher hid within me: I weighed this empty Life, and the +heavy value which is put upon it, and the daily anxiety of man lest it, +this lightest down-feather of the Earth, fly off, and feather him, and +take him with it. These thoughts, perhaps, I owe to the street-fry of +boys, who were turning their market-freedom to account, by throwing +stones at one another all round me: for, in the midst of this tumult, I +vividly figured myself to be a man who had never seen war; and who, +therefore, never having experienced, that often of a thousand bullets +not one will hit, feels apprehensive of these few silly stones lest they +beat-in his nose and eyes. O! it is the battle-field alone that sows, +manures and nourishes true courage, courage even for daily, domestic and +smallest perils. For not till he comes from the battle-field can a man +both sing and cannonade; like the canary-bird, which, though so +melodious, so timid, so small, so tender, so solitary, so +soft-feathered, can yet be trained to fire off cannon, though cannon of +smaller calibre. + +[Note 4: The Hypocrite does not imitate the old practice, of +cutting fruit by a knife poisoned only on the one side, and giving the +poisoned side to the victim, the cutter eating the sound side himself; +on the contrary, he so disinterestedly inverts this practice, that to +others he shows and gives the sound moral half, or side, and retains for +himself the poisoned one. Heavens! compared with such a man, how wicked +does the Devil seem!] + +After dinner (in our room), we issued from the Purgatory of the +market-tumult,--where Berga, at every booth, had something to order, and +load her attendant maid with,--into Heaven, into the Dog Inn, as the +best Flätz public and pleasure-house without the gates is named, where, +in market-time, hundreds turn in, and see thousands going by. On the way +thither, my little wife, my elbow-tendril, as it were, had extracted +from me such a measure of courage, that, while going through the Gate +(where I, aware of the military order that you must not pass _near_ the +sentry, threw myself over to the other side), she quietly glided on, +close by the very guns and fixed bayonets of the City Guard. Outside the +wall, I could direct her with my finger, to the bechained, begrated, +gigantic Schabacker-Palace, mounting up even externally on stairs, where +I last night had called and (it may be) stormed: "I had rather take a +peep at the Giant," said she, "and the Dwarf: why else are we under one +roof with them?" + +In the pleasure-house itself we found sufficient pleasure; encircled, as +we were, with blooming faces and meadows. In my secret heart, I all +along kept looking down, with success, on Schabacker's refusal; and till +midnight made myself a happy day of it: I had deserved it, Berga still +more. Nevertheless, about one in the morning, I was destined to find a +windmill to tilt with; a windmill, which truly lays about it with +somewhat longer, stronger and more numerous arms than a giant, for which +Don Quixote might readily enough have taken it. On the market-place, for +reasons more easily fancied than specified in words, I let Berga go +along some twenty paces before me; and I myself, for these foresaid +reasons, retire without malice behind a covered booth, the tent most +probably of some rude trader; and linger there a moment according to +circumstances: lo! steering hither with dart and spear, comes the +Booth-watcher, and coins and stamps me, on the spot, into a filcher and +housebreaker of his Booth-street; though the simpleton sees nothing but +that I am standing in the corner, and doing anything but--taking. A +sense of honour without callosity is never blunted for such attacks. But +how in the dead of night was a man of this kind, who had nothing in his +head--at the utmost beer, instead of brains--to be enlightened on the +truth of the matter? + +[Note 67: Individual Minds, nay Political Bodies, are like organic +bodies: extract the _interior_ air from them, the atmosphere crushes +them together; pump off under the bell the _exterior_ resisting air, the +interior inflates and bursts them. Therefore, let every State keep up +its internal and its external resistance both at once.] + +I shall not conceal my perilous resource: I seized the fox by the tail, +as we say; in other words, I made as if I had been muddled, and knew not +rightly, in my liquor, what I was about: I therefore mimicked everything +I was master of in this department; staggered hither and thither; +splayed out my feet like a dancing-master; got into zigzag in spite of +all efforts at the straight line; nay, I knocked my good head (perhaps +one of the clearest and emptiest of the night), like a full one, against +real posts. + +However, the Booth-bailiff, who probably had been oftener drunk than I, +and knew the symptoms better, or even felt them in himself at this +moment, looked upon the whole exhibition as mere craft, and shouted +dreadfully: "Stop, rascal; thou art no more drunk than I! I know thee of +old. Stand, I say, till I speak to thee! Wouldst have thy long finger in +the market, too? Stand, dog, or I'll make thee!" + +You see the whole _nodus_ of the matter: I whisked away zigzag among the +booths as fast as possible, from the claws of this rude Tosspot; yet he +still hobbled after me. But my Teutoberga, who had heard somewhat of it, +came running back; clutched the tipsy market-warder by the collar, and +said (shrieking, it is true, in village-wise): "Stupid sot, go sleep the +drink out of thy head, or I'll teach thee! Dost know, then, whom thou +art speaking to? My husband, Army-chaplain Schmelzle under General and +Minister von Schabacker at Pimpelstadt, thou blockhead!--Fye! Take +shame, fellow!" The watchman mumbled: "Meant no harm," and reeled about +his business. "O thou Lioness!" said I, in the transport of love, "why +hast thou never been in any deadly peril, that I might show thee the +Lion in thy husband?" + +[Note 8: In great Saloons, the real stove is masked into a pretty +ornamented sham stove; so likewise, it is fit and pretty that a virgin +_Love_ should always hide itself in an interesting virgin _Friendship_.] + +[Note 12: Nations--unlike rivers, which precipitate their +impurities in level places and when at rest--drop their baseness just +whilst in the most violent motion; and become the dirtier the farther +they flow along through lazy flats.] + +Thus lovingly we both reached home; and perhaps in the sequel of this +Fair day might still have enjoyed a glorious after-midnight, had not the +Devil led my eye to the ninth volume of Lichtenberg's Works, and the +206th page, where this passage occurs: "It is not impossible that at a +future period, our Chemists may light on some means of suddenly +decomposing the Atmosphere by a sort of Ferment. In this way the world +may be destroyed." Ah! true indeed! Since the Earth-ball is lapped up in +the larger Atmospheric ball, let but any chemical scoundrel, in the +remotest scoundrel-island, say in New Holland, devise some decomposing +substance for the Atmosphere, like what a spark of fire would be for a +powder-wagon: in a few seconds, the monstrous devouring world-storm +catches me and you in Flätz by the throat; my breathing, and the like, +in this choke-air is over, and the whole game ended! The Earth becomes a +boundless gallows, where the very cattle are hanged: worm-powder, and +bug-liquor, Bradly ant-ploughs, and rat-poison, and wolf-traps are, in +this universal world-trap and world-poison, no longer specially needful; +and the Devil takes the whole, in the Bartholomew-night, when this +cursed "Ferment" is invented. + +From the true soul, however, I concealed these deadly Night Thoughts; +seeing she would either painfully have sympathised in them, or else +mirthfully laughed at them. I merely gave orders that next morning +(Saturday) she was to be standing booted and ready, at the outset of the +returning coach; if so were she would have me speedily fulfil her wishes +in regard to that stock of Rathships which lay so near her heart. She +rejoiced in my purpose, gladly surrendering the market for such +prospects. I too slept sound, my great toe tied to her finger, the whole +night through. + +[Note 28: When Nature takes the huge old Earth-round, the +Earth-loaf, and kneads it up again, for the purpose of introducing under +this pie-crust new stuffing and Dwarfs,--she then, for most part, as a +mother when baking will do to her daughters, gives in jest a little +fraction of the dough (two or three thousand square leagues of such +dough are enough for a child) to some Poetical or Philosophical, or +Legislative polisher, that so the little elf may have something to be +shaping and manufacturing beside its mother. And when the other young +ones get a taste of sisterkin's baking, they all clap hands, and cry: +"Aha, Mother! canst; bake, like _Suky_ here?"] + +The Dragoon, next morning, twitched me by the ear, and secretly +whispered into it that he had a pleasant fairing to give his sister; and +so would ride off somewhat early, on the nag he had yesterday purchased +of the horse-dealer. I thanked him beforehand. + +At the appointed hour, all gaily started from the Staple, I excepted; +for I still retained, even in the fairest daylight, that nocturnal +Devil's-Ferment and Decomposition (of my cerebral globe as well as of +the Earth-globe) fermenting in my head; a proof that the night had not +affected me, or exaggerated my fear. The Blind Passenger, whom I liked +so ill, also mounted along with us, and looked at me as usual, but +without effect; for on this occasion, when the destruction not of myself +only, but of worlds, was occupying my thoughts, the Passenger was +nothing to me but a joke and a show: as a man, while his leg is being +sawed off, does not feel the throbbing of his heart; or amid the humming +of cannon, does not guard himself from that of wasps; so to me any +Passenger, with all the fire-brands he might throw into my near or +distant Future, could appear but ludicrous, at a time when I was +reflecting that the "Ferment" might, even in my journey between Flätz +and Neusattel, be, by some American or European man of science, quite +guiltlessly experimenting and decomposing, hit upon by accident and let +loose. The question, nay prize-question now, however, were this: "In how +far, since Lichtenberg's threatening, it may not appear world-murderous +and self-murderous, if enlightened Potentates of chemical nations do not +enjoin it on their chemical subjects, who in their decompositions and +separations may so easily separate the soul from their body, and unite +Heaven with Earth,--not in future to make any other chemical experiments +than those already made, which hitherto have profited the State rather +than harmed it?" + +Unfortunately, I continued sunk in this Domsday of the Ferment with all +my thoughts and meditations, without, in the whole course of our return +from Flätz to Neusattel, suffering or observing anything, except that I +actually arrived there, and at the same time saw the Blind Passenger +once more go his ways. + +My Bergelchen alone had I constantly looked at by the road, partly that +I might still see her, so long as life and eyes endured; partly that, +even at the smallest danger to her, be it a great, or even +all-over-sweeping Deluge and World's-doom, I might die, if not _for_ +her, at least _by_ her, and so united with that stanch true heart, cast +away a plagued and plaguing life, in which, at any rate, not half of my +wishes for her have been fulfilled. + +So then were my Journey over,--crowned with some _Historiolæ_; and in +time coming, perhaps, still more rewarded through you, ye Friends about +Flätz, if in these pages you shall find any well-ground pruning-knives, +whereby you may more readily out-root the weedy tangle of Lies, which +for the present excludes me from the gallant Schabacker:--Only this +cursed Ferment still sits in my head. Farewell then, so long as there +are Atmospheres left us to breathe. I wish I had that Ferment out of my +head. + + Yours always, + + ATTILA SCHMELZLE. + +P.S.--My Brother-in-law has kept his promise well, and Berga is dancing. +Particulars in my next! + + + + +LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN, + +DOWN TO OUR OWN TIMES; + +EXTRACTED FROM + +FIFTEEN LETTER-BOXES BY JEAN PAUL. + + + + +LETTER TO MY FRIENDS, + +INSTEAD OF PREFACE. + + +Merchants, Authors, young Ladies and Quakers, call all persons, with +whom they have any business, Friends; and my readers accordingly are my +table and college Friends. Now, at this time, I am about presenting so +many hundred Friends with just as many hundred gratis copies; and my +Bookseller has orders to supply each on request, after the Fair, with +his copy--in return for a trifling consideration and _don gratuit_ to +printers, pressmen and other such persons. But as I could not, like the +French authors, send the whole Edition to the binder, the blank leaf in +front was necessarily wanting; and thus to write a complimentary word or +two upon it was out of my power. I have therefore caused a few white +leaves to be inserted directly after the title-page: on these we are now +printing. + +My Book contains the Life of a Schoolmaster, extracted and compiled from +various public and private documents. With this Biography, dear Friends, +it is the purpose of the Author not so much to procure you a pleasure, +as to teach you how to enjoy one. In truth, King Xerxes should have +offered his prize-medals not for the invention of new pleasures, but for +a good methodology and directory to use the old ones. + +Of ways for becoming happier (not happy) I could never inquire out more +than three. The first, rather an elevated road, is this: To soar away so +far above the clouds of life, that you see the whole external world, +with its wolf-dens, charnel-houses and thunder-rods, lying far down +beneath you, shrunk into a little child's garden. The second is: Simply +to sink down into this little garden; and there to nestle yourself so +snugly, so homewise, in some furrow, that in looking out from your warm +lark-nest, you likewise can discern no wolf-dens, charnel-houses or +thunder-rods, but only blades and ears, every one of which, for the +nest-bird, is a tree, and a sun-screen, and rain-screen. The third, +finally, which I look upon as the hardest and cunningest, is that of +alternating between the other two. + +This I shall now satisfactorily expound to men at large. + +The Hero, the Reformer, your Brutus, your Howard, your Republican, he +whom civic storm, or genius, poetic storm, impels; in short, every +mortal with a great Purpose, or even a perennial Passion (were it but +that of writing the largest folios), all these men fence themselves in +by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as +the madman in a worse sense does: every _fixed_ idea, such as rules +every genius, every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and +elevates a man above the bed and board of this Earth, above its +Dog's-grottoes, buckthorns and Devil's-walls; like the Bird of Paradise, +he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions, oversleeps +unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of Life, in his long +fair dream of his ideal Motherland,--Alas! to few is this dream granted; +and these few are so often awakened by Flying Dogs![30] + + [30] So are the Vampires called. + +This skyward track, however, is fit only for the winged portion of the +human species, for the smallest. What can it profit poor quill-driving +brethren, whose souls have not even wing-shells, to say nothing of +wings? Or these tethered persons with the best back, breast and neck +fins, who float motionless in the wicker Fish-box of the State, and are +not allowed to swim, because the Box or State, long ago tied to the +shore, itself swims in the name of the Fishes? To the whole standing and +writing host of heavy-laden State-domestics, Purveyors, Clerks of all +departments, and all the lobsters packed together heels over head into +the Lobster-basket of the Government office-rooms, and for refreshment, +sprinkled over with a few nettles; to these persons, what way of +becoming happy _here_, can I possibly point out? + +My _second_ merely; and that is as follows: To take a compound +microscope, and with it to discover, and convince themselves, that their +drop of Burgundy is properly a Red Sea, that butterfly-dust is +peacock-feathers, mouldiness a flowery-field, and sand a heap of jewels. +These microscopic recreations are more lasting than all costly +watering-place recreations.--But I must explain these metaphors by new +ones. The purpose, for which I have sent _Fixleins Life_ into the +Messrs. Lübeks' Warehouse, is simply that in this same +_Life_,--therefore in this Preface it is less needful,--I may show to +the whole Earth that we ought to value little joys more than great ones, +the nightgown more than the dresscoat; that Plutus' heaps are worth less +than his handfuls, the plum than the penny for a rainy day; and that not +great, but little good-haps can make us happy.--Can I accomplish this, I +shall, through means of my Book, bring up for Posterity, a race of men +finding refreshment in all things; in the warmth of their rooms and of +their nightcaps; in their pillows; in the three High Festivals; in mere +Apostles' days; in the Evening Moral Tales of their wives, when these +gentle persons have been forth as ambassadresses visiting some Dowager +Residence, whither the husband could not be persuaded; in the +bloodletting-day of these their news-bringers; in the day of +slaughtering, salting, potting against the rigour of grim winter; and in +all such days. You perceive, my drift is that man must become a little +Tailor-bird, which, not amid the crashing boughs of the storm-tost, +roaring, immeasurable tree of Life, but on one of its leaves, sews +itself a nest together, and there lies snug. The most essential sermon +one could preach to our century, were a sermon on the duty of staying at +home. + +The _third_ skyward road is the alternation between the other two. The +foregoing _second_ way is not good enough for man, who here on Earth +should take into his hand not the Sickle only, but also the Plough. The +_first_ is too good for him. He has not always the force, like Rugendas, +in the midst of the Battle to compose Battle-pieces; and, like +Backhuysen in the Shipwreck, to clutch at no board but the drawing-board +to paint it on. And then his _pains_ are not less lasting than his +_fatigues_. Still oftener is Strength denied its Arena: it is but the +smallest portion of life that, to a working soul, offers Alps, +Revolutions, Rhine-falls, Worms Diets, and Wars with Xerxes; and for the +whole it is better so: the longer portion of life is a field beaten flat +as a threshing-floor, without lofty Gothard Mountains; often it is a +tedious ice-field, without a single glacier tinged with dawn. + +But even by walking, a man rests and recovers himself for climbing; by +little joys and duties, for great. The victorious Dictator must contrive +to plough down his battle Mars-field into a flax and carrot field; to +transform his theatre of war into a parlour theatre, on which his +children may enact some good pieces from the _Children's Friend_. Can he +accomplish this, can he turn so softly from the path of poetical +happiness into that of household happiness,--then is he little different +from myself, who even now, though modesty might forbid me to disclose +it--who even now, I say, amid the creation of this Letter, have been +enabled to reflect, that when it is done, so also will the Roses and +Elder-berries of pastry be done, which a sure hand is seething in butter +for the Author of this Work. + +As I purpose appending to this Letter a Postscript (at the end of the +Book), I reserve somewhat which I had to say about the Third[31] +half-satirical half-philosophical part of the Work, till that +opportunity. + +Here, out of respect for the rights of a Letter, the Author drops his +half anonymity,[32] and for the first time subscribes himself with his +_whole_ true name, + + JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. + + _Hof in Voigtland, 29th June 1795._ + + [31] _Fixlein_ stands in the middle of the volume; preceded by + _Einer Mustheil für Madchen_ (A Jelly-course for Young Ladies); and + followed by _Some_ JUS DE TABLETTE _for Men_. A small portion of + the Preface relating to the first I have already omitted. Neither + of the two has the smallest relation to _Fixlein_.--ED. + + [32] _J. P. H., Jean Paul_ HASUS, _Jean Paul_, &c. have in + succession been Richter's signatures. At present even, his German + designation, either in writing or speech, is never _Richter_, but + _Jean Paul_.--ED. + + + + +LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN. + +FIRST LETTER-BOX. + +_Dog-days Vacation. Visits. An Indigent of Quality_. + + +Egidius Zebedæus Fixlein had just for eight days been Quintus,[33] and +fairly commenced his teaching duties, when Fortune tabled out for him +four refreshing courses and collations, besprinkled with flowers and +sugar. These were the four canicular weeks. I could find in my heart, at +this hour, to pat the cranium of that good-man who invented the Dog-days +Vacation: I never go to walk in that season, without thinking how a +thousand down-pressed pedagogic persons are now erecting themselves in +the open air; and the stiff knapsack is lying unbuckled at their feet, +and they can seek whatsoever their soul desires; butterflies,--or roots +of numbers,--or roots of words,--or herbs,--or their native villages. + + [33] For understanding many little hints which occur in this _Life + of Fixlein_, it will be necessary to bear in mind the following + particulars: A German _Gymnasium_, in its complete state, appears + to include eight Masters; Rector, Conrector, Subrector, Quintus, + Quartus, Tertius, &c., to the _first_ or lowest. The _forms_, or + classes, again, are arranged in an inverse order; the _Primaner_ + (boys of the _Prima_, or first form) being the most advanced, and + taught by the Rector; the _Secundaner_, by the Conrector, &c., and + therefore the _Quartaner_ by the Quintus. In many cases, it would + seem, the number of Teachers is only six; but, in this + Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, we have express evidence that there was + no curtailment.--ED. + +The last did our Fixlein. He moved not, however, till Sunday,--for you +like to know how holidays taste in the city; and then, in company with +his Shock and a Quintaner, or Fifth-Form boy, who carried his Green +nightgown, he issued through the gate in the morning. The dew was still +lying; and as he reached the back of the gardens, the children of the +Orphan Hospital were uplifting with clear voices their morning hymn. The +city was Flachsenfingen, the village Hukelum, the dog Schil, and the +year of Grace 1791. + +"Manikin," said he to the Quintaner, for he liked to speak as Love, +children, and the people of Vienna do, in diminutives, "Manikin, give me +the bundle to the village: run about, and seek thee a little bird, as +thou art thyself, and so have something to pet too in vacation-time." +For the manikin was at once his page, lackey, room-comrade, train-bearer +and gentleman-in-waiting; and the Shock also was his manikin. + +He stept slowly along, through the crisped cole-beds, overlaid with +coloured beads of dew; and looked at the bushes, out of which, when the +morning wind bent them asunder, there seemed to start a flight of +jewel-colibri, so brightly did they glitter. From time to time he drew +the bell-rope of his--whistle, that the manikin might not skip away too +far; and he shortened his league and half of road, by measuring it not +in leagues, but in villages. It is more pleasant for pedestrians--for +geographers it is not--to count by wersts than by miles. In walking, our +Quintus farthermore got by heart the few fields, on which the grain was +already reaped. + +But now roam slower, Fixlein, through his Lordship's garden of Hukelum; +not, indeed, lest thy coat sweep away any tulip-stamina, but that thy +good mother may have time to lay her Cupid's-band of black taffeta about +her smooth brow. I am grieved to think my fair readers take it ill of +her, that she means first to iron this same band: they cannot know that +she has no maid; and that today the whole Preceptorial dinner--the money +purveyances the guest has made over to her three days before--is to be +arranged and prepared by herself, without the aid of any Mistress of the +Household whatever; for indeed she belongs to the _Tiers Etat_, being +neither more nor less than a gardener's widow. + +You can figure how this true, warm-hearted mother may have lain in wait +all morning for her Schoolman, whom she loved as the apple of her eye; +since, on the whole populous Earth, she had not (her first son, as well +as her husband, was dead) any other for her soul, which indeed +overflowed with love; not any other but her Zebedäus. Could she ever +tell you aught about him, I mean aught joyful, without ten times wiping +her eyes? Nay, did she not once divide her solitary Kirmes (or +Churchale) cake between two mendicant students, because she thought +Heaven would punish her for so feasting, while her boy in Leipzig had +nothing to feast on, and must pass the cake-garden like other gardens, +merely smelling at it? + +"Dickens! Thou already, Zebedäus!" said the mother, giving an +embarrassed smile, to keep from weeping, as the son, who, had ducked +past the window, and crossed the grassy threshold without knocking, +suddenly entered. For joy she forgot to put the heater into the +smoothing-iron, as her illustrious scholar, amid the loud boiling of the +soup, tenderly kissed her brow, and even said Mamma; a name which +lighted on her breast like downy silk. All the windows were open; and +the garden, with its flower-essences, and bird-music, and +butterfly-collections, was almost half within the room: but I suppose I +have not yet mentioned that the little garden-house, rather a chamber +than a house, was situated on the western cape of the Castle garden. The +owner had graciously allowed the widow to retain this dowager-mansion; +as indeed the mansion would otherwise have stood empty, for he now kept +no gardener. + +But Fixlein, in spite of his joy, could not stay long with her; being +bound for the Church, which, to his spiritual appetite, was at all times +a king's kitchen; a mother's. A sermon pleased him simply because it was +a sermon, and because he himself had once preached one. The mother was +contented he should go: these good women think they enjoy their guests, +if they can only give them aught to enjoy. + +In the choir, this Free-haven and Ethnic Forecourt of stranger +church-goers, he smiled on all parishioners; and, as in his childhood, +standing under the wooden wing of an archangel, he looked down on the +coifed _parterre_. His young years now enclosed him like children in +their smiling circle; and a long garland wound itself in rings among +them, and by fits they plucked flowers from it, and threw them in his +face: Was it not old Senior Astman that stood there on the pulpit +Parnassus, the man by whom he had been so often flogged, while acquiring +Greek with him from a grammar written in Latin, which he could not +explain, yet was forced to walk by the light of? Stood there not behind +the pulpit-stairs the sacristy-cabin, and in this was there not a +church-library of consequence--no schoolboy could have buckled it wholly +in his book-strap--lying under the minever cover of pastil dust? And did +it not consist of the Polyglott in folio, which he, spurred on by +Pfeiffer's _Critica Sacra_, had turned up leaf by leaf, in his early +years, excerpting therefrom the _literæ inversæ_, _majusculæ_, +_minusculæ_, and so forth, with an immensity of toil? And could he not +at present, the sooner the more readily, have wished to cast this +alphabetic soft-fodder into the Hebrew letter-trough, whereto your +Oriental Rhizophagi (Root-eaters) are tied, especially as here they get +so little vowel hard-fodder to keep them in heart?--Stood there not +close by him the organ-stool, the throne to which, every Apostle-day, +the Schoolmaster had by three nods elevated him, thence to fetch down +the sacred hyssop, the sprinkler of the Church? + +My readers themselves will gather spirits when they now hear that our +Quintus, during the outshaking of the poor-bag, was invited by the +Senior to come over in the afternoon; and to them, it will be little +less gratifying than if he had invited themselves. But what will they +say, when they get home with him to mother and dinner-table, both +already clad in their white Sunday dress; and behold the large cake +which Fräulein Thiennette (Stephanie) has rolled from her peel? In the +first place, however, they will wish to know who _she_ is? + +She is,--for if (according to Lessing) in the very excellence of the +Iliad, we neglect the personalities of its author; the same thing will +apply to the fate of several authors, for instance to my own; but an +authoress of cakes must not be forgotten in the excellence of her +baking,--Thiennette is a poor, indigent, insolvent young lady; has not +much, except years, of which she counts five-and-twenty; no near +relations living now; no acquirements (for in literature she does not +even know _Werter_) except economical; reads no books, not even mine; +inhabits, that is, watches like a wardeness, quite alone, the thirteen +void disfurnished chambers of the Castle of Hukelum, which belongs to +the Dragoon Rittmeister Aufhammer, at present resident in his other +mansion of Schadeck: on occasion, she commands and feeds his soccagers +and handmaids; and can write herself By the grace of God,--which, in the +thirteenth century, the country nobles did as well as princes,--for she +lives by the grace of man, at least of woman, the Lady Rittmeisterinn +Aufhammer's grace, who, at all times, blesses those vassals whom her +husband curses. But, in the breast of the orphaned Thiennette lay a +sugared marchpane heart, which, for very love, you could have devoured: +her fate was hard, but her soul was soft; she was modest, courteous and +timid, but too much so;--cheerfully and coldly she received the most +cutting humiliations in Schadeck, and felt no pain, and not till some +days after did she see it all clearly, and then these cuts began sharply +to bleed, and she wept in her loneliness over her lot. + +It is hard for me to give a light tone, after this deep one, and to add, +that Fixlein had been almost brought up beside her, and that she, his +school-moiety over with the Senior, while the latter was training him +for the dignities of the Third Form, had learned the _Verba Anomala_ +along with him. + +The Achilles'-shield of the cake, jagged and embossed with carved work +of brown scales, was whirling round in the Quintus like a swing-wheel of +hungry and thankful ideas. Of that philosophy which despises eating, and +of that high breeding which wastes it, he had not so much about him as +belongs to the ungratefulness of such cultivated persons; but for his +platter of meat, for his dinner of herbs, he could never give thanks +enough. + +Innocent and contented, the quadruple dinner-party,--for the Shock with +his cover under the stove cannot be omitted,--now began their Feast of +Sweet Bread, their Feast of Honour for Thiennette, their Grove-feast in +the garden. It may truly be a subject of wonder how a man who has not, +like the King of France, four hundred and forty-eight persons (the +hundred and sixty-one _Garçons de la Maison-bouche_ I do not reckon) in +his kitchen, nor a _Fruiterie_ of thirty-one human bipeds, nor a +Pastry-cookery of three-and-twenty, nor a daily expenditure of 387 +livres 21 sous,--how such a man, I say, can eat with any satisfaction. +Nevertheless, to me, a cooking mother is as dear as a whole royal +cooking household, given rather to feed upon me than to feed me.--The +most precious fragments which the Biographer and the World can gather +from this meal, consist of here and there an edifying piece of +table-talk. The mother had much to tell. Thiennette is this night, she +mentions, for the first time, to put on her morning promenade-dress of +white muslin, as also a satin girdle and steel buckle: but, adds she, it +will not sit her; as the Rittmeisterinn (for this lady used to hang her +cast clothes on Thiennette, as Catholics do their cast crutches and +sores on their patron Saints) was much thicker. Good women grudge each +other nothing, save only clothes, husbands and flax. In the fancy of the +Quintus, by virtue of this apparel, a pair of angel pinions were +sprouting forth from the shoulder-blades of Thiennette: for him a +garment was a sort of hollow half-man, to whom only the nobler parts and +the first principles were wanting: he honoured these wrappages and hulls +of our interior, not as an Elegant, or a Critic of Beauty, but because +it was not possible for him to despise aught which he saw others +honouring. Farther, the good mother read to him, as it were, the +monumental inscription of his father, who had sunk into the arms of +Death in the thirty-second year of his age, from a cause which I explain +not here, but in a future Letter-box, having too much affection for the +reader. Our Quintus could not sate himself with hearing of his father. + +The fairest piece of news was, that Fräulein Thiennette had sent word +today: "he might visit Her Ladyship tomorrow, as My Lord, his godfather, +was to be absent in town." This, however, I must explain. Old Aufhammer +was called _Egidius_, and was Fixlein's godfather: but he,--though the +Rittmeisterinn duly covered the cradle of the child with nightly +offerings, with flesh-tithes and grain-tithes,--had frugally made him no +christening present, except that of his name, which proved to be the +very balefulest. For, our _Egidius_ Fixlein, with his Shock, which, by +reason of the French convulsions, had, in company with other emigrants, +run off from Nantes, was but lately returned from college,--when he and +his dog, as ill luck would have it, went to walk in the Hukelum wood. +Now, as the Quintus was ever and anon crying out to his attendant: +"Coosh, Schil" (_Couche, Gilles_), it must apparently have been the +Devil that had just then planted the Lord of Aufhammer among the trees +and bushes in such a way, that this whole travestying and docking of his +name,--for Gilles means Egidius,--must fall directly into his ear. +Fixlein could neither speak French, nor any offence to mortal: he knew +not head or tail of what _couche_ signified; a word, which, in Paris, +even the plebeian dogs are now in the habit of saying to their _valets +de chiens_. But there were three things which Von Aufhammer never +recalled; his error, his anger and his word. The provokee, therefore, +determined that the plebeian provoker and honour-stealer should never +more speak to him, or--get a doit from him. + +I return. After dinner he gazed out of the little window into the +garden, and saw his path of life dividing into four branches, leading +towards just as many skyward Ascensions; towards the Ascension into the +Parsonage, and that into the Castle to Thiennette, for this day; and +towards the third into Schadeck for the morrow; and lastly, into every +house in Hukelum as the fourth. And now when the mother had long enough +kept cheerfully gliding about on tiptoe, "not to disturb him in studying +his Latin Bible" (the _Vulgata_), that is, in reading the +_Litteratur-zeitung_, he at last rose to his own feet; and the humble +joy of the mother ran long after the courageous son, who dared to go +forth and speak to a Senior, quite unappalled. Yet it was not without +reverence that he entered the dwelling of his old, rather gray than +bald-headed teacher, who was not only Virtue itself, but also Hunger, +eating frequently, and with the appetite of Pharaoh's lean kine. A +schoolman, that expects to become a professor, will scarcely deign to +cast an eye on a pastor; but one, who is himself looking up to a +parsonage as to his working-house and breeding-house, knows how to value +such a character. The new parsonage,--as if it had, like a _Casa Santa_, +come flying out of Erlangen, or the Berlin Friedrichs-strasse, and +alighted in Hukelum,--was for the Quintus a Temple of the Sun, and the +Senior a Priest of the Sun. To be Parson there himself, was a thought +overlaid with virgin honey; such a thought as occurs but one other time +in History, namely, in the head of Hannibal, when he projected stepping +over the Alps, that is to say, over the threshold of Rome. + +The landlord and his guest formed an excellent _bureau d'esprit_: people +of office, especially of the same office, have more to tell each other, +namely, their own history, than your idle May-chafers and +Court-celestials, who must speak only of other people's.--The Senior +made a soft transition from his iron-ware (in the stable furniture), to +the golden age of his Academic life, of which such people like as much +to think, as poets do of their childhood. So good as he was, he still +half joyfully recollected that he had once been less so: but joyful +remembrances of wrong actions are their half repetition, as repentant +remembrances of good ones are their half abolishment. + +Courteously and kindly did Zebedäus (who could not even enter in his +Notebook the name of a person of quality without writing an H. for Herr +before it) listen to the Academic Saturnalia of the old gentleman, who +in Wittenberg had toped as well as written, and thirsted not more for +the Hippocrene than for Guk-guk.[34] + + [34] A university beer. + +Herr Jerusalem has observed, that the barbarism which often springs up, +close on the brightest efflorescence of the sciences, is a sort of +strengthening mudbath, good for averting the over-refinement, wherewith +such efflorescence always threatens us. I believe that a man who +considers how high the sciences have mounted with our upper +classes,--for instance with every Patrician's son in Nürnberg, to whom +the public must present 1000 florins for studying with,--I believe that +such a man will not grudge the Son of the Muses a certain barbarous +Middle-age (the Burschen or Student Life, as it is called), which may +again so case-harden him that his refinement shall not go beyond the +limits. The Senior, while in Wittenberg, had protected the one hundred +and eighty Academic Freedoms,--so many of them has Petrus Rebuffus +summed up,[35]--against prescription, and lost none except his moral +one, of which truly a man, even in a convent, can seldom make much. This +gave our Quintus courage to relate certain pleasant somersets of his +own, which at Leipzig, under the Incubus-pressure of poverty, he had +contrived to execute. Let us hear him: His landlord, who was at the same +time Professor and Miser, maintained in his enclosed court a whole +community of hens: Fixlein, in company with three room-mates, without +difficulty mastered the rent of a chamber, or closet: in general their +main equipments, like Phoenixes, existed but in the singular number; +one bed, in which always the one pair slept before midnight, the other +after midnight, like nocturnal watchmen; one coat, in which one after +the other they appeared in public, and which, like a watch-coat, was the +national uniform of the company; and several other _ones_, Unities both +of Interest and Place. Nowhere can you collect the stress-memorials and +siege-medals of Poverty more pleasantly and philosophically than at +College; the Academic burgher exhibits to us how many humorists and +Diogeneses Germany has in it. Our Unitarians had just one thing four +times, and that was hunger. The Quintus related, perhaps with a too +pleasurable enjoyment of the recollection, how one of this famishing +_coro_ invented means of appropriating the Professor's hens as just +tribute, or subsidies. He said (he was a Jurist), they must once for all +borrow a legal fiction from the Feudal code, and look on the Professor +as the soccage tenant, to whom the usufruct of the hen-yard and +hen-house belonged; but on themselves, as the feudal superiors of the +same, to whom accordingly the vassal was bound to pay his feudal dues. +And now, that the Fiction might follow Nature, continued he,--"_fictio +sequitur naturam_,"--it behoved them to lay hold of said Yule-hens, by +direct personal distraint. But into the court-yard there was no getting. +The feudalist, therefore, prepared a fishing-line; stuck a bread-pill on +the hook, and lowered his fishing-tackle, anglerwise, down into the +court. In a few seconds the barb stuck in a hen's throat, and the hen +now communicating with its feudal superior, could silently, like ships +by Archimedes, be heaved aloft to the hungry air-fishing society, where, +according to circumstances, the proper feudal name and title of +possession failed not to be awaiting her: for the updrawn fowls were now +denominated Christmas-fowls, now Forest-hens, Bailiff-hens, Pentecost +and Summer-hens. "I begin," said the angling lord of the manor, "with +taking _Rutcher-dues_, for so we call the triple and quintuple of the +original quit-rent, when the vassal, as is the case here, has long +neglected payment." The Professor, like any other prince, observed with +sorrow the decreasing population of his hen-yard, for his subjects, like +the Hebrews, were dying by enumeration. At last he had the happiness, +while reading his lecture,--he was just come to the subject of _Forest +Salt and Coin Regalities_,--to descry, through the window of his +auditorium, a quit-rent hen suspended, like Ignatius Loyola in prayer, +or Juno in her punishment, in middle air: he followed the +incomprehensible direct ascension of the aeronautic animal, and at last +descried at the upper window the attracting artist, and +animal-magnetiser, who had drawn his lot for dinner from the hen-yard +below. Contrary to all expectation, he terminated this fowling sport +sooner than his Lecture on Regalities. + + [35] From Peter I will copy one or two of these privileges; the + whole of which were once, at the origin of universities, in full + force. For instance, a student can compel a citizen to let him his + house and his horse; an injury, done even to his relations, must be + made good fourfold; he is not obliged to fulfil the written + commands of the Pope; the neighbourhood must indemnify him for what + is stolen from him; if he and a non-student are living at variance, + the latter only can be expelled from the boarding-house; a Doctor + is obliged to support a poor student; if he is killed, the next ten + houses are laid under interdict till the murderer is discovered; + his legacies are not abridged by _falcidia_, &c. &c. + +Fixlein walked home, amid the vesperal melodies of the steeple +sounding-holes; and by the road, courteously took off his hat before the +empty windows of the Castle: houses of quality were to him like persons +of quality, as in India the Pagoda at once represents the temple and the +god. To the mother he brought feigned compliments, which she repaid with +authentic ones; for this afternoon she had been over, with her +historical tongue and nature-interrogating eye, visiting the +white-muslin Thiennette. The mother was wont to show her every spare +penny which he dropped into her large empty purse, and so raise him in +the good graces of the Fräulein; for women feel their hearts much more +attracted towards a son, who tenderly reserves for a mother some of his +benefits, than we do to a daughter anxiously caring for her father; +perhaps from a hundred causes, and this among the rest, that in their +experience of sons and husbands they are more used to find these persons +mere six-feet thunder-clouds, forked waterspouts, or even reposing +tornadoes. + +Blessed Quintus! on whose Life this other distinction like an order of +nobility does also shine, that thou canst tell it over to thy mother; +as, for example, this past afternoon in the parsonage. Thy joy flows +into another heart, and streams back from it, redoubled, into thy own. +There is a closer approximating of hearts, and also of sounds, than that +of the _Echo_; the highest approximation melts Tone and Echo into +_Resonance_ together. + +It is historically certain that both of them supped this evening; and +that instead of the whole dinner fragments which tomorrow might +themselves represent a dinner, nothing but the cake-offering or pudding +was laid upon the altar of the table. The mother, who for her own child +would willingly have neglected not herself only, but all other people, +now made a motion that to the Quintaner, who was sporting out of doors +and baiting a bird instead of himself, there should no crum of the +precious pastry be given, but only table-bread without the crust. But +the Schoolman had a Christian disposition, and said that it was Sunday, +and the young man liked something delicate to eat as well as he. +Fixlein,--the counterpart of great men and geniuses,--was inclined to +treat, to gift, to gratify a serving house-mate, rather than a man who +is for the first time passing through the gate, and at the next +post-stage will forget both his hospitable landlord and the last +postmaster. On the whole, our Quintus had a touch of honour in him, and +notwithstanding his thrift and sacred regard for money, he willingly +gave it away in cases of honour, and unwillingly in cases of +overpowering sympathy, which too painfully filled the cavities of his +heart, and emptied those of his purse. Whilst the Quintaner was +exercising the _jus compascui_ on the cake, and six arms were peacefully +resting on Thiennette's free-table, Fixlein read to himself and the +company the Flachsenfingen Address-calendar; any higher thing, except +Meusel's _Gelehrtes Deutschland_,[36] he could not figure: the +Kammerherrs and Raths of the Calendar went tickling over his tongue like +the raisins of the cake; and of the more rich church-livings he, by +reading, as it were levied a tithe. + + [36] _Literary Germany_; a work (I believe of no great merit) which + Richter often twitches in the same style.--ED. + +He purposely remained his own Edition in Sunday Wove-paper; I mean, he +did not lay away his Sunday coat, even when the Prayer-bell tolled; for +he had still much to do. + +After supper, he was just about visiting the Fräulein, when he descried +her in person, like a lily dipt in the red twilight, in the +Castle-garden, whose western limit his house constituted, the southern +one being the Chinese wall of the Castle.... By the way, how I got to +the knowledge of all this, what Letter-boxes are, whether I myself was +ever there, &c. &c.,--the whole of this shall, upon my life, be soon and +faithfully communicated to the reader, and that too in the present Book. + +Fixlein hopped forth like a Will-o'-wisp into the garden, whose +flower-perfume was mingling with his supper-perfume. No one bowed lower +to a nobleman than he, not out of plebeian servility, nor of +self-interested cringing, but because he thought "a nobleman was a +nobleman." But in this case his bow, instead of falling forwards, fell +obliquely to the right, as it were after his hat: for he had not risked +taking a stick with him; and hat and stick were his proppage and +balance-wheel, in short, his bowing-gear, without which it was out of +his power to produce any courtly bow, had you offered him the High +Church of Hamburg for so doing. Thiennette's mirthfulness soon unfolded +his crumpled soul into straight form, and into the proper tone. He +delivered her a long neat Thanksgiving and Harvest sermon for the scaly +cake; which appeared to her at once kind and tedious. Young women +without the polish of high life reckon tedious pedantry, merely like +snuffing, one of the necessary ingredients of a man: they reverence us +infinitely; and as Lambert could never speak to the King of Prussia, by +reason of his sun-eyes, except in the dark, so they, I believe, often +like better,--also by reason of our sublime air,--if they can catch us +in the dark too. _Him_ Thiennette edified by the Imperial History of +Herr von Aufhammer and Her Ladyship his spouse, who meant to put him, +the Quintus, in her will: _her_ he edified by his Literary History, as +relating to himself and the Subrector; how, for instance, he was at +present vicariating in the Second Form, and ruling over scholars as long +in stature as himself. And thus did the two in happiness, among red +bean-blossoms, red may-chafers, before the red of the twilight burning +lower and lower on the horizon, walk to and fro in the garden; and turn +always with a smile as they approached the head of the ancient +gardeneress, standing like a window-bust through the little lattice, +which opened in the bottom of a larger one. + +To me it is incomprehensible he did not fall in love. I know his +reasons, indeed: in the first place, she had nothing; secondly, he had +nothing, and school-debts to boot; thirdly, her genealogical tree was a +boundary-tree and warning-post; fourthly, his hands were tied up by +another nobler thought, which, for good cause, is yet reserved from the +reader. Nevertheless--Fixlein! I durst not have been in thy place! I +should have looked at her, and remembered her virtues and our +school-years, and then have drawn forth my too fusible heart, and +presented it to her as a bill of exchange, or insinuated it as a +summons. For I should have considered that she resembled a nun in two +senses, in her good heart and in her good pastry; that, in spite of her +intercourse with male vassals, she was no Charles Genevieve Louise +Auguste Timothé Eon de Beaumont,[37] but a smooth, fair-haired, +white-capped dove; that she sought more to please her own sex than ours; +that she showed a melting heart, not previously borrowed from the +Circulating Library, in tears, for which in her innocence she rather +took shame than credit.--At the very first cheapening, I should, on +these grounds, have been out with my heart.--Had I fully reflected, +Quintus! that I knew her as myself; that her hands and mine (to wit, had +I been thou) had both been guided by the same Senior to Latin +penmanship; that we two, when little children, had kissed each other +before the glass, to see whether the two image-children would do it +likewise in the mirror; that often we had put hands of both sexes into +the same muff, and there played with them in secret; had I, lastly, +considered that we were here standing before the glass-house, now +splendent in the enamel of twilight, and that on the cold panes of this +glass-house we two (she within, I without) had often pressed our warm +cheeks together, parted only by the thickness of the glass,--then had I +taken this poor gentle soul, pressed asunder by Fate, and seeing, amid +her thunder-clouds, no higher elevation to part them and protect her +than the grave, and had drawn her to my own soul, and warmed her on my +heart, and encompassed her about with my eyes. + + [37] See _Schmelzle's Journey_, p. 284.--ED. + +In truth, the Quintus would have done so too, had not the +above-mentioned nobler thought, which I yet disclose not, kept him +back. Softened, without knowing the cause--(accordingly he gave his +mother a kiss)--and blessed without having had a literary conversation; +and dismissed with a freight of humble compliments, which he was to +disload on the morrow before the Dragoon Rittmeisterinn, he returned to +his little cottage, and looked yet a long while out of its dark windows, +at the light ones of the Castle. And then, when the first quarter of the +moon was setting, that is, about midnight, he again, in the cool sigh of +a mild, fanning, moist and directly heart-addressing night-breeze, +opened the eyelids of a sight already sunk in dreaming.... + +Sleep, for today thou hast done naught ill! I, whilst the drooping shut +flower-bell of thy spirit sinks on thy pillow, will look forth into the +breezy night over thy morning footpath, which, through the translucent +little wood, is to lead thee to Schadeck, to thy patroness. All +prosperity attend thee, thou foolish Quintus!-- + + + + +SECOND LETTER-BOX. + +_Frau von Aufhammer. Childhood-Resonance. Authorcraft._ + + +The early piping which the little thrush last night adopted by the +Quintaner from its nest, started for victual about two o'clock, soon +drove our Quintus into his clothes; whose calender-press and +parallel-ruler the hands of his careful mother had been, for she would +not send him to the Rittmeisterinn "like a runagate dog." The Shock was +incarcerated, the Quintaner taken with him, as likewise many wholesome +rules from Mother Fixlein, how to conduct himself towards the +Rittmeisterinn. But the son answered: "Mamma, when a man has been in +company, like me, with high people, with a Fräulein Thiennette, he soon +knows whom he is speaking to, and what polished manners and Saver di +veaver (_Savoir vivre_) require." + +He arrived with the Quintaner, and green fingers (dyed with the leaves +he had plucked on the path), and with a half-nibbled rose between his +teeth, in presence of the sleek lackeys of Schadeck.--If women are +flowers,--though as often silk and Italian and gum-flowers as botanical +ones,--then was Frau von Aufhammer a ripe flower, with (adipose) +neck-bulb, and tuberosity (of lard). Already, in the half of her body, +cut away from life by the apoplexy, she lay upon her lard-pillow but as +on a softer grave: nevertheless, the portion of her that remained was +at once lively, pious and proud. Her heart was a flowing cornucopia to +all men, yet this not from philanthropy, but from rigid devotion: the +lower classes she assisted, cherished and despised, regarding nothing in +them, except it were their piety. She received the bowing Quintus with +the back-bowing air of a patroness; yet she brightened into a look of +kindliness at his disloading of the compliments from Thiennette. + +She began the conversation, and long continued it alone, and said,--yet +without losing the inflation of pride from her countenance: "She should +soon die; but the god-children of her husband she would remember in her +will." Farther, she told him directly in the face, which stood there all +over-written with the Fourth Commandment before her, that "he must not +build upon a settlement in Hukelum; but to the Flachsenfingen +Conrectorate (to which the Bürgermeister and Council had the right of +nomination), she hoped to promote him, as it was from the then +Bürgermeister that she bought her coffee, and from the Town-Syndic (he +drove a considerable wholesale and retail trade in Hamburg candles) that +she bought both her wax and tallow lights." + +And now by degrees he arrived at his humble petition, when she asked him +sick-news of Senior Astmann, who guided himself more by Luther's +Catechism than by the Catechism of Health. She was Astmann's patroness +in a stricter than ecclesiastical sense; and she even confessed that she +would soon follow this, true shepherd of souls, when she heard, here at +Shadeck, the sound of his funeral-bell. Such strange chemical affinities +exist between our dross and our silver veins; as, for example, here +between Pride and Love: and I could wish that we would pardon this +hypostatic union in all persons, as readily as we do it in the fair, +who, with all their faults, are nevertheless by us,--as, according to Du +Fay, iron, though mixed with any other metal, is, by the +magnet,--attracted and held fast. + +Supposing even that the Devil _had_, in some idle minute, sown a handful +or two of the seeds of Envy in our Quintus' soul, yet they had not +sprouted; and today especially they did not, when he heard the praises +of a man who had been his teacher, and who,--what he reckoned a Titulado +of the Earth, not from vanity but from piety,--was a clergyman. So much, +however, is, according to History, not to be denied: That he now +straight-way came forth with his petition to the noble lady, signifying +that "indeed he would cheerfully content himself for a few years in the +school; but yet in the end he longed to be in some small quiet priestly +office." To her question, "But was he orthodox?" he answered, that "he +hoped so; he had in Leipzig, not only attended all the public lectures +of Dr. Burscher, but also had taken private instructions from several +sound teachers of the faith, well knowing that the Consistorium, in its +examinations as to purity of doctrine, was now more strict than +formerly." + +The sick lady required him to make a proof-shot, namely, to administer +to her a sick-bed exhortation. By Heaven! he administered to her one of +the best. Her pride of birth now crouched before his pride of office and +priesthood; for though he could not, with the Dominican monk, Alanus de +Rupe, believe that a priest was greater than God, inasmuch as the latter +could only make a World, but the former a God (in the mass); yet he +could not but fall-in with Hostiensis, who shows that the priestly +dignity is seven thousand six hundred and forty-four times greater than +the kingly, the Sun being just so many times greater than the Moon.--But +a Rittmeisterinn--_she_ shrinks into absolute nothing before a parson. + +In the servants' hall he applied to the lackeys for the last annual +series of the _Hamburg Political Journal_; perceiving, that with these +historical documents of the time, they were scandalously papering the +buttons of travelling raiment. In gloomy harvest evenings, he could now +sit down and read for himself what good news were transpiring in the +political world--twelve months ago. + +On a Triumphal Car, full-laden with laurel, and to which Hopes alone +were yoked, he drove home at night, and by the road advised the +Quintaner not to be puffed up with any earthly honour, but silently to +thank God, as himself was now doing. + + * * * * * + +The thickset blooming grove of his four canicular weeks, and the flying +tumult of blossoms therein, are already painted on three of the sides. I +will now clutch blindfold into his days, and bring out one of them: one +smiles and sends forth its perfumes like another. + +Let us take, for instance, the Saint's day of his mother, _Clara_, the +twelfth of August. In the morning, he had perennial, fireproof joys, +that is to say, Employments. For he was writing, as I am doing. Truly, +if Xerxes proposed a prize for the invention of a new pleasure, any man +who had sat down to write his thoughts on the prize-question, had the +new pleasure already among his fingers. I know only one thing sweeter +than making a book, and that is, to project one. Fixlein used to write +little works, of the twelfth part of an alphabet in size, which in their +manuscript state he got bound by the bookbinder in gilt boards, and +betitled with printed letters, and then inserted them among the literary +ranks of his book-board. Every one thought they were novelties printed +in writing types. He had laboured,--I shall omit his less interesting +performances,--at a _Collection of Errors of the Press_, in German +writings: he compared _Errata_ with each other; showed which occurred +most frequently; observed that important results were to be drawn from +this, and advised the reader to draw them. + +Moreover, he took his place among the German _Masorites_. He observes +with great justice in his Preface: "The Jews had their _Masora_ to show, +which told them how often every letter was to be found in their Bible; +for example, the Aleph (the A) 42,377 times; how many verses there are +in which all the consonants appear (there are 26 verses), or only eighty +(there are 3); how many verses we have into which 42 words and 160 +consonants enter (there is just one, Jeremiah xxi. 7); which is the +middle letter in certain books (in the Pentateuch, it is in Leviticus +xi. 42, the noble V[38]), or in the whole Bible itself. But where have +we Christians any similar Masora for Luther's Bible to show? Has it been +accurately investigated which is the middle word, or the middle letter +here, which vowel appears seldomest, and how often each vowel? Thousands +of Bible-Christians go out of the world, without ever knowing that the +German A occurs 323,015 times (therefore above 7 times oftener than the +Hebrew one) in their Bible." + + [38] As in the State.--V. or Von, _de_, _of_, being the symbol of + the nobility, the middle order of the State.--ED. + +I could wish that inquirers into Biblical Literature among our Reviewers +would publicly let me know, if on a more accurate summation they find +this number incorrect.[39] + + [39] In Erlang, my petition has been granted. The _Bible + Institution_ of that town have found instead of the 116,301 A's, + which Fixlein at first pretended with such certainty to find in the + Bible-books (which false number was accordingly given in the first + Edition of this Work, p. 81), the above-mentioned 323,015; which + (uncommonly singular) is precisely the sum of all the letters in + the Koran put together. See _Lüdeke's Beschr. des Türk. Reichs_ + (Lüdeke's Description of the Turkish Empire. New edition, 1780). + +Much also did the Quintus _collect_: he had a fine _Almanac Collection_, +a _Catechism_ and _Pamphlet Collection_; also a _Collection of +Advertisements_, which he began, is not so incomplete as you most +frequently see such things. He puts high value on his _Alphabetical +Lexicon of German Subscribers for Books_, where my name also occurs +among the J's. + +But what he liked best to produce were Schemes of Books. Accordingly, he +sewed together a large work, wherein he merely advised the Learned of +things they ought to introduce in Literary History, which History he +rated some ells higher than Universal or Imperial History. In his +Prolegomena to this performance, he transiently submitted to the +Literary republic that Hommel had given a register of Jurists who were +sons of wh--, of others who had become Saints; that Baillet enumerates +the Learned who _meant_ to write something; and Ancillon those who wrote +nothing at all; and the Lübeck Superintendent Götze, those who were +shoemakers, those who were drowned; and Bernhard those whose fortunes +and history before birth were interesting. This (he could now continue) +should, as it seems, have excited us to similar muster-rolls and +matriculations of other kinds of Learned; whereof he proposed a few: for +example, of the Learned, who were unlearned; of those who were entire +rascals; of such as wore their own hair,--of cue-preachers, +cue-psalmists, cue-annalists, and so forth; of the Learned who had worn +black leather breeches, of others who had worn rapiers; of the Learned +who had died in their eleventh year,--in their twentieth--twenty-first, +&c.,--in their hundred and fiftieth, of which he knew no instance, +unless the Beggar Thomas Parr might be adduced; of the Learned who wrote +a more abominable hand than the other Learned (whereof we know only +Rolfinken and his letters, which were as long as his hands[40]); or of +the Learned who had clipt nothing from each other but the beard (whereof +no instance is known, save that of Philelphus and Timotheus[41]). + + [40] _Paravicini Singularia de viris claris. Cent. I. 2._ + + [41] _Ejusd. Cent. II._ Philelphus quarrelled with the Greek about + the quantity of a syllable: the prize or bet was the beard of the + vanquished. Timotheus lost his. + +Such by-studies did he carry on along with his official labours: but I +think the State in viewing these matters is actually mad; it compares +the man who is great in Philosophy and Belles Lettres at the expense of +his jog-trot officialities, to _concert-clocks_, which, though striking +their hours in flute-melodies, are worse time-keepers than your gross +stupid _steeple-clocks_. + +To return to St. Clara's day. Fixlein, after such mental exertions, +bolted out under the music-bushes and rustling-trees; and returned not +again out of warm Nature, till plate and chair were already placed at +the table. In the course of the repast, something occurred which a +Biographer must not omit: for his mother had, by request, been wont to +map out for him, during the process of mastication, the chart of his +child's-world, relating all the traits which in any way prefigured what +he had now grown to. This perspective sketch of his early Past, he +committed to certain little leaves, which merit our undivided attention. +For such leaves exclusively, containing scenes, acts, plays of his +childhood, he used chronologically to file and arrange in separate +drawers in a little child's-desk of his; and thus to divide his +Biography, as Moser did his Publicistic Materials, into separate +_letter-boxes_. He had boxes or drawers for memorial-letters of his +twelfth, of his thirteenth, fourteenth, &c. of his twenty-first year, +and so on. Whenever he chose to conclude a day of pedagogic drudgery by +an evening of peculiar rest, he simply pulled out a letter-drawer, a +register-bar in his Life-hand-organ, and recollected the whole. + +And here must I in reference to those reviewing Mutes, who may be for +casting the noose of strangulation round my neck, most particularly beg, +that, before doing so on account of my Chapters being called +Letter-boxes, they would have the goodness to look whose blame it was, +and to think whether I could possibly help it, seeing the Quintus had +divided his Biography into such Boxes himself: they have Christian +bowels. + +But about his elder brother he put no saddening question to his mother: +this poor boy a peculiar Fate had laid hold of, and with all his genial +endowment, dashed to pieces on the iceberg of Death. For he chanced to +leap on an ice-board that had jammed itself among several others; but +these recoiled, and his shot forth with him; melted away as it floated +under his feet, and so sunk his heart of fire amid the ice and waves. It +grieved his mother that he was not found, that her heart had not been +harrowed by the look of the swoln corpse.--O good mother, rather thank +God for it!-- + + * * * * * + +After breakfast, to fortify himself with new vigour for his desk, he +for some time strolled idly over the house, and, like a Police +Fire-inspector, visited all the nooks of his cottage, to gather from +them here and there a live ember from the ash-covered rejoicing-fire of +his childhood. He mounted to the garret, to the empty bird-coops of his +father, who in winter had been a birder; and he transiently reviewed the +lumber of his old playthings, which were lying in the netted enclosure +of a large canary breeding-cage. In the minds of children, it is regular +_little_ forms, such as those of balls and dies, that impress and +express themselves most forcibly. From this may the reader explain to +himself Fixlein's delight in the red acorn-blockhouse, in the sparwork +glued together out of white chips and husks of potato-plums, in the +cheerful glass-house of a cube-shaped lantern, and other the like +products of his early architecture. The following, however, I explain +quite differently: he had ventured, without leave given from any lord of +the manor, to build a clay house; not for cottagers, but for flies; and +which, therefore, you could readily enough have put in your pocket. This +fly-hospital had its glass windows, and a red coat of colouring, and +very many alcoves, and three balconies: balconies, as a sort of house +within a house, he had loved from of old so much, that he could scarcely +have liked Jerusalem well, where (according to Lightfoot) no such thing +is permitted to be built. From the glistening eyes, with which the +architect had viewed his tenantry creeping about the windows or feeding +out of the sugar-trough,--for, like the Count St. Germain, they ate +nothing but sugar,--from this joy an adept in the art of education might +easily have prophesied his turn for household contraction; to his fancy, +in those times, even gardeners'-huts were like large waste Arks and +Halls, and nothing bigger than such a fly-Louvre seemed a true, snug, +citizen's-house. He now felt and handled his old high child's-stool, +which had, in former days, resembled the _Sedes Exploratoria_ of the +Pope; he gave his child's-coach a tug and made it run; but he could not +understand what balsam and holiness so much distinguished it from all +other child's-coaches. He wondered that the real sports of children +should not so delight him, as the emblems of these sports, when the +child that had carried them on was standing grown up to manhood in his +presence. + +Before one article in the house he stood heart-melted and sad; before a +little angular clothes-press, which was no higher than my table, and +which had belonged to his poor drowned brother. When the boy with the +key of it was swallowed by the waves, the excruciated mother had made a +vow that this toy-press of his should never be broken up by violence. +Most probably there is nothing in it, but the poor soul's playthings. +Let us look away from this bloody urn.---- + +Bacon reckons the remembrances of childhood among wholesome medicinal +things; naturally enough, therefore, they acted like a salutary +digestive on the Quintus. He could now again betake him with new heart +to his desk, and produce something quite peculiar--petitions for +church-livings. He took the Address-calendar, and for every country +parish that he found in it, got a petition in readiness; which he then +laid aside, till such time as the present incumbent should decease. For +Hukelum alone he did not solicit.--It is a pretty custom in +Flachsenfingen that for every office which is vacant, you are required, +if you want it, to sue. As the higher use of Prayer consists not in its +fulfilment, but in its accustoming you to pray; so likewise petitionary +papers ought to be given in, not indeed that you may get the +office,--this nothing but your money can do,--but that you may learn to +write petitions. In truth, if among the Calmucks, the turning of a +calabash[42] stands in the place of Prayer, a slight movement of the +purse may be as much as if you supplicated in words. + + [42] Their prayer-barrel, Kürüdu, is a hollowed shell, a calabash, + full of unrolled formulas of prayer; they sway it from side to + side, and then it works. More philosophically viewed, since in + prayer the feeling only is of consequence, it is much the same + whether this express itself by motion of the mouth or of the + calabash. + +Towards evening--it was Sunday--he went out roving over the village; he +pilgrimed to his old sporting-places, and to the common where he had so +often driven his snails to pasture; visited the peasant, who, from +school-times upwards, had been wont, to the amazement of the rest, to +_thou_[43] him; went, an Academic Tutor, to the Schoolmaster; then to +the Senior; then to the Episcopal-barn or church. This last no mortal +understands, till I explain it. The case was this: some three-and-forty +years ago, a fire had destroyed the church (not the steeple), the +parsonage, and--what was not to be replaced--the church-records. (For +this reason, it was only the smallest portion of the Hukelum people that +knew exactly how old they were; and the memory of our Quintus himself +vibrated between adopting the thirty-third year and the thirty-second.) +In consequence, the preaching had now to be carried on where formerly +there had been thrashing; and the seed of the divine word to be turned +over on the same threshing-floor with natural corn-seed. The Chanter and +the Schoolboys took up the threshing-floor; the female +mother-church-people stood on the one sheaves-loft, the Schadeck +womankind on the other; and their husbands clustered pyramidically, like +groschen and farthing-gallery men, about the barn-stairs; and far up on +the straw-loft, mixed souls stood listening. A little flute was their +organ, an upturned beer-cask their altar, round which they had to walk. +I confess, I myself could have preached in such a place, not without +humour. The Senior (at that time still a Junior), while the parsonage +was building, dwelt and taught in the Castle: it was here, accordingly, +that Fixlein had learned the _Irregular Verbs_ with Thiennette. + + [43] In German, as in some other languages, the common mode of + address is by the _third_ person: plural, it indicates respect; + singular, command: the _second_ person is also used; plural, it + generally denotes indifference; singular, great familiarity, and + sometimes its product, contempt. _Dutzenfreund, Thouing-friend_, is + the strictest term of intimacy; and among the wild _Burschen_ + (Students) many a duel (happily, however, often ending like the + _Polemo-Midinia_ in _one_ drop of blood) has been fought, in + consequence of saying _Du_ (thou) and _Sie_ (they) in the wrong + place.--ED. + +These voyages of discovery completed, our Hukelum voyager could still, +after evening prayers, pick leaf-insects, with Thiennette, from the +roses; worms from the beds, and a Heaven of joy from every minute. Every +dew-drop was coloured as with oil of cloves and oil of gladness; every +star was a sparkle from the sun of happiness; and in the closed heart of +the maiden, there lay near to him, behind a little wall of separation +(as near to the Righteous man behind the thin wall of Life), an +outstretched blooming Paradise.... I mean, she loved him a little. + +He might have known it, perhaps. But to his compressed delight he gave +freer vent, as he went to bed, by early recollections on the stair. For +in his childhood he had been accustomed, by way of evening-prayer, to go +over, under his coverlid, as it were, a rosary, including fourteen Bible +Proverbs, the first verse of the Psalm, "All people that on Earth," the +Tenth Commandment, and, lastly, a long blessing. To get the sooner done +with it, he had used to begin his devotion, not only on the stair, but +before leaving that place where Alexander studied men, and Semler stupid +books. Moored in the haven of the down-waves, he was already over with +his evening supplication; and could now, without farther exertion, shut +his eyes and plump into sleep.----Thus does there lurk, in the smallest +_homunculus_, the model of--the Catholic Church. + +So far the Dog-days of Quintus Zebedäus Egidius Fixlein.--I, for the +second time, close a Chapter of this _Life_, as Life itself is closed, +with a sleep. + + + + +THIRD LETTER-BOX. + +_Christmas Recollections. New Occurrence._ + + +For all of us the passage to the grave is, alas! a string of empty +insipid days, as of glass pearls, only here and there divided by an +orient one of price. But you die murmuring, unless, like the Quintus, +you regard your existence as a drum: this has only one single _tone_, +but variety of _time_ gives the sound of it cheerfulness enough. Our +Quintus taught in the Fourth Class; vicariated in the Second; wrote at +his desk by night; and so lived on in the usual monotonous fashion--all +the time from the Holidays--till Christmas-eve, 1791; and nothing was +remarkable in his history except this same eve, which I am now about to +paint. + +But I shall still have time to paint it, after, in the first place, +explaining shortly how, like birds of passage, he had contrived to soar +away over the dim cloudy Harvest. The secret was, he set upon the +_Hamburg Political Journal_, with which the lackeys of Schadeck had been +for papering their buttons. He could now calmly, with his back at the +stove, accompany the winter campaigns of the foregoing year; and fly +after every battle, as the ravens did after that of Pharsalia. On the +printed paper he could still, with joy and admiration, walk round our +German triumphal arches and scaffoldings for fireworks: while to the +people in the town, who got only the newest newspapers, the very +fragments of these our trophies, maliciously torn down by the French, +were scarcely discernible; nay, with old plans he could drive back and +discomfit the enemy, while later readers in vain tried to resist them +with new ones. + +Moreover, not only did the facility of conquering the French prepossess +him in favour of this journal; but also the circumstance that it--cost +him nothing. His attachment to gratis reading was decided. And does not +this throw light on the fact, that he, as Morhof advised, was wont +sedulously to collect the separate leaves of waste-paper books as they +came from the grocer, and to rake among the same, as Virgil did in +Ennius? Nay, for him the grocer was a Fortius (the scholar), or a +Frederick (the king), both which persons were in the habit of simply +cutting from complete books such leaves as contained anything. It was +also this respect for all waste-paper that inspired him with such esteem +for the aprons of French cooks, which it is well known consist of +printed paper; and he often wished some German would translate these +aprons: indeed I am willing to believe that a good version of more than +one of such paper aprons might contribute to elevate our Literature +(this Muse _à belles fesses_), and serve her in place of drivel-bib.--On +many things a man puts a _pretium affectionis_, simply because he hopes +he may have half stolen them: on this principle, combined with the +former, our Quintus adopted into his belief anything he could snap away +from an open Lecture, or as a visitor in class-rooms; opinions only for +which the Professor must be paid, he rigorously examined.--I return to +the Christmas-eve. + +At the very first, Egidius was glad, because out of doors millers and +bakers were at fisty-cuffs (as we say of drifting snow in large flakes), +and the ice-flowers of the window were blossoming; for external frost, +with a snug warm room, was what he liked. He could now put fir-wood into +his stove, and Mocha coffee into his stomach; and shove his right foot +(not into the slipper, but) under the warm side of his Shock, and also +on the left keep swinging his pet Starling, which was pecking at the +snout of old Schil; and then with the right hand--with the left he was +holding his pipe--proceed, so undisturbed, so intrenched, so cloud-capt, +without the smallest breath of frost, to the highest enterprise which a +Quintus can attempt,--to writing the Class-prodromus of the +Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, namely, the eighth part thereof. I hold the +_first printing_ in the history of a literary man to be more important +than the _first printing_ in the history of Letters: Fixlein could not +sate himself with specifying what he purposed, God willing, in the +following year, to treat of; and accordingly, more for the sake of +printing than of use, he farther inserted three or four pedagogic +glances at the plan of operations to be followed by his schoolmaster +colleagues as a body. + +He lastly introduced a few dashes, by way of hooking his thoughts +together; and then laid aside the _Opus_, and would no longer look at +it, that so, when printed, he might stand astonished at his own +thoughts. And now he could take the Leipzig Fair Catalogue, which he +purchased yearly, instead of the books therein, and open it without a +sigh: he too was in print, as well as I am. + +The happy fool, while writing, had shaken his head, rubbed his hands, +hitched about on his chair, puckered his face, and sucked the end of his +cue.--He could now spring up about five o'clock in the evening, to +recreate himself; and across the magic vapour of his pipe, like a +new-caught bird, move up and down in his cage. On the warm smoke, the +long galaxy of street-lamps was gleaming; and red on his bed-curtains +lay the fitful reflection of the blazing windows, and illuminated trees +in the neighbourhood. And now he shook away the snow of Time from the +winter-green of Memory; and beheld the fair years of his childhood, +uncovered, fresh, green and balmy, standing afar off before him. From +his distance of twenty years, he looked into the quiet cottage of his +parents, where his father and his brother had not yet been reaped away +by the sickle of Death. He said to himself: "I will go through the whole +Christmas-eve from the very dawn, as I had it of old." + +At his very rising he finds spangles on the table; sacred spangles from +the gold-leaf and silver-leaf, with which the Christ-child[44] has been +emblazoning and coating his apples and nuts, the presents of the +night.--On the mint-balance of joy, this metallic foam pulls heavier +than the golden calves, and golden Pythagoras'-legs, and golden +Philistine-mice of wealthier capitalists.--Then came his mother, +bringing him both Christianity and clothes: for in drawing on his +trousers, she easily recapitulated the Ten Commandments, and, in tying +his garters, the Apostles' Creed. So soon as candle-light was over, and +day-light come, he clambers to the arm of the settle, and then measures +the nocturnal growth of the yellow wiry grove of Christmas-Birch; and +devotes far less attention than usual to the little white +winter-flowerage, which the seeds shaken from the bird-cage are sending +forth in the wet joints of the window-panes.--I nowise grudge J. J. +Rousseau his _Flora Petrinsularis_;[45] but let him also allow our +Quintus his _Window-flora_.--There was no such thing as school all day; +so he had time enough to seek his Butcher (his brother), and commence +(when could there be finer frost for it?) the slaughtering of their +winter-meat. Some days before, the brother, at the peril of his life and +of a cudgelling, had caught their stalled-beast--so they called the +sparrow--under a window-sill in the Castle. Their slaughtering wants not +an axe (of wood), nor puddings, nor potted meat.--About three o'clock +the old Gardener, whom neighbours have to call the Professor of +Gardening, takes his place on his large chair, with his Cologne +tobacco-pipe; and after this no mortal shall work a stroke. He tells +nothing but lies; of the aeronautic Christ-child, and the jingling +Ruprecht with his bells. In the dusk, our little Quintus takes an apple; +divides it into all the figures of stereometry, and spreads the +fragments in two heaps on the table: then as the lighted candle enters, +he starts up in amazement at the unexpected present, and says to his +brother: "Look what the good Christ-child has given thee and me; and I +saw one of his wings glittering." And for this same glittering he +himself lies in wait the whole evening. + + [44] These antique Christmas festivities Richter describes with + equal _gusto_ in another work (_Briefe und Zukünftige Lebenslemf_); + where the Christ-child (falsely reported to the young ones, to have + been seen flying through the air, with gold wings); the Birch-bough + fixed in a corner of the room, and by him made to grow; the fruit, + of gilt sweetmeats, apples, nuts, which (for good boys) it suddenly + produces, &c. &c. are specified with the same fidelity as + here.--ED. + + [45] Which he purposed to make for his Island of St. Pierre in the + Bienne Lake. + +About eight o'clock,--here he walks chiefly by the chronicle of his +letter-drawer,--both of them, with necks almost excoriated with washing, +and in clean linen, and in universal anxiety lest the Holy Christ-child +find them up, are put to bed. What a magic night!--What tumult of +dreaming hopes!--The populous, motley, glittering cave of Fancy opens +itself, in the length of the night, and in the exhaustion of dreamy +effort, still darker and darker, fuller and more grotesque; but the +awakening gives back to the thirsty heart its hopes. All accidental +tones, the cries of animals, of watchmen, are, for the timidly devout +Fancy, sounds out of Heaven; singing voices of Angels in the air, +church-music of the morning worship. + +Ah! it was not the mere Lubberland of sweetmeats and playthings which +then, with its perspective, stormed like a river of joy against the +chambers of our hearts; and which yet, in the moonlight of memory, with +its dusky landscapes, melts our souls in sweetness. Ah! this was it, +that then for our boundless wishes there were still boundless hopes: but +now reality is round us, and the wishes are all that we have left! + +At last came rapid lights from the neighbourhood playing through the +window on the walls, and the Christmas trumpets, and the crowing from +the steeple, hurries both the boys from their bed. With their clothes in +their hands, without fear for the darkness, without feeling for the +morning-frost, rushing, intoxicated, shouting, they hurry down-stairs +into the dark room. Fancy riots in the pastry and fruit-perfume of the +still eclipsed treasures, and paints her air-castles by the glimmering +of the Hesperides-fruit with which the Birch-tree is loaded. While their +mother strikes a light, the falling sparks sportfully open and shroud +the dainties on the table, and the many-coloured grove on the wall; and +a single atom of that fire bears on it a hanging garden of Eden.---- + +--On a sudden all grew light; and the Quintus got--the Conrectorship, +and a table-clock. + + + + +FOURTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Office-brokage. Discovery of the promised Secret. Hans van Füchslein._ + + +For while the Quintus, in his vapoury chamber, was thus running over the +sounding-board of his early years, the Rathsdiener, or City-officer, +entered with a lantern and the Presentation; and behind him the courier +of the Frau von Aufhammer with a note and a table-clock. The +Rittmeisterinn had transformed her payment for the Dog-days +sickbed-exhortation into a Christmas present; which consisted, _first_, +of a table-clock, with a wooden ape thereon, starting out when the hours +struck, and drumming along with every stroke; _secondly_, of the +Conrectorate, which she had procured for him. + +As in the public this appointment from the private Flachsenfingen +Council has not been judged of as it deserved, I consider it my duty to +offer a defence for the body corporate; and that rather here, than in +the _Reichsanzeiger_, or _Imperial Indicator_.--I have already +mentioned, in the Second Letter-Box, that the Town-Syndic drove a trade +in Hamburg candles; and the then Bürgermeister in coffee-beans, which he +sold as well whole as ground. Their joint traffic, however, which they +carried on exclusively, was in the eight School-offices of +Flachsenfingen: the other members of the Council acting only as +bale-wrappers, shopmen and accountants in the Council wareroom. A +Council-house, indeed, is like an India-house, where not only +resolutions or appointments, but also shoes and cloth, are exposed to +sale. Properly speaking, the Councillor derives his freedom of +office-trading from that principle of the Roman law: _Cui jus est +donandi, eidem et vendendi jus est_, that is to say, He who has the +right of giving anything away, has also a right to dispose of it for +money, if he can. Now as the Council-members have palpably the right of +conferring offices gratis, the right of selling them must follow of +course. + + +_Short Extra-word on Appointment-brokers in general._ + +My chief anxiety is lest the Academy-product-sale-Commission[46] of the +State carry on its office-trade too slackly. And what but the commonweal +must suffer in the long-run, if important posts are distributed, not +according to the current cash, which is laid down for them, but +according to connexions, relationships, party recommendations, and +bowings and cringings? Is it not a contradiction, to charge titulary +offices dearer than real ones? Should not one rather expect that the +real Hofrath would pay higher by the _alterum tantum_ than the mere +titulary Hofrath?--Money, among European nations, is now the equivalent +and representative of value in all things, and consequently in +understanding; the rather as a _head_ is stamped on it: to pay down the +purchase-money of an office is therefore neither more nor less than to +stand an _examen rigorosum_, which is held by a good _schema +examinandi_. To invert this, to pretend exhibiting your qualifications, +in place of these their surrogates, and assignates and _monnoie de +confiance_, is simply to resemble the crazy philosophers in _Gulliver's +Travels_, who, for social converse, instead of names of things, brought +the things themselves tied up in a bag; it is, indeed, plainly as much +as trying to fall back into the barbarous times of trade by barter, when +the Romans, instead of the figured cattle on their leather money, drove +forth the beeves themselves. + + [46] Borrowed from the "Imperial Mine-product-sale-Commission," in + Vienna: in their very names these Vienna people show taste. + +From all such injudicious notions I myself am so far removed, that often +when I used to read that the King of France was devising new offices, to +stand and sell them under the booth of his Baldaquin, I have set myself +to do something of the like. This I shall now at least calmly propose; +not vexing my heart whether Governments choose to adopt it or not. As +our Sovereign will not allow us to multiply offices purely for sale, +nay, on the contrary, is day and night (like managers of strolling +companies) meditating how to give more parts to one State-actor; and +thus to the Three Stage Unities to add a Fourth, that of Players; as the +above French method, therefore, will not apply, could not we at least +contrive to invent some Virtues harmonising with the offices, along with +which they might be sold as titles? Might we not, for instance, with the +office of a Referendary, put off at the same time a titular +Incorruptibility, for a fair consideration; and so that this virtue, as +not belonging to the office, must be separately paid for by the +candidate? Such a market-title and patent of nobility could not but be +ornamental to a Referendary. We forget that in former times such high +titles were appended to all posts whatsoever: the scholastic Professor +then wrote himself (besides his official designation) "The Seraphic," +"The Incontrovertible," "The Penetrating;" the King wrote himself "The +Great," "The Bald," "The Bold," and so also did the Rabbins. Could it be +unpleasant to gentlemen in the higher stations of Justice, if the titles +of Impartiality, Rapidity, &c. might be conferred on them by sale, as +well as the posts themselves? Thus with the appointment of a Kammerrath, +or Councillor of Revenue, the virtue of Patriotism might fitly be +conjoined; and I believe, few Advocates would grudge purchasing the +title of Integrity (as well as their common one of Government-advocacy), +were it to be had in the market. If, however, any candidate chose to +take his post without the virtues, then it would stand with himself to +do so, and in the adoption of this reflex morality, Government should +not constrain him. + +It might be that, as, according to Tristram Shandy, clothes; according +to Walter Shandy and Lavater, proper names exert an influence on men, +appellatives would do so still more; since, on us, as on testaceous +animals, _the foam so often hardens into shell_: but such internal +morality is not a thing the State can have an eye to; for, as in the +fine arts, it is not this, but the _representation_ of it, which forms +her true aim. + +I have found it rather difficult to devise for our different offices +different verbal-virtues; but I should think there might many such +divisions of Virtue (at this moment, Love of Freedom, Public-spirit, +Sincerity and Uprightness occur to me) be hunted out; were but some +well-disposed minister of state to appoint a Virtue-board or Moral +Address Department, with some half dozen secretaries, who, for a small +salary, might devise various virtues for the various posts. Were I in +their place, I should hold a good prism before the white ray of Virtue, +and divide it completely. Pity that it were not crimes we wanted--their +subdivision I mean;--our country Judges might then be selected for this +purpose. For in their tribunals, where only inferior jurisdiction, and +no penalty above five florins Frankish, is admitted, they have a daily +training how out of every mischief to make several small ones, none of +which they ever punish to a greater amount than their five florins. This +is a precious moral _Rolfinkenism_, which our Jurists have learned from +the great Sin-cutters, St. Augustin and his Sorbonne, who together have +carved more sins on Adam's Sin-apple than ever Rolfinken did faces on a +cherry-stone. How different one of our Judges from a Papal Casuist, who, +by side-scrapings, will rasp you down the best deadly sin into a +venial!-- + +School-offices (to come to these) are a small branch of traffic +certainly; yet still they are monarchies,--school-monarchies, to +wit,--resembling the Polish crown, which, according to Pope's verse, is +twice exposed to sale in the century; a statement, I need hardly say, +arithmetically false, Newton having settled the average duration of a +reign at twenty-two years. For the rest, whether the city Council bring +the young of the community a Hameln _Rat_-and-Child-_catcher_; or a +Weisse's _Child's-friend_,--this to the Council can make no difference; +seeing the Schoolmaster is not a horse, for whose secret defects the +horse-dealer is to be responsible. It is enough if Town-Syndic and Co. +cannot reproach themselves with having picked out any fellow of genius; +for a genius, as he is useless to the State, except for recreation and +ornament, would at the very least exclude the duller, cooler head, who +properly forms the true care and profit of the State; as your costly +carat-pearl is good for show alone, but coarse grain-pearls for +medicine. On the whole, if a schoolmaster be adequate to flog his +scholars, it should suffice; and I cannot but blame our Commission of +Inspectors when they go examining schools, that they do not make the +schoolmaster go through the duty of firking one or two young persons of +his class in their presence, by way of trial, to see what is in him. + + +_End of the Extra-word on Appointment-brokers in general._ + +Now again to our history! The Councillor Heads of the Firm had conferred +the Conrectorate on my hero, not only with a view to the continued +consumpt of candles and beans, but also on the strength of a quite mad +notion: they believed, the Quintus would very soon die. + +--And here I have reached a most important circumstance in this History, +and one into which I have yet let no mortal look: now, however, it no +longer depends on my will whether I shall shove aside the folding-screen +from it or not; but I must positively lay it open, nay hang a +reverberating-lamp over it. + +In medical history, it is a well-known fact that in certain families the +people all die precisely at the same age, just as in these families they +are all born at the same age (of nine months); nay, from Voltaire, I +recollect one family, the members of which at the same age all killed +themselves. Now, in the Fixleinic lineage, it was the custom that the +male ascendants uniformly on Cantata-Sunday, in their thirty-second +year, took to bed and died: every one of my readers would do well to +insert in his copy of the _Thirty-Years War_, Schiller having entirely +omitted it, the fact, that in the course thereof, one Fixlein died of +the plague, another of hunger, another of a musket-bullet; all in their +thirty-second year. True Philosophy explains the matter thus: "The first +two or three times, it happened purely by accident; and the other times, +the people died of sheer fright: if not so, the whole fact is rather to +be questioned." + +But what did Fixlein make of the affair? Little or nothing: the only +thing he did was, that he took little or no pains to fall in love with +Thiennette; that so no other might have cause for fear on his account. +He himself, however, for five reasons, minded it so little, that he +hoped to be older than Senior Astmann before he died: First, because +three Gipsies, in three different places and at three different times, +had each shown him the same long vista of years in her magic mirror. +Secondly, because he had a sound constitution. Thirdly, because his own +brother had formed an exception, and perished before the thirties. +Fourthly, on this ground: When a boy he had fallen sick of sorrow, on +the very Cantata-Sunday when his father was lying in the winding-sheet, +and only been saved from death by his playthings; and with this +Cantata-sickness, he conceived that he had given the murderous Genius of +his race the slip. Fifthly, the church-books being destroyed, and with +them the certainty of his age, he could never fall into a right +definite deadly fear: "It may be," said he, "that I have got whisked +away over this whoreson year, and no one the wiser." I will not deny +that last year he had fancied he was two-and-thirty: "however," said he, +"if I am not to be so till, God willing, the next (1792), it may run +away as smoothly as the last; am I not always in _His_ keeping? And were +it unjust if the pretty years that were broken off from the life of my +brother should be added to mine?"--Thus, under the cold snow of the +Present, does poor man strive to warm himself, or to mould out of it a +fair snow-man. + +The Councillor Oligarchy, however, built upon the opposite opinion; and, +like a Divinity, elevated our Quintus all at once from the Quintusship +to the Conrectorate; swearing to themselves, that he would soon vacate +it again. Properly speaking, by school-seniority, this holy chair should +have belonged to the Subrector Hans von Füchslein; but he wished it not; +being minded to become Hukelum Parson; especially, as Astmann's +Death-angel, according to sure intelligence, was opening more and more +widely the door of this spiritual sheepfold. "If the fellow weather +another year, 'tis more than I expect," said Hans. + +This Hans was such a churl, that it is pity he had not been a Hanoverian +Postboy; that so, by the Mandate of the Hanoverian Government, enjoining +on all its Post-officers an elegant style of manners, he might have +somewhat refined himself. To our poor Quintus, whom no mortal disliked, +and who again could hate no mortal, he alone bore a grudge; simply +because _Fixlein_ did not write himself _Füchslein_, and had not chosen +along with him to purchase a Patent of Nobility. The Subrector, on this +his Patent triumphal chariot, drawn by a team of four specified +ancestors, was obliged to see the Quintus, who was related to him, +clutching by the lackey-straps behind the carriage; and to hear him, in +the most despicable raiment, saying to the train: "He that rides there +is my cousin, and a mortal, and I always remind him of it." The mild +compliant Quintus never noticed this large wasp-poisonbag in the +Subrector, but took it for a honeybag; nay, by his brotherly warmness, +which the nobleman regarded as mere show, he concreted these venomous +juices into still feller consistency. The Quintus, in his simplicity, +took Füchslein's contempt for envy of his pedagogic talents. + +A Catherinenhof, an Annenhof, an Elizabethhof, Stralenhof and Petershof, +all these Russian pleasure palaces, a man can dispense with (if not +despise), who has a room, in which on Christmas-eve he walks about with +a Presentation in his hand. The new Conrector now longed for nothing +but--daylight: joys always (cares never) nibbled from him, like +sparrows, his sleep-grains; and tonight, moreover, the registrator of +his glad time, the clock-ape, drummed out every hour to him, which, +accordingly, he spent in gay dreaming, rather than in sound snoring. + +On Christmas-morn, he looked at his Class-prodromus, and thought but +little of it; he scarcely knew what to make of his last night's foolish +inflation about his Quintusship: "the Quintus-post," said he to himself, +"is not to be named in the same day with the Conrectorate; I wonder how +I could parade so last night before my promotion; at present, I had more +reason." Today he ate, as on all Sundays and holydays, with the +Master-Butcher Steinberger, his former Guardian. To this man, Fixlein +was, what common people are _always_, but polished philosophical and +sentimental people very _seldom_ are,--_thankful_: a man thanks you the +less for presents, the more inclined he is to give presents of his own; +and the beneficent is rarely a grateful person. Meister Steinberger, in +the character of store-master, had introduced into the wire-cage of a +garret, where Fixlein, while a Student at Leipzig, was suspended, many a +well-filled trough with good canary-meat, of hung-beef, of household +bread and _Sauerkraut_. Money indeed was never to be wrung from him: it +is well known that he often sent the best calfskins gratis to the +tanner, to be boots for our Quintus; but the tanning-charges the Ward +himself had to bear.--On Fixlein's entrance, as was at all times +customary, a smaller damask table-cloth was laid upon the large coarser +one; the armchair; silver implements, and a wine-stoup were handed him; +mere waste, which, as the Guardian used to say, suited well enough for a +Scholar; but for a Flesher not at all. Fixlein first took his victuals, +and then signified that he was made Conrector. "Ward," said Steinberger, +"if you are made that, it is well.--Seest thou, Eva, I cannot buy a tail +of thy cows now; I must have smelt it beforehand." He was hereby +informing his daughter that the cash set apart for the fatted cattle +must now be applied to the Conrectorate; for he was in the habit of +advancing all instalment-dues to his ward, at an interest of four and a +half per cent. Fifty gulden he had already lent the Quintus on his +advancement to the Quintusship: of these the interest had to be duly +paid; yet, on the day of payment, the Quintus always got some +abatement; being wont every Sunday after dinner to instruct his +guardian's daughter in arithmetic, writing and geography. Steinberger +with justice required of his own grown-up daughter that she should know +all the towns, where he in his wanderings as a journeyman had slain fat +oxen; and if she slipped, or wrote crookedly, or subtracted wrong, he +himself, as Academical Senate and Justiciary, was standing behind her +chair, ready, so to speak, with the forge-hammer of his fist to beat out +the dross from her brain, and at a few strokes hammer it into right +ductility. The soft Quintus, for his part, had never struck her. On this +account she had perhaps, with a few glances, appointed him executor and +assignee of her heart. The old Flesher--simply because his wife was +dead--had constantly been in the habit of searching with mine-lamps and +pokers into all the corners of Eva's heart; and had in consequence long +ago observed--what the Quintus never did--that she had a mind for the +said Quintus. Young women conceal their sorrows more easily than their +joys: today at the mention of this Conrectorate, Eva had become +unusually _red_. + +When she went after breakfast to bring in coffee, which the Ward had to +drink down to the grounds: "I beat Eva to death if she but look at him," +said he. Then addressing Fixlein: "Hear you, Ward, did you never cast an +eye on my Eva? She can suffer you, and if you want her, you get her; but +_we_ have done with one another: for a learned man needs quite another +sort of thing." + +"Herr Regiments-Quartermaster," said Fixlein (for this post Steinberger +filled in the provincial Militia), "such a match were far too rich, at +any rate, for a Schoolman." The Quartermaster nodded fifty times; and +then said to Eva, as she returned,--at the same time taking down from +the shelf a wooden crook, on which he used to rack out and suspend his +slain calves: "Stop!--Hark, dost wish the present Herr Conrector here +for thy husband?" + +"Ah, good Heaven!" said Eva. + +"Mayst wish him or not," continued the Flesher; "with this crook, thy +father knocks thy brains out, if thou but think of a learned man. Now +make his coffee." And so by the dissevering stroke of this wooden crook +was a love easily smitten asunder, which in a higher rank, by such +cutting through it with the sword, would only have foamed and hissed the +keenlier. + +Fixlein might now, at any hour he liked, lay hold of fifty florins +Frankish, and clutch the pedagogic sceptre, and become coadjutor of the +Rector, that is, Conrector. We may assert, that it is with debts, as +with proportions in Architecture; of which Wolf has shown that those are +the best, which can be expressed in the smallest numbers. Nevertheless, +the Quartermaster cheerfully took learned men under his arm: for the +notion that his debtor would decease in his thirty-second year, and that +so Death, as creditor in the first rank, must be paid his Debt of +Nature, before the other creditors could come forward with their +debts--this notion he named stuff and oldwifery; he was neither +superstitious nor fanatical, and he walked by firm principles of action, +such as the common man much oftener has than your vapouring man of +letters, or your empty dainty man of rank. + + * * * * * + +As it is but a few clear Ladydays, warm Mayday-nights, at the most a few +odorous Rose-weeks, which I am digging from this Fixleinic Life, +embedded in the dross of week-day cares; and as if they were so many +veins of silver, am separating, stamping, smelting and burnishing for +the reader,--I must now travel on with the stream of his history to +Cantata-Sunday, 1792, before I can gather a few handfuls of this +gold-dust, to carry in and wash in my biographical gold-hut. That +Sunday, on the contrary, is very metalliferous: do but consider that +Fixlein is yet uncertain (the ashes of the Church-books not being +legible) whether it is conducting him into his thirty-second or his +thirty-third year. + +From Christmas till then he did nothing, but simply became Conrector. +The new chair of office was a Sun-altar, on which, from his +Quintus-ashes, a young Phoenix combined itself together. Great +changes--in offices, marriages, travels--make us younger; we always date +our history from the last revolution, as the French have done from +theirs. A colonel, who first set foot on the ladder of seniority as +corporal, is five times younger than a king, who in his whole life has +never been aught else except a--crown-prince. + + + + +FIFTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Cantata-Sunday. Two Testaments. Pontac; Blood; Love._ + + +The Spring months clothe the earth in new variegated hues; but man they +usually dress in black. Just when our icy regions are becoming fruitful, +and the flower-waves of the meadows are rolling together over our +quarter of the globe, we on all hands meet with men in sables, the +beginning of whose Spring is full of tears. But, on the other hand, +this very upblooming of the renovated earth is itself the best balm for +sorrow over those who lie under it; and graves are better hid by +blossoms than by snow. + +In April, which is no less deadly than it is fickle, old Senior Astmann, +our Conrector's teacher, was overtaken by death. His departure it was +meant to hide from the Rittmeisterinn; but the unusual ringing of +funereal peals carried his swan-song to her heart; and gradually set the +curfew-bell of her life into similar movement. Age and sufferings had +already marked out the first incisions for Death, so that he required +but little effort to cut her down; for it is with men as with trees, +they are notched long before felling, that their life-sap may exude. The +second stroke of apoplexy was soon followed by the last: it is strange +that Death, like criminal courts, cites the apoplectic thrice. + +Men are apt to postpone their _last_ will as long as their _better_ one: +the Rittmeisterinn would perhaps have let all her hours, till the +speechless and deaf one, roll away without testament, had not +Thiennette, during the last night, before from sick-nurse she became +corpse-watcher, reminded the patient of the poor Conrector, and of his +meagre hunger-bitten existence, and of the scanty aliment and +board-wages which Fortune had thrown him, and of his empty Future, +where, like a drooping yellow plant in the parched deal-box of the +schoolroom between scholars and creditors, he must languish to the end. +Her own poverty offered her a model of his; and her inward tears were +the fluid tints with which she coloured her picture. As the +Rittmeisterinn's testament related solely to domestics and dependents, +and as she began with the male ones, Fixlein stood at the top; and +Death, who must have been a special friend of the Conrector's, did not +lift his scythe and give the last stroke till his protegee had been with +audible voice declared testamentary heir; then he cut all away, life, +testament and hopes. + +When the Conrector, in a wash-bill from his mother, received these two +Death's-posts and Job's-posts in his class, the first thing he did was +to dismiss his class-boys, and break into tears before reaching home. +Though the mother had informed him that he had been remembered in the +will (I could wish, however, that the Notary had blabbed how much it +was), yet almost with every O which he masoretically excerpted from his +German Bible, and entered in his Masoretic Work, great drops fell down +on his pen, and made his black ink pale. His sorrow was not the +gorgeous sorrow of the Poet, who veils the gaping wounds of the +departed in the winding-sheet, and breaks the cry of anguish in soft +tones of plaintiveness; nor the sorrow of the Philosopher, who, through +one open grave, must look into the whole catacomb-Necropolis of the +Past, and before whom the spectre of a friend expands into the spectral +Shadow of this whole Earth: but it was the woe of a child, of a mother, +whom this thought itself, without subsidiary reflections, bitterly cuts +asunder: "So I shall never more see thee; so must thou moulder away, and +I shall never see thee, thou good soul, never, never any more!"--And +even because he neither felt the philosophical nor the poetical sadness, +every trifle could make a division, a break in his mourning; and, like a +woman, he was that very evening capable of sketching some plans for the +future employment of his legacy. + +Four weeks after, to wit, on the 5th of May, the testament was unsealed; +but not till the 6th (Cantata-Sunday) did he go down to Hukelum. His +mother met his salutations with tears; which she shed, over the corpse +for grief, over the testament for joy.--To the now Conrector Egidius +Zebedäus was left: _In the first place_, a large sumptuous bed, with a +mirror-tester, in which the giant Goliath might have rolled at his ease, +and to which I and my fair readers will by and by approach nearer, to +examine it; _secondly_, there was devised to him, as unpaid +Easter-godchild-money, for every year that he had lived, one ducat; +_thirdly_, all the admittance and instalment dues, which his elevation +to the Quintate and Conrectorate had cost him, were to be made good to +the utmost penny. "And dost thou know, then," proceeded the mother, +"what the poor Fräulein has got? Ah Heaven! Nothing! Not one brass +farthing!" For Death had stiffened the hand which was just stretching +itself out to reach the poor Thiennette a little rain-screen against the +foul weather of life. The mother related this perverse trick of Fortune +with true condolence; which in women dissipates envy, and comes easier +to them than congratulation, a feeling belonging rather to men. In many +female hearts sympathy and envy are such near door-neighbours that they +could be virtuous nowhere except in Hell, where men have such frightful +times of it; and vicious nowhere except in Heaven, where people have +more happiness than they know what to do with. + +The Conrector was now enjoying on Earth that Heaven to which his +benefactress had ascended. First of all, he started off--without so much +as putting up his handkerchief, in which lay his emotion--up-stairs to +see the legacy-bed unshrouded; for he had a _female_ predilection for +furniture. I know not whether the reader ever looked at or mounted any +of these ancient chivalric beds, into which, by means of a little stair +without balustrades, you can easily ascend; and in which you, properly +speaking, sleep always at least one story above ground. Nazianzen +informs us (_Orat. XVI._) that the Jews, in old times, had high beds +with cock-ladders of this sort; but simply because of vermin. The legacy +bed-Ark was quite as large as one of these; and a flea would have +measured it not in Diameters of the Earth, but in Distances of Sirius. +When Fixlein beheld this colossal dormitory, with the curtains drawn +asunder, and its canopy of looking-glass, he could have longed to be in +it; and had it been in his power to cut from the opaque hemisphere of +Night, at that time in America, a small section, he would have +established himself there along with it, just to swim about, for one +half hour, with his thin lath figure, in this sea of down. The mother, +by longer chains of reasoning and chains of calculation than the bed +was, had not succeeded in persuading him to have the broad mirror on the +top cut in pieces, though his large dressing-table had nothing to see +itself in but a mere shaving-glass: he let the mirror lie where it was +for this reason: "Should I ever, God willing, get married," said he, "I +shall then, towards morning, be able to look at my sleeping wife, +without sitting up in bed." + +As to the second article of the testament, the godchild Easter-pence, +his mother had, last night, arranged it perfectly. The Lawyer took her +evidence on the years of the heir; and these she had stated at exactly +the teeth-number, two-and-thirty. She would willingly have lied, and +passed off her son, like an Inscription, for older than he was: but +against this _venia ætatis_, she saw too well, the authorities would +have taken exception, "that it was falsehood and cozenage; had the son +been two-and-thirty, he must have been dead some time ago, as it could +not but be presumed that he then was." + +And just as she was recounting this, a servant from Schadeck called, and +delivered to the Conrector, in return for a discharge and ratification +of the birth-certificate given out by his mother, a gold bar of +two-and-thirty ducat age-counters, like a helm-bar for the voyage of his +life: Herr von Aufhammer was too proud to engage in any pettifogging +discussion over a plebeian birth-certificate. + +And thus, by a proud open-handedness, was one of the best lawsuits +thrown to the dogs: seeing this gold bar might, in the wire-mill of the +judgment-bench, have been drawn out into the finest threads. From such a +tangled lock, which was not to be unravelled--for, in the first place, +there was no document to prove Fixlein's age; in the second place, so +long as he lived, the necessary conclusion was, that he was not yet +thirty-two[47]--from such a lock, might not only silk and hanging-cords, +but whole dragnets have been spun and twisted. Clients in general would +have less reason to complain of their causes, if these lasted longer: +Philosophers contend for thousands of years over philosophical +questions; and it seems an unaccountable thing, therefore, that +Advocates should attempt to end their juristical questions in a space of +eighty, or even sometimes of sixty years. But the professors of law are +not to blame for this: on the other hand, as Lessing asserts of Truth, +that not the _finding_ but the _seeking_ of it profits men, and that he +himself would willingly make over his claim to all truths in return for +the sweet labour of investigation, so is the professor of Law not +profited by the finding and deciding, but by the investigation of a +juridical truth,--which is called pleading and practising,--and he would +willingly consent to approximate to Truth forever, like an hyperbola to +its asymptote, without ever meeting it, seeing he can subsist as an +honourable man with wife and child, let such approximation be as tedious +as it likes. + + [47] As, by the evidence at present before us, we can found on no + other presumption, than that he must die in his thirty-second year; + it would follow, that, in case he died two-and-thirty years after + the death of the testatrix, no farthing could he claimed by him; + since, according to our notion, at the making of the testament he + was not even one year old. + +The Schadeck servant had, besides the gold legacy, a farther commission +from the Lawyer, whereby the testamentary heir was directed to sum up +the mint-dues which he had been obliged to pay while lying under the +coining-press of his superiors, as Quintus and Conrector; the which, +properly documented and authenticated, were forthwith to be made good to +him. + +Our Conrector, who now rated himself among the great capitalists of the +world, held his short gold-roll like a sceptre in his hand; like a +basket-net lifted from the sea of the Future, which was now to run on, +and bring him all manner of fed-fishes, well-washed, sound and in good +season. + +I cannot relate all things at once; else I should ere now have told the +reader, who must long have been waiting for it, that to the moneyed +Conrector his two-and-thirty godchild-pennies but too much prefigured +the two-and-thirty years of his age; besides which, today the +Cantata-Sunday, this Bartholomew-night and Second of September of his +family, came in as a farther aggravation. The mother, who should have +known the age of her child, said she had forgotten it; but durst wager +he was thirty-two a year ago; only the Lawyer was a man you could not +speak to. "I could swear it myself," said the capitalist; "I recollect +how stupid I felt on Cantata-Sunday last year." Fixlein beheld Death, +not as the poet does, in the up-towering, asunder-driving concave-mirror +of Imagination; but as the child, as the savage, as the peasant, as the +woman does, in the plane octavo-mirror on the board of a Prayer-book; +and Death looked to him like an old white-headed man, sunk down into +slumber in some latticed pew.-- + +And yet he thought oftener of him than last year: for joy readily melts +us into softness; and the lackered Wheel of Fortune is a cistern-wheel +that empties its water in our eyes.... But the friendly Genius of this +terrestrial, or rather aquatic Ball,--for, in the physical and in the +moral world, there are more tear-seas than firm land,--has provided for +the poor water-insects that float about in it, for us namely, a quite +special elixir against spasms in the soul: I declare this same Genius +must have studied the whole pathology of man with care; for to the poor +devil who is no Stoic, and can pay no Soul-doctor, that for the fissures +of his cranium and his breast might prepare costly prescriptions of +simples, he has stowed up cask-wise in all cellarages a precious +wound-water, which the patient has only to take and pour over his +slashes and bone-breakages--gin-twist, I mean, or beer, or a touch of +wine.... By Heaven! it is either stupid ingratitude towards this +medicinal Genius on the one hand, or theological confusion of permitted +tippling with prohibited drunkenness on the other, if men do not thank +God that they have something at hand, which, in the nervous vertigos of +life, will instantly supply the place of Philosophy, Christianity, +Judaism, Paganism and _Time_;--liquor, as I said. + +The Conrector had long before sunset given the village post three +groschens of post-money, and commissioned,--for he had a whole cabinet +of ducats in his pocket, which all day he was surveying in the dark with +his hand,--three thalers' worth of Pontac from the town. "I must have a +Cantata merrying-making," said he; "if it be my last day, let it be my +gayest too!" I could wish he had given a larger order; but he kept the +bit of moderation between his teeth at all times; even in a threatened +sham-death-night, and in the midst of jubilee. The question is, Whether +he would not have restricted himself to a single bottle, if he had not +wished to treat his mother and the Fräulein. Had he lived in the tenth +century, when the Day of Judgment was thought to be at hand, or in other +centuries, when new Noah's Deluges were expected, and when, accordingly, +like sailors in a shipwreck, people bouzed up all,--he would not have +spent one kreutzer more on that account. His joy was, that with his +legacy he could now satisfy his head-creditor Steinberger, and leave the +world an honest man: just people, who make much of money, pay their +debts the most punctually. + +The purple Pontac arrived at a time when Fixlein could compare the +red-chalk-drawings and red-letter-titles of joy, which it would bring +out on the cheeks of its drinker and drinkeresses,--with the +Evening-carnation of the last clouds about the Sun.... + +I declare, among all the spectators of this History, no one can be +thinking more about poor Thiennette than I; nevertheless, it is not +permitted me to bring her out from her tiring-room to my historical +scene, before the time. Poor girl! The Conrector cannot wish more warmly +than his Biographer, that, in the Temple of Nature as in that of +Jerusalem, there were a special door--besides that of Death--standing +open, through which only the afflicted entered, that a Priest might give +them solace. But Thiennette's heart-sickness over all her vanished +prospects, over her entombed benefactress, over a whole life enwrapped +in the pall, had hitherto, in a grief which the stony Rittmeister rather +made to bleed than alleviated, swept all away from her, occupations +excepted; had fettered all her steps which led not to some task, and +granted to her eyes nothing to dry them or gladden them, save +down-falling eyelids full of dreams and sleep. + +All sorrow raises us above the civic Ceremonial-law, and makes the +Prosaist a Psalmist: in sorrow alone have women courage to front +opinion. Thiennette walked out only in the evening, and then only in the +garden. + +The Conrector could scarcely wait for the appearance of his fair friend, +to offer his thanks,--and tonight also--his Pontac. Three Pontac +decanters and three wine-glasses were placed outside on the projecting +window-sill of his cottage; and every time he returned from the dusky +covered-way amid the flower-forests, he drank a little from his +glass,--and the mother sipped now and then from within through the +opened window. + +I have already said, his Life-laboratory lay in the south-west corner of +the garden or park, over against the Castle-Escurial, which stretched +back into the village. In the north-west corner bloomed an acacia-grove, +like the floral crown of the garden. Fixlein turned his steps in that +direction also; to see if, perhaps, he might not cast a happy glance +through the wide-latticed grove over the intervening meads to +Thiennette. He recoiled a little before two stone steps leading down +into a pond before this grove, which were sprinkled with fresh blood. On +the flags, also, there was blood hanging. Man shudders at this oil of +our life's lamp where he finds it shed: to him it is the red +death-signature of the Destroying Angel. Fixlein hurried apprehensively +into the grove; and found here his paler benefactress leaning on the +flower-bushes; her hands with their knitting-ware sunk into her bosom, +her eyes lying under their lids as if in the bandage of slumber; her +left arm in the real bandage of blood-letting; and with cheeks to which +the twilight was lending as much red, as late woundings--this day's +included--had taken from them. Fixlein, after his first terror--not at +this flower's-sleep, but at his own abrupt entrance--began to unrol the +spiral butterfly's-sucker of his vision, and to lay it on the motionless +leaves of this same sleeping flower. At bottom, I may assert, that this +was the first time he had ever looked at her: he was now among the +thirties; and he still continued to believe, that, in a young lady, he +must look at the clothes only, not the person, and wait on her with his +ears, not with his eyes. + +I impute it to the elevating influences of the Pontac, that the +Conrector plucked up courage to--turn, to come back, and employ the +resuscitating means of coughing, sneezing, trampling and calling to his +Shock, in stronger and stronger doses on the fair sleeper. To take her +by the hand, and, with some medical apology, gently pull her out of +sleep, this was an audacity of which the Conrector, so long as he could +stand for Pontac, and had any grain of judgment left, could never dream. + +However, he did awake her, by those other means. + +Wearied, heavy-laden Thiennette! how slowly does thy eye open! The +warmest balsam of this earth, soft sleep has shifted aside, and the +night-air of memory is again blowing on thy naked wounds!--And yet was +the smiling friend of thy youth the fairest object which thy eye could +light on, when it sank from the hanging garden of Dreams into this lower +one round thee. + +She herself was little conscious,--and the Conrector not at all,--that +she was bending her flower-leaves imperceptibly towards a terrestrial +body, namely towards Fixlein: she resembled an Italian flower, that +contains cunningly concealed within it a newyear's gift, which the +receiver knows not at first how to extract. But now the golden chain of +her late kind deed attracted her as well towards him, as him towards +her.--She at once gave her eye and her voice a mask of joy; for she did +not put her tears, as Catholics do those of Christ, in relic-vials, upon +altars to be worshiped. He could very suitably preface his invitation to +the Pontac festival, with a long acknowledgment of thanks for the kind +intervention which had opened to him the sources for procuring it. She +rose slowly, and walked with him to the banquet of wine; but he was not +so discreet, as at first to attempt leading her, or rather not so +courageous; he could more easily have offered a young lady his hand +(that is, with marriage ring) than offered her his arm. One only time in +his life had he escorted a female, a Lombard Countess from the theatre; +a thing truly not to be believed, were not this the secret of it, that +he was obliged; for the lady, a foreigner, parted in the press from all +her people, in a bad night, had laid hold of him as a sable Abbé by the +arm, and requested him to take her to her inn. He, however, knew the +fashions of society, and attended her no farther than the porch of his +Quintus-mansion, and there directed her with his finger to her inn, +which, with thirty blazing windows, was looking down from another +street. + +These things he cannot help. But tonight he had scarcely, with his fair +faint companion, reached the bank of the pond, into which some +superstitious dread of water-sprites had lately poured the pure blood of +her left arm,--when, in his terror lest she fell in, with the rest of +her blood, over the brink, he quite valiantly laid hold of the sick arm. +Thus will much Pontac and a little courage at all times put a Conrector +in case to lay hold of a Fräulein. I aver, that, at the banquet-board of +the wine, at the window-sill, he continued in the same conducting +position. What a soft group in the penumbra of the Earth, while Night, +with its dusky waters, was falling deeper and deeper, and the +silver-light of the Moon was already glancing back from the copper-ball +of the steeple! I call the group soft, because it consists of a maiden +that in two senses has been bleeding; of a mother again with tears +giving her thanks for the happiness of her child; and of a pious, modest +man, pouring wine, and drinking health to both, and who traces in his +veins a burning lava-stream, which is boiling through his heart, and +threatening piece by piece to melt it and bear it away.--A candle stood +without among the three bottles, like Reason among the Passions; on this +account the Conrector looked without intermission at the window-panes, +for on them (the darkness of the room served as mirror-foil) was +painted, among other faces which Fixlein liked, the face he liked best +of all, and which he dared to look at only in reflection, the face of +Thiennette. + +Every minute was a Federation-festival, and every second a +Preparation-Sabbath for it. The Moon was gleaming from the evening dew, +and the Pontac from their eyes, and the bean-stalks were casting a +shorter grating of shadow.--The quicksilver-drops of stars were hanging +more and more continuous in the sable of night.--The warm vapour of the +wine set our two friends (like steam-engines) again in motion. + +Nothing makes the heart fuller and bolder than walking to and fro in the +night. Fixlein now led the Fräulein in his arm without scruple. By +reason of her lancet-wound, Thiennette could only put her hand, in a +clasping position, in his arm; and he, to save her the trouble of +holding fast, held fast himself, and pressed her fingers as well as +might be with his arm to his heart. It would betray a total want of +polished manners to censure his. At the same time, trifles are the +provender of Love; the fingers are electric dischargers of a fire +sparkling along every fibre; sighs are the guiding tones of two +approximating hearts; and the worst and most effectual thing of all in +such a case is some misfortune; for the fire of Love, like that of +naphtha, likes to swim on water. Two teardrops, one in another's, one in +your own eyes, compose, as with two convex lenses, a microscope which +enlarges everything, and changes all sorrows into charms. Good sex! I +too consider every sister in misfortune as fair; and perhaps thou +wouldst deserve the name of the Fair, even because thou art the +Suffering sex! + +And if Professor Hunczogsky in Vienna modelled all the wounds of the +human frame in wax, to teach his pupils how to cure them, I also, thou +good sex, am representing in little figures the cuts and scars of thy +spirit, though only to keep away rude hands from inflicting new ones.... + +Thiennette felt not the loss of the inheritance, but of her that should +have left it; and this more deeply for one little trait, which she had +already told his mother, as she now told him: In the last two nights of +the Rittmeisterinn, when the feverish watching was holding up to +Thiennette's imagination nothing but the winding-sheet and the +mourning-coaches of her protectress; while she was sitting at the foot +of the bed, looking on those fixed eyes, unconsciously quick drops often +trickled over her cheeks, while in thought she prefigured the heavy, +cumbrous dressing of her benefactress for the coffin. Once, after +midnight, the dying lady pointed with her finger to her own lips. +Thiennette understood her not; but rose and bent over her face. The +Enfeebled tried to lift her head, but could not,--and only rounded her +lips. At last, a thought glanced through Thiennette, that the Departing, +whose dead arms could now press no beloved heart to her own, wished that +she herself should embrace her. O then, that instant, keen and tearful +she pressed her warm lips on the colder,--and she was silent like her +that was to speak no more,--and she embraced alone and was not embraced. +About four o'clock, the finger waved again;--she sank down on the +stiffened lips--but this had been no signal, for the lips of her friend +under the long kiss had grown stiff and cold.... + +How deeply now, before the infinite Eternity's-countenance of Night, did +the cutting of this thought pass through Fixlein's warm soul: "O thou +forsaken one beside me! No happy accident, no twilight hast thou, like +that now glimmering in the heavens, to point to the prospect of a sunny +day: without parents art thou, without brother, without friend; here +alone on a disblossomed, emptied corner of the Earth; and thou, left +Harvest-flower, must wave lonely and frozen over the withered stubble of +the Past." That was the meaning of his thoughts, whose internal words +were: "Poor young lady! Not so much as a half-cousin left; no nobleman +will seek her, and she grows old so forgotten, and she is so good from +the very heart--Me she has made happy--Ah, had I the presentation to the +parish of Hukelum in my pocket, I should make a trial.".... Their mutual +lives, which a straitcutting bond of Destiny was binding so closely +together, now rose before him overhung with sable,--and he forthwith +conducted his friend (for a bashful man may in an hour and a half be +transformed into the boldest, and then continues so) back to the last +flask, that all these upsprouting thistles and passion-flowers of sorrow +might therewith be swept away. I remark, in passing, that this was +stupid: the torn vine is full of water-veins as well as grapes; and a +soft oppressed heart the beverage of joy can melt only into tears. + +If any man disagree with me, I shall desire him to look at the +Conrector, who demonstrates my experimental maxim like a very +syllogism.--One might arrive at some philosophic views, if one traced +out the causes, why liquors--that is to say, in the long-run, more +plentiful secretion of the nervous spirits--make men at once pious, soft +and poetical. The Poet, like Apollo his father, is _forever a youth_; +and is, what other men are only once, namely in love,--or only after +Pontac, namely intoxicated,--all his life long. Fixlein, who had been no +poet in the morning, now became one at night: wine made him pious and +soft; the Harmonica-bells in man, which sound to the tones of a higher +world, must, like the glass Harmonica-bells, if they are to act, be kept +_moist_. + +He was now standing with her again beside the wavering pond, in which +the second blue hemisphere of heaven, with dancing stars and amid +quivering trees, was playing; over the green hills ran the white crooked +footpaths dimly along; on the one mountain was the twilight sinking +together, on the other was the mist of night rising up; and over all +these vapours of life, hung motionless and flaming the thousand-armed +lustre of the starry heaven, and every arm held in it a burning +galaxy.... + +It now struck eleven.... Amid such scenes, an unknown hand stretches +itself out in man, and writes in foreign language on his heart, a dread +_Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin_. "Perhaps by twelve I am dead," thought our +friend, in whose soul the Cantata-Sunday, with all its black funeral +piles, was mounting up. + +The whole future Crucifixion-path of his friend lay prickly and +bethorned before him; and he saw every bloody trace from which she +lifted her foot,--she who had made his own way soft with flowers and +leaves. He could no longer restrain himself; trembling in his whole +frame, and with a trembling voice, he solemnly said to her: "If the Lord +this night call me away, let the half of my fortune be yours; for it is +your goodness I must thank that I am free of debts, as few Teachers +are." + +Thiennette, unacquainted with our sex, naturally mistook this speech +for a proposal of marriage; and the fingers of her wounded arm, tonight +for the first time, pressed suddenly against the arm in which they lay; +the only living mortal's arm, by which Joy, Love and the Earth, were +still united with her bosom. The Conrector, rapturously terrified at the +first pressure of a female hand, bent over his right to take hold of her +left; and Thiennette, observing his unsuccessful movement, lifted her +fingers, and laid her whole wounded arm in his, and her whole left hand +in his right. Two lovers dwell in the Whispering-gallery,[48] where the +faintest breath bodies itself forth into a sound. The good Conrector +received and returned this blissful love-pressure, wherewith our poor +powerless soul, stammering, hemmed in, longing, distracted, seeks for a +warmer language, which exists not: he was overpowered; he had not the +courage to look at her; but he looked into the gleam of the twilight, +and said (and here for unspeakable love the tears were running warm over +his cheeks): "Ah, I will give you all; fortune, life and all that I +have, my heart and my hand." + + [48] In St. Paul's Church at London, where the slightest whisper + sounds over across a space of 143 feet. + +She was about to answer, but casting a side-glance, she cried, with a +shriek: "Ah, Heaven!" He started round; and perceived the white muslin +sleeve all dyed with blood; for in putting her arm into his, she had +pushed away the bandage from the open vein. With the speed of lightning, +he hurried her into the acacia-grove; the blood was already running from +the muslin; he grew paler than she, for every drop of it was coming from +his heart. The blue-white arm was bared; the bandage was put on; he tore +a piece of gold from his pocket; clapped it, as one does, with open +arteries, on the spouting fountain, and bolted with this golden bar, and +with the bandage over it, the door out of which her afflicted life was +hurrying.-- + +When it was over, she looked up to him; pale, languid, but her eyes were +two glistening fountains of an unspeakable love, full of sorrow and full +of gratitude.--The exhausting loss of blood was spreading her soul +asunder in sighs. Thiennette was dissolved into inexpressible softness; +and the heart, lacerated by so many years, by so many arrows, was +plunging with all its wounds in warm streams of tears, to be healed; as +chapped flutes close together by lying in water, and get back their +tones.--Before such a magic form, before such a pure heavenly love, her +sympathising friend was melted between the flames of joy and grief; and +sank, with stifled voice, and bent down by love and rapture, on the pale +angelic face, the lips of which he timidly pressed, but did not kiss, +till all-powerful Love bound its girdles round them, and drew the two +closer and closer together, and their two souls, like two tears, melted +into one. O now, when it struck twelve, the hour of death, did not the +lover fancy that her lips were drawing his soul away, and all the fibres +and all the nerves of his life closed spasmodically round the last heart +in this world, round the last rapture of existence?... Yes, happy man, +thou didst express thy love; for in thy love thou thoughtest to die.... + +However, he did not die. After midnight, there floated a balmy morning +air through the shaken flowers, and the whole spring was breathing. The +blissful lover, setting bounds even to his sea of joy, reminded his +delicate beloved, who was now his bride, of the dangers from night-cold; +and himself of the longer night-cold of Death, which was now for long +years passed over.--Innocent and blessed, they rose from the grove of +their betrothment, from its dusk broken by white acacia-flowers and +straggling moonbeams. And without, they felt as if a whole wide Past had +sunk away in a convulsion of the world; all was new, light and young. +The sky stood full of glittering dewdrops from the everlasting Morning; +and the stars quivered joyfully asunder, and sank, resolved into beams, +down into the hearts of men.--The Moon, with her fountain of light, had +overspread and kindled all the garden; and was hanging above in a +starless Blue, as if she had consumed the nearest stars; and she seemed +like a smaller wandering Spring, like a Christ's-face smiling in love of +man.-- + +Under this light they looked at one another for the first time, after +the first words of love; and the sky gleamed magically down on the +disordered features with which the first rapture of love was still +standing written on their faces.... + +Dream, ye beloved, as ye wake, happy as in Paradise, innocent as in +Paradise! + + + + +SIXTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Office-impost. One of the most important of Petitions._ + + +The finest thing was his awakening in his European Settlement in the +giant Schadeck bed!--With the inflammatory, tickling, eating fever of +love in his breast; with the triumphant feeling, that he had now got the +introductory program of love put happily by; and with the sweet +resurrection from his living prophetic burial; and with the joy that +now, among his thirties, he could, for the first time, cherish hopes of +a longer life (and did not longer mean at least till seventy?) than he +could ten years ago;--with all this stirring life-balsam, in which the +living fire-wheel of his heart was rapidly revolving, he lay here, and +laughed at his glancing portrait in the bed-canopy; but he could not do +it long, he was obliged to move. For a less happy man, it would have +been gratifying to have measured,--as pilgrims measure the length of +their pilgrimage,--not so much by steps as by body-lengths, like +Earth-diameters, the superficial content of the bed. But Fixlein, for +his own part, had to launch from his bed into warm billowy Life, he had +now his dear good Earth again to look after, and a Conrectorship +thereon, and a bride to boot. Besides all this, his mother downstairs +now admitted that he had last night actually glided through beneath the +scythe of Death, like supple-grass, and that yesterday she had not told +him merely out of fear of his fear. Still a cold shudder went over +him,--especially as he was sober now,--when he looked round at the high +Tarpeian Rock, four hours' distance behind him, on the battlements of +which he had last night walked hand in hand with Death. + +The only thing that grieved him was, that it was Monday, and that he +must back to the Gymnasium. Such a freightage of joys he had never taken +with him on his road to town. After four he issued from his house, +satisfied with coffee (which he drank in Hukelum merely for his mother's +sake, who, for two days after, would still have portions of this +woman's-wine to draw from the lees of the pot-sediment) into the +_cooling_ dawning May-morning (for joy needs coolness, sorrow sun); his +Betrothed comes--not indeed to meet him, but still--into his hearing, by +her distant morning hymn; he makes but one momentary turn into the +blissful haven of the blooming acacia-grove, which still, like the +covenant sealed in it, has no thorns; he dips his warm hand in the +cold-bath of the dewy leaves; he wades with pleasure through the +beautifying-water of the dew, which, as it imparts colour to faces, eats +it away from boots ("but with thirty ducats, a Conrector may make shift +to keep two pairs of boots on the hook").--And now the Moon, as it were +the hanging seal of his last night's happiness, dips down into the +West, like an emptied bucket of light, and in the East the other +overrunning bucket, the Sun, mounts up, and the gushes of light flow +broader and broader.-- + +The city stood in the celestial flames of Morning. Here his divining-rod +(his gold-roll, which, excepting one sixteenth of an inch broken off +from it, he carried along with him) began to quiver over all the spots +where booty and silver-veins of enjoyment were concealed; and our +rod-diviner easily discovered that the city and the future were a true +entire Potosi of delights. + +In his Conrectorate closet he fell upon his knees, and thanked God--not +so much for his heritage and bride as--for his life: for he had gone +away on Sunday morning with doubts whether he should ever come back; and +it was purely out of love to the reader, and fear lest he might fret +himself too much with apprehension, that I cunningly imputed Fixlein's +journey more to his desire of knowing what was in the will, than of +making his own will in presence of his mother. Every recovery is a +bringing back and palingenesia of our youth: one loves the Earth and +those that are on it with a new love.--The Conrector could have found in +his heart to take all his class by the locks, and press them to his +breast; but he only did so to his adjutant, the Quartaner, who, in the +first Letter-box, was still sitting in the rank of a Quintaner.... + +His first expedition, after school-hours, was to the house of Meister +Steinberger, where, without speaking a word, he counted down fifty +florins cash, in ducats, on the table: "At last I repay you," said +Fixlein, "the moiety of my debt, and give you many thanks." + +"Ey, Herr Conrector," said the Quartermaster, and continued calmly +stuffing puddings as before, "in my bond it is said, _payable at three +months' mutual notice_. How could a man like me go on, else?--However, I +will change you the gold pieces." Thereupon he advised him that it might +be more judicious to take back a florin or two, and buy himself a better +hat, and whole shoes: "if you like," added he, "to get a calfskin and +half a dozen hareskins dressed, they are lying upstairs."--I should +think, for my own part, that to the reader it must be as little a matter +of indifference as it was to the Butcher, whether the hero of such a +History appear before him with an old tattered potlid of a hat, and a +pump-sucker and leg-harness pair of boots, or in suitable apparel.--In +short, before St. John's day, the man was dressed with taste and pomp. + +But now came two most peculiarly important papers--at bottom only one, +the Petition for the Hukelum parsonship--to be elaborated; in regard to +which I feel as if I myself must assist.... It were a simple turn, if +now at least the assembled public did not pay attention. + +In the first place, the Conrector searched out and sorted all the +Consistorial and Councillor quittances, or rather the toll-bills of the +road-money, which he had been obliged to pay, before the toll-gates at +the Quintusship and Conrectorship had been thrown open: for the executor +of the Schadeck testament had to reimburse him the whole, as his +discharge would express it, "to penny and farthing." Another would have +summed up this post-excise much more readily; by merely looking what +he--owed; as these debt-bills and those toll-bills, like parallel +passages, elucidate and confirm each other. But in Fixlein's case, there +was a small circumstance of peculiarity at work; which I cannot explain +till after what follows. + +It grieved him a little that for his two offices he had been obliged to +pay and to borrow no larger a sum than 135 florins, 41 kreutzers and one +halfpenny. The legacy, it is true, was to pass directly from the hands +of the testamentary executor into those of the Regiments-Quartermaster; +but yet he could have liked well, had he--for man is a fool from the +very foundation of him--had more to pay, and therefore to inherit. The +whole Conrectorate he had, by a slight deposit of 90 florins, plucked, +as it were, from the Wheel of Fortune; and so small a sum must surprise +my reader: but what will he say, when I tell him that there are +countries where the entry-money into schoolrooms is even more moderate? +In Scherau, a Conrector is charged only 88 florins, and perhaps he may +have an income triple of this sum. Not to speak of Saxony (what, in +truth, was to be expected from the cradle of the Reformation, in +Religion and Polite Literature), where a schoolmaster and a parson have +_nothing_ to pay,--even in Bayreuth, for example, in Hof, the progress +of improvement has been such, that a Quartus--a Quartus do I say,--a +Tertius--a Tertius do I say,--a Conrector, at entrance on his post, is +not required to pay down more than: + + Fl. rhen. Kr. rhen. + + 30 49 For taking the oaths at the Consistorium. + 4 0 To the Syndic for the Presentation. + 2 0 To the then Bürgermeister. + 45 7½ For the Government-sanction. + ------------- + Total 81 fl. 56½ kr. + +If the printing-charges of a Rector do stand a little higher in some +points, yet, on the other hand, a Tertius, Quartus &c. come cheaper from +the press than even a Conrector. Now it is clear that in this case a +schoolmaster can subsist; since, in the course of the very first year, +he gets an overplus beyond this _dock-money_ of his office. A +schoolmaster must, like his scholars, have been advanced from class to +class, before these his loans to Government, together with the interest +for delay of payment, can jointly amount to so much as his yearly income +in the highest class. Another thing in his favour is, that our +institutions do not--as those of Athens did--prohibit people from +entering on office while in debt; but every man, with his debt-knapsack +on his shoulders, mounts up, step after step, without obstruction. The +Pope, in large benefices, appropriates the income of the first year +under the title of _Annates_, or First Fruits; and accordingly he, in +all cases, bestows any large benefice on the possessor of a smaller one, +thereby to augment both his own revenues and those of others; but it +shows, in my opinion, a bright distinction between Popery and +Lutheranism, that the Consistoriums of the latter abstract from their +school-ministers and church-ministers not perhaps above two-thirds of +their first yearly income; though they too, like the Pope, must +naturally have an eye to vacancies. + +It may be that I shall here come in collision with the Elector of Mentz, +when I confess, that in Schmausen's _Corp. Jur. Pub. Germ._ I have +turned up the Mentz-Imperial-Court-Chancery-tax-ordinance of the 6th +January 1659; and there investigated how much this same +Imperial-Court-Chancery demands, as contrasted with a Consistorium. For +example, any man that wishes to be baked or sodden into a _Poet +Laureate_, has 50 florins tax-dues, and 20 florins Chancery-dues to pay +down; whereas, for 20 florins more, he might have been made a Conrector, +who is a poet of this species, as it were by the by and _ex +officio_.--The institution of a Gymnasium is permitted for 1000 florins; +an extraordinary sum, with which the whole body of the teachers in the +instituted Gymnasium might with us clear off the entrymoneys of their +schoolrooms. Again, a Freiherr, who, at any rate, often enough grows old +without knowing how, must purchase the _venia ætatis_ with 200 hard +florins; while with the half sum he might have become a schoolmaster, +and here _age_ would have come of its own accord.--And a thousand such +things!--They prove, however, that matters can be at no bad pass in our +Governments and Circles, where promotions are sold dearer to Folly than +to Diligence, and where it costs more to institute a school than to +serve in one. + +The remarks I made on this subject to a Prince, as well as the remarks a +Town-Syndic made on it to myself, are too remarkable to be omitted for +mere dread of digressiveness. + +The Syndic--a man of enlarged views, and of fiery patriotism, the warmth +of which was the more beneficent that he collected all the beams of it +into one focus, and directed them to himself and his family--gave me (I +had perhaps been comparing the School-bench and the School-stair to the +_bench_ and the _ladder_, on which people are laid when about to be +tortured) the best reply: "If a schoolmaster consume nothing but 30 +reichsthalers;[49] if he annually purchase manufactured goods, according +as Political Economists have calculated for each individual, namely, to +the amount of 5 reichsthalers; and no more hundredweights of victual +than these assume, namely 10; in short, if he live like a substantial +wood-cutter,--then the Devil must be in it, if he cannot yearly lay by +so much net profit, as shall, in the long-run, pay the interest of his +entry-debts." + + [49] So much, according to Political Economists, a man yearly + requires in Germany. + +The Syndic must have failed to convince me at the time, since I +afterwards told the Flachsenfingen Prince:[50] "Illustrious Sir, you +know not, but I do--not a player in your Theatre would act the +Schoolmaster in Engel's _Prodigal Son_, three nights running, for such a +sum as every real Schoolmaster has to take for acting it all the days of +the year.--In Prussia, Invalids are made Schoolmasters; with us, +Schoolmasters are made Invalids."... + + [50] This singular tone of my address to a Prince can only be + excused by the equally singular relation, wherein the Biographer + stands to the Flachsenfingen Sovereign, and which I would willingly + unfold here, were it not that, in my Book, which, under the title + of _Dog-post-days_, I mean to give to the world at Easter-fair + 1795, I hoped to expound the matter to universal satisfaction. + + * * * * * + +But to our story! Fixlein wrote out the inventory of his Crown-debts; +but with quite a different purpose than the reader will guess, who has +still the Schadeck testament in his head. In one word, he wanted to be +Parson of Hukelum. To be a clergyman, and in the place where his cradle +stood, and all the little gardens of his childhood, his mother also, and +the grove of betrothment,--this was an open gate into a New Jerusalem, +supposing even that the living had been nothing but a meagre +penitentiary. The main point was, he might marry, if he were appointed. +For, in the capacity of lank Conrector, supported only by the +strengthening-girth of his waistcoat, and with emoluments whereby +scarcely the purchase-money of a--purse was to be come at; in this way +he was more like collecting wick and tallow for his burial-torch than +for his bridal one. + +For the Schoolmaster class are, in well-ordered States, as little +permitted to marry as the Soldiery. In _Conringius de Antiquitutibus +Academicis_, where in every leaf it is proved that all cloisters were +originally schools, I hit upon the reason. Our schools are now +cloisters, and consequently we endeavour to maintain in our teachers at +least an imitation of the Three Monastic Vows. The vow of Obedience +might perhaps be sufficiently enforced by School-Inspectors; but the +second vow, that of Celibacy, would be more hard of attainment, were it +not that, by one of the best political arrangements, the third vow, I +mean a beautiful equality in Poverty, is so admirably attended to, that +no man who has made it needs any farther _testimonium paupertatis_;--and +now _let_ this man, if he likes, lay hold of a matrimonial half, when of +the two halves each has a whole stomach, and nothing for it but +half-coins and half-beer!... + +I know well, millions of my readers would themselves compose this +Petition for the Conrector, and ride with it to Schadeck to his +Lordship, that so the poor rogue might get the sheepfold, with the +annexed wedding-mansion: for they see clearly enough, that directly +thereafter one of the best Letter-Boxes would be written that ever came +from such a repository. + +Fixlein's Petition was particularly good and striking: it submitted to +the Rittmeister four grounds of preference: 1. "He was a native of the +parish: his parents and ancestors had already done Hukelum service; +therefore he prayed," &c. + +2. "The here-documented official debts of 135 florins, 41 kreutzers and +one halfpenny, the cancelling of which a never-to-be-forgotten testament +secured him, he himself could clear, in case he obtained the living, +and so hereby give up his claim to the legacy," &c. + +_Voluntary Note by me._ It is plain he means to bribe his Godfather, +whom the lady's testament has put into a fume. But, gentle reader, blame +not without mercy a poor, oppressed, heavy-laden school-man and +school-horse for an indelicate insinuation, which truly was never mine. +Consider, Fixlein knew that the Rittmeister was a cormorant towards the +poor, as he was a squanderer towards the rich. It may be, too, the +Conrector might once or twice have heard, in the Law Courts, of patrons, +by whom not indeed the church and churchyard--though these things are +articles of commerce in England--so much as the true management of them +had been sold, or rather farmed to farming-candidates. I know from +Lange,[51] that the Church must support its patron, when he has nothing +to live upon: and might not a nobleman, before he actually began +begging, be justified in taking a little advance, a fore-payment of his +alimentary moneys, from the hands of his pulpit-farmer?-- + + [51] His _Clerical Law_, p. 551. + +3. "He had lately betrothed himself with Fräulein von Thiennette, and +given her a piece of gold, as marriage-pledge; and could therefore wed +the said Fräulein were he once provided for," &c. + +_Voluntary Note by me._ I hold this ground to be the strongest in the +whole Petition. In the eyes of Herr von Aufhammer, Thiennette's +genealogical tree was long since stubbed, disleaved, worm-eaten and full +of millepedes: she was his OEconoma, his Castle-Stewardess and +Legatess _a Latere_ for his domestics; and with her pretensions for an +alms-coffer, was threatening in the end to become a burden to him. His +indignant wish that she had been provided for with Fixlein's legacy +might now be fulfilled. In a word, if Fixlein become Parson, he will +have the third ground to thank for it; not at all the mad fourth.... + +4. "He had learned with sorrow, that the name of his Shock, which he had +purchased from an Emigrant at Leipzig, meant Egidius in German; and that +the dog had drawn upon him the displeasure of his Lordship. Far be it +from him so to designate the Shock in future; but he would take it as a +special grace, if for the dog, which he at present called without any +name, his Lordship would be pleased to appoint one himself." + +_My Voluntary Note._ The dog then, it seems, to which the nobleman has +hitherto been godfather, is to receive its name a _second_ time from +him!--But how can the famishing gardener's son, whose career never +mounted higher than from the school-bench to the school-chair, and who +never spoke with polished ladies, except singing, namely in the church, +how can he be expected, in fingering such a string, to educe from it any +finer tone than the pedantic one? And yet the source of it lies deeper: +not the contracted _situation_, but the contracted _eye_, not a +favourite science, but a narrow plebeian soul, makes us pedantic, a soul +that cannot _measure_ and _separate_ the _concentric_ circles of human +knowledge and activity, that confounds the focus of universal human +life, by reason of the focal distance, with every two or three +converging rays; and that cannot see all, and tolerate all----In short, +the true Pedant is the Intolerant. + + * * * * * + +The Conrector wrote out his petition splendidly in five propitious +evenings; employed a peculiar ink for the purpose; worked not indeed so +long over it as the stupid Manucius over a Latin letter, namely, some +months, if Scioppius' word is to be taken; still less so long as another +scholar at a Latin epistle, who--truly we have nothing but Morhof's word +for it--hatched it during four whole months; inserting his variations, +adjectives, feet, with the authorities for his phrases, accurately +marked between the lines. Fixlein possessed a more thorough-going +genius, and had completely mastered the whole enterprise in sixteen +days. While sealing, he thought, as we all do, how this cover was the +seed-husk of a great entire Future, the rind of many sweet or bitter +fruits, the swathing of his whole after-life. + +Heaven bless his cover; but I let you throw me from the Tower of Babel, +if he get the parsonage: can't you see, then, that Aufhammer's hands are +tied? In spite of all his other faults, or even because of them, he will +stand like iron by his word, which he has given so long ago to the +Subrector. It were another matter had he been resident at Court; for +there, where old German manners still are, no promise is kept; for as, +according to Möser, the Ancient Germans kept only such promises as they +made in the _forenoon_ (in the afternoon they were all dead-drunk),--so +the Court Germans likewise keep no afternoon promise; forenoon ones they +would keep if they made any, which, however, cannot possibly happen, as +at those hours they are--sleeping. + + + + +SEVENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Sermon. School-Exhibition. Splendid Mistake._ + + +The Conrector received his 135 florins, 43 kreutzers, one halfpenny +Frankish; but no answer: the dog remained without name, his master +without parsonage. Meanwhile the summer passed away; and the Dragoon +Rittmeister had yet drawn out no pike from the Candidate +_breeding-pond_, and thrown him into the _feeding-pond_ of the Hukelum +parsonage. It gratified him to be behung with prayers like a Spanish +guardian Saint; and he postponed (though determined to prefer the +Subrector) granting any one petition, till he had seven-and-thirty +dyers', buttonmakers', tinsmiths' sons, whose petitions he could at the +same time refuse. Grudge not him of Aufhammer this outlengthening of his +electorial power! He knows the privileges of rank; feels that a nobleman +is like Timoleon, who gained his greatest victories on his birthday, and +had nothing more to do than name some squiress, countess, or the like, +as his mother. A man, however, who has been exalted to the Peerage, +while still a foetus, may with more propriety be likened to the +_spinner_, which, contrariwise to all other insects, passes from the +chrysalis state, and becomes a perfect insect in its mother's womb.-- + +But to proceed! Fixlein was at present not without cash. It will be the +same as if I made a present of it to the reader, when I reveal to him, +that of the legacy, which was clearing off old scores, he had still +thirty-five florins left to himself, as _allodium_ and pocket-money, +wherewith he might purchase whatsoever seemed good to him. And how came +he by so large a sum, by so considerable a competence? Simply by this +means: Every time he changed a piece of gold, and especially at every +payment he received, it had been his custom to throw in, blindly at +random, two, three, or four small coins, among the papers of his trunk. +His purpose was to astonish himself one day, when he summed up and took +possession of this sleeping capital. And, by Heaven! he reached it too, +when on mounting the throne of his Conrectorate, he drew out these funds +from among his papers, and applied them to the coronation charges. For +the present, he sowed them in again among his waste letters. Foolish +Fixlein! I mean, had he not luckily exposed his legacy to jeopardy, +having offered it as bounty-money, and luck-penny to the patron, this +false clutch of his at the knocker of the Hukelum church-door would +certainly have vexed him; but now if he had missed the knocker, he had +the luck-penny again, and could be merry. + +I now advance a little way in his History, and hit, in the rock of his +Life, upon so fine a vein of silver, I mean upon so fine a day, that I +must (I believe) content myself even in regard to the twenty-third of +Trinity-term, when he preached a vacation sermon in his dear native +village, with a brief transitory notice. + +In itself the sermon was good and glorious; and the day a rich day of +pleasure; but I should really need to have more hours at my disposal +than I can steal from May, in which I am at present living and writing; +and more strength than wandering through this fine weather has left me +for landscape pictures of the same, before I could attempt, with any +well-founded hope, to draw out a mathematical estimate of the length and +thickness, and the vibrations and accordant relations to each other, of +the various strings, which combined together to form for his heart a +Music of the Spheres, on this day of Trinity-term, though such a thing +would please myself as much as another.... Do not ask me! In my opinion, +when a man preaches on Sunday before all the peasants, who had carried +him in their arms when a gardener's boy; farther, before his mother, who +is leading off her tears through the conduit of her satin muff; farther, +before his Lordship, whom he can positively command to be blessed; and +finally, before his muslin bride, who is already blessed, and changing +almost into stone, to find that the same lips can both kiss and preach: +in my opinion, I say, when a man effects all this, he has some right to +require of any Biographer who would paint his situation, that he--hold +his jaw; and of the reader who would sympathise with it, that he open +his, and preach himself.---- + +But what I must _ex officio_ depict, is the day to which this Sunday was +but the prelude, the vigil and the whet; I mean the prelude, the vigil +and the whet to the _Martini Actus_, or _Martinmas Exhibition_, of his +school. On Sunday was the Sermon, on Wednesday the Actus, on Tuesday the +Rehearsal. This Tuesday shall now be delineated to the universe. + +I count upon it that I shall not be read by mere people of the world +alone, to whom a School-Actus cannot truly appear much better, or more +interesting, than some Investiture of a Bishop, or the _opera seria_ of +a Frankfort Coronation; but that I likewise have people before me, who +have been at schools, and who know how the school-drama of an Actus, and +the stage-manager, and the playbill (the Program) thereof are to be +estimated, still without overrating their importance. + +Before proceeding to the Rehearsal of the _Martini Actus_, I impose upon +myself, as dramaturgist of the play, the duty, if not of extracting, at +least of recording the Conrector's Letter of Invitation. In this +composition he said many things; and (what an author likes so well) made +proposals rather than reproaches; interrogatively reminding the public, +Whether in regard to the well-known head-breakages of Priscian on the +part of the Magnates in Pest and Poland, our school-houses were not the +best quarantine and lazar-houses to protect us against infectious +_barbarisms_? Moreover, he defended in schools what could be defended +(and nothing in the world is sweeter or easier than a defence); and +said, Schoolmasters, who not quite justifiably, like certain Courts, +spoke nothing, and let nothing be spoken to them but Latin, might plead +the Romans in excuse, whose subjects, and whose kings, at least in their +epistles and public transactions, were obliged to make use of the Latin +tongue. He wondered why only our Greek, and not also our Latin Grammars, +were composed in Latin, and put the pregnant question: Whether the +Romans, when they taught their little children the Latin tongue, did it +in any other than in this same? Thereupon he went over to the Actus, and +said what follows, in his own words: + +"I am minded to prove, in a subsequent Invitation, that everything which +can be said or known about the great founder of the Reformation, the +subject of our present Martini Prolusions, has been long ago exhausted, +as well by Seckendorf as others. In fact, with regard to Luther's +personalities, his table-talk, incomes, journeys, clothes, and so forth, +there can now nothing new be brought forward, if at the same time it is +to be true. Nevertheless, the field of the Reformation history is, to +speak in a figure, by no means wholly cultivated; and it does appear to +me as if the inquirer even of the present day might in vain look about +for correct intelligence respecting the children, grandchildren and +children's children, down to our own times, of this great Reformer; all +of whom, however, appertain, in a more remote degree, to the Reformation +history, as he himself in a nearer. Thou shalt not perhaps be threshing, +said I to myself, altogether empty straw, if, according to thy small +ability, thou bring forward and cultivate this neglected branch of +History. And so have I ventured, with the last male descendant of +Luther, namely, with the Advocate Martin Gottlob Luther, who practised +in Dresden, and deceased there in 1759, to make a beginning of a more +special Reformation history. My feeble attempt, in regard to this +Reformationary Advocate, will be sufficiently rewarded, should it excite +to better works on the subject: however, the little which I have +succeeded in digging up and collecting with regard to him I here +submissively, obediently, and humbly request all friends and patrons of +the Flachsenfingen Gymnasium to listen to, on the 14th of November, from +the mouths of sis well-conditioned perorators. In the first place, shall + +"_Gottlieb Spiesglass_, a Flachsenfinger, endeavour to show, in a Latin +oration, that Martin Gottlob Luther was certainly descended of the +Luther family. After him strives + +"_Friedrich Christian Krabbler_, from Hukelum, in German prose, to +appreciate the influence which Martin Gottlob Luther exercised on the +then existing Reformation; whereupon, after him, will + +"_Daniel Lorenz Stenzinger_ deliver, in Latin verse, an account of +Martin Gottlob Luther's lawsuits; embracing the probable merits of +Advocates generally, in regard to the Reformation. Which then will give +opportunity to + +"_Nikol Tobias Pfizman_ to come forward in French, and recount the most +important circumstances of Martin Gottlob Luther's school-years, +university-life and riper age. And now, when + +"_Andreas Eintarm_ shall have endeavoured, in German verse, to apologise +for the possible failings of this representative of the great Luther, +will + +"_Justus Strobel_, in Latin verse according to ability, sing his +uprightness and integrity in the Advocate profession; whereafter I +myself shall mount the cathedra, and most humbly thank all the patrons +of the Flachsenfingen School, and then farther bring forward those +portions in the life of this remarkable man, of which we yet know +absolutely nothing, they being spared _Deo volente_ for the speakers of +the next _Martini Actus_." + + * * * * * + +The day before the Actus offered as it were the proof-shot and +sample-sheet of the Wednesday. Persons who on account of dress could not +be present at the great school-festival, especially ladies, made their +appearance on Tuesday, during the six proof-orations. No one can be +readier than I to subordinate the proof-Actus to the Wednesday-Actus; +and I do anything but need being stimulated suitably to estimate the +solemn feast of a School; but on the other hand I am equally convinced +that no one, who did not go to the real Actus of Wednesday, could +possibly figure anything more splendid than the proof-day preceding; +because he could have no object wherewith to compare the pomp in which +the Primate of the festival drove in with his triumphal chariot and +six--to call the six brethren-speakers coach-horses--next morning in +presence of ladies and Councillor gentlemen. Smile away, Fixlein, at +this astonishment over thy today's _Ovation_, which is leading on +tomorrow's _Triumph_: on thy dissolving countenance quivers happy Self, +feeding on these incense-fumes; but a vanity like thine, and that only, +which enjoys without comparing or despising, can one tolerate, will one +foster. But what flowed over all his heart, like a melting sunbeam over +wax, was his mother, who after much persuasion had ventured in her +Sunday clothes humbly to place herself quite low down, beside the door +of the Prima class-room. It were difficult to say who is happier, the +mother, beholding how he whom she has borne under her heart can direct +such noble young gentlemen, and hearing how he along with them can talk +of these really high things and understand them too;--or the son, who, +like some of the heroes of Antiquity, has the felicity of triumphing in +the lifetime of his mother. I have never in my writings or doings cast a +stone upon the late Burchardt Grossmann, who under the initial letters +of the stanzas in his song, "_Brich an, du liebe Morgenröthe_," inserted +the letters of his own name; and still less have I ever censured any +poor herbwoman for smoothing out her winding-sheet, while still living, +and making herself one-twelfth of a dozen of grave-shifts. Nor do I +regard the man as wise--though indeed as very clever and pedantic--who +can fret his gall-bladder full because every one of us leaf-miners views +the leaf whereon he is mining as a park-garden, as a fifth Quarter of +the World (so near and rich is it); the leaf-pores as so many Valleys of +Tempe, the leaf-skeleton as a Liberty-tree, a Bread-tree and Life-tree, +and the dew-drops as the Ocean. We poor day-moths, evening-moths and +night-moths, fall universally into the same error, only on different +leaves; and whosoever (as I do) laughs at the important airs with which +the schoolmaster issues his programs, the dramaturgist his playbills, +the classical variation-alms-gatherer his alphabetic letters,--does it, +if he is wise (as is the case here), with the consciousness of his own +_similar_ folly; and laughs in regard to his neighbour, at nothing but +mankind and himself. + +The mother was not to be detained; she must off, this very night, to +Hukelum, to give the Fräulein Thiennette at least some tidings of this +glorious business.-- + +And now the World will bet a hundred to one, that I forthwith take +biographical wax, and emboss such a wax-figure cabinet of the Actus +itself as shall be single of its kind. + +But on Wednesday morning, while the hope-intoxicated Conrector was just +about putting on his fine raiment, something knocked.---- + +It was the well-known servant of the Rittmeister, carrying the Hukelum +Presentation for the Subrector _Füchs_lein in his pocket. To the +last-named gentleman he had been sent with this call to the parsonage: +but he had distinguished ill betwixt _Sub_ and _Con_rector; and had +besides his own good reasons for directing his steps to the latter; for +he thought: "Who can it be that gets it, but the parson that preached +last Sunday, and that comes from the village, and is engaged to our +Fräulein Thiennette, and to whom I brought a clock and a roll of ducats +already?" That his Lordship could pass over his own godson, never +entered the man's head. + +Fixlein read the address of the Appointment: "To the Reverend the Parson +_Fixlein_ of Hukelum." He naturally enough made the same mistake as the +lackey; and broke up the Presentation as his own: and finding moreover +in the body of the paper no special mention of persons, but only of a +_Schul-unter-befehlslaber_ or School-undergovernor (instead of +Subrector), he could not but persist in his error. Before I properly +explain why the Rittmeister's Lawyer, the framer of the Presentation, +had so designated a Subrector--we two, the reader and myself, will keep +an eye for a moment on Fixlein's joyful saltations--on his +gratefully-streaming eyes--on his full hands so laden with bounty--on +the present of two ducats, which he drops into the hands of the +mitre-bearer, as willingly as he will soon drop his own pedagogic +office. Could he tell what to think (of the Rittmeister), or to write +(to the same), or to table (for the lackey)? Did he not ask tidings of +the noble health of his benefactor over and over, though the servant +answered him with all distinctness at the very first? And was not this +same man, who belonged to the nose-upturning, shoulder-shrugging, +shoulder-knotted, toad-eating species of men, at last so moved by the +joy which he had imparted, that he determined on the spot, to bestow his +presence on the new clergyman's School-Actus, though no person of +quality whatever was to be there? Fixlein, in the first place, sealed +his letter of thanks; and courteously invited this messenger of good +news to visit him frequently in the Parsonage; and to call this evening +in passing at his mother's, and give her a lecture for not staying last +night, when she might have seen the Presentation from his Lordship +arrive today. + +The lackey being gone, Fixlein for joy began to grow sceptical--and +timorous (wherefore, to prevent filching, he stowed his Presentation +securely in his coffer, under keeping of two padlocks); and devout and +softened, since he thanked God without scruple for all good that +happened to him, and never wrote this Eternal Name but in pulpit +characters and with coloured ink, as the Jewish copyists never wrote it +except in ornamental letters and when newly washed;[52]--and deaf also +did the parson grow, so that he scarcely heard the soft wooing-hour of +the Actus--for a still softer one beside Thiennette, with its +rose-bushes and rose-honey, would not leave his thoughts. He who of old, +when Fortune made a wry face at him, was wont, like children in their +sport at one another, to laugh at her so long till she herself was +obliged to begin smiling,--he was now flying as on a huge seesaw higher +and higher, quicker and quicker aloft. + + [52] Eichhorn's _Einleit. ins A. T._ (Introduction to the Old + Testament), vol. ii. + +But before the Actus, let us examine the Schadeck Lawyer. _Fixlein_ +instead of _Füchslein_[53] he had written from uncertainty about the +spelling of the name; the more naturally as in transcribing the +Rittmeisterinn's will, the former had occurred so often. _Von_, this +triumphal arch he durst not set up before Füchslein's new name, because +Aufhammer forbade it, considering Hans Füchslein as a mushroom who had +no right to _vons_ and titles of nobility, for all his patents. In fine, +the Presentation-writer was possessed with Campe's[54] whim of +Germanising everything, minding little though when Germanised it should +cease to be intelligible;--as if a word needed any better act of +naturalisation than that which universal intelligibility imparts to it. +In itself it is the same--the rather as all languages, like all men, are +cognate, intermarried and intermixed--whether a word was invented by a +savage or a foreigner; whether it grew up like moss amid the German +forests, or like street-grass, in the pavement of the Roman forum. The +Lawyer, on the other hand, contended that it was different; and +accordingly he hid not from any of his clients that _Tagefarth_ +(Day-turn) meant _Term_, and that _Appealing_ was _Berufen_ (Becalling). +On this principle he dressed the word _Subrector_ in the new livery of +_School-undergovernor_. And this version farther converted the +Schoolmaster into Parson: to such a degree does our _civic_ fortune--not +our _personal_ well-being, which supports itself on our own internal +soil and resources--grow merely on the _drift-mould_ of accidents, +connexions, acquaintances, and Heaven or the Devil knows what!-- + + [53] Both have the same sound. _Füchslein_ means Foxling, + Foxwhelp.--ED. + + [54] Campe, a German philologist, who, along with several others of + that class, has really proposed, as represented in the Text, to + substitute for all Greek or Latin derivatives corresponding German + terms of the like import. _Geography_, which may be + _Erdbeschreibung_ (Earth-description), was thenceforth to be + nothing else; a _Geometer_ became an _Earthmeasurer_, &c. &c. + _School-undergovernor_, instead of _Subrector_, is by no means the + happiest example of the system, and seems due rather to the + Schadeck Lawyer than to Campe, whom our Author has elsewhere more + than once eulogised for his project in similar style.--ED. + +By the by, from a Lawyer, at the same time a Country Judge, I should +certainly have looked for more sense; I should (I may be mistaken) have +presumed he knew that the _Acts_ or Reports, which in former times (see +Hoffmann's _German or un-German Law-practice_) were written in Latin, as +before the times of Joseph the Hungarian,--are now, if we may say so +without offence, perhaps written fully more in the German dialect than +in the Latin; and in support of this opinion, I can point to whole lines +of German language, to be found in these Imperial-Court-Confessions. +However, I will not believe that the Jurist is endeavouring, because +Imhofer declares the Roman tongue to be the mother tongue in the other +world, to disengage himself from a language, by means of which, like the +Roman _Eagle_, or later, like the Roman _Fish-heron_ (Pope), he has +clutched such abundant booty in his talons.---- + +Toll, toll your bell for the Actus; stream in, in to the ceremony: who +cares for it? Neither I nor the Ex-Conrector. The six pigmy Ciceros will +in vain set forth before us in sumptuous dress their thoughts and +bodies. The draught-wind of Chance has blown away from the Actus its +powder-nimbus of glory; and the Conrector that was has discovered how +small a matter a cathedra is, and how great a one a pulpit: "I should +not have thought," thought he now, "when I became Conrector, that there +could he anything grander, I mean a Parson." Man, behind his everlasting +blind, which he only colours differently, and makes no thinner, carries +his pride with him from one step to another; and, on the higher step, +blames only the pride of the lower. + +The best of the Actus was, that the Regiments-Quartermaster, and Master +Butcher, Steinberg, attended there, embaled in a long woollen shag. +During the solemnity, the Subrector Hans von Füchslein cast several +gratified and inquiring glances on the Schadeck servant, who did not +once look at him: Hans would have staked his head, that after the Actus, +the fellow would wait upon him. When at last the sextuple cockerel-brood +had on their dunghill done crowing, that is to say, had perorated, the +scholastic cocker, over whom a higher banner was now waving, himself +came upon the stage; and delivered to the School-Inspectorships, to the +Subrectorship, to the Guardianship and the Lackeyship, his most grateful +thanks for their attendance; shortly announcing to them at the same +time, "that Providence had now called him from his post to another; and +committed to him, unworthy as he was, the cure of souls in the Hukelum +parish, as well as in the Schadeck chapel of ease." + +This little address, to appearance, well-nigh blew up the then Subrector +Hans von Füchslein from his chair; and his face looked of a mingled +colour, like red bole, green chalk, tinsel-yellow and _vomissement de la +reine_. + +The tall Quartermaster erected himself considerably in his shag, and +hummed loud enough in happy forgetfulness: "The Dickens!--Parson?"---- + +The Subrector dashed by like a comet before the lackey: ordered him to +call and take a letter for his master; strode home, and prepared for his +patron, who at Schadeck was waiting for a long thanksgiving psalm, a +short satirical epistle, as nervous as haste would permit, and mingled a +few nicknames and verbal injuries along with it. + +The courier handed in, to his master, Fixlein's song of gratitude, and +Füchslein's invectives, with the same hand. The Dragoon Rittmeister, +incensed at the ill-mannered churl, and bound to his word, which Fixlein +had publicly announced in his Actus, forthwith wrote back to the new +Parson an acceptance and ratification; and Fixlein is and remains, to +the joy of us all, incontestable ordained parson of Hukelum. + +His disappointed rival has still this consolation, that he holds a seat +in the wasp-nest of the _Neue Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek_.[55] +Should the Parson ever chrysalise himself into an author, the watch-wasp +may then buzz out, and dart its sting into the chrysalis, and put its +own brood in the room of the murdered butterfly. As the Subrector +everywhere went about, and threatened in plain terms that he would +review his colleague, let not the public be surprised that Fixlein's +_Errata_, and his Masoretic _Exercitationes_, are to this hour withheld +from it. + + [55] _New Universal German Library_, a reviewing periodical; in + those days conducted by Nicolai, a sworn enemy to what has since + been called the New School. (See Tieck, _ante_)--ED. + +In spring, the widowed church receives her new husband; and how it will +be, when Fixlein, under a canopy of flower-trees, takes the _Sponsa +Christi_ in one hand, and his own _Sponsa_ in the other,--this, without +an Eighth Letter-Box, which, in the present case, may be a true +jewel-box and rainbow-key,[56] can no mortal figure, except the +_Sponsus_ himself. + + [56] Superstition declares, that on the spot where the rainbow + rises, a golden key is left. + + + + +EIGHTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Instalment in the Parsonage._ + + +On the 15th of April 1793, the reader may observe, far down in the +hollow, three baggage-wagons groaning along. These baggage-wagons are +transporting the house-gear of the new Parson to Hukelum: the proprietor +himself, with a little escort of his parishioners, is marching at their +side, that of his china sets and household furniture there may be +nothing broken in the eighteenth century, as the whole came down to him +unbroken from the seventeenth. Fixlein hears the School-bell ringing +behind him; but this chime now sings to him, like a curfew, the songs of +future rest: he is now escaped from the Death-valley of the Gymnasium, +and admitted into the abodes of the Blessed. Here dwells no envy, no +colleague, no Subrector; here in the heavenly country, no man works in +the _New Universal German Library_; here, in the heavenly Hukelumic +Jerusalem, they do nothing but sing praises in the church; and here the +Perfected requires no more increase of knowledge.... Here too one need +not sorrow that Sunday and Saint's day so often fall together into one. + +Truth to tell, the Parson goes too far: but it was his way from of old +never to paint out the whole and half shadows of a situation, till he +was got into a new one; the beauties of which he could then enhance by +contrast with the former. For it requires little reflection to discover +that the torments of a schoolmaster are nothing so extraordinary; but, +on the contrary, as in the Gymnasium, he mounts from one degree to +another, not very dissimilar to the common torments of Hell, which, in +spite of their eternity, grow weaker from century to century. Moreover, +since, according to the saying of a Frenchman, _deux afflictions mises +ensemble peuvent devenir une consolation_, a man gets afflictions enow +in a school to console him; seeing out of eight combined afflictions--I +reckon only one for every teacher--certainly more comfort is to be +extracted than out of two. The only pity is, that school-people will +never act towards each other as court-people do: none but polished men +and polished glasses will readily cohere. In addition to all this, in +schools--and in offices generally--one is always recompensed: for, as in +the second life, a greater virtue is the recompense of an earthly one, +so, in the Schoolmaster's case, his merits are always rewarded by more +opportunities for new merits; and often enough he is not dismissed from +his post at all.-- + +Eight Gymnasiasts are trotting about in the Parsonage, setting up, +nailing to, hauling in. I think, as a scholar of Plutarch, I am right to +introduce such seeming _minutiæ_. A man whom grown-up people love, +children love still more. The whole school had smiled on the smiling +Fixlein, and liked him in their hearts, because he did not thunder, but +sport with them; because he said _Sie_ (They) to the Secundaners, and +the Subrector said _Ihr_ (Ye); because his uprearing forefinger was his +only sceptre and baculus; because in the Secunda he had interchanged +Latin epistles with his scholars; and in the Quinta, had taught not with +Napier's Rods (or rods of a sharper description), but with sticks of +barley-sugar. + +Today his churchyard appeared to him so solemn and festive, that he +wondered (though it was Monday) why his parishioners were not in their +holiday, but merely in their weekday drapery. Under the door of the +Parsonage stood a weeping woman; for she was too happy, and he was +her--son. Yet the mother, in the height of her emotion, contrives quite +readily to call upon the carriers, while disloading, not to twist off +the four corner globes from the old Frankish chest of drawers. Her son +now appeared to her as venerable, as if he had sat for one of the +copperplates in her pictured Bible; and that simply, because he had cast +off his pedagogue hair-cue, as the ripening tadpole does its tail; and +was now standing in a clerical periwig before her: he was now a Comet, +soaring away from the profane Earth, and had accordingly changed from a +_stella caudata_ into a _stella crinita_. + +His bride also had, on former days, given sedulous assistance in this +new improved edition of his house, and laboured faithfully among the +other furnishers and furbishers. But today she kept aloof; for she was +too good to forget the maiden in the bride. Love, like men, dies oftener +of excess than of hunger; it lives on love, but it resembles those +Alpine flowers, which feed themselves by _suction_ from the wet clouds, +and die if you _besprinkle_ them.-- + +At length the Parson is settled, and of course he must--for I know my +fair readers, who are bent on it as if they were bridemaids--without +delay get married. But he may not: before Ascension-day there can +nothing be done, and till then are full four weeks and a half. The +matter was this: He wished in the first place to have the murder-Sunday, +the Cantata, behind him; not indeed because he doubted of his earthly +continuance, but because he would not (even for the bride's sake) that +the slightest apprehension should mingle with these weeks of glory. + +The main reason was, He did not wish to marry till he were betrothed: +which latter ceremony was appointed, with the Introduction Sermon, to +take place next Sunday. It is the Cantata-Sunday. Let not the reader +afflict himself with fears. Indeed, I should not have molested an +enlightened century with this Sunday-_Wauwau_ at all, were it not that I +delineate with such extreme fidelity. Fixlein himself--especially as the +Quartermaster asked him if he was a baby--at last grew so sensible, that +he saw the folly of it; nay, he went so far, that he committed a greater +folly. For as dreaming that you die signifies, according to the exegetic +_rule of false_, nothing else than long life and welfare, so did Fixlein +easily infer that his death-imagination was just such a lucky dream; +the rather as it was precisely on this Cantata-Sunday that Fortune had +turned up her cornucopia over him, and at once showered down out of it a +bride, a presentation and a roll of ducats. Thus can Superstition imp +its wings, let Chance favour it or not. + +A Secretary of State, a Peace-treaty writer, a Notary, any such +incarcerated Slave of the Desk, feels excellently well how far he is +beneath a Parson composing his inaugural sermon. The latter (do but look +at my Fixlein) lays himself heartily over the paper--injects the venous +system of his sermon-preparation with coloured ink--has a +Text-Concordance on the right side, and a Song-Concordance on the left; +is there digging out a marrowy sentence, here clipping off a +song-blossom, with both to garnish his homiletic pastry;--sketches out +the finest plan of operations, not, like a man of the world, to subdue +the heart of one woman, but the hearts of all women that hear him, and +of their husbands to boot;--draws every peasant passing by his window +into some niche of his discourse, to coöperate with the result;--and, +finally, scoops out the butter of the smooth soft hymn-book, and +therewith exquisitely fattens the black broth of his sermon, which is to +feed five thousand men.---- + +At last, in the evening, as the red sun is dazzling him at the desk, he +can rise with heart free from guilt; and, amid twittering sparrows and +finches, over the cherry-trees encircling the parsonage, look toward the +west, till there is nothing more in the sky but a faint gleam among the +clouds. And then when Fixlein, amid the tolling of the evening +prayer-bell, _slowly_ descends the stair to his cooking mother, there +must be some miracle in the case, if for him whatever has been done or +baked, or served up in the lower regions, is not right and good.... A +bound, after supper, into the Castle; a look into a pure loving eye; a +word without falseness to a bride without falseness; and then under the +coverlid, a soft-breathing breast, in which there is nothing but +Paradise, a sermon and evening prayer.... I swear, with this I will +satisfy a Mythic God, who has left his Heaven, and is seeking a new one +among us here below! + +Can a mortal, can a Me in the wet clay of Earth, which Death will soon +dry into dust, ask more in one week than Fixlein is gathering into his +heart? I see not how: At least I should suppose, if such a dust-framed +being, after such a twenty-thousand prize from the Lottery of Chance, +could require aught more, it would at most be the twenty-one-thousand +prize, namely, the inaugural discourse itself. + +And this prize our Zebedäus actually drew on Sunday: he preached--he +preached with unction,----he did it before the crowding, rustling press +of people; before his Guardian, and before the Lord of Aufhammer, the +godfather of the priest and the dog;--a flock with whom in childhood he +had driven out the Castle herds about the pasture, he was now, himself a +spiritual sheep-smearer, leading out to pasture;--he was standing to the +ankles among Candidates and Schoolmasters, for today (what none of them +could) at the altar, with the nail of his finger, he might scratch a +large cross in the air, baptisms and marriages not once mentioned.... I +believe, I should feel less scrupulous than I do to chequer this +sunshiny esplanade with that thin shadow of the grave, which the +preacher threw over it, when, in the application, with wet heavy eyes, +he looked round over the mute attentive church, as if in some corner of +it he would seek the mouldering teacher of his youth and of this +congregation, who without, under the white tombstone, the wrong-side of +life, had laid away the garment of his pious spirit. And when he, +himself hurried on by the internal stream, inexpressibly softened by the +farther recollections of his own fear of death on this day, of his life +now overspread with flowers and benefits, of his entombed benefactress +resting here in her narrow bed--when he now--before the dissolving +countenance of her friend, his Thiennette--overpowered, motionless and +weeping, looked down from the pulpit to the door of the Schadeck vault, +and said: "Thanks, thou pious soul, for the good thou hast done to this +flock and to their new teacher; and, in the fulness of time, may the +dust of thy god-fearing and man-loving breast gather itself, +transfigured as gold-dust, round thy reawakened heavenly heart,"--was +there an eye in the audience dry? Her husband sobbed aloud; and +Thiennette, her beloved, bowed her head, sinking down with inconsolable +remembrances, over the front of the seat, like kindred mourners in a +funeral train. + +No fairer forenoon could prepare the way for an afternoon in which a man +was to betroth himself forever, and to unite the exchanged rings with +the Ring of Eternity. Except the bridal pair, there was none present but +an ancient pair; the mother and the long Guardian. The bridegroom wrote +out the marriage-contract or marriage-charter with his own hand; hereby +making over to his bride, from this day, his whole moveable property +(not, as you may suppose, his pocket-library, but his whole library; +whereas, in the Middle Ages, the daughter of a noble was glad to get one +or two books for marriage-portion);--in return for which, she liberally +enough contributed--a whole nuptial coach or car, laden as follows: with +nine pounds of feathers, not feathers for the cap such as we carry, but +of the lighter sort such as carry us;--with a sumptuous dozen of +godchild-plates and godchild-spoons (gifts from Schadeck), together with +a fish-knife;--of silk, not only stockings (though even King Henri II. +of France could dress no more than his legs in silk), but whole +gowns;--with jewels and other furnishings of smaller value. Good +Thiennette! in the chariot of thy spirit lies the true dowry; namely, +thy noble, soft, modest heart, the morning-gift of Nature! + +The Parson,--who, not from mistrust but from "the uncertainty of life," +could have wished for a notary's seal on everything; to whom no security +but a hypothecary one appeared sufficient, and who, in the depositing of +every barleycorn, required quittances and contracts,--had now, when the +marriage-charter was completed, a lighter heart; and through the whole +evening the good man ceased not to thank his bride for what she had +given him. To me, however, a marriage-contract were a thing as painful +and repulsive,--I confess it candidly, though you should in consequence +upbraid me with my great youth,--as if I had to take my love-letter to a +Notary Imperial, and make him docket and countersign it before it could +be sent. Heavens! to see the light flower of Love, whose perfume acts +not on the balance, so laid like tulip-bulbs on the hay-beam of Law; two +hearts on the cold councillor-and flesh-beam of relatives and advocates, +who are heaping on the scales nothing but houses, fields and tin--this, +to the interested party, may be as delightful as, to the intoxicated +suckling and nursling of the Muses and Philosophy, it is to carry the +evening and morning sacrifices he has offered up to his goddess into the +book-shop, and there to change his devotions into money, and sell them +by weight and measure.---- + +From Cantata-Sunday to Ascension, that is, to marriage-day, are one and +a half weeks--or one and a half blissful eternities. If it is pleasant +that nights or winter separate the days and seasons of joy to a +comfortable distance; if, for example, it is pleasant that birthday, +Saint's-day, betrothment, marriage and baptismal day, do not all occur +on the same day (for with very few do those festivities, like Holiday +and Apostle's day, commerge),--then is it still more pleasant to make +the interval, the flower-border, between betrothment and marriage, of an +extraordinary breadth. Before the marriage-day are the true honey-weeks; +then come the wax-weeks; then the honey-vinegar-weeks. + +In the Ninth Letter-Box, our Parson celebrates his wedding; and here, in +the Eighth, I shall just briefly skim over his way and manner of +existence till then; an existence, as might have been expected, +celestial enough. To few is it allotted, as it was to him, to have at +once such wings and such flowers (to fly over) before his nuptials; to +few is it allotted, I imagine, to purchase flour and poultry on the same +day, as Fixlein did;--to stuff the wedding-turkey with +hangman-meals;--to go every night into the stall, and see whether the +wedding-pig, which his Guardian has given him by way of +marriage-present, is still standing and eating;--to spy out for his +future wife the flax-magazines and clothes-press-niches in the +house;--to lay in new wood-stores in the prospect of winter;--to obtain +from the Consistorium directly, and for little smart-money, their Bull +of Dispensation, their remission of the threefold proclamation of +banns;--to live not in a city, where you must send to every fool +(because you are one yourself), and disclose to him that you are going +to be married; but in a little angular hamlet, where you have no one to +tell aught, but simply the Schoolmaster that he is to ring a little +later, and put a knee-cushion before the altar.---- + +O! if the Ritter Michaelis maintains that Paradise was little, because +otherwise the people would not have found each other,--a hamlet and its +joys are little and narrow, so that some shadow of Eden may still linger +on our Ball.---- + +I have not even hinted that, the day before the wedding, the +Regiments-Quartermaster came uncalled, and killed the pig, and made +puddings gratis, such as were never eaten at any Court. + +And besides, dear Fixlein, on this soft rich oil of joy there was also +floating gratis a vernal sun,--and red twilights,--and +flower-garlands,--and a bursting half world of buds!... + +How didst thou behave thee in these hot whirlpools of pleasure?--Thou +movedst thy Fishtail (Reason), and therewith describedst for thyself a +rectilineal course through the billows. For even half as much would have +hurried another Parson from his study; but the very crowning felicity of +ours was, that he stood as if rooted to the boundary-hill of Moderation, +and from thence looked down on what thousands flout away. Sitting +opposite the Castle-windows, he was still in a condition to reckon up +that _Amen_ occurs in the Bible one hundred and thirty times. Nay, to +his old learned laboratory he now appended a new chemical stove: he +purposed writing to Nürnberg and Bayreuth, and there offering his pen to +the Brothers Senft, not only for composing practical _Receipts_ at the +end of their _Almanacs_, but also for separate _Essays_ in front under +the copperplate title of each Month, because he had a thought of making +some reformatory cuts at the common people's mental habitudes.... And +now, when in the capacity of Parson he had less to do, and could add to +the holy resting-day of the congregation six literary creating-days, he +determined (even in these Carnival weeks) to strike his plough into the +hitherto quite fallow History of Hukelum, and soon to follow the plough +with his drill.... + +Thus roll his minutes, on golden wheels-of-fortune, over the twelve +days, which form the glancing star-paved road to the third-heaven of the +thirteenth, that is to the + + + + +NINTH LETTER-BOX, + +_Or to the Marriage._ + + +Rise, fair Ascension and Marriage day, and gladden readers also! Adorn +thyself with the fairest jewel, with the bride, whose soul is as pure +and glittering as its vesture; like pearl and pearl-muscle, the one as +the other, lustrous and ornamental! And so over the espalier, whose +fruit-hedge has hitherto divided our darling from his Eden, every reader +now presses after him!-- + +On the 9th of May 1793, about three in the morning, there came a sharp +peal of trumpets, like a light-beam, through the dim-red May-dawn: two +twisted horns, with a straight trumpet between them, like a note of +admiration between interrogation-points, were clanging from a house in +which only a parishioner (not the Parson) dwelt and blew: for this +parishioner had last night been celebrating the same ceremony which the +pastor had this day before him. The joyful tallyho raised our Parson +from his broad bed (and the Shock from beneath it, who some weeks ago +had been exiled from the white sleek coverlid), and this so early, that +in the portraying tester, where on every former morning he had observed +his ruddy visage and his white bedclothes, all was at present dim and +crayonned. + +I confess, the new-painted room, and a gleam of dawn on the wall, made +it so light, that he could see his knee-buckles glancing on the chair. +He then softly awakened his mother (the other guests were to lie for +hours in the sheets), and she had the city cookmaid to awaken, who, like +several other articles of wedding-furniture, had been borrowed for a day +or two from Flachsenfingen. At two doors he knocked in vain, and without +answer; for all were already down at the hearth, cooking, blowing and +arranging. + +How softly does the Spring day gradually fold back its nun-veil, and the +Earth grow bright, as if it were the morning of a Resurrection!--The +quicksilver-pillar of the barometer, the guiding Fire-pillar of the +weather-prophet, rests firmly on Fixlein's Ark of the Covenant. The Sun +raises himself, pure and cool, into the morning-blue, instead of into +the morning-red. Swallows, instead of clouds, shoot skimming through the +melodious air.... O, the good Genius of Fair Weather, who deserves many +temples and festivals (because without him no festival could be held), +lifted an ethereal azure Day, as it were, from the well-clear atmosphere +of the Moon, and sent it down, on blue butterfly-wings--as if it were a +_blue_ Monday--glittering below the Sun, in the zigzag of joyful +quivering descent, upon the narrow spot of Earth, which our heated +fancies are now viewing.... And on this balmy vernal spot, stand amid +flowers, over which the trees are shaking blossoms instead of leaves, a +bride and a bridegroom.... Happy Fixlein! how shall I paint thee without +deepening the sighs of longing in the fairest souls?-- + +But soft! we will not drink the magic cup of Fancy to the bottom at six +in the morning; but keep sober till towards night! + +At the sound of the morning prayer-bell, the bridegroom, for the din of +preparation was disturbing his quiet orison, went out into the +churchyard, which (as in many other places), together with the church, +lay round his mansion like a court. Here on the moist green, over whose +closed flowers the churchyard-wall was still spreading broad shadows, +did his spirit cool itself from the warm dreams of Earth: here, where +the white flat grave-stone of his Teacher lay before him like the +fallen-in door on the Janus'-temple of Life, or like the windward side +of the narrow house, turned towards the tempests of the world: here, +where the little shrunk metallic door on the grated cross of his father +uttered to him the inscriptions of death, and the year when his parent +departed, and all the admonitions and mementos, graven on the +lead;--there, I say, his mood grew softer and more solemn; and he now +lifted up by heart his morning prayer, which usually he read; and +entreated God to bless him in his office, and to spare his mother's +life; and to look with favour and acceptance on the purpose of +today.--Then over the graves he walked into his fenceless little angular +flower-garden; and here, composed and confident in the divine keeping, +he pressed the stalks of his tulips deeper into the mellow earth. + +But on returning to the house, he was met on all hands by the +bell-ringing and the janissary-music of wedding-gladness;--the +marriage-guests had all thrown off their nightcaps, and were drinking +diligently;--there was a clattering, a cooking, a +frizzling;--tea-services, coffee-services and warm-beer-services, were +advancing in succession; and plates full of bride-cakes were going round +like potter's frames or cistern-wheels.--The Schoolmaster, with three +young lads, was heard rehearsing from his own house an _Arioso_, with +which, so soon as they were perfect, he purposed to surprise his +clerical superior.--But now rushed all the arms of the foaming +joy-streams into one, when the sky-queen besprinkled with blossoms, the +bride, descended upon Earth in her timid joy, full of quivering humble +love;--when the bells began;--when the procession-column set forth with +the whole village round and before it;--when the organ, the +congregation, the officiating priest and the sparrows on the trees of +the church-window, struck louder and louder their rolling peals on the +drum of the jubilee-festival.... The heart of the singing bridegroom was +like to leap from its place for joy, "that on his bridal-day it was all +so respectable and grand."--Not till the marriage-benediction could he +pray a little. + +Still worse and louder grew the business during dinner, when pastry-work +and marchpane-devices were brought forward,--when glasses and slain +fishes (laid under the napkins to frighten the guests) went round;--and +when the guests rose, and themselves rent round, and at length danced +round: for they had instrumental music from the city there. + +One minute handed over to the other the sugar-bowl and bottle-case of +joy: the guests heard and saw less and less, and the villagers began to +see and hear more and more, and towards night they penetrated like a +wedge into the open door,--nay two youths ventured even in the middle +of the parsonage-court, to mount a plank over a beam, and commence +seesawing.--Out of doors, the gleaming vapour of the departed Sun was +encircling the Earth, the evening-star was glittering over parsonage and +churchyard; no one heeded it. + +However, about nine o'clock,--when the marriage-guests had well-nigh +forgotten the marriage-pair, and were drinking or dancing along for +their own behoof; when poor mortals, in this sunshine of Fate, like +fishes in the sunshine of the sky, were leaping up from their wet cold +element; and when the bridegroom under the star of happiness and love, +casting like a comet its long train of radiance over all his heaven, had +in secret pressed to his joy-filled breast his bride and his +mother,--then did he lock a slice of wedding-bread privily into a press, +in the old superstitious belief that this residue secured continuance of +bread for the whole marriage. As he returned, with greater love for the +sole partner of his life, she herself met him with his mother, to +deliver him in private the bridal-nightgown and bridal-shirt, as is the +ancient usage. Many a countenance grows pale in violent emotions, even +of joy: Thiennette's wax-face was bleaching still whiter under the +sunbeams of Happiness. O never fall, thou lily of Heaven, and may four +springs instead of four seasons open and shut thy flower-bells to the +sun!--All the arms of his soul, as he floated on the sea of joy, were +quivering to clasp the soft warm heart of his beloved, to encircle it +gently and fast, and draw it to his own.... + +He led her from the crowded dancing-room into the cool evening. Why does +the evening, does the night put warmer love in our hearts? Is it the +nightly pressure of helplessness; or is it the exalting separation from +the turmoil of life; that veiling of the world, in which for the soul +nothing more remains but souls;--is it therefore, that the letters in +which the loved name stands written on our spirit appear, like +phosphorus-writing, by night _in fire_, while by day in their _cloudy_ +traces they but smoke? + +He walked with his bride into the Castle-garden: she hastened quickly +through the Castle, and past its servants'-hall, where the fair flowers +of her young life had been crushed broad and dry, under a long dreary +pressure; and her soul expanded and breathed in the free open garden, on +whose flowery soil destiny had cast forth the first seeds of the +blossoms which today were gladdening her existence. Still Eden! green +flower-chequered _chiaroscuro_!--The moon is sleeping underground like +a dead one; but beyond the garden the sun's red evening-clouds have +fallen down like rose-leaves; and the evening-star, the brideman of the +sun, hovers, like a glancing butterfly, above the rosy red, and, modest +as a bride, deprives no single starlet of its light. + +The wandering pair arrived at the old gardener's hut; now standing +locked and dumb, with dark windows in the light garden, like a fragment +of the Past surviving in the Present. Bared twigs of trees were folding, +with clammy half-formed leaves, over the thick intertwisted tangles of +the bushes.--The Spring was standing, like a conqueror, with Winter at +his feet.--In the blue pond, now bloodless, a dusky evening-sky lay +hollowed out, and the gushing waters were moistening the +flower-beds.--The silver sparks of stars were rising on the altar of the +East, and falling down extinguished in the red sea of the West. + +The wind whirred, like a night-bird, louder through the trees; and gave +tones to the acacia-grove, and the tones called to the pair who had +first become happy within it: "Enter, new mortal pair, and think of what +is past, and of my withering and your own; and be holy as Eternity, and +weep not only for joy, but for gratitude also!"--And the wet-eyed +bridegroom led his wet-eyed bride under the blossoms, and laid his soul, +like a flower, on her heart, and said: "Best Thiennette, I am +unspeakably happy, and would say much, and cannot.--Ah, thou Dearest, we +will live like angels, like children together! Surely I will do all that +is good to thee; two years ago I had nothing, no nothing; ah, it is +through thee, best Love, that I am happy. I call thee Thou, now, thou +dear good soul!" She drew him closer to her, and said, though without +kissing him: "Call me Thou always, Dearest!" + +And as they stept forth again from the sacred grove into the magic-dusky +garden, he took off his hat; first, that he might internally thank God, +and secondly, because he wished to look into this fairest evening sky. + +They reached the blazing, rustling marriage-house, but their softened +hearts sought stillness; and a foreign touch, as in the blossoming vine, +would have disturbed the flower-nuptials of their souls. They turned +rather, and winded up into the churchyard to preserve their mood. +Majestic on the groves and mountains stood the Night before man's heart, +and made it also great. Over the _white_ steeple-obelisk the sky rested +_bluer_ and _darker_; and behind it wavered the withered summit of the +May-pole with faded flag. The son noticed his father's grave, on which +the wind was opening and shutting, with harsh noise, the little door of +the metal cross, to let the year of his death be read on the brass plate +within. An overpowering sadness seized his heart with violent streams of +tears, and drove him to the sunk hillock, and he led his bride to the +grave, and said: "Here sleeps he, my good father; in his thirty-second +year, he was carried hither to his long rest. O thou good, dear father, +couldst thou today but see the happiness of thy son, like my mother! But +thy eyes are empty, and thy breast is full of ashes, and thou seest us +not."--He was silent. The bride wept aloud; she saw the mouldering +coffins of her parents open, and the two dead arise and look round for +their daughter, who had stayed so long behind them, forsaken on the +Earth. She fell upon his heart, and faltered: "O beloved, I have neither +father nor mother, do not forsake me!" + +O thou who hast still a father and a mother, thank God for it, on the +day when thy soul is full of joyful tears, and needs a bosom wherein to +shed them.... + +And with this embracing at a father's grave, let this day of joy be +holily concluded.-- + + + + +TENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_St. Thomas's Day and Birthday._ + + +An Author is a sort of bee-keeper for his reader-swarm; in whose behalf +he separates the Flora kept for their use into different seasons, and +here accelerates, and there retards, the blossoming of many a flower, +that so in all chapters there be blooming. + +The goddess of Love and the angel of Peace conducted our married pair on +tracks running over full meadows, through the Spring; and on footpaths +hidden by high cornfields, through the Summer; and Autumn, as they +advanced towards Winter, spread her marbled leaves under their feet. And +thus they arrived before the low dark gate of Winter, full of life, full +of love, trustful, contented, sound and ruddy. + +On St. Thomas's day was Thiennette's birthday as well as Winter's. About +a quarter past nine, just when the singing ceases in the church, we +shall take a peep through the window into the interior of the parsonage. +There is nothing here but the old mother, who has all day (the son +having restricted her to rest, and not work) been gliding about, and +brushing, and burnishing, and scouring, and wiping: every carved +chair-leg, and every brass nail of the waxcloth-covered table, she has +polished into brightness;--everything hangs, as with all married people +who have no children, in its right place, brushes, fly-flaps and +almanacs;--the chairs are stationed by the room-police in their ancient +corners;--a flax-rock, encircled with a diadem, or scarf of azure +ribbon, is lying in the Schadeckbed, because, though it is a half +holiday, some spinning may go on;--the narrow slips of paper, whereon +heads of sermons are to be arranged, lie white beside the sermons +themselves, that is, beside the octavo paper-book which holds them, for +the Parson and his work-table, by reason of the cold, have migrated from +the study to the sitting-room;--his large furred doublet is hanging +beside his clean bridegroom nightgown: there is nothing wanting in the +room but He and She. For he had preached her with him tonight into the +empty Apostle's-day church, that so her mother, without +witnesses--except the two or three thousand readers who are peeping with +me through the window--might arrange the provender-baking, and whole +commissariat department of the birthday-festival, and spread out her +best table-gear and victual-stores without obstruction. + +The soul-curer reckoned it no sin to admonish, and exhort, and +encourage, and threaten his parishioners, till he felt pretty certain +that the soup must be smoking on the plates. Then he led his birthday +helpmate home, and suddenly placed her before the altar of +meat-offering, before a sweet title-page of bread-tart, on which her +name stood baked, in true _monastic characters_, in tooth-letters of +almonds. In the background of time and of the room, I yet conceal +two--bottles of Pontac. How quickly, under the sunshine of joy, do thy +cheeks grow ripe, Thiennette, when thy husband solemnly says: "This is +thy birthday; and may the Lord bless thee and watch over thee, and cause +his countenance to shine on thee, and send thee, to the joy of our +mother and thy husband especially, a happy glad _recovery_. Amen!"--And +when Thiennette perceived that it was the old mistress who had cooked +and served up all this herself, she fell upon her neck, as if it had +been not her husband's mother, but her own. + +Emotion conquers the appetite. But Fixlein's stomach was as strong as +his heart; and with him no species of movement could subdue the +peristaltic. Drink is the friction-oil of the tongue, as eating is its +drag. Yet, not till he had eaten and spoken much, did the pastor fill +the glasses. Then indeed he drew the cork-sluice from the bottle, and +set forth its streams. The sickly mother, of a being still hid beneath +her heart, turned her eyes, in embarrassed emotion, on the old woman +only; and could scarcely chide him for sending to the city wine-merchant +on her account. He took a glass in each hand, for each of the two whom +he loved, and handed them to his mother and his wife, and said: "To thy +long, long life, Thiennette!--And your health and happiness, Mamma!--And +a glad arrival to our little one, if God so bless us!"--"My son," said +the gardeneress, "it is to thy long life that we must drink; for it is +by thee we are supported. God grant thee length of days!" added she, +with stifled voice, and her eyes betrayed her tears. + +I nowhere find a livelier emblem of the female sex in all its boundless +levity, than in the case where a woman is carrying the angel of Death +beneath her heart, and yet in these nine months full of mortal tokens +thinks of nothing more important, than of who shall be the gossips, and +what shall be cooked at the christening. But thou, Thiennette, hadst +nobler thoughts, though these too along with them. The still-hidden +darling of thy heart was resting before thy eyes like a little angel +sculptured on a grave-stone, and pointing with its small finger to the +hour when thou shouldst die; and every morning and every evening, thou +thoughtest of death, with a certainty, of which I yet knew not the +reasons; and to thee it was as if the Earth were a dark mineral cave +where man's blood like stalactitic water drops down, and in dropping +raises shapes which gleam so transiently, and so quickly fade away! And +that was the cause why tears were continually trickling from thy soft +eyes, and betraying all thy anxious thoughts about thy child: but thou +repaidst these sad effusions of thy heart by the embrace in which, with +new-awakened love, thou fellest on thy husband's neck, and saidst: "Be +as it may, God's will be done, so thou and my child are left alive!--But +I know well that thou, Dearest, lovest me as I do thee.".... Lay thy +hand, good mother, full of blessings, on the two; and thou kind Fate, +never lift thine away from them!-- + +It is with emotion and good wishes that I witness the kiss of two fair +friends, or the embracing of two virtuous lovers; and from the fire of +their altar sparks fly over to me: but what is this to our sympathetic +exaltation, when we see two mortals, bending under the same burden, +bound to the same duties, animated by the same care for the same little +darlings--fall on one another's overflowing hearts, in some fair hour? +And if these, moreover, are two mortals who already wear the +mourning-weeds of life, I mean old age, whose hair and cheeks are now +grown colourless, and eyes grown dim, and whose faces a thousand thorns +have marred into images of Sorrow;--when these two clasp each other with +such wearied aged arms, and so near to the precipice of the grave, and +when they say or think: "All in us is dead, but not our love--O, we have +lived and suffered long together, and now we will hold out our hands to +Death together also, and let him carry us away together,"--does not all +within us cry: O Love, thy spark is superior to Time; it burns neither +in joy nor in the cheek of roses; it dies not, neither under a thousand +tears, nor under the snow of old age, nor under the ashes of +thy--beloved? It never dies: and Thou, All-good! if there were no +eternal love, there were no love at all.... + +To the Parson it was easier than it is to me to pave for himself a +transition from the heart to the digestive faculty. He now submitted to +Thiennette (whose voice at once grew cheerful, while her eyes time after +time began to sparkle) his purpose to take advantage of the frosty +weather, and have the winter meat slaughtered and salted: "the pig can +scarcely rise," said he; and forthwith he fixed the determination of the +women, farther the butcher, and the day, and all _et ceteras_; +appointing everything with a degree of punctuality, such as the +war-college (when it applies the cupping-glass, the battle-sword, to the +overfull system of mankind) exhibits on the previous day, in its +arrangements, before it drives a province into the baiting-ring and +slaughter-house. + +This settled, he began to talk and feel quite joyously about the course +of winter, which had commenced today at two-and-twenty minutes past +eight in the morning: "for," said he, "new-year is close at hand; and we +shall not need so much candle tomorrow night as tonight." His mother, it +is true, came athwart him with the weapons of her five senses: but he +fronted her with his Astronomical Tables, and proved that the +lengthening of the day was no less undeniable than imperceptible. In the +last place, like most official and married persons, heeding little +whether his women took him or not, he informed them in +juristico-theological phrase: "That he would put off no longer, but +write this very afternoon to the venerable Consistorium, in whose hands +lay the _jus circa sacra_, for a new Ball to the church-steeple; and +the rather, as he hoped before newyear's day to raise a bountiful +subscription from the parish for this purpose.--If God spare us till +Spring," added he with peculiar cheerfulness, "and thou wert happily +recovered, I might so arrange the whole that the Ball should be set up +at thy first church-going, dame!" + +Thereupon he shifted his chair from the dinner and dessert table to the +work-table; and spent the half of his afternoon over the petition for +the steeple-ball. As there still remained a little space till dusk, he +clapped his tackle to his new learned _Opus_, of which I must now afford +a little glimpse. Out of doors among the snow, there stood near Hukelum +an old Robber-Castle, which Fixlein, every day in Autumn, had hovered +round like a _revenant_, with a view to gauge it, ichnographically to +delineate it, to put every window-bar and every bridle-hook of it +correctly on paper. He believed he was not expecting too much, if +thereby--and by some drawings of the not so much vertical as horizontal +walls--he hoped to impart to his "_Architectural Correspondence of two +Friends concerning the Hukelum Robber-Castle_" that last polish and +_labor limæ_ which contents Reviewers. For towards the critical +Starchamber of the Reviewers he entertained not that contempt which some +authors actually feel--or only affect, as for instance, I. From this +mouldered Robber-_Louvre_, there grew for him more flowers of joy, than +ever in all probability had grown from it of old for its owners.--To my +knowledge, it is an anecdote not hitherto made public, that for all this +no man but _Büsching_ has to answer. Fixlein had not long ago, among the +rubbish of the church letter-room, stumbled on a paper wherein the +Geographer had been requesting special information about the statistics +of the village. Büsching, it is true, had picked up +nothing--accordingly, indeed, Hukelum, in his _Geography_, is still +omitted altogether;--but this pestilential letter had infected Fixlein +with the spring-fever of Ambition, so that his palpitating heart was no +longer to be stilled or held in check, except by the +assafoetida-emulsion of a review. It is with authorcraft as with love: +both of them for decades long one may equally desire and forbear: but is +the first spark once thrown into the powder-magazine, it burns to the +end of the chapter. + +Simply because winter had commenced by the Almanac, the fire must be +larger than usual; for warm rooms, like large furs and bearskin-caps, +were things which he loved more than you would figure. The dusk, this +fair _chiaroscuro_ of the day, this coloured foreground of the night, he +lengthened out as far as possible, that he might study Christmas +discourses therein: and yet could his wife, without scruple, just as he +was pacing up and down the room, with the sowing-sheet full of divine +word-seeds hung round his shoulder,--hold up to him a spoonful of +alegar, that he might try the same in his palate, and decide whether she +should yet draw it off. Nay, did he not in all cases, though fonder of +roe-fishes himself, order a milter to be drawn from the herring-barrel, +because his good-wife liked it better?-- + +Here light was brought in; and as Winter was just now commencing his +glass-painting on the windows, his ice flower-pieces, and his +snow-foliage, our Parson felt that it was time to read something cold, +which he pleasantly named his cold collation; namely, the description of +some unutterably frosty land. On the present occasion, it was the winter +history of the four Russian sailors on Nova Zembla. I, for my share, do +often in summer, when the sultry zephyr is inflating the flower-bells, +append certain charts and sketches of Italy, or the East, as additional +landscapes to those among which I am sitting. And yet tonight he farther +took up the _Weekly Chronicle_ of Flachsenfingen; and amid the +bombshells, pestilences, famines, comets with long tails, and the +roaring of all the Hell-floods of another Thirty-Years War, he could +still listen with the one ear towards the kitchen, where the salad for +his roast-duck was just a-cutting. + +Good-night, old Fixlein! I am tired. May kind Heaven send thee with the +young year 1794, when the Earth shall again carry her people, like +precious night-moths, on leaves and flowers, the new steeple-ball, and a +thick handsome--boy to boot! + + + + +ELEVENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Spring; Investiture; and Childbirth._ + + +I have just risen from a singular dream; but the foregoing Box makes it +natural. I dreamed that all was verdant, all full of odours; and I was +looking up at a steeple-ball glittering in the sun, from my station in +the window of a little white garden-house, my eyelids full of +flower-pollen, my shoulders full of thin cherry-blossoms, and my ears +full of humming from the neighbouring bee-hives. Then, methought, +advancing slowly through the beds, came the Hukelum Parson, and stept +into the garden-house, and solemnly said to me: "Honoured Sir, my wife +has just brought me a little boy; and I make bold to solicit _your +Honour_ to do the holy office for the same, when it shall be received +into the bosom of the church." + +I naturally started up, and there was--Parson Fixlein standing bodily at +my bedside, and requesting me to be godfather: for Thiennette had given +him a son last night about one o'clock. The confinement had been as +light and happy as could be conceived; for this reason, that the father +had, some months before, been careful to provide one of those +_Klappersteins_, as we call them, which are found in the aerie of the +eagle, and therewith to alleviate the travail: for this stone performs, +in its way, all the service which the bonnet of that old Minorite monk +in Naples, of whom Gorani informs us, could accomplish for people in +such circumstances, who put it on.... + +--I might vex the reader still longer; but I willingly give up, and show +him how the matter stood. + +Such a May as the present (of 1794), Nature has not, in the memory of +man--begun: for this is but the fifteenth of it. People of reflection +have for centuries been vexed once every year, that our German singers +should indite May-songs, since several other months deserve such a +poetical night-music much better; and I myself have often gone so far as +to adopt the idiom of our market-women, and instead of May butter, to +say June butter, as also June, March, April songs.--But thou, kind May +of this year, thou deservest to thyself all the songs which were ever +made on thy rude namesakes! By Heaven! when I now issue from the +wavering chequered acacia-grove of the Castle-garden, in which I am +writing this Chapter, and come forth into the broad living day, and look +up to the warming Heaven, and over its Earth budding out beneath +it,--the Spring rises before me like a vast full cloud, with a splendour +of blue and green. I see the Sun standing amid roses in the western sky, +into which he has thrown his ray-brush, wherewith he has today been +painting the Earth;--and when I look round a little in our +picture-exhibition, his enamelling is still hot on the mountains; on the +moist chalk of the moist Earth, the flowers full of sap-colours are laid +out to dry, and the forget-me-not with miniature colours; under the +varnish of the streams, the skyey Painter has pencilled his own eye; and +the clouds, like a decoration-painter, he has touched off with wild +outlines and single tints: and so he stands at the border of the Earth, +and looks back upon his stately Spring, whose robe-folds are valleys, +whose breast-bouquet is gardens, and whose blush is a vernal evening, +and who, when she arises, shall be--Summer. + +But to proceed! Every spring--and especially in such a spring--I imitate +on foot our birds of passage; and travel off the hypochondriacal +sediment of winter: but I do not think I should have seen even the +steeple-ball of Hukelum, which is to be set up one of these days, to say +nothing of the Parson's family, had not I happened to be visiting the +Flachsenfingen Superintendent and Consistorialrath. From him I got +acquainted with Fixlein's history (every Candidatus must deliver an +account of his life to the Consistorium), and with his still madder +petition for a steeple-ball. I observed, with pleasure, how gaily the +cob was diving and swashing about in his duck-pool and milk-bath of +life; and forthwith determined on a journey to his shore. It is +singular, that is to say, manlike, that when we have for years kept +prizing and describing some original person or original book, yet the +moment we see such, they anger us: we would have them fit us and delight +us in all points, as if any originality could do this but our own. + +It was Saturday the third of May, when I, with the Superintendent, the +_Senior Capituli_, and some temporal Raths, mounted and rolled off, and +in two carriages were driven to the Parson's door. The matter was, he +was not yet--_invested_, and tomorrow this was to be done. I little +thought, while we whirled by the white espalier of the Castle-garden, +that there I was to write another book. + +I still see the Parson, in his peruke-minever and head-case, come +springing to the coach-door and lead us out; so smiling--so +courteous--so vain of the disloaded freight, and so attentive to it. He +looked as if in the journey of life he had never once put on the +_travelling-gauze_ of Sorrow: Thiennette again seemed never to have +thrown hers back. How neat was everything in the house, how dainty, +decorated and polished! And yet so quiet, without the cursed +alarm-ringing of servants' bells, and without the bass-drum tumult of +stair-pedaling. Whilst the gentlemen, my road-companions, were sitting +in state in the upper room, I flitted, as my way is, like a smell, over +the whole house, and my path led me through the sitting-room over the +kitchen, and at last into the churchyard beside the house. Good +Saturday! I will paint thy hours as I may, with the black asphaltos of +ink, on the tablets of other souls! In the sitting-room, I lifted from +the desk a volume gilt on the back and edges, and bearing this title: +"_Holy Sayings, by Fixlein. First Collection._" And as I looked to see +where it had been printed, the Holy Collection turned out to be in +writing. I handled the quills, and dipped into the negro-black of the +ink, and I found that all was right and good: with your fluttering +gentlemen of letters, who hold only a department of the foreign, and +none of the home affairs, nothing (except some other things about them) +can be worse than their ink and pens. I also found a little copperplate, +to which I shall in due time return. + +In the kitchen, a place not more essential for the writing of an English +novel, than for the acting of a German one, I could plant myself beside +Thiennette, and help her to blow the fire, and look at once into her +face and her burning coals. Though she was in wedlock, a state in which +white roses on the cheeks are changed for red ones, and young women are +similar to a similitude given in my Note;[57]--and although the blazing +wood threw a false rouge over her, I guessed how pale she must have +been; and my sympathy in her paleness rose still higher at the thought +of the burden which Fate had now not so much taken from her, as laid in +her arms and nearer to her heart. In truth, a man must never have +reflected on the Creation-moment, when the Universe first rose from the +bosom of an Eternity, if he does not view with philosophic reverence a +woman, whose thread of life a secret all-wondrous Hand is spinning to a +second thread, and who veils within her the transition from Nothingness +to Existence, from Eternity to Time;--but still less can a man have any +heart of flesh, if his soul, in presence of a woman, who, to an unknown +unseen being, is sacrificing more than we will sacrifice when it is seen +and known, namely, her nights, her joys, often her life, does not bow +lower, and with deeper emotion, than in presence of a whole +nun-orchestra on their Sahara-desert;--and worse than either is the man +for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable. + + [57] To the Spring, namely, which begins with snowdrops, and ends + with roses and pinks.-- + +"It is little serviceable to thee, poor Thiennette," thought I, "that +now, when thy bitter cup of sickness is made to run over, thou must +have loud festivities come crowding round thee." I meant the Investiture +and the Ball-raising. My rank, the diploma of which the reader will find +stitched in with the _Dog-post-days_, and which had formerly been hers, +brought about my ears a host of repelling, embarrassed, wavering titles +of address from her; which people, to whom they have once belonged, are +at all times apt to parade before superiors or inferiors, and which it +now cost me no little trouble to disperse. Through the whole Saturday +and Sunday, I could never get into the right track either with her or +him, till the other guests were gone. As for the mother, she acted, like +obscure ideas, powerfully and constantly, but out of view: this arose in +part from her idolatrous fear of us; and partly also from a slight shade +of care (probably springing from the state of her daughter), which had +spread over her like a little cloud. + +I cruised about, so long as the moon-crescent glimmered in the sky, over +the churchyard; and softened my fantasies, which are at any rate too +prone to paint with the brown of crumbling mummies, not only by the red +of twilight, but also by reflecting how easily our eyes and our hearts +can become reconciled even to the ruins of Death; a reflection which the +Schoolmaster, whistling as he arranged the charnel-house for the morrow, +and the Parson's maid singing, as she reaped away the grass from the +graves, readily enough suggested to me. And why should not this +habituation to all forms of Fate in the other world, also, be a gift +reserved for us in our nature by the bounty of our great Preserver?--I +perused the grave-stones; and I think even now that Superstition[58] is +right in connecting with the reading of such things a loss of _memory_; +at all events, one does _forget_ a thousand things belonging to this +world.... + + [58] This Christian superstition is not only a Rabbinical, but also + a Roman one. _Cicero de Senectute_. + +The Investiture on Sunday (whose Gospel, of the good shepherd, suited +well with the ceremony) I must dispatch in few words; because nothing +truly sublime can bear to be treated of in many. However, I shall impart +the most memorable circumstances, when I say that there was--drinking +(in the Parsonage),--music-making (in the Choir),--reading (of the +Presentation by the Senior, and of the Ratification-rescript by the lay +Rath),--and preaching, by the Consistorialrath, who took the soul-curer +by the hand, and presented, made over and guaranteed him to the +congregation, and them to him. Fixlein felt that he was departing as a +high-priest from the church, which he had entered as a country parson; +and all day he had not once the heart to ban. When a man is treated with +solemnity, he looks upon himself as a higher nature, and goes through +his solemn feasts devoutly. + +This indenturing, this monastic profession, our Head-Rabbis and +Lodge-masters (our Superintendents) have usually a taste for putting off +till once the pastor has been some years ministering among the people, +to whom they hereby present him; as the early Christians frequently +postponed their consecration and investiture to Christianity, their +baptism namely, till the day when they died: nay, I do not even think +this clerical Investiture would lose much of its usefulness, if it and +the declaring-vacant of the office were reserved for the same day; the +rather as this usefulness consists entirely in two items; what the +Superintendent and his Raths can eat, and what they can pocket. + +Not till towards evening did the Parson and I get acquainted. The +Investiture officials, and elevation pulley-men, had, throughout the +whole evening, been very violently--breathing. I mean thus: as these +gentlemen could not but be aware, by the most ancient theories and the +latest experiments, that air was nothing else than a sort of rarefied +and exploded water, it became easy for them to infer that, conversely, +water was nothing else than a denser sort of air. Wine-drinking, +therefore, is nothing else but the breathing of an air pressed together +into proper spissitude, and sprinkled over with a few perfumes. Now, in +our days, by clerical persons too much (fluid) breath can never be +inhaled through the mouth; seeing the dignity of their station excludes +them from that breathing through the _smaller_ pores, which Abernethy so +highly recommends under the name of _air-bath_: and can the Gullet in +their case be aught else than door-neighbour to the Windpipe, the +_consonant_ and fellow-shoot of the Windpipe?--I am running astray: I +meant to signify, that I this evening had adopted the same opinion; only +that I used this air or ether, not like the rest for loud laughter, but +for the more quiet contemplation of life in general. I even shot forth +at my gossip certain speeches, which betrayed devoutness: these he at +first took for jests, being aware that I was from Court, and of quality. +But the concave mirror of the wine-mist at length suspended the images +of my soul, enlarged and embodied like spiritual shapes, in the air +before me.--Life shaded itself off to my eyes like a hasty summer night, +which we little fire-flies shoot across with transient gleam;--I said to +him that man must turn himself like the leaves of the great mallow, at +the different day-seasons of his life, now to the rising sun, now to the +setting, now to the night, towards the Earth and its graves;--I said, +the omnipotence of Goodness was driving us and the centuries of the +world towards the gates of the City of God, as, according to Euler, the +resistance of the _Ether_ leads the circling Earth towards the Sun, &c. +&c. + + +On the strength of these entremets, he considered me the first +theologian of his age; and had he been obliged to go to war, would +previously have taken my advice on the matter, as belligerent powers +were wont of old from the theologians of the Reformation. I hide not +from myself, however, that what preachers call vanity of the world, is +something altogether different from what philosophy so calls. When I, +moreover, signified to him that I was not ashamed to be an Author; but +had a turn for working up this and the other biography; and that I had +got a sight of his _Life_ in the hands of the Superintendent; and might +be in case to prepare a printed one therefrom, if so were he would +assist me with here and there a tint of flesh-colour,--then was my silk, +which, alas! not only isolates one from electric fire, but also from a +kindlier sort of it, the only grate which rose between his arms and me; +for, like the most part of poor country parsons, it was not in his power +to forget the rank of any man, or to vivify his own on a higher one. He +said: "He would acknowledge it with veneration, if I should mention him +in print; but he was much afraid his life was too common and too poor +for a biography." Nevertheless, he opened me the drawer of his +Letter-boxes; and said, perhaps, he had hereby been paving the way for +me. + +The main point, however, was, he hoped that his _Errata_, his +_Exercitationes_, and his _Letters on the Robber-Castle_, if I should +previously send forth a Life of the Author, might be better received; +and that it would be much the same as if I accompanied them with a +Preface. + +In short, when on Monday the other dignitaries with their nimbus of +splendour had dissipated, I alone, like a precipitate, abode with him; +and am still abiding, that is, from the fifth of May (the Public should +take the Almanac of 1794, and keep it open beside them) to the +fifteenth: today is Thursday, tomorrow is the sixteenth and Friday, when +comes the Spinat-Kirmes, or Spinage-Wake, as they call it, and the +uplifting of the steeple-ball, which I just purposed to await before I +went. Now, however, I do not go so soon; for on Sunday I have to assist +at the baptismal ceremony, as baptismal agent for my little future +godson. Whoever pays attention to me, and keeps the Almanac open, may +readily guess why the christening is put off till Sunday: for it is that +memorable Cantata-Sunday, which once, for its mad narcotic +hemlock-virtues, was of importance in our History; but is now so only +for the fair betrothment, which after two years we mean to celebrate +with a baptism. + +Truly it is not in my power--for want of colours and presses--to paint +or print upon my paper the soft balmy flower-garland of a fortnight +which has here wound itself about my sickly life; but with a single day +I shall attempt it. Man, I know well, cannot prognosticate either his +joys or his sorrows, still less repeat them, either in living or +writing. + +The black hour of coffee has gold in its mouth for us and honey; here, +in the morning coolness, we are all gathered; we maintain popular +conversation, that so the parsoness and the gardeneress may be able to +take share in it. The morning-service in the church, where often the +whole people[59] are sitting and singing, divides us. While the bell is +sounding, I march with my writing-gear into the singing Castle-garden; +and seat myself in the fresh acacia-grove, at the dewy two-legged table. +Fixlein's Letter-boxes I keep by me in my pocket; and I have only to +look and abstract from his what can be of use in my own.--Strange +enough! so easily do we forget a thing in describing it, I really did +not recollect for a moment that I am now sitting at the very +grove-table, of which I speak, and writing all this.-- + + [59] For according to the Jurists, fifteen persons make a people. + +My gossip in the mean time is also labouring for the world. His study is +a sort of sacristy, and his printing-press a pulpit, wherefrom he +preaches to all men; for an Author is the Town-chaplain of the Universe. +A man, who is making a Book, will scarcely hang himself; all rich +Lords'-sons, therefore, should labour for the press; for, in that case, +when you awake too early in bed, you have always a _plan_, an aim, and +therefore a cause before you why you should get out of it. Better off +too is the author who collects rather than invents,--for the latter with +its eating fire calcines the heart: I praise the Antiquary, the +Heraldist, Notemaker, Compiler; I esteem the _Title-perch_ (a fish +called _Perca-Diagramma_, because of the letters on its scales), and the +_Printer_ (a chafer, called _Scarabæus Typographus_, which eats letters +in the bark of fir),--neither of them needs any greater or fairer arena +in the world than a piece of rag-paper, or any other laying-apparatus +than a pointed pencil, wherewith to lay his four-and-twenty +letter-eggs.--In regard to the _catalogue raisonné_, which my gossip is +now drawing up of German _Errata_, I have several times suggested to +him, "that it were good if he extended his researches in one respect, +and revised the rule, by which it has been computed, that _e. g._ for a +hundredweight of pica black-letter, four hundred and fifty semicolons, +three hundred periods, &c. are required; and to recount, and see whether +in Political writings and Dedications the fifty notes of admiration for +a hundredweight of pica black-letter were not far too small an +allowance, and if so, what the real quantity was?" + +Several days he wrote nothing; but wrapped himself in the slough of his +parson's-cloak; and so in his canonicals, beside the Schoolmaster, put +the few A-b-c shooters, which were not, like forest-shooters, absent on +furlough by reason of the spring,--through their platoon firing in the +Hornbook. He never did more than his duty, but also never less. It +brought a soft benignant warmth over his heart, to think that he, who +had once ducked under a School-inspectorship, was now one himself. + +About ten o'clock, we meet from our different museums, and examine the +village, especially the Biographical furniture and holy places, which I +chance that morning to have had under my pen or pantagraph; because I +look at them with more interest _after_ my description than _before_ it. + +Next comes dinner.-- + +After the concluding grace, which is too long, we both of us set to +entering the charitable subsidies, and religious donations, which our +parishioners have remitted to the sinking or rather rising fund of the +church-box for the purchase of the new steeple-globe, into two ledgers: +the one of these, with the names of the subscribers, or (in case they +have subscribed for their children) with their children's names also, is +to be inurned in a leaden capsule, and preserved in the steeple-ball; +the other will remain below among the parish Registers. You cannot fancy +what contributions the ambition of getting into the Ball brings us in; +I declare, several peasants who had given and well once already, +contributed again when they had baptisms: must not little Hans be in the +Ball too? + +After this book-keeping by double-entry, my gossip took to engraving on +copper. He had been so happy as to elicit the discovery, that from a +certain stroke resembling an inverted Latin S, the capital letters of +our German Chancery-hand, beautiful and intertwisted as you see them +stand in Law-deeds and Letters-of-nobility, may every one of them be +composed and spun out. + +"Before you can count sixty," said he to me, "I take my +fundamental-stroke and make you any letter out of it." + +I merely inverted this fundamental-stroke, that is, gave him a German S, +and counted sixty till he had it done. This line of beauty, when once it +has been twisted and flourished into all the capitals, he purposes by +copperplates which he is himself engraving, to make more common for the +use of Chanceries; and I may take upon me to give the Russian, the +Prussian, and a few other smaller Courts, hopes of proof impressions +from his hand: to under-secretaries they are indispensable. + +Now comes evening; and it is time for us both, here forking about with +our fruit-hooks on the literary Tree of Knowledge, at the risk of our +necks, to clamber down again into the meadow-flowers and pasturages of +rural joy. We wait, however, till the busy Thiennette, whom we are now +to receive into our communion, has no more walks to take but the one +between us. Then slowly we stept along (the sick lady was weak) through +the office-houses; that is to say, through stalls and their population, +and past a horrid lake of ducks, and past a little milk-pond of carps, +to both of which colonies, I and the rest, like princes, gave bread, +seeing we had it in view on the Sunday after the christening, to--take +them for bread ourselves. + +The sky is still growing kindlier and redder, the swallows and the +blossom-trees louder, the house-shadows broader, and men more happy. The +clustering blossoms of the acacia-grove hang down over our cold +collation; and the ham is not stuck (which always vexes me) with +flowers, but beshaded with them from a distance.... + +And now the deeper evening and the nightingale conspire to soften me; +and I soften in my turn the mild beings round me; especially the pale +Thiennette, to whom, or to whose heart, after the apoplectic crushings +of a downpressed youth, the most violent pulses of joy are heavier than +the movements of pensive sadness. And thus beautifully runs our pure +transparent life along, under the blooming curtains of May; and in our +modest pleasures we look with timidity neither behind us nor before; as +people who are lifting treasure gaze not round at the road they came, or +the road they are going. + +So pass our days. Today, however, it was different: by this time, +usually, the evening meal is over; and the Shock has got the osseous +preparation of our supper between his jaws; but tonight I am still +sitting here alone in the garden, writing the Eleventh Letter-Box, and +peeping out every instant over the meadows, to see if my gossip is not +coming. + +For he is gone to town, to bring a whole magazine of spiceries: his +coat-pockets are wide. Nay, it is certain enough that oftentimes he +brings home with him, simply in his coat-pocket, considerable +flesh-tithes from his Guardian, at whose house he alights; though truly +intercourse with the polished world and city, and the refinement of +manners thence arising,--for he calls on the bookseller, on +school-colleagues, and several respectable shopkeepers,--does, much more +than flesh-fetching, form the object of these journeys to the city. This +morning he appointed me regent head of the house, and delivered me the +_fasces_ and _curule chair_. I sat the whole day beside the young pale +mother; and could not but think, simply because the husband had left me +there as his representative, that I liked the fair soul better. She had +to take dark colours, and paint out for me the winter landscape and ice +region of her sorrow-wasted youth; but often, contrary to my intention, +by some simple elegiac word, I made her still eye wet; for the too full +heart, which had been crushed with other than sentimental woes, +overflowed at the smallest pressure. A hundred times in the recital I +was on the point of saying: "O yes, it was with winter that your life +began, and the course of it has resembled winter!"--Windless, cloudless +day! Three more words about thee, the world will still not take amiss +from me! + +I advanced nearer and nearer to the heart-central-fire of the women; and +at last they mildly broke forth in censure of the Parson; the best wives +will complain of their husbands to a stranger, without in the smallest +liking them the less on that account. The mother and the wife, during +dinner, accused him of buying lots at every book-auction; and, in +truth, in such places, he does strive and bid not so much for good or +for bad books--or old ones--or new ones--or such as he likes to read--or +any sort of favourite books--but simply for books. The mother blamed +especially his squandering so much on copperplates; yet some hours +after, when the Schultheis, or Mayor, who wrote a beautiful hand, came +in to subscribe for the steeple-ball, she pointed out to him how finely +her son could engrave, and said that it was well worth while to spend a +groschen or two on such capitals as these. + +They then handed me,--for when once women are in the way of a full +open-hearted effusion, they like (only you must not turn the stop-cock +of inquiry) to pour out the whole,--a ring-case, in which he kept a +Chamberlain's key that he had found, and asked me if I knew who had lost +it. Who could know such a thing, when there are almost more Chamberlains +than picklocks among us?-- + +At last I took heart, and asked after the little toy-press of the +drowned son, which hitherto I had sought for in vain over all the house. +Fixlein himself had inquired for it, with as little success. Thiennette +gave the old mother a persuading look full of love; and the latter led +me up-stairs to an outstretched hoop-petticoat, covering the poor press +as with a dome. On the way thither the mother told me, she kept it hid +from her son, because the recollection of his brother would pain him. +When this deposit-chest of Time (the lock had fallen off) was laid open +to me, and I had looked into the little charnel-house, with its wrecks +of a childlike sportful Past, I, without saying a word, determined, some +time ere I went away, to unpack these playthings of the lost boy, before +his surviving brother: Can there be aught finer than to look at these +ash-buried, deep-sunk Herculanean ruins of childhood, now dug up and in +the open air? + +Thiennette sent twice to ask me whether he was come. He and she, +precisely because they do not give their love the weakening expression +of phrases, but the strengthening one of actions, have a boundless +feeling of it towards one another. Some wedded pairs eat each other's +lips and hearts and love away by kisses,--as in Rome, the statues of +Christ (by Angelo) have lost their feet by the same process of kissing, +and got leaden ones instead; in other couples, again, you may see, by +mere inspection, the number of their conflagrations and eruptions, as in +Vesuvius you can discover his, of which there are now forty-three: but +in these two beings rose the Greek fire of a moderate and everlasting +love, and gave warmth without casting forth sparks, and flamed straight +up without crackling. The evening-red is flowing back more magically +from the windows of the gardener's cottage into my grove; and I feel as +if I must say to Destiny: "Hast thou a sharp sorrow, then throw it +rather into my breast, and strike not with it three good souls, who are +too happy not to bleed by it, and too sequestered in their little dim +village not to shrink back at the thunderbolt which hurries a stricken +spirit from its earthly dwelling."---- + +Thou good Fixlein! Here comes he hurrying over the parsonage-green. What +languishing looks full of love already rest in the eye of thy +Thiennette!--What news wilt thou bring us tonight from the town!--How +will the ascending steeple-ball refresh thy soul tomorrow!-- + + + + +TWELFTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Steeple-ball-Ascension. The Toy-press._ + + +How, on this sixteenth of May, the old steeple-ball was twisted-off from +the Hukelum steeple, and a new one put on in its stead, will I now +describe to my best ability; but in that simple historical style of the +Ancients, which, for great events, is perhaps the most suitable. + +At a very early hour, a coach arrived containing Messrs. Court-Guilder +Zeddel and Locksmith Wächser, and the new Peter's-cupola of the steeple. +Towards eight o'clock the community, consisting of subscribers to the +Globe, was visibly collecting. A little later came the Lord Dragoon +Rittmeister von Aufhammer, as Patron of the church and steeple, attended +by Mr. Church-Inspector Streichert. Hereupon my Reverend Cousin Fixlein +and I repaired, with the other persons whom I have already named, into +the Church, and there celebrated before innumerable hearers a weekday +prayer-service. Directly afterwards, my Reverend Friend made his +appearance above in the pulpit, and endeavoured to deliver a speech +which might correspond to the solemn transaction;--and immediately +thereafter, he read aloud the names of the patrons and charitable souls, +by whose donations the Ball had been put together; and showed to the +congregation the leaden box in which they were specially recorded; +observing, that the book from which he had recited them was to be +reposited in the Parish Register-office. Next he held it necessary to +thank them and God, that he, above his deserts, had been chosen as the +instrument and undertaker of such a work. The whole he concluded with a +short prayer for Mr. Stechmann the Slater (who was already hanging on +the outside on the steeple, and loosening the old shaft); and entreated +that he might not break his neck, or any of his members. A short hymn +was then sung, which the most of those assembled without the +church-doors sang along with us, looking up at the same time to the +steeple. + +All of us now proceeded out likewise; and the discarded ball, as it were +the amputated cock's-comb of the church, was lowered down and untied. +Church-Inspector Streichert drew a leaden case from the crumbling ball, +which my Reverend Friend put into his pocket, purposing to read it at +his convenience; I, however, said to some peasants: "See, thus will your +names also be preserved in the new Ball, and when, after long years, it +shall be taken down, the box lies within it, and the then parson becomes +acquainted with you all."--And now was the new steeple-globe, with the +leaden cup in which lay the names of the bystanders, at length +full-laden so to speak, and saturated, and fixed to the +pulley-rope;--and so did this the whilom cupping-glass of the community +ascend aloft.... + +By heaven! the unadorned style is here a thing beyond my power: for when +the Ball moved, swung, mounted, there rose a drumming in the centre of +the steeple; and the Schoolmaster, who, till now, had looked down +through a sounding-hole directed towards the congregation, now stept out +with a trumpet at a side sounding-hole, which the mounting Ball was not +to cross.--But when the whole Church rung and pealed, the nearer the +capital approached its crown,--and when the Slater clutched it and +turned it round, and happily incorporated the spike of it, and delivered +down, between Heaven and Earth, and leaning on the Ball, a +Topstone-speech to this and all of us,--and when my gossip's eyes, in +his rapture at being Parson on this great day, were running over, and +the tears trickling down his priestly garment;--I believe I was the only +man,--as his mother was the only woman,--whose souls a common grief laid +hold of to press them even to bleeding; for I and the mother had +yesternight, as I shall tell more largely afterwards, discovered in the +little chest of the drowned boy, from a memorial in his father's hand, +that, on the day after the morrow, on Cantata-Sunday and his +baptismal-Sunday, he would be--two-and-thirty years of age. "O!" +thought I, while I looked at the blue heaven, the green graves, the +glittering ball, the weeping priest, "so, at all times, stands poor man +with bandaged eyes before thy sharp sword, incomprehensible Destiny! And +when thou drawest it and brandishest it aloft, he listens with pleasure +to the whizzing of the stroke before it falls!"-- + +Last night I was aware of it; but to the reader, whom I was preparing +for it afar off, I would tell nothing of the mournful news, that, in the +press of the dead brother, I had found an old Bible which the boys had +used at school, with a white blank leaf in it, on which the father had +written down the dates of his children's birth. And even this it was +that raised in thee, thou poor mother, the shade of sorrow which of late +we have been attributing to smaller causes; and thy heart was still +standing amid the rain, which seemed to us already past over and changed +into a rainbow!--Out of love to him, she had yearly told one falsehood, +and concealed his age. By extreme good luck, he had not been present +when the press was opened. I still purpose, after this fatal Sunday, to +surprise him with the parti-coloured reliques of his childhood, and so +of these old Christmas-presents to make him new ones. In the mean while, +if I and his mother can but follow him incessantly, like +fish-hook-floats and foot-clogs, through tomorrow and next day, that no +murderous accident lift aside the curtain from his +birth-certificate,--all may yet be well. For now, in truth, to his eyes, +this birthday, in the metamorphotic mirror of his superstitious +imagination, and behind the magnifying magic vapour of his present joys, +would burn forth like a red death-warrant.... But besides all this, the +leaf of the Bible is now sitting higher than any of us, namely, in the +new steeple-ball, into which I this morning prudently introduced it. +Properly speaking there is indeed no danger. + + + + +THIRTEENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Christening._ + + +Today is that stupid Cantata-Sunday; but nothing now remains of it save +an hour.--By heaven! in right spirits were we all today. I believe I +have drunk as faithfully as another.--In truth, one should be moderate +in all things, in writing, in drinking, in rejoicing; and as we lay +straws into the honey for our bees that they may not drown in their +sugar, so ought one at all times to lay a few firm Principles, and twigs +from the tree of Knowledge, into the Syrup of life, instead of those +same bee-straws, that so one may cling thereto, and not drown like a +rat. But now I do purpose in earnest to--write (and also live) with +steadfastness; and therefore, that I may record the christening ceremony +with greater coolness,--to besprinkle my fire with the night-air, and to +roam out for an hour into the blossom-and-wave-embroidered night, where +a lukewarm breath of air, intoxicated with soft odours, is sinking down +from the blossom-peaks to the low-bent flowers, and roaming over the +meadows, and at last launching on a wave, and with it sailing down the +moonshiny brook. O, without, under the stars, under the tones of the +nightingale, which seem to reverberate, not from the echo, but from the +far-off down-glancing worlds; beside that moon, which the gushing brook +in its flickering watery band is carrying away, and which creeps under +the little shadows of the bank as under clouds,--O, amid such forms and +tones, the heart of man grows serious; and as of old an evening bell was +rung to direct the wanderer through the deep forests to his nightly +home, so in our Night are such voices within us and about us, which call +to us in our strayings, and make us calmer, and teach us to moderate our +own joys, and to conceive those of others. + + * * * * * + +I return, peaceful and cool enough, to my narrative. All yesternight I +left not the worthy Parson half an hour from my sight, to guard him from +poisoning the well of his life. Full of paternal joy, and with the +skeleton of the sermon (he was committing it to memory) in his hand, he +set before me all that he had; and pointed out to me the fruit-baskets +of pleasures which Cantata-Sunday always plucked and filled for him. He +recounted to me, as I did not go away, his baptisms, his accidents of +office; told me of his relatives; and removed my uncertainty with regard +to the public revenues--of his parish, to the number of his communicants +and expected catechumens. At this point, however, I am afraid that many +a reader will in vain endeavour to transport himself into my situation, +and still be unable to discover why I said to Fixlein: "Worthy gossip, +better no man could wish himself." I lied not, for so it is.... But +look in the Note.[60] + + [60] A long philosophical elucidation is indispensably requisite: + which will be found in this Book, under the title: _Natural Magic + of the Imagination_. [A part of the _Jus de Tablette_ appended to + this Biography, unconnected with it, and not given here.--ED.] + +At last rose the Sunday, the present; and on this holy day, simply +because my little godson was for going over to Christianity, there was a +vast racket made: every time a conversion happens, especially of +nations, there is an uproaring and a shooting; I refer to the two +Thirty-Years Wars, to the more recent one, and to the earlier, which +Charlemagne so long carried on with the heathen Saxons: thus, in the +_Palais Royal_, the Sun, at his transit over the meridian, fires off a +cannon.[61] But this morning the little Unchristian, my godson, was +precisely the person least attended to; for, in thinking of the +conversion, they had no time left to think of the convert. Therefore I +strolled about with him myself half the forenoon; and, in our walk, +hastily conferred on him a private-baptism; having named him _Jean Paul_ +before the priest did so. At midday, we sent the beef away as it had +come; the Sun of happiness having desiccated all our gastric juices. We +now began to look about us for pomp; I for scientific decorations of my +hair, my godson for his christening-shirt, and his mother for her +dress-cap. Yet before the child's-rattle of the christening-bell had +been jingled, I and the midwife, in front of the mother's bed, +instituted Physiognomical Travels[62] on the countenance of the small +Unchristian, and returned with the discovery, that some features had +been embossed by the pattern of the mother, and many firm portions +resembled me; a double similarity, in which my readers can take little +interest. _Jean Paul_ looks very sensible for his years, or rather for +his minutes, for it is the small one I am speaking of.---- + + [61] This pigmy piece of ordnance, with its cunningly devised + burning-glass, is still to be seen on the south side of the Paris + Vanity-Fair; and in fine weather, to be heard, on all sides + thereof, proclaiming the _conversion_ (so it seems to Richter) of + the Day from Forenoon to Afternoon.--ED. + + [62] See _Musäus_, ante.--ED. + +But now I would ask, what German writer durst take it upon him to spread +out and paint a large historic sheet, representing the whole of us as we +went to church? Would he not require to draw the father, with swelling +canonicals, moving forward slowly, devoutly, and full of emotion? Would +he not have to sketch the godfather, minded this day to lend out his +names, which he derived from two Apostles (John and Paul), as Julius +Cæsar lent out his names to two things still living even now (to a +month, and a throne)?--And must he not put the godson on his sheet, with +whom even the Emperor Joseph (in his need of nurse-milk) might become a +foster-brother, in his old days, if he were still in them?-- + +In my chamber, I have a hundred times determined to smile at +solemnities, in the midst of which I afterwards, while assisting at +them, involuntarily wore a petrified countenance, full of dignity and +seriousness. For, as the Schoolmaster, just before the baptism, began to +sound the organ,--an honour never paid to any other child in +Hukelum,--and when I saw the wooden christening-angel, like an alighted +Genius, with his painted timber arm spread out under the baptismal ewer, +and I myself came to stand close by him, under his gilt wing, I protest +the blood went slow and solemn, warm and close, through my pulsing head, +and my lungs full of sighs; and, to the silent darling lying in my arms, +whose unripe eyes Nature yet held closed from the full perspective of +the Earth, I wished, with more sadness than I do to myself, for his +Future also as soft a sleep as today; and as good an angel as today, but +a more living one, to guide him into a more living religion, and, with +invisible hand, conduct him unlost through the forest of Life, through +its falling trees, and Wild Hunters,[63] and all its storms and +perils.... Will the world not excuse me, if when, by a side-glance, I +saw on the paternal countenance prayers for the son, and tears of joy +trickling down into the prayer; and when I noticed on the countenance of +the grandmother far darker and fast-hidden drops, which she could not +restrain, while I, in answer to the ancient question, engaged to provide +for the child if its parents died,--am I not to be excused if I then +cast my eyes deep down on my little godson, merely to hide their running +over?--For I remembered that his father might perhaps this very day grow +pale and cold before a suddenly arising mask of Death; I thought how the +poor little one had only changed his bent posture in the womb with a +freer one, to bend and cramp himself ere long more harshly in the strait +arena of life; I thought of his inevitable follies and errors and sins; +of these soiled steps to the Grecian Temple of our Perfection; I thought +that one day his own fire of genius might reduce himself to ashes, as a +man that is electrified can kill himself with his own lightning.... All +the theological wishes, which, on the godson-billet printed over with +them, I placed in his young bosom, were glowing written in mine.... But +the white feathered-pink of my joy had then, as it always has, a bloody +point within it,--I again, as it always is, went to nest, like a +woodpecker, in a skull.... And as I am doing so even now, let the +describing of the baptism be over for today, and proceed again +tomorrow.... + + [63] The Wild Hunter, _Wilde Jäger_, is a popular spectre of + Germany.--ED. + + + + +FOURTEENTH LETTER-BOX. + + +O, so is it ever! So does Fate set fire to the theatre of our little +plays, and our bright-painted curtain of Futurity! So does the Serpent +of Eternity wind round us and our joys, and crush, like the royal-snake, +what it does not poison! Thou good Fixlein!--Ah! last night, I little +thought that thou, mild soul, while I was writing beside thee, wert +already journeying into the poisonous Earth-shadow of Death. + +Last night, late as it was, he opened the lead box found in the old +steeple-ball; a catalogue of those who had subscribed to the last +repairing of the church was there; and he began to read it now; my +presence and his occupations having prevented him before. O, how shall I +tell that the record of his birth-year, which I had hidden in the new +Ball, was waiting for him in the old one? that in the register of +contributions he found his father's name, with the appendage, "given for +his new-born son Egidius"?-- + +This stroke sank deep into his bosom, even to the rending of it asunder: +in this warm hour, full of paternal joy, after such fair days, after +such fair employments, after dread of death so often survived, here, in +the bright smooth sea, which is rocking and bearing him along, starts +snorting, from the bottomless abyss, the sea-monster Death; and the +monster's throat yawns wide, and the silent sea rushes into it in +whirlpools, and hurries him along with it. + +But the patient man, quietly and slowly, and with a heart silent, though +deadly cold, laid the leaves together;--looked softly and firmly over +the churchyard, where, in the moonshine, the grave of his father was to +be distinguished;--gazed timidly up to the sky, full of stars, which a +white overarching laurel-tree half screened from his sight;--and though +he longed to be in bed, to settle there and sleep it off, yet he paused +at the window to pray for his wife and child, in case this night were +his last. + +At this moment the steeple-clock struck twelve; but from the breaking of +a pin, the weights kept rolling down, and the clock-hammer struck +without stopping,--and he heard with horror the chains and wheels +rattling along; and he felt as if Death were hurling forth in a heap all +the longer hours which he might yet have had to live,--and now to his +eyes, the churchyard began to quiver and heave, the moonlight flickered +on the church-windows, and in the church there were lights flitting to +and fro, and in the charnel-house there was a motion and a tumult. + +His heart fainted within him, and he threw himself into bed, and closed +his eyes that he might not see;--but Imagination in the gloom now blew +aloft the dust of the dead, and whirled it into giant shapes, and chased +these hollow fever-born masks alternately into lightning and shadow. +Then at last from transparent thoughts grew coloured visions, and he +dreamed this dream: He was standing at the window looking out into the +churchyard; and Death, in size as a scorpion, was creeping over it, and +seeking for his bones. Death found some arm-bones and thigh-bones on the +graves, and said: "They are my bones;" and he took a spine and the +bone-legs, and stood with them, and the two arm-bones and clutched with +them, and found on the grave of Fixlein's father a skull, and put it on. +Then he lifted a scythe beside the little flower-garden, and cried: +"Fixlein, where art thou? My finger is an icicle and no finger, and I +will tap on thy heart with it." The skeleton, thus piled together, now +looked for him who was standing at the window, and powerless to stir +from it; and carried in the one hand, instead of a sandglass, the +ever-striking steeple-clock, and held out the finger of ice, like a +dagger, far into the air.... + +Then he saw his victim above at the window, and raised himself as high +as the laurel-tree to stab straight into his bosom with the finger,--and +stalked towards him. But as he came nearer, his pale bones grew redder, +and vapours floated woolly round his haggard form. Flowers started up +from the ground; and he stood transfigured and without the clam of the +grave, hovering above them, and the balm-breath from the flower-cups +wafted him gently on;--and as he came nearer, the scythe and cloak were +gone, and in his bony breast he had a heart, and on his bony head red +lips;--and nearer still, there gathered on him soft, transparent, +rosebalm-dipt flesh, like the splendour of an Angel flying hither from +the starry blue;--and close at hand, he was an Angel with shut +snow-white eyelids.... + +The heart of my friend, quivering like a Harmonica-bell, now melted in +bliss in his clear bosom;--and when the Angel opened its eyes, his were +pressed together by the weight of celestial rapture, and his dream fled +away.---- + +But not his life: he opened his hot eyes, and--his good wife had hold of +his feverish hand, and was standing in room of the Angel. + +The fever abated towards morning: but the certainty of dying still +throbbed in every artery of the hapless man. He called for his fair +little infant into his sick-bed, and pressed it silently, though it +began to cry, too hard against his paternal heavy-laden breast. Then +towards noon his soul became cool, and the sultry thunder-clouds within +it drew back. And here he described to us the previous (as it were, +arsenical) fantasies of his usually quiet head. But it is even those +tense nerves, which have not quivered at the touch of a poetic hand +striking them to melody of sorrow, that start and fly asunder more +easily under the fierce hand of Fate, when with sweeping stroke it +smites into discord the firm-set strings. + +But towards night his ideas again began rushing in a torch-dance, like +fire-pillars round his soul: every artery became a burning-rod, and the +heart drove flaming naphtha-brooks into the brain. All within his soul +grew bloody: the blood of his drowned brother united itself with the +blood which had once flowed from Thiennette's arm, into a bloody +rain;--he still thought he was in the garden in the night of +betrothment, he still kept calling for bandages to stanch blood, and was +for hiding his head in the ball of the steeple. Nothing afflicts one +more than to see a reasonable moderate man, who has been so even in his +passions, raving in the poetic madness of fever. And yet if nothing save +this mouldering corruption can soothe the hot brain; and if, while the +reek and thick vapour of a boiling nervous-spirit, and the hissing +water-spouts of the veins are encircling and eclipsing the stifled soul, +a higher Finger presses through the cloud, and suddenly lifts the poor +bewildered spirit from amid the smoke to a sun--is it more just to +complain, than to reflect that Fate is like the oculist, who, when +about to open to a blind eye the world of light, first bandages and +darkens the other eye that sees? + +But the sorrow does affect me, which I read on Thiennette's pale lips, +though do not hear. It is not the distortion of an excruciating agony, +nor the burning of a dried-up eye, nor the loud lamenting or violent +movement of a tortured frame that I see in her; but what I am forced to +see in her, and what too keenly cuts the sympathising heart, is a pale, +still, unmoved, undistorted face, a pale bloodless head, which Sorrow is +as it were holding up after the stroke, like a head just severed by the +axe of the headsman; for, O! on this form the wounds, from which the +three-edged dagger had been drawn, are all fallen firmly together, and +the blood is flowing from them in secret into the choking heart. O +Thiennette, go away from the sick-bed, and hide that face which is +saying to us: "Now do I know that I shall not have any happiness on +Earth; now do I give over hoping--would this life were but soon done." + +You will not comprehend my sympathy, if you know not what, some hours +ago, the too loud lamenting mother told me. Thiennette, who of old had +always trembled for his thirty-second year, had encountered this +superstition with a nobler one: she had purposely stood farther back at +the marriage-altar, and in the bridal-night fallen sooner asleep than +he; thereby--as is the popular belief--so to order it that she might +also die sooner. Nay, she has determined if he die, to lay with his +corpse a piece of her apparel, that so she may descend the sooner to +keep him company in his narrow house. Thou good, thou faithful wife, but +thou unhappy one!-- + + + + +CHAPTER LAST. + + +I have left Hukelum, and my gossip his bed; and the one is as sound as +the other. The cure was as foolish as the malady. + +It first occurred to me, that as Boerhaave used to remedy convulsions by +convulsions, one fancy might in my gossip's case be remedied by another; +namely, by the fancy that he was yet no man of thirty-two, but only a +man of six or nine. Deliriums are dreams not encircled by sleep; and all +dreams transport us back into youth, why not deliriums too? I +accordingly directed every one to leave the patient: only his mother, +while the fiercest meteors were dancing and hissing before his fevered +soul, was to sit down by him alone, and speak to him as if he were a +child of eight years. The bed-mirror also I directed her to cover. She +did so; she spoke to him as if he had the small-pox fever; and when he +cried: "Death is standing with two-and-thirty pointed teeth before me, +to eat my heart," she said to him: "Little dear, I will give thee thy +roller-hat, and thy copybook, and thy case, and thy hussar-cloak again, +and more too, if thou wilt be good." A reasonable speech he would have +taken up and heeded much less than he did this foolish one. + +At last she said,--for to women in the depth of sorrow, dissimulation +becomes easy: "Well, I will try it this once, and give thee thy +playthings: but do the like again, thou rogue, and roll thyself about in +the bed so, with the small-pox on thee!" And with this, from her full +apron she shook out on the bed the whole stock of playthings and +dressing-ware, which I had found in the press of the drowned brother. +First of all his copybook, where Egidius in his eighth year had put down +his name, which he necessarily recognised as his own handwriting; then +the black velvet _fall-hat_ or roller-cap; then the red and white +leading-strings; his knife-case, with a little pamphlet of tin-leaves; +his green hussar-cloak, with its stiff facings; and a whole _orbis +pictus_ or _fictus_ of Nürnberg puppets.... + +The sick man recognised in a moment these projecting peaks of a +spring-world sunk in the stream of Time,--these half shadows, this dusk +of down-gone days,--this conflagration-place and Golgotha of a heavenly +time, which none of us forgets, which we love forever, and look back to +even from the grave.... And when he saw all this, he slowly turned round +his head, as if he were awakening from a long heavy dream; and his whole +heart flowed down in warm showers of tears, and he said, fixing his full +eyes on the eyes of his mother: "But are my father and brother still +living, then?"--"They are dead lately," said the wounded mother; but her +heart was overpowered, and she turned away her eyes, and bitter tears +fell unseen from her down-bent head. And now at once that evening, when +he lay confined to bed by the death of his father, and was cured by his +playthings, overflowed his soul with splendour and lights, and presence +of the past. + +And so Delirium dyed for itself rosy wings in the Aurora of life, and +fanned the panting soul,--and shook down golden butterfly-dust from its +plumage on the path, on the flowerage of the suffering man;--in the far +distance rose lovely tones, in the distance floated lovely clouds,--O, +his heart was like to fall in pieces, but only into fluttering +flower-stamina, into soft sentient nerves; his eyes were like to melt +away, but only into dewdrops for the cups of joy-blossoms, into +blooddrops for loving hearts; his soul was floating, palpitating, +drinking and swimming in the warm relaxing rose-perfume of the brightest +delusion.... + +The rapture bridled his feverish heart; and his mad pulse grew calm. +Next morning, his mother, when she saw that all was prospering, would +have had the church-bells rung, to make him think that the second Sunday +was already here. But his wife (perhaps out of shame in my presence) was +averse to the lying; and said it would be all the same if we moved the +month-hand of his clock (but otherwise than Hezekiah's Dial) eight days +forward; especially as he was wont rather to rise and look at his clock +for the day of the month, than to turn it up in the Almanac. I for my +own part simply went up to the bedside, and asked him: "If he was +cracked--what in the world he meant with his mad death-dreams, when he +had lain so long, and passed clean over the Cantata-Sunday, and yet, out +of sheer terror, was withering to a lath?" + +A glorious reinforcement joined me; the Flesher or Quartermaster. In his +anxiety, he rushed into the room, without saluting the women, and I +forthwith addressed him aloud: "My gossip here is giving me trouble +enough, Mr. Regiments-Quartermaster: last night, he let them persuade +him he was little older than his own son: here is the child's fall-hat +he was for putting on." The Guardian deuced and devilled, and said: +"Ward, are you a parson or a fool?--Have not I told you twenty times, +there was a maggot in your head about this?"-- + +At last he himself perceived that he was not rightly wise, and so grew +better; besides the guardian's invectives, my oaths contributed a good +deal; for I swore I would hold him as no right gossip, and edit no word +of his Biography, unless he rose directly and got better.... + +--In short, he showed so much politeness to me that he rose and got +better.--He was still sickly, it is true, on Saturday; and on Sunday +could not preach a sermon (something of the sort the Schoolmaster read, +instead); but yet he took Confessions on Saturday, and at the altar +next day he dispensed the Sacrament. Service ended, the feast of his +recovery was celebrated, my farewell-feast included; for I was to go in +the afternoon. + +This last afternoon I will chalk out with all possible breadth, and +then, with the pantagraph of free garrulity, fill up the outline and +draw on the great scale. + +During the Thanksgiving-repast, there arrived considerable personal +tribute from his catechumens, and fairings by way of bonfire for his +recovery; proving how much the people loved him, and how well he +deserved it: for one is oftener hated without reason by the many, than +without reason loved by them. But Fixlein was friendly to every child; +was none of those clergy, who never pardon their enemies except +in--God's stead; and he praised at once the whole world, his wife and +himself. + +I then attended at his afternoon's catechising; and looked down (as he +did in the first Letter-Box) from the choir, under the wing of the +wooden cherub. Behind this angel, I drew out my note-book, and shifted a +little under the cover of the Black Board, with its white +Psalm-ciphers,[64] and wrote down what I was there--thinking. I was well +aware, that when I today, on the twenty-fifth of May, retired from this +_Salernic_[65] spinning-school, where one is taught to spin out the +thread of life, in fairer wise, and without wetting it by foreign +mixtures,--I was well aware, I say, that I should carry off with me far +more elementary principles of the Science of Happiness, than the whole +Chamberlain piquet ever muster all their days. I noted down my first +impression, in the following Rules of Life for myself and the press: + + [64] Indicating to the congregation what Psalm is to be sung.--ED. + + [65] Salerno was once famous for its medical science; but here, as + in many other cases, we could desire the aid of Herr Reinhold with + his _Lexicon-Commentary_.--ED. + +"Little joys refresh us constantly like house-bread, and never bring +disgust; and great ones, like sugar-bread, briefly, and then bring +it.--Trifles we should let, not plague us only, but also gratify us; we +should seize not their poison-bags only, but their honey-bags also: and +if flies often buz about our room, we should, like Domitian, amuse +ourselves with flies, or, like a certain still living Elector,[66] feed +them.--For _civic_ life and its micrologies, for which the Parson has a +natural taste, we must acquire an artificial one; must learn to love +without esteeming it; learn, far as it ranks beneath _human_ life, to +enjoy it like another twig of this human life, as poetically as we do +the pictures of it in romances. The loftiest mortal loves and seeks the +_same sort_ of things with the meanest; only from higher grounds and by +higher paths. Be every minute, Man, a full life to thee!--Despise +anxiety and wishing, the Future and the Past!--If the _Second-pointer_ +can be no road-pointer into an Eden for thy soul, the _Month-pointer_ +will still less be so, for thou livest not from month to month, but from +second to second! Enjoy thy Existence more than thy Manner of Existence, +and let the dearest object of thy Consciousness be this Consciousness +itself!--Make not the Present a means of thy Future; for this Future is +nothing but a coming Present; and the Present, which thou despisest, was +once a Future which thou desiredst!--Stake in no lotteries,--keep at +home,--give and accept no pompous entertainments,--travel not abroad +every year!--Conceal not from thyself, by long plans, thy household +goods, thy chamber, thy acquaintance!--Despise Life, that thou mayst +enjoy it!--Inspect the neighbourhood of thy life; every shelf, every +nook of thy abode; and nestling in, quarter thyself in the farthest and +most domestic winding of thy snail-house!--Look upon a capital but as a +collection of villages, a village as some blind-alley of a capital; fame +as the talk of neighbours at the street-door; a library as a learned +conversation, joy as a second, sorrow as a minute, life as a day; and +three things as all in all: God, Creation, Virtue!"---- + + [66] This hospitable Potentate is as unknown to me as to any of my + readers.--ED. + +And if I would follow myself and these rules, it will behove me not to +make so much of this Biography; but once for all, like a moderate man, +to let it sound out. + +After the Catechising, I stept down to my wide-gowned and black-gowned +gossip. The congregation gone, we clambered up to all high places, +perused the plates on the pews,--I took a lesson on the altar on its +inscription incrusted with the _sediment of Time_ (I speak not +metaphorically); I organed, my gossip managing the bellows; I mounted +the pulpit, and was happy enough there to alight on one other +rose-shoot, which, in the farewell minute, I could still plant in the +rose-garden of my Fixlein. For I descried aloft, on the back of a wooden +Apostle, the name _Lavater_, which the Zurich Physiognomist had been +pleased to leave on this sacred Torso in the course of his wayfaring. +Fixlein did not know the hand, but I did, for I had seen it frequently +in Flachsenfingen, not only on the tapestry of a Court Lady there, but +also in his _Hand-Library_;[67] and met with it besides in many country +churches, forming, as it were, the Directory and Address-Calendar of +this wandering name, for Lavater likes to inscribe in pulpits, as a +shepherd does in trees, the name of his beloved. I could now advise my +gossip prudently to cut away the name, with the chip of wood containing +it, from the back of the Apostle, and to preserve it carefully among his +_curiosa_. + + [67] A little work printed in manuscript types; and seldom given by + him to any but Princes. This piece of print-writing he + intentionally passes off to the great as a piece of hand-writing; + these persons being both more habituated and inclined to the + reading of manuscript than of print. + +On returning to the parsonage, I made for my hat and stick; but the +design, as it were the projection and contour of a supper in the +acacia-grove, had already been sketched by Thiennette. I declared that I +would stay till evening, in case the young mother went out with us to +the proposed meal ... and truly the Biographer at length got his way, +all doctors' regulations notwithstanding. + +I then constrained the Parson to put on his Kräutermütze,[68] or +Herb-cap, which he had stitched together out of simples for the +strengthening of his memory; "Would to Heaven," said I, "that Princes +instead of their Princely Hats, Doctors and Cardinals instead of theirs, +and Saints instead of martyr-crowns, would clap such memory-bonnets on +their heads!"--Thereupon, till the roasting and cooking within doors +were over, we marched out alone over the parsonage meadows, and talked +of learned matters, we packed ourselves into the ruined Robber-Castle, +on which my gossip, as already mentioned, has a literary work in hand. I +deeply approved, the rather as this Kidnapper-tower had once belonged to +an Aufhammer, his intention of dedicating the description to the +Rittmeister: that nobleman, I think, will sooner give his name to the +Book than to the Shock. For the rest, I exhorted my fellow-craftsman to +pluck up literary heart, and said to him: "A fearless pen, good gossip! +Let Subrector Hans von Füchslein be, if he like, the Dragon of the +Apocalypse, lying in wait for the delivery of the fugitive Woman, to +swallow the offspring; I am there too, and have my friend the Editor of +the _Litteraturzeitung_ at my side, who will gladly permit me to give an +_anticritique_, on paying the insertion-dues!"--I especially excited +him to new fillings and return-freights of his Letter-Boxes. I have not +taken oath that into this biographical chest-of-drawers, I will not in +the course of time introduce another Box. "Neither to my godson, worthy +gossip, will it do any harm that he is presented, poor child, even now +to the reading public, when he does not count more months than, as +Horace will have it, a literary child should count years, namely, +_nine_." + + [68] Thus defined by Adelung in his Lexicon: "_Kräutermütze_, in + Medicine, a cap with various dried herbs sewed into it, and which + is worn for all manner of troubles in the head."--ED. + +In walking homewards, I praised his wife. "If marriage," said I to him, +"is the madder, which in maids, as in cotton, makes the colours visible, +then I contend, that Thiennette, when a maid, could scarcely be so good +as she is now when a wife. By Heaven! in such a marriage, I should write +Books of quite another sort, divine ones; in a marriage, I mean, where +beside the writing-table (as beside the great voting-table at the +Regensburg Diets, there are little tables of confectionery); where in +like manner, I say, a little jar of marmalade were standing by me, +namely, a sweetened, dainty, lovely face, and out of measure fond of the +Letter-Box-writer, gossip! Your marriage will resemble the Acacia-grove +we are now going to, the leaves of which grow thicker with the heat of +summer, while other shrubs are yielding only shrunk and porous shade." + +As we entered through the upper garden-door into this same bower, the +supper and the good mistress were already there. Nothing is more pure +and tender than the respect with which a wife treats the benefactor or +comrade of her husband: and happily the Biographer himself was this +comrade, and the object of this respect. Our talk was cheerful, but my +spirit was oppressed. The fetters, which bind the mere reader to my +heroes, were in my case of triple force; as I was at once their guest +and their portrait-painter. I told the Parson that he would live to a +greater age than I, for that his temperate temperament was balanced as +if by a doctor so equally between the nervousness of refinement, and the +hot thick-bloodedness of the rustic. Fixlein said that if he lived but +as long as he had done, namely, two-and-thirty years, it would amount, +exclusive of the leap-year-days, to 280,320 seconds, which in itself was +something considerable; and that he often reckoned up with satisfaction +the many thousand persons of his own age that would have a life equally +long. + +At last I tried to get in motion; for the red lights of the falling sun +were mounting up over the grove, and dipping us still deeper in the +shadows of night: the young mother had grown chill in the evening dew. +In confused mood, I invited the Parson to visit me soon in the city, +where I would show him not only all the chambers of the Palace, but the +Prince himself. Gladder there was nothing this day on our old world than +the face to which I said so; and than the other one which was the mild +reflexion of the former.--For the Biographer it would have been too +hard, if now in that minute, when his fancy, like mirror-telescopes, was +representing every object in a _tremulous_ form, he had been obliged to +cut and run; if, I will say, it had not occurred to him that to the +young mother it could do little harm (but much good), were she to take a +short walk, and assist in escorting the Author and architect of the +present Letter-Box out of the garden to his road. + +In short, I took this couple one in each hand, instead of under each +arm, and moved with them through the garden to the Flachsenfingen +highway. I often abruptly turned round my head between them, as if I had +heard some one coming after us; but in reality I only meant once more, +though mournfully, to look back into the happy hamlet, whose houses were +all dwellings of contented still Sabbath-joy, and which is happy enough, +though over its wide-parted pavement-stones there passes every week but +one barber, every holiday but one dresser of hair, and every year but +one hawker of parasols. Then truly I had again to turn round my head, +and look at the happy pair beside me. My otherwise affectionate gossip +could not rightly suit himself to these tokens of sorrow: but in thy +heart, thou good, so oft afflicted sex, every mourning-bell soon finds +its unison; and Thiennette, ennobled with the thin trembling _resonance_ +of a reverberating soul, gave me back all my tones with the beauties of +an echo.----At last we reached the boundary, over which Thiennette +could not be allowed to walk; and now must I part from my gossip, with +whom I had talked so gaily every morning (each of us from his bed), and +from the still circuit of modest hope where he dwelt, and return once +more to the rioting, fermenting Court-sphere, where men in bull-beggar +tone demand from Fate a root of Life-Licorice, thick as the arm, like +the botanical one on the Wolga, not so much that they may chew the sweet +beam themselves, as fell others to earth with it. + +As I thought to myself that I would say, Farewell! to them, all the +coming plagues, all the corpses, and all the marred wishes of this good +pair, arose before my heart; and I remembered that little save the +falling asleep of joy-flowers would mark the current of their Life-day, +as it does of mine and of every one's.--And yet is it fairer, if they +measure their years not by the _Water-clock_ of falling tears, but by +the _Flower-clock_[69] of asleep-going flowers, whose bells in our +short-lived garden are sinking together before us from hour to hour.-- + + [69] Linné formed in Upsal a flower-clock, the flowers of which, by + their different times of falling asleep, indicated the hours of the + day. + +I would even now--for I still recollect how I hung with streaming eyes +over these two loved ones, as over their corpses--address myself, and +say: Far too soft, _Jean Paul_, whose chalk still sketches the models of +Nature on a ground of Melancholy; harden thy heart like thy frame, and +waste not thyself and others by such thoughts. Yet why should I do it, +why should I not confess directly what, in the softest emotion, I said +to these two beings? "May all go right with you, ye mild beings," I +said, for I no longer thought of courtesies, "may the arm of Providence +bear gently your lacerated hearts, and the good Father, above all these +suns which are now looking down on us, keep you ever united, and exalt +you still undivided to his bosom and his lips!"--"Be you too right happy +and glad!" said Thiennette.--"And to you, Thiennette," continued I, "Ah! +to your pale cheeks, to your oppressed heart, to your long cold +maltreated youth, I can never, never wish enough. No! But all that can +soothe a wounded soul, that can please a pure one, that can still the +hidden sigh--O, all that you deserve--may this be given you; and when +you see me again, then say to me, 'I am now much happier!'" + +We were all of us too deeply moved. We at last tore ourselves asunder +from repeated embraces; my friend retired with the soul whom he +loves;--I remained alone behind him with the Night. + +And I walked without aim through woods, through valleys, and over +brooks, and through sleeping villages, to enjoy the great Night like a +Day. I walked, and still looked like the magnet, to the region of +midnight, to strengthen my heart at the gleaming twilight, at this +upstretching Aurora of a morning beneath our feet. White +night-butterflies flitted, white blossoms fluttered, white stars fell, +and the white snow-powder hung silvery in the high Shadow of the Earth, +which reaches beyond the Moon, and which is our Night. Then began the +Eolian Harp of the Creation to tremble and to sound, blown on from +above, and my immortal soul was a string in this Harp.--The heart of a +brother everlasting Man swelled under the everlasting Heaven, as the +seas swell under the Sun and under the Moon.--The distant village-clocks +struck midnight, mingling, as it were, with the ever-pealing tone of +ancient Eternity.--The limbs of my buried ones touched cold on my soul, +and drove away its blots, as dead hands heal eruptions of the skin.--I +walked silently through little hamlets, and close by their outer +churchyards, where crumbled upcast coffin-boards were glimmering, while +the once bright eyes that had laid in them were mouldered into gray +ashes.--Cold thought! clutch not like a cold spectre at my heart: I look +up to the starry sky, and an everlasting chain stretches thither, and +over and below; and all is Life, and Warmth, and Light, and all is +godlike or God.... + +Towards morning I descried thy late lights, little city of my dwelling, +which I belong to on this side the grave; I returned to the Earth; and +in thy steeples, behind the by-advanced great Midnight, it struck +half-past two; about this hour, in 1794, Mars went down in the west, and +the Moon rose in the east; and my soul desired, in grief for the noble +warlike blood which is still streaming on the blossoms of Spring: "Ah +retire, bloody War, like red Mars; and thou, still Peace, come forth +like the mild divided Moon!"-- + +THE END. + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Footnotes in (Schmelzle's Journey to Flætz) are numbered as in the original. +They are placed at the end of the paragraph, so as not to split the paragraph. +None of these footnotes seem to link directly to the text. This is explained +by the author in the introduction. + +The following hyphenated words are used interchangeably with its +non-hyphenated form: + +bed-chamber +bed-clothes +bed-room +bed-side +block-head +break-neck +class-room +corn-fields +day-light +dew-drops +down-pressed +down-stairs +good-will +hand-writing +hind-head +Litteratur-zeitung +love-sick +mid-day +re-awakened +Ring-dove +school-man +tear-drops +to-night +train-bearer +up-stairs +water-spouts +week-day +wood-cutter + + +Page 59 + +'the keeper had lost its tract,' may be 'the keeper had lost its +track,'. Unchanged. + +Page 208 + +'her blue eye gleamed' may be 'her blue eyes gleamed'. Unchanged. + +Page 376 + +'sheep-smearer' may be 'sheep-shearer'. Unchanged. + +Page 408 + +'without the clam of the grave,' may be 'without the calm of the grave,'. +Unchanged. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Translations from the German (Vol 3 of +3), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38779-8.txt or 38779-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/7/38779/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +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: Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) + Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Release Date: February 6, 2012 [EBook #38779] +[Last updated: January 6, 2014] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<div class="title_page"> +<h1>TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN</h1> + +<p>BY</p> + +<p>THOMAS CARLYLE.</p> + + + +<p class="p4">UNIFORM WITH HIS COLLECTED WORKS.</p> + + + +<p class="p4">IN THREE VOLUMES.</p> + +<p>VOL. III.</p> + +<p>MUSÆUS, TIECK, RICHTER.</p> + + + +<p class="p4"> +LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED),<br /> +<span class="font8">11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.</span> +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + +<h2>TALES</h2> + +<p>BY</p> + +<p>MUSÆUS, TIECK, RICHTER.</p> + + + +<p class="p4">TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN</p> + +<p>BY</p> + +<p>THØMAS CARLYLE.</p> + + + +<p class="p4">[1827.]</p> + + + +<p class="p4"> +LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED),<br /> +<span class="font8">11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr><td class="tdl" colspan="2">MUSÆUS:</td><td class="tdr font8">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#DUMB_LOVE">Dumb Love</a></span></td><td class="tdr">3</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#LIBUSSA">Libussa</a></span></td><td class="tdr">58</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#MELECHSALA">Melechsala</a></span></td><td class="tdr">98</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl" colspan="3">TIECK:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_FAIR-HAIRED_ECKBERT">The Fair-haired Eckbert</a></span></td><td class="tdr">159</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_TRUSTY_ECKART">The Trusty Eckart</a></span></td><td class="tdr">175</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_RUNENBERG">The Runenberg</a></span></td><td class="tdr">200</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_ELVES">The Elves</a></span></td><td class="tdr">220</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_GOBLET">The Goblet</a></span></td><td class="tdr">238</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl" colspan="3">RICHTER:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#SCHMELZLES_JOURNEY_TO_FLAETZ">Schmelzle's Journey to Flætz</a></span></td><td class="tdr">257</td></tr> +<tr><td class="wth2"></td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#LIFE_OF_QUINTUS_FIXLEIN">Life of Quintus Fixlein</a></span></td><td class="tdr">305</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="MUSAEUS" id="MUSAEUS"></a>MUSÆUS.</h2> + + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="DUMB_LOVE" id="DUMB_LOVE"></a>DUMB LOVE.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> + + +<p>There was once a wealthy merchant, Melchior of Bremen by name, who used +to stroke his beard with a contemptuous grin, when he heard the Rich Man +in the Gospel preached of, whom, in comparison, he reckoned little +better than a petty shopkeeper. Melchior had money in such plenty, that +he floored his dining-room all over with a coat of solid dollars. In +those frugal times, as in our own, a certain luxury prevailed among the +rich; only then it had a more substantial shape than now. But though +this pomp of Melchior's was sharply censured by his fellow-citizens and +consorts, it was, in truth, directed more to trading speculation than to +mere vain-glory. The cunning Bremer easily observed, that those who +grudged and blamed this seeming vanity, would but diffuse the reputation +of his wealth, and so increase his credit. He gained his purpose to the +full; the sleeping capital of old dollars, so judiciously set up to +public inspection in the parlour, brought interest a hundredfold, by the +silent surety which it offered for his bargains in every market; yet, at +last, it became a rock on which the welfare of his family made +shipwreck.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Prefatory Introduction to Musæus, <i>suprà</i>, at p. 316, Vol. +VI. of <i>Works</i> (Vol. I. of <i>Miscellanies</i>).</p></div> + +<p>Melchior of Bremen died of a surfeit at a city-feast, without having +time to set his house in order; and left all his goods and chattels to +an only son, in the bloom of life, and just arrived at the years when +the laws allowed him to take possession of his inheritance. Franz +Melcherson was a brilliant youth, endued by nature with the best +capacities. His exterior was gracefully formed, yet firm and sinewy +withal; his temper was cheery and jovial, as if hung-beef and old French +wine had joined to influence his formation. On his cheeks bloomed +health; and from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> brown eyes looked mirthfulness and love of joy. He +was like a marrowy plant, which needs but water and the poorest ground +to make it grow to strength; but which, in too fat a soil, will shoot +into luxuriant overgrowth, without fruit or usefulness. The father's +heritage, as often happens, proved the ruin of the son. Scarce had he +felt the joy of being sole possessor and disposer of a large fortune, +when he set about endeavouring to get rid of it as of a galling burden; +began to play the Rich Man in the Gospel to the very letter; went +clothed in fine apparel, and fared sumptuously every day. No feast at +the bishop's court could be compared for pomp and superfluity with his; +and never while the town of Bremen shall endure, will such another +public dinner be consumed, as it yearly got from him; for to every +burgher of the place he gave a Krusel-soup and a jug of Spanish wine. +For this, all people cried: Long life to him! and Franz became the hero +of the day.</p> + +<p>In this unceasing whirl of joviality, no thought was cast upon the +Balancing of Entries, which, in those days, was the merchant's +vade-mecum, though in our times it is going out of fashion, and for want +of it the tongue of the commercial beam too frequently declines with a +magnetic virtue from the vertical position. Some years passed on without +the joyful Franz's noticing a diminution in his incomes; for at his +father's death every chest and coffer had been full. The voracious host +of table-friends, the airy company of jesters, gamesters, parasites, and +all who had their living by the prodigal son, took special care to keep +reflection at a distance from him; they hurried him from one enjoyment +to another; kept him constantly in play, lest in some sober moment +Reason might awake, and snatch him from their plundering claws.</p> + +<p>But at last their well of happiness went suddenly dry; old Melchior's +casks of gold were now run off even to the lees. One day, Franz ordered +payment of a large account; his cash-keeper was not in a state to +execute the precept, and returned it with a protest. This +counter-incident flashed keenly through the soul of Franz; yet he felt +nothing else but anger and vexation at his servant, to whose +unaccountable perversity, by no means to his own ill husbandry, he +charged the present disorder in his finances. Nor did he give himself +the trouble to investigate the real condition of the business; but after +flying to the common Fool's-litany, and thundering out some scores of +curses, he transmitted to his shoulder-shrugging steward the laconic +order: Find means.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bill-brokers, usurers and money-changers now came into play. For high +interest, fresh sums were poured into the empty coffers; the silver +flooring of the dining-room was then more potent in the eyes of +creditors, than in these times of ours the promissory obligation of the +Congress of America, with the whole thirteen United States to back it. +This palliative succeeded for a season; but, underhand, the rumour +spread about the town, that the silver flooring had been privily +removed, and a stone one substituted in its stead. The matter was +immediately, by application of the lenders, legally inquired into, and +discovered to be actually so. Now, it could not be denied, that a +marble-floor, worked into nice Mosaic, looked much better in a parlour, +than a sheet of dirty, tarnished dollars: the creditors, however, paid +so little reverence to the proprietor's refinement of taste, that on the +spot they, one and all, demanded payment of their several moneys; and as +this was not complied with, they proceeded to procure an act of +bankruptcy; and Melchior's house, with its appurtenances, offices, +gardens, parks and furniture, were sold by public auction, and their +late owner, who in this extremity had screened himself from jail by some +chicanery of law, judicially ejected.</p> + +<p>It was now too late to moralise on his absurdities, since philosophical +reflections could not alter what was done, and the most wholesome +resolutions would not bring him back his money. According to the +principles of this our cultivated century, the hero at this juncture +ought to have retired with dignity from the stage, or in some way +terminated his existence; to have entered on his travels into foreign +parts, or opened his carotid artery; since in his native town he could +live no longer as a man of honour. Franz neither did the one nor the +other. The <i>qu'en-dira-t-on</i>, which French morality employs as bit and +curb for thoughtlessness and folly, had never once occurred to the +unbridled squanderer in the days of his profusion, and his sensibility +was still too dull to feel so keenly the disgrace of his capricious +wastefulness. He was like a toper, who has been in drink, and on +awakening out of his carousal, cannot rightly understand how matters are +or have been with him. He lived according to the manner of unprospering +spendthrifts; repented not, lamented not. By good fortune, he had picked +some relics from the wreck; a few small heir-looms of the family; and +these secured him for a time from absolute starvation.</p> + +<p>He engaged a lodging in a remote alley, into which the sun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> never shone +throughout the year, except for a few days about the solstice, when it +peeped for a short while over the high roofs. Here he found the little +that his now much-contracted wants required. The frugal kitchen of his +landlord screened him from hunger, the stove from cold, the roof from +rain, the four walls from wind; only from the pains of tedium he could +devise no refuge or resource. The light rabble of parasites had fled +away with his prosperity; and of his former friends there was now no one +that knew him. Reading had not yet become a necessary of life; people +did not yet understand the art of killing time by means of those amusing +shapes of fancy which are wont to lodge in empty heads. There were yet +no sentimental, pedagogic, psychologic, popular, simple, comic, or moral +tales; no novels of domestic life, no cloister-stories, no romances of +the middle ages; and of the innumerable generation of our Henrys, and +Adelaides, and Cliffords, and Emmas, no one had as yet lifted up its +mantua-maker voice, to weary out the patience of a lazy and discerning +public. In those days, knights were still diligently pricking round the +tilt-yard; Dietrich of Bern, Hildebrand, Seyfried with the Horns, +Rennewart the Strong, were following their snake and dragon hunt, and +killing giants and dwarfs of twelve men's strength. The venerable epos, +<i>Theuerdank</i>, was the loftiest ideal of German art and skill, the latest +product of our native wit, but only for the cultivated minds, the poets +and thinkers of the age. Franz belonged to none of those classes, and +had therefore nothing to employ himself upon, except that he tuned his +lute, and sometimes twanged a little on it; then, by way of variation, +took to looking from the window, and instituted observations on the +weather; out of which, indeed, there came no inference a whit more +edifying than from all the labours of the most rheumatic meteorologist +of this present age. Meanwhile his turn for observation ere long found +another sort of nourishment, by which the vacant space in his head and +heart was at once filled.</p> + +<p>In the narrow lane right opposite his window dwelt an honest matron, +who, in hope of better times, was earning a painful living by the long +threads, which, assisted by a marvellously fair daughter, she winded +daily from her spindle. Day after day the couple spun a length of yarn, +with which the whole town of Bremen, with its walls and trenches, and +all its suburbs, might have been begirt. These two spinners had not been +born for the wheel; they were of good descent, and had lived of old in +pleasant affluence. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> fair Meta's father had once had a ship of his +own on the sea, and, freighting it himself, had yearly sailed to +Antwerp; but a heavy storm had sunk the vessel, "with man and mouse," +and a rich cargo, into the abysses of the ocean, before Meta had passed +the years of her childhood. The mother, a staid and reasonable woman, +bore the loss of her husband and all her fortune with a wise composure; +in her need she refused, out of noble pride, all help from the +charitable sympathy of her relations and friends; considering it as +shameful alms, so long as she believed, that in her own activity she +might find a living by the labour of her hands. She gave up her large +house, and all her costly furniture, to the rigorous creditors of her +ill-fated husband, hired a little dwelling in the lane, and span from +early morning till late night, though the trade went sore against her, +and she often wetted the thread with her tears. Yet by this diligence +she reached her object, of depending upon no one, and owing no mortal +any obligation. By and by she trained her growing daughter to the same +employment; and lived so thriftily, that she laid-by a trifle of her +gainings, and turned it to account by carrying on a little trade in +flax.</p> + +<p>She, however, nowise purposed to conclude her life in these poor +circumstances; on the contrary, the honest dame kept up her heart with +happy prospects into the future, and hoped that she should once more +attain a prosperous situation, and in the autumn of her life enjoy her +woman's-summer. Nor were these hopes grounded altogether upon empty +dreams of fancy, but upon a rational and calculated expectation. She saw +her daughter budding up like a spring rose, no less virtuous and modest +than she was fair; and with such endowments of art and spirit, that the +mother felt delight and comfort in her, and spared the morsel from her +own lips, that nothing might be wanting in an education suitable to her +capacities. For she thought, that if a maiden could come up to the +sketch which Solomon, the wise friend of woman, has left of the ideal of +a perfect wife, it could not fail that a pearl of such price would be +sought after, and bidden for, to ornament some good man's house; for +beauty combined with virtue, in the days of Mother Brigitta, were as +important in the eyes of wooers, as, in our days, birth combined with +fortune. Besides, the number of suitors was in those times greater; it +was then believed that the wife was the most essential, not, as in our +refined economical theory, the most superfluous item in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> the household. +The fair Meta, it is true, bloomed only like a precious rare flower in +the greenhouse, not under the gay, free sky; she lived in maternal +oversight and keeping, sequestered and still; was seen in no walk, in no +company; and scarcely once in the year passed through the gate of her +native town; all which seemed utterly to contradict her mother's +principle. The old Lady E * * of Memel understood it otherwise, in her +time. She sent the itinerant Sophia, it is clear as day, from Memel into +Saxony, simply on a marriage speculation, and attained her purpose +fully. How many hearts did the wandering nymph set on fire, how many +suitors courted her! Had she stayed at home, as a domestic modest +maiden, she might have bloomed away in the remoteness of her virgin +cell, without even making a conquest of Kubbuz the schoolmaster. Other +times, other manners. Daughters with us are a sleeping capital, which +must be put in circulation if it is to yield any interest; of old, they +were kept like thrifty savings, under lock and key; yet the bankers +still knew where the treasure lay concealed, and how it might be come +at. Mother Brigitta steered towards some prosperous son-in-law, who +might lead her back from the Babylonian captivity of the narrow lane +into the land of superfluity, flowing with milk and honey; and trusted +firmly, that in the urn of Fate, her daughter's lot would not be coupled +with a blank.</p> + +<p>One day, while neighbour Franz was looking from the window, making +observations on the weather, he perceived the charming Meta coming with +her mother from church, whither she went daily, to attend mass. In the +times of his abundance, the unstable voluptuary had been blind to the +fairer half of the species; the finer feelings were still slumbering in +his breast; and all his senses had been overclouded by the ceaseless +tumult of debauchery. But now the stormy waves of extravagance had +subsided; and in this deep calm, the smallest breath of air sufficed to +curl the mirror surface of his soul. He was enchanted by the aspect of +this, the loveliest female figure that had ever flitted past him. He +abandoned from that hour the barren study of the winds and clouds, and +now instituted quite another set of Observations for the furtherance of +Moral Science, and one which afforded to himself much finer occupation. +He soon extracted from his landlord intelligence of this fair neighbour, +and learned most part of what we know already.</p> + +<p>Now rose on him the first repentant thought for his heedless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +squandering; there awoke a secret good-will in his heart to this new +acquaintance; and for her sake he wished that his paternal inheritance +were his own again, that the lovely Meta might be fitly dowered with it. +His garret in the narrow lane was now so dear to him, that he would not +have exchanged it with the Schudding itself.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Throughout the day he +stirred not from the window, watching for an opportunity of glancing at +the dear maiden; and when she chanced to show herself, he felt more +rapture in his soul than did Horrox in his Liverpool Observatory, when +he saw, for the first time, Venus passing over the disk of the Sun.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> One of the largest buildings in Bremen, where the meetings +of the merchants are usually held.</p></div> + +<p>Unhappily the watchful mother instituted counter-observations, and ere +long discovered what the lounger on the other side was driving at; and +as Franz, in the capacity of spendthrift, already stood in very bad +esteem with her, this daily gazing angered her so much, that she +shrouded her lattice as with a cloud, and drew the curtains close +together. Meta had the strictest orders not again to appear at the +window; and when her mother went with her to mass, she drew a rain-cap +over her face, disguised her like a favourite of the Grand Signior, and +hurried till she turned the corner with her, and escaped the eyes of the +lier-in-wait.</p> + +<p>Of Franz, it was not held that penetration was his master faculty; but +Love awakens all the talents of the mind. He observed, that by his +imprudent spying, he had betrayed himself; and he thenceforth retired +from the window, with the resolution not again to look out at it, though +the <i>Venerabile</i> itself were carried by. On the other hand, he meditated +some invention for proceeding with his observations in a private manner; +and without great labour, his combining spirit mastered it.</p> + +<p>He hired the largest looking-glass that he could find, and hung it up in +his room, with such an elevation and direction, that he could distinctly +see whatever passed in the dwelling of his neighbours. Here, as for +several days the watcher did not come to light, the screens by degrees +went asunder; and the broad mirror now and then could catch the form of +the noble maid, and, to the great refreshment of the virtuoso, cast it +truly back. The more deeply love took root in his heart,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> the more +widely did his wishes extend. It now struck him that he ought to lay his +passion open to the fair Meta, and investigate the corresponding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> state +of her opinions. The commonest and readiest way which lovers, under such +a constellation of their wishes, strike into, was in his position +inaccessible. In those modest ages, it was always difficult for Paladins +in love to introduce themselves to daughters of the family; toilette +calls were not in fashion; trustful interviews tête-à-tête were punished +by the loss of reputation to the female sharer; promenades, esplanades, +masquerades, pic-nics, goutés, soupés, and other inventions of modern +wit for forwarding sweet courtship, had not then been hit upon; yet, +notwithstanding, all things went their course, much as they do with us. +Gossipings, weddings, lykewakes, were, especially in our Imperial +Cities, privileged vehicles for carrying on soft secrets, and expediting +marriage contracts; hence the old proverb, <i>One wedding makes a score.</i> +But a poor runagate no man desired to number among his baptismal +relatives; to no nuptial dinner, to no wakesupper, was he bidden. The +by-way of negotiating, with the woman, with the young maid, or any other +serviceable spirit of a go-between, was here locked up. Mother Brigitta +had neither maid nor woman; the flax and yarn trade passed through no +hands but her own; and she abode by her daughter as closely as her +shadow.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +[Greek: Apo tou horan erchetai to eran.]</p></div> + +<p>In these circumstances, it was clearly impossible for neighbour Franz to +disclose his heart to the fair Meta, either verbally or in writing. Ere +long, however, he invented an idiom, which appeared expressly calculated +for the utterance of the passions. It is true, the honour of the first +invention is not his. Many ages ago, the sentimental Celadons of Italy +and Spain had taught melting harmonies, in serenades beneath the +balconies of their dames, to speak the language of the heart; and it is +said that this melodious pathos had especial virtue in love-matters; +and, by the confession of the ladies, was more heart-affecting and +subduing, than of yore the oratory of the reverend Chrysostom, or the +pleadings of Demosthenes and Tully. But of all this the simple Bremer +had not heard a syllable; and consequently the invention of expressing +his emotions in symphonious notes, and trilling them to his beloved +Meta, was entirely his own.</p> + +<p>In an hour of sentiment, he took his lute: he did not now tune it merely +to accompany his voice, but drew harmonious melodies from its strings; +and Love, in less than a month, had changed the musical scraper to a new +Amphion. His first efforts did not seem to have been noticed; but soon +the population of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the lane were all ear, every time the dilettante +struck a note. Mothers hushed their children, fathers drove the noisy +urchins from the doors, and the performer had the satisfaction to +observe that Meta herself, with her alabaster hand, would sometimes open +the window as he began to prelude. If he succeeded in enticing her to +lend an ear, his voluntaries whirled along in gay <i>allegro</i>, or skipped +away in mirthful jigs; but if the turning of the spindle, or her thrifty +mother, kept her back, a heavy-laden <i>andante</i> rolled over the bridge of +the sighing lute, and expressed, in languishing modulations, the feeling +of sadness which love-pain poured over his soul.</p> + +<p>Meta was no dull scholar; she soon learned to interpret this expressive +speech. She made various experiments to try whether she had rightly +understood it, and found that she could govern at her will the +dilettante humours of the unseen lute-twanger; for your silent modest +maidens, it is well known, have a much sharper eye than those giddy +flighty girls, who hurry with the levity of butterflies from one object +to another, and take proper heed of none. She felt her female vanity a +little flattered; and it pleased her that she had it in her power, by a +secret magic, to direct the neighbouring lute, and tune it now to the +note of joy, now to the whimpering moan of grief. Mother Brigitta, on +the other hand, had her head so constantly employed with her traffic on +the small scale, that she minded none of these things; and the sly +little daughter took especial care to keep her in the dark respecting +the discovery; and, instigated either by some touch of kindness for her +cooing neighbour, or perhaps by vanity, that she might show her +hermeneutic penetration, meditated on the means of making some +symbolical response to these harmonious apostrophes to her heart. She +expressed a wish to have flower-pots on the outside of the window; and +to grant her this innocent amusement was a light thing for the mother, +who no longer feared the coney-catching neighbour, now that she no +longer saw him with her eyes.</p> + +<p>Henceforth Meta had a frequent call to tend her flowers, to water them, +to bind them up, and guard them from approaching storms, and watch their +growth and flourishing. With inexpressible delight the happy Franz +explained this hieroglyphic altogether in his favour; and the speaking +lute did not fail to modulate his glad emotions, through the alley, into +the heedful ear of the fair friend of flowers. This, in her tender +virgin heart, worked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> wonders. She began to be secretly vexed, when +Mother Brigitta, in her wise table-talk, in which at times she spent an +hour chatting with her daughter, brought their melodious neighbour to +her bar, and called him a losel and a sluggard, or compared him with the +Prodigal in the Gospel. She always took his part; threw the blame of his +ruin on the sorrowful temptations he had met with; and accused him of +nothing worse than not having fitly weighed the golden proverb, <i>A penny +saved is a penny got</i>. Yet she defended him with cunning prudence; so +that it rather seemed as if she wished to help the conversation, than +took any interest in the thing itself.</p> + +<p>While Mother Brigitta within her four walls was inveighing against the +luckless spendthrift, he on his side entertained the kindest feelings +towards her; and was considering diligently how he might, according to +his means, improve her straitened circumstances, and divide with her the +little that remained to him, and so that she might never notice that a +portion of his property had passed over into hers. This pious outlay, in +good truth, was specially intended not for the mother, but the daughter. +Underhand he had come to know, that the fair Meta had a hankering for a +new gown, which her mother had excused herself from buying, under +pretext of hard times. Yet he judged quite accurately, that a present of +a piece of stuff, from an unknown hand, would scarcely be received, or +cut into a dress for Meta; and that he should spoil all, if he stept +forth and avowed himself the author of the benefaction. Chance afforded +him an opportunity to realise this purpose in the way he wished.</p> + +<p>Mother Brigitta was complaining to a neighbour, that flax was very dull; +that it cost her more to purchase than the buyers of it would repay; and +that hence this branch of industry was nothing better, for the present, +than a withered bough. Eaves-dropper Franz did not need a second +telling; he ran directly to the goldsmith, sold his mother's ear-rings, +bought some stones of flax, and, by means of a negotiatress, whom he +gained, had it offered to the mother for a cheap price. The bargain was +concluded; and it yielded so richly, that on All-Saints' day the fair +Meta sparkled in a fine new gown. In this decoration, she had such a +splendour in her watchful neighbour's eyes, that he would have +overlooked the Eleven Thousand Virgins, all and sundry, had it been +permitted him to choose a heart's-mate from among them, and fixed upon +the charming Meta.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>But just as he was triumphing in the result of his innocent deceit, the +secret was betrayed. Mother Brigitta had resolved to do the +flax-retailer, who had brought her that rich gain, a kindness in her +turn; and was treating her with a well-sugared rice-pap, and a +quarter-stoop of Spanish sack. This dainty set in motion not only the +toothless jaw, but also the garrulous tongue of the crone: she engaged +to continue the flax-brokerage, should her consigner feel inclined, as +from good grounds she guessed he would. One word produced another; +Mother Eve's two daughters searched, with the curiosity peculiar to +their sex, till at length the brittle seal of female secrecy gave way. +Meta grew pale with affright at the discovery, which would have charmed +her, had her mother not partaken of it. But she knew her strict ideas of +morals and decorum; and these gave her doubts about the preservation of +her gown. The serious dame herself was no less struck at the tidings, +and wished, on her side too, that she alone had got intelligence of the +specific nature of her flax-trade; for she dreaded that this neighbourly +munificence might make an impression on her daughter's heart, which +would derange her whole calculations. She resolved, therefore, to root +out the still tender germ of this weed, in the very act, from the maiden +heart. The gown, in spite of all the tears and prayers of its lovely +owner, was first hypothecated, and next day transmitted to the +huckster's shop; the money raised from it, with the other profits of the +flax speculation, accurately reckoned up, were packed together, and +under the name of an old debt, returned to "Mr. Franz Melcherson, in +Bremen," by help of the Hamburg post. The receiver, nothing doubting, +took the little lot of money as an unexpected blessing; wished that all +his father's debtors would clear off their old scores as conscientiously +as this honest unknown person; and had not the smallest notion of the +real position of affairs. The talking brokeress, of course, was far from +giving him a true disclosure of her blabbing; she merely told him that +Mother Brigitta had given up her flax-trade.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the mirror taught him, that the aspects over the way had +altered greatly in a single night. The flower-pots were entirely +vanished; and the cloudy veil again obscured the friendly horizon of the +opposite window. Meta was seldom visible; and if for a moment, like the +silver moon, from among her clouds in a stormy night, she did appear, +her countenance was troubled, the fire of her eyes was extinguished, and +it seemed to him, that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> at times, with her finger, she pressed away a +pearly tear. This seized him sharply by the heart; and his lute +resounded melancholy sympathy in soft Lydian mood. He grieved, and +meditated to discover why his love was sad; but all his thinking and +imagining were vain. After some days were past, he noticed, to his +consternation, that his dearest piece of furniture, the large mirror, +had become entirely useless. He set himself one bright morning in his +usual nook, and observed that the clouds over the way had, like natural +fog, entirely dispersed; a sign which he at first imputed to a general +washing; but ere long he saw that, in the chamber, all was waste and +empty; his pleasing neighbours had in silence withdrawn the night +before, and broken up their quarters.</p> + +<p>He might now, once more, with the greatest leisure and convenience, +enjoy the free prospect from his window, without fear of being +troublesome to any; but for him it was a dead loss to miss the kind +countenance of his Platonic love. Mute and stupefied, he stood, as of +old his fellow-craftsman, the harmonious Orpheus, when the dear shadow +of his Eurydice again vanished down to Orcus; and if the bedlam humour +of those "noble minds," who raved among us through the bygone lustre, +but have now like drones disappeared with the earliest frost, had then +been ripened to existence, this calm of his would certainly have passed +into a sudden hurricane. The least he could have done, would have been +to pull his hair, to trundle himself about upon the ground, or run his +head against the wall, and break his stove and window. All this he +omitted; from the very simple cause, that true love never makes men +fools, but rather is the universal remedy for healing sick minds of +their foolishness, for laying gentle fetters on extravagance, and +guiding youthful giddiness from the broad way of ruin to the narrow path +of reason; for the rake whom love will not recover is lost +irrecoverably.</p> + +<p>When once his spirit had assembled its scattered powers, he set on foot +a number of instructive meditations on the unexpected phenomenon, but +too visible in the adjacent horizon. He readily conceived that he was +the lever which had effected the removal of the wandering colony: his +money-letter, the abrupt conclusion of the flax-trade, and the +emigration which had followed thereupon, were like reciprocal exponents +to each other, and explained the whole to him. He perceived that Mother +Brigitta had got round his secrets, and saw from every circumstance that +he was not her hero; a discovery which yielded him but little +satisfaction. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> symbolic responses of the fair Meta, with her +flower-pots, to his musical proposals of love; her trouble, and the tear +which he had noticed in her bright eyes shortly before her departure +from the lane, again animated his hopes, and kept him in good heart. His +first employment was to go in quest, and try to learn where Mother +Brigitta had pitched her residence, in order to maintain, by some means +or other, his secret understanding with the daughter. It cost him little +toil to find her abode; yet he was too modest to shift his own lodging +to her neighbourhood; but satisfied himself with spying out the church +where she now attended mass, that he might treat himself once each day +with a glance of his beloved. He never failed to meet her as she +returned, now here, now there, in some shop or door which she was +passing, and salute her kindly; an equivalent for a <i>billet-doux</i>, and +productive of the same effect.</p> + +<p>Had not Meta been brought up in a style too nunlike, and guarded by her +rigid mother as a treasure, from the eyes of thieves, there is little +doubt that neighbour Franz, with his secret wooing, would have made no +great impression on her heart. But she was at the critical age, when +Mother Nature and Mother Brigitta, with their wise nurture, were +perpetually coming into collision. The former taught her, by a secret +instinct, the existence of emotions, for which she had no name, and +eulogised them as the panacea of life; the latter warned her to beware +of the surprisals of a passion, which she would not designate by its +true title, but which, as she maintained, was more pernicious and +destructive to young maidens than the small-pox itself. The former, in +the spring of life, as beseemed the season, enlivened her heart with a +genial warmth; the latter wished that it should always be as cold and +frosty as an ice-house. These conflicting pedagogic systems of the two +good mothers gave the tractable heart of the daughter the direction of a +ship which is steered against the wind, and follows neither the wind nor +the helm, but a course between the two. She maintained the modesty and +virtue which her education, from her youth upwards, had impressed upon +her; but her heart continued open to all tender feelings. And as +neighbour Franz was the first youth who had awakened these slumbering +emotions, she took a certain pleasure in him, which she scarcely owned +to herself, but which any less unexperienced maiden would have +recognised as love. It was for this that her departure from the narrow +lane had gone so near her heart; for this that the little tear had +trickled from her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> beautiful eyes; for this that, when the watchful +Franz saluted her as she came from church, she thanked him so kindly, +and grew scarlet to the ears. The lovers had in truth never spoken any +word to one another; but he understood her, and she him, so perfectly, +that in the most secret interview they could not have explained +themselves more clearly; and both contracting parties swore in their +silent hearts, each for himself, under the seal of secrecy, the oath of +faithfulness to the other.</p> + +<p>In the quarter, where Mother Brigitta had now settled, there were +likewise neighbours, and among these likewise girl-spiers, whom the +beauty of the charming Meta had not escaped. Right opposite their +dwelling lived a wealthy Brewer, whom the wags of the part, as he was +strong in means, had named the Hop-King. He was a young stout widower, +whose mourning year was just concluding, so that now he was entitled, +without offending the precepts of decorum, to look about him elsewhere +for a new helpmate to his household. Shortly after the departure of his +whilom wife, he had in secret entered into an engagement with his Patron +Saint, St. Christopher, to offer him a wax-taper as long as a hop-pole, +and as thick as a mashing-beam, if he would vouchsafe in this second +choice to prosper the desire of his heart. Scarcely had he seen the +dainty Meta, when he dreamed that St. Christopher looked in upon him, +through the window of his bedroom in the second story,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and demanded +payment of his debt. To the quick widower this seemed a heavenly call to +cast out the net without delay. Early in the morning he sent for the +brokers of the town, and commissioned them to buy bleached wax; then +decked himself like a Syndic, and set forth to expedite his marriage +speculation. He had no musical talents, and in the secret symbolic +language of love he was no better than a blockhead; but he had a rich +brewery, a solid mortgage on the city-revenues, a ship on the Weser, and +a farm without the gates. With such recommendations he might have +reckoned on a prosperous issue to his courtship, independently of all +assistance from St. Kit, especially as his bride was without dowry.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> St. Christopher never appears to his favourites, like the +other Saints, in a solitary room, encircled with a glory: there is no +room high enough to admit him; thus the celestial Son of Anak is obliged +to transact all business with his wards outside the window.</p></div> + +<p>According to old use and wont, he went directly to the master hand, and +disclosed to the mother, in a kind neighbourly way, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> christian +intentions towards her virtuous and honourable daughter. No angel's +visit could have charmed the good lady more than these glad tidings. She +now saw ripening before her the fruit of her prudent scheme, and the +fulfilment of her hope again to emerge from her present poverty into her +former abundance; she blessed the good thought of moving from the +crooked alley, and in the first ebullition of her joy, as a thousand gay +ideas were ranking themselves up within her soul, she also thought of +neighbour Franz, who had given occasion to it. Though Franz was not +exactly her bosom-youth, she silently resolved to gladden him, as the +accidental instrument of her rising star, with some secret gift or +other, and by this means likewise recompense his well-intended +flax-dealing.</p> + +<p>In the maternal heart the marriage-articles were as good as signed; but +decorum did not permit these rash proceedings in a matter of such +moment. She therefore let the motion lie <i>ad referendum</i>, to be +considered by her daughter and herself; and appointed a term of eight +days, after which "she hoped she should have it in her power to give the +much-respected suitor a reply that would satisfy him;" all which, as the +common manner of proceeding, he took in good part, and with his usual +civilities withdrew. No sooner had he turned his back, than +spinning-wheel and reel, swingling-stake and hatchel, without regard +being paid to their faithful services, and without accusation being +lodged against them, were consigned, like some luckless Parliament of +Paris, to disgrace, and dismissed as useless implements into the +lumber-room. On returning from mass, Meta was astonished at the sudden +catastrophe which had occurred in the apartment; it was all decked out +as on one of the three high Festivals of the year. She could not +understand how her thrifty mother, on a work-day, had so neglectfully +put her active hand in her bosom; but before she had time to question +the kindly-smiling dame concerning this reform in household affairs, she +was favoured by the latter with an explanation of the riddle. Persuasion +rested on Brigitta's tongue; and there flowed from her lips a stream of +female eloquence, depicting the offered happiness in the liveliest hues +which her imagination could lay on. She expected from the chaste Meta +the blush of soft virgin bashfulness, which announces the novitiate in +love; and then a full resignation of herself to the maternal will. For +of old, in proposals of marriage, daughters were situated as our +princesses are still; they were not asked about their inclination,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> and +had no voice in the selection of their legal helpmate, save the Yes +before the altar.</p> + +<p>But Mother Brigitta was in this point widely mistaken; the fair Meta did +not at the unexpected announcement grow red as a rose, but pale as +ashes. An hysterical giddiness swam over her brain, and she sank +fainting in her mother's arms. When her senses were recalled by the +sprinkling of cold water, and she had in some degree recovered strength, +her eyes overflowed with tears, as if a heavy misfortune had befallen +her. From all these symptoms, the sagacious mother easily perceived that +the marriage-trade was not to her taste; at which she wondered not a +little, sparing neither prayers nor admonitions to her daughter to +secure her happiness by this good match, not flout it from her by +caprice and contradiction. But Meta could not be persuaded that her +happiness depended on a match, to which her heart gave no assent. The +debates between the mother and the daughter lasted several days, from +early morning to late night; the term for decision was approaching; the +sacred taper for St. Christopher, which Og King of Bashan need not have +disdained had it been lit for him as a marriage-torch at his espousals, +stood in readiness, all beautifully painted with living flowers like a +many-coloured light, though the Saint had all the while been so inactive +in his client's cause, that the fair Meta's heart was still bolted and +barred against him fast as ever.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile she had bleared her eyes with weeping, and the maternal +rhetoric had worked so powerfully, that, like a flower in the sultry +heat, she was drooping together, and visibly fading away. Hidden grief +was gnawing at her heart; she had prescribed herself a rigorous fast, +and for three days no morsel had she eaten, and with no drop of water +moistened her parched lips. By night sleep never visited her eyes; and +with all this she grew sick to death, and began to talk about extreme +unction. As the tender mother saw the pillar of her hope wavering, and +bethought herself that she might lose both capital and interest at once, +she found, on accurate consideration, that it would be more advisable to +let the latter vanish, than to miss them both; and with kindly +indulgence plied into the daughter's will. It cost her much constraint, +indeed, and many hard battles, to turn away so advantageous an offer; +yet at last, according to established order in household governments, +she yielded unconditionally to the inclination of her child, and +remonstrated no more with her beloved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> patient on the subject. As the +stout widower announced himself on the appointed day, in the full trust +that his heavenly deputy had arranged it all according to his wish, he +received, quite unexpectedly, a negative answer, which, however, was +sweetened with such a deal of blandishment, that he swallowed it like +wine-of-wormwood mixed with sugar. For the rest, he easily accommodated +himself to his destiny; and discomposed himself no more about it, than +if some bargain for a ton of malt had chanced to come to nothing. Nor, +on the whole, had he any cause to sorrow without hope. His native town +has never wanted amiable daughters, who come up to the Solomonic sketch, +and are ready to make perfect spouses; besides, notwithstanding this +unprospered courtship, he depended with firm confidence upon his Patron +Saint; who in fact did him such substantial service elsewhere, that ere +a month elapsed, he had planted with much pomp his devoted taper at the +friendly shrine.</p> + +<p>Mother Brigitta was now fain to recall the exiled spinning-tackle from +its lumber-room, and again set it in action. All once more went its +usual course. Meta soon bloomed out anew, was active in business, and +diligently went to mass; but the mother could not hide her secret +grudging at the failure of her hopes, and the annihilation of her +darling plan; she was splenetic, peevish and dejected. Her ill-humour +had especially the upper hand that day when neighbour Hop-King held his +nuptials. As the wedding company proceeded to the church, with the +town-band bedrumming and becymballing them in the van, she whimpered and +sobbed as in the evil hour when the Job's-news reached her, that the +wild sea had devoured her husband, with ship and fortune. Meta looked at +the bridal pomp with great equanimity; even the royal ornaments, the +jewels in the myrtle-crown, and the nine strings of true pearls about +the neck of the bride, made no impression on her peace of mind; a +circumstance in some degree surprising, since a new Paris cap, or any +other meteor in the gallery of Mode, will so frequently derange the +contentment and domestic peace of an entire parish. Nothing but the +heart-consuming sorrow of her mother discomposed her, and overclouded +the gay look of her eyes; she strove by a thousand caresses and little +attentions to work herself into favour; and she so far succeeded that +the good lady grew a little more communicative.</p> + +<p>In the evening, when the wedding-dance began, she said, "Ah, child! this +merry dance it might have been thy part to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> lead off. What a pleasure, +hadst thou recompensed thy mother's care and toil with this joy! But +thou hast mocked thy happiness, and now I shall never see the day when I +am to attend thee to the altar."—"Dear mother," answered Meta, "I +confide in Heaven; and if it is written above that I am to be led to the +altar, you will surely deck my garland: for when the right wooer comes, +my heart will soon say Yes."—"Child, for girls without dowry there is +no press of wooers; they are heavy ware to trade with. Nowadays the +bachelors are mighty stingy; they court to be happy, not to make happy. +Besides, thy planet bodes thee no good; thou wert born in April. Let us +see how it is written in the Calendar: 'A damsel born in this month is +comely of countenance, slender of shape, but of changeful humour, has a +liking to men. Should have an eye upon her maiden garland, and so a +laughing wooer come, not miss her fortune.' Alas, it answers to a hair! +The wooer has been here, comes not again: thou hast missed him."—"Ah, +mother! let the planet say its pleasure, never mind it; my heart says to +me that I should love and honour the man who asks me to be his wife: and +if I do not find that man, or he do not seek me, I will live in good +courage by the labour of my hands, and stand by you, and nurse you in +your old age, as beseems a good daughter. But if the man of my heart do +come, then bless my choice, that it may be well with your daughter on +the Earth; and ask not whether he is noble, rich, or famous, but whether +he is good and honest, whether he loves and is loved."—"Ah, daughter! +Love keeps a sorry kitchen, and feeds one poorly, along with bread and +salt."—"But yet Unity and Contentment delight to dwell with him, and +these season bread and salt with the cheerful enjoyment of our days."</p> + +<p>The pregnant subject of bread and salt continued to be sifted till the +night was far spent, and the last fiddle in the wedding-dance was +resting from its labours. The moderation of the prudent Meta, who, with +youth and beauty on her side, pretended only to an altogether bounded +happiness, after having turned away an advantageous offer, led the +mother to conjecture that the plan of some such salt-trade might already +have been sketched in the heart of the virgin. Nor did she fail to guess +the trading-partner in the lane, of whom she never had believed that he +would be the tree for rooting in the lovely Meta's heart. She had looked +upon him only as a wild tendril, that stretches out towards every +neighbouring twig, to clamber up by means of it. This discovery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +procured her little joy; but she gave no hint that she had made it. +Only, in the spirit of her rigorous morality, she compared a maiden who +lets love, before the priestly benediction, nestle in her heart, to a +worm-eaten apple, which is good for the eye, but no longer for the +palate, and is laid upon a shelf and no more heeded, for the pernicious +worm is eating its internal marrow, and cannot be dislodged. She now +despaired of ever holding up her head again in Bremen; submitted to her +fate, and bore in silence what she thought was now not to be altered.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the rumour of the proud Meta's having given the rich Hop-King +the basket, spread over the town, and sounded even into Franz's garret +in the alley. Franz was transported with joy to hear this tale +confirmed; and the secret anxiety lest some wealthy rival might expel +him from the dear maiden's heart tormented him no more. He was now +certain of his object; and the riddle, which for every one continued an +insoluble problem, had no mystery for him. Love had already changed a +spendthrift into a dilettante; but this for a bride-seeker was the very +smallest of recommendations, a gift which in those rude times was +rewarded neither with such praise nor with such pudding, as it is in our +luxurious century. The fine arts were not then children of superfluity, +but of want and necessity. No travelling professors were at that time +known, save the Prague students, whose squeaking symphonies solicited a +charitable coin at the doors of the rich. The beloved maiden's sacrifice +was too great to be repaid by a serenade. And now the feeling of his +youthful dissipation became a thorn in the soul of Franz. Many a +touching monodrama did he begin with an O and an Ah, besighing his past +madness: "Ah, Meta," said he to himself, "why did I not know thee +sooner! Thou hadst been my guardian angel, thou hadst saved me from +destruction. Could I live my lost years over again, and be what I was, +the world were now Elysium for me, and for thee I would make it an Eden! +Noble maiden, thou sacrificest thyself to a wretch, to a beggar, who has +nothing in the world but a heart full of love, and despair that he can +offer thee no happiness such as thou deservest." Innumerable times, in +the paroxysms of these pathetic humours, he struck his brow in fury, +with the repentant exclamation: "O fool! O madman! thou art wise too +late."</p> + +<p>Love, however, did not leave its working incomplete. It had already +brought about a wholesome fermentation in his spirit, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> desire to put +in use his powers and activity, to try if he might struggle up from his +present nothingness: it now incited him to the attempt of executing +these good purposes. Among many speculations he had entertained for the +recruiting of his wrecked finances, the most rational and promising was +this: To run over his father's ledgers, and there note down any small +escheats which had been marked as lost, with a view of going through the +land, and gleaning, if so were that a lock of wheat might still be +gathered from these neglected ears. With the produce of this enterprise, +he would then commence some little traffic, which his fancy soon +extended over all the quarters of the world. Already, in his mind's eye, +he had vessels on the sea, which were freighted with his property. He +proceeded rapidly to execute his purpose; changed the last golden +fragment of his heritage, his father's hour-egg,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> into money, and +bought with it a riding nag, which was to bear him as a Bremen merchant +out into the wide world.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The oldest watches, from the shape they had, were named +hour-eggs.</p></div> + +<p>Yet the parting with his fair Meta went sore against his heart. "What +will she think," said he to himself, "of this sudden disappearance, when +thou shalt no more meet her in the church-way? Will she not regard thee +as faithless, and banish thee from her heart?" This thought afflicted +him exceedingly; and for a great while he could think of no expedient +for explaining to her his intention. But at last inventive Love +suggested the idea of signifying to her from the pulpit itself his +absence and its purpose. With this view, in the church, which had +already favoured the secret understanding of the lovers, he bought a +Prayer "for a young Traveller, and the happy arrangement of his +affairs;" which was to last, till he should come again and pay his +groschen for the Thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>At the last meeting, he had dressed himself as for the road; he passed +quite near his sweetheart; saluted her expressively, and with less +reserve than before; so that she blushed deeply; and Mother Brigitta +found opportunity for various marginal notes, which indicated her +displeasure at the boldness of this ill-bred fop, in attempting to get +speech of her daughter, and with which she entertained the latter not in +the most pleasant style the livelong day. From that morning Franz was no +more seen in Bremen, and the finest pair of eyes within its circuit +sought for him in vain. Meta often heard the Prayer read, but she did +not heed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> it, for her heart was troubled because her lover had become +invisible. This disappearance was inexplicable to her; she knew not what +to think of it. After the lapse of some months, when time had a little +softened her secret care, and she was suffering his absence with a +calmer mind, it happened once, as the last appearance of her love was +hovering upon her fancy, that this same Prayer struck her as a strange +matter. She coupled one thing with another, she guessed the true +connexion of the business, and the meaning of that notice. And although +church litanies and special prayers have not the reputation of extreme +potency, and for the worthy souls that lean on them are but a supple +staff, inasmuch as the fire of devotion in the Christian flock is wont +to die out at the end of the sermon; yet in the pious Meta's case, the +reading of the last Prayer was the very thing which fanned that fire +into a flame; and she never neglected, with her whole heart, to +recommend the young traveller to his guardian angel.</p> + +<p>Under this invisible guidance, Franz was journeying towards Brabant, to +call in some considerable sums that were due him at Antwerp. A journey +from Bremen to Antwerp, in the time when road-blockades were still in +fashion, and every landlord thought himself entitled to plunder any +traveller who had purchased no safe-conduct, and to leave him pining in +the ward-room of his tower, was an undertaking of more peril and +difficulty, than in our days would attend a journey from Bremen to +Kamtschatka: for the <i>Land-fried</i> (or Act for suppressing Private Wars), +which the Emperor Maximilian had proclaimed, was in force through the +Empire, rather as a law than an observance. Nevertheless our solitary +traveller succeeded in arriving at the goal of his pilgrimage, without +encountering more than a single adventure.</p> + +<p>Far in the wastes of Westphalia, he rode one sultry day till nightfall, +without reaching any inn. Towards evening stormy clouds towered up at +the horizon, and a heavy rain wetted him to the skin. To the fondling, +who from his youth had been accustomed to all possible conveniences, +this was a heavy matter, and he felt himself in great embarrassment how +in this condition he should pass the night. To his comfort, when the +tempest had moved away, he saw a light in the distance; and soon after, +reached a mean peasant hovel, which afforded him but little consolation. +The house was more like a cattle-stall than a human habitation; and the +unfriendly landlord refused him fire and water,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> as if he had been an +outlaw. For the man was just about to stretch himself upon the straw +among his steers; and too tired to relight the fire on his hearth, for +the sake of a stranger. Franz in his despondency uplifted a mournful +<i>miserere</i>, and cursed the Westphalian steppes with strong maledictions: +but the peasant took it all in good part; and blew out his light with +great composure, troubling himself no farther about the stranger; for in +the laws of hospitality he was altogether uninstructed. But as the +wayfarer, standing at the door, would not cease to annoy him with his +lamentations, he endeavoured in a civil way to get rid of him, consented +to answer, and said: "Master, if you want good entertainment, and would +treat yourself handsomely, you could not find what you are seeking here. +But ride there to the left hand, through the bushes; a little way +behind, lies the Castle of the valiant Eberhard Bronkhorst, a knight who +lodges every traveller, as a Hospitaller does the pilgrims from the Holy +Sepulchre. He has just one maggot in his head, which sometimes twitches +and vexes him; he lets no traveller depart from him unbasted. If you do +not lose your way, though he may dust your jacket, you will like your +cheer prodigiously."</p> + +<p>To buy a mess of pottage, and a stoup of wine, by surrendering one's +ribs to the bastinado, is in truth no job for every man, though your +spungers and plate-lickers let themselves be tweaked and snubbed, and +from rich artists willingly endure all kinds of tar-and-feathering, so +their palates be but tickled for the service. Franz considered for a +while, and was undetermined what to do; at last he resolved on fronting +the adventure. "What is it to me," said he, "whether my back be broken +here on miserable straw, or by the Ritter Bronkhorst? The friction will +expel the fever which is coming on, and shake me tightly if I cannot dry +my clothes." He put spurs to his nag, and soon arrived before a +castle-gate of old Gothic architecture; knocked pretty plainly on the +iron door, and an equally distinct "Who's there?" resounded from within. +To the freezing passenger, the long entrance ceremonial of this +door-keeper precognition was as inconvenient, as are similar delays to +travellers who, at barriers and gates of towns, bewail or execrate the +despotism of guards and tollmen. Nevertheless he must submit to use and +wont, and patiently wait to see whether the philanthropist in the Castle +was disposed that night for cudgelling a guest, or would choose rather +to assign him a couch under the open canopy.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>The possessor of this ancient tower had served, in his youth, as a stout +soldier in the Emperor's army, under the bold Georg von Fronsberg, and +led a troop of foot against the Venetians; had afterwards retired to +repose, and was now living on his property; where, to expiate the sins +of his campaigns, he employed himself in doing good works; in feeding +the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, lodging pilgrims, and +cudgelling his lodgers out of doors. For he was a rude wild son of war; +and could not lay aside his martial tone, though he had lived for many +years in silent peace. The traveller, who had now determined for good +quarters to submit to the custom of the house, had not waited long till +the bolts and locks began rattling within, and the creaking gate-leaves +moved asunder, moaning in doleful notes, as if to warn or to deplore the +entering stranger. Franz felt one cold shudder after the other running +down his back, as he passed in; nevertheless he was handsomely received; +some servants hastened to assist him in dismounting; speedily unbuckled +his luggage, took his steed to the stable, and its rider to a large +well-lighted chamber, where their master was in waiting.</p> + +<p>The warlike aspect of this athletic gentleman,—who advanced to meet his +guest, and shook him by the hand so heartily, that he was like to shout +with pain, and bade him welcome with a Stentor's voice, as if the +stranger had been deaf, and seemed withal to be a person still in the +vigour of life, full of fire and strength,—put the timorous wanderer +into such a terror, that he could not hide his apprehensions, and began +to tremble over all his body.</p> + +<p>"What ails you, my young master," asked the Ritter, with a voice of +thunder, "that you quiver like an aspen-leaf, and look as pale as if +Death had you by the throat?"</p> + +<p>Franz plucked up a spirit; and considering that his shoulders had at all +events the score to pay, his poltroonery passed into a species of +audacity.</p> + +<p>"Sir," replied he, "you perceive that the rain has soaked me, as if I +had swum across the Weser. Let me have my clothes dried or changed; and +get me, by way of luncheon, a well-spiced aleberry, to drive away the +ague-fit that is quaking through my nerves; then I shall come to heart, +in some degree."</p> + +<p>"Good!" replied the Knight; "demand what you want; you are at home +here."</p> + +<p>Franz made himself be served like a bashaw; and having nothing else but +currying to expect, he determined to deserve it;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> he bantered and +bullied, in his most imperious style, the servants that were waiting on +him; it comes all to one, thought he, in the long-run. "This waistcoat," +said he, "would go round a tun; bring me one that fits a little better: +this slipper burns like a coal against my corns; pitch it over the +lists: this ruff is stiff as a plank, and throttles me like a halter; +bring one that is easier, and is not plastered with starch."</p> + +<p>At this Bremish frankness, the landlord, far from showing any anger, +kept inciting his servants to go briskly through with their commands, +and calling them a pack of blockheads, who were fit to serve no +stranger. The table being furnished, the Ritter and his guest sat down +to it, and both heartily enjoyed their aleberry. The Ritter asked: +"Would you have aught farther, by way of supper?"</p> + +<p>"Bring us what you have," said Franz, "that I may see how your kitchen +is provided."</p> + +<p>Immediately appeared the Cook, and placed upon the table a repast with +which a duke might have been satisfied. Franz diligently fell to, +without waiting to be pressed. When he had satisfied himself: "Your +kitchen," said he, "is not ill-furnished, I perceive; if your cellar +corresponds to it, I shall almost praise your housekeeping."</p> + +<p>Bronkhorst nodded to his Butler, who directly filled the cup of welcome +with common table wine, tasted, and presented it to his master, and the +latter cleared it at a draught to the health of his guest. Franz pledged +him honestly, and Bronkhorst asked: "Now, fair sir, what say you to the +wine?"</p> + +<p>"I say," answered Franz, "that it is bad, if it is the best sort in your +catacombs; and good, if it is your meanest number."</p> + +<p>"You are a judge," replied the Ritter: "Here, Butler, bring us of the +mother-cask."</p> + +<p>The Butler put a stoup upon the table, as a sample, and Franz having +tasted it, said, "Ay, this is genuine last year's growth; we will stick +by this."</p> + +<p>The Ritter made a vast pitcher of it be brought in; soon drank himself +into hilarity and glee beside his guest; began to talk of his campaigns, +how he had been encamped against the Venetians, had broken through their +barricado, and butchered the Italian squadrons, like a flock of sheep. +In this narrative he rose into such a warlike enthusiasm, that he hewed +down bottles and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> glasses, brandishing the carving-knife like a lance, +and in the fire of action came so near his messmate with it, that the +latter was in fright for his nose and ears.</p> + +<p>It grew late, but no sleep came into the eyes of the Ritter; he seemed +to be in his proper element, when he got to speak of his Venetian +campaigns. The vivacity of his narration increased with every cup he +emptied; and Franz was afraid that this would prove the prologue to the +melodrama, in which he himself was to play the most interesting part. To +learn whether it was meant that he should lodge within the Castle, or +without, he demanded a bumper by way of good-night. Now, he thought, his +host would first force him to drink more wine, and if he refused, would, +under pretext of a drinking quarrel, send him forth, according to the +custom of the house, with the usual <i>viaticum</i>. Contrary to his +expectation, the request was granted without remonstrance; the Ritter +instantly cut asunder the thread of his narrative, and said: "Time will +wait on no one; more of it tomorrow!"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, Herr Ritter," answered Franz, "tomorrow by sunrise I must +over hill and dale; I am travelling a far journey to Brabant, and must +not linger here. So let me take leave of you tonight, that my departure +may not disturb you in the morning."</p> + +<p>"Do your pleasure," said the Ritter; "but depart from this you shall +not, till I am out of the feathers, to refresh you with a bit of bread, +and a toothful of Dantzig, then attend you to the door, and dismiss you +according to the fashion of the house."</p> + +<p>Franz needed no interpretation of these words. Willingly as he would +have excused his host this last civility, attendance to the door, the +latter seemed determined to abate no whit of the established ritual. He +ordered his servants to undress the stranger, and put him in the +guest's-bed; where Franz, once settled on elastic swan's down, felt +himself extremely snug, and enjoyed delicious rest; so that ere he fell +asleep, he owned to himself that, for such royal treatment, a moderate +bastinado was not too dear a price. Soon pleasant dreams came hovering +round his fancy. He found his charming Meta in a rosy grove, where she +was walking with her mother, plucking flowers. Instantly he hid himself +behind a thick-leaved hedge, that the rigorous duenna might not see him. +Again his imagination placed him in the alley, and by his looking-glass +he saw the snow-white hand of the maiden busied with her flowers; soon +he was sitting with her on the grass, and longing to declare his +heartfelt love to her, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> the bashful shepherd found no words to do it +in. He would have dreamed till broad mid-day, had he not been roused by +the sonorous voice and clanking spurs of the Ritter, who, with the +earliest dawn, was holding a review of kitchen and cellar, ordering a +sufficient breakfast to be readied, and placing every servant at his +post, to be at hand when the guest should awake, to dress him, and wait +upon him.</p> + +<p>It cost the happy dreamer no small struggling to forsake his safe and +hospitable bed. He rolled to this side and to that; but the pealing +voice of the worshipful Knight came heavy on his heart; and dally as he +might, the sour apple must at last be bit. So he rose from his down; and +immediately a dozen hands were busy dressing him. The Ritter led him +into the parlour, where a small well-furnished table waited them; but +now, when the hour of reckoning had arrived, the traveller's appetite +was gone. The host endeavoured to encourage him. "Why do you not get to? +Come, take somewhat for the raw foggy morning."</p> + +<p>"Herr Ritter," answered Franz, "my stomach is still too full of your +supper; but my pockets are empty; these I may fill for the hunger that +is to come."</p> + +<p>With this he began stoutly cramming, and stowed himself with the +daintiest and best that was transportable, till all his pockets were +bursting. Then, observing that his horse, well curried and equipt, was +led past, he took a dram of Dantzig for good-b'ye, in the thought that +this would be the watch-word for his host to catch him by the neck, and +exercise his household privileges.</p> + +<p>But, to his astonishment, the Ritter shook him kindly by the hand, as at +his first entrance, wished him luck by the way, and the bolted door was +thrown open. He loitered not in putting spurs to his nag; and, tip! tap! +he was without the gate, and no hair of him harmed.</p> + +<p>A heavy stone was lifted from his heart as he found himself in safety, +and saw that he had got away with a whole skin. He could not understand +how the landlord had trusted him the shot, which, as he imagined, must +have run pretty high on the chalk; and he embraced with warm love the +hospitable man, whose club-law arm he had so much dreaded; and he felt a +strong desire to search out, at the fountain-head, the reason or +unreason of the ill report which had affrighted him. Accordingly he +turned his horse, and cantered back. The Knight was still standing in +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> gate, and descanting with his servants, for the forwarding of the +science of horse-flesh, on the breed, shape and character of the nag, +and his hard pace: he supposed the stranger must have missed something +in his travelling gear, and he already looked askance at his servants +for such negligence.</p> + +<p>"What is it, young master," cried he, "that makes you turn again, when +you were for proceeding?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! yet a word, valiant Knight," cried the traveller. "An ill report +has gone abroad, that injures your name and breeding. It is said that +you treat every stranger that calls upon you with your best; and then, +when he leaves you, let him feel the weight of your strong fists. This +story I have credited, and spared nothing to deserve my due from you. I +thought within myself, His worship will abate me nothing; I will abate +him as little. But now you let me go, without strife or peril; and that +is what surprises me. Pray tell me, is there any shadow of foundation +for the thing; or shall I call the foolish chatter lies next time I hear +it?"</p> + +<p>The Ritter answered: "Report has nowise told you lies; there is no +saying that circulates among the people but contains in it some grain of +truth. Let me tell you accurately how the matter stands. I lodge every +stranger that comes beneath my roof, and divide my morsel with him, for +the love of God. But I am a plain German man, of the old cut and +fashion; speak as it lies about my heart, and require that my guest also +should be hearty and confiding; should enjoy with me what I have, and +tell frankly what he wants. Now, there is a sort of people that vex me +with all manner of grimaces; that banter me with smirkings, and bows, +and crouchings; put all their words to the torture; make a deal of talk +without sense or salt; think they will cozen me with smooth speeches; +behave at dinner as women at a christening. If I say, Help yourself! out +of reverence, they pick you a fraction from the plate which I would not +offer to my dog: if I say, Your health! they scarcely wet their lips +from the full cup, as if they set God's gifts at naught. Now, when the +sorry rabble carry things too far with me, and I cannot, for the soul of +me, know what they would be at, I get into a rage at last, and use my +household privilege; catch the noodle by the spall, thrash him +sufficiently, and pack him out of doors. This is the use and wont with +me, and I do so with every guest that plagues me with these freaks. But +a man of your stamp is always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> welcome: you told me plump out in plain +German what you thought, as is the fashion with the Bremers. Call on me +boldly again, if your road lead you hither. And so, God be with you."</p> + +<p>Franz now moved on, with a joyful humour, towards Antwerp; and he wished +that he might everywhere find such a reception as he had met with from +the Ritter Eberhard Bronkhorst. On approaching the ancient queen of the +Flemish cities, the sail of his hope was swelled by a propitious breeze. +Riches and superfluity met him in every street; and it seemed as if +scarcity and want had been exiled from the busy town. In all +probability, thought he, there must be many of my father's debtors who +have risen again, and will gladly make me full payment whenever I +substantiate my claims. After resting for a while from his fatigues, he +set about obtaining, in the inn where he was quartered, some preliminary +knowledge of the situation of his debtors.</p> + +<p>"How stands it with Peter Martens?" inquired he one day of his +companions at table; "is he still living, and doing much business?"</p> + +<p>"Peter Martens is a warm man," answered one of the party; "has a brisk +commission trade, and draws good profit from it."</p> + +<p>"Is Fabian van Plürs still in good circumstances?"</p> + +<p>"O! there is no end to Fabian's wealth. He is a Councillor; his woollen +manufactories are thriving incredibly."</p> + +<p>"Has Jonathan Frischkier good custom in his trade?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! Jonathan were now a brisk fellow, had not Kaiser Max let the French +chouse him out of his Princess.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Jonathan had got the furnishing of +the lace for the bride's dress; but the Kaiser has left poor Frischkier +in the lurch, as the bride has left himself. If you have a fair one, +whom you would remember with a bit of lace, he will give it you at +half-price."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Anne of Brittany.</p></div> + +<p>"Is the firm Op de Bütekant still standing, or has it sunk?"</p> + +<p>"There was a crack in the beams there some years ago; but the Spanish +caravelles have put a new prop to it, and it now holds fast."</p> + +<p>Franz inquired about several other merchants who were on his list; found +that most of them, though in his father's time they had "failed," were +now standing firmly on their legs; and inferred from this, that a +judicious bankruptcy has, from of old, been the mine of future gains. +This intelligence refreshed him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> mightily: he hastened to put his +documents in order, and submit them to the proper parties. But with the +Antwerpers, he fared as his itinerating countrymen do with shopkeepers +in the German towns: they find everywhere a friendly welcome at their +first appearance, but are looked upon with cheerfulness nowhere when +they come collecting debts. Some would have nothing to do with these +former sins; and were of opinion, that by the tender of the legal +five-per-cent composition they had been entirely abolished: it was the +creditor's fault if he had not accepted payment in time. Others could +not recollect any Melchior of Bremen; opened their Infallible Books; +found no debtor-entry marked for this unknown name. Others, again, +brought out a strong counter-reckoning; and three days had not passed +till Franz was sitting in the Debtors' Ward, to answer for his father's +credit, not to depart till he had paid the uttermost farthing.</p> + +<p>These were not the best prospects for the young man, who had set his +hope and trust upon the Antwerp patrons of his fortune, and now saw the +fair soap-bubble vanish quite away. In his strait confinement, he felt +himself in the condition of a soul in Purgatory, now that his skiff had +run ashore and gone to pieces, in the middle of the haven where he +thought to find security. Every thought of Meta was as a thorn in his +heart; there was now no shadow of a possibility, that from the whirlpool +which had sunk him, he could ever rise, and stretch out his hand to her; +nor, suppose he should get his head above water, was it in poor Meta's +power to pull him on dry land. He fell into a sullen desperation; had no +wish but to die speedily, and give his woes the slip at once; and, in +fact, he did attempt to kill himself by starvation. But this is a sort +of death which is not at the beck of every one, so ready as the shrunk +Pomponius Atticus found it, when his digestive apparatus had already +struck work. A sound peptic stomach does not yield so tamely to the +precepts of the head or heart. After the moribund debtor had abstained +two days from food, a ravenous hunger suddenly usurped the government of +his will, and performed, of its own authority, all the operations which, +in other cases, are directed by the mind. It ordered his hand to seize +the spoon, his mouth to receive the victual, his inferior maxillary jaw +to get in motion, and itself accomplished the usual functions of +digestion, unordered. Thus did this last resolve make shipwreck, on a +hard bread-crust; for, in the seven-and-twentieth year of life, it has +a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> heroism connected with it, which in the seven-and-seventieth is +entirely gone.</p> + +<p>At bottom, it was not the object of the barbarous Antwerpers to squeeze +money from the pretended debtor, but only to pay him none, as his +demands were not admitted to be liquid. Whether it were, then, that the +public Prayer in Bremen had in truth a little virtue, or that the +supposed creditors were not desirous of supporting a superfluous boarder +for life, true it is, that after the lapse of three months Franz was +delivered from his imprisonment, under the condition of leaving the city +within four-and-twenty hours, and never again setting foot on the soil +and territory of Antwerp. At the same time, he received five crowns for +travelling expenses from the faithful hands of Justice, which had taken +charge of his horse and luggage, and conscientiously balanced the +produce of the same against judicial and curatory expenses.</p> + +<p>With heavy-laden heart, in the humblest mood, with his staff in his +hand, he left the rich city, into which he had ridden some time ago with +high-soaring hopes. Broken down, and undetermined what to do, or rather +altogether without thought, he plodded through the streets to the +nearest gate, not minding whither the road into which chance conducted +him might lead. He saluted no traveller, he asked for no inn, except +when fatigue or hunger forced him to lift up his eyes, and look around +for some church-spire, or sign of human habitation, when he needed human +aid. Many days he had wandered on, as if unconsciously; and a secret +instinct had still, by means of his uncrazed feet, led him right forward +on the way to home; when, all at once, he awoke as from an oppressive +dream, and perceived on what road he was travelling.</p> + +<p>He halted instantly, to consider whether he should proceed or turn back. +Shame and confusion took possession of his soul, when he thought of +skulking about in his native town as a beggar, branded with the mark of +contempt, and claiming the charitable help of his townsmen, whom of old +he had eclipsed by his wealth and magnificence. And how in this form +could he present himself before his fair Meta, without disgracing the +choice of her heart? He did not leave his fancy time to finish this +doleful picture; but wheeled about to take the other road, as hastily as +if he had been standing even then at the gate of Bremen, and the ragged +apprentices had been assembling to accompany him with jibes and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> mockery +through the streets. His purpose was formed: he would make for the +nearest seaport in the Netherlands; engage as sailor in a Spanish ship, +to work his passage to the new world; and not return to his country, +till in the Peruvian land of gold he should have regained the wealth, +which he had squandered so heedlessly, before he knew the worth of +money. In the shaping of this new plan, it is true, the fair Meta fell +so far into the background, that even to the sharpest prophetic eye she +could only hover as a faint shadow in the distance; yet the wandering +projector pleased himself with thinking that she was again interwoven +with the scheme of his life; and he took large steps, as if by this +rapidity he meant to reach her so much the sooner.</p> + +<p>Already he was on the Flemish soil once more; and found himself at +sunset not far from Rheinberg, in a little hamlet, Rummelsburg by name, +which has since, in the Thirty-Years War, been utterly destroyed. A +caravan of carriers from Lyke had already filled the inn, so that Mine +Host had no room left, and referred him to the next town; the rather +that he did not draw too flattering a presage from his present vagabond +physiognomy, and held him to be a thieves' purveyor, who had views upon +the Lyke carriers. He was forced, notwithstanding his excessive +weariness, to gird himself for march, and again to take his bundle on +his back.</p> + +<p>As in retiring, he was muttering between his teeth some bitter +complaints and curses of the Landlord's hardness of heart, the latter +seemed to take some pity on the forlorn wayfarer, and called after him, +from the door: "Stay, neighbour, let me speak to you: if you wish to +rest here, I can accommodate you after all. In that Castle there are +empty rooms enow, if they be not too lonely; it is not inhabited, and I +have got the keys." Franz accepted the proposal with joy, praised it as +a deed of mercy, and requested only shelter and a supper, were it in a +castle or a cottage. Mine Host, however, was privily a rogue, whom it +had galled to hear the stranger drop some half-audible contumelies +against him, and meant to be avenged on him, by a Hobgoblin that +inhabited the old fortress, and had many long years before expelled the +owners.</p> + +<p>The Castle lay hard by the hamlet, on a steep rock, right opposite the +inn, from which it was divided merely by the highway, and a little +gurgling brook. The situation being so agreeable, the edifice was still +kept in repair, and well provided with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> all sorts of house-gear; for it +served the owner as a hunting-lodge, where he frequently caroused all +day; and so soon as the stars began to twinkle in the sky, retired with +his whole retinue, to escape the mischief of the Ghost, who rioted about +in it the whole night over, but by day gave no disturbance. Unpleasant +as the owner felt this spoiling of his mansion by a bugbear, the +nocturnal sprite was not without advantages, for the great security it +gave from thieves. The Count could have appointed no trustier or more +watchful keeper over the Castle, than this same Spectre, for the rashest +troop of robbers never ventured to approach its station. Accordingly he +knew of no safer place for laying up his valuables, than this old tower, +in the hamlet of Rummelsburg, near Rheinberg.</p> + +<p>The sunshine had sunk, the dark night was coming heavily on, when Franz, +with a lantern in his hand, proceeded to the castle-gate, under the +guidance of Mine Host, who carried in his hand a basket of victuals, +with a flask of wine, which he said should not be marked against him. He +had also taken along with him a pair of candlesticks, and two +wax-lights; for in the whole Castle there was neither lamp nor taper, as +no one ever stayed in it after twilight. In the way, Franz noticed the +creaking heavy-laden basket, and the wax-lights, which he thought he +should not need, and yet must pay for. Therefore he said: "What is this +superfluity and waste, as at a banquet? The light in the lantern is +enough to see with, till I go to bed; and when I awake, the sun will be +high enough, for I am tired completely, and shall sleep with both eyes."</p> + +<p>"I will not hide from you," replied the Landlord, "that a story runs of +there being mischief in the Castle, and a Goblin that frequents it. You, +however, need not let the thing disturb you; we are near enough, you +see, for you to call us, should you meet with aught unnatural; I and my +folks will be at your hand in a twinkling, to assist you. Down in the +house there we keep astir all night through, some one is always moving. +I have lived here these thirty years; yet I cannot say that I have ever +seen aught. If there be now and then a little hurly-burlying at nights, +it is nothing but cats and martins rummaging about the granary. As a +precaution, I have provided you with candles: the night is no friend of +man; and the tapers are consecrated, so that sprites, if there be such +in the Castle, will avoid their shine."</p> + +<p>It was no lying in Mine Host to say that he had never seen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> anything of +spectres in the Castle; for by night he had taken special care not once +to set foot in it; and by day the Goblin did not come to sight. In the +present case, too, the traitor would not risk himself across the border. +After opening the door, he handed Franz the basket, directed him what +way to go, and wished him good-night. Franz entered the lobby without +anxiety or fear; believing the ghost-story to be empty tattle, or a +distorted tradition of some real occurrence in the place, which idle +fancy had shaped into an unnatural adventure. He remembered the stout +Ritter Eberhard Bronkhorst, from whose heavy arm he had apprehended such +maltreatment, and with whom, notwithstanding, he had found so hospitable +a reception. On this ground he had laid it down as a rule deduced from +his travelling experiences, when he heard any common rumour, to believe +exactly the reverse, and left the grain of truth, which, in the opinion +of the wise Knight, always lies in such reports, entirely out of sight.</p> + +<p>Pursuant to Mine Host's direction, he ascended the winding stone stair; +and reached a bolted door, which he opened with his key. A long dark +gallery, where his footsteps resounded, led him into a large hall, and +from this, a side-door, into a suite of apartments, richly provided with +all furniture for decoration or convenience. Out of these he chose the +room which had the friendliest aspect, where he found a well-pillowed +bed; and from the window could look right down upon the inn, and catch +every loud word that was spoken there. He lit his wax-tapers, furnished +his table, and feasted with the commodiousness and relish of an +Otaheitean noble. The big-bellied flask was an antidote to thirst. So +long as his teeth were in full occupation, he had no time to think of +the reported devilry in the Castle. If aught now and then made a stir in +the distance, and Fear called to him, "Hark! hark! there comes the +Goblin;" Courage answered: "Stuff! it is cats and martins bickering and +caterwauling." But in the digestive half-hour after meat, when the sixth +sense, that of hunger and thirst, no longer occupied the soul, she +directed her attention from the other five exclusively upon the sense of +hearing; and already Fear was whispering three timid thoughts into the +listener's ear, before Courage had time to answer once.</p> + +<p>As the first resource, he locked the door, and bolted it; made his +retreat to the walled seat in the vault of the window. He opened this, +and to dissipate his thoughts a little, looked out on the spangled sky, +gazed at the corroded moon, and counted how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> often the stars snuffed +themselves. On the road beneath him all was void; and in spite of the +pretended nightly bustle in the inn, the doors were shut, the lights +out, and everything as still as in a sepulchre. On the other hand, the +watchman blew his horn, making his "List, gentlemen!" sound over all the +hamlet; and for the composure of the timorous astronomer, who still kept +feasting his eyes on the splendour of the stars, uplifted a rusty +evening-hymn right under his window; so that Franz might easily have +carried on a conversation with him, which, for the sake of company, he +would willingly have done, had he in the least expected that the +watchman would make answer to him.</p> + +<p>In a populous city, in the middle of a numerous household, where there +is a hubbub equal to that of a bee-hive, it may form a pleasant +entertainment for the thinker to philosophise on Solitude, to decorate +her as the loveliest playmate of the human spirit, to view her under all +her advantageous aspects, and long for her enjoyment as for hidden +treasure. But in scenes where she is no exotic, in the isle of Juan +Fernandez, where a solitary eremite, escaped from shipwreck, lives with +her through long years; or in the dreary night-time, in a deep wood, or +in an old uninhabited castle, where empty walls and vaults awaken +horror, and nothing breathes of life, but the moping owl in the ruinous +turret; there, in good sooth, she is not the most agreeable companion +for the timid anchorite that has to pass his time in her abode, +especially if he is every moment looking for the entrance of a spectre +to augment the party. In such a case it may easily chance that a window +conversation with the watchman shall afford a richer entertainment for +the spirit and the heart, than a reading of the most attractive eulogy +on solitude. If Ritter Zimmermann had been in Franz's place, in the +castle of Rummelsburg, on the Westphalian marches, he would doubtless in +this position have struck out the fundamental topics of as interesting a +treatise on <i>Society</i>, as, inspired to all appearance by the irksomeness +of some ceremonious assembly, he has poured out from the fulness of his +heart in praise of <i>Solitude</i>.</p> + +<p>Midnight is the hour at which the world of spirits acquires activity and +life, when hebetated animal nature lies entombed in deep slumber. Franz +inclined getting through this critical hour in sleep rather than awake; +so he closed his window, went the rounds of his room once more, spying +every nook and crevice, to see whether all was safe and earthly; snuffed +the lights to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> them burn clearer; and without undressing or +delaying, threw himself upon his bed, with which his wearied person felt +unusual satisfaction. Yet he could not get asleep so fast as he wished. +A slight palpitation at the heart, which he ascribed to a tumult in the +blood, arising from the sultriness of the day, kept him waking for a +while; and he failed not to employ this respite in offering up such a +pithy evening prayer as he had not prayed for many years. This produced +the usual effect, that he softly fell asleep while saying it.</p> + +<p>After about an hour, as he supposed, he started up with a sudden terror; +a thing not at all surprising when there is tumult in the blood. He was +broad awake: he listened whether all was quiet, and heard nothing but +the clock strike twelve; a piece of news which the watchman forthwith +communicated to the hamlet in doleful recitative. Franz listened for a +while, turned on the other side, and was again about to sleep, when he +caught, as it were, the sound of a door grating in the distance, and +immediately it shut with a stifled bang. "Alake! alake!" bawled Fright +into his ear; "this is the Ghost in very deed!"—"'Tis nothing but the +wind," said Courage manfully. But quickly it came nearer, nearer, like +the sound of heavy footsteps. Clink here, clink there, as if a criminal +were rattling his irons, or as if the porter were walking about the +Castle with his bunch of keys. Alas, here was no wind business! Courage +held his peace; and quaking Fear drove all the blood to the heart, and +made it thump like a smith's fore-hammer.</p> + +<p>The thing was now beyond jesting. If Fear would still have let Courage +get a word, the latter would have put the terror-struck watcher in mind +of his subsidiary treaty with Mine Host, and incited him to claim the +stipulated assistance loudly from the window; but for this there was a +want of proper resolution. The quaking Franz had recourse to the +bed-clothes, the last fortress of the timorous, and drew them close over +his ears, as Bird Ostrich sticks his head in the grass, when he can no +longer escape the huntsman. Outside it came along, door up, door to, +with hideous uproar; and at last it reached the bed-room. It jerked +sharply at the lock, tried several keys till it found the right one; yet +the bar still held the door, till a bounce like a thunder-clap made bolt +and rivet start, and threw it wide open. Now stalked in a long lean man, +with a black beard, in ancient garb, and with a gloomy countenance, his +eyebrows hanging down in deep earnestness from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> brow. Over his right +shoulder he had a scarlet cloak; and on his head he wore a peaked hat. +With a heavy step he walked thrice in silence up and down the chamber; +looked at the consecrated tapers, and snuffed them that they might burn +brighter. Then he threw aside his cloak, girded on a scissor-pouch which +he had under it, produced a set of shaving-tackle, and immediately began +to whet a sharp razor on the broad strap which he wore at his girdle.</p> + +<p>Franz perspired in mortal agony under his coverlet; recommended himself +to the keeping of the Virgin; and anxiously speculated on the object of +this manœuvre, not knowing whether it was meant for his throat or his +beard. To his comfort, the Goblin poured some water from a silver flask +into a basin of silver, and with his skinny hand lathered the soap into +light foam; then set a chair, and beckoned with a solemn look to the +quaking looker-on to come forth from his recess.</p> + +<p>Against so pertinent a sign, remonstrance was as bootless as it is +against the rigorous commands of the Grand Turk, when he transmits an +exiled vizier to the Angel of Death, the Capichi Bashi with the Silken +Cord, to take delivery of his head. The most rational procedure that can +be adopted in this critical case, is to comply with necessity, put a +good face on a bad business, and with stoical composure let one's throat +be noosed. Franz honoured the Spectre's order; the coverlet began to +move, he sprang sharply from his couch, and took the place pointed out +to him on the seat. However strange this quick transition from the +uttermost terror to the boldest resolution may appear, I doubt not but +Moritz in his <i>Psychological Journal</i> could explain the matter till it +seemed quite natural.</p> + +<p>Immediately the Goblin Barber tied the towel about his shivering +customer; seized the comb and scissors, and clipped off his hair and +beard. Then he soaped him scientifically, first the beard, next the +eyebrows, at last the temples and the hind-head; and shaved him from +throat to nape as smooth and bald as a Death's-head. This operation +finished, he washed his head, dried it clean, made his bow, and +buttoned-up his scissor-pouch; wrapped himself in his scarlet mantle, +and made for departing. The consecrated tapers had burnt with an +exquisite brightness through the whole transaction; and Franz, by the +light of them, perceived in the mirror that the shaver had changed him +into a Chinese pagoda. In secret he heartily deplored the loss of his +fair brown locks; yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> now took fresh breath, as he observed that with +this sacrifice the account was settled, and the Ghost had no more power +over him.</p> + +<p>So it was in fact; Redcloak went towards the door, silently as he had +entered, without salutation or good-b'ye; and seemed entirely the +contrast of his talkative guild-brethren. But scarcely was he gone three +steps, when he paused, looked round with a mournful expression at his +well-served customer, and stroked the flat of his hand over his black +bushy beard. He did the same a second time; and again, just as he was in +the act of stepping out at the door. A thought struck Franz that the +Spectre wanted something; and a rapid combination of ideas suggested, +that perhaps he was expecting the very service he himself had just +performed.</p> + +<p>As the Ghost, notwithstanding his rueful look, seemed more disposed for +banter than for seriousness, and had played his guest a scurvy trick, +not done him any real injury, the panic of the latter had now almost +subsided. So he ventured the experiment, and beckoned to the Ghost to +take the seat from which he had himself just risen. The Goblin instantly +obeyed, threw off his cloak, laid his barber tackle on the table, and +placed himself in the chair, in the posture of a man that wishes to be +shaved. Franz carefully observed the same procedure which the Spectre +had observed to him, clipped his beard with the scissors, cropt away his +hair, lathered his whole scalp, and the Ghost all the while sat steady +as a wig-block. The awkward journeyman came ill at handling the razor: +he had never had another in his hand; and he shore the beard right +against the hair; whereat the Goblin made as strange grimaces as +Erasmus's Ape, when imitating its master's shaving. Nor was the +unpractised bungler himself well at ease, and he thought more than once +of the sage aphorism, <i>What is not thy trade make not thy business</i>; yet +he struggled through the task, the best way he could, and scraped the +Ghost as bald as he himself was.</p> + +<p>Hitherto the scene between the Spectre and the traveller had been played +pantomimically; the action now became dramatic. "Stranger," said the +Ghost, "accept my thanks for the service thou hast done me. By thee I am +delivered from the long imprisonment, which has chained me for three +hundred years within these walls; to which my departed soul was doomed, +till a mortal hand should consent to retaliate on me what I practised on +others in my lifetime.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Know that of old a reckless scorner dwelt within this tower, who took +his sport on priests as well as laics. Count Hardman, such his name, was +no philanthropist, acknowledged no superior and no law, but practised +vain caprice and waggery, regarding not the sacredness of hospitable +rights: the wanderer who came beneath his roof, the needy man who asked +a charitable alms of him, he never sent away unvisited by wicked joke. I +was his Castle Barber, still a willing instrument, and did whatever +pleased him. Many a pious pilgrim, journeying past us, I allured with +friendly speeches to the hall; prepared the bath for him, and when he +thought to take good comfort, shaved him smooth and bald, and packed him +out of doors. Then would Count Hardman, looking from the window, see +with pleasure how the foxes' whelps of children gathered from the hamlet +to assail the outcast, and to cry as once their fellows to Elisha: +'Baldhead! Baldhead!' In this the scoffer took his pleasure, laughing +with a devilish joy, till he would hold his pot-paunch, and his eyes ran +down with water.</p> + +<p>"Once came a saintly man, from foreign lands; he carried, like a +penitent, a heavy cross upon his shoulder, and had stamped five +nail-marks on his hands, and feet, and side; upon his head there was a +ring of hair like to the Crown of Thorns. He called upon us here, +requesting water for his feet, and a small crust of bread. Immediately I +took him to the bath, to serve him in my common way; respected not the +sacred ring, but shore it clean from off him. Then the pious pilgrim +spoke a heavy malison upon me: 'Know, accursed man, that when thou +diest, Heaven, and Hell, and Purgatory's iron gate, are shut against thy +soul. As goblin it shall rage within these walls, till unrequired, +unbid, a traveller come and exercise retaliation on thee.'</p> + +<p>"That hour I sickened, and the marrow in my bones dried up; I faded like +a shadow. My spirit left the wasted carcass, and was exiled to this +Castle, as the saint had doomed it. In vain I struggled for deliverance +from the torturing bonds that fettered me to Earth; for thou must know, +that when the soul forsakes her clay, she panteth for her place of rest, +and this sick longing spins her years to æons, while in foreign element +she languishes for home. Now self-tormenting, I pursued the mournful +occupation I had followed in my lifetime. Alas! my uproar soon made +desolate this house! But seldom came a pilgrim here to lodge. And though +I treated all like thee, no one would understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> me, and perform, as +thou, the service which has freed my soul from bondage. Henceforth shall +no hobgoblin wander in this Castle; I return to my long-wished-for rest. +And now, young stranger, once again my thanks, that thou hast loosed me! +Were I keeper of deep-hidden treasures, they were thine; but wealth in +life was not my lot, nor in this Castle lies there any cash entombed. +Yet mark my counsel. Tarry here till beard and locks again shall cover +chin and scalp; then turn thee homewards to thy native town; and on the +Weser-bridge of Bremen, at the time when day and night in Autumn are +alike, wait for a Friend, who there will meet thee, who will tell thee +what to do, that it be well with thee on Earth. If from the golden horn +of plenty, blessing and abundance flow to thee, then think of me; and +ever as the day thou freedst me from the curse comes round, cause for my +soul's repose three masses to be said. Now fare thee well. I go, no more +returning."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> I know not whether the reader has observed that our Author +makes the Spectre speak in <i>iambics</i>; a whim which here and there comes +over him in other tales also.—<span class="smcap">Wieland</span>.</p></div> + +<p>With these words the Ghost, having by his copiousness of talk +satisfactorily attested his former existence as court-barber in the +Castle of Rummelsburg, vanished into air, and left his deliverer full of +wonder at the strange adventure. He stood for a long while motionless; +in doubt whether the whole matter had actually happened, or an unquiet +dream had deluded his senses; but his bald head convinced him that here +had been a real occurrence. He returned to bed, and slept, after the +fright he had undergone, till the hour of noon. The treacherous Landlord +had been watching since morning, when the traveller with the scalp was +to come forth, that he might receive him with jibing speeches under +pretext of astonishment at his nocturnal adventure. But as the stranger +loitered too long, and mid-day was approaching, the affair became +serious; and Mine Host began to dread that the Goblin might have treated +his guest a little harshly, have beaten him to a jelly perhaps, or so +frightened him that he had died of terror; and to carry his wanton +revenge to such a length as this had not been his intention. He +therefore rang his people together, hastened out with man and maid to +the tower, and reached the door of the apartment where he had observed +the light on the previous evening. He found an unknown key in the lock; +but the door was barred within; for after the disappearance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> of the +Goblin, Franz had again secured it. He knocked with a perturbed +violence, till the Seven Sleepers themselves would have awoke at the +din. Franz started up, and thought in his first confusion that the Ghost +was again standing at the door, to favour him with another call. But +hearing Mine Host's voice, who required nothing more but that his guest +would give some sign of life, he gathered himself up and opened the +room.</p> + +<p>With seeming horror at the sight of him, Mine Host, striking his hands +together, exclaimed: "By Heaven and all the saints! Redcloak" (by this +name the Ghost was known among them) "<i>has</i> been here, and has shaved +you bald as a block! Now, it is clear as day that the old story is no +fable. But tell me how looked the Goblin: what did he say to you? what +did he do?"</p> + +<p>Franz, who had now seen through the questioner, made answer: "The Goblin +looked like a man in a red cloak; what he did is not hidden from you, +and what he said I well remember: 'Stranger,' said he, 'trust no +innkeeper who is a Turk in grain. What would befall thee here he knew. +Be wise and happy. I withdraw from this my ancient dwelling, for my time +is run. Henceforth no goblin riots here; I now become a silent Incubus, +to plague the Landlord; nip him, tweak him, harass him, unless the Turk +do expiate his sin; do freely give thee prog and lodging till brown +locks again shall cluster round thy head.'"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Here too, on the Spectre's score, Franz makes extempore +<i>iambics</i>.—<span class="smcap">Wieland</span>.</p></div> + +<p>The Landlord shuddered at these words, cut a large cross in the air +before him, vowed by the Holy Virgin to give the traveller free board so +long as he liked to continue, led him over to his house, and treated him +with the best. By this adventure, Franz had well-nigh got the reputation +of a conjuror, as the spirit thenceforth never once showed face. He +often passed the night in the tower; and a desperado of the village once +kept him company, without having beard or scalp disturbed. The owner of +the place, having learned that Redcloak no longer walked in Rummelsburg, +was, of course, delighted at the news, and ordered that the stranger, +who, as he supposed, had laid him, should be well taken care of.</p> + +<p>By the time when the clusters were beginning to be coloured on the vine, +and the advancing autumn reddened the apples, Franz's brown locks were +again curling over his temples, and he girded up his knapsack; for all +his thoughts and meditations were turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> upon the Weser-bridge, to seek +the Friend, who, at the behest of the Goblin Barber, was to direct him +how to make his fortune. When about taking leave of Mine Host, that +charitable person led from his stable a horse well saddled and equipt, +which the owner of the Castle had presented to the stranger, for having +made his house again habitable; nor had the Count forgot to send a +sufficient purse along with it, to bear its travelling charges; and so +Franz came riding back into his native city, brisk and light of heart, +as he had ridden out of it twelve months ago. He sought out his old +quarters in the alley, but kept himself quite still and retired; only +inquiring underhand how matters stood with the fair Meta, whether she +was still alive and unwedded. To this inquiry he received a satisfactory +answer, and contented himself with it in the mean while; for, till his +fate were decided, he would not risk appearing in her sight, or making +known to her his arrival in Bremen.</p> + +<p>With unspeakable longing, he waited the equinox; his impatience made +every intervening day a year. At last the long-wished-for term appeared. +The night before, he could not close an eye, for thinking of the wonders +that were coming. The blood was whirling and beating in his arteries, as +it had done at the Castle of Rummelsburg, when he lay in expectation of +his spectre visitant. To be sure of not missing his expected Friend, he +rose by daybreak, and proceeded with the earliest dawn to the +Weser-bridge, which as yet stood empty and untrod by passengers. He +walked along it several times in solitude, with that presentiment of +coming gladness, which includes in it the real enjoyment of all +terrestrial felicity; for it is not the attainment of our wishes, but +the undoubted hope of attaining them, which offers to the human soul the +full measure of highest and most heartfelt satisfaction. He formed many +projects as to how he should present himself to his beloved Meta, when +his looked-for happiness should have arrived; whether it would be better +to appear before her in full splendour, or to mount from his former +darkness with the first gleam of morning radiance, and discover to her +by degrees the change in his condition. Curiosity, moreover, put a +thousand questions to Reason in regard to the adventure. Who can the +Friend be that is to meet me on the Weser-bridge? Will it be one of my +old acquaintances, by whom, since my ruin, I have been entirely +forgotten? How will he pave the way to me for happiness? And will this +way be short or long, easy or toilsome?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> To the whole of which Reason, +in spite of all her thinking and speculating, answered not a word.</p> + +<p>In about an hour, the Bridge began to get awake; there was riding, +driving, walking to and fro on it; and much commercial ware passing this +way and that. The usual day-guard of beggars and importunate persons +also by degrees took up this post, so favourable for their trade, to +levy contributions on the public benevolence; for of poor-houses and +work-houses, the wisdom of the legislature had as yet formed no scheme. +The first of the tattered cohort that applied for alms to the jovial +promenader, from whose eyes gay hope laughed forth, was a discharged +soldier, provided with the military badge of a timber leg, which had +been lent him, seeing he had fought so stoutly in former days for his +native country, as the recompense of his valour, with the privilege of +begging where he pleased; and who now, in the capacity of physiognomist, +pursued the study of man upon the Weser-bridge, with such success, that +he very seldom failed in his attempts for charity. Nor did his +exploratory glance in anywise mislead him in the present instance; for +Franz, in the joy of his heart, threw a white engel-groschen into the +cripple's hat.</p> + +<p>During the morning hours, when none but the laborious artisan is busy, +and the more exalted townsman still lies in sluggish rest, he scarcely +looked for his promised Friend; he expected him in the higher classes, +and took little notice of the present passengers. About the +council-hour, however, when the Proceres of Bremen were driving past to +the hall, in their gorgeous robes of office, and about exchange-time, he +was all eye and ear; he spied the passengers from afar; and when a right +man came along the bridge, his blood began to flutter, and he thought +here was the creator of his fortune. Meanwhile hour after hour passed +on; the sun rose high; ere long the noontide brought a pause in +business; the rushing crowd faded away; and still the expected Friend +appeared not. Franz now walked up and down the Bridge quite alone; had +no society in view but the beggars, who were serving out their cold +collations, without moving from the place. He made no scruple to do the +same; and, not being furnished with provisions, he purchased some fruit, +and took his dinner <i>inter ambulandum</i>.</p> + +<p>The whole club that was dining on the Bridge had remarked the young man, +watching here from early morning till noon, without addressing any one, +or doing any sort of business. They held<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> him to be a lounger; and +though all of them had tasted his bounty, he did not escape their +critical remarks. In jest, they had named him the Bridge-bailiff. The +physiognomist with the timber-toe, however, noticed that his countenance +was not now so gay as in the morning; he appeared to be reflecting +earnestly on something; he had drawn his hat close over his face; his +movement was slow and thoughtful; he had nibbled at an apple-rind for +some time, without seeming to be conscious that he was doing so. From +this appearance of affairs, the man-spier thought he might extract some +profit; therefore he put his wooden and his living leg in motion, and +stilted off to the other end of the Bridge, and lay in wait for the +thinker, that he might assail him, under the appearance of a new +arrival, for a fresh alms. This invention prospered to the full: the +musing philosopher gave no heed to the mendicant, put his hand into his +pocket mechanically, and threw a six-groat piece into the fellow's hat, +to be rid of him.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon, a thousand new faces once more came abroad. The +watcher was now tired of his unknown Friend's delaying, yet hope still +kept his attention on the stretch. He stept into the view of every +passenger, hoped that one of them would clasp him in his arms; but all +proceeded coldly on their way; the most did not observe him at all, and +few returned his salute with a slight nod. The sun was already verging +to decline, the shadows were becoming longer, the crowd upon the Bridge +diminished; and the beggar-piquet by degrees drew back into their +barracks in the Mattenburg. A deep sadness sank upon the hopeless Franz, +when he saw his expectation mocked, and the lordly prospect which had +lain before him in the morning vanish from his eyes at evening. He fell +into a sort of sulky desperation; was on the point of springing over the +parapet, and dashing himself down from the Bridge into the river. But +the thought of Meta kept him back, and induced him to postpone his +purpose till he had seen her yet once more. He resolved to watch next +day when she should go to church, for the last time to drink delight +from her looks, and then forthwith to still his warm love forever in the +cold stream of the Weser.</p> + +<p>While about to leave the Bridge, he was met by the invalided pikeman +with the wooden leg, who, for pastime, had been making many speculations +as to what could be the young man's object, that had made him watch upon +the Bridge from dawn to darkness. He himself had lingered beyond his +usual time, that he might wait<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> him out; but as the matter hung too long +upon the pegs, curiosity incited him to turn to the youth himself, and +question him respecting it.</p> + +<p>"No offence, young gentleman," said he: "allow me to ask you a +question."</p> + +<p>Franz, who was not in a very talking humour, and was now meeting, from +the mouth of a cripple, the address which he had looked for with such +longing from a friend, answered rather testily: "Well, then, what is it? +Speak, old graybeard!"</p> + +<p>"We two," said the other, "were the first upon the Bridge today, and +now, you see, we are the last. As to me and others of my kidney, it is +our vocation brings us hither, our trade of alms-gathering; but for you, +in sooth you are not of our guild; yet you have watched here the whole +blessed day. Now I pray you, tell me, if it is not a secret, what it is +that brings you hither; or what stone is lying on your heart, that you +wished to roll away."</p> + +<p>"What good were it to thee, old blade," said Franz bitterly, "to know +where the shoe pinches me, or what concern is lying on my heart? It will +give thee small care."</p> + +<p>"Sir, I have a kind wish towards you, because you opened your hand to +me, and twice gave me alms, for which God reward you; but your +countenance at night was not so cheerful as in the morning, and that +grieves my heart."</p> + +<p>The kindly sympathy of this old warrior pleased the misanthrope, so that +he willingly pursued the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Why, then," answered he, "if thou wouldst know what has made me battle +here all day with tedium, thou must understand that I was waiting for a +Friend, who appointed me hither, and now leaves me to expect in vain."</p> + +<p>"Under favour," answered Timbertoe, "if I might speak my mind, this +Friend of yours, be who he like, is little better than a rogue, to lead +you such a dance. If he treated <i>me</i> so, by my faith, his crown should +get acquainted with my crutch next time we met. If he could not keep his +word, he should have let you know, and not bamboozled you as if you were +a child."</p> + +<p>"Yet I cannot altogether blame this Friend," said Franz, "for being +absent; he did not promise; it was but a dream that told me I should +meet him here."</p> + +<p>The goblin-tale was too long for him to tell, so he veiled it under +cover of a dream.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that is another story," said the beggar; "if you build<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> on dreams, +it is little wonder that your hope deceives you. I myself have dreamed +much foolish stuff in my time; but I was never such a madman as to heed +it. Had I all the treasures that have been allotted to me in dreams, I +might buy the city of Bremen, were it sold by auction. But I never +credited a jot of them, or stirred hand or foot to prove their worth or +worthlessness: I knew well it would be lost. Ha! I must really laugh in +your face, to think that on the order of an empty dream, you have +squandered a fair day of your life, which you might have spent better at +a merry banquet."</p> + +<p>"The issue shows that thou art right, old man, and that dreams many +times deceive. But," continued Franz, defensively, "I dreamed so vividly +and circumstantially, above three months ago, that on this very day, in +this very place, I should meet a Friend, who would tell me things of the +deepest importance, that it was well worth while to go and see if it +would come to pass."</p> + +<p>"O, as for vividness," said Timbertoe, "no man can dream more vividly +than I. There is one dream I had, which I shall never in my life forget. +I dreamed, who knows how many years ago, that my Guardian Angel stood +before my bed in the figure of a youth, with golden hair, and two silver +wings on his back, and said to me: 'Berthold, listen to the words of my +mouth, that none of them be lost from thy heart. There is a treasure +appointed thee, which thou shalt dig, to comfort thy heart withal for +the remaining days of thy life. Tomorrow, about evening, when the sun is +going down, take spade and shovel on thy shoulder; go forth from the +Mattenburg on the right, across the Tieber, by the Balkenbrücke, past +the Cloister of St. John's, and on to the Great Roland.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Then take thy +way over the Court of the Cathedral, through the Schüsselkorb, till thou +arrive without the city at a garden, which has this mark, that a stair +of three stone steps leads down from the highway to its gate. Wait by a +side, in secret, till the sickle of the moon shall shine on thee, then +push with the strength of a man against the weak-barred gate, which will +resist thee little. Enter boldly into the garden, and turn thee to the +vine-trellises which overhang the covered-walk;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> behind this, on the +left, a tall apple-tree overtops the lowly shrubs. Go to the trunk of +this tree, thy face turned right against the moon: look three ells +before thee on the ground, thou shalt see two cinnamon-rose bushes; +there strike in, and dig three spans deep, till thou find a stone plate; +under this lies the treasure, buried in an iron chest, full of money and +money's worth. Though the chest be heavy and clumsy, avoid not the +labour of lifting it from its bed; it will reward thy trouble well, if +thou seek the key which lies hid beneath it.'"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The rude figure of a man in armour, usually erected in the +public square or market-place of old German towns, is called the +<i>Rolandsäule</i>, or <i>Rutlandsäule</i>, from its supposed reference to Roland +the famous peer of Charlemagne. The proper and ancient name, it seems, +is <i>Rügelandsäule</i>, or Pillar of Judgment; and the stone indicated, of +old, that the town possessed an independent jurisdiction.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<p>In astonishment at what he heard, Franz stared and gazed upon the +dreamer, and could not have concealed his amazement, had not the dusk of +night been on his side. By every mark in the description, he had +recognised his own garden, left him by his father. It had been the good +man's hobby in his life; but on this account had little pleased his son; +according to the rule that son and father seldom sympathise in their +favourite pursuit, unless indeed it be a vice, in which case, as the +adage runs, the apple often falls at no great distance from the trunk. +Father Melchior had himself laid out this garden, altogether to his own +taste, in a style as wonderful and varied as that of his +great-great-grandson, who has immortalised his paradise by an original +description in <i>Hirschfeld's Garden-Calendar</i>. He had not, it is true, +set up in it any painted menagerie for the deception of the eye; but he +kept a very large one, notwithstanding, of springing-horses, +winged-lions, eagles, griffins, unicorns and other wondrous beasts, all +stamped on pure gold, which he carefully concealed from <i>every</i> eye, and +had hid in their iron case beneath the ground. This paternal Tempe the +wasteful son, in the days of his extravagance, had sold for an old song.</p> + +<p>To Franz the pikeman had at once become extremely interesting, as he +perceived that this was the very Friend, to whom the Goblin in the +Castle of Rummelsburg had consigned him. Gladly could he have embraced +the veteran, and in the first rapture called him friend and father: but +he restrained himself, and found it more advisable to keep his thoughts +about this piece of news to himself. So he said: "Well, this is what I +call a circumstantial dream. But what didst thou do, old master, in the +morning, on awakening? Didst thou not follow whither thy Guardian Angel +beckoned thee?"</p> + +<p>"Pooh," said the dreamer, "why should I toil, and have my labour for my +pains? It was nothing, after all, but a mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> dream. If my Guardian +Angel had a fancy for appearing to me, I have had enow of sleepless +nights in my time, when he might have found me waking. But he takes +little charge of me, I think, else I should not, to his shame, be going +hitching here on a wooden leg."</p> + +<p>Franz took out the last piece of silver he had on him: "There," said he, +"old Father, take this other gift from me, to get thee a pint of wine +for evening-cup: thy talk has scared away my ill humour. Neglect not +diligently to frequent this Bridge; we shall see each other here, I +hope, again."</p> + +<p>The lame old man had not gathered so rich a stock of alms for many a +day, as he was now possessed of; he blessed his benefactor for his +kindness, hopped away into a drinking-shop, to do himself a good turn; +while Franz, enlivened with new hope, hastened off to his lodging in the +alley.</p> + +<p>Next day he got in readiness everything that is required for +treasure-digging. The unessential equipments, conjurations, magic +formulas, magic girdles, hieroglyphic characters, and suchlike, were +entirely wanting: but these are not indispensable, provided there be no +failure in the three main requisites: shovel, spade, and, before all, a +treasure underground. The necessary implements he carried to the place a +little before sunset, and hid them for the mean while in a hedge; and as +to the treasure itself, he had the firm conviction that the Goblin in +the Castle, and the Friend on the Bridge, would prove no liars to him. +With longing impatience he expected the rising of the moon; and no +sooner did she stretch her silver horns over the bushes, than he briskly +set to work; observing exactly everything the Invalid had taught him; +and happily accomplished the raising of the treasure, without meeting +any adventure in the process; without any black dog having frightened +him, or any bluish flame having lighted him to the spot.</p> + +<p>Father Melchior, in providently burying this penny for a rainy day, had +nowise meant that his son should be deprived of so considerable a part +of his inheritance. The mistake lay in this, that Death had escorted the +testator out of the world in another way than said testator had +expected. He had been completely convinced, that he should take his +journey, old and full of days, after regulating his temporal concerns +with all the formalities of an ordinary sick-bed; for so it had been +prophesied to him in his youth. In consequence he purposed, when, +according to the usage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> of the Church, extreme unction should have been +dispensed to him, to call his beloved son to his bed-side, having +previously dismissed all bystanders; there to give him the paternal +blessing, and by way of farewell memorial direct him to this treasure +buried in the garden. All this, too, would have happened in just order, +if the light of the good old man had departed, like that of a wick whose +oil is done; but as Death had privily snuffed him out at a feast, he +undesignedly took along with him his Mammon secret to the grave; and +almost as many fortunate concurrences were required before the secreted +patrimony could arrive at the proper heir, as if it had been forwarded +to its address by the hand of Justice itself.</p> + +<p>With immeasurable joy the treasure-digger took possession of the +shapeless Spanish pieces, which, with a vast multitude of other finer +coins, the iron chest had faithfully preserved. When the first +intoxication of delight had in some degree evaporated, he bethought him +how the treasure was to be transported, safe and unobserved, into the +narrow alley. The burden was too heavy to be carried without help; thus, +with the possession of riches, all the cares attendant on them were +awakened. The new Crœsus found no better plan, than to intrust his +capital to the hollow trunk of a tree that stood behind the garden, in a +meadow: the empty chest he again buried under the rose-bush, and +smoothed the place as well as possible. In the space of three days, the +treasure had been faithfully transmitted by instalments from the hollow +tree into the narrow alley; and now the owner of it thought he might +with honour lay aside his strict incognito. He dressed himself with the +finest; had his Prayer displaced from the church; and required, instead +of it, "a Christian Thanksgiving for a Traveller, on returning to his +native town, after happily arranging his affairs." He hid himself in a +corner of the church, where he could observe the fair Meta, without +himself being seen; he turned not his eye from the maiden, and drank +from her looks the actual rapture, which in foretaste had restrained him +from the break-neck somerset on the Bridge of the Weser. When the +Thanksgiving came in hand, a glad sympathy shone forth from all her +features, and the cheeks of the virgin glowed with joy. The customary +greeting on the way homewards was so full of emphasis, that even to the +third party who had noticed them, it would have been intelligible.</p> + +<p>Franz now appeared once more on the Exchange; began a branch of trade +which in a few weeks extended to the great scale;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and as his wealth +became daily more apparent, Neighbour Grudge, the scandal-chewer, was +obliged to conclude, that in the cashing of his old debts, he must have +had more luck than sense. He hired a large house, fronting the Roland, +in the Market-place; engaged clerks and warehousemen, and carried on his +trade unweariedly. Now the sorrowful populace of parasites again +diligently handled the knocker of his door; appeared in crowds, and +suffocated him with assurances of friendship, and joy-wishings on his +fresh prosperity; imagined they should once more catch him in their +robber claws. But experience had taught him wisdom; he paid them in +their own coin, feasted their false friendship on smooth words, and +dismissed them with fasting stomachs; which sovereign means for scaring +off the cumbersome brood of pickthanks and toadeaters produced the +intended effect, that they betook them elsewhither.</p> + +<p>In Bremen, the remounting Melcherson had become the story of the day; +the fortune which in some inexplicable manner he had realised, as was +supposed, in foreign parts, was the subject-matter of all conversations +at formal dinners, in the Courts of Justice and at the Exchange. But in +proportion as the fame of his fortune and affluence increased, the +contentedness and peace of mind of the fair Meta diminished. The friend +<i>in petto</i> was now, in her opinion, well qualified to speak a plain +word. Yet still his Love continued Dumb; and except the greeting on the +way from church, he gave no tidings of himself. Even this sort of visit +was becoming rarer, and such aspects were the sign not of warm, but of +cold weather in the atmosphere of Love. Jealousy,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> the baleful Harpy, +fluttered round her little room by night, and when sleep was closing her +blue eyes, croaked many a dolorous presage into the ear of the +re-awakened Meta. "Forego the flattering hope of binding an inconstant +heart, which, like a feather, is the sport of every wind. He loved thee, +and was faithful to thee, while his lot was as thy own: like only draws +to like. Now a propitious destiny exalts the Changeful far above thee. +Ah! now he scorns the truest thoughts in mean apparel, now that pomp, +and wealth, and splendour dazzle him once more; and courts who knows +what haughty fair one that disdained him when he lay among the pots, and +now with siren call allures him back to her. Perhaps her cozening voice +has turned him from thee, speaking with false<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> words: 'For thee, God's +garden blossoms in thy native town: friend, thou hast now thy choice of +all our maidens; choose with prudence, not by the eye alone. Of girls +are many, and of fathers many, who in secret lie in wait for thee; none +will withhold his darling daughter. Take happiness and honour with the +fairest; likewise birth and fortune. The councillor dignity awaits thee, +where vote of friends is potent in the city.'"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Jealousy too (at bottom a very sad spectre, but not here +introduced as one) now <i>croaks</i> in iambics, as the Goblin Barber lately +spoke in them.—<span class="smcap">Wieland</span>.</p></div> + +<p>These suggestions of Jealousy disturbed and tormented her heart without +ceasing: she reviewed her fair contemporaries in Bremen, estimated the +ratio of so many splendid matches to herself and her circumstances; and +the result was far from favourable. The first tidings of her lover's +change of situation had in secret charmed her; not in the selfish view +of becoming participatress in a large fortune; but for her mother's +sake, who had abdicated all hopes of earthly happiness, ever since the +marriage project with neighbour Hop-King had made shipwreck. But now +poor Meta wished that Heaven had not heard the Prayer of the Church, or +granted to the traveller any such abundance of success; but rather kept +him by the bread and salt, which he would willingly have shared with +her.</p> + +<p>The fair half of the species are by no means calculated to conceal an +inward care: Mother Brigitta soon observed the trouble of her daughter; +and without the use of any great penetration, likewise guessed its +cause. The talk about the re-ascending star of her former +flax-negotiator, who was now celebrated as the pattern of an orderly, +judicious, active tradesman, had not escaped her, any more than the +feeling of the good Meta towards him; and it was her opinion, that if he +loved in earnest, it was needless to hang off so long, without +explaining what he meant. Yet out of tenderness to her daughter, she let +no hint of this discovery escape her; till at length poor Meta's heart +became so full, that of her own accord she made her mother the +confidante of her sorrow, and disclosed to her its true origin. The +shrewd old lady learned little more by this disclosure than she knew +already. But it afforded opportunity to mother and daughter for a full, +fair and free discussion of this delicate affair. Brigitta made her no +reproaches on the subject; she believed that what was done could not be +undone; and directed all her eloquence to strengthen and encourage the +dejected Meta to bear the failure of her hopes with a steadfast mind.</p> + +<p>With this view, she spelt out to her the extremely reasonable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> moral, +<i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>ab</i>; discoursing thus: "My child, thou hast already said <i>a</i>, +thou must now say <i>b</i> too; thou hast scorned thy fortune when it sought +thee, now thou must submit when it will meet thee no longer. Experience +has taught me, that the most confident Hope is the first to deceive us. +Therefore, follow my example; abandon the fair cozener utterly, and thy +peace of mind will no longer be disturbed by her. Count not on any +improvement of thy fate; and thou wilt grow contented with thy present +situation. Honour the spinning-wheel, which supports thee: what are +fortune and riches to thee, when thou canst do without them?"</p> + +<p>Close on this stout oration followed a loud humming symphony of +snap-reel and spinning-wheel, to make up for the time lost in speaking. +Mother Brigitta was in truth philosophising from the heart. After her +scheme for the restoration of her former affluence had gone to ruin, she +had so simplified the plan of her life, that Fate could not perplex it +any more. But Meta was still far from this philosophical centre of +indifference; and hence this doctrine, consolation and encouragement +affected her quite otherwise than had been intended: the conscientious +daughter now looked upon herself as the destroyer of her mother's fair +hopes, and suffered from her own mind a thousand reproaches for this +fault. Though she had never adopted the maternal scheme of marriage, and +had reckoned only upon bread and salt in her future wedlock; yet, on +hearing of her lover's riches and spreading commerce, her diet-project +had directly mounted to six plates; and it delighted her to think, that +by her choice she should still realise her good mother's wish, and see +her once more planted in her previous abundance.</p> + +<p>This fair dream now vanished by degrees, as Franz continued silent. To +make matters worse, there spread a rumour over all the city, that he was +furnishing his house in the most splendid fashion for his marriage with +a rich Antwerp lady, who was already on her way to Bremen. This +Job's-news drove the lovely maiden from her last defence: she passed on +the apostate sentence of banishment from her heart; and vowed from that +hour never more to think of him; and as she did so, wetted the twining +thread with her tears.</p> + +<p>In a heavy hour she was breaking this vow, and thinking, against her +will, of the faithless lover: for she had just spun off a rock of flax; +and there was an old rhyme which had been taught her by her mother for +encouragement to diligence:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">'Spin, daughterkin, spin;</div> +<div class="i1">Thy sweetheart's within!'</div> +</div></div> + +<p>which she always recollected when her rock was done; and along with it +the memory of the Deceitful necessarily occurred to her. In this heavy +hour, a finger rapped with a most dainty patter at the door. Mother +Brigitta looked forth: the sweetheart was without. And who could it be? +Who else but neighbour Franz, from the alley? He had decked himself with +a gallant wooing-suit; and his well-dressed, thick brown locks shook +forth perfume. This stately decoration boded, at all events, something +else than flax-dealing. Mother Brigitta started in alarm; she tried to +speak, but words failed her. Meta rose in trepidation from her seat, +blushed like a purple rose, and was silent. Franz, however, had the +power of utterance; to the soft <i>adagio</i> which he had in former days +trilled forth to her, he now appended a suitable text, and explained his +dumb love in clear words. Thereupon he made solemn application for her +to the mother; justifying his proposal by the statement, that the +preparations in his house had been meant for the reception of a bride, +and that this bride was the charming Meta.</p> + +<p>The pointed old lady, having brought her feelings once more into +equilibrium, was for protracting the affair to the customary term of +eight days for deliberation; though joyful tears were running down her +cheeks, presaging no impediment on her side, but rather answer of +approval. Franz, however, was so pressing in his suit, that she fell +upon a middle path between the wooer's ardour and maternal use and wont, +and empowered the gentle Meta to decide in the affair according to her +own good judgment. In the virgin heart there had occurred, since Franz's +entrance, an important revolution. His presence here was the most +speaking proof of his innocence; and as, in the course of conversation, +it distinctly came to light, that his apparent coldness had been nothing +else than zeal and diligence in putting his commercial affairs in order, +and preparing what was necessary for the coming nuptials, it followed +that the secret reconciliation would proceed forthwith without any stone +of stumbling in its way. She acted with the outlaw, as Mother Brigitta +with her disposted spinning gear, or the First-born Son of the Church +with an exiled Parliament; recalled him with honour to her high-beating +heart, and reinstated him in all his former rights and privileges there. +The decisive three-lettered little word, that ratifies the happiness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +love, came gliding with such unspeakable grace from her soft lips, that +the answered lover could not help receiving it with a warm melting kiss.</p> + +<p>The tender pair had now time and opportunity for deciphering all the +hieroglyphics of their mysterious love; which afforded the most pleasant +conversation that ever two lovers carried on. They found, what our +commentators ought to pray for, that they had always understood and +interpreted the text aright, without once missing the true sense of +their reciprocal proceedings. It cost the delighted bridegroom almost as +great an effort to part from his charming bride, as on the day when he +set out on his crusade to Antwerp. However, he had an important walk to +take; so at last it became time to withdraw.</p> + +<p>This walk was directed to the Weser-bridge, to find Timbertoe, whom he +had not forgotten, though he had long delayed to keep his word to him. +Sharply as the physiognomist, ever since his interview with the +open-handed Bridge-bailiff, had been on the outlook, he could never +catch a glimpse of him among the passengers, although a second visit had +been faithfully promised. Yet the figure of his benefactor had not +vanished from his memory. The moment he perceived the fair-apparelled +youth from a distance, he stilted towards him, and gave him kindly +welcome. Franz answered his salutation, and said: "Friend, canst thou +take a walk with me into the Neustadt, to transact a small affair? Thy +trouble shall not be unpaid."</p> + +<p>"Ah! why not?" replied the old blade; "though I have a wooden leg, I can +step you with it as stoutly as the lame dwarf that crept round the +city-common;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> for the wooden leg, you must know, has this good +property, it never tires. But excuse me a little while till Graycloak is +come: he never misses to pass along the Bridge between day and night."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> There is an old tradition, that a neighbouring Countess +promised in jest to give the Bremers as much land as a cripple, who was +just asking her for alms, would creep round in a day. They took her at +her word; and the cripple crawled so well, that the town obtained this +large common by means of him.</p></div> + +<p>"What of Graycloak?" inquired Franz: "let me know about him."</p> + +<p>"Graycloak brings me daily about nightfall a silver groschen, I know not +from whom. It is of no use prying into things, so I never mind. +Sometimes it occurs to me Graycloak must be the devil, and means to buy +my soul with the money. But devil or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> no devil, what care I? I did not +strike him on the bargain, so it cannot hold."</p> + +<p>"I should not wonder," answered Franz, with a smile, "if Graycloak were +a piece of a knave. But do thou follow me: the silver groschen shall not +fail thee."</p> + +<p>Timbertoe set forth, hitched on briskly after his guide, who conducted +him up one street and down another, to a distant quarter of the city, +near the wall; then halted before a neat little new-built house, and +knocked at the door. When it was opened: "Friend," said he, "thou madest +one evening of my life cheerful; it is just that I should make the +evening of thy life cheerful also. This house, with its appurtenances, +and the garden where it stands, are thine; kitchen and cellar are full; +an attendant is appointed to wait upon thee; and the silver groschen, +over and above, thou wilt find every noon lying under thy plate. Nor +will I hide from thee that Graycloak was my servant, whom I sent to give +thee daily an honourable alms, till I had got this house made ready for +thee. If thou like, thou mayest reckon me thy proper Guardian Angel, +since the other has not acted to thy satisfaction."</p> + +<p>He then led the old man into his dwelling, where the table was standing +covered, and everything arranged for his convenience and comfortable +living. The grayhead was so astonished at his fortune, that he could not +understand or even believe it. That a rich man should take such pity on +a poor one, was incomprehensible: he felt disposed to take the whole +affair for magic or jugglery, till Franz removed his doubts. A stream of +thankful tears flowed down the old man's cheeks; and his benefactor, +satisfied with this, did not wait till he should recover from his +amazement and thank him in words, but, after doing this angel-message, +vanished from the old man's eyes, as angels are wont; and left him to +piece together the affair as he best could.</p> + +<p>Next morning, in the habitation of the lovely Meta, all was as a fair. +Franz dispatched to her a crowd of merchants, jewellers, milliners, +lace-dealers, tailors, sutors and sempstresses, in part to offer her all +sorts of wares, in part their own good services. She passed the whole +day in choosing stuffs, laces and other requisites for the condition of +a bride, or being measured for her various new apparel. The dimensions +of her dainty foot, her beautifully-formed arm, and her slim waist, were +as often and as carefully meted, as if some skilful statuary had been +taking from her the model for a Goddess of Love. Meanwhile the +bridegroom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> went to appoint the bans; and before three weeks were past, +he led his bride to the altar, with a solemnity by which even the +gorgeous wedding-pomp of the Hop-King was eclipsed. Mother Brigitta had +the happiness of twisting the bridal-garland for her virtuous Meta; she +completely attained her wish of spending her woman's-summer in +propitious affluence; and deserved this satisfaction, as a recompense +for one praiseworthy quality which she possessed: She was the most +tolerable mother-in-law that has ever been discovered.</p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h3><a name="LIBUSSA" id="LIBUSSA"></a>LIBUSSA.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></h3> + + +<p>Deep in the Bohemian forest, which has now dwindled to a few scattered +woodlands, there abode, in the primeval times, while it stretched its +umbrage far and wide, a spiritual race of beings, airy and avoiding +light, incorporeal also, more delicately fashioned than the clay-formed +sons of men; to the coarser sense of feeling imperceptible, but to the +finer, half-visible by moonlight; and well known to poets by the name of +Dryads, and to ancient bards by that of Elves. From immemorial ages, +they had dwelt here undisturbed; till all at once the forest sounded +with the din of warriors, for Duke Czech of Hungary, with his Sclavonic +hordes, had broken over the mountains, to seek in these wild tracts a +new habitation. The fair tenants of the aged oaks, of the rocks, clefts +and grottos, and of the flags in the tarns and morasses, fled before the +clang of arms and the neighing of chargers: the stout Erl-King himself +was annoyed by the uproar, and transferred his court to more sequestered +wildernesses. One solitary Elf could not resolve to leave her darling +oak; and as the wood began here and there to be felled for the purposes +of cultivation, she alone undertook to defend her tree against the +violence of the strangers, and chose the towering summit of it for her +residence.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> From <i>Jo. Dubravii Historia Bohemica</i>, and <i>Æneæ Sylvii +Cardinalis de Bohemarum Origine ac Gestis Historia</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Among the retinue of the Duke was a young Squire, Krokus by name, full +of spirit and impetuosity; stout and handsome, and of noble mien, to +whom the keeping of his master's stud had been entrusted, which at times +he drove far into the forest for their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> pasture. Frequently he rested +beneath the oak which the Elf inhabited: she observed him with +satisfaction; and at night, when he was sleeping at the root, she would +whisper pleasant dreams into his ear, and announce to him in expressive +images the events of the coming day. When any horse had strayed into the +desert, and the keeper had lost its <ins title="May be track.">tract</ins>, and gone to sleep with +anxious thoughts, he failed not to see in vision the marks of the hidden +path, which led him to the spot where his lost steed was grazing.</p> + +<p>The farther the new colonists extended, the nearer came they to the +dwelling of the Elf; and as by her gift of divination, she perceived how +soon her life-tree would be threatened by the axe, she determined to +unfold this sorrow to her guest. One moonshiny summer evening, Krokus +had folded his herd somewhat later than usual, and was hastening to his +bed under the lofty oak. His path led him round a little fishy lake, on +whose silver face the moon was imaging herself like a gleaming ball of +gold; and across this glittering portion of the water, on the farther +side, he perceived a female form, apparently engaged in walking by the +cool shore. This sight surprised the young warrior: What brings the +maiden hither, thought he, by herself, in this wilderness, at the season +of the nightly dusk? Yet the adventure was of such a sort, that, to a +young man, the more strict investigation of it seemed alluring rather +than alarming. He redoubled his steps, keeping firmly in view the form +which had arrested his attention; and soon reached the place where he +had first noticed it, beneath the oak. But now it looked to him as if +the thing he saw were a shadow rather than a body; he stood wondering +and motionless, a cold shudder crept over him; and he heard a sweet soft +voice address to him these words: "Come hither, beloved stranger, and +fear not; I am no phantasm, no deceitful shadow: I am the Elf of this +grove, the tenant of the oak, under whose leafy boughs thou hast often +rested. I rocked thee in sweet delighting dreams, and prefigured to thee +thy adventures; and when a brood-mare or a foal had chanced to wander +from the herd, I told thee of the place where thou wouldst find it. +Repay this favour by a service which I now require of thee; be the +Protector of this tree, which has so often screened thee from the shower +and the scorching heat; and guard the murderous axes of thy brethren, +which lay waste the forest, that they harm not this venerable trunk."</p> + +<p>The young warrior, restored to self-possession by this soft still voice, +made answer: "Goddess or mortal, whoever thou mayest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> be, require of me +what thou pleasest; if I can, I will perform it. But I am a man of no +account among my people, the servant of the Duke my lord. If he tell me +today or tomorrow, Feed here, feed there, how shall I protect thy tree +in this distant forest? Yet if thou commandest me, I will renounce the +service of princes, and dwell under the shadow of thy oak, and guard it +while I live."</p> + +<p>"Do so," said the Elf: "thou shalt not repent it."</p> + +<p>Hereupon she vanished; and there was a rustling in the branches above, +as if some breath of an evening breeze had been entangled in them, and +had stirred the leaves. Krokus, for a while, stood enraptured at the +heavenly form which had appeared to him. So soft a female, of such +slender shape and royal bearing, he had never seen among the short squat +damsels of his own Sclavonic race. At last he stretched himself upon the +moss, but no sleep descended on his eyes; the dawn overtook him in a +whirl of sweet emotions, which were as strange and new to him as the +first beam of light to the opened eye of one born blind. With the +earliest morning he hastened to the Court of the Duke, required his +discharge, packed up his war-accoutrements, and, with rapid steps, his +burden on his shoulders, and his head full of glowing enthusiasm, hied +him back to his enchanted forest-hermitage.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in his absence, a craftsman among the people, a miller by +trade, had selected for himself the round straight trunk of the oak to +be an axle, and was proceeding with his mill-men to fell it. The +affrighted Elf sobbed bitterly, as the greedy saw began with iron tooth +to devour the foundations of her dwelling. She looked wildly round, from +the highest summit, for her faithful guardian, but her glance could find +him nowhere; and the gift of prophecy, peculiar to her race, was in the +present case so ineffectual, that she could as little read the fate that +stood before her, as the sons of Æsculapius, with their vaunted +prognosis, can discover ways and means for themselves when Death is +knocking at their own door.</p> + +<p>Krokus, however, was approaching, and so near the scene of this +catastrophe, that the screeching of the busy saw did not escape his ear. +Such a sound in the forest boded no good: he quickened his steps, and +beheld before his eyes the horror of the devastation that was visiting +the tree which he had taken under his protection. Like a fury he rushed +upon the wood-cutters, with pike and sword, and scared them from their +work; for they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> concluded he must be a forest-demon, and fled in great +precipitation. By good fortune, the wound of the tree was still curable; +and the scar of it disappeared in a few summers.</p> + +<p>In the solemn hour of evening, when the stranger had fixed upon the spot +for his future habitation; had meted out the space for hedging round as +a garden, and was weighing in his mind the whole scheme of his future +hermitage; where, in retirement from the society of men, he purposed to +pass his days in the service of a shadowy companion, possessed +apparently of little more reality than a Saint of the Calendar, whom a +pious friar chooses for his spiritual paramour,—the Elf appeared before +him at the brink of the lake, and with gentle looks thus spoke:</p> + +<p>"Thanks to thee, beloved stranger, that thou hast turned away the +wasteful arms of thy brethren from ruining this tree, with which my life +is united. For thou shalt know that Mother Nature, who has granted to my +race such varied powers and influences, has combined the fortune of our +life with the growth and duration of the oak. By us the sovereign of the +forest raises his venerable head above the populace of other trees and +shrubs; we further the circulation of the sap through his trunk and +boughs, that he may gain strength to battle with the tempest, and for +long centuries to defy destructive Time. On the other hand, our life is +bound to his: when the oak, which the lot of Destiny has appointed for +the partner of our existence, fades by years, we fade along with him; +and when he dies, we die, and sleep, like mortals, as it were a sort of +death-sleep, till, by the everlasting cycle of things, Chance, or some +hidden provision of Nature, again weds our being to a new germ; which, +unfolded by our enlivening virtue, after the lapse of long years, +springs up to be a mighty tree, and affords us the enjoyment of +existence anew. From this thou mayest perceive what a service thou hast +done me by thy help, and what gratitude I owe thee. Ask of me the +recompense of thy noble deed; disclose to me the wish of thy heart, and +this hour it shall be granted thee."</p> + +<p>Krokus continued silent. The sight of the enchanting Elf had made more +impression on him than her speech, of which, indeed, he understood but +little. She noticed his embarrassment; and, to extricate him from it, +plucked a withered reed from the margin of the lake, broke it into three +pieces, and said: "Choose one of these three stalks, or take one without +a choice. In the first, lie Honour and Renown; in the second, Riches +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> the wise enjoyment of them; in the third is happiness in Love laid +up for thee."</p> + +<p>The young man cast his eyes upon the ground, and answered: "Daughter of +Heaven, if thou wouldst deign to grant the desire of my heart, know that +it lies not in these three stalks which thou offerest me; the recompense +I aim at is higher. What is Honour but the fuel of Pride? what are +Riches but the root of Avarice? and what is Love but the trap-door of +Passion, to ensnare the noble freedom of the heart? Grant me my wish, to +rest under the shadow of thy oak-tree from the toils of warfare, and to +hear from thy sweet mouth the lessons of wisdom, that I may understand +by them the secrets of the future."</p> + +<p>"Thy request," replied the Elf, "is great; but thy deserving toward me +is not less so: be it then as thou hast asked. Nor, with the fruit, +shall the shell be wanting to thee; for the wise man is also honoured; +he alone is rich, for he desires nothing more than he needs, and he +tastes the pure nectar of Love without poisoning it by polluted lips."</p> + +<p>So saying, she again presented him the three reed-stalks, and vanished +from his sight.</p> + +<p>The young Eremite prepared his bed of moss, beneath the oak, exceedingly +content with the reception which the Elf had given him. Sleep came upon +him like a strong man; gay morning dreams danced round his head, and +solaced his fancy with the breath of happy forebodings. On awakening, he +joyfully began his day's work; ere long he had built himself a pleasant +hermit's-cottage; had dug his garden, and planted in it roses and +lilies, with other odoriferous flowers and herbs; not forgetting pulse +and cole, and a sufficiency of fruit-trees. The Elf never failed to +visit him at twilight; she rejoiced in the prospering of his labours; +walked with him, hand in hand, by the sedgy border of the lake; and the +wavering reeds, as the wind passed through them, whispered a melodious +evening salutation to the trustful pair. She instructed her attentive +disciple in the secrets of Nature; showed him the origin and causes of +things; taught him their common and their magic properties and effects; +and formed the rude soldier into a thinker and philosopher.</p> + +<p>In proportion as the feelings and senses of the young man grew refined +by this fair spiritual intercourse, it seemed as if the tender form of +the Elf were condensing, and acquiring more consistency; her bosom +caught warmth and life; her brown eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> sparkled with the fire of love; +and with the shape, she appeared to have adopted the feelings of a young +blooming maiden. The sentimental hour of dusk, which is as if expressly +calculated to awaken slumbering feelings, had its usual effect; and +after a few moons from their first acquaintance, the sighing Krokus +found himself possessed of the happiness in Love, which the Third +Reed-stalk had appointed him; and did not repent that by the trap-door +of Passion the freedom of his heart had been ensnared. Though the +marriage of the tender pair took place without witnesses, it was +celebrated with as much enjoyment as the most tumultuous espousal; nor +were speaking proofs of love's recompense long wanting. The Elf gave her +husband three daughters at a birth; and the father, rejoicing in the +bounty of his better half, named, at the first embrace, the eldest +infant, Bela; the next born, Therba; and the youngest, Libussa. They +were all like the Genies in beauty of form; and though not moulded of +such light materials as the mother, their corporeal structure was finer +than the dull earthy clay of the father. They were also free from all +the infirmities of childhood; their swathings did not gall them; they +teethed without epileptic fits, needed no calomel taken inwardly, got no +rickets; had no small-pox, and, of course, no scars, no scum-eyes, or +puckered faces: nor did they require any leading-strings; for after the +first nine days, they ran like little partridges; and as they grew up, +they manifested all the talents of the mother for discovering hidden +things, and predicting what was future.</p> + +<p>Krokus himself, by the aid of time, grew skilful in these mysteries +also. When the wolf had scattered the flocks through the forest, and the +herdsmen were seeking for their sheep and horses; when the woodman +missed an axe or bill, they took counsel from the wise Krokus, who +showed them where to find what they had lost. When a wicked prowler had +abstracted aught from the common stock; had by night broken into the +pinfold, or the dwelling of his neighbour, and robbed or slain him, and +none could guess the malefactor, the wise Krokus was consulted. He led +the people to a green; made them form a ring; then stept into the midst +of them, set the faithful sieve a-running, and so failed not to discover +the misdoer. By such acts his fame spread over all the country of +Bohemia; and whoever had a weighty care, or an important undertaking, +took counsel from the wise Krokus about its issue. The lame and the +sick, too, required from him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> help and recovery; even the unsound cattle +of the fold were driven to him; and his gift of curing sick kine by his +shadow, was not less than that of the renowned St. Martin of Schierbach. +By these means the concourse of the people to him grew more frequent, +day by day, no otherwise than if the Tripod of the Delphic Apollo had +been transferred to the Bohemian forest: and though Krokus answered all +inquiries, and cured the sick and afflicted, without fee or reward, yet +the treasure of his secret wisdom paid him richly, and brought him in +abundant profit; the people crowded to him with gifts and presents, and +almost oppressed him with testimonies of their good-will. It was he that +first disclosed the mystery of washing gold from the sands of the Elbe; +and for his recompense he had a tenth of all the produce. By these means +his wealth and store increased; he built strongholds and palaces; had +vast herds of cattle; possessed fertile pasturages, fields and woods; +and thus found himself imperceptibly possessed of all the Riches which +the beneficently foreboding Elf had enclosed for him in the Second Reed.</p> + +<p>One fine summer evening, when Krokus with his train was returning from +an excursion, having by special request been settling the disputed +marches of two townships, he perceived his spouse on the margin of the +sedgy lake, where she had first appeared to him. She waved him with her +hand; so he dismissed his servants, and hastened to clasp her in his +arms. She received him, as usual, with tender love; but her heart was +sad and oppressed; from her eyes trickled down ethereal tears, so fine +and fugitive, that as they fell they were greedily inhaled by the air, +and not allowed to reach the ground. Krokus was alarmed at this +appearance; he had never seen his wife's fair eyes otherwise than +cheerful, and sparkling with youthful gaiety. "What ails thee, beloved +of my heart?" said he; "black forebodings overcast my soul. Speak, say +what mean those tears."</p> + +<p>The Elf sobbed, leaned her head sorrowfully on his shoulder, and said: +"Beloved husband, in thy absence I have looked into the Book of Destiny; +a doleful chance overhangs my life-tree; I must part from thee forever. +Follow me into the Castle, till I bless my children; for from this day +you will never see me more."</p> + +<p>"Dearest wife," said Krokus, "chase away these mournful thoughts. What +misfortune is it that can harm thy tree? Behold its sound boughs, how +they stretch forth loaded with fruit and leaves, and how it raises its +top to the clouds. While this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> arm can move, it shall defend thy tree +from any miscreant that presumes to wound its stem."</p> + +<p>"Impotent defence," replied she, "which a mortal arm can yield! Ants can +but secure themselves from ants, flies from flies, and the worms of +Earth from other earthly worms. But what can the mightiest among you do +against the workings of Nature, or the unalterable decisions of Fate? +The kings of the Earth can heap up little hillocks, which they name +fortresses and castles; but the weakest breath of air defies their +authority, blows where it lists, and mocks at their command. This +oak-tree thou hast guarded from the violence of men; canst thou likewise +forbid the tempest that it rise not to disleaf its branches; or if a +hidden worm is gnawing in its marrow, canst thou draw it out, and tread +it under foot?"</p> + +<p>Amid such conversation they arrived at the Castle. The slender maidens, +as they were wont at the evening visit of their mother, came bounding +forth to meet them; gave account of their day's employments, produced +their needlework, and their embroideries, to prove their diligence: but +now the hour of household happiness was joyless. They soon observed that +the traces of deep suffering were imprinted on the countenance of their +father; and they looked with sympathising sorrow at their mother's +tears, without venturing to inquire their cause. The mother gave them +many wise instructions and wholesome admonitions; but her speech was +like the singing of a swan, as if she wished to give the world her +farewell. She lingered with her husband, till the morning-star went up +in the sky; then she embraced him and her children with mournful +tenderness; and at dawn of day retired, as was her custom, through the +secret door, to her oak-tree, and left her friends to their own sad +forebodings.</p> + +<p>Nature stood in listening stillness at the rising sun; but heavy black +clouds soon veiled his beaming head. The day grew sultry and oppressive; +the whole atmosphere was electric. Distant thunder came rolling over the +forest; and the hundred-voiced Echo repeated, in the winding valleys, +its baleful sound. At the noontide, a forked thunderbolt struck +quivering down upon the oak; and in a moment shivered with resistless +force the trunk and boughs, and the wreck lay scattered far around it in +the forest. When Father Krokus was informed of this, he rent his +garments, went forth with his daughters to deplore the life-tree of his +spouse, and to collect the fragments of it, and preserve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> them as +invaluable relics. But the Elf from that day was not seen any more.</p> + +<p>In some few years, the tender girls had waxed in stature; their maiden +forms blossomed forth, as the rose pushing up from the bud; and the fame +of their beauty spread abroad over all the land. The noblest youths of +the people crowded round, with cases to submit to Father Krokus for his +counsel; but at bottom, these their specious pretexts were directed to +the fair maidens, whom they wished to get a glimpse of; as is the mode +with young men, who delight to have some business with the master of the +household, when his daughters are beautiful. The three sisters lived in +great simplicity and unity together; as yet but little conscious of +their talents. The gift of prophecy had been communicated to them in an +equal degree; and all their words were oracles, although they knew it +not. Yet soon their vanity awoke at the voice of flattery; word-catchers +eagerly laid hold of every sound proceeding from their lips; Celadons +noted down every look, spied out the faintest smile, explored the aspect +of their eyes, and drew from it more or less favourable prognostics, +conceiving that their own destiny was to be read by means of it; and +from this time, it has become the mode with lovers to deduce from the +horoscope of the eyes the rising or declining of their star in +courtship. Scarcely had Vanity obtained a footing in the virgin heart, +till Pride, her dear confidante, with her wicked rabble of a train, +Self-love, Self-praise, Self-will, Self-interest, were standing at the +door; and all of them in time sneaked in. The elder sisters struggled to +outdo the younger in their arts; and envied her in secret her +superiority in personal attractions. For though they all were very +beautiful, the youngest was the most so. Fräulein Bela turned her chief +attention to the science of plants; as Fräulein Medea did in earlier +times. She knew their hidden virtues, could extract from them poisons +and antidotes; and farther, understood the art of making from them sweet +or nauseous odours for the unseen Powers. When her censer steamed, she +allured to her Spirits out of the immeasurable depth of æther, from +beyond the Moon, and they became her subjects, that with their fine +organs they might be allowed to snuff these delicious vapours: and when +she scattered villanous perfumes upon the coals, she could have smoked +away with it the very Zihim and the Ohim from the Wilderness.</p> + +<p>Fräulein Therba was inventive as Circe in devising magic formulas,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +which could command the elements, could raise tempests and whirlwinds, +also hail and thunder; could shake the bowels of the Earth, or lift +itself from the sockets of its axle. She employed these arts to terrify +the people, and be feared and honoured by them as a goddess; and she +could, in fact, arrange the weather more according to the wish and taste +of men than wise old Nature does. Two brothers quarrelled on this +subject, for their wishes never were the same. The one was a husbandman, +and still desired rain for the growth and strengthening of his crops. +The other was a potter, and desired constant sunshine to dry his dishes, +which the rain destroyed. And as Heaven never could content them in +disposing of this matter, they repaired one day with rich presents to +the Castle of the wise Krokus; and submitted their petitions to Therba. +The daughter of the Elf gave a smile over their unquiet grumbling at the +wise economy of Nature; and contented the demands of each: she made rain +fall on the seed-lands of the cultivator; and the sun shone on the +potter-field close by. By these enchantments both the sisters gained +much fame and riches, for they never used their gifts without a fee. +With their treasures they built castles and country-houses; laid out +royal pleasure-gardens; to their festivals and divertisements there was +no end. The gallants, who solicited their love, they gulled and laughed +at.</p> + +<p>Fräulein Libussa was no sharer in the vain proud disposition of her +sisters. Though she had the same capacities for penetrating the secrets +of Nature, and employing its hidden powers in her service, she remained +contented with the gifts she had derived from her maternal inheritance, +without attempting to increase them, or turn them to a source of gain. +Her vanity extended not beyond the consciousness that she was beautiful; +she cared not for riches; and neither longed to be feared nor to be +honoured like her sisters. Whilst these were gadding up and down among +their country-houses, hastening from one tumultuous pleasure to another, +with the flower of the Bohemian chivalry fettered to their +chariot-wheels, she abode in her father's house, conducting the economy, +giving counsel to those who begged it, friendly help to the afflicted +and oppressed; and all from good-will, without remuneration.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Her +temper was soft and modest, and her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> conduct virtuous and discreet, as +beseems a noble virgin. She might secretly rejoice in the victories +which her beauty gained over the hearts of men, and accept the sighing +and cooing of her languishing adorers as a just tribute to her charms; +but none dared speak a word of love to her, or venture on aspiring to +her heart. Yet Amor, the roguish urchin, takes a pleasure in exerting +his privileges on the coy; and often hurls his burning torch upon the +lowly straw-roof, when he means to set on fire a lofty palace.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Nulla Crocco virilis sexûs proles fuit, sed moriturus +tres a morte suâ filias superstites reliquit, omnes ut ipse erat +fatidicas, vel magas potius, qualis Medea et Circe fuerant. Nam Bela +natu filiarum maxima herbis incantandis Medeam imitabatur, Tetcha +(Therba) natu minor carminibus magicis Circem reddebat. Ad utramque +frequens multitudinis concursus; dum alii amores sibi conciliare, alii +cum bonâ valetudine in gratiam redire, alii res amissas recuperare +cupiunt. Illa arcem Belinam, hæc altera arcem Thetin ex mercenariâ +pecuniâ, nihil enim gratuito faciebant, ædificandam curavit. Liberalior +in hac re Lybussa natu minima apparuit, ut quæ a nemine quidquam +extorquebat, et potius fata publica omnibus, quam privata singulis, +præcinebat: quâ liberalitate, et quia non gratuitâ solùm sed etiam minus +fallace prædictione utebatur, assecuta est ut in locum patris Crocci +subrogaretur</i>.—<span class="smcap">Dubravius.</span></p></div> + +<p>Far in the bosom of the forest lived an ancient Knight, who had come +into the land with the host of Czech. In this seclusion he had fixed his +settlement; reduced the desert under cultivation, and formed for himself +a small estate, where he thought to pass the remainder of his days in +peace, and live upon the produce of his husbandry. A strong-handed +neighbour took forcible possession of the land, and expelled the owner, +whom a hospitable peasant sheltered in his dwelling. The distressed old +Knight had a son, who now formed the sole consolation and support of his +age; a bold active youth, but possessed of nothing save a hunting-spear +and a practised arm, for the sustenance of his gray-haired father. The +injustice of their neighbour stimulated him to revenge, and he had been +prepared for resisting force by force; but the command of the anxious +father, unwilling to expose his son to danger, had disarmed him. Yet ere +long he resumed his former purpose. Then the father called him to his +presence, and said:</p> + +<p>"Pass over, my son, to the wise Krokus, or to the cunning virgins his +daughters, and ask counsel whether the gods approve thy undertaking, and +will grant it a prosperous issue. If so, gird on thy sword, and take the +spear in thy hand, and go forth to fight for thy inheritance. If not, +stay here till thou hast closed my eyes and laid me in the earth; then +do what shall seem good to thee."</p> + +<p>The youth set forth, and first reached Bela's palace, a building<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> like a +temple for the habitation of a goddess. He knocked at the door, and +desired to be admitted; but the porter observing that he came +empty-handed, dismissed him as a beggar, and shut the door in his face. +He went forward in sadness, and reached the house of sister Therba, +where he knocked and requested an audience. The porter looked upon him +through his window, and said: "If thou bringest gold in thy bag, which +thou canst weigh out to my mistress, she will teach thee one of her good +saws to read thy fortune withal. If not, then go and gather of it in the +sands of the Elbe as many grains as the tree hath leaves, the sheaf +ears, and the bird feathers, then will I open thee this gate." The +mocked young man glided off entirely dejected; and the more so, as he +learned that Seer Krokus was in Poland, arbitrating the disputes of some +contending Grandees. He anticipated from the third sister no more +flattering reception; and as he descried her father's castle from a hill +in the distance, he could not venture to approach it, but hid himself in +a thicket to pursue his bitter thoughts. Ere long he was roused by an +approaching noise; he listened, and heard a sound of horses' hoofs. A +flying roe dashed through the bushes, followed by a lovely huntress and +her maids on stately steeds. She hurled a javelin from her hand; it flew +whizzing through the air, but did not hit the game. Instantly the +watchful young man seized his bow, and launched from the twanging cord a +bolt, which smote the deer through the heart, and stretched it lifeless +on the spot. The lady, in astonishment at this phenomenon, looked round +to find her unknown hunting partner: and the archer, on observing this, +stept forward from his bush, and bent himself humbly before her to the +ground. Fräulein Libussa thought she had never seen a finer man. At the +first glance, his figure made so deep an impression on her, that she +could not but award him that involuntary feeling of goodwill, which a +beautiful appearance claims as its prerogative. "Tell me, fair +stranger," said she to him, "who art thou, and what chance is it that +leads thee to these groves?" The youth guessed rightly that his lucky +star had brought him what he was in search of; he disclosed his case to +her in modest words; not hiding how disgracefully her sisters had +dismissed him, or how the treatment had afflicted him. She cheered his +heart with friendly words. "Follow me to my abode," said she; "I will +consult the Book of Fate for thee, and answer thy demand tomorrow by the +rising of the sun."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>The young man did as he was ordered. No churlish porter here barred for +him the entrance of the palace; the fair lady exercised the rights of +hospitality with generous attention. He was charmed by this benignant +reception, but still more by the beauty of his gentle hostess. Her +enchanting figure hovered all night before his eyes; he carefully +defended himself from sleep, that he might not for a moment lose from +his thoughts the delightful events of the day. Fräulein Libussa, on the +contrary, enjoyed soft slumber: for seclusion from the influences of the +external senses, which disturb the finer presentiments of the future, is +an indispensable condition for the gift of prophecy. The glowing fancy +of the maiden blended the form of this young stranger with all the +dreaming images which hovered through her mind that night. She found him +where she had not looked for him, in connexion with affairs in which she +could not understand how this unknown youth had come to be involved.</p> + +<p>On her early awakening, at the hour when the fair prophetess was wont to +separate and interpret the visions of the night, she felt inclined to +cast away these phantasms from her mind, as errors which had sprung from +a disturbance in the operation of her prophetic faculty, and were +entitled to no heed from her. Yet a dim feeling signified that this +creation of her fancy was not idle dreaming; but had a significant +allusion to certain events which the future would unravel; and that last +night this presaging Fantasy had spied out the decrees of Fate, and +blabbed them to her, more successfully than ever. By help of it, she +found that her guest was inflamed with warm love to her; and with equal +honesty her heart confessed the same thing in regard to him. But she +instantly impressed the seal of silence on the news; as the modest youth +had, on his side, set a guard upon his lips and his eyes, that he might +not expose himself to a contemptuous refusal; for the chasm which +Fortune had interposed between him and the daughter of the wise Krokus +seemed impassable.</p> + +<p>Although the fair Libussa well knew what she had to say in answer to the +young man's question, yet it went against her heart to let him go from +her so soon. At sunrise she called him to her in her garden, and said: +"The curtain of darkness yet hangs before my eyes; abide with me till +sunset;" and at night she said: "Stay till sunrise;" and next morning: +"Wait another day;" and the third day: "Have patience till tomorrow." On +the fourth day she at last dismissed him; finding no more pretexts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> for +detaining him, with safety to her secret. At parting, she gave him his +response in friendly words: "The gods will not that thou shouldst +contend with a man of violence in the land; to bear and suffer is the +lot of the weaker. Return to thy father; be the comfort of his old age; +and support him by the labour of thy diligent hand. Take two white +Steers as a present from my herd; and this Staff to drive them; and when +it blossoms and bears fruit, the spirit of prophecy will descend on +thee."</p> + +<p>The young man felt himself unworthy of the gentle virgin's gift; and +blushed that he should receive it and make no return. With ineloquent +lips, but with looks so much the more eloquent, he took mournful leave +of her; and at the gate below found two white Steers awaiting him, as +sleek and glittering as of old the godlike Bull, on whose smooth back +the virgin Europa swam across the blue sea waves. Joyfully he loosed +them from the post, and drove them softly on before him. The distance +home seemed but a few ells, so much was his spirit busied with the fair +Libussa: and he vowed, that as he never could obtain her love, he would +love no other all his days. The old Knight rejoiced in the return of his +son; and still more in learning that the oracle of the fair heiress +agreed so completely with his own wishes. As husbandry had been +appointed by the gods for the young man's trade, he lingered not in +harnessing his white Steers, and yoking them to the plough. The first +trial prospered to his wish: the bullocks had such strength and alacrity +that they turned over in a single day more land than twelve yoke of oxen +commonly can master: for they were fiery and impetuous, as the Bull is +painted in the Almanac, where he rushes from the clouds in the sign of +April; not sluggish and heavy like the Ox, who plods on with his holy +consorts, in our Gospel-Book, phlegmatically, as a Dutch skipper in a +calm.</p> + +<p>Duke Czech, who had led the first colony of his people into Bohemia, was +now long ago committed to his final rest, yet his descendants had not +been promoted to succeed him in his princely dignity. The Magnates had +in truth, at his decease, assembled for a new election; but their wild +stormy tempers would admit of no reasonable resolution. Self-interest +and self-sufficiency transformed the first Bohemian Convention of +Estates into a Polish Diet: as too many hands laid hold of the princely +mantle, they tore it in pieces, and no one of them obtained it. The +government had dwindled to a sort of Anarchy; every one did what was +right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> in his own eyes; the strong oppressed the weak, the rich the +poor, the great the little. There was now no public security in the +land; yet the frank spirits of the time thought their new republic very +well arranged: "All is in order," said they, "every thing goes on its +way with us as well as elsewhere; the wolf eats the lamb, the kite the +dove, the fox the cock." This artless constitution could not last: when +the first debauch of fancied freedom had gone off, and the people were +again grown sober, reason asserted its rights; the patriots, the honest +citizens, whoever in the nation loved his country, joined together to +destroy the idol Hydra, and unite the people once more under a single +head. "Let us choose a Prince," said they, "to rule over us, after the +manner of our fathers, to tame the froward, and exercise right and +justice in the midst of us. Not the strongest, the boldest, or the +richest; the wisest be our Duke!" The people, wearied out with the +oppressions of their petty tyrants, had on this occasion but one voice, +and loudly applauded the proposal. A meeting of Estates was convoked; +and the choice unanimously fell upon the wise Krokus. An embassy of +honour was appointed, inviting him to take possession of the princely +dignity. Though he had never longed for lofty titles, he hesitated not +about complying with the people's wish. Invested with the purple, he +proceeded, with great pomp, to Vizegrad, the residence of the Dukes; +where the people met him with triumphant shouting, and did reverence to +him as their Regent. Whereby he perceived, that now the third Reed-stalk +of the bountiful Elf was likewise sending forth its gift upon him.</p> + +<p>His love of justice, and his wise legislation, soon spread his fame over +all the surrounding countries. The Sarmatic Princes, incessantly at feud +with one another, brought their contention from afar before his +judgment-seat. He weighed it with the undeceitful weights of natural +Justice, in the scales of Law; and when he opened his mouth, it was as +if the venerable Solon, or the wise Solomon from between the Twelve +Lions of his throne, had been pronouncing sentence. Some seditious +instigators having leagued against the peace of their country, and +kindled war among the Poles, he advanced at the head of his army into +Poland; put an end to the civil strife; and a large portion of the +people, grateful for the peace which he had given them, chose him for +their Duke also. He there built the city Cracow, which is called by his +name, and has the privilege of crowning the Polish Kings, even to the +present time. Krokus ruled with great glory to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> end of his days. +Observing that he was now near their limit, and must soon set out, he +caused a coffin to be made from the fragments of the oak which his +spouse the Elf had inhabited; and then departed in peace, bewept by the +Princesses his three daughters, who deposited the Ducal remains in the +coffin, and consigned him to the Earth as he had commanded; and the +whole land mourned for him.</p> + +<p>When the obsequies were finished, the Estates assembled to deliberate +who should now possess the vacant throne. The people were unanimous for +one of Krokus's daughters; but which of the three they had not yet +determined. Fräulein Bela had, on the whole, the fewest adherents; for +her heart was not good; and her magic-lantern was too frequently +employed in doing sheer mischief. But she had raised such a terror of +herself among the people, that no one liked to take exception at her, +lest he might draw down her vengeance on him. When the vote was called, +therefore, the Electors all continued dumb; there was no voice for her, +but also none against her. At sunset the representatives of the people +separated, adjourning their election to another day. Then Fräulein +Therba was proposed: but confidence in her incantations had made +Fräulein Therba's head giddy; she was proud and overbearing; required to +be honoured as a goddess; and if incense did not always smoke for her, +she grew peevish, cross, capricious; displaying all the properties by +which the fair sex, when they please, can cease to be fair. She was less +feared than her elder sister, but not on that account more loved. For +these reasons, the election-field continued silent as a lykewake; and +the vote was never called for. On the third day came Libussa's turn. No +sooner was this name pronounced, than a confidential hum was heard +throughout the electing circle; the solemn visages unwrinkled and +brightened up, and each of the Electors had some good to whisper of the +Fräulein to his neighbour. One praised her virtue, another praised her +modesty, a third her prudence, a fourth her infallibility in prophecy, a +fifth her disinterestedness in giving counsel, a tenth her chastity, +other ninety her beauty, and the last her gifts as a housewife. When a +lover draws out such a catalogue of the perfections of his mistress, it +remains still doubtful whether she is really the possessor of a single +one among them; but the public seldom errs on the favourable side, +however often on the other, in the judgments it pronounces on good fame. +With so many universally acknowledged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> praiseworthy qualities, Fräulein +Libussa was undoubtedly the favoured candidate, at least <i>in petto</i>, of +the sage Electors: but the preference of the younger sister to the elder +has so frequently, in the affair of marriage, as experience testifies, +destroyed the peace of the house, that reasonable fear might be +entertained lest in affairs of still greater moment it might disturb the +peace of the country. This consideration put the sapient guardians of +the people into such embarrassment, that they could come to no +conclusion whatever. There was wanting a speaker, to hang the +clock-weight of his eloquence upon the wheel of the Electors' favourable +will, before the business could get into motion, and the good +disposition of their minds become active and efficient; and this speaker +now appeared, as if appointed for the business.</p> + +<p>Wladomir, one of the Bohemian Magnates, the highest after the Duke, had +long sighed for the enchanting Libussa, and wooed her during Father +Krokus's lifetime. The youth being one of his most faithful vassals, and +beloved by him as a son, the worthy Krokus could have wished well that +love would unite this pair; but the coyness of the maiden was +insuperable, and he would in nowise force her inclination. Prince +Wladomir, however, would not be deterred by these doubtful aspects; but +still hoped, by fidelity and constancy, to tire out the hard heart of +the Fräulein, and by his tender attentions make it soft and pliant. He +continued in the Duke's retinue to the end, without appearing by this +means to have advanced a hair's-breadth towards the goal of his desires. +But now, he thought, an opportunity was offered him for opening her +closed heart by a meritorious deed, and earning from her noble-minded +gratitude what love did not seem inclined to grant him voluntarily. He +determined on braving the hatred and vengeance of the two dreaded +sisters, and raising his beloved to her paternal throne. Observing the +indecision of the wavering assembly, he addressed them, and said:</p> + +<p>"If ye will hear me, ye courageous Knights and Nobles from among the +people, I will lay before you a similitude, by which you shall perceive +how this coming choice may be accomplished, to the weal and profit of +the land."</p> + +<p>Silence being ordered, he proceeded thus:</p> + +<p>"The Bees had lost their Queen, and the whole hive sat sad and moping; +they flew seldom and sluggishly out, had small heart or activity in +honey-making, and their trade and sustenance fell into decay. Therefore +they resolved upon a new sovereign, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> rule over their community, that +discipline and order might not be lost from among them. Then came the +Wasp flying towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your Queen, I am +mighty and terrible; the strong horse is afraid of my sting; with it I +can even defy the lion, your hereditary foe, and prick him in the snout +when he approaches your store: I will watch you and defend you.' This +speech was pleasant to the Bees; but after deeply considering it, the +wisest among them answered: 'Thou art stout and dreadful, but even the +sting which is to guard us we fear: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then +the Humble-bee came buzzing towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your +Queen; hear ye not that the sounding of my wings announces loftiness and +dignity? Nor is a sting wanting to me, wherewith to protect you.' The +Bees answered: 'We are a peaceable and quiet people; the proud sounding +of thy wings would annoy us, and disturb the continuance of our +diligence: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then the Royal-bee requested +audience: 'Though I am larger and stronger than you,' said she, 'my +strength cannot hurt or damage you; for, lo, the dangerous sting is +altogether wanting. I am soft of temper, a friend of order and thrift, +can guide your honey-making, and further your labour.' 'Then,' said the +Bees, 'thou art worthy to rule over us: we obey thee; be our Queen.'"</p> + +<p>Wladomir was silent. The whole assembly guessed the meaning of his +speech, and the minds of all were in a favourable tone for Fräulein +Libussa. But at the moment when the vote was to be put, a croaking raven +flew over their heads: this evil omen interrupted all deliberations, and +the meeting was adjourned till the morrow. It was Fräulein Bela who had +sent this bird of black augury to stop their operations, for she well +knew how the minds of the Electors were inclining; and Prince Wladomir +had raised her bitterest spleen against him. She held a secret +consultation with her sister Therba; when it was determined to take +vengeance on their common slanderer, and to dispatch a heavy Incubus to +suffocate the soul from his body. The stout Knight, dreaming nothing of +this danger, went, as he was wont, to wait upon his mistress, and was +favoured by her with the first friendly look; from which he failed not +to presage for himself a heaven of delight; and if anything could still +have increased his rapture, it must have been the gift of a rose, which +was blooming on the Fräulein's breast, and which she reached him, with +an injunction to let it wither on his heart. He interpreted these words +quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> otherwise than they were meant; for of all the sciences, there is +none so deceitful as the science of expounding in matters of love: here +errors, as it were, have their home. The enamoured Knight was anxious to +preserve his rose as long as possible in freshness and bloom; he put it +in a flower-pot among water, and fell asleep with the most flattering +hopes.</p> + +<p>At gloomy midnight, the destroying angel sent by Fräulein Bela glided +towards him; with panting breath blew off the bolts and locks of his +apartment; lighted like a mountain of lead upon the slumbering Knight, +and so squeezed him together, that he felt on awakening as if a +millstone had been hung about his neck. In this agonising suffocation, +thinking that the last moment of his life was at hand, he happily +remembered the rose, which was standing by his bed in a flower-pot, and +pressed it to his breast, saying: "Wither with me, fair rose, and die on +my chilled bosom, as a proof that my last thought was directed to thy +gentle mistress." In an instant all was light about his heart; the heavy +Incubus could not withstand the magic force of the flower; his crushing +weight would not now have balanced a feather; his antipathy to the +perfume soon scared him from the chamber; and the narcotic virtue of +this rose-odour again lulled the Knight into refreshing sleep. He rose +with the sun next morning, fresh and alert, and rode to the field, to +see what impression his similitude had made on the Electors, and to +watch what course the business was about to take; determined at all +hazards, should a contrary wind spring up, and threaten with shipwreck +the vessel of his hopes, to lay his hand upon the rudder, and steer it +into port.</p> + +<p>For the present this was not required. The electing Senate had +considered Wladomir's parable, and so sedulously ruminated and digested +it overnight, that it had passed into their hearts and spirits. A stout +Knight, who espied this favourable crisis, and who sympathised in the +concerns of his heart with the enamoured Wladomir, was endeavouring to +snatch away, or at least to share with him, the honour of exalting +Fräulein Libussa to the throne. He stept forth, and drew his sword, and +with a loud voice proclaimed Libussa Duchess of Bohemia, calling upon +all who thought as he did, to draw their swords and justify the choice. +In a moment hundreds of swords were gleaming through the field; a loud +huzza announced the new Regent, and on all sides arose the joyful shout: +"Libussa be our Duchess!" A commission<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> was appointed, with Wladomir and +the stout sword-drawer at its head, to acquaint the Fräulein with her +exaltation to the princely rank. With that modest blush, which gives the +highest grace to female charms, she accepted the sovereignty over the +people; and the magic of her enrapturing look made all hearts subject to +her. The nation celebrated the event with vast rejoicings: and although +her two sisters envied her, and employed their secret arts to obtain +revenge on her and their country for the slight which had been put upon +them, and endeavoured by the leaven of criticism, by censuring all the +measures and transactions of their sister, to produce a hurtful +fermentation in the state, yet Libussa was enabled wisely to encounter +this unsisterly procedure, and to ruin all the hostile projects, magical +or other, of these ungentle persons; till at last, weary of assailing +her in vain, they ceased to employ their ineffectual arts against her.</p> + +<p>The sighing Wladomir awaited, in the mean time, with wistful longing, +the unfolding of his fate. More than once he had tried to read the final +issue of it in the fair eyes of his Princess; but Libussa had enjoined +them strict silence respecting the feelings of her heart; and for a +lover, without prior treaty with the eyes and their significant glances, +to demand an oral explanation, is at all times an unhappy undertaking. +The only favourable sign, which still sustained his hopes, was the +unfaded rose; for after a year had passed away, it still bloomed as +fresh as on the night when he received it from her fair hand. A flower +from a lady's hand, a nosegay, a ribbon, or a lock of hair, is certainly +in all cases better than an empty nut; yet all these pretty things are +but ambiguous pledges of love, if they have not borrowed meaning from +some more trustworthy revelation. Wladomir had nothing for it but to +play in silence the part of a sighing shepherd, and to watch what Time +and Chance might in the long-run do to help him. The unquiet Mizisla +pursued his courtship with far more vivacity: he pressed forward on +every occasion where he could obtain her notice. At the coronation, he +had been the first that took the oath of fealty to the Princess; he +followed her inseparably, as the Moon does the Earth, to express by +unbidden offices of zeal his devotion to her person; and on public +solemnities and processions, he flourished his sword before her, to keep +its good services in her remembrance.</p> + +<p>Yet Libussa seemed, like other people in the world, to have very +speedily forgotten the promoters of her fortune; for when an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> obelisk is +once standing perpendicular, one heeds not the levers and implements +which raised it; so at least the claimants of her heart explained the +Fräulein's coldness. Meanwhile both of them were wrong in their opinion: +the Fräulein was neither insensible nor ungrateful; but her heart was no +longer a free piece of property, which she could give or sell according +to her pleasure. The decree of Love had already passed in favour of the +trim Forester with the sure cross-bow. The first impression, which the +sight of him had made upon her heart, was still so strong, that no +second could efface it. In a period of three years, the colours of +imagination, in which that Divinity had painted the image of the +graceful youth, had no whit abated in their brightness; and love +therefore continued altogether unimpaired. For the passion of the fair +sex is of this nature, that if it can endure three moons, it will then +last three times three years, or longer if required. In proof of this, +see the instances occurring daily before our eyes. When the heroes of +Germany sailed over distant seas, to fight out the quarrel of a +self-willed daughter of Britain with her motherland, they tore +themselves from the arms of their dames with mutual oaths of truth and +constancy; yet before the last Buoy of the Weser had got astern of them, +the heroic navigators were for most part forgotten of their Chloes. The +fickle among these maidens, out of grief to find their hearts +unoccupied, hastily supplied the vacuum by the surrogate of new +intrigues; but the faithful and true, who had constancy enough to stand +the Weser-proof, and had still refrained from infidelity when the +conquerors of their hearts had got beyond the Black Buoy, these, it is +said, preserved their vow unbroken till the return of the heroic host +into their German native country; and are still expecting from the hand +of Love the recompense of their unwearied perseverance.</p> + +<p>It is therefore less surprising that the fair Libussa, under these +circumstances, could withstand the courting of the brilliant chivalry +who struggled for her love, than that Penelope of Ithaca could let a +whole cohort of wooers sigh for her in vain, when her heart had nothing +in reserve but the gray-headed Ulysses. Rank and birth, however, had +established such a difference in the situations of the Fräulein and of +her beloved youth, that any closer union than Platonic love, a shadowy +business which can neither warm nor nourish, was not readily to be +expected. Though in those distant times, the pairing of the sexes was as +little estimated by parchments and genealogical trees, as the chaffers +were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> arranged by their antennæ and shell-wings, or the flowers by their +pistils, stamina, calix and honey-produce; it was understood that with +the lofty elm the precious vine should mate itself, and not the rough +tangleweed which creeps along the hedges. A misassortment of marriage +from a difference of rank an inch in breadth excited, it is true, less +uproar than in these our classic times; yet a difference of an ell in +breadth, especially when rivals occupied the interstice, and made the +distance of the two extremities more visible, was even then a thing +which men could notice. All this, and much more, did the Fräulein +accurately ponder in her prudent heart; therefore she granted Passion, +the treacherous babbler, no audience, loudly as it spoke in favour of +the youth whom Love had honoured. Like a chaste vestal, she made an +irrevocable vow to persist through life in her virgin closeness of +heart; and to answer no inquiry of a wooer, either with her eyes, or her +gestures, or her lips; yet reserving to herself, as a just +indemnification, the right of platonising to any length she liked. This +nunlike system suited the aspirants' way of thought so ill, that they +could not in the least comprehend the killing coldness of their +mistress; Jealousy, the confidant of Love, whispered torturing suspicion +in their ears; each thought the other was the happy rival, and their +penetration spied about unweariedly to make discoveries, which both of +them recoiled from. Yet Fräulein Libussa weighed out her scanty graces +to the two valiant Ritters with such prudence and acuteness, on so fair +a balance, that the scale of neither rose above the other.</p> + +<p>Weary of this fruitless waiting, both of them retired from the Court of +their Princess, and settled, with secret discontent, upon the +affeoffments which Duke Krokus had conferred on them. They brought so +much ill-humour home with them, that Wladomir was an oppression to all +his vassals and his neighbours; and Ritter Mizisla, on the other hand, +became a hunter, followed deer and foxes over the seed-fields and fences +of his subjects, and often with his train, to catch one hare, would ride +ten acres of corn to nothing. In consequence, arose much sobbing and +bewailing in the land; yet no righteous judge stepped forth to stay the +mischief; for who would willingly give judgment against the stronger? +And so the sufferings of the people never reached the throne of the +Duchess. By the virtue of her second-sight, however, no injustice done +within the wide limits of her sway could escape her observation; and the +disposition of her mind being soft, like the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> sweet features of her +face, she sorrowed inwardly at the misdeeds of her vassals, and the +violence of the powerful. She took counsel with herself how the evil +might be remedied, and her wisdom suggested an imitation of the gods, +who, in their judicial procedure, do not fall upon the criminal, and cut +him off as it were with the red hand; though vengeance, following with +slow steps, sooner or later overtakes him. The young Princess appointed +a general Convention of her Chivalry and States, and made proclamation, +that whoever had a grievance or a wrong to be righted, should come +forward free and fearless, under her safe-conduct. Thereupon, from every +end and corner of her dominions, the maltreated and oppressed crowded +towards her; the wranglers also, and litigious persons, and whoever had +a legal cause against his neighbour. Libussa sat upon her throne, like +the goddess Themis, and passed sentence, without respect of persons, +with unerring judgment; for the labyrinthic mazes of chicane could not +lead her astray, as they do the thick heads of city magistrates; and all +men were astonished at the wisdom with which she unravelled the +perplexed hanks of processes for <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>, and at her unwearied +patience in picking out the threads of justice, never once catching a +false end, but passing them from side to side of their embroilments, and +winding them off to the uttermost thrum.</p> + +<p>When the tumult of the parties at her bar had by degrees diminished, and +the sittings were about to be concluded, on the last day of these +assizes audience was demanded by a free neighbour of the potent +Wladomir, and by deputies from the subjects of the hunter Mizisla. They +were admitted, and the Freeholder first addressing her, began: "An +industrious planter," said he, "fenced-in a little circuit, on the bank +of a broad river, whose waters glided down with soft rushing through the +green valley; for, he thought, The fair stream will be a guard to me on +this side, that no hungry wild-beast eat my crops, and it will moisten +the roots of my fruit-trees, that they flourish speedily and bring me +fruit. But when the earnings of his toil were about to ripen, the +deceitful stream grew troubled; its still waters began to swell and +roar, it overflowed its banks, and carried one piece after another of +the fruitful soil along with it; and dug itself a bed through the middle +of the cultivated land; to the sorrow of the poor planter, who had to +give up his little property to the malicious wasting of his strong +neighbour, the raging of whose waves he himself escaped with difficulty. +Puissant daughter of the wise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> Krokus, the poor planter entreats of thee +to command the haughty river no longer to roll its proud billows over +the field of the toilsome husbandman, or wash away the fruit of his +weary arms, his hope of glad harvest; but to flow peacefully along +within the limits of its own channel."</p> + +<p>During this speech, the cheerful brow of the fair Libussa became +overclouded; manly rigour gleamed from her eyes, and all around was ear +to catch her sentence, which ran thus: "Thy cause is plain and straight; +no force shall disturb thy rightful privileges. A dike, which it shall +not overpass, shall set bounds to the tumultuous river; and from its +fishes thou shalt be repaid sevenfold the plunder of its wasteful +billows." Then she beckoned to the eldest of the Deputies, and he bowed +his face to the earth, and said: "Wise daughter of the far-famed Krokus, +Whose is the grain upon the field, the sower's, who has hidden the +seed-corn in the ground that it spring up and bear fruit; or the +tempest's, which breaks it and scatters it away?" She answered: "The +sower's."—"Then command the tempest," said the spokesman, "that it +choose not our corn-fields for the scene of its caprices, to uproot our +crops and shake the fruit from our trees."—"So be it," said the +Duchess; "I will tame the tempest, and banish it from your fields; it +shall battle with the clouds, and disperse them, where they are rising +from the south, and threatening the land with hail and heavy weather."</p> + +<p>Prince Wladomir and Ritter Mizisla were both assessors in the general +tribunal. On hearing the complaint, and the rigorous sentence passed +regarding it, they waxed pale, and looked down upon the ground with +suppressed indignation; not daring to discover how sharply it stung them +to be condemned by a decree from female lips. For although, out of +tenderness to their honour, the complainants had modestly overhung the +charge with an allegorical veil, which the righteous sentence of the +fair President had also prudently respected, yet the texture of this +covering was so fine and transparent, that whoever had an eye might see +what stood behind it. But as they dared not venture to appeal from the +judgment-seat of the Princess to the people, since the sentence passed +upon them had excited universal joy, they submitted to it, though with +great reluctance. Wladomir indemnified his freeholding neighbour +sevenfold for the mischief done him; and Nimrod Mizisla engaged, on the +honour of a knight, no more to select the corn-fields of his subjects as +a chase for hare-catching.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> Libussa, at the same time, pointed out to +them a more respectable employment, for occupying their activity, and +restoring to their fame, which now, like a cracked pot when struck, +emitted nothing but discords, the sound ring of knightly virtues. She +placed them at the head of an army, which she was dispatching to +encounter Zornebock, the Prince of the Sorbi, a giant, and a powerful +magician withal, who was then meditating war against Bohemia. This +commission she accompanied with the penance, that they were not to +appear again at Court, till the one could offer her the plume, the other +the golden spurs, of the monster, as tokens of their victory.</p> + +<p>The unfading rose, during this campaign, displayed its magic virtues +once more. By means of it, Prince Wladomir was as invulnerable to mortal +weapons, as Achilles the Hero; and as nimble, quick and dextrous, as +Achilles the Light-of-foot. The armies met upon the southern boundaries +of the Kingdom, and joined in fierce battle. The Bohemian heroes flew +through the squadrons, like storm and whirlwind; and cut down the thick +spear-crop, as the scythe of the mower cuts a field of hay. Zornebock +fell beneath the strong dints of their falchions; they returned in +triumph with the stipulated spoils to Vizegrad; and the spots and +blemishes, which had soiled their knightly virtue, were now washed clean +away in the blood of their enemies. Libussa bestowed on them every mark +of princely honour, dismissed them to their homes when the army was +discharged; and gave them, as a new token of her favour, a purple-red +apple from her pleasure-garden, for a memorial of her by the road, +enjoining them to part the same peacefully between them, without cutting +it in two. They then went their way; put the apple on a shield, and had +it borne before them as a public spectacle, while they consulted +together how the parting of it might be prudently effected, according to +the meaning of its gentle giver.</p> + +<p>While the point where their roads divided lay before them at a distance, +they proceeded with their partition-treaty in the most accommodating +mood; but at last it became necessary to determine which of the two +should have the apple in his keeping, for both had equal shares in it, +and only one could get it, though each promised to himself great wonders +from the gift, and was eager to obtain possession of it. They split in +their opinions on this matter; and things went so far, that it appeared +as if the sword must decide, to whom this indivisible apple had been +allotted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> by the fortune of arms. But a shepherd driving his flock +overtook them as they stood debating; him they selected (apparently in +imitation of the Three Goddesses, who also applied to a shepherd to +decide their famous apple-quarrel), and made arbiter of their dispute, +and laid the business in detail before him. The shepherd thought a +little, then said: "In the gift of this apple lies a deep-hidden +meaning; but who can bring it out, save the sage Virgin who hid it +there? For myself, I conceive the apple is a treacherous fruit, that has +grown upon the Tree of Discord, and its purple skin may prefigure bloody +feud between your worshipful knightships; that each is to cut off the +other, and neither of you get enjoyment of the gift. For, tell me, how +is it possible to part an apple, without cutting it in twain?" The +Knights took the shepherd's speech to heart, and thought there was a +deal of truth in it. "Thou hast judged rightly," said they: "Has not +this base apple already kindled anger and contention between us? Were we +not standing harnessed to fight, for the deceitful gift of this proud +Princess? Did she not put us at the head of her army, with intention to +destroy us? And having failed in this, she now arms our hands with the +weapons of discord against each other! We renounce her crafty present; +neither of us will have the apple. Be it thine, as the reward of thy +righteous sentence: to the judge belongs the fruit of the process, and +to the parties the rind."</p> + +<p>The Knights then went their several ways, while the herdsman consumed +the <i>objectum litis</i> with all the composure and conveniency common among +judges. The ambiguous present of the Duchess cut them to the heart; and +as they found, on returning home, that they could no longer treat their +subjects and vassals in the former arbitrary fashion, but were forced to +obey the laws, which Fräulein Libussa had promulgated for the general +security among her people, their ill humour grew more deep and +rancorous. They entered into a league offensive and defensive with each +other; made a party for themselves in the country; and many mutinous +wrongheads joined them, and were sent abroad in packs to decry and +calumniate the government of women. "Shame! Shame!" cried they, "that we +must obey a woman, who gathers our victorious laurels to decorate a +distaff with them! The Man should be master of the house, and not the +Wife; this is his special right, and so it is established everywhere, +among all people. What is an army without a Duke to go before his +warriors, but a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> helpless trunk without a head? Let us appoint a Prince, +who may be ruler over us, and whom we may obey."</p> + +<p>These seditious speeches were no secret to the watchful Princess; nor +was she ignorant what wind blew them thither, or what its sounding +boded. Therefore she convened a deputation of the States; entered their +assembly with the stateliness of an earthly goddess, and the words of +her mouth dropped like honey from her virgin lips. "A rumour flies about +the land," said she, "that you desire a Duke to go before you to battle, +and that you reckon it inglorious to obey me any longer. Yet, in a free +and unconstrained election, you yourselves did not choose a man from +among you; but called one of the daughters of the people, and clothed +her with the purple, to rule over you according to the laws and customs +of the land. Whoso can accuse me of error in conducting the government, +let him step forward openly and freely, and bear witness against me. But +if I, after the manner of my father Krokus, have done prudently and +justly in the midst of you, making crooked things straight, and rough +places plain; if I have secured your harvests from the spoiler, guarded +the fruit-tree, and snatched the flock from the claws of the wolf; if I +have bowed the stiff neck of the violent, assisted the down-pressed, and +given the weak a staff to rest on; then will it beseem you to live +according to your covenant, and be true, gentle and helpful to me, as in +doing fealty to me you engaged. If you reckon it inglorious to obey a +woman, you should have thought of this before appointing me to be your +Princess; if there is disgrace here, it is you alone who ought to bear +it. But your procedure shows you not to understand your own advantage: +for woman's hand is soft and tender, accustomed only to waft cool air +with the fan; and sinewy and rude is the arm of man, heavy and +oppressive when it grasps the supreme control. And know ye not that +where a woman governs, the rule is in the power of men? For she gives +heed to wise counsellors, and these gather round her. But where the +distaff excludes from the throne, there is the government of females; +for the women, that please the king's eyes, have his heart in their +hand. Therefore, consider well of your attempt, lest ye repent your +fickleness too late."</p> + +<p>The fair speaker ceased; and a deep reverent silence reigned throughout +the hall of meeting; none presumed to utter a word against her. Yet +Prince Wladomir and his allies desisted not from their intention, but +whispered in each other's ear: "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> sly Doe is loath to quit the fat +pastures; but the hunter's horn shall sound yet louder, and scare her +forth."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Next day they prompted the knights to call loudly on the +Princess to choose a husband within three days, and by the choice of her +heart to give the people a Prince, who might divide with her the cares +of government. At this unexpected requisition, coming as it seemed from +the voice of the nation, a virgin blush overspread the cheeks of the +lovely Princess; her clear eye discerned all the sunken cliffs, which +threatened her with peril. For even if, according to the custom of the +great world, she should determine upon subjecting her inclination to her +state-policy, she could only give her hand to one suitor, and she saw +well that all the remaining candidates would take it as a slight, and +begin to meditate revenge. Besides, the private vow of her heart was +inviolable and sacred in her eyes. Therefore she endeavoured prudently +to turn aside this importunate demand of the States; and again attempted +to persuade them altogether to renounce their schemes of innovation. +"The eagle being dead," said she, "the birds chose the Ring-dove for +their queen, and all of them obeyed her soft cooing call. But light and +airy, as is the nature of birds, they soon altered their determination, +and repented them that they had made it. The proud Peacock thought that +it beseemed him better to be ruler; the keen Falcon, accustomed to make +the smaller birds his prey, reckoned it disgraceful to obey the peaceful +Dove; they formed a party, and appointed the weak-eyed Owl to be the +spokesman of their combination, and propose a new election of a +sovereign. The sluggish Bustard, the heavy-bodied Heath-cock, the lazy +Stork, the small-brained Heron, and all the larger birds chuckled, +flapped, and croaked applause to him; and the host of little birds +twittered, in their simplicity, and chirped out of bush and grove to the +same tune. Then arose the warlike Kite, and soared boldly up into the +air, and the birds cried out: 'What a majestic flight! The brave, strong +Kite shall be our King!' Scarcely had the plundering bird taken +possession of the throne, when he manifested his activity and courage on +his winged subjects, in deeds of tyranny and caprice: he plucked the +feathers from the larger fowls, and eat the little songsters."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Invita de lætioribus pascuis, autor seditionis inquit, +bucula ista decedit; sed jam vi inde deturbanda est, si suâ sponte loco +suo concedere viro alicui principi noluerit</i>.—<span class="smcap">Dubravius.</span></p></div> + +<p>Significant as this oration was, it made but a small impression<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> on the +minds of the people, hungering and thirsting after change; and they +abode by their determination, that within three days, Fräulein Libussa +should select herself a husband. At this, Prince Wladomir rejoiced in +heart; for now, he thought, he should secure the fair prey, for which he +had so long been watching in vain. Love and ambition inflamed his +wishes, and put eloquence into his mouth, which had hitherto confined +itself to secret sighing. He came to Court, and required audience of the +Duchess.</p> + +<p>"Gracious ruler of thy people and my heart," thus he addressed her, +"from thee no secret is hidden; thou knowest the flames which burn in +this bosom, holy and pure as on the altar of the gods, and thou knowest +also what fire has kindled them. It is now appointed, that at the behest +of thy people, thou give the land a Prince. Wilt thou disdain a heart, +which lives and beats for thee? To be worthy of thy love, I risked my +life to put thee on the throne of thy father. Grant me the merit of +retaining thee upon it by the bond of tender affection: let us divide +the possession of thy throne and thy heart; the first be thine, the +second be mine, and my happiness will be exalted beyond the lot of +mortals."</p> + +<p>Fräulein Libussa wore a most maidenlike appearance during this oration, +and covered her face with her veil, to hide the soft blush which +deepened the colour of her cheeks. On its conclusion, she made a sign +with her hand, not opening her lips, for the Prince to step aside; as if +she would consider what she should resolve upon, in answer to his suit.</p> + +<p>Immediately the brisk Knight Mizisla announced himself, and desired to +be admitted.</p> + +<p>"Loveliest of the daughters of princes," said he, as he entered the +audience-chamber, "the fair Ring-dove, queen of the air, must no longer, +as thou well knowest, coo in solitude, but take to herself a mate. The +proud Peacock, it is talked, holds up his glittering plumage in her +eyes, and thinks to blind her by the splendour of his feathers; but she +is prudent and modest, and will not unite herself with the haughty +Peacock. The keen Falcon, once a plundering bird, has now changed his +nature; is gentle and honest, and without deceit; for he loves the fair +Dove, and would fain that she mated with him. That his bill is hooked +and his talons, sharp, must not mislead thee: he needs them to protect +the fair Dove his darling, that no bird hurt her, or disturb the +habitation of her rule; for he is true and kindly to her, and first +swore fealty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> on the day when she was crowned. Now tell me, wise +Princess, if the soft Dove will grant to her trusty Falcon the love +which he longs for?"</p> + +<p>Fräulein Libussa did as she had done before; beckoned to the Knight to +step aside; and, after waiting for a space, she called the two rivals +into her presence, and spoke thus:</p> + +<p>"I owe you great thanks, noble Knights, for your help in obtaining me +the princely crown of Bohemia, which my father Krokus honourably wore. +The zeal, of which you remind me, had not faded from my remembrance; nor +is it hid from my knowledge, that you virtuously love me, for your looks +and gestures have long been the interpreters of your feelings. That I +shut up my heart against you, and did not answer love with love, regard +not as insensibility; it was not meant for slight or scorn, but for +harmoniously determining a choice which was doubtful. I weighed your +merits, and the tongue of the trying balance bent to neither side. +Therefore I resolved on leaving the decision of your fate to yourselves; +and offered you the possession of my heart, under the figure of an +enigmatic apple; that it might be seen to which of you the greater +measure of judgment and wisdom had been given, in appropriating to +himself this gift, which could not be divided. Now tell me without +delay, In whose hands is the apple? Whichever of you has won it from the +other, let him from this hour receive my throne and my heart as the +prize of his skill."</p> + +<p>The two rivals looked at one another with amazement; grew pale, and held +their peace. At last, after a long pause, Prince Wladomir broke silence, +and said:</p> + +<p>"The enigmas of the wise are, to the foolish, a nut in a toothless +mouth, a pearl which the cock scratches from the sand, a lantern in the +hand of the blind. O Princess, be not wroth with us, that we neither +knew the use nor the value of thy gift; we misinterpreted thy purpose; +thought that thou hadst cast an apple of contention on our path, to +awaken us to strife and deadly feud; therefore each gave up his share, +and we renounced the divisive fruit, whose sole possession neither of us +would have peaceably allowed the other!"</p> + +<p>"You have given sentence on yourselves," replied the Fräulein: "if an +apple could inflame your jealousy, what fighting would ye not have +fought for a myrtle-garland twined about a crown!"</p> + +<p>With this response she dismissed the Knights, who now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> lamented that +they had given ear to the unwise arbiter, and thoughtlessly cast away +the pledge of love, which, as it appeared, had been the casket of their +fairest hopes. They meditated severally how they might still execute +their purpose, and by force or guile get possession of the throne, with +its lovely occupant.</p> + +<p>Fräulein Libussa, in the mean while, was not spending in idleness the +three days given her for consideration; but diligently taking counsel +with herself, how she might meet the importunate demand of her people, +give Bohemia a Duke, and herself a husband according to the choice of +her heart. She dreaded lest Prince Wladomir might still more pressingly +assail her, and perhaps deprive her of the throne. Necessity combined +with love to make her execute a plan, with which she had often +entertained herself as with a pleasant dream; for what mortal's head has +not some phantom walking in it, towards which he turns in a vacant hour, +to play with it as with a puppet? There is no more pleasing pastime for +a strait-shod maiden, when her galled corns are resting from the toils +of the pavement, than to think of a stately and commodious equipage; the +coy beauty dreams gladly of counts sighing at her feet; Avarice gets +prizes in the Lottery; the debtor in the jail falls heir to vast +possessions; the squanderer discovers the Hermetic Secret; and the poor +woodcutter finds a treasure in the hollow of a tree; all merely in +fancy, yet not without the enjoyment of a secret satisfaction. The gift +of prophecy has always been united with a warm imagination; thus the +fair Libussa had, like others, willingly and frequently given heed to +this seductive playmate, which, in kind companionship, had always +entertained her with the figure of the young Archer, so indelibly +impressed upon her heart. Thousands of projects came into her mind, +which Fancy palmed on her as feasible and easy. At one time she formed +schemes of drawing forth her darling youth from his obscurity, placing +him in the army, and raising him from one post of honour to another; and +then instantly she bound a laurel garland about his temples, and led +him, crowned with victory and honour, to the throne she could have been +so glad to share with him. At other times, she gave a different turn to +the romance: she equipped her darling as a knight-errant, seeking for +adventures; brought him to her Court, and changed him into a Huon of +Bourdeaux; nor was the wondrous furniture wanting, for endowing him as +highly as Friend Oberon did his ward. But when Common Sense again got +possession of the maiden's soul, the many-coloured forms of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> magic +lantern waxed pale in the beam of prudence, and the fair vision vanished +into air. She then bethought her what hazards would attend such an +enterprise; what mischief for her people, when jealousy and envy raised +the hearts of her grandees in rebellion against her, and the alarum +beacon of discord gave the signal for uproar and sedition in the land. +Therefore she sedulously hid the wishes of her heart from the keen +glance of the spy, and disclosed no glimpse of them to any one.</p> + +<p>But now, when the people were clamouring for a Prince, the matter had +assumed another form: the point would now be attained, could she combine +her wishes with the national demand. She strengthened her soul with +manly resolution; and as the third day dawned, she adorned herself with +all her jewels, and her head was encircled with the myrtle crown. +Attended by her maidens, all decorated with flower garlands, she +ascended the throne, full of lofty courage and soft dignity. The +assemblage of knights and vassals around her stood in breathless +attention, to learn from her lips the name of the happy Prince with whom +she had resolved to share her heart and throne. "Ye nobles of my +people," thus she spoke, "the lot of your destiny still lies untouched +in the urn of concealment; you are still free as my coursers that graze +in the meadows, before the bridle and the bit have curbed them, or their +smooth backs have been pressed by the burden of the saddle and the +rider. It now rests with you to signify, Whether, in the space allowed +me for the choice of a spouse, your hot desire for a Prince to rule over +you has cooled, and given place to more calm scrutiny of this intention; +or you still persist inflexibly in your demand." She paused for a +moment; but the hum of the multitude, the whispering and buzzing, and +looks of the whole Senate, did not long leave her in uncertainty, and +their speaker ratified the conclusion, that the vote was still for a +Duke. "Then be it so!" said she; "the die is cast, the issue of it +stands not with me! The gods have appointed, for the kingdom of Bohemia, +a Prince who shall sway its sceptre with justice and wisdom. The young +cedar does not yet overtop the firm-set oaks; concealed among the trees +of the forest it grows, encircled with ignoble shrubs; but soon it shall +send forth branches to give shade to its roots; and its top shall touch +the clouds. Choose a deputation, ye nobles of the people, of twelve +honourable men from among you, that they hasten to seek out the Prince, +and attend him to the throne. My steed will point out your path; +unloaded and free it shall course on before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> you; and as a token that +you have found what you are sent forth to seek, observe that the man +whom the gods have selected for your Prince, at the time when you +approach him, will be eating his repast on an iron table, under the open +sky, in the shadow of a solitary tree. To him you shall do reverence, +and clothe his body with the princely robe. The white horse will let him +mount it, and bring him hither to the Court, that he may be my husband +and your lord."</p> + +<p>She then left the assembly, with the cheerful yet abashed countenance +which brides wear, when they look for the arrival of the bridegroom. At +her speech there was much wondering; and the prophetic spirit breathing +from it worked upon the general mind like a divine oracle, which the +populace blindly believe, and which thinkers alone attempt +investigating. The messengers of honour were selected, the white horse +stood in readiness, caparisoned with Asiatic pomp, as if it had been +saddled for carrying the Grand Signior to mosque. The cavalcade set +forth, attended by the concourse, and the loud huzzaing of the people; +and the white horse paced on before. But the train soon vanished from +the eyes of the spectators: and nothing could be seen but a little cloud +of dust whirling up afar off: for the spirited courser, getting to its +mettle when it reached the open air, began a furious gallop, like a +British racer, so that the squadron of deputies could hardly keep in +sight of it. Though the quick steed seemed abandoned to its own +guidance, an unseen power directed its steps, pulled its bridle, and +spurred its flanks. Fräulein Libussa, by the magic virtues inherited +from her Elfine mother, had contrived so to instruct the courser, that +it turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from its path, but +with winged steps hastened on to its destination: and she herself, now +that all combined to the fulfilment of her wishes, awaited its returning +rider with tender longing.</p> + +<p>The messengers had in the mean time been soundly galloped; already they +had travelled many leagues, up hill and down dale; had swum across the +Elbe and the Moldau; and as their gastric juices made them think of +dinner, they recalled to mind the strange table, at which, according to +the Fräulein's oracle, their new Prince was to be feeding. Their glosses +and remarks on it were many. A forward knight observed to his +companions: "In my poor view of it, our gracious lady has it in her eye +to bilk us, and make April messengers of us; for who ever heard of any +man in Bohemia that ate his victuals off an iron table? What use is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> it? +our sharp galloping will bring us nothing but mockery and scorn." +Another, of a more penetrating turn, imagined that the iron table might +be allegorical; that they should perhaps fall in with some +knight-errant, who, after the manner of the wandering brotherhood, had +sat down beneath a tree, and spread out his frugal dinner on his shield. +A third said, jesting: "I fear our way will lead us down to the workshop +of the Cyclops; and we shall find the lame Vulcan, or one of his +journeymen, dining from his stithy, and must bring <i>him</i> to our Venus."</p> + +<p>Amid such conversation, they observed their guiding quadruped, which had +got a long start of them, turn across a new-ploughed field, and, to +their wonder, halt beside the ploughman. They dashed rapidly forward, +and found a peasant sitting on an upturned plough, and eating his black +bread from the iron ploughshare, which he was using as a table, under +the shadow of a fresh pear-tree. He seemed to like the stately horse; he +patted it, offered it a bit of bread, and it eat from his hand. The +Embassy, of course, was much surprised at this phenomenon; nevertheless, +no member of it doubted but that they had found their man. They +approached him reverently, and the eldest among them opened his lips, +and said: "The Duchess of Bohemia has sent us hither, and bids us +signify to thee the will and purpose of the gods, that thou change thy +plough with the throne of this kingdom, and thy goad with its sceptre. +She selects thee for her husband, to rule with her over the Bohemians." +The young peasant thought they meant to banter him; a thing little to +his taste, especially as he supposed that they had guessed his +love-secret, and were now come to mock his weakness. Therefore he +answered somewhat stoutly, to meet mockery with mockery: "But is your +dukedom worth this plough? If the prince cannot eat with better relish, +drink more joyously, or sleep more soundly than the peasant, then in +sooth it is not worth while to change this kindly furrow-field with the +Bohemian kingdom, or this smooth ox-goad with its sceptre. For, tell me, +Are not three grains of salt as good for seasoning my morsel as three +bushels?"</p> + +<p>Then one of the Twelve answered: "The purblind mole digs underground for +worms to feed upon; for he has no eyes which can endure the daylight, +and no feet which are formed for running like the nimble roe; the scaly +crab creeps to and fro in the mud of lakes and marshes, delights to +dwell under tree-roots and shrubs by the banks of rivers, for he wants +the fins for swimming;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> and the barn-door cock, cooped up within his +hen-fence, risks no flight over the low wall, for he is too timorous to +trust in his wings, like the high-soaring bird of prey. Have eyes for +seeing, feet for going, fins for swimming, and pinions for flight been +allotted thee, thou wilt not grub like a mole underground; nor hide +thyself like a dull shell-fish among mud; nor, like the king of the +poultry, be content with crowing from the barn-door: but come forward +into day; run, swim, or fly into the clouds, as Nature may have +furnished thee with gifts. For it suffices not the active man to +continue what he is; but he strives to become what he may be. Therefore, +do thou try being what the gods have called thee to; then wilt thou +judge rightly whether the Bohemian kingdom is worth an acre of corn-land +in barter, yea or not."</p> + +<p>This earnest oration of the Deputy, in whose face no jesting feature was +to be discerned; and still more the insignia of royalty, the purple +robe, the sceptre and the golden sword, which the ambassadors brought +forward as a reference and certificate of their mission's authenticity, +at last overcame the mistrust of the doubting ploughman. All at once, +light rose on his soul; a rapturous thought awoke in him, that Libussa +had discovered the feelings of his heart; had, by her skill in seeing +what was secret, recognised his faithfulness and constancy: and was +about to recompense him, so as he had never ventured even in dreams to +hope. The gift of prophecy predicted to him by her oracle, then came +into his mind; and he thought that now or never it must be fulfilled. +Instantly he grasped his hazel staff; stuck it deep into the ploughed +land; heaped loose mould about it, as you plant a tree; and, lo, +immediately the staff got buds, and shot forth sprouts and boughs with +leaves and flowers. Two of the green twigs withered, and their dry +leaves became the sport of the wind; but the third grew up the more +luxuriantly, and its fruits ripened. Then came the spirit of prophecy +upon the rapt ploughman; he opened his mouth, and said: "Ye messengers +of the Princess Libussa and of the Bohemian people, hear the words of +Primislaus the son of Mnatha, the stout-hearted Knight, for whom, blown +upon by the spirit of prophecy, the mists of the Future part asunder. +The man who guided the ploughshare, ye have called to seize the handles +of your princedom, before his day's work was ended. O that the glebe had +been broken by the furrow, to the boundary—stone; so had Bohemia +remained an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> independent kingdom to the utmost ages! But since ye have +disturbed the labour of the plougher too early, the limits of your +country will become the heritage of your neighbour, and your distant +posterity will be joined to him in unchangeable union. The three twigs +of the budding Staff are three sons which your Princess shall bear me: +two of them, as unripe shoots, shall speedily wither away; but the third +shall inherit the throne, and by him shall the fruit of late +grandchildren be matured, till the Eagle soar over your mountains and +nestle in the land; yet soon fly thence, and return as to his own +possession. And then, when the Son of the Gods arises,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> who is his +plougher's friend, and smites the slave-fetters from his limbs, then +mark it, Posterity, for thou shalt bless thy destiny! For when he has +trodden under his feet the Dragon of Superstition, he will stretch out +his arm against the waxing moon, to pluck it from the firmament, that he +may himself illuminate the world as a benignant star."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Emperor Joseph II.</p></div> + +<p>The venerable deputation stood in silent wonder, gazing at the prophetic +man, like dumb idols: it was as if a god were speaking by his lips. He +himself turned away from them to the two white steers, the associates of +his toilsome labour; he unyoked and let them go in freedom from their +farm-service; at which they began frisking joyfully upon the grassy lea, +but at the same time visibly decreased in bulk; like thin vapour melted +into air, and vanished out of sight. Then Primislaus doffed his peasant +wooden shoes, and proceeded to the brook to clean himself. The precious +robes were laid upon him; he begirt himself with the sword, and had the +golden spurs put on him like a knight; then stoutly sprang upon the +white horse, which bore him peaceably along. Being now about to quit his +still asylum, he commanded the ambassadors to bring his wooden shoes +after him, and keep them carefully, as a token that the humblest among +the people had once been exalted to the highest dignity in Bohemia; and +as a memorial for his posterity to bear their elevation meekly, and, +mindful of their origin, to respect and defend the peasantry, from which +themselves had sprung. Hence came the ancient practice of exhibiting a +pair of wooden shoes before the Kings of Bohemia on their coronation; a +custom held in observance till the male line of Primislaus became +extinct.</p> + +<p>The planted hazel rod bore fruit and grew; striking roots out on every +side, and sending forth new shoots, till at last the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> field was +changed into a hazel copse; a circumstance of great advantage to the +neighbouring township, which included it within their bounds; for, in +memory of this miraculous plantation, they obtained a grant from the +Bohemian Kings, exempting them from ever paying any public contribution +in the land, except a pint of hazel nuts; which royal privilege their +late descendants, as the story runs, are enjoying at this day.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Æneas Sylvius affirms that he saw, with his own eyes, a +renewal of this charter from Charles IV. <i>Vidi inter privilegia regni +literas Caroli Quarti, Romanorum Imperatoris, divi Sigumundi patris in +quibus (villæ illius incolæ) libertate donantur; nec plus tributi +pendere jubentur, quam nucum illius arboris exiguam mensuram.</i></p></div> + +<p>Though the white courser, which was now proudly carrying the bridegroom +to his mistress, seemed to outrun the winds, Primislaus did not fail now +and then to let him feel the golden spurs, to push him on still faster. +The quick gallop seemed to him a tortoise-pace, so keen was his desire +to have the fair Libussa, whose form, after seven years, was still so +new and lovely in his soul, once more before his eyes; and this not +merely as a show, like some bright peculiar anemone in the variegated +bed of a flower-garden, but for the blissful appropriation of victorious +love. He thought only of the myrtle-crown, which, in the lover's +valuation, far outshines the crown of sovereignty; and had he balanced +love and rank against each other, the Bohemian throne without Libussa +would have darted up, like a clipped ducat in the scales of the +money-changer.</p> + +<p>The sun was verging to decline, when the new Prince, with his escort, +entered Vizegrad. Fräulein Libussa was in her garden, where she had just +plucked a basket of ripe plums, when her future husband's arrival was +announced to her. She went forth modestly, with all her maidens, to meet +him; received him as a bridegroom conducted to her by the gods, veiling +the election of her heart under a show of submission to the will of +Higher Powers. The eyes of the Court were eagerly directed to the +stranger; in whom, however, nothing could be seen but a fair handsome +man. In respect of outward form, there were several courtiers who, in +thought, did not hesitate to measure with him; and could not understand +why the gods should have disdained the anti-chamber, and not selected +from it some accomplished and ruddy lord, rather than the sunburnt +ploughman, to assist the Princess in her government. Especially in +Wladomir and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> Mizisla, it was observable that their pretensions were +reluctantly withdrawn. It behoved the Fräulein then to vindicate the +work of the gods; and show that Squire Primislaus had been indemnified +for the defect of splendid birth, by a fair equivalent in sterling +common sense and depth of judgment. She had caused a royal banquet to be +prepared, no whit inferior to the feast with which the hospitable Dido +entertained her pious guest Æneas. The cup of welcome passed diligently +round, the presents of the Princess had excited cheerfulness and +good-humour, and a part of the night had already vanished amid jests and +pleasant pastime, when Libussa set on foot a game at riddles; and, as +the discovery of hidden things was her proper trade, she did not fail to +solve, with satisfactory decision, all the riddles that were introduced.</p> + +<p>When her own turn came to propose one, she called Prince Wladomir, +Mizisla and Primislaus to her, and said: "Fair sirs, it is now for you +to read a riddle, which I shall submit to you, that it may be seen who +among you is the wisest and of keenest judgment. I intended, for you +three, a present of this basket of plums, which I plucked in my garden. +One of you shall have the half, and one over; the next shall have the +half of what remains, and one over; the third shall again have the half, +and three over. Now, if so be that the basket is then emptied, tell me, +How many plums are in it now?"</p> + +<p>The headlong Ritter Mizisla took the measure of the fruit with his eye, +not the sense of the riddle with his understanding, and said: "What can +be decided with the sword I might undertake to decide; but thy riddles, +gracious Princess, are, I fear, too hard for me. Yet at thy request I +will risk an arrow at the bull's-eye, let it hit or miss: I suppose +there is a matter of some three score plums in the basket."</p> + +<p>"Thou hast missed, dear Knight," said Fräulein Libussa. "Were there as +many again, half as many, and a third part as many as the basket has in +it, and five over, there would then be as many above three score as +there are now below it."</p> + +<p>Prince Wladomir computed as laboriously and anxiously, as if the post of +Comptroller-General of Finances had depended on a right solution; and at +last brought out the net product five-and-forty. The Fräulein then said:</p> + +<p>"Were there a third, and a half, and a sixth as many again of them, the +number would exceed forty-five as much as it now falls short of it."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>Though, in our days, any man endowed with the arithmetical faculty of a +tapster, might have solved this problem without difficulty, yet, for an +untaught computant, the gift of divination was essential, if he meant to +get out of the affair with honour, and not stick in the middle of it +with disgrace. As the wise Primislaus was happily provided with this +gift, it cost him neither art nor exertion to find the answer.</p> + +<p>"Familiar companion of the heavenly Powers," said he, "whoso undertakes +to pierce thy high celestial meaning, undertakes to soar after the eagle +when he hides himself in the clouds. Yet I will pursue thy hidden +flight, as far as the eye, to which thou hast given its light, will +reach. I judge that of the plums which thou hast laid in the basket, +there are thirty in number, not one fewer, and none more."</p> + +<p>The Fräulein cast a kindly glance on him, and said: "Thou tracest the +glimmering ember, which lies deep-hid among the ashes; for thee light +dawns out of darkness and vapour: thou hast read my riddle."</p> + +<p>Thereupon she opened her basket, and counted out fifteen plums, and one +over, into Prince Wladomir's hat, and fourteen remained. Of these she +gave Ritter Mizisla seven and one over, and there were still six in the +basket; half of these she gave the wise Primislaus and three over, and +the basket was empty. The whole Court was lost in wonder at the fair +Libussa's ciphering gift, and at the penetration of her cunning spouse. +Nobody could comprehend how human wit was able, on the one hand, to +enclose a common number so mysteriously in words; or, on the other hand, +to drag it forth so accurately from its enigmatical concealment. The +empty basket she conferred upon the two Knights, who had failed in +soliciting her love, to remind them that, their suit was voided. Hence +comes it, that when a wooer is rejected, people say, <i>His love has given +him the basket</i>, even to the present day.</p> + +<p>So soon as all was ready for the nuptials and coronation, both these +ceremonies were transacted with becoming pomp. Thus the Bohemian people +had obtained a Duke, and the fair Libussa had obtained a husband, each +according to the wish of their hearts; and what was somewhat wonderful, +by virtue of Chicane, an agent who has not the character of being too +beneficent or prosperous. And if either of the parties had been +overreached in any measure, it at least was not the fair Libussa.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +Bohemia had a Duke in name, but the administration now, as formerly, +continued in the female hand. Primislaus was the proper pattern of a +tractable obedient husband, and contested with his Duchess neither the +direction of her house nor of her empire. His sentiments and wishes +sympathised with hers, as perfectly as two accordant strings, of which +when the one is struck, the other voluntarily trembles to the self-same +note. Nor was Libussa like those haughty overbearing dames, who would +pass for great matches; and having, as they think, made the fortune of +some hapless wight, continually remind him of his wooden shoes: but she +resembled the renowned Palmyran Queen; and ruled, as Zenobia did her +kindly Odenatus, by superiority of mental talent.</p> + +<p>The happy couple lived in the enjoyment of unchangeable love; according +to the fashion of those times, when the instinct which united hearts was +as firm and durable, as the mortar and cement with which they built +their indestructible strongholds. Duke Primislaus soon became one of the +most accomplished and valiant knights of his time, and the Bohemian +Court the most splendid in Germany. By degrees, many knights and nobles, +and multitudes of people from all quarters of the empire, drew to it; so +that Vizegrad became too narrow for its inhabitants; and, in +consequence, Libussa called her officers before her, and commanded them +to found a city, on the spot where they should find a man at noontide +making the wisest use of his teeth. They set forth, and at the time +appointed found a man engaged in sawing a block of wood. They judged +that this industrious character was turning his saw-teeth, at noontide, +to a far better use than the parasite does his jaw-teeth by the table of +the great; and doubted not but they had found the spot, intended by the +Princess for the site of their town. They marked out a space upon the +green with the ploughshare, for the circuit of the city walls. On asking +the workman what he meant to make of his sawed timber, he replied, +"Prah," which in the Bohemian language signifies a door-threshold. So +Libussa called her new city Praha, that is Prague, the well-known +capital upon the Moldau. In process of time, Primislaus's predictions +were punctually fulfilled. His spouse became the mother of three +Princes; two died in youth, but the third grew to manhood, and from him +went forth a glorious royal line, which flourished for long centuries on +the Bohemian throne.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="MELECHSALA" id="MELECHSALA"></a>MELECHSALA.</h3> + + +<p>Father Gregory, the ninth of the name who sat upon St. Peter's chair, +had once, in a sleepless night, an inspiration from the spirit, not of +prophecy, but of political chicane, to clip the wings of the German +Eagle, lest it rose above the head of his own haughty Rome. No sooner +had the first sunbeam enlightened the venerable Vatican, than his +Holiness summoned his attendant chamberlain, and ordered him to call a +meeting of the Sacred College; where Father Gregory, in his pontifical +apparel, celebrated high mass, and after its conclusion moved a new +Crusade; to which all his cardinals, readily surmising the wise objects +of this armament for God's glory and the common weal of Christendom, +gave prompt and cordial assent.</p> + +<p>Thereupon, a cunning Nuncio started instantly for Naples, where the +Emperor Frederick of Swabia had his Court; and took with him in his +travelling-bag two boxes, one of which was filled with the sweet honey +of persuasion; the other with tinder, steel and flint, to light the fire +of excommunication, should the mutinous son of the Church hesitate to +pay the Holy Father due obedience. On arriving at Court, the Legate +opened his sweet box, and copiously gave out its smooth confectionery. +But the Emperor Frederick was a man delicate in palate; he soon smacked +the taste of the physic hidden in this sweetness, and he knew too well +its effects on the alimentary canal; so he turned away from the +treacherous mess, and declined having any more of it. Then the Legate +opened his other box, and made it spit some sparks, which singed the +Imperial beard, and stung the skin like nettles; whereby the Emperor +discovered that the Holy Father's finger might, ere long, be heavier on +him than the Legate's loins; therefore plied himself to the purpose, +engaged to lead the armies of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> the Lord against the Unbelievers in the +East, and appointed his Princes to assemble for an expedition to the +Holy Land. The Princes communicated the Imperial order to the Counts, +the Counts summoned out their vassals, the Knights and Nobles; the +Knights equipped their Squires and Horsemen; all mounted, and collected, +each under his proper banner.</p> + +<p>Except the night of St. Bartholomew, no night has ever caused such +sorrow and tribulation in the world, as this, which God's Vicegerent +upon Earth had employed in watching to produce a ruinous Crusade. Ah, +how many warm tears flowed, as knight and squire pricked off, and +blessed their dears! A glorious race of German heroes never saw the +light, because of this departure; but languished in embryo, as the germs +of plants in the Syrian desert, when the hot Sirocco has passed over +them. The ties of a thousand happy marriages were violently torn +asunder; ten thousand brides in sorrow hung their garlands, like the + +daughters of Jerusalem, upon the Babylonian willow-trees, and sat and +wept; and a hundred thousand lovely maidens grew up for the bridegroom +in vain, and blossomed like a rose-bed in a solitary cloister garden, +for there was no hand to pluck them, and they withered away unenjoyed. +Among the sighing spouses, whom this sleepless night of his Holiness +deprived of their husbands, were St. Elizabeth, the Landgraf of +Thuringia's lady, and Ottilia, Countess of Gleichen; a wife not +standing, it is true, in the odour of sanctity, yet in respect of +personal endowments, and virtuous conduct, inferior to none of her +contemporaries.</p> + +<p>Landgraf Ludwig, a trusty feudatory of the Emperor, had issued general +orders for his vassals to collect, and attend him to the camp. But most +of them sought pretexts for politely declining this honour. One was +tormented by the gout, another by the stone; one had got his horses +foundered, another's armoury had been destroyed by fire. Count Ernst of +Gleichen, however, with a little troop of stout retainers, who were free +and unencumbered, and took pleasure in the prospect of distant +adventures, equipped their squires and followers, obeyed the orders of +the Landgraf, and led their people to the place of rendezvous. The Count +had been wedded for two years; and in this period his lovely consort had +presented him with two children, a little master and a little miss, +which, according to the custom of those stalwart ages, had been born +without the aid of science, fair and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> softly as the dew from the +Twilight. A third pledge, which she carried under her heart, was, by +virtue of the Pope's insomnolency, destined, when it saw the light, to +forego the embraces of its father. Although Count Ernst put on the +rugged aspect of a man, Nature maintained her rights in him, and he +could not hide his strong feelings of tenderness, when at parting he +quitted the embraces of his weeping spouse. As in dumb sorrow he was +leaving her, she turned hastily to the cradle of her children; plucked +out of it her sleeping boy; pressed it softly to her breast, and held it +with tearful eyes to the father, to imprint a parting kiss on its +unconscious cheek. With her little girl she did the same. This gave the +Count a sharp twinge about the heart: his lips began to quiver, his +mouth visibly increased in breadth; and sobbing aloud, he pressed the +infants to his steel cuirass, under which there beat a very soft and +feeling heart; kissed them from their sleep, and recommended them, +together with their much loved mother, to the keeping of God and all the +Saints. As he winded down along the castle road with his harnessed troop +from the high fortress of Gleichen, she looked after him with desolate +sadness, till his banner, upon which she herself had wrought the +Red-cross with fine purple silk, no longer floated in her vision.</p> + +<p>Landgraf Ludwig was exceedingly contented as he saw his stately vassal, +and his knights and squires, advancing with their flag unfurled; but on +viewing him more narrowly, and noticing his trouble, he grew wroth; for +he thought the Count was faint of heart, and out of humour with the +expedition, and following it against his will. Therefore his brow +wrinkled down into frowns, and the landgraphic nostrils sniffed +displeasure. Count Ernst had a fine pathognomic eye; he soon observed +what ailed his lord, and going boldly up, disclosed to him the reason of +his cloudy mood. His words were as oil on the vinegar of discontent; the +Landgraf, with honest frankness, seized his vassal's hand, and said: +"Ah, is it so, good cousin? Then the shoe pinches both of us in one +place; Elizabeth's good-b'ye has given me a sore heart too. But be of +good cheer! While we are fighting abroad, our wives will be praying at +home, that we may return with renown and glory." Such was the custom of +the country in those days: while the husband took the field, the wife +continued in her chamber, solitary and still, fasting and praying, and +making vows without end, for his prosperous return.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> This old usage is +not universal in the land at present; as the last crusade of our German +warriors to the distant West,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> by the rich increase of families +during the absence of their heroic heads, has sufficiently made +manifest.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Of the Hessian troops to America, during the Revolutionary +War.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<p>The pious Elizabeth felt no less pain at parting from her husband than +her fair companion in distress, the Countess of Gleichen. Though her +lord the Landgraf was rather of a stormy disposition, she had lived with +him in the most perfect unity: and his terrestrial mass was by degrees +so imbued with the sanctity of his helpmate, that some beneficent +historians have appended to him likewise the title of Saint; which, +however, must be looked on rather as a charitable compliment than a real +statement of the truth; as with us, in these times, the epithets of +great, magnanimous, immortal, erudite, profound, for the most part +indicate no more than a little outward edge-gilding. So much appears +from all the circumstances, that the elevated couple did not always +harmonise in works of holiness; nay, that the Powers of Heaven had to +interfere at times in the domestic differences thence arising, to +maintain the family peace: as the following example will evince. The +pious lady, to the great dissatisfaction of her courtiers and +lip-licking pages, had the custom of reserving from the Landgraf's table +the most savoury dishes for certain hungry beggars, who incessantly +beleaguered the castle; and she used to give herself the satisfaction, +when the court dinner was concluded, of distributing this kind donation +to the poor with her own hands. According to the courtly system, whereby +thrift on the small scale is always to make up for wastefulness on the +great, the meritorious cook-department every now and then complained of +this as earnestly as if the whole dominions of Thuringia had run the +risk of being eaten up by these lank-sided guests; and the Landgraf, who +dabbled somewhat in economy, regarded it as so important an affair, +that, in all seriousness, he strictly forbade his consort this labour of +love, which had through time become her spiritual hobby. Nevertheless, +one day the impulse of benevolence, and the temptation to break through +her husband's orders in pursuit of it, became too strong to be resisted. +She beckoned to her women, who were then uncovering the table, to take +off some untouched dishes, with a few rolls of wheaten bread, and keep +them as smuggled goods. These she packed into a little basket, and stole +out with it by a postern gate.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the watchers had got wind of it, and betrayed it to the Landgraf, +who gave instant orders for a strict guard upon all the outlets of the +castle. Being told that his lady had been seen gliding with a heavy load +through the postern, he proceeded with majestic strides across the +court-yard, and stept out upon the drawbridge, as if to take a mouthful +of fresh air. Alas! The pious lady heard the jingling of his golden +spurs; and fear and terror came upon her, till her knees trembled, and +she could not move another footstep. She concealed the victual-basket +under her apron, that modest covering of female charms and roguery; but +whatever privileges this inviolable asylum may enjoy against excisemen +and officers of customs, it is no wall of brass for a husband. The +Landgraf, smelling mischief, hastened to the place; his sunburnt cheeks +were reddened with indignation, and the veins swelled fearfully upon his +brow.</p> + +<p>"Wife," said he, in a hasty tone, "what hast thou in the basket thou art +hiding from me? Is it victuals from my table, for thy vile crew of +vagabonds and beggars?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all, dear lord," replied Elizabeth, meekly, but with +embarrassment, who held herself entitled, without prejudice to her +sanctity, to make a little slip in the present critical position of +affairs: "it is nothing but a few roses that I gathered in the garden."</p> + +<p>Had the Landgraf been one of our contemporaries, he must have believed +his lady on her word of honour, and desisted from farther search; but in +those wild times the minds of men were not so polished.</p> + +<p>"Let us see," said the imperious husband, and sharply pulled the apron +to a side. The tender wife had no defence against this violence but by +recoiling: "O! softly, softly, my dear husband!" said she, and blushed +for shame at being detected in a falsehood, in presence of her servants. +But, O wonder upon wonder! the <i>corpus delicti</i> was in very deed +transformed into the fairest blooming roses; the rolls had changed to +white roses, the sausages to red, the omelets to yellow ones! With +joyful amazement the saintly dame observed this metamorphosis, and knew +not whether to believe her eyes; for she had never given credit to her +Guardian Angel for such delicate politeness, as to work a miracle in +favour of a lady, when the point was to cajole a rigorous husband, and +make good a female affirmation.</p> + +<p>So visible a proof of innocence allayed the fierceness of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Lion. He +now turned his tremendous looks on the down-stricken serving-men, who, +as it was apparent, had been groundlessly calumniating his angelic wife; +he scornfully rated them, and swore a deep oath, that the first +eaves-dropping pickthank who again accused his virtuous wife to him, he +would cast into the dungeon, and there let him lie and rot. This done, +he took a rose from the basket, and stuck it in his hat, in triumph for +his lady's innocence. History has not certified us, whether, on the +following day, he found a withered rose or a cold sausage there: in the +mean time it assures us, that the saintly wife, when her lord had left +her with the kiss of peace, and she herself had recovered from her +fright, stept down the hill, much comforted in heart, to the meadow +where her nurslings, the lame and blind, the naked and the hungry, were +awaiting her, to dole out among them her intended bounty. For she well +knew that the miraculous deception would again vanish were she there, as +in reality it did; for, on opening her victual-magazine she found no +roses at all, but in their stead the nutritious crumbs which she had +snatched from the teeth of the castle bone-polishers.</p> + +<p>Though now, by the departure of her husband, she was to be freed from +his rigorous superintendence, and obtain free scope to execute her +labours of love in secret or openly, when and where it pleased her, yet +she loved her imperious husband so faithfully and sincerely, that she +could not part from him without the deepest sorrow. Ah! she foreboded +but too well, that in this world she should not see him any more. And +for the enjoyment of him in the other, the aspect of affairs was little +better. A canonised Saint has such preferment there, that all other +Saints compared with her are but a heavenly mob.</p> + +<p>High as the Landgraf had been stationed in this sublunary world, it was +a question whether, in the courts of Heaven, he might be found worthy to +kneel on the footstool of her throne, and raise his eyes to his former +bedmate. Yet, many vows as she made, many good works as she did, much as +her prayers in other cases had availed with all the Saints, her credit +in the upper world was not sufficient to stretch out her husband's term +a span. He died on this march, in the bloom of life, of a malignant +fever, at Otranto, before he had acquired the knightly merit of chining +a single Saracen. While he was preparing for departure, and the time was +come for him to give the world his blessing, he called Count Ernst from +among his other servants and vassals to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> bedside; appointed him +commander of the troops which he himself had led thus far, and made him +swear that he would not return till he had thrice drawn his sword +against the Infidel. Then he took the holy viaticum from the hands of +his marching chaplain; and ordering as many masses for his soul, as +might have brought himself and all his followers triumphantly into the +New Jerusalem, he breathed his last. Count Ernst had the corpse of his +lord embalmed: he enclosed it in a silver coffin, and sent it to the +widowed lady, who wore mourning for her husband like a Roman Empress, +for she never laid her weeds aside while she continued in this world.</p> + +<p>Count Ernst of Gleichen forwarded the pilgrimage as much as possible, +and arrived in safety with his people in the camp at Ptolemais. Here, it +was rather a theatrical emblem of war than a serious campaign that met +his view. For as on our stages, when they represent a camp or field of +battle, there are merely a few tents erected in the foreground, and a +little handful of players scuffling together; but in the distance many +painted tents and squadrons to assist the illusion, and cheat the eye, +the whole being merely intended for an artificial deception of the +senses; so also was the crusading army a mixture of fiction and reality. +Of the numerous heroic hosts that left their native country, it was +always the smallest part that reached the boundaries of the land they +had gone forth to conquer. But few were devoured by the swords of the +Saracens. These Infidels had powerful allies, whom they sent beyond +their frontiers, and who made brisk work among their enemies, though +getting neither wages nor thanks for their good service. These allies +were, Hunger and Nakedness, Perils by land and water and among bad +brethren, Frost and Heat, Pestilence and malignant Boils; and the +grinding Home-sickness also fell at times like a heavy Incubus upon the +steel harness, and crushed it together like soft pasteboard, and spurred +the steed to a quick return. Under these circumstances, Count Ernst had +little hope of speedily fulfilling his oath, and thrice dyeing his +knightly sword in unbelieving blood, as must be done before he thought +of returning. For three days' journey round the camp, no Arab archer was +to be seen; the weakness of the Christian host lay concealed behind its +bulwarks and entrenchments; they did not venture out to seek the distant +enemy, but waited for the slow help of his slumbering Holiness, who, +since the wakeful night that gave rise to this Crusade, had enjoyed +unbroken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> sleep, and about the issue of the Holy War had troubled +himself very little.</p> + +<p>In this inaction, as inglorious to the Christian army, as of old that +loitering was to the Greeks before the walls of bloody but courageous +Troy, where the godlike Achilles, with his confederates, moped so long +about his fair Briseis,—the chivalry of Christendom kept up much +jollity and recreation in their camp, to kill lazy time, and scare away +the blue devils; the Italians, with song and harping, to which the +nimble-footed Frenchmen danced; the solemn Spaniards with chess; the +English with cock-fighting; the Germans with feasting and wassail.</p> + +<p>Count Ernst, taking small delight in any of these pastimes, amused +himself with hunting; made war on the foxes in the dry wildernesses, and +pursued the shy chamois into the barren mountains. The knights of his +train "disagreed" with the glowing sun by day, and the damp evening air +under the open sky, and sneaked to a side when their lord called for his +horses; therefore, in his hunting expeditions, he was generally attended +only by his faithful Squire, named the mettled Kurt, and a single groom. +Once, his eagerness in clambering after the chamois, had carried him to +such a distance, that the sun was dipping in the Mid-sea wave before he +thought of returning; and, fast as he hastened homewards, night came +upon him at a distance from the camp. The appearance of some treacherous +<i>ignes fatui</i>, which he mistook for the watch-fires, led him off still +farther. On discovering his error, he resolved to rest beneath a tree +till daybreak. The trusty Squire prepared a bed of soft moss for his +lord, who, wearied by the heat of the day, fell asleep before he could +lift his hand to bless himself, according to custom, with the sign of +the cross. But to the mettled Kurt there came no wink of sleep, for he +was by nature watchful like a bird of darkness; and though this gift had +not belonged to him, his faithful care for his lord would have kept him +waking. The night, as usual in the climate of Asia, was serene and +still; the stars twinkled in pure diamond light; and solemn silence, as +in the Valley of Death, reigned over the wide desert. No breath of air +was stirring, yet the nocturnal coolness poured life and refreshment +over herb and living thing. But about the third watch, when the morning +star had begun to announce the coming day, there arose a din in the +dusky remoteness, like the voice of a forest stream rushing over some +steep precipice. The watchful squire listened eagerly, and sent his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +other senses also out for tidings, as his sharp eye could not pierce the +veil of darkness. He hearkened, and snuffed at the same time, like a +bloodhound, for a scent came towards him as of sweet-smelling herbs and +trodden grass, and the strange noise appeared to be approaching. He laid +his ear to the ground, and heard a trampling as of horses' hoofs, which +led him to conclude that the Infernal Chase was hunting in these parts. +A cold shudder passed over him, and his terror grew extreme. He shook +his master from sleep; and the latter, having roused himself, soon saw +that here another than a spectral host was to be fronted. Whilst his +groom girded up the horses, the Count had his harness buckled on in all +haste.</p> + +<p>The dim shadows gradually withdrew, and the advancing morning tinted the +eastern hem of the horizon with purple light. The Count now discovered, +what he had anticipated, a host of Saracens approaching, all equipped +for fight, to snatch some booty from the Christians. To escape their +hands was hopeless, and the hospitable tree in the wide solitary plain +gave no shelter to conceal horse and man behind it. Unluckily the massy +steed was not a Hippogryph, but a heavy-bodied Frieslander, to which, by +reason of its make, the happy talent of bearing off its master on the +wings of the wind had not been allotted; therefore the gallant hero gave +his soul to the keeping of God and the Holy Virgin, and resolved on +dying like a knight. He bade his servants follow him, and sell their +lives as dear as might be. Thereupon he pricked the Frieslander boldly +forward, and dashed right into the middle of the hostile squadron, who +had been expecting no such sudden onset from a single knight. The Pagans +started in astonishment, and flew asunder like light chaff when +scattered by the wind. But seeing that the enemy was only three men +strong, their courage rose, and there began an unequal battle, in which +valour was surpassed by number. The Count meanwhile kept plunging yarely +through the ranks; the point of his lance gleamed death and destruction +to the Infidel; and when it found its man, he flew inevitably from his +saddle. Their Captain himself, who ran at him with grim fury, his manly +arm laid low, and with his victorious spear transfixed him writhing in +the dust, as St. George of England did the Dragon. The mettled Kurt went +on with no less briskness; though availing little for attack, he was a +master in the science of dispatching, and sent all to pot who did not +make resistance; as a modern critic butchers the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> defenceless rabble of +the lame and halt, who venture with such courage in our days into the +literary tilt-yard: and if now and then some fainting invalid, with +furious aim, like an exasperated Reviewer-hunter, did hurl a stone at +him with enfeebled fist, he heeded it little; for he knew well that his +basnet and iron jack would turn a moderate thump. The groom, too, did +his best to make clear ground about him, and kept his master's back +unharmed. But as nine gad-flies will beat the strongest horse; four +Caffre bulls an African lion; and, by the common tale, one troop of mice +an archbishop, as the <i>Mäusethurm</i>, or Mouse-tower, on the Rhine, by +Hübner's account, gives open testimony; so the Count of Gleichen, after +doing knightly battle, was at length overpowered by the number of his +enemies. His arm grew weary, his lance was shivered into splinters, his +sword became blunt, and his Friesland horse at last staggered down upon +the gory battle-field. The Knight's fall was the watch-word of victory; +a hundred valiant arms stormed in on him to wrench away his sword, and +his hand had no longer any strength for resistance. As the mettled Kurt +observed the Knight come down, his own courage sank also, and along with +it the pole-axe, wherewith he had so magnanimously hammered in the +Saracenic skulls. He surrendered at discretion, and pressingly entreated +quarter. The groom stood in blank rumination; bore himself enduringly; +and awaited with oxlike equanimity the stroke of some mace upon his +basnet, which should crush him to the ground.</p> + +<p>But the Saracens were less inhuman victors than the conquered could have +expected; they disarmed their three prisoners of war, and did them no +bodily harm whatever. This mild usage took its rise not in any movement +of philanthropy, but in mere spy's-mercy: from a dead enemy there is +nothing to be learnt, and the special object of this roaming troop had +been to get correct intelligence about the state of matters in the +Christian host at Ptolemais. The captives, being questioned and heard, +were next, according to the Asiatic fashion, furnished with +slave-fetters; and as a ship was just then lying ready to set sail for +Alexandria, the Bey of Asdod sent them off with it as a present to the +Sultan of Egypt, to confirm at Court their description of the Christian +resources and position. The rumour of the bold Frank's valour had +arrived before him at the gates of Grand Cairo; and so pugnacious a +prisoner might, on entering the hostile metropolis, have merited as +pompous a reception as the Twelfth of April saw bestowed upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the Comte +de Grasse in London, where the merry capital emulously strove to let the +conquered sea-hero feel the honour which their victory had done him: but +Moslem self-conceit allows no justice to foreign merit. Count Ernst, in +the garb of a felon, loaded with heavy chains, was quietly locked into +the Grated Tower, where the Sultan's slaves were wont to be kept.</p> + +<p>Here, in long painful nights, and mournful solitary days, he had time +and leisure to survey the grim stony aspect of his future life; and it +required as much steadfastness and courage to bear up under these +contemplations, as to tilt it on the battle-field among a wandering +horde of Arabs. The image of his former domestic happiness kept hovering +before his eyes; he thought of his gentle wife, and the tender shoots of +their chaste love. Ah! how he cursed the miserable feud of Mother-church +with the Gog and Magog of the East, which had robbed him of his fair lot +in existence, and fettered him in slave-shackles never to be loosed! In +such moments he was ready to despair altogether; and his piety had +well-nigh made shipwreck on this rock of offence.</p> + +<p>In the days of Count Ernst there was current, among anecdotic persons, a +wondrous story of Duke Henry the Lion, which at that period, as a thing +that had occurred within the memory of man, found great credence in the +German Empire. The Duke, so runs the tale, while proceeding over sea to +the Holy Land, was, in a tempest, cast away upon a desert part of the +African coast; where, escaping alone from shipwreck, he found shelter +and succour in the den of a hospitable Lion. This kindness in the savage +owner of the cave had its origin not in the heart, but in the left +hind-paw; while hunting in the Libyan wilderness, he had run a thorn +into his foot, which so tormented him, that he could hardly move, and +had entirely forgotten his natural voracity. The acquaintance being +formed, and mutual confidence established between the parties, the Duke +assumed the office of chirurgeon to the royal beast, and laboriously +picked out the thorn from his foot. The patient rapidly recovered, and, +mindful of the service, entertained his lodger with his best from the +produce of his plunder; and, though a Lion, was as friendly and +officious towards him as a lap-dog.</p> + +<p>The Duke, however, soon grew weary of the cold collations of his +four-footed landlord, and began to long for the flesh-pots of his own +far-distant kitchen; for in readying the game handed in to him, he by no +means rivalled his Brunswick cook. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the home-sickness came upon him +like a heavy load; and seeing no possibility of ever getting back to his +paternal heritage, the thought of this so grieved his soul, that he +wasted visibly, and pined like a wounded hart. Thereupon the Tempter, +with his wonted impudence in desert places, came before him, in the +figure of a little swart wrinkled manikin, whom the Duke at first sight +took for an ourang-outang; but it was the Devil himself, Satan in proper +person, and he grinned, and said: "Duke Henry, what ails thee? If thou +trust to me, I will put an end to all thy sorrow, and take thee home to +thy wife to sup with her this night in the Castle of Brunswick; for a +lordly supper is making ready there, seeing she is about to wed another +man, having lost hope of thy life."</p> + +<p>This despatch came rolling like a thunder-clap into the Duke's ear, and +cut him through the heart like a sharp two-edged sword. Rage burnt in +his eyes like flames of fire, and desperation uproared in his breast. If +Heaven will not help me in this crisis, thought he, then let Hell! It +was one of those entangling situations which the Arch-crimp, with his +consummate skill in psychological science, can employ so dextrously when +the enlisting of a soul that he has cast an eye on is to prosper in his +hands. The Duke, without hesitation, buckled on his golden spurs, girded +his sword about his loins, and put himself in readiness. "Quick, my good +fellow!" said he; "carry me, and this my trusty Lion, to Brunswick, +before the varlet reach my bed!"—"Well!" answered Blackbeard, "but dost +thou know the carriage-dues?"—"Ask what thou wilt!" said Duke Henry; +"it shall be given thee at thy word."—"Thy soul at sight in the other +world," replied Beelzebub.—"Done! Be it so!" cried furious jealousy, +from Henry's mouth.</p> + +<p>The bargain was forthwith concluded in legal form, between the two +contracting parties. The Infernal Kite directly changed himself into a +winged Griffin, and seizing the Duke in the one clutch, and the trusty +Lion in the other, conveyed them both in one night from the Libyan coast +to Brunswick, the towering city, founded on the lasting basis of the +Harz, which even the lying prophecies of the Zillerfeld vaticinator have +not ventured to overthrow. There he set down his burden safely in the +middle of the market-place, and vanished, just as the watchman was +blowing his horn with intent to proclaim the hour of midnight, and then +carol forth a superannuated bridal-song from his rusty mum-washed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +weasand. The ducal palace, and the whole city, still gleamed like the +starry heaven with the nuptial illumination; every street resounded with +the din and tumult of the gay people streaming forward to gaze on the +decorated bride, and the solemn torch-dance with which the festival was +to conclude. The Aeronaut, unwearied by his voyage, pressed on amid the +crowding multitude through the entrance of the Palace; advanced with +clanking spurs, under the guidance of his trusty Lion, to the +banquet-chamber; drew his sword, and cried: "With me, whoever stands by +Duke Henry; and to traitors, death and hell!" The Lion also bellowed, as +if seven thunders had been uttering their united voices; shook his awful +mane, and furiously erected his tail, as the signal of attack. The +cornets and kettle-drums struck silent suddenly, and a horrid sound of +battle pealed from the tumult in the wedding-hall, up to the very Gothic +roof, till the walls rang with it, and the thresholds shook.</p> + +<p>The golden-haired bridegroom, and his party-coloured butterflies of +courtiers, fell beneath the sword of the Duke, as the thousand +Philistines beneath the ass's jaw-bone, in the sturdy fist of the son of +Manoah; and he who escaped the sword, rushed into the Lion's throat, and +was butchered like a defenceless lamb. When the forward wooer and his +retinue of serving-men and nobles were abolished, Duke Henry, having +used his household privilege as sternly as of old the wise Ulysses to +the wooing-club of his chaste Penelope, sat down to table, refreshed in +spirit, beside his wife, who was just beginning to recover from the +deadly fright his entrance had caused her. While briskly enjoying the +dainties of his cook, which had not been prepared for him, he cast a +glance of triumph on his new conquest, and perceived that she was bathed +in ambiguous tears, which might as well refer to loss as to gain. +However, like a man that knew the world, he explained them wholly to his +own advantage; and merely reproving her in gentle words for the hurry of +her heart, he from that hour entered upon all his former rights.</p> + +<p>Count Ernst had often listened to this strange story, from the lips of +his nurse; yet in riper years, as an enlightened sceptic, entertained +doubts of its truth. But in the dreary loneliness of his Grated Tower, +the whole incident acquired a form of possibility, and his wavering +nursery belief increased almost to conviction. A transit through the air +appeared to him the simplest thing in nature, if the Prince of Darkness, +in the gloomy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> midnight, chose to lend his bat-wings for the purpose. +Though in obedience to his religious principles, he no night neglected +to cut a large cross before him as he went to sleep; yet a secret +longing awoke in his heart, without its own distinct consciousness, to +accomplish the same adventure. If a wandering mouse in the night-season +happened to scratch upon the wainscot, he immediately supposed the +Hellish Proteus was announcing his arrival, and at times in thought he +went so far as settling the freight charges beforehand. But except the +illusion of a dream, which juggled him into an aerial journey to his +German native land, the Count gained nothing by his nursery faith, +except employing with these fantasies a few vacant hours; and like a +reader of novels, transporting himself into the situation of the acting +hero. Why old Abaddon showed himself so sluggish in this case, when the +kidnapping of a soul was in the wind, and in all likelihood the +enterprise must have succeeded, may be accounted for in two ways. Either +the Count's Guardian Angel was more watchful than the one to whom Duke +Henry had intrusted the keeping of his soul, and resisted so stoutly +that the Evil One could get no advantage over him; or the Prince of the +Air had grown disgusted with the transport-trade in this his own +element, having been bubbled out of his stipulated freightage by Duke +Henry after all their engagements; for when it came to the point with +Henry, his soul was found to have so many good works on her side of the +account, that the scores on the Infernal tally were altogether cancelled +by them.</p> + +<p>Whilst Count Ernst was weaving in romantic dreams a feeble shadow of +hope for deliverance from his captivity, and for a few moments in the +midst of them forgetting his dejection and misery, his returning +servants brought the Countess tidings that their master had vanished +from the camp, and none knew what had become of him. Some supposed that +he had been the prey of snakes or dragons; others that a pestilential +blast of wind had met him in the Syrian desert, and killed him; others +that he had been robbed and murdered, or taken captive, by some +plundering troop of Arabs. In one point all agreed: That he was to be +held <i>pro mortuo</i>, dead in law, and that the Countess was entirely +relieved and enfranchised from her matrimonial engagements. But to the +Countess herself, a secret foreboding still whispered that her lord was +alive notwithstanding. Nor did she by any means repress this thought, +which so solaced her heart; for hope is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> always the stoutest stay of the +afflicted, and the sweetest dream of life. To maintain it, she secretly +equipped a trusty servant, and sent him out for tidings, over sea into +the Holy Land. Like the raven from the Ark, this scout flew to and fro +upon the waters, and was no more heard of. Then she sent another forth; +who returned after several years' cruising over sea and land; but no +olive-leaf of hope was in his bill. Nevertheless the steadfast lady +doubted not in the least that she should yet meet her lord in the land +of the living: for she had a firm persuasion that so tender and true a +husband could not possibly have left the world without in the +catastrophe remembering his wife and little children at home, and giving +them some token of his death. Now, since the Count's departure, there +had nothing happened in the Castle; neither in the armoury by rattling +of the harness, nor in the garret by a rolling joist, nor in the +bed-chamber by a faint footstep, or heavy-booted tread. Nor had any +nightly moaning chanted its <i>Nænia</i> down from the high battlements of +the palace; nor had the baleful bird Kreideweiss ever issued its +lugubrious death-summons. In the absence of all these signs of evil +omen, she inferred by the principles of female common-sense philosophy, +which even in our own times are by no means fallen into such desuetude +among the fair sex, as Father Aristotle's <i>Organum</i> is among the male, +that her much-loved husband was still living; a conclusion, which we +know was perfectly correct. The fruitless issue of her first two +missions of discovery, the object of which was more important to her +than the finding of the Southern Polar Continent is to us, she allowed +not in the least to deter her from sending out a third Apostle into All +the World. This third was of a slow turn, and had imprinted on his mind +the adage, <i>As soon gets the snail to his bed as the swallow</i>; therefore +he called at every inn, and treated himself well. And it being +infinitely more convenient that the people whom he was to question about +his master should come to him, than that he should go tracking and +spying them out in the wide world, he determined on choosing a position +where he could examine every passenger from the East, with the insolent +inquisitiveness of a toll-man behind his barrier; and fixed his quarters +by the harbour of Venice. This Queen of the Waters was at that time, as +it were, the general gate, which all pilgrims and crusaders from the +Holy Land passed through in their way home. Whether this shrewd genius +chose the best or the worst means for discharging his appointed +function, will appear in the sequel.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<p>After a seven-years narrow custody in the Grated Tower at Grand +Cairo,—a term which to the Count seemed far longer than to the Seven +Sleepers their seventy-years sleep in the Roman catacombs,—he concluded +himself to be forsaken of Heaven and Hell, and utterly gave up hope of +ever getting out in the body from this melancholy cage, where the kind +face of the sun was not allowed to visit him, and the broken daylight +struggled faintly in through a window secured with iron bars. His +devil-romance was long ago concluded; and his faith in miraculous +assistance from his Guardian Saint was lighter than a mustard-seed. He +vegetated rather than lived; and if in these circumstances any wish +arose in him, it was the wish to be annihilated.</p> + +<p>From this lethargic stupor he was suddenly aroused by the rattling of a +bunch of keys, before the door of his cell. Since the day of his +entrance, his jailor had never more performed for him the office of +turnkey; for all the necessaries of the prisoner had been conveyed +through a trap-board in the door. Accordingly, it was not without long +resistance, and the bribery of a little vegetable oil, that the rusty +bolt obeyed him. But the creaking of the iron hinges, as the door went +up with reluctant grating, was to the Count a compound of more melodious +notes than ever came from the Harmonica of Franklin. A foreboding +palpitation of the heart set his stagnant blood in motion; and he +expected with impatient longing the intelligence of a change in his +fate: for the rest, it was indifferent to him whether it brought life or +death. Two black slaves entered with his jailor, at whose signal they +loosed the fetters from the prisoner; and a second mute sign from the +solemn graybeard commanded him to follow. He obeyed with faltering +steps; his feet refused their service, and he needed the support of the +two slaves, to totter down the winding stone stair. He was then +conducted to the Captain of the Prison, who, looking at him with a +reproachful air, thus spoke: "Obstinate Frank, what made thee hide the +craft thou art acquainted with, when thou wert put into the Grated +Tower? One of thy fellow-prisoners has betrayed thee, and informed us +that thou art a master in the art of gardening. Go, whither the will of +the Sultan calls thee; lay out a garden in the manner of the Franks, and +watch over it like the apple of thy eye; that the Flower of the World +may blossom in it pleasantly, for the adorning of the East."</p> + +<p>If the Count had got a call to Paris to be Rector of the Sorbonne, the +appointment could not have astonished him more, than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> this of being +gardener to the Sultan of Egypt. About gardening he understood as little +as a laic about the secrets of the Church. In Italy, it is true, he had +seen many gardens; and at Nürnberg, where the dawn of that art was now +first penetrating into Germany, though the horticultural luxury of the +Nürnbergers did not yet extend much farther than a bowling-green, and a +few beds of roman lettuce. But about the planning of gardens, and the +cultivation of plants, like a martial nobleman, he had never troubled +his head; and his botanic science was so limited, that the Flower of the +World had never once come under his inspection. Hence he knew not in the +least by what method it was to be treated; whether like the aloe it must +be brought to blossom by the aid of art, or like a common marigold by +the genial virtue of nature alone. Nevertheless, he did not venture to +acknowledge his ignorance, or decline the preferment offered him; being +reasonably apprehensive that they might convince him of his fitness for +the post, by a bastinading on the soles.</p> + +<p>A pleasant park was assigned him, which he was to change into a European +garden. The spot had, either by the hand of bountiful Nature, or of +ancient cultivation, been so happily disposed and ornamented already, +that the new Abdalonymus, let him cudgel his brains as he would, could +perceive no error or defect in it, nothing that admitted of improvement. +Besides, the aspect of living and active nature, which for seven long +years in his dreary prison he had been obliged to forego, affected him + +at once so powerfully, that he inhaled rapture from every grass-flower, +and looked at all things around him with delight, like the First Man in +Paradise, to whom the scientific thought of censuring anything in the +arrangement of his Eden did not occur. The Count therefore found himself +in no small embarrassment about discharging his commission creditably; +he feared that every change would rob the garden of a beauty, and were +he detected as a botcher, he must travel back into his Grated Tower.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, as Shiek Kiamel, Overseer of the Gardens and favourite +of the Sultan, was diligently stimulating him to begin the work, he +required fifty slaves, as necessary for the execution of his enterprise. +Next morning at dawn, they were all ready, and passed muster before +their new commander, who as yet saw not how he should employ a man of +them. But how great was his joy as he perceived the mottled Kurt and the +ponderous Groom, his two companions of misfortune, ranked among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> the +troop! A hundredweight of lead rolled off his heart, the wrinkle of +dejection vanished from his brow, and his eyes were enlightened, as if +he had dipt his staff in honey and tasted thereof. He led the trusty +Squire aside, and frankly informed him into what a heterogeneous element +he had been cast by the caprices of fate, where he could neither fly nor +swim; nor could he in the least comprehend what enigmatical mistake had +exchanged his knightly sword with the gardener's spade. No sooner had he +done speaking, than the mettled Kurt, with wet eyes, fell at his feet, +then lifted up his voice and said: "Pardon, dear master! It is I that +have caused your perplexity and your deliverance from the rascally +Grated Tower, which has kept you so long in ward. Be not angry that the +innocent deceit of your servant has brought you out of it; be glad +rather that you see God's sky again above your head. The Sultan required +a garden after the manner of the Franks, and had proclamation made to +all the Christian captives in the Bazam, that the proper man should step +forth, and expect great recompense if the undertaking prospered. No one +of them durst meddle with it; but I recollected your heavy durance. Then +some good spirit whispered me the lie of announcing you as an adept in +the art of gardening, and it has succeeded perfectly. And now never vex +yourself about the way of managing the business: the Sultan, like the +great people of the world, has a fancy not for something better than he +has already, but for something different, that may be new and singular. +Therefore, delve and devastate, and cut and carve, in this glorious +field, according to your pleasure; and depend upon it, everything you do +or purpose will be right in his eyes."</p> + +<p>This speech was as the murmur of a running brook in the ears of a tired +wanderer in the desert. The Count drew balsam to his soul from it, and +courage to commence with boldness the ungainly undertaking. He set his +men to work at random, without plan; and proceeded with the well-ordered +shady park, as one of your "bold geniuses" proceeds with an antiquated +author, who falls into his creative hands, and, nill he will he, must +submit to let himself be modernised, that is to say, again made readable +and likeable; or as a new pedagogue with the ancient forms of the +Schools. He jumbled in variegated confusion what he found before him, +making all things different, nothing better. The profitable fruit-trees +he rooted out, and planted rosemary and valerian, and exotic shrubs, or +scentless amaranths, in their stead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> The rich soil he dug away, and +coated the naked bottom with many-coloured gravel, which he carefully +stamped hard, and smoothed like a threshing-floor, that no blade of +grass might spring in it. The whole space he divided into various +terraces, which he begirt with a hem of green; and through these a +strangely-twisted flower-bed serpentised along, and ended in a knot of +villanously-smelling boxwood. And as from his ignorance of botany, he +paid no heed to the proper seasons for sowing and planting, his garden +project hovered for a long time between life and death, and had the +aspect of a suit of clothes <i>à feuille mourante</i>.</p> + +<p>Shiek Kiamel, and the Sultan himself, allowed the Western gardener to +take his course, without deranging his conception by their interference +or their dictatorial opinion, and by premature hypercriticism +interrupting the procedure of his horticultural genius. In this they +acted more wisely than our obstreperous public, which, from our famous +philanthropic scheme of sowing acorns, expected in a summer or two a +stock of strong oaks, fit to be masts for three-deckers; while the +plantation was as yet so soft and feeble, that a few frosty nights might +have sent it to destruction. Now, indeed, almost in the middle of the +second decade of years from the commencement of the enterprise, when the +first fruits must certainly be over-ripe, it were in good season for a +German Kiamel to step forward with the question: "Planter, what art thou +about? Let us see what thy delving, and the loud clatter of thy cars and +wheelbarrows have produced?" And if the plantation stood before him like +that of the Gleichic Garden at Grand Cairo, in the sere and yellow leaf, +then were he well entitled, after due consideration of the matter, like +the Shiek, to shake his head in silence, to spit a squirt through his +teeth, and think within himself: If this be all, it might have stayed as +it was. For one day, as the gardener was surveying his new creation with +contentment, sitting in judgment on himself, and pronouncing that the +work praised the master, and that, everything considered, it had fallen +out better than he could have anticipated, his whole ideal being before +his eyes, not only what was then, but what was to be made of it,—the +Overseer, the Sultan's favourite, stept into the garden, and said: +"Frank, what art thou about? And how far art thou got with thy labour?" +The Count easily perceived that the produce of his genius would now have +to stand a rigorous criticism; however, he had long been ready for this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +accident. He collected all his presence of mind, and answered +confidently: "Come, sir, and see! This former wilderness has obeyed the +hand of art, and is now moulded, after the pattern of Paradise, into a +scene which the Houris would not disdain to select for their abode." The +Shiek, hearing a professed artist speak with such apparent warmth and +satisfaction of his own performance, and giving the master credit for +deeper insight in his own sphere than he himself possessed, restrained +the avowal of his discontentment with the whole arrangement, modestly +ascribing this dislike to his inacquaintance with foreign taste, and +leaving the matter to rest on its own basis. Nevertheless, he could not +help putting one or two questions, for his own information; to which the +garden satrap was not in the least behindhand with his answers.</p> + +<p>"Where are the glorious fruit-trees," began the Shiek, "which stood on +this sandy level, loaded with peaches and sweet lemons, which solaced +the eye, and invited the promenader to refreshing enjoyment?"</p> + +<p>"They are all hewn away by the surface, and their place is no longer to +be found."</p> + +<p>"And why so?"</p> + +<p>"Could the garden of the Sultan admit such trash of trees, which the +commonest citizen of Cairo cultivates, and the fruit of which is offered +for sale by assloads every day?"</p> + +<p>"What moved thee to desolate the pleasant grove of dates and tamarinds, +which was the wanderer's shelter against the sultry noontide, and gave +him coolness and refection under the vault of its shady boughs?"</p> + +<p>"What has shade to do in a garden which, while the sun shoots forth +scorching beams, stands solitary and deserted, and only exhales its +balsamic odours when fanned by the cool breeze of evening?"</p> + +<p>"But did not this grove cover, with an impenetrable veil, the secrets of +love, when the Sultan, enchanted by the charms of a fair Circassian, +wished to hide his tenderness from the jealous eyes of her companions?"</p> + +<p>"An impenetrable veil is to be found in that bower, overarched with +honeysuckle and ivy; or in that cool grotto, where a crystal fountain +gushes out of artificial rocks into a basin of marble; or in that +covered walk with its trellises of clustering vines; or on the sofa, +pillowed with soft moss, in the rustic reed-house<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> by the pond; nor will +any of these secret shrines afford lodging for destructive worms, and +buzzing insects, or keep away the wafting air, or shut up the free +prospect, as the gloomy grove of tamarinds did."</p> + +<p>"But why hast thou planted sage, and hyssop which grows upon the wall, +here on this spot where formerly the precious balm-tree of Mecca +bloomed?"</p> + +<p>"Because the Sultan wanted no Arabian, but a European garden. In Italy, +and in the German gardens of the Nürnbergers, no dates are ripened, nor +does any balm-tree of Mecca bloom."</p> + +<p>To this last argument no answer could be made. As neither the Shiek nor +any of the Heathen in Cairo had ever been at Nürnberg, he had nothing +for it but to take this version of the garden from Arabic into German, +on the word of the interpreter. Only, he could not bring himself to +think that the present horticultural reform had been managed by the +pattern of the Paradise, appointed by the Prophet for believing +Mussulmans; and, allowing the pretension to be true, he promised to +himself, from the joys of the future life, no very special consolation. +There was nothing for him, therefore, but, in the way above mentioned, +to shake his head, contemplatively squirt a dash of liquid out over his +beard, and go the way whence he had come.</p> + +<p>The Sultan who at that time swayed the Egyptian sceptre was the gallant +Malek al Aziz Othman, a son of the renowned Saladin. The fame of Sultan +Malek rests less upon his qualities in the field or the cabinet, than +upon the unexampled numerousness of his offspring. Of princes he had so +many, that had every one of them been destined to wear a crown, he might +have stocked with them all the kingdoms of the then known world. +Seventeen years ago, however, this copious spring had, one hot summer, +finally gone dry. Princess Melechsala terminated the long series of the +Sultanic progeny; and, in the unanimous opinion of the Court, she was +the jewel of the whole. She enjoyed to its full extent the prerogative +of youngest children, preference to all the rest; and this distinction +was enhanced by the circumstance, that of all the Sultan's daughters, +she alone had remained in life; while Nature had adorned her with so +many charms, that they enchanted even the paternal eye. For this must in +general be conceded to the Oriental Princes, that in the scientific +criticism of female beauty they are infinitely more advanced than our +Occidentals, who are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> every now and then betraying their imperfect +culture in this point.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Melechsala was the pride of the Sultan's +family; her brothers themselves were unremitting in attentions to her, +and in efforts to outdo each other in affectionate regard. The grave +Divan was frequently employed in considering what Prince, by means of +her, might be connected, in the bonds of love, with the interest of the +Egyptian state. This her royal father made his smallest care; he was +solely and incessantly concerned to grant this darling of his heart her +every wish, to keep her spirit always in a cheerful mood, that no cloud +might overcast the serene horizon of her brow.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Journal of Fashions</i>, June 1786.</p></div> + +<p>The first years of childhood she had passed under the superintendence of +a nurse, who was a Christian, and of Italian extraction. This slave had +in early youth been kidnapped from the beach of her native town by a +Barbary pirate; sold in Alexandria; and, by the course of trade, +transmitted from one hand to another, till at last she had arrived in +the palace of the Sultan, where her hale constitution recommended her to +this office, which she filled with the greatest reputation. Though less +tuneful than the French court-nurse, who used to give the signal for a +general chorus over all Versailles, whenever she uplifted, with +melodious throat, her <i>Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre</i>; yet nature had +sufficiently indemnified her by a glibness of tongue, in which she was +unrivalled. She knew as many tales and stories as the fair Sheherazade +in the Thousand-and-one Nights; a species of entertainment for which it +would appear the race of Sultans, in the privacy of their seraglios, +have considerable liking. The Princess, at least, found pleasure in it, +not for a thousand nights, but for a thousand weeks; and when once a +maiden has attained the age of a thousand weeks, she can no longer be +contented with the histories of others, for she sees materials in +herself to make a history of her own. In process of time, the gifted +waiting-woman changed her nursery-tales with the theory of European +manners and customs; and being herself a warm patriot, and recollecting +her native country with delight, she painted the superiorities of Italy +so vividly, that the fancy of her tender nursling became filled with the +subject, and the pleasant impression never afterwards faded from her +memory. The more this fair Princess grew in stature, the stronger grew +in her the love for foreign decoration; and her whole demeanour shaped +itself according to the customs of Europe rather than of Egypt.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>From youth upwards she had been a great lover of flowers: part of her +occupation had consisted in forming, according to the manner of the +Arabs, a constant succession of significant nosegays and garlands; with +which, in delicate expressiveness, she used to disclose the emotions of +her heart. Nay, she at last grew so inventive, that, by combining +flowers of various properties, she could compose, and often very +happily, whole sentences and texts of the Koran. These she would then +submit to her playmates for interpretation, which they seldom failed to +hit. Thus one day, for example, she formed with Chalcedonic Lychnis the +figure of a heart; surrounded it with white Roses and Lilies; fastened +under it two mounting Kingsweeds, enclosing a beautifully marked Anemone +between them; and her women, when she showed them, the wreath, +unanimously read: Innocence of heart is above Birth and Beauty. She +frequently presented her slaves with fresh nosegays: and these +flower-donations commonly included praise or blame for their receivers. +A garland of Peony-roses censured levity; the swelling Poppy, dulness +and vanity; a bunch of odoriferous Hyacinths, with drooping bells, was a +panegyric for modesty; the gold Lily, which shuts her leaves at sunset, +for prudence; the Marine Convolvulus rebuked eye-service; and the +blossoms of the Thorn-Apple, with the Daisy whose roots are poisonous, +indicated slander and private envy.</p> + +<p>Father Othman took a secret pleasure in this sprightly play of his +daughter's fancy, though he himself had no talent for deciphering these +witty hieroglyphics, and was frequently obliged to look with the +spectacles of his whole Divan before he could pierce their meaning. The +exotic taste of the Princess was not hidden from him; and though, as a +plain Mussulman, he could not sympathise with her in it, he endeavoured, +as a tender and indulgent parent, rather to maintain than to suppress +this favourite tendency of his daughter. He fell upon the project of +combining her passion for flowers with her preference for foreign parts, +and laying out a garden for her in the taste of the Franks. This idea +appeared to him so happy, that he lost not a moment in imparting it to +his favourite, Shiek Kiamel, and pressing him with the strictest +injunctions to realise it as speedily as possible. The Shiek, well +knowing that his master's wishes were for him commands, which he must +obey without reply, presumed not to mention the difficulties which he +saw in the attempt. He himself understood as little about European +gardens as the Sultan; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> in all Cairo there was no mortal known to +him, with whom he might find counsel in the business. Therefore he made +search among the Christian slaves for a man skilful in gardening; and +lighted exactly on the wrong hand for extricating him from his +difficulty. It was no wonder, then, that Shiek Kiamel shook his head +contemplatively as he inspected the procedure of this horticultural +improvement; for he was apprehensive, that if it delighted the Sultan as +little as it did himself, he might be involved in a heavy +responsibility, and his favouriteship, at the very least, might take +wings and fly away.</p> + +<p>At Court, this project had hitherto been treated as a secret, and the +entrance of the place prohibited to every one in the seraglio. The +Sultan purposed to surprise his daughter with this present on her +birthday; to conduct her with ceremony into the garden, and make it over +to her as her own. This day was now approaching; and his Highness had a +wish to take a view of everything beforehand, to get acquainted with the +new arrangements; that he might give himself the happiness of pointing +out in person to his daughter the peculiar beauties of her garden. He +communicated this to the Shiek, whom the tidings did not much +exhilarate; and who, in consequence, composed a short defensive oration, +which he fondly hoped might extricate his head from the noose, if the +Sultan showed himself dissatisfied with the appearance of his Christian +garden.</p> + +<p>"Commander of the Faithful," he purposed to say, "thy nod is the +director of my path; my feet hasten whither thou leadest them, and my +hand holds fast what thou committest to it. Thou wishedst a garden after +the manner of the Franks: here stands it before thy eyes. These +untutored barbarians have no gardens; but meagre wastes of sand, which, +in their own rude climate, where no dates or lemons ripen, and there is +neither Kalaf nor Bahobab,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> they plant with grass and weeds. For the +curse of the Prophet has smitten with perpetual barrenness the plains of +the Unbeliever, and forbidden him any foretaste of Paradise by the +perfume of the Mecca balm-tree, or the enjoyment of spicy fruits."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Kalaf</i>, a shrub, from whose blossoms a liquor is +extracted, resembling our cherry-water, and much used in domestic +medicine. <i>Bahobab</i>, a sort of fruit, in great esteem among the +Egyptians.</p></div> + +<p>The day was far spent, when the Sultan, attended only by the Shiek, +stept into the garden, in high expectation of the wonders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> he was to +behold. A wide unobstructed prospect over a part of the city, and the +mirror surface of the Nile with its <i>Musherns</i>, <i>Shamdecks</i> and +<i>Sheomeons</i><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> sailing to and fro; in the background, the +skyward-pointing pyramids, and a chain of blue vapoury mountains, met +his eye from the upper terrace, no longer shrouded-in by the leafy grove +of palms. A refreshing breath of air was also stirring in the place, and +fanning him agreeably. Crowds of new objects pressed on him from every +side. The garden had in truth got a strange foreign aspect; and the old +park which had been his promenade from youth upwards, and had long since +wearied him by its everlasting sameness, was no longer to be recognised. +The knowing Kurt had judged wisely, that the charm of novelty would have +its influence. The Sultan tried this horticultural metamorphosis not by +the principles of a critic, but by its first impression on the senses; +and as these are easily decoyed into contentment by the bait of +singularity, the whole seemed good and right to him there as he found +it. Even the crooked unsymmetrical walks, overlaid with hard stamped +gravel, gave his feet an elastic force, and a light firm tread, +accustomed as he was to move on nothing else but Persian carpets, or on +the soft greensward. He could not satisfy himself with wandering up and +down the labyrinthic walks; and he showed himself especially contented +with the rich variety of wild flowers, which had been fostered and +cultivated with the greatest care, though they were blossoming of their +own accord, outside the wall, with equal luxuriance and in greater +multitude.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Various sorts of sailing craft in use there.</p></div> + +<p>At last, having placed himself upon a seat, he turned to the Shiek with +a cheerful countenance, and said: "Kiamel, thou hast not deceived my +expectation: I well anticipated that thou wouldst transform me this old +park into something singular, and diverse from the fashion of the land; +and now I will not hide my satisfaction from thee. Melechsala may accept +thy work as a garden after the manner of the Franks."</p> + +<p>The Shiek, when he heard his despot talk in this dialect, marvelled much +that all things took so well; and blessed himself that he had held his +tongue, and retained his defensive oration to himself. Perceiving that +the Sultan seemed to look upon the whole as his invention, he directly +turned the rudder of his talk to the favourable breeze which was +rustling his sails, and spoke thus: "Puissant Commander of the Faithful, +be it known to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> thee that thy obedient slave took thought with himself +day and night how he might produce out of this old date-grove, at thy +beck and order, something unexampled, the like of which had never been +in Egypt before. Doubtless it was an inspiration of the Prophet that +suggested the idea of planning it according to the pattern of Paradise; +for I trusted, that by so doing I should not fail to meet the intention +of thy Highness."</p> + +<p>The worthy Sultan's conception of the Paradise, which to all appearance +by the course of nature he must soon become possessed of, had still been +exceedingly confused; or rather, like the favoured of fortune, who take +their ease in this lower world, he had never troubled himself much about +the other. But whenever any Dervish or Iman, or other spiritual person, +mentioned Paradise, some image of his old park used to rise on his +fancy; and the park was not by any means his favourite scene. Now, +however, his imagination had been steered on quite a different tack. The +new picture of his future happiness filled his soul with joy; at least +he could now suppose that Paradise might not be so dull as he had +hitherto figured it: and believing that he now possessed a model of it +on the small scale, he formed a high opinion of the garden; and +expressed this forthwith, by directly making Shiek Kiamel a Bey, and +presenting him with a splendid caftan. Your thorough-paced courtier +belies his nature in no quarter of the world: Kiamel, without the +slightest hesitation, modestly appropriated the reward of a service +which his functionary had performed; not uttering a syllable about him +to the Sultan, and thinking him rather too liberally rewarded by a few +aspers which he added to his daily pay.</p> + +<p>About the time when the Sun enters the Ram, a celestial phenomenon, +which in our climates is the watch-word for winter to commence his +operation; but under the milder sky of Egypt announces the finest season +of the year, the Flower of the World stept forth into the garden which +had been prepared for her, and found it altogether to her foreign taste. +She herself was, in truth, its greatest ornament: any scene where she +had wandered, had it been a desert in Arabia the Stony, or a Greenland +ice-field, would, in the eyes of a gallant person, have been changed +into Elysium at her appearance. The wilderness of flowers, which chance +had mingled in interminable rows, gave equal occupation to her eye and +her spirit: the disorder itself she assimilated, by her sprightly +allegories, to methodical arrangement.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>According to the custom of the country, every time she entered the +garden, all specimens of the male sex, planters, diggers, +water-carriers, were expelled by her guard of Eunuchs. The Grace for +whom our artist worked was thus hidden from his eyes, much as he could +have wished for once to behold this Flower of the World, which had so +long been a riddle in his botany. But as the Princess used to overstep +the fashions of the East in many points, so by degrees, while she grew +to like the garden more and more, and to pay it several visits daily, +she began to feel obstructed and annoyed by the attendance of her guard +sallying out before her in solemn parade, as if the Sultan had been +riding to Mosque in the Bairam festival. She frequently appeared alone, +or leaning on the arm of some favourite waiting-woman; always, however, +with a thin veil over her face, and a little rush basket in her hand: +she wandered up and down the walks, plucking flowers, which, according +to custom, she arranged into emblems of her thoughts, and distributed +among her people.</p> + +<p>One morning, before the hot season of the day, while the dewdrops were +still reflecting all the colours of the rainbow from the grass, she +visited her Tempe to enjoy the cool morning air, just as her gardener +was employed in lifting from the ground some faded plants, and replacing +them by others newly blown, which he was carefully transporting in +flower-pots, and then cunningly inserting in the soil with all their +appurtenances, as if by a magic vegetation they had started from the +bosom of the earth in a single night. The Princess noticed with pleasure +this pretty deception of the senses, and having now found out the secret +of the flowers which she plucked away being daily succeeded by fresh +ones, so that there was never any want, she thought of turning her +discovery to advantage, and instructing the gardener how and when to +arrange them, and make them blossom. On raising his eyes, the Count +beheld this female Angel, whom he took for the possessor of the garden, +for she was encircled with celestial charms as with a halo. He was so +surprised by this appearance that he dropped a flower-pot from his +hands, forgetful of the precious colocassia contained in it, which ended +its tender life as tragically as the Sieur Pilastre de Rosier, though +both only fell into the bosom of their mother Earth.</p> + +<p>The Count stood petrified like a statue without life or motion; one +might have broken off his nose, as the Turks do with stone statues in +temples and gardens, and never have aroused him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> But the sweet voice of +the Princess, who opened her purple lips, recalled him to his senses. +"Christian," said she, "be not afraid! It is my blame that thou art here +beside me; go forward with thy work, and order thy flowers as I shall +bid thee."—"Glorious Flower of the World!" replied the gardener, "in +whose splendour all the colours of this blossomy creation wax pale, thou +reignest here as in thy firmament, like the Star-queen on the +battlements of Heaven. Let thy nod enliven the hand of the happiest +among thy slaves, who kisses his fetters, so thou think him worthy to +perform thy commands." The Princess had not expected that a slave would +open his mouth to her, still less pay her compliments, and her eyes had +been directed rather to the flowers than the planter. She now deigned to +cast a glance on him, and was astonished to behold a man of the most +noble form, surpassing in masculine grace all that she had ever seen or +dreamed of.</p> + +<p>Count Ernst of Gleichen had been celebrated for his manly beauty over +all Germany. At the tournament of Würzburg, he had been the hero of the +dames. When he raised his visor to take air, the running of the boldest +spearman was lost for every female eye; all looked on him alone; and +when he closed his helmet to begin a course, the chastest bosom heaved +higher, and all hearts beat anxious sympathy with the lordly Knight. The +partial hand of the Duke of Bavaria's love-sick niece had crowned him +with a guerdon, which the young man blushed to receive. His seven years' +durance in the Grated Tower, had indeed paled his blooming cheeks, +relaxed his firm-set limbs, and dulled the fire of his eyes; but the +enjoyment of the free atmosphere, and Labour, the playmate of Health, +had now made good the loss, with interest. He was flourishing like a +laurel, which has pined throughout the long winter in the greenhouse, +and at the return of spring sends forth new leaves, and gets a fair +verdant crown.</p> + +<p>With her predilection for all foreign things, the Princess could not +help contemplating with satisfaction the attractive figure of the +stranger; and it never struck her that the sight of an Endymion may have +quite another influence on a maiden's heart, than the creation of a +milliner, set up for show in her booth. With kind gentle voice, she gave +her handsome gardener orders how to manage the arrangement of his +flowers; often asked his own, advice respecting it, and talked with him +so long as any horticultural idea was in her head. She left him at +length, but scarcely was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> she gone five paces when she turned to give +him fresh commissions; and as she took a promenade along the +serpentine-walk, she called him again to her, and put new questions to +him, and proposed new improvements before she went away. As the day +began to cool, she again felt the want of fresh air, and scarcely had +the sun returned to gild the waxing Nile, when a wish to see the +awakening flowers unfold their blossoms, brought her back into the +garden. Day after day her love of fresh air and awakening flowers +increased; and in these visits she never failed to go directly to the +place where her florist was labouring, and give him new orders, which he +strove punctually and speedily to execute.</p> + +<p>One day the Bostangi,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> when she came to see him, was not to be found; +she wandered up and down the intertwisted walks, regardless of the +flowers that were blooming around her, and, by the high tints of their +colours and the balmy air of their perfumes, as if striving with each +other to attract her attention; she expected him behind every bush, +searched every branching plant that might conceal him, fancied she +should find him in the grotto, and, on his failing to appear, made a +pilgrimage to all the groves in the garden, hoping to surprise him +somewhere asleep, and enjoying the embarrassment which he would feel +when she awoke him; but the head-gardener nowhere met her eye. By chance +she came upon the stoical Viet, the Count's Groom, a dull piece of +mechanism, whom his master had been able to make nothing out of but a +drawer of water. On perceiving her, he wheeled with his water-cans to +the left-about, that he might not meet her, but she called him to her, +and asked, Where the Bostangi was? "Where else," said he, in his sturdy +way, "but in the hands of the Jewish quack-salver, who will sweat the +soul from his body in a trice?" These tidings cut the lovely Princess to +the heart, for she had never dreamed that it was sickness which +prevented her Bostangi from appearing at his post. She immediately +returned to her palace, where her women saw, with consternation, that +the serene brow of their mistress was overcast, as when the moist breath +of the south wind has dimmed the mirror of the sky, and the hovering +vapours have collected into clouds. In retiring to the Seraglio, she had +plucked a variety of flowers, but all were of a mournful character, and +bound with cypress and rosemary, indicating clearly enough the sadness +of her mood. She did the same for several days, which brought her +council of women into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> much perplexity, and many deep debates about the +cause of their fair Melechsala's grief; but withal, as in female +consultations too often happens, they arrived at no conclusion, as in +calling for the vote there was such a dissonance of opinions, that no +harmonious note could be discovered in them. The truth was, Count +Ernst's too zealous efforts to anticipate every nod of the Princess, and +realise whatever she expressed the faintest hint of, had so acted on a +frame unused to labour, that his health suffered under it, and he was +seized with a fever. Yet the Jewish pupil of Galen, or rather the +Count's fine constitution, mastered the disease, and in a few days he +was able to resume his tasks. The instant the Princess noticed him, the +clouds fled away from her brow; and her female senate, to whom her +melancholy humour had remained an inexplicable riddle, now unanimously +voted that some flower-plant, of whose progress she had been in doubt, +had now taken root and begun to thrive,—a conclusion not inaccurate, if +taken allegorically.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Head-gardener.</p></div> + +<p>Princess Melechsala was still as innocent in heart as she had come from +the hands of Nature. She had never got the smallest warning or +foreboding of the rogueries, which Amor is wont to play on inexperienced +beauties. Hitherto, on the whole, there has been a want of <i>Hints for +Princesses and Maidens</i> in regard to love; though a satisfactory theory +of that kind might do infinitely greater service to the world than any +<i>Hints for the Instructors of Princes</i>;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> a class of persons who +regard no hint, however broad, nay sometimes take it ill; whereas +maidens never fail to notice every hint, and pay heed to it, their +perception being finer, and a secret hint precisely their affair. The +Princess was still in the first novitiate of love, and had not the +slightest knowledge of its mysteries. She therefore yielded wholly to +her feelings, without scrupling in the least, or ever calling a Divan of +the three confidantes of her heart, Reason, Prudence and Reflection, to +deliberate on the business. Had she done so, doubtless the concern she +felt in the circumstances of the Bostangi would have indicated to her +that the germ of an unknown passion was already vegetating strongly in +her heart, and Reason and Reflection would have whispered to her that +this passion was <i>love</i>. Whether in the Count's heart there was any +similar process going on in secret, we have no diplomatic evidence +before us: his over-anxious zeal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> to execute the commands of his +mistress might excite some such conjecture; and if so, a bunch of Lovage +with a withered stalk of Honesty, tied up together, might have befitted +him as an allegorical nosegay. Perhaps, however, it was nothing but an +innocent chivalrous feeling which occasioned this distinguished +alacrity; for in those times it was the most inviolable law of +Knighthood, that its professors should in all things rigorously conform +to the injunctions of the fair.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Allusion to a small Treatise, which, about the time Musæus +wrote his story, had appeared under that title.—<span class="smcap">Wieland.</span></p></div> + +<p>No day now passed without the good Melechsala's holding trustful +conversation with her Bostangi. The soft tone of her voice delighted his +ear, and every one of her expressions seemed to say something flattering +to him. Had he been endowed with the self-confidence of a court lord, he +would have turned so fair a situation to profit for making farther +advances: but he constantly restrained himself within the bounds of +modesty. And as the Princess was entirely inexperienced in the science +of coquetry, and knew not how to set about encouraging the timid +shepherd to the stealing of her heart, the whole intrigue revolved upon +the axis of mutual good-will; and might undoubtedly have long continued +so revolving, had not Chance, which we all know commonly officiates as +<i>primum mobile</i> in every change of things, ere long given the scene +another form.</p> + +<p>About sunset, one very beautiful day, the Princess visited the garden; +her soul was as bright as the horizon; she talked delightfully with her +Bostangi about many indifferent matters, for the mere purpose of +speaking to him; and after he had filled her flower-basket, she seated +herself in a grove, and bound up a nosegay, with which she presented +him. The Count, as a mark of reverence to his fair mistress, fastened +it, with a look of surprise and delight, to the breast of his waistcoat, +without ever dreaming that the flowers might have a secret import; for +these hieroglyphics were hidden from his eyes, as from the eyes of a +discerning public the secret wheel-work of the famous Wooden +Chess-player. And as the Princess did not afterwards expound that secret +import, it has withered away with the blossoms, and been lost to the +knowledge of posterity. Meanwhile she herself supposed that the language +of flowers must be as plain to all mortals as their mother-tongue; she +never doubted, therefore, but her favourite had understood the whole +quite right; and as he looked at her with such an air of reverence when +he took the nosegay, she accepted his gestures as expressions of modest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +thanks for the praise of his activity and zeal, which, in all +probability, the flowers had been meant to convey. She now took a +thought of putting his inventiveness to proof in her turn, and trying +whether in this flowery dialect of thanks he could pay a pretty +compliment; or, in a word, translate the present aspect of his +countenance, which betrayed the feelings of his heart, into +flower-writing; and accordingly, she asked him for a nosegay of his +composition. The Count, affected by such a proof of condescending +goodness, darted to the end of the garden, into a remote greenhouse, +where he had established his flower-dépôt, and out of which he was in +the habit of transferring his plants to the soil as they came into +blossom, without stirring them from their pots. There chanced to be an +aromatic plant just then in bloom, a flower named <i>Mushirumi</i><a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> by the +Arabs, and which hitherto had not appeared in the garden. With this +novelty Count Ernst imagined he might give a little harmless pleasure to +his fair florist; and accordingly, for want of a salver, having put a +broad fig-leaf under it, he held it to her on his knees, with a look +expressive of humility, yet claiming a little merit; for he thought to +earn a word of praise by it. But, with the utmost consternation, he +perceived that the Princess turned away her face, and, so far as he +could notice through the veil, cast down her eyes as if ashamed, and +looked on the ground, without uttering a word. She hesitated, and seemed +embarrassed in accepting it; not deigning to cast a look on it, but +laying it beside her on the seat. Her gay humour had departed; she +assumed a majestic attitude, announcing haughty earnestness; and after a +few moments left the grove, without taking any farther notice of her +favourite, not, however, leaving her <i>Mushirumi</i> behind her, but +carefully concealing it under her veil.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Hyacinthus Muscari</i>.</p></div> + +<p>The Count was thunderstruck at this enigmatical catastrophe; he could +not for his life understand the meaning of this strange behaviour, and +continued sitting on his knees, in the position of a man doing penance, +for some time after his Princess had left the place. It grieved him to +the heart that he should have displeased and alienated this divinity, +whom, for her condescending kindness, he venerated as a Saint of Heaven. +When his first consternation had subsided, he slunk home to his +dwelling, timid and rueful, like a man conscious of some heavy crime. +The mettled Kurt had supper on the table; but his master would not +bite,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> and kept forking about in the plate, without carrying a morsel to +his lips. By this the trusty <i>Dapifer</i> perceived that all was not right +with the Count; wherefore he vanished speedily from the room, and +uncorked a flask of Chian wine; which Grecian care-dispeller did not +fail in its effect. The Count became communicative, and disclosed to his +faithful Squire the adventure in the garden. Their speculations on it +were protracted to a late hour, without affording any tenable hypothesis +for the displeasure of the Princess; and as with all their pondering +nothing could be discovered, master and servant betook them to repose. +The latter found it without difficulty; the former sought it in vain, +and watched throughout the painful night, till the dawn recalled him to +his employments.</p> + +<p>At the hour when Melechsala used to visit him, the Count kept an eager +eye on the entrance, but the door of the Seraglio did not open. He +waited the second day; then the third: the door of the Seraglio was as +if walled up within. Had not the Count of Gleichen been a sheer idiot in +flower-language, he would readily have found the key to this surprising +behaviour of the Princess. By presenting the flower to her, he had, in +fact, without knowing a syllable of the matter, made a formal +declaration of love, and that in no Platonic sense. For when an Arab +lover, by some trusty hand, privily transmits a <i>Mushirumi</i> flower to +his mistress, he gives her credit for penetration enough to discover the +only rhyme which exists in the Arabian language for the word. This rhyme +is <i>Ydskerumi</i>, which, delicately rendered, means <i>reward of love</i>.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +To this invention it must be conceded, that there cannot be a more +compendious method of proceeding in the business than this of the +<i>Mushirumi</i>, which might well deserve the imitation of our Western +lovers. The whole insipid scribbling of <i>Billets-doux</i>, which often cost +their authors so much toil and brain-beating, often when they come into +the wrong hand are pitilessly mangled by hard-hearted jesters, often by +the fair receivers themselves mistreated or falsely interpreted, might +by this means be dispensed with. It need not be objected that the +<i>Mushirumi</i>, or <i>Muscadine-hyacinth</i>, flowers but rarely and for a short +time in our climates; because an imitation of it might be made by our +Parisian or native gumflower-makers, to supply the wants of lovers at +all seasons of the year; and an inland trade in this domestic +manufacture might easily afford better profit than our present +speculations with America.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> Nor would a Chevalier in Europe have to +dread that the presenting of so eloquent a flower might be charged upon +him as a capital offence, for which his life might have to answer, as in +the East could very simply happen. Had not Princess Melechsala been so +kind and soft a soul, or had not omnipotent Love subdued the pride of +the Sultan's daughter, the Count, for this flower-gallantry, innocently +as on his part it was intended, must have paid with his head. But the +Princess was in the main so little indignant at receiving this +expressive flower, that on the contrary the fancied proffer struck a +chord in her heart, which had long been vibrating before, and drew from +it a melodious tone. Yet her virgin modesty was hard put to proof, when +her favourite, as she supposed, presumed to entreat of her the reward of +love. It was on this account that she had turned away her face at his +proposal. A purple blush, which the veil had hidden from the Count, +overspread her tender cheeks, her snow-white bosom heaved, and her heart +beat higher beneath it. Bashfulness and tenderness were fighting a +fierce battle within it, and her embarrassment was such that she could +not utter a word. For a time she had been in doubt what to do with the +perplexing <i>Mushirumi</i>; to disdain it, was to rob her lover of all hope; +to accept it, was the promise that his wishes should be granted. The +balance of resolution wavered, now to this side, now to that, till at +length love decided; she took the flower with her, and this at least +secured the Count's head, in the first place. But in her solitary +chamber, there doubtless ensued much deep deliberation about the +consequences which this step might produce; and the situation of the +Princess was the more difficult, that in her ignorance of the concerns +of the heart, she knew not how to act of herself; and durst not risk +disclosing the affair to any other, if she would not leave the life of +her beloved and her own fate at the caprice of a third party.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Hasselquist's <i>Travels in Palestine</i>.</p></div> + +<p>It is easier to watch a goddess at the bath than to penetrate the +secrets of an Oriental Princess in the bedchamber of the Seraglio. It is +therefore difficult for the historian to determine whether Melechsala +left the <i>Mushirumi</i> which she had accepted of to wither on her +dressing-table; or put it in fresh water, to preserve it for the solace +of her eyes as long as possible. In like manner, it is difficult to +discover whether this fair Princess spent the night asleep, with gay +dreams dancing round her, or awake, a victim to the wasting cares of +love. The latter is more probable, since early in the morning there +arose great dole and lamentation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> in the Palace, as the Princess made +her appearance with pale cheeks and languid eyes; so that her female +council dreaded the approach of grievous sickness. The Court Physician +was called in; the same bearded Hebrew who had floated off the Count's +fever in his sweat-bath; he was now to examine the pulse of a more +delicate patient. According to the custom of the country, she was lying +on a sofa, with a large screen in front of it, provided with a little +opening, through which she stretched her beautifully turned arm, twice +and three times wrapt with fine muslin, to protect it from the profane +glance of a masculine eye, "God help me!" whispered the Doctor into the +chief waiting-woman's ear: "Things have a bad look with her Highness; +the pulse is quivering like a mouse-tail." At the same time, with +practical policy, he shook his head dubitatingly, as cunning doctors are +wont; ordered abundance of Kalaf and other cordials, and with a shrug of +the shoulders predicted a dangerous fever.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, these alarming symptoms, which the medical gentleman +considered as so many heralds announcing the approach of a malignant +distemper, appeared to be nothing more than the consequences of a bad +night's-rest; for the patient having taken her <i>siesta</i> about noon, +found herself, to the Israelite's astonishment, out of danger in the +evening; needed no more drugs, and by the orders of her Æsculapius was +required merely to keep quiet for a day or two. This space she employed +in maturely deliberating her intrigue, and devising ways and means for +fulfilling the demands of the <i>Mushirumi</i>. She was diligently occupied, +inventing, proving, choosing and rejecting. One hour fancy smoothed away +the most impassable mountains; and the next, she saw nothing but clefts +and abysses, from the brink of which she shuddered back, and over which +the boldest imagination could not build a bridge. Yet on all these rocks +of offence she grounded the firm resolution to obey the feelings of her +heart, come what come might; a piece of heroism, not unusual with Mother +Eve's daughters; which in the mean time they often pay for with the +happiness and contentment of their lives.</p> + +<p>The bolted gate of the Seraglio at last went up, and the fair Melechsala +again passed through it into the garden, like the gay Sun through the +portals of the East. The Count observed her entrance from behind a grove +of ivy; and there began a knocking in his heart as in a mill; a thumping +and hammering as if he had just run a race. Was it joy, was it fear, or +anxious expecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> of what this visit would announce to him—forgiveness +or disfavour? Who can unfold so accurately the heart of man, as to trace +the origin and cause of every start and throb in this irritable muscle? +In short, Count Ernst did feel considerable palpitations of the heart, +so soon as he descried the Princess from afar; but of their Whence or +Why, he could give his own mind no account. She very soon dismissed her +suite; and from all the circumstances it was clear that poetical +anthology was not her business in the present case. She bent her course +to the grove; and as the Count was not playing hide-and-seek with much +adroitness or zeal, she found him with great ease. While she was still +at some distance, he fell upon his knees with mute eloquence before her, +not venturing to raise his eyes, and looked as ruefully as a delinquent +when the judge is ready to pass sentence on him. The Princess, however, +with a soft voice and friendly gesture, said to him: "Bostangi, rise and +follow me into this grove." Bostangi obeyed in silence; and she having +taken her seat, spoke thus: "The will of the Prophet be done! I have +called on him three days and three nights long, to direct me by a sign +if my conduct were wavering between error and folly. He is silent; and +approves the purpose of the Ringdove to free the captive Linnet from the +chain with which he toilsomely draws water, and to nestle by his side. +The Daughter of the Sultan has not disdained the <i>Mushirumi</i> from thy +fettered hand. My lot is cast! Loiter not in seeking the Iman, that he +lead thee to the Mosque, and confer on thee the Seal of the Faithful. +Then will my Father, at my request, cause thee to grow as the +Nile-stream, when it oversteps its narrow banks, and pours itself into +the valley. And when thou art governing a Province as its Bey, thou +mayest confidently raise thy eyes to the throne: the Sultan will not +reject the son-in-law whom the Prophet has appointed for his daughter."</p> + +<p>Like the conjuration of some potent Fairy, this address again +transformed the Count into the image of a stone statue; he gazed at the +Princess without life or motion; his cheeks grew pale, and his tongue +was chained. On the whole, he had caught the meaning of the speech: but +how he was to reach the unexpected honour of becoming the Sultan of +Egypt's son-in-law was an unfathomable mystery. In this predicament, he +certainly, for an accepted wooer, did not make the most imposing figure +in the world; but awakening love, like the rising sun, coats everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +with gold. The Princess took his dumb astonishment for excess of +rapture, and attributed his visible perplexity of spirit to the +overwhelming feeling of his unexpected success. Yet in her heart there +arose some virgin scruples lest she might have gone too fast to work +with the ultimatum of the courtship, and outrun the expectations of her +lover; therefore she again addressed him, and said: "Thou art silent, +Bostangi? Let it not surprise thee that the perfume of thy <i>Mushirumi</i> +breathes back on thee the odour of my feelings; in the curtain of deceit +my heart has never been shrouded. Ought I by wavering hope to increase +the toil of the steep path, which thy foot must climb before the bridal +chamber can be opened to thee?"</p> + +<p>During this speech the Count had found time to recover his senses; he +roused himself, like a warrior from sleep when the alarm is sounded in +the camp. "Resplendent Flower of the East," said he, "how shall the tiny +herb that grows among the thorns presume to blossom under thy shadow? +Would not the watchful hand of the gardener pluck it out as an unseemly +weed, and cast it forth, to be trodden under foot on the highway, or +withered in the scorching sun? If a breath of air stir up the dust, that +it soil thy royal diadem, are not a hundred hands in instant employment +wiping it away? How should a slave desire the precious fruit, which +ripens in the garden of the Sultan for the palate of Princes? At thy +command I sought a pleasant flower for thee, and found the <i>Mushirumi</i>, +the name of which was as unknown to me, as its secret import still is. +Think not that I meant aught with it but to obey thee."</p> + +<p>This response distorted the fair plan of the Princess very considerably. +She had not expected that it could be possible for a European not to +combine with the <i>Mushirumi</i>, when presented to a lady, the same thought +which the two other quarters of the world unite with it. The error was +now clear as day; but love, which had once for all taken root in her +heart, now dextrously winded and turned the matter; as a seamstress does +a piece of work which she has cut wrong, till at last she makes ends +meet notwithstanding. The Princess concealed her embarrassment by the +playing of her fair hands with the hem of her veil; and, after a few +moments' silence, she said, with gentle gracefulness: "Thy modesty +resembles the night-violet, which covets not the glitter of the sun, yet +is loved for its aromatic odour. A happy chance has been the interpreter +of thy heart, and elicited the feelings of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> mine. They are no longer hid +from thee. Follow the doctrine of the Prophet, and thou art on the way +to gain thy wish."</p> + +<p>The Count now began to perceive the connection of the matter more and +more distinctly; the darkness vanished from his mind by degrees, as the +shades of night before the dawn. Here, then, the Tempter, whom, in the +durance of the Grated Tower, he had expected under the mask of a horned +satyr, or a black shrivelled gnome, appeared to him in the figure of +winged Cupid, and was employing all his treacherous arts, persuading him +to deny his faith, to forsake his tender spouse, and forget the pledges +of her chaste love. "It stands in thy power," said he, "to change thy +iron fetters with the kind ties of love. The first beauty in the world +is smiling on thee, and with her the enjoyment of all earthly happiness! +A flame, pure as the fire of Vesta, burns for thee in her bosom, and +would waste her life, should folly and caprice overcloud thy soul to the +refusing her favour. Conceal thy faith a little while under the turban; +Father Gregory has water enough in his absolution-cistern to wash thee +clean from such a sin. Who knows but thou mayest earn the merit of +saving the pure maiden's soul, and leading it to the Heaven for which it +was intended?" To this deceitful oration the Count would willingly have +listened longer, had not his good Angel twitched him by the ear, and +warned him to give no farther heed to the voice of temptation. So he +thought that he must not speak with flesh and blood any longer, but by +one bold effort gain the victory over himself. The word died away more +than once in his mouth; but at last he took heart, and said: "The +longing of the wanderer, astray in the Libyan wilderness, to cool his +parched lips in the fountains of the Nile, but aggravates the torments +of his thirsty heart, when he must still languish in the torrid waste. +Therefore think not, O best and gentlest of thy sex, that such a wish +has awakened within me, which, like a gnawing worm, would consume my +heart, since I could not nourish it with hope. Know that, in my home, I +am already joined by the indissoluble tie of marriage to a virtuous +wife, and her three tender children lisp their father's name. How could +a heart, torn asunder by sadness and longing, aspire to the Pearl of +Beauty, and offer her a divided love?"</p> + +<p>This explanation was distinct; and the Count believed that, as it were +by one stroke, and in the spirit of true knighthood, he had ended this +strife of love. He conceived that the Princess would now see her +over-hasty error, and renounce her plan. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> here he was exceedingly +mistaken. The Princess could not bring herself to think that the Count, +a young blooming man, could be without eyes for her; she knew that she +was lovely; and this frank exposition of the state of his heart made no +impression on her whatever. According to the fashion of her country, she +had no thought of appropriating to herself the sole possession of it; +for, in the parabolic sport of the Seraglio, she had often heard, that +man's love is like a thread of silk, which may be split and parted, so +that every filament shall still remain a whole. In truth, a sensible +similitude; which the wit of our Occidental ladies has never yet lighted +on! Her father's Harem, had also, from her earliest years, set before +her numerous instances of sociality in love; the favourites of the +Sultan lived there with one another in the kindest unity.</p> + +<p>"Thou namest me the Flower of the World," replied the Princess; "but +behold, in this garden there are many flowers blossoming beside me, to +delight eye and heart by their variety of loveliness; nor do I forbid +thee to partake in this enjoyment along with me. Should I require of +thee, in thy own garden, to plant but a single flower, with the constant +sight of which thy eye would grow weary? Thy wife shall be sharer of the +happiness I am providing for thee; thou shalt bring her into thy Harem; +to me she shall be welcome; for thy sake she shall become my dearest +companion, and for thy sake she will love me in return. Her little +children also shall be mine; I will give them shade, that they bud +pleasantly, and take root in this foreign soil."</p> + +<p>The doctrine of Toleration in Love has, in our enlightened century, made +far slower progress than that of Toleration in Religion; otherwise this +declaration of the Princess could not seem to my fair readers so +repulsive, as in all probability it will. But Melechsala was an +Oriental; and under that mild sky, Megæra Jealousy has far less +influence on the lovelier half of the species than on the stronger; +whom, in return, she does indeed rule with an iron sceptre.</p> + +<p>Count Ernst was affected by this meek way of thinking; and who knows +what he might have resolved on, could he have depended on an equal +liberality of sentiment from his Ottilia at home, and contrived in any +way to overleap the other stone of stumbling which fronted him,—the +renunciation of his creed? He by no means hid this latter difficulty +from the goddess who was courting him so frankly; and, easy as it had +been for her to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> remove all previous obstacles, the present was beyond +her skill. The confidential session was adjourned, without any +settlement of this contested point. When the conference broke up, the +proposals stood as in a frontier conference between two neighbouring +states, where neither party will relinquish his rights, and the +adjustment of the matter is postponed to another term, while the +commissioners in the interim again live in peace with each other, and +enjoy good cheer together.</p> + +<p>In the secret conclave of the Count, the mettled Kurt, as we know, had a +seat and vote; his master opened to him in the evening the whole +progress of his adventure, for he was much disquieted; and it is very +possible that some spark of love may have sputtered over from the heart +of the Princess into his, too keen for the ashes of his lawful fire to +quench. An absence of seven years, the relinquished hope of ever being +re-united with the first beloved, and the offered opportunity of +occupying the heart as it desires, are three critical circumstances, +which, in so active a substance as love, may easily produce a +fermentation that shall quite change its nature. The sagacious Squire +pricked up his ears at hearing of these interesting events; and, as if +the narrow passage of the auditory nerves had not been sufficient to +convey the tidings fast enough into his brain, he likewise opened the +wide doorway of his mouth, and both heard and tasted the unexpected news +with great avidity. After maturely weighing everything, his vote ran +thus: To lay hold of the seeming hope of release with both hands, and +realise the Princess's plan; meanwhile, to do nothing either for it or +against it, and leave the issue to Heaven. "You are blotted out from the +book of the living," said he, "in your native land; from the abyss of +slavery there is no deliverance, if you do not hitch yourself up by the +rope of love. Your spouse, good lady, will never return to your +embraces. If, in seven years, sorrow for your loss has not overpowered +her and cut her off, Time has overpowered her sorrow, and she is happy +by the side of another. But, to renounce your religion! That is a hard +nut, in good sooth; too hard for you to crack. Yet there are means for +this, too. In no country on Earth is it the custom for the wife to teach +the husband what road to take for Heaven; no, she follows his steps, and +is led and guided by him as the cloud by the wind; looks neither to the +right hand nor to the left, nor behind her, like Lot's wife, who was +changed into a pillar of salt: for where the husband<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> arrives, there is +her abode. I have a wife at home, too; but think you, if I were stuck in +Purgatory, she would hesitate to follow me, and waft fresh air upon my +poor soul with her fan? So, depend on it, the Princess will renounce her +false Prophet. If she love you truly, she will, to a certainty, be glad +to change her Paradise for ours."</p> + +<p>The mettled Kurt added much farther speaking to persuade his master that +he ought not to resist this royal passion, but to forget all other ties, +and free himself from his captivity. It did not strike him, that by his +confidence in the affection of his wife, he had recalled to his master's +memory the affection of his own amiable spouse; a remembrance which it +was his object to abolish. The heart of the Count felt crushed as in a +press; he rolled to this side and that on his bed; and his thoughts and +purposes ran athwart each other in the strangest perplexity, till, +towards morning, wearied out by this internal tumult, he fell into a +dead sleep. He dreamed that his fairest front-tooth had dropped, out, at +which he felt great grief and heaviness of heart; but on looking at the +gap in the mirror, to see whether it deformed him much, a fresh tooth +had grown forth in its place, fair and white as the rest, and the loss +could not be observed. So soon as he awoke, he felt a wish to have his +dream interpreted. The mettled Kurt soon hunted out a prophetic Gipsy, +who by trade read fortunes from the hand and brow, and also had the +talent of explaining dreams. The Count related his to her in all its +circumstances; and the dingy wrinkled Pythoness, after meditating long +upon it, opened her puckered mouth, and said: "What was dearest to thee +death has taken away, but fate will soon supply thy loss."</p> + +<p>Now, then, it was plain that the sage Squire's suppositions had been no +idle fancies, but that the good Ottilia, from sorrow at the loss of her +beloved husband, had gone down to the grave. The afflicted widower, who +as little doubted of this tragic circumstance as if it had been notified +to him on black-edged paper with seal and signature, felt all that a man +who values the integrity of his jaw must feel when he loses a tooth, +which bountiful Nature is about to replace by another; and comforted +himself under this dispensation with the well-known balm of widowers: +"It is the will of God; I must submit to it!" And now, holding himself +free and disengaged, he bent all his sails, hoisted his flags and +streamers, and steered directly for the haven of happy love. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> the +next interview, he thought the Princess lovelier than ever; his looks +languished towards her, and her slender form enchanted his eye, and her +light soft gait was like the gait of a goddess, though she actually +moved the one foot past the other, in mortal wise, and did not, in the +style of goddesses, come hovering along the variegated sand-walk with +unbent limbs. "Bostangi," said she, with melodious voice, "hast thou +spoken to the Iman?" The Count was silent for a moment; he cast down his +beaming eyes, laid his hand submissively on his breast, and sank on his +knee before her. In this humble attitude, he answered resolutely: +"Exalted daughter of the Sultan! my life is at thy nod, but not my +faith. The former I will joyfully offer up to thee; but leave me the +latter, which is so interwoven with my soul, that only death can part +them." From this, it was apparent to the Princess that her fine +enterprise was verging towards shipwreck; wherefore she adopted a +heroical expedient, undoubtedly of far more certain effect than our +animal magnetism, with all its renowned virtues: she unveiled her face. +There stood she, in the full radiance of beauty, like the Sun when he +first raised his head from Chaos to hurl his rays over the gloomy Earth. +Soft blushes overspread her cheeks, and higher purple glowed upon her +lips; two beautifully-curved arches, on which love was sporting like the +many-coloured Iris on the rainbow, shaded her spirit-speaking eyes; and +two golden tresses kissed each other on her lily breast. The Count was +astonished and speechless; the Princess addressed him, and said:</p> + +<p>"See, Bostangi, whether this form pleases thy eyes, and whether it +deserves the sacrifice which I require of thee."</p> + +<p>"It is the form of an Angel," answered he, with looks of the highest +rapture, "and deserves to shine, encircled with a glory, in the courts +of the Christian Heaven, compared with which, the delights of the +Prophet's Paradise are empty shadows."</p> + +<p>These words, spoken with warmth and visible conviction, found free +entrance into the open heart of the Princess: especially, the glory, it +appeared to her, must be a sort of head-dress that would sit not ill +upon the face. Her quick fancy fastened on this idea, which she asked to +have explained; and the Count with all eagerness embraced this +opportunity of painting the Christian Heaven to her as charming as he +possibly could; he chose the loveliest images his mind would suggest; +and spoke with as much confidence as if he had descended directly from +the place on a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> mission to the Princess. Now, as it has pleased the +Prophet to endow the fair sex with very scanty expectations in the other +world, our apostolic preacher failed the less in his intentions; though +it cannot be asserted that he was preëminently qualified for the +missionary duty. But whether it were that Heaven itself favoured the +work of conversion, or that the foreign tastes of the Princess extended +to the spiritual conceptions of the Western nations, or that the person +of this Preacher to the Heathen mixed in the effect, certain it is she +was all ear, and would have listened to her pedagogue with pleasure for +many hours longer, had not the approach of night cut short their lesson. +For the present, she hastily dropped her veil, and retired to the +Seraglio.</p> + +<p>It is a well-known fact, that the children of princes are always very +docile, and make giant steps in every branch of profitable knowledge, as +our Journals often plainly enough testify; while the other citizens of +this world must content themselves with dwarf steps. It was not +surprising, therefore, that the Sultan of Egypt's daughter had in a +short space mastered the whole synopsis of Church doctrine as completely +as her teacher could impart it, bating a few heresies, which, in his +inacquaintance with the delicate shades of faith, he had undesignedly +mingled with it. Nor did this acquisition remain a dead letter with her; +it awakened the most zealous wish for proselytising. Accordingly, the +plan of the Princess had now in so far altered, that she no longer +insisted on converting the Count, but rather felt inclined to let +herself be converted by him; and this not only in regard to unity in +faith, but also to the purposed unity in love. The whole question now +was, by what means this intention could be realised. She took counsel +with Bostangi, he with the mettled Kurt, in their nocturnal +deliberations on this weighty matter; and the latter voted distinctly to +strike the iron while it was hot; to inform the fair proselyte of the +Count's rank and birth; propose to her to run away with him; instantly +to cross the water for the European shore; and live together in +Thuringia as Christian man and wife.</p> + +<p>The Count clapped loud applause to this well-grounded scheme of his wise +Squire; it was as if the mettled Kurt had read it in his master's eyes. +Whether the fulfilment of it might be clogged with difficulties or not, +was a point not taken into view in the first fire of the romantic +project: Love removes all mountains, overleaps walls and trenches, +bounds across abyss and chasm, and steps the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> barrier of a city as +lightly as it does a straw. At the next lecture, the Count disclosed the +plan to his beloved catechumena.</p> + +<p>"Thou reflection of the Holy Virgin," said he, "chosen of Heaven from an +outcast people, to gain the victory over prejudice and error, and +acquire a lot and inheritance in the Abodes of Felicity, hast thou the +courage to forsake thy native country, then prepare for speedy flight. I +will guide thee to Rome, where dwells the Porter of Heaven, St. Peter's +deputy, to whom are committed the keys of Heaven's gate; that he may +receive thee into the bosom of the Church, and bless the covenant of our +love. Fear not that thy father's potent arm may reach us; every cloud +above our heads will be a ship manned with angelic hosts, with diamond +shields and flaming swords; invisible indeed to mortal eye, but armed +with heavenly might, and appointed to watch and guard thee. Nor will I +conceal any longer, that I am, by birth and fortune, all that the +Sultan's favour could make me; a Count, that is a Bey born, who rules +over land and people. The limits of my lordship include towns and +villages, palaces also and strongholds. Knights and squires obey me; +horses and carriages stand ready for my service. In my native land, thou +thyself, enclosed by no walls of a seraglio, shalt live and rule in +freedom as a queen."</p> + +<p>This oration of the Count the Princess thought a message from above; she +entertained no doubts of his truth; and it seemed to please her that the +Ringdove was to nestle, not beside a Linnet, but beside a bird of the +family of the Eagle. Her warm fancy was filled with such sweet +anticipations, that she consented, with all the alacrity of the Children +of Israel, to forsake the land of Egypt, as if a new Canaan, in another +quarter of the world, had been waiting her beyond the sea. Confident in +the protection of the unseen life-guard promised to her, she would have +followed her conductor from the precincts of the Palace forthwith, had +he not instructed her that many preparations were required, before the +great enterprise could be engaged in with any hope of a happy issue.</p> + +<p>Among all privateering transactions by sea or land, there is none more +ticklish, or combined with greater difficulties, than that of kidnapping +the Grand Signior's favourite from his arms. Such a masterstroke could +only be imagined by the teeming fancy of a W*z*l,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> nor could any but +a Kakerlak achieve it. Yet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> undertaking of Count Ernst of Gleichen +to carry off the Sultan of Egypt's daughter, was environed with no fewer +difficulties; and as these two heroes come, to a certain extent, into +competition in this matter, we must say, that the adventure of the Count +was infinitely bolder, seeing everything proceeded merely by the course +of Nature, and no serviceable Fairy put a finger in the pie: +nevertheless, the result of both these corresponding enterprises, in the +one as well as in the other, came about entirely to the wish of parties. +The Princess filled her jewel-box sufficiently with precious stones; +changed her royal garment with a Kaftan; and one evening, under the +safe-conduct of her beloved, his trusty Squire and the phlegmatic +Water-drawer, glided forth from the Palace into the Garden, unobserved, +to enter on her far journey to the West. Her absence could not long +remain concealed; her women sought her, as the proverb runs, like a lost +pin; and as she did not come to light, the alarm in the Seraglio became +boundless. Hints here and there had already been dropped, and surmises +made, about the private audiences of the Bostangi; supposition and fact +were strung together; and the whole produced, in sooth, no row of +pearls, but the horrible discovery of the real nature of the case. The +Divan of Dames had nothing for it but to send advice of the occurrence +to the higher powers. Father Sultan, whom the virtuous Melechsala, +everything considered, might have spared this pang, and avoided flying +her country to make purchase of a glory, demeaned himself at this +intelligence like an infuriated lion, who shakes his brown mane with +dreadful bellowing, when by the uproar of the hunt, and the baying of +the hounds, he is frightened from his den. He swore by the Prophet's +beard that he would utterly destroy every living soul in the Seraglio, +if at sunrise the Princess were not again in her father's power. The +Mameluke guard had to mount, and gallop towards the four winds, in chase +of the fugitives, by every road from Cairo; and a thousand oars were +lashing the broad back of the Nile, in case she might have taken a +passage by water.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> J. K. Wetzel, author of some plays and novels; among the +latter, of <i>Kakerlak</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<p>Under such efforts, to elude the far-stretching arm of the Sultan was +impossible, unless the Count possessed the secret of rendering himself +and his travelling party invisible; or the miraculous gift of smiting +all Egypt with blindness. But of these talents neither had been lent +him. Only the mettled Kurt had taken certain measures, which, in regard +to their effect, might supply the place of miracles. He had rendered his +flying caravan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> invisible, by the darkness of an unlighted cellar in the +house of Adullam the sudorific Hebrew. This Jewish Hermes did not +satisfy himself with practising the healing art to good advantage, but +drew profit likewise from the gift which he had received by inheritance +from his fathers; and thus honoured Mercury in all his three qualities, +of Patron to Doctors, to Merchants, and to Thieves. He drove a great +trade in spiceries and herbs with the Venetians, from which he had +acquired much wealth; and he disdained no branch of business whereby +anything was to be made. This worthy Israelite, who for money and +money's worth, stood ready, without investigating moral tendencies, for +any sort of deed, the trusty Squire had prevailed on, by a jewel from +the casket of the Princess, to undertake the transport of the Count, +whose rank and intention were not concealed from him, with three +servants, to a Venetian ship that was loading at Alexandria; but it had +prudently been hidden from him, that in the course of this contraband +transaction, he must smuggle out his master's daughter. On first +inspecting his cargo, the figure of the fair youth struck him somewhat; +but he thought no ill of it, and took him for a page of the Count's. Ere +long the report of the Princess Melechsala's disappearance sounded over +all the city: then Adullam's eyes were opened; deadly terror took +possession of his heart, so that his gray beard began to stir, and he +wished with all his soul that his hands had been free of this perilous +concern. But now it was too late; his own safety required him to summon +all his cunning, and conduct this breakneck business to a happy end. In +the first place, he laid his subterranean lodgers under rigorous +quarantine; and then, after the sharpest of the search was over, the +hope of finding the Princess considerably faded, and the zeal in seeking +for her cooled, he packed the whole caravan neatly up in four bales of +herbs, put them on board a Nile-boat, and sent them with a proper +invoice, under God's guidance, safe and sound to Alexandria; where so +soon as the Venetian had gained the open sea, they were liberated, all +and sundry, from their strait confinement in the herb-sacks.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> The invention of travelling in a sack was several times +employed during the Crusades. Dietrich the Hard-bested, Markgraf of +Meissen (Misnia), returned from Palestine to his hereditary possessions, +under this incognito, and so escaped the snares of the Emperor Henry +VI., who had an eye to the productive mines of Freyberg.—M.</p></div> + +<p>Whether the celestial body-guard, with diamond shields and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> flaming +swords, posted on a gorgeous train of clouds, did follow the swift ship, +could not now, as they were invisible, be properly substantiated in a +court of justice; yet there are not wanting symptoms in the matter which +might lead to some such conjecture. All the four winds of Heaven seem to +have combined to make the voyage prosperous; the adverse held their +breath; and the favourable blew so gaily in the sails, that the vessel +ploughed the soft-playing billows with the speed of an arrow. The +friendly moon was stretching her horns from the clouds for the second +time, when the Venetian, glad in heart, ran into moorings in the harbour +of his native town.</p> + +<p>Countess Ottilia's watchful spy was still at Venice; undismayed by the +fruitless toil of vain inquiries, from continuing his diets of +examination, and diligently questioning all passengers from the Levant. +He was at his post when the Count, with the fair Melechsala, came on +land. His master's physiognomy was so stamped upon his memory, that he +would have undertaken to discover it among a thousand unknown faces. +Nevertheless the foreign garb, and the finger of Time, which in seven +years produces many changes, made him for some moments doubtful. To be +certain of his object, he approached the stranger's suite, made up to +the trusty Squire, and asked him: "Comrade, whence come you?"</p> + +<p>The mettled Kurt rejoiced to meet a countryman, and hear the sound of +his mother-tongue; but saw no profit in submitting his concerns to the +questioning of a stranger, and answered briefly: "From sea."</p> + +<p>"Who is the gentleman thou followest?"</p> + +<p>"My master."</p> + +<p>"From what country come you?"</p> + +<p>"From the East."</p> + +<p>"Whither are you going?"</p> + +<p>"To the West."</p> + +<p>"To what province?"</p> + +<p>"To our home."</p> + +<p>"Where is it?"</p> + +<p>"Miles of road from this."</p> + +<p>"What is thy name?"</p> + +<p>"Start-the-game, that is my name. Strike-for-a-word, people call my +sword. Sorrow-of-life, so hight my wife. Rise, Lig-a-bed, she cries to +her maid. Still-at-a-stand, that is my man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> Hobbletehoy, I christened +my boy. Lank-i'-the-bag, I scold my nag. Shamble-and-stalk, we call his +walk. Trot-i'-the-bog, I whistle my dog. Saw-ye-that, so jumps my cat. +Snug-in-the-rug, he is my bug. Now thou knowest me, with wife and child, +and all my household."</p> + +<p>"Thou seemest to me to be a queer fellow."</p> + +<p>"I am no fellow at all, for I follow no handicraft."</p> + +<p>"Answer me one question."</p> + +<p>"Let us hear it."</p> + +<p>"Hast thou any news of Count Ernst of Gleichen, from the East?"</p> + +<p>"Wherefore dost thou ask?"</p> + +<p>"Therefore."</p> + +<p>"Twiddle, twaddle! Wherefore, therefore!"</p> + +<p>"Because I am sent into all the world by the Countess Ottilia his wife, +to get her word whether her husband is still living, and in what corner +of the Earth he may be found."</p> + +<p>This answer put the mettled Kurt into some perplexity; and tuned him to +another key. "Wait a little, neighbour," said he; "perhaps my master +knows about the thing." Thereupon he ran to the Count, and whispered the +tidings in his ear. The feeling they awoke was complex; made up in equal +proportions of joy and consternation. Count Ernst perceived that his +dream, or the interpretation of it, had misled him; and that the conceit +of marrying his fair travelling companion might easily be baulked. On +the spur of the moment he knew not how he should get out of this +embroiled affair: meanwhile, the desire to learn how matters stood at +home outweighed all scruples. He beckoned to the emissary, whom he soon +recognised for his old valet; and who wetted with joyful tears the hand +of his recovered master, and told in many words what jubilee the +Countess would make, when she received the happy message of her +husband's return. The Count took him with the rest to the inn; and there +engaged in earnest meditation on the singular state of his heart, and +considered deeply what was to be done with his engagements to the fair +Saracen. Without loss of time the watchful spy was dispatched to the +Countess with a letter, containing a true statement of the Count's +fortunes in slavery at Cairo, and of his deliverance by means of the +Sultan's daughter; how she had abandoned throne and country for his +sake, under the condition that he was to marry her, which he himself, +deceived by a dream,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> had promised. By this narrative he meant not only +to prepare his wife for a participatress in her marriage rights; but +also endeavoured, in the course of it, by many sound arguments, to gain +her own consent to the arrangement.</p> + +<p>Countess Ottilia was standing at the window in her mourning weeds, as +the news-bringer for the last time gave his breathless horse the spur, +to hasten it up the steep Castle-path. Her sharp eye recognised him in +the distance; and he too being nothing of a blinkard,—a class of +persons very rare in the days of the Crusades,—recognised the Countess +also, raised the letter-bag aloft over his head, and waved it like a +standard in token of good news; and the lady understood his signal, as +well as if the Hanau <i>Synthematograph</i> had been on duty there. "Hast +thou found him, the husband of my heart?" cried she, as he approached. +"Where lingers he, that I may rise and wipe the sweat from his brow, and +let him rest in my faithful arms from his toilsome journeying?"—"Joy to +you, my lady," said the post; "his lordship is well. I found him in the +Port of Venice, from which he sends you this under his hand and seal, to +announce his arrival himself." The Countess could not hastily enough +undo the seal; and at sight of her husband's hand, she felt as if the +breath of life were coming back to her. Three times she pressed the +letter to her beating heart, and three times touched it with her +languishing lips. A shower of joyful tears streamed over the parchment, +as she began reading: but the farther she read, the drops fell the +slower; and before the reading was completed, the fountain of tears had +dried up altogether.</p> + +<p>The contents of the letter could not all interest the good lady equally; +her husband's proposed partition treaty of his heart had not the +happiness to meet with her approval. Greatly as the spirit of partition +has acquired the upper hand nowadays, so that parted love and parted +provinces have become the device of our century; these things were +little to the taste of old times, when every heart had its own key, and +a master-key that would open several was regarded as a scandalous +thief-picklock. The intolerance of the Countess in this point was at +least a proof of her unvarnished love: "Ah! that doleful Crusade," cried +she, "is the cause of it all. I lent the Holy Church a Loaf, of which +the Heathen have eaten; and nothing but a Crust of it returns to me." A +vision of the night, however, soothed her troubled mind, and gave her +whole view of the affair another aspect. She dreamed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> that there came +two pilgrims from the Holy Sepulchre up the winding Castle-road, and +begged a lodging, which she kindly granted them. One of them threw off +his cloak, and behold it was the Count her lord! She joyfully embraced +him, and was in raptures at his return. The children too came in, and he +clasped them in his paternal arms, pressed them to his heart, and +praised their looks and growth. Meanwhile his companion laid aside his +travelling pouch; drew from it golden chains and precious strings of +jewelry, and hung them round the necks of the little ones, who showed +delighted with these glittering presents. The Countess was herself +surprised at this munificence, and asked the stranger who he was. He +answered: "I am the Angel Raphael, the guide of the loving, and have +brought thy husband to thee out of foreign lands." His pilgrim garments +melted away; and a shining angel stood before her, in an azure robe, +with two golden wings on his shoulders. Thereupon she awoke, and, in the +absence of an Egyptian Sibyl, herself interpreted the dream according to +her best skill; and found so many points of similarity between the Angel +Raphael and the Princess Melechsala, that she doubted not the latter had +been shadowed forth to her in vision under the figure of the former. At +the same time she took into consideration the fact that, without her +help, the Count could scarcely ever have escaped from slavery. And as it +behoves the owner of a lost piece of property to deal generously with +the finder, who might have kept it all to himself, she no longer +hesitated to resolve on the surrender. The water-bailiff, well rewarded +for his watchfulness, was therefore dispatched forthwith back into +Italy, with the formal consent of the Countess for her husband to +complete the trefoil of his marriage without loss of time.</p> + +<p>The only question now was, whether Father Gregory at Rome would give his +benediction to this matrimonial anomaly; and be persuaded, for the +Count's sake, to refound, by the word of his mouth, the substance, form +and essence of the Sacrament of Marriage. The pilgrimage accordingly set +forth from Venice to Rome, where the Princess Melechsala solemnly +abjured the Koran, and entered into the bosom of the Church. At this +spiritual conquest the Holy Father testified as much delight as if the +kingdom of Antichrist had been entirely destroyed, or reduced under +subjection to the Romish chair; and after the baptism, on which occasion +she had changed her Saracenic name for the more orthodox<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> <i>Angelica</i>, he +caused a pompous <i>Te-deum</i> to be celebrated in St. Peter's. These happy +aspects Count Ernst endeavoured to improve for his purpose, before the +Pope's good-humour should evaporate. He brought his matrimonial concern +to light without delay: but, alas! no sooner asked than rejected. The +conscience of St. Peter's Vicar was so tender in this case, that he +reckoned it a greater heresy to advocate triplicity in marriage than +Tritheism itself. Many plausible arguments as the Count brought forward +to accomplish an exception from the common rule in his own favour, they +availed no jot in moving the exemplary Pope to wink with one eye of his +conscience, and vouchsafe the petitioned dispensation: a result which +cut Count Ernst to the heart. His sly counsel, the mettled Kurt, had in +the mean time struck out a bright expedient for accomplishing the +marriage of his master with the fair convert, to the satisfaction of the +Pope and Christendom in general; only he had not risked disclosing it, +lest it might cost him his master's favour. Yet at last he found his +opportunity, and put the matter into words. "Dear master," said he, "do +not vex yourself so much about the Pope's perverseness. If you cannot +get round him on the one side, you must try him on the other: there are +more roads to the wood than one. If the Holy Father has too tender a +conscience to permit your taking two wives, then it is fair for you also +to have a tender conscience, though you are no priest but a layman. +Conscience is a cloak that covers every hole, and has withal the quality +that it can be turned according to the wind: at present, when the wind +is cross, you must put the cloak on the other shoulder. Examine whether +you are not related to the Countess Ottilia within the prohibited +degrees: if so, as will surely be the case, if you have a tender +conscience, then the game is your own. Get a divorce; and who the deuce +can hinder you from wedding the Princess then?"</p> + +<p>The Count had listened to his Squire till the sense of his oration was +completely before him; then he answered it with two words, shortly and +clearly: "Peace, Dog!" In the same moment, the mettled Kurt found +himself lying at full length without the door, and seeking for a tooth +or two which had dropped from him in this rapid transit. "Ah! the +precious tooth," cried he from without, "has been sacrificed to my +faithful zeal!" This tooth monologue reminded the Count of his dream. +"Ah! the cursed tooth," cried he from within, "which I dreamed of +losing, has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> been the cause of all this mischief!" His heart, between +self-reproaches for unfaithfulness to his amiable wife, and for +prohibited love to the charming Angelica, kept wavering like a bell, +which yields a sound on both sides, when set in motion. Still more than +the flame of his passion, the fire of indignation burnt and gnawed him, +now that he saw the visible impossibility of ever keeping his word to +the Princess, and taking her in wedlock. All which distresses, by the +way, led him to the just experimental conclusion, that a parted heart is +not the most desirable of things; and that the lover, in these +circumstances, but too much resembles the Ass Baldwin between his two +bundles of hay.</p> + +<p>In such a melancholy posture of affairs, he lost his jovial humour +altogether, and wore the aspect of an atrabiliar, whom in bad weather +the atmosphere oppresses till the spleen is like to crush the soul out +of his body. Princess Angelica observed that her lover's looks were no +longer as yesterday, and ere-yesterday: it grieved her soft heart, and +moved her to resolve on making trial whether she should not be more +successful, if she took the dispensation business in her own hand. She +requested audience of the conscientious Gregory; and appeared before him +closely veiled, according to the fashion of her country. No Roman eye +had yet seen her face, except the priest who baptised her. His Holiness +received the new-born daughter of the Church with all suitable respect, +offered her the palm of his right hand to kiss, and not his perfumed +slipper. The fair stranger raised her veil a little to touch the sacred +hand with her lips; then opened her mouth, and clothed her petition in a +touching address. Yet this insinuation through the Papal ear seemed not +sufficiently to know the interior organisation of the Head of the +Church; for instead of taking the road to the heart, it passed through +the other ear out into the air. Father Gregory expostulated long with +the lovely supplicant; and imagined he had found a method for in some +degree contenting her desire of union with a bridegroom, without offence +to the ordinations of the Church: he proposed to her a spiritual +wedlock, if she could resolve on a slight change of the veil, the +Saracenic for the Nun's. This proposal suddenly awakened in the Princess +such a horror at veils, that she directly tore away her own; sank full +of despair before the holy footstool, and with uplifted hands and +tearful eyes, conjured the venerable Father by his sacred slipper, not +to do violence to her heart, and constrain her to bestow it elsewhere.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<p>The sight of her beauty was more eloquent than her lips; it enraptured +all present; and the tear which gathered in her heavenly eye fell like a +burning drop of naphtha on the Holy Father's heart, and kindled the +small fraction of earthly tinder that still lay hid there, and warmed it +into sympathy for the petitioner. "Rise, beloved daughter," said he, +"and weep not! What has been determined in Heaven, shall be fulfilled in +thee on Earth. In three days thou shalt know whether this thy first +prayer to the Church can be granted by that gracious Mother, or must be +denied." Thereupon he summoned an assembly of all the Casuists in Rome; +had a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine distributed to each; and locked +them up in the Rotunda, with the warning that no one of them should be +let out again till the question had been determined unanimously. So long +as the loaves and wine held out, the disputes were so violent, that all +the Saints, had they been convened in the church, could not have argued +with greater noise. But so soon as the Digestive Faculty began to have a +voice in the meeting, he was listened to with the deepest attention, and +happily he spoke in favour of the Count, who had got a sumptuous feast +made ready for the entertainment of the casuistic Doctors, when the +Papal seal should be removed from their door. The Bull of Dispensation +was drawn out in proper form of law; in furtherance of which the fair +Angelica had, not at all reluctantly, inflicted a determined cut upon +the treasures of Egypt. Father Gregory bestowed his benediction on the +noble pair, and sent them away betrothed. They lost no time in leaving +Peter's Patrimony for the territories of the Count, to celebrate their +nuptials on arriving.</p> + +<p>When Count Ernst, on this side the Alps, again inhaled his native air, +and felt it come soft and kindly round his heart, he mounted his steed; +galloped forward, attended only by the heavy Groom, and left the +Princess, under the escort of the mettled Kurt, to follow him by easy +journeys.</p> + +<p>His heart beat high within him, when he saw in azure distance the three +towers of Gleichen. He meant to take his gentle Countess by surprise; +but the news of his approach had preceded him, as on the wings of the +wind; she went forth with man and maid, and met her husband a furlong +from the Castle, in a pleasant green, which, in memory of this event, is +called the Freudenthal, or Valley of Joy, to this day. The meeting on +both sides was as trustful and tender, as if no partition treaty had +ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> been thought of: for Countess Ottilia was a proper pattern of the +pious wife, that obeys without commentary the marriage precept of +subjecting her will to the will of her husband. If at times there did +arise some small sedition in her heart, she did not on the instant ring +the alarm-bell; but she shut door and window, that no mortal eye might +look in and see what passed; and then summoned the rebel Passion to the +bar of Reason; gave it over in custody to Prudence, and imposed on +herself a voluntary penance.</p> + +<p>She could not pardon her heart for having murmured at the rival sun that +was to shine beside her on the matrimonial horizon; and to expiate the +offence, she had secretly commissioned a triple bedstead, with stout fir +posts, painted green, the colour of Hope; and a round vaulted tester, in +the form of a dome, adorned with winged puffy-cheeked heads of angels. +On the silken coverlet, which lay for show over the downy quilts, was +exhibited in fine embroidery, the Angel Raphael, as he had appeared to +her in vision, beside the Count in pilgrim weeds. This speaking proof of +her ready matrimonial complaisance affected her husband to the soul. He +clasped her to his breast, and overpowered her with kisses, at the sight +of this arrangement for the completion of his wedded joys.</p> + +<p>"Glorious wife!" cried he with rapture, "this temple of love exalts thee +above thousands of thy sex; as an honourable memorial, it will transmit +thy name to future ages; and while a splinter of this wood remains, +husbands will recount to their wives thy exemplary conduct."</p> + +<p>In a few days afterwards, the Princess also arrived in safety, and was +received by the Count in full gala. Ottilia came to meet her with open +arms and heart, and conducted her into the Palace, as the partner in all +its privileges. The double bridegroom then set out to Erfurt, for the +Bishop to perform the marriage ceremony. This pious prelate was +extremely shocked at the proposal, and signified, that in his diocese no +such scandal could be tolerated. But, on Count Ernst's bringing out the +papal dispensation, signed and sealed in due form, it acted as a lock on +his Reverence's lips; though his doubting looks, and shaking of the +head, still indicated that the Steersman of the bark of the universal +Church had bored a hole in the keel, which bade fair to swamp the +vessel, and send it to the bottom of the sea.</p> + +<p>The nuptials were celebrated with becoming pomp and splendour;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> Countess +Ottilia, who acted as mistress of the ceremonies, had invited widely; +and the counts and knights, over all Thuringia, far and wide, came +crowding to assist at this unusual wedding. Before the Count led his +bride to the altar, she opened her jewel-box, and consigned to him all +its treasures that remained from the expenses of the dispensation, as a +dowry; in return for which, he conferred on her the lands of Ehrenstein, +by way of jointure. The chaste myrtle twined itself about the golden +crown, which latter ornament the Sultan's daughter, as a testimony of +her high birth, retained through life; and was, in consequence, +invariably named the Queen by her subjects, and by her domestics +reverenced and treated like a queen.</p> + +<p>If any of my readers ever purchased for himself, for fifty guineas, the +costly pleasure of resting a night in Doctor Graham's <i>Celestial Bed</i> at +London, he may form some slender conception of the Count's delight, when +the triple bed at Gleichen opened its elastic bosom to receive the +twice-betrothed, with both his spouses. Seven days long the nuptial +festivities continued; and the Count declared himself richly compensated +by them for the seven dreary years which he had been obliged to spend in +the Grated Tower at Grand Cairo. Nor would this appear to have been an +empty compliment on his part to his two faithful wives, if the +experimental apophthegm is just, that a single day of gladness sweetens +into oblivion the bitter dole and sorrow of a troublous year.</p> + +<p>Next to the Count, there was none who relished this exhilarating period +better than his trusty Squire, the mettled Kurt, who, in the well-stored +kitchen and cellar, found the elements of royal cheer, and stoutly +emptied the cup of joy which circulated fast among the servants; while +the full table pricked up their ears as he opened his lips, his inner +man once satisfied with good things, and began to recount them his +adventures. But when the Gleichic economy returned to its customary +frugal routine, he requested permission to set out for Ordruff, to visit +his kind wife, and overwhelm her with joy at his unexpected return. +During his long absence, he had constantly maintained a rigorous +fidelity, and he now longed for the just reward of so exemplary a walk +and conversation. Fancy painted to his mind's eye the image of his +virtuous Rebecca in the liveliest colours; and the nearer he approached +the walls which enclosed her, the brighter grew these hues. He saw her +stand before him in the charms which had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> delighted him on his +wedding-day; he saw how excess of joy at his happy arrival would +overpower her spirits, and she would sink in speechless rapture into his +arms.</p> + +<p>Encircled with this fair retinue of dreams, he arrived at the gate of +his native town, without observing it, till the watchful guardian of +public tranquillity let down his beam in front of him, and questioned +the stranger, Who he was, what business had brought him to the town, and +whether his intentions were peaceable or not? The mettled Kurt gave +ready answer; and now rode along the streets at a soft pace, lest his +horse's tramp might too soon betray the secret of his coming. He +fastened his beast to the door-ring, and stole, without noise, into the +court of his dwelling, where the old chained house-dog first received +him with joyful bark. Yet he wondered somewhat at the sight of two +lively chub-faced children, like the Angels in the Gleichen bed-tester, +frisking to and fro upon the area. He had no time to speculate on the +phenomenon, for the mistress of the house, in her carefulness, stept out +of doors to see who was there. Alas, what a difference between ideal and +original! The tooth of Time had, in these seven years, been mercilessly +busy with her charms; yet the leading features of her physiognomy had +been in so far spared, that to the eye of the critic she was still +recognisable, like the primary stamp of a worn coin. Joy at meeting +somewhat veiled this want of beauty from the mettled Kurt, and the +thought that sorrow for his absence had so furrowed the smooth face of +his consort put him into a sentimental mood; he embraced her with great +cordiality, and said: "Welcome, dear wife of my heart! Forget all thy +sorrow. See, I am still alive; thou hast got me back!"</p> + +<p>The pious Rebecca answered this piece of tenderness by a heavy thwack on +the short ribs, which thwack made the mettled Kurt stagger to the wall; +then raised loud shrieks, and shouted to her servants for help against +violence, and scolded and stormed like an Infernal Fury. The loving +husband excused this unloving reception, on the score of his virtuous +spouse's delicacy, which his bold kiss of welcome had offended, she not +knowing who he was; and tore his lungs with bawling to undo this error; +but his preaching was to deaf ears, and he soon found that there was no +misunderstanding in the case. "Thou shameless varlet," cried she, in +shrieking treble, "after wandering seven long years up and down the +world, following thy wicked courses with other women, dost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> thou think +that I will take thee back to my chaste bed? Off with thee! Did not I +publicly cite thee at three church-doors, and wert not thou, for thy +contumacious non-appearance, declared to be dead as mutton? Did not the +High Court authorise me to put aside my widow's chair, and marry +Bürgermeister Wipprecht? Have not we lived six years as man and wife, +and received these children as a blessing of our wedlock? And now comes +the Marpeace to perplex my house! Off with thee! Pack, I say, this +instant, or the Amtmann shall crop thy ears, and put thee in the +pillory, to teach such vagabonds, that run and leave their poor tender +wives." This welcome from his once-loved helpmate was a sword's-thrust +through the heart of the mettled Kurt; but the gall poured itself as a +defence into his blood.</p> + +<p>"O thou faithless strumpet!" answered he; "what holds me that I do not +take thee and thy bastards, and wring your necks this moment? Dost thou +recollect thy promise, and the oath thou hast so often sworn in the +trustful marriage-bed, that death itself should not part thee from me? +Didst thou not engage, unasked, that should thy soul fly up directly +from thy mouth to Heaven, and I were roasting in Purgatory, thou wouldst +turn again from Heaven's gate, and come down to me, to fan cool air upon +me till I were delivered from the flames? Devil broil thy false tongue, +thou gallows carrion!"</p> + +<p>Though the Prima Donna of Ordruff was endowed with a glib organ, which, +in the faculty of cursing, yielded no whit to that of the tumultuous +pretender, she did not judge it good to enter into farther debate with +him, but gave her menials an expressive sign; and, in an instant, man +and maid seized hold of the mettled Kurt, and <i>brevi manu</i> ejected his +body from the house; in which act of domestic jurisdiction Dame Rebecca +herself bore a hand with the besom, and so swept away this discarded +helpmate from the premises. The mettled Kurt, half-broken on the wheel, +then mounted his horse, and dashed full gallop down the street, which he +had rode along so gingerly some minutes before.</p> + +<p>As his blood, when he was on the road home, began to cool, he counted +loss and gain, and found himself not ill contented with the balance; for +he found, that except the comfort of having cool air fanned upon his +soul in Purgatory after death, his smart amounted to nothing. He never +more returned to Ordruff, but continued with the Count at Gleichen all +his life, and was an eye-witness of the most incredible occurrence, that +two ladies shared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> the love of one man without quarrelling or jealousy, +and this even under one bed-tester! The fair Angelica continued +childless, yet she loved and watched over her associate's children as if +they had been her own, and divided with Ottilia the care of their +education. In the trefoil of this happy marriage, she was the first leaf +which faded away in the autumn of life. Countess Ottilia soon followed +her; and the afflicted widower, now all too lonely in his large castle +and wide bed, lingered but a few months longer. The firmly-established +arrangement of these noble spouses in the marriage-bed through life, was +maintained unaltered after their death. They rest all three in one +grave, in front of the Gleichen Altar, in St. Peter's Church at Erfurt, +on the Hill; where their place of sepulture is still to be seen, +overlaid with a stone, on which the noble group are sculptured after the +life. To the right lies the Countess Ottilia, with a mirror in her hand, +the emblem of her praiseworthy prudence; on the left Angelica, adorned +with a royal crown; and in the midst, the Count reposing on his +coat-of-arms, the lion-leopard.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Their famous triple bedstead is +still preserved as a relic in the old Castle; it stands in the room +called the Junkernkammer, or Knight's Chamber; and a splinter of it, +worn by way of busk in a lady's bodice, is said to have the virtue of +dispelling every movement of jealousy from her heart.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> A plate of this tombstone may be seen in Falkenstein's +<i>Analecta Nordgaviensia</i>.—M.</p></div> +</div> <!-- chap --> +<hr class="full" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="LUDWIG_TIECK" id="LUDWIG_TIECK"></a>LUDWIG TIECK.</h2> + + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="THE_FAIR-HAIRED_ECKBERT" id="THE_FAIR-HAIRED_ECKBERT"></a>THE FAIR-HAIRED ECKBERT.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h3> + + +<p>In a district of the Harz dwelt a Knight, whose common designation in +that quarter was the Fair-haired Eckbert. He was about forty years of +age, scarcely of middle stature, and short light-coloured locks lay +close and sleek round his pale and sunken countenance. He led a retired +life, had never interfered in the feuds of his neighbours; indeed, +beyond the outer wall of his castle he was seldom to be seen. His wife +loved solitude as much as he; both seemed heartily attached to one +another; only now and then they would lament that Heaven had not blessed +their marriage with children.</p> + +<p>Few came to visit Eckbert; and when guests did happen to be with him, +their presence made but little alteration in his customary way of life. +Temperance abode in his household, and Frugality herself appeared to be +the mistress of the entertainment. On these occasions Eckbert was always +cheerful and lively; but when he was alone, you might observe in him a +certain mild reserve, a still, retiring melancholy.</p> + +<p>His most frequent guest was Philip Walther; a man to whom he had +attached himself, from having found in him a way of thinking like his +own. Walther's residence was in Franconia; but he would often stay for +half a year in Eckbert's neighbourhood, gathering plants and minerals, +and then sorting and arranging them. He lived on a small independency, +and was connected with no one. Eckbert frequently attended him in his +sequestered walks; year after year a closer friendship grew betwixt +them.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Prefatory Introduction to Tieck, <i>suprà</i>, at p. 330, Vol. +VI. of <i>Works</i> (Vol. I. of <i>Miscellanies</i>).</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>There are hours in which a man feels grieved that he should have a +secret from his friend, which, till then, he may have kept with niggard +anxiety; some irresistible desire lays hold of our heart to open itself +wholly, to disclose its inmost recesses to our friend, that so he may +become our friend still more. It is in such moments that tender souls +unveil themselves, and stand face to face; and at times it will happen, +that the one recoils affrighted from the countenance of the other.</p> + +<p>It was late in Autumn, when Eckbert, one cloudy evening, was sitting, +with his friend and his wife Bertha, by the parlour fire. The flame cast +a red glimmer through the room, and sported on the ceiling; the night +looked sullenly in through the windows, and the trees without rustled in +wet coldness. Walther complained of the long road he had to travel; and +Eckbert proposed to him to stay where he was, to while away half of the +night in friendly talk, and then to take a bed in the house till +morning. Walther agreed, and the whole was speedily arranged: by and by +wine and supper were brought in; fresh wood was laid upon the fire; the +talk grew livelier and more confidential.</p> + +<p>The cloth being removed, and the servants gone, Eckbert took his +friend's hand, and said to him: "Now you must let my wife tell you the +history of her youth; it is curious enough, and you should know it." +"With all my heart," said Walther; and the party again drew round the +hearth.</p> + +<p>It was now midnight; the moon looked fitfully through the breaks of the +driving clouds. "You must not reckon me a babbler," began the lady. "My +husband says you have so generous a mind, that it is not right in us to +hide aught from you. Only do not take my narrative for a fable, however +strangely it may sound.</p> + +<p>"I was born in a little village; my father was a poor herdsman. Our +circumstances were not of the best; often we knew not where to find our +daily bread. But what grieved me far more than this, were the quarrels +which my father and mother often had about their poverty, and the bitter +reproaches they cast on one another. Of myself too, I heard nothing said +but ill; they were forever telling me that I was a silly stupid child, +that I could not do the simplest turn of work; and in truth I was +extremely inexpert and helpless; I let things fall; I neither learned to +sew nor spin; I could be of no use to my parents; only their straits I +understood too well. Often I would sit in a corner, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> fill my little +heart with dreams, how I would help them, if I should all at once grow +rich; how I would overflow them with silver and gold, and feast myself +on their amazement; and then spirits came hovering up, and showed me +buried treasures, or gave me little pebbles which changed into precious +stones; in short, the strangest fancies occupied me, and when I had to +rise and help with anything, my inexpertness was still greater, as my +head was giddy with these motley visions.</p> + +<p>"My father in particular was always very cross to me; he scolded me for +being such a burden to the house; indeed he often used me rather +cruelly, and it was very seldom that I got a friendly word from him. In +this way I had struggled on to near the end of my eighth year; and now +it was seriously fixed that I should begin to do or learn something. My +father still maintained that it was nothing but caprice in me, or a lazy +wish to pass my days in idleness: accordingly he set upon me with +furious threats; and as these made no improvement, he one day gave me a +most cruel chastisement, and added that the same should be repeated day +after day, since I was nothing but a useless sluggard.</p> + +<p>"That whole night I wept abundantly; I felt myself so utterly forsaken, +I had such a sympathy with myself that I even longed to die. I dreaded +the break of day; I knew not on earth what I was to do or try. I wished +from my very heart to be clever, and could not understand how I should +be worse than the other children of the place. I was on the borders of +despair.</p> + +<p>"At the dawn of day I arose, and scarcely knowing what I did, unfastened +the door of our little hut. I stept upon the open field; next minute I +was in a wood, where the light of the morning had yet hardly penetrated. +I ran along, not looking round; for I felt no fatigue, and I still +thought my father would catch me, and in his anger at my flight would +beat me worse than ever.</p> + +<p>"I had reached the other side of the forest, and the sun was risen a +considerable way; I saw something dim lying before me, and a thick fog +resting over it. Ere long my path began to mount, at one time I was +climbing hills, at another winding among rocks; and I now guessed that I +must be among the neighbouring Mountains; a thought that made me shudder +in my loneliness. For, living in the plain country, I had never seen a +hill; and the very word Mountains, when I heard talk of them, had been a +sound of terror to my young ear. I had not the heart to go back, my fear +itself drove me on; often I looked round affrighted when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> breezes +rustled over me among the trees, or the stroke of some distant woodman +sounded far through the still morning. And when I began to meet with +charcoal-men and miners, and heard their foreign way of speech, I had +nearly fainted for terror.</p> + +<p>"I passed through several villages; begging now and then, for I felt +hungry and thirsty; and fashioning my answers as I best could when +questions were put to me. In this manner I had wandered on some four +days, when I came upon a little footpath, which led me farther and +farther from the highway. The rocks about me now assumed a different and +far stranger form. They were cliffs so piled on one another, that it +looked as if the first gust of wind would hurl them all this way and +that. I knew not whether to go on or stop. Till now I had slept by night +in the woods, for it was the finest season of the year, or in some +remote shepherd's hut; but here I saw no human dwelling at all, and +could not hope to find one in this wilderness; the crags grew more and +more frightful; I had many a time to glide along by the very edge of +dreadful abysses; by degrees my footpath became fainter, and at last all +traces of it vanished from beneath me. I was utterly comfortless; I wept +and screamed; and my voice came echoing back from the rocky valleys with +a sound that terrified me. The night now came on, and I sought out a +mossy nook to lie down in. I could not sleep; in the darkness I heard +the strangest noises; sometimes I took them to proceed from wild-beasts, +sometimes from wind moaning through the rocks, sometimes from unknown +birds. I prayed; and did not sleep till towards morning.</p> + +<p>"When the light came upon my face, I awoke. Before me was a steep rock; +I clomb up, in the hope of discovering some outlet from the waste, +perhaps of seeing houses or men. But when I reached the top, there was +nothing still, so far as my eye could reach, but a wilderness of crags +and precipices; all was covered with a dim haze; the day was gray and +troubled, and no tree, no meadow, not even a bush could I find, only a +few shrubs shooting up stunted and solitary in the narrow clefts of the +rocks. I cannot utter what a longing I felt but to see one human +creature, any living mortal, even though I had been afraid of hurt from +him. At the same time I was tortured by a gnawing hunger; I sat down, +and made up my mind to die. After a while, however, the desire of living +gained the mastery; I roused myself, and wandered forward amid tears and +broken sobs all day;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> in the end, I hardly knew what I was doing; I was +tired and spent; I scarcely wished to live, and yet I feared to die.</p> + +<p>"Towards night the country seemed to grow a little kindlier; my +thoughts, my desires revived, the wish for life awoke in all my veins. I +thought I heard the rushing of a mill afar off; I redoubled my steps; +and how glad, how light of heart was I, when at last I actually gained +the limits of the barren rocks, and saw woods and meadows lying before +me, with soft green hills in the distance! I felt as if I had stept out +of hell into a paradise; my loneliness and helplessness no longer +frightened me.</p> + +<p>"Instead of the hoped-for mill, I came upon a waterfall, which, in +truth, considerably damped my joy. I was lifting a drink from it in the +hollow of my hand, when all at once I thought I heard a slight cough +some little way from me. Never in my life was I so joyfully surprised as +at this moment: I went near, and at the border of the wood I saw an old +woman sitting resting on the ground. She was dressed almost wholly in +black; a black hood covered her head, and the greater part of her face; +in her hand she held a crutch.</p> + +<p>"I came up to her, and begged for help; she made me sit by her, and gave +me bread, and a little wine. While I ate, she sang in a screeching tone +some kind of spiritual song. When she had done, she told me I might +follow her.</p> + +<p>"The offer charmed me, strange as the old woman's voice and look +appeared. With her crutch she limped away pretty fast, and at every step +she twisted her face so oddly, that at first I was like to laugh. The +wild rocks retired behind us more and more: I never shall forget the +aspect and the feeling of that evening. All things were as molten into +the softest golden red; the trees were standing with their tops in the +glow of the sunset; on the fields lay a mild brightness; the woods and +the leaves of the trees were standing motionless; the pure sky looked +out like an opened paradise, and the gushing of the brooks, and, from +time to time, the rustling of the trees, resounded through the serene +stillness, as in pensive joy. My young soul was here first taken with a +forethought of the world and its vicissitudes. I forgot myself and my +conductress; my spirit and my eyes were wandering among the shining +clouds.</p> + +<p>"We now mounted an eminence planted with birch-trees; from the top we +looked into a green valley, likewise full of birches; and down below, in +the middle of them, was a little hut. A glad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> barking reached us, and +immediately a little nimble dog came springing round the old woman, +fawned on her, and wagged its tail; it next came to me, viewed me on all +sides, and then turned back with a friendly look to its old mistress.</p> + +<p>"On reaching the bottom of the hill, I heard the strangest song, as if +coming from the hut, and sung by some bird. It ran thus:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Alone in wood so gay</div> +<div class="i1">'Tis good to stay,</div> +<div class="i1">Morrow like today,</div> +<div class="i1">Forever and aye:</div> +<div class="i1">O, I do love to stay</div> +<div class="i1">Alone in wood so gay.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>"These few words were continually repeated, and to describe the sound, +it was as if you heard forest-horns and shalms sounded together from a +far distance.</p> + +<p>"My curiosity was wonderfully on the stretch; without waiting for the +old woman's orders, I stept into the hut. It was already dusk; here all +was neatly swept and trimmed; some bowls were standing in a cupboard, +some strange-looking casks or pots on a table; in a glittering cage, +hanging by the window, was a bird, and this in fact proved to be the +singer. The old woman coughed and panted: it seemed as if she never +would get over her fatigue: she patted the little dog, she talked with +the bird, which only answered her with its accustomed song; and for me, +she did not seem to recollect that I was there at all. Looking at her +so, many qualms and fears came over me; for her face was in perpetual +motion; and, besides, her head shook from old age, so that, for my life, +I could not understand what sort of countenance she had.</p> + +<p>"Having gathered strength again, she lit a candle, covered a very small +table, and brought out supper. She now looked round for me, and bade me +take a little cane-chair. I was thus sitting close fronting her, with +the light between us. She folded her bony hands, and prayed aloud, still +twisting her countenance, so that I was once more on the point of +laughing; but I took strict care that I might not make her angry.</p> + +<p>"After supper she again prayed, then showed me a bed in a low narrow +closet; she herself slept in the room. I did not watch long, for I was +half stupefied; but in the night I now and then awoke, and heard the old +woman coughing, and between whiles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> talking with her dog and her bird, +which last seemed dreaming, and replied with only one or two words of +its rhyme. This, with the birches rustling before the window, and the +song of a distant nightingale, made such a wondrous combination, that I +never fairly thought I was awake, but only falling out of one dream into +another still stranger.</p> + +<p>"The old woman awoke me in the morning, and soon after gave me work. I +was put to spin, which I now learned very easily; I had likewise to take +charge of the dog and the bird. I soon learned my business in the house: +I now felt as if it all must be so; I never once remembered that the old +woman had so many singularities, that her dwelling was mysterious, and +lay apart from all men, and that the bird must be a very strange +creature. Its beauty, indeed, always struck me, for its feathers +glittered with all possible colours; the fairest deep blue, and the most +burning red, alternated about his neck and body; and when singing, he +blew himself proudly out, so that his feathers looked still finer.</p> + +<p>"My old mistress often went abroad, and did not come again till night; +on these occasions I went out to meet her with the dog, and she used to +call me child and daughter. In the end I grew to like her heartily; as +our mind, especially in childhood, will become accustomed and attached +to anything. In the evenings, she taught me to read; and this was +afterwards a source of boundless satisfaction to me in my solitude, for +she had several ancient-written books, that contained the strangest +stories.</p> + +<p>"The recollection of the life I then led is still singular to me: +Visited by no human creature, secluded in the circle of so small a +family; for the dog and the bird made the same impression on me which in +other cases long-known friends produce. I am surprised that I have never +since been able to recall the dog's name, a very odd one, often as I +then pronounced it.</p> + +<p>"Four years I had passed in this way (I must now have been nearly +twelve), when my old dame began to put more trust in me, and at length +told me a secret. The bird, I found, laid every day an egg, in which +there was a pearl or a jewel. I had already noticed that she often went +to fettle privately about the cage, but I had never troubled myself +farther on the subject. She now gave me charge of gathering these eggs +in her absence, and carefully storing them up in the strange-looking +pots. She would leave me food, and sometimes stay away longer, for +weeks, for months.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> My little wheel kept humming round, the dog barked, +the bird sang; and withal there was such a stillness in the +neighbourhood, that I do not recollect of any storm or foul weather all +the time I stayed there. No one wandered thither; no wild-beast came +near our dwelling: I was satisfied, and worked along in peace from day +to day. One would perhaps be very happy, could he pass his life so +undisturbedly to the end.</p> + +<p>"From the little that I read, I formed quite marvellous notions of the +world and its people; all taken from myself and my society. When I read +of witty persons, I could not figure them but like the little shock; +great ladies, I conceived, were like the bird; all old women like my +mistress. I had read somewhat of love, too; and often, in fancy, I would +sport strange stories with myself. I figured out the fairest knight on +Earth; adorned him with all perfections, without knowing rightly, after +all my labour, how he looked: but I could feel a hearty pity for myself +when he ceased to love me; I would then, in thought, make long melting +speeches, or perhaps aloud, to try if I could win him back. You smile! +These young days are, in truth, far away from us all.</p> + +<p>"I now liked better to be left alone, for I was then sole mistress of +the house. The dog loved me, and did all I wanted; the bird replied to +all my questions with his rhyme; my wheel kept briskly turning, and at +bottom I had never any wish for change. When my dame returned from her +long wanderings, she would praise my diligence; she said her house, +since I belonged to it, was managed far more perfectly; she took a +pleasure in my growth and healthy looks; in short, she treated me in all +points like her daughter.</p> + +<p>"'Thou art a good girl, child,' said she once to me, in her creaking +tone; 'if thou continuest so, it will be well with thee: but none ever +prospers when he leaves the straight path; punishment will overtake him, +though it may be late.' I gave little heed to this remark of hers at the +time, for in all my temper and movements I was very lively; but by night +it occurred to me again, and I could not understand what she meant by +it. I considered all the words attentively; I had read of riches, and at +last it struck me that her pearls and jewels might perhaps be something +precious. Ere long this thought grew clearer to me. But the straight +path, and leaving it? What could she mean by this?</p> + +<p>"I was now fourteen; it is the misery of man that he arrives at +understanding through the loss of innocence. I now saw well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> enough that +it lay with me to take the jewels and the bird in the old woman's +absence, and go forth with them and see the world which I had read of. +Perhaps, too, it would then be possible that I might meet that fairest +of all knights, who forever dwelt in my memory.</p> + +<p>"At first this thought was nothing more than any other thought; but when +I used to be sitting at my wheel, it still returned to me, against my +will; and I sometimes followed it so far, that I already saw myself +adorned in splendid attire, with princes and knights around me. On +awakening from these dreams, I would feel a sadness when I looked up, +and found myself still in the little cottage. For the rest, if I went +through my duties, the old woman troubled herself little about what I +thought or felt.</p> + +<p>"One day she went out again, telling me that she should be away on this +occasion longer than usual; that I must take strict charge of +everything, and not let the time hang heavy on my hands. I had a sort of +fear on taking leave of her, for I felt as if I should not see her any +more. I looked long after her, and knew not why I felt so sad; it was +almost as if my purpose had already stood before me, without myself +being conscious of it.</p> + +<p>"Never did I tend the dog and the bird with such diligence as now; they +were nearer to my heart than formerly. The old woman had been gone some +days, when I rose one morning in the firm mind to leave the cottage, and +set out with the bird to see this world they talked so much of. I felt +pressed and hampered in my heart; I wished to stay where I was, and yet +the thought of that afflicted me; there was a strange contention in my +soul, as if between two discordant spirits. One moment my peaceful +solitude would seem to me so beautiful; the next the image of a new +world, with its many wonders, would again enchant me.</p> + +<p>"I knew not what to make of it; the dog leaped up continually about me; +the sunshine spread abroad over the fields; the green birch-trees +glittered; I always felt as if I had something I must do in haste; so I +caught the little dog, tied him up in the room, and took the cage with +the bird under my arm. The dog writhed and whined at this unusual +treatment; he looked at me with begging eyes, but I feared to have him +with me. I also took one pot of jewels, and concealed it by me; the rest +I left.</p> + +<p>"The bird turned its head very strangely when I crossed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> threshold; +the dog tugged at his cord to follow me, but he was forced to stay.</p> + +<p>"I did not take the road to the wild rocks, but went in the opposite +direction. The dog still whined and barked, and it touched me to the +heart to hear him; the bird tried once or twice to sing; but as I was +carrying him, the shaking put him out.</p> + +<p>"The farther I went, the fainter grew the barking, and at last it +altogether ceased. I wept, and had almost turned back, but the longing +to see something new still hindered me.</p> + +<p>"I had got across the hills, and through some forests, when the night +came on, and I was forced to turn aside into a village. I blushed +exceedingly on entering the inn; they showed me to a room and bed; I +slept pretty quietly, only that I dreamed of the old woman, and her +threatening me.</p> + +<p>"My journey had not much variety; the farther I went, the more was I +afflicted by the recollection of my old mistress and the little dog; I +considered that in all likelihood the poor shock would die of hunger, +and often in the woods I thought my dame would suddenly meet me. Thus +amid tears and sobs I went along; when I stopped to rest, and put the +cage on the ground, the bird struck up his song, and brought but too +keenly to my mind the fair habitation I had left. As human nature is +forgetful, I imagined that my former journey, in my childhood, had not +been so sad and woful as the present; I wished to be as I was then.</p> + +<p>"I had sold some jewels; and now, after wandering on for several days, I +reached a village. At the very entrance I was struck with something +strange; I felt terrified and knew not why; but I soon bethought myself, +for it was the village where I was born! How amazed was I! How the tears +ran down my cheeks for gladness, for a thousand singular remembrances! +Many things were changed: new houses had been built, some just raised +when I went away, were now fallen, and had marks of fire on them; +everything was far smaller and more confined than I had fancied. It +rejoiced my very heart that I should see my parents once more after such +an absence. I found their little cottage, the well-known threshold; the +door-latch was standing as of old; it seemed to me as if I had shut it +only yesternight. My heart beat violently, I hastily lifted that latch; +but faces I had never seen before looked up and gazed at me. I asked for +the shepherd Martin; they told me that his wife and he were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> dead three +years ago. I drew back quickly, and left the village weeping aloud.</p> + +<p>"I had figured out so beautifully how I would surprise them with my +riches: by the strangest chance, what I had only dreamed in childhood +was become reality; and now it was all in vain, they could not rejoice +with me, and that which had been my first hope in life was lost forever.</p> + +<p>"In a pleasant town I hired a small house and garden, and took to myself +a maid. The world, in truth, proved not so wonderful as I had painted +it: but I forgot the old woman and my former way of life rather more, +and, on the whole, I was contented.</p> + +<p>"For a long while the bird had ceased to sing; I was therefore not a +little frightened, when one night he suddenly began again, and with a +different rhyme. He sang:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Alone in wood so gay,</div> +<div class="i1">Ah, far away!</div> +<div class="i1">But thou wilt say</div> +<div class="i1">Some other day,</div> +<div class="i1">'Twere best to stay</div> +<div class="i1">Alone in wood so gay.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>"Throughout the night I could not close an eye; all things again +occurred to my remembrance; and I felt, more than ever, that I had not +acted rightly. When I rose, the aspect of the bird distressed me +greatly; he looked at me continually, and his presence did me ill. There +was now no end to his song; he sang it louder and more shrilly than he +had been wont. The more I looked at him, the more he pained and +frightened me; at last I opened the cage, put in my hand, and grasped +his neck; I squeezed my fingers hard together, he looked at me, I +slackened them; but he was dead. I buried him in the garden.</p> + +<p>"After this, there often came a fear over me for my maid; I looked back +upon myself, and fancied she might rob me or murder me. For a long while +I had been acquainted with a young knight, whom I altogether liked: I +bestowed on him my hand; and with this, Sir Walther, ends my story."</p> + +<p>"Ay, you should have seen her then," said Eckbert warmly; "seen her +youth, her loveliness, and what a charm her lonely way of life had given +her. I had no fortune; it was through her love these riches came to me; +we moved hither, and our marriage has at no time brought us anything but +good."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But with our tattling," added Bertha, "it is growing very late; we must +go to sleep."</p> + +<p>She rose, and proceeded to her chamber; Walther, with a kiss of her +hand, wished her good-night, saying: "Many thanks, noble lady; I can +well figure you beside your singing bird, and how you fed poor little +<i>Strohmian</i>."</p> + +<p>Walther likewise went to sleep; Eckbert alone still walked in a restless +humour up and down the room. "Are not men fools?" said he at last: "I +myself occasioned this recital of my wife's history, and now such +confidence appears to me improper! Will he not abuse it? Will he not +communicate the secret to others? Will he not, for such is human nature, +cast unblessed thoughts on our jewels, and form pretexts and lay plans +to get possession of them?"</p> + +<p>It now occurred to his mind that Walther had not taken leave of him so +cordially as might have been expected after such a mark of trust: the +soul once set upon suspicion finds in every trifle something to confirm +it. Eckbert, on the other hand, reproached himself for such ignoble +feelings to his worthy friend; yet still he could not cast them out. All +night he plagued himself with such uneasy thoughts, and got very little +sleep.</p> + +<p>Bertha was unwell next day, and could not come to breakfast; Walther did +not seem to trouble himself much about her illness, but left her husband +also rather coolly. Eckbert could not comprehend such conduct; he went +to see his wife, and found her in a feverish state; she said her last +night's story must have agitated her.</p> + +<p>From that day, Walther visited the castle of his friend but seldom; and +when he did appear, it was but to say a few unmeaning words and then +depart. Eckbert was exceedingly distressed by this demeanour: to Bertha +or Walther he indeed said nothing of it; but to any person his internal +disquietude was visible enough.</p> + +<p>Bertha's sickness wore an aspect more and more serious; the Doctor grew +alarmed; the red had vanished from his patient's cheeks, and her eyes +were becoming more and more inflamed. One morning she sent for her +husband to her bedside; the nurses were ordered to withdraw.</p> + +<p>"Dear Eckbert," she began, "I must disclose a secret to thee, which has +almost taken away my senses, which is ruining my health, unimportant +trifle as it may appear. Thou mayest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> remember, often as I talked of my +childhood, I could never call to mind the name of the dog that was so +long beside me: now, that night on taking leave, Walther all at once +said to me: 'I can well figure you, and how you fed poor little +<i>Strohmian</i>.' Is it chance? Did he guess the name; did he know it, and +speak it on purpose? If so, how stands this man connected with my +destiny? At times I struggle with myself, as if I but imagined this +mysterious business; but, alas! it is certain, too certain. I felt a +shudder that a stranger should help me to recall the memory of my +secrets. What sayest thou, Eckbert?"</p> + +<p>Eckbert looked at his sick and agitated wife with deep emotion; he stood +silent and thoughtful; then spoke some words of comfort to her, and went +out. In a distant chamber, he walked to and fro in indescribable +disquiet. Walther, for many years, had been his sole companion; and now +this person was the only mortal in the world whose existence pained and +oppressed him. It seemed as if he should be gay and light of heart, were +that one thing but removed. He took his bow, to dissipate these +thoughts; and went to hunt.</p> + +<p>It was a rough stormy winter-day; the snow was lying deep on the hills, +and bending down the branches of the trees. He roved about; the sweat +was standing on his brow; he found no game, and this embittered his +ill-humour. All at once he saw an object moving in the distance; it was +Walther gathering moss from the trunks of trees. Scarce knowing what he +did, he bent his bow; Walther looked round, and gave a threatening +gesture, but the arrow was already flying, and he sank transfixed by it.</p> + +<p>Eckbert felt relieved and calmed, yet a certain horror drove him home to +his castle. It was a good way distant; he had wandered far into the +woods. On arriving, he found Bertha dead: before her death, she had +spoken much of Walther and the old woman.</p> + +<p>For a great while after this occurrence, Eckbert lived in the deepest +solitude: he had all along been melancholy, for the strange history of +his wife disturbed him, and he dreaded some unlucky incident or other; +but at present he was utterly at variance with himself. The murder of +his friend arose incessantly before his mind; he lived in the anguish of +continual remorse.</p> + +<p>To dissipate his feelings, he occasionally moved to the neighbouring +town, where he mingled in society and its amusements. He longed for a +friend to fill the void in his soul; and yet, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> he remembered +Walther, he would shudder at the thought of meeting with a friend; for +he felt convinced that, with any friend, he must be unhappy. He had +lived so long with his Bertha in lovely calmness; the friendship of +Walther had cheered him through so many years; and now both of them were +suddenly swept away. As he thought of these things, there were many +moments when his life appeared to him some fabulous tale, rather than +the actual history of a living man.</p> + +<p>A young knight, named Hugo, made advances to the silent melancholy +Eckbert, and appeared to have a true affection for him. Eckbert felt +himself exceedingly surprised; he met the knight's friendship with the +greater readiness, the less he had anticipated it. The two were now +frequently together; Hugo showed his friend all possible attentions; one +scarcely ever went to ride without the other; in all companies they got +together. In a word, they seemed inseparable.</p> + +<p>Eckbert was never happy longer than a few transitory moments: for he +felt too clearly that Hugo loved him only by mistake; that he knew him +not, was unacquainted with his history; and he was seized again with the +same old longing to unbosom himself wholly, that he might be sure +whether Hugo was his friend or not. But again his apprehensions, and the +fear of being hated and abhorred, withheld him. There were many hours in +which he felt so much impressed with his entire worthlessness, that he +believed no mortal not a stranger to his history, could entertain regard +for him. Yet still he was unable to withstand himself: on a solitary +ride, he disclosed his whole history to Hugo, and asked if he could love +a murderer. Hugo seemed touched, and tried to comfort him. Eckbert +returned to town with a lighter heart.</p> + +<p>But it seemed to be his doom that, in the very hour of confidence, he +should always find materials for suspicion. Scarcely had they entered +the public hall, when, in the glitter of the many lights, Hugo's looks +had ceased to satisfy him. He thought he noticed a malicious smile; he +remarked that Hugo did not speak to him as usual; that he talked with +the rest, and seemed to pay no heed to him. In the party was an old +knight, who had always shown himself the enemy of Eckbert, had often +asked about his riches and his wife in a peculiar style. With this man +Hugo was conversing; they were speaking privately, and casting looks at +Eckbert. The suspicions of the latter seemed confirmed; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> thought +himself betrayed, and a tremendous rage took hold of him. As he +continued gazing, on a sudden he discerned the countenance of Walther, +all his features, all the form so well known to him; he gazed, and +looked, and felt convinced that it was none but Walther who was talking +to the knight. His horror cannot be described; in a state of frenzy he +rushed out of the hall, left the town overnight, and after many +wanderings, returned to his castle.</p> + +<p>Here, like an unquiet spirit, he hurried to and fro from room to room; +no thought would stay with him; out of one frightful idea he fell into +another still more frightful, and sleep never visited his eyes. Often he +believed that he was mad, that a disturbed imagination was the origin of +all this terror; then, again, he recollected Walther's features, and the +whole grew more and more a riddle to him. He resolved to take a journey, +that he might reduce his thoughts to order; the hope of friendship, the +desire of social intercourse, he had now forever given up.</p> + +<p>He set out, without prescribing to himself any certain route; indeed, he +took small heed of the country he was passing through. Having hastened +on some days at the quickest pace of his horse, he, on a sudden, found +himself entangled in a labyrinth of rocks, from which he could discover +no outlet. At length he met an old peasant, who took him by a path +leading past a waterfall: he offered him some coins for his guidance, +but the peasant would not have them. "What use is it?" said Eckbert. "I +could believe that this man, too, was none but Walther." He looked round +once more, and it was none but Walther. Eckbert spurred his horse as +fast as it could gallop, over meads and forests, till it sank exhausted +to the earth. Regardless of this, he hastened forward on foot.</p> + +<p>In a dreamy mood he mounted a hill: he fancied he caught the sound of +lively barking at a little distance; the birch-trees whispered in the +intervals, and in the strangest notes he heard this song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Alone in wood so gay,</div> +<div class="i1">Once more I stay;</div> +<div class="i1">None dare me slay,</div> +<div class="i1">The evil far away:</div> +<div class="i1">Ah, here I stay,</div> +<div class="i1">Alone in wood so gay.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>The sense, the consciousness of Eckbert had departed; it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> a riddle +which he could not solve, whether he was dreaming now, or had before +dreamed of a wife and friend. The marvellous was mingled with the +common: the world around him seemed enchanted, and he himself was +incapable of thought or recollection.</p> + +<p>A crooked, bent old woman, crawled coughing up the hill with a crutch. +"Art thou bringing me my bird, my pearls, my dog?" cried she to him. +"See how injustice punishes itself! No one but I was Walther, was Hugo."</p> + +<p>"God of Heaven!" said Eckbert, muttering to himself; "in what frightful +solitude have I passed my life?"</p> + +<p>"And Bertha was thy sister."</p> + +<p>Eckbert sank to the ground.</p> + +<p>"Why did she leave me deceitfully? All would have been fair and well; +her time of trial was already finished. She was the daughter of a +knight, who had her nursed in a shepherd's house; the daughter of thy +father."</p> + +<p>"Why have I always had a forecast of this dreadful thought?" cried +Eckbert.</p> + +<p>"Because in early youth thy father told thee: he could not keep this +daughter by him for his second wife, her stepmother."</p> + +<p>Eckbert lay distracted and dying on the ground. Faint and bewildered, he +heard the old woman speaking, the dog barking, the bird repeating its +song.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> +</div> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="THE_TRUSTY_ECKART" id="THE_TRUSTY_ECKART"></a>THE TRUSTY ECKART.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Brave Burgundy no longer</div> +<div class="i3">Could fight for fatherland;</div> +<div class="i1">The foe they were the stronger,</div> +<div class="i3">Upon the bloody sand.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">He said: "The foe prevaileth,</div> +<div class="i3">My friends and followers fly,</div> +<div class="i1">My striving naught availeth,</div> +<div class="i3">My spirits sink and die.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">No more can I exert me,</div> +<div class="i3">Or sword and lance can wield;</div> +<div class="i1">O, why did he desert me,</div> +<div class="i3">Eckart, our trusty shield!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">In fight he used to guide me,</div> +<div class="i3">In danger was my stay;</div> +<div class="i1">Alas, he's not beside me,</div> +<div class="i3">But stays at home today!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The crowds are gathering faster,</div> +<div class="i3">Took captive shall I be?</div> +<div class="i1">I may not run like dastard,</div> +<div class="i3">I'll die like soldier free."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Thus Burgundy so bitter,</div> +<div class="i3">Has at his breast his sword;</div> +<div class="i1">When, see, breaks-in the Ritter</div> +<div class="i3">Eckart, to save his lord!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">With cap and armour glancing,</div> +<div class="i3">Bold on the foe he rides,</div> +<div class="i1">His troop behind him prancing,</div> +<div class="i3">And his two sons besides.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Burgundy sees their token,</div> +<div class="i3">And cries: "Now, God be praised!</div> +<div class="i1">Not yet we're beat or broken,</div> +<div class="i3">Since Eckart's flag is raised."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then like a true knight, Eckart</div> +<div class="i3">Dash'd gaily through the foe:</div> +<div class="i1">But with his red blood flecker'd,</div> +<div class="i3">His little son lay low.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And when the fight was ended,</div> +<div class="i3">Then Burgundy he speaks:</div> +<div class="i1">"Thou hast me well befriended,</div> +<div class="i3">Yet so as wets my cheeks.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The foe is smote and flying;</div> +<div class="i3">Thou'st saved my land and life;</div> +<div class="i1">But here thy boy is lying,</div> +<div class="i3">Returns not from the strife."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then Eckart wept almost,</div> +<div class="i3">The tear stood in his eye;</div> +<div class="i1">He clasp'd the son he'd lost,</div> +<div class="i3">Close to his breast the boy.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Why diedst thou, Heinz, so early,</div> +<div class="i3">And scarce wast yet a man?</div> +<div class="i1">Thou'rt fallen in battle fairly;</div> +<div class="i3">For thee I'll not complain.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Thee, Prince, we have deliver'd;</div> +<div class="i3">From danger thou art free:</div> +<div class="i1">The boy and I are sever'd;</div> +<div class="i3">I give my son to thee."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then Burgundy our chief,</div> +<div class="i3">His eyes grew moist and dim;</div> +<div class="i1">He felt such joy and grief,</div> +<div class="i3">So great that love to him.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">His heart was melting, flaming,</div> +<div class="i3">He fell on Eckart's breast,</div> +<div class="i1">With sobbing voice exclaiming:</div> +<div class="i3">"Eckart, my champion best,</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Thou stoodst when every other</div> +<div class="i3">Had fled from me away;</div> +<div class="i1">Therefore thou art my brother</div> +<div class="i3">Forever from this day.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The people shall regard thee</div> +<div class="i3">As wert thou of my line;</div> +<div class="i1">And could I more reward thee,</div> +<div class="i3">How gladly were it thine!"</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And when we heard the same,</div> +<div class="i3">We joy'd as did our prince;</div> +<div class="i1">And Trusty Eckart is the name</div> +<div class="i3">We've call'd him ever since.</div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The voice of an old peasant sounded over the rocks, as he sang this +ballad; and the Trusty Eckart sat in his grief, on the declivity of the +hill, and wept aloud. His youngest boy was standing by him: "Why weepest +thou aloud, my father Eckart?" said he: "Art thou not great and strong, +taller and braver than any other man? Whom, then, art thou afraid of?"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Duke of Burgundy was moving homewards to his Tower. +Burgundy was mounted on a stately horse, with splendid trappings; and +the gold and jewels of the princely Duke were glittering in the evening +sun; so that little Conrad could not sate himself with viewing and +admiring the magnificent procession. The Trusty Eckart rose, and looked +gloomily over it; and young Conrad, when the hunting train had +disappeared, struck up this stave:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">On good steed,</div> +<div class="i1">Sword and shield</div> +<div class="i1">Wouldst thou wield,</div> +<div class="i1">With spear and arrow;</div> +<div class="i1">Then had need</div> +<div class="i1">That the marrow</div> +<div class="i1">In thy arm,</div> +<div class="i1">That thy heart and blood,</div> +<div class="i1">Be good,</div> +<div class="i1">To save thy head from harm.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>The old man clasped his son to his bosom, looking with wistful +tenderness on his clear blue eyes. "Didst thou hear that good man's +song?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Ay, why not?" answered Conrad: "he sang it loud enough, and thou art +the Trusty Eckart thyself, so I liked to listen."</p> + +<p>"That same Duke is now my enemy," said Eckart; "he keeps my other son in +prison, nay has already put him to death, if I may credit what the +people say."</p> + +<p>"Take down thy broad-sword, and do not suffer it," cried Conrad; "they +will tremble to see thee, and all the people in the whole land will +stand by thee, for thou art their greatest hero in the land."</p> + +<p>"Not so, my son," said the other; "I were then the man my enemies have +called me; I dare not be unfaithful to my liege; no, I dare not break +the peace which I have pledged to him, and promised on his hand."</p> + +<p>"But what wants he with us, then?" said Conrad, impatiently.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>Eckart sat down again, and said: "My son, the entire story of it would +be long, and thou wouldst scarcely understand it. The great have always +their worst enemy in their own hearts, and they fear it day and night; +so Burgundy has now come to think that he has trusted me too far; that +he has nursed in me a serpent in his bosom. People call me the stoutest +warrior in our country; they say openly that he owes me land and life; I +am named the Trusty Eckart; and thus oppressed and suffering persons +turn to me, that I may get them help. All this he cannot suffer. So he +has taken up a grudge against me; and every one that wants to rise in +favour with him increases his distrust; so that at last he has quite +turned away his heart from me."</p> + +<p>Hereupon the hero Eckart told, in smooth words, how Burgundy had +banished him from his sight, how they had become entire strangers to +each other, as the Duke suspected that he even meant to rob him of his +dukedom. In trouble and sorrow, he proceeded to relate how the Duke had +cast his son into confinement, and was threatening the life of Eckart +himself, as of a traitor to the land.</p> + +<p>But Conrad said to his father: "Wilt thou let me go, my old father, and +speak with the Duke, to make him reasonable and kind to thee? If he has +killed my brother, then he is a wicked man, and thou must punish him; +but that cannot be, for he could not so falsely forget the great service +thou hast done him."</p> + +<p>"Dost thou know the old proverb?" said Eckart:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Doth the king require thy aid,</div> +<div class="i1">Thou'rt a friend can ne'er be paid;</div> +<div class="i1">Hast thou help'd him through his trouble</div> +<div class="i1">Friendship's grown an empty bubble.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>Yes; my whole life has been wasted in vain. Why did he make me great, to +cast me down the deeper? The friendship of princes is like a deadly +poison, which can only be employed against our enemies, and with which +at last we unwarily kill ourselves."</p> + +<p>"I will to the Duke," cried Conrad: "I will call back into his soul all +that thou hast done, that thou hast suffered for him; and he will again +be as of old."</p> + +<p>"Thou hast forgot," said Eckart, "that they look on us as traitors. +Therefore let us fly together to some foreign country, where a better +fortune may betide us."</p> + +<p>"At thy age," said Conrad, "wilt thou turn away thy face from thy kind +home? I will to Burgundy; I will quiet him, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> reconcile him to thee. +What can he do to me, even though he still hate and fear thee?"</p> + +<p>"I let thee go unwillingly," said Eckart; "for my soul forebodes no +good; and yet I would fain be reconciled to him, for he is my old +friend; and fain save thy brother, who is pining in the dungeon beside +him."</p> + +<p>The sun threw his last mild rays on the green Earth: Eckart sat +pensively leaning back against a tree; he looked long at Conrad, then +said: "If thou wilt go, my little boy, go now, before the night grow +altogether dark. The windows in the Duke's Castle are already glittering +with lights, and I hear afar off the sound of trumpets from the feast; +perhaps his son's bride may have arrived, and his mind may be friendlier +to us."</p> + +<p>Unwillingly he let him go, for he no longer trusted to his fortune: but +Conrad's heart was light; for he thought it would be an easy task to +turn the mind of Burgundy, who had played with him so kindly but a short +while before. "Wilt thou come back to me, my little boy?" sobbed Eckart: +"if I lose thee, no other of my race remains." The boy consoled him; +flattered him with caresses: at last they parted.</p> + +<p>Conrad knocked at the gate of the Castle, and was let in; old Eckart +stayed without in the night alone. "Him too have I lost," moaned he in +his solitude; "I shall never see his face again."</p> + +<p>Whilst he so lamented, there came tottering towards him a gray-haired +man; endeavouring to get down the rocks; and seeming, at every step, to +fear that he should stumble into the abyss. Seeing the old man's +feebleness, Eckart held out his hand to him, and helped him to descend +in safety.</p> + +<p>"Which way come ye?" inquired Eckart.</p> + +<p>The old man sat down, and began to weep, so that the tears came running +over his cheeks. Eckart tried to soothe him and console him with +reasonable words; but the sorrowful old man seemed not at all to heed +these well-meant speeches, but to yield himself the more immoderately to +his sorrows.</p> + +<p>"What grief can it be that lies so heavy on you as to overpower you +utterly?" said Eckart.</p> + +<p>"Ah, my children!" moaned the old man.</p> + +<p>Then Eckart thought of Conrad, Heinz and Dietrich, and was himself +altogether comfortless. "Yes," said he, "if your children are dead, your +misery in truth is very great."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Worse than dead," replied the old man, with his mournful voice; "for +they are not dead, but lost forever to me. O, would to Heaven that they +were but dead!"</p> + +<p>These strange words astonished Eckart, and he asked the old man to +explain the riddle; whereupon the latter answered: "The age we live in +is indeed a marvellous age, and surely the last days are at hand; for +the most dreadful signs are sent into the world, to threaten it. Every +sort of wickedness is casting off its old fetters, and stalking bold and +free about the Earth; the fear of God is drying up and dispersing, and +can find no channel to unite in; and the Powers of Evil are rising +audaciously from their dark nooks, and celebrating their triumph. Ah, my +dear sir! we are old, but not old enough for such prodigious things. You +have doubtless seen the Comet, that wondrous light in the sky, that +shines so prophetically down upon us? All men predict evil; and no one +thinks of beginning the reform with himself, and so essaying to turn off +the rod. Nor is this enough; but portents are also issuing from the +Earth, and breaking mysteriously from the depths below, even as the +light shines frightfully on us from above. Have you never heard of the +Hill, which people call the Hill of Venus?"</p> + +<p>"Never," said Eckart, "far as I have travelled."</p> + +<p>"I am surprised at that," replied the old man; "for the matter is now +grown as notorious as it is true. To this Mountain have the Devils fled, +and sought shelter in the desert centre of the Earth, according as the +growth of our Holy Faith has cast down the idolatrous worship of the +Heathen. Here, they say, before all others, Lady Venus keeps her court, +and all her hellish hosts of worldly Lusts and forbidden Wishes gather +round her, so that the Hill has been accursed since time immemorial."</p> + +<p>"But in what country lies the Hill?" inquired Eckart.</p> + +<p>"There is the secret," said the old man, "that no one can tell this, +except he have first given himself up to be Satan's servant; and, +indeed, no guiltless person ever thinks of seeking it out. A wonderful +Musician on a sudden issues from below, whom the Powers of Hell have +sent as their ambassador; he roams through the world, and plays, and +makes music on a pipe, so that his tones sound far and wide. And whoever +hears these sounds is seized by him with visible yet inexplicable force, +and drawn on, on, into the wilderness; he sees not the road he travels; +he wanders, and wanders, and is not weary; his strength<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> and his speed +go on increasing; no power can restrain him; but he runs frantic into +the Mountain, from which he can nevermore return. This power has, in our +day, been restored to Hell; and in this inverse direction, the +ill-starred, perverted pilgrims are travelling to a Shrine where no +deliverance awaits them, or can reach them any more. For a long while, +my two sons had given me no contentment; they were dissolute and +immoral; they despised their parents, as they did religion; but now the +Sound has caught and carried them off, they are gone into unseen +kingdoms; the world was too narrow for them, they are seeking room in +Hell."</p> + +<p>"And what do you intend to do in such a mystery?" said Eckart.</p> + +<p>"With this crutch I set out," replied the old man, "to wander through +the world, to find them again, or die of weariness and woe."</p> + +<p>So saying, he tore himself from his rest with a strong effort; and +hastened forth with his utmost speed, as if he had found himself +neglecting his most precious earthly hope; and Eckart looked with +compassion on his vain toil, and rated him in his thoughts as mad.</p> + +<p>It had been night, and was now day, and Conrad came not back. Eckart +wandered to and fro among the rocks, and turned his longing eyes on the +Castle; still he did not see him. A crowd came issuing through the gate; +and Eckart no longer heeded to conceal himself; but mounted his horse, +which was grazing in freedom; and rode into the middle of the troop, who +were now proceeding merrily and carelessly across the plain. On his +reaching them, they recognised him; but no one laid a hand on him, or +said a hard word to him; they stood mute for reverence, surrounded him +in admiration, and then went their way. One of the squires he called +back, and asked him: "Where is my Conrad?"</p> + +<p>"O! ask me not," replied the squire; "it would but cause you sorrow and +lamenting."</p> + +<p>"And Dietrich!" cried the father.</p> + +<p>"Name not their names any more," said the aged squire, "for they are +gone; the wrath of our master was kindled against them, and he meant to +punish you in them."</p> + +<p>A hot rage mounted up in Eckart's soul; and, for sorrow and fury, he was +no longer master of himself. He dashed the spurs into his horse, and +rode through the Castle-gate. All drew back,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> with timid reverence, from +his way; and thus he rode on to the front of the Palace. He sprang from +horseback, and mounted the great steps with wavering pace. "Am I here in +the dwelling of the man," said he, within himself, "who was once my +friend?" He endeavoured to collect his thoughts; but wilder and wilder +images kept moving in his eye, and thus he stept into the Prince's +chamber.</p> + +<p>Burgundy's presence of mind forsook him, and he trembled as Eckart stood +in his presence. "Art thou the Duke of Burgundy?" said Eckart to him. To +which the Duke answered, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"And thou hast killed my son Dietrich?" The Duke said, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"And my little Conrad too," cried Eckart, in his grief, "was not too +good for thee, and thou hast killed him also?" To which the Duke again +answered, "Yes."</p> + +<p>Here Eckart was unmanned, and said, in tears: "O! answer me not so, +Burgundy; for I cannot bear these speeches. Tell me but that thou art +sorry, that thou wishest it were yet undone, and I will try to comfort +myself; but thus thou art utterly offensive to my heart."</p> + +<p>The Duke said: "Depart from my sight, false traitor; for thou art the +worst enemy I have on Earth."</p> + +<p>Eckart said: "Thou hast of old called me thy friend; but these thoughts +are now far from thee. Never did I act against thee; still have I +honoured and loved thee as my prince; and God forbid that I should now, +as I well might, lay my hand upon my sword, and seek revenge of thee. +No, I will depart from thy sight, and die in solitude."</p> + +<p>So saying, he went out; and Burgundy was moved in his mind; but at his +call, the guards appeared with their lances, who encircled him on all +sides, and motioned to drive Eckart from the chamber with their weapons.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">To horse the hero springs,</div> +<div class="i3">Wild through the hills he rideth:</div> +<div class="i1">"Of hope in earthly things,</div> +<div class="i3">Now none with me abideth.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">My sons are slain in youth,</div> +<div class="i3">I have no child or wife;</div> +<div class="i1">The Prince suspects my truth,</div> +<div class="i3">Has sworn to take my life."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then to the wood he turns him,</div> +<div class="i3">There gallops on and on;</div> +<div class="i1">The smart of sorrow burns him,</div> +<div class="i3">He cries: "They're gone, they're gone</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">All living men from me are fled,</div> +<div class="i3">New friends I must provide me,</div> +<div class="i1">To the oaks and firs beside me,</div> +<div class="i3">Complain in desert dead.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">There is no child to cheer me,</div> +<div class="i3">By cruel wolves they're slain;</div> +<div class="i1">Once three of them were near me,</div> +<div class="i3">I see them not again."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">As Eckart cried thus sadly,</div> +<div class="i3">His sense it pass'd away;</div> +<div class="i1">He rides in fury madly</div> +<div class="i3">Till dawning of the day.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">His horse in frantic speed</div> +<div class="i3">Sinks down at last exhausted;</div> +<div class="i1">And naught does Eckart heed,</div> +<div class="i3">Or think or know what caused it;</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">But on the cold ground lie,</div> +<div class="i3">Not fearing, loving longer;</div> +<div class="i1">Despair grows strong and stronger,</div> +<div class="i3">He wishes but to die.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>No one about the Castle knew whither Eckart had gone; for he had lost +himself in the waste forests, and let no man see him. The Duke dreaded +his intentions; and he now repented that he had let him go, and not laid +hold of him. So, one morning, he set forth with a great train of hunters +and attendants, to search the woods, and find out Eckart; for he +thought, that till Eckart were destroyed, there could be no security. +All were unwearied, and regardless of toil; but the sun set without +their having found a trace of Eckart.</p> + +<p>A storm came on, and great clouds flew blustering over the forest; the +thunder rolled, and lightning struck the tall oaks: all present were +seized with an unquiet terror, and they gradually dispersed among the +bushes, or the open spaces of the wood. The Duke's horse plunged into +the thicket; his squires could not follow him: the gallant horse rushed +to the ground; and Burgundy in vain called through the tempest to his +servants; for there was no one that could hear him.</p> + +<p>Like a wild man had Eckart roamed about the woods, unconscious of +himself or his misfortunes; he had lost all thought, and in blank +stupefaction satisfied his hunger with roots and herbs:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> the hero could +not now be recognised by any one, so sore had the days of his despair +defaced him. As the storm came on, he awoke from his stupefaction, and +again felt his existence and his woes, and saw the misery that had +befallen him. He raised a loud cry of lamentation for his children; he +tore his white hair; and called out, in the bellowing of the storm: +"Whither, whither are ye gone, ye parts of my heart? And how is all +strength departed from me, that I could not even avenge your death? Why +did I hold back my arm, and did not send to death him who had given my +heart these deadly stabs? Ha, fool, thou deservest that the tyrant +should mock thee, since thy powerless arm and thy silly heart withstood +not the murderer. Now, O now were he with me! But it is in vain to wish +for vengeance, when the moment is gone by."</p> + +<p>Thus came on the night, and Eckart wandered to and fro in his sorrow. +From a distance he heard as it were a voice calling for help. Directing +his steps by the sound, he came up to a man in the darkness, who was +leaning on the stem of a tree, and mournfully entreating to be guided to +his road. Eckart started at the voice, for it seemed familiar to him; +but he soon recovered, and perceived that the lost wayfarer was the Duke +of Burgundy. Then he raised his hand to his sword, to cut down the man +who had been the murderer of his children; his fury came on him with new +force, and he was upon the point of finishing his bloody task, when all +at once he stopped, for his oath and the word he had pledged came into +his mind. He took his enemy's hand, and led him to the quarter where he +thought the road must be.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The Duke foredone and weary</div> +<div class="i3">Sank in the wilder'd breaks;</div> +<div class="i1">Him in the tempest dreary</div> +<div class="i3">He on his shoulders takes.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Said Burgundy: "I'm giving</div> +<div class="i3">Much toil to thee, I fear."</div> +<div class="i1">Eckart replied: "The living</div> +<div class="i3">On Earth have much to bear."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Yet," said the Duke, "believe me,</div> +<div class="i3">Were we out of the wood,</div> +<div class="i1">Since now thou dost relieve me,</div> +<div class="i3">Thy sorrows I'll make good."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The hero at this promise</div> +<div class="i3">Felt on his cheek the tear;</div> +<div class="i1">Said he: "Indeed I nowise</div> +<div class="i3">Do look for payment here."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Harder our plight is growing,"</div> +<div class="i3">The Duke cries, dreading scath,</div> +<div class="i1">"Now whither are we going?</div> +<div class="i3">Who art thou? Art thou Death?"</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Not Death," said he, still weeping,</div> +<div class="i3">"Or any fiend am I;</div> +<div class="i1">Thy life is in God's keeping,</div> +<div class="i3">Thy ways are in his eye."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Ah," said the Duke, repenting,</div> +<div class="i3">"My breast is foul within;</div> +<div class="i1">I tremble, while lamenting,</div> +<div class="i3">Lest God requite my sin.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">My truest friend I've banish'd,</div> +<div class="i3">His children have I slain,</div> +<div class="i1">In wrath from me he vanish'd,</div> +<div class="i3">As foe he comes again.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">To me he was devoted,</div> +<div class="i3">Through good report and bad;</div> +<div class="i1">My rights he still promoted,</div> +<div class="i3">The truest man I had.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Me he can never pardon,</div> +<div class="i3">I kill'd his children dear;</div> +<div class="i1">This night to pay my guerdon,</div> +<div class="i3">I' th' wood he lurks, I fear.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">This does my conscience teach me,</div> +<div class="i3">A threat'ning voice within;</div> +<div class="i1">If here to-night he reach me,</div> +<div class="i3">I die a child of sin."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Said Eckart: "The beginning</div> +<div class="i3">Of our woes is guilt;</div> +<div class="i1">My grief is for thy sinning,</div> +<div class="i3">And for the blood thou'st spilt.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And that the man will meet thee</div> +<div class="i3">Is likewise surely true;</div> +<div class="i1">Yet fear not, I entreat thee,</div> +<div class="i3">He'll harm no hair of you."</div> +</div></div> + +<p>Thus were they going forward talking, when another person in the forest +met them; it was Wolfram, the Duke's Squire, who had long been looking +for his master. The dark night was still lying over them, and no star +twinkled from between the wet black clouds. The Duke felt weaker, and +longed to reach some lodging, where he might sleep till day; besides, he +was afraid that he might meet with Eckart, who stood like a spectre +before his soul. He imagined he should never see the morning; and +shuddered anew when the wind again rustled through the high trees, and +the storm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> came down from the hollows of the mountains, and went rushing +over his head. "Wolfram," cried the Duke, in his anguish, "climb one of +these tall pines, and look about if thou canst spy no light, no house or +cottage, whither we may turn."</p> + +<p>The Squire, at the hazard of his life, clomb up a lofty pine, which the +storm was waving from the one side to the other, and ever and anon +bending down the top of it to the very ground; so that the Squire +wavered to and fro upon it like a little squirrel. At last he reached +the top, and cried: "Down there, in the valley, I see the glimmer of a +candle; thither must we turn." So he descended and showed the way; and +in a while, they all perceived the cheerful light; at which the Duke +once more took heart. Eckart still continued mute, and occupied within +himself; he spoke no word, and looked at his inward thoughts. On +arriving at the hut, they knocked; and a little old housewife let them +in: as they entered, the stout Eckart set the Duke down from his +shoulders, who threw himself immediately upon his knees, and in a +fervent prayer thanked God for his deliverance. Eckart took his seat in +a dark corner; and there he found fast asleep the poor old man, who had +lately told him of his great misery about his sons, and the search he +was making for them.</p> + +<p>When the Duke had done praying, he said: "Very strange have my thoughts +been this night, and the goodness of God and his almighty power never +showed themselves so openly before to my obdurate heart: my mind also +tells me that I have not long to live; and I desire nothing save that +God would pardon me my manifold and heavy sins. You two, also, who have +led me hither, I could wish to recompense, so far as in my power, before +my end arrive. To thee, Wolfram, I give both the castles that are on +these hills beside us; and in future, in remembrance of this awful +night, thou shalt call them the Tannenhäuser, or Pine-houses. But who +art thou, strange man," continued he, "that hast placed thyself there in +the nook, apart? Come forth, that I may also pay thee for thy toil."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i3">Then rose the hero from his place,</div> +<div class="i1">And stept into the light before them;</div> +<div class="i1">Deep lines of woe were on his face,</div> +<div class="i1">But with a patient mind he bore them.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i3">And Burgundy, his heart forsook him,</div> +<div class="i1">To see that mild old gray-hair'd man;</div> +<div class="i1">His face grew pale, a trembling took him,</div> +<div class="i1">He swoon'd and sank to earth again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"O, saints of heaven," he wakes and cries,</div> +<div class="i1">"Is't thou that art before my eyes?</div> +<div class="i1">How shall I fly? Where shall I hide me?</div> +<div class="i1">Was't thou that in the wood didst guide me?</div> +<div class="i1">I kill'd thy children young and fair,</div> +<div class="i1">Me in thy arms how couldst thou bear?"</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i3">Thus Burgundy goes on to wail,</div> +<div class="i1">And feels the heart within him fail;</div> +<div class="i1">Death is at hand, remorse pursues him,</div> +<div class="i1">With streaming eyes he sinks on Eckart's bosom;</div> +<div class="i1">And Eckart whispers to him low:</div> +<div class="i1">"Henceforth I have forgot the slight,</div> +<div class="i1">So thou and all the world may know,</div> +<div class="i1">Eckart was still thy trusty knight."</div> +</div></div> + +<p>Thus passed the hours till morning, when some other servants of the Duke +arrived, and found their dying master. They laid him on a mule, and took +him back to his castle. Eckart he could not suffer from his side; he +would often take his hand and press it to his breast, and look at him +with an imploring look. Then Eckart would embrace him, and speak a few +kind words to him, and so the Prince would feel composed. At last he +summoned all his Council, and declared to them that he appointed Eckart, +the trusty man, to be guardian of his sons, seeing he had proved himself +the noblest of all. And thus he died.</p> + +<p>Thenceforward Eckart took on him the government with all zeal; and every +person in the land admired his high manly spirit. Not long afterwards a +rumour spread abroad in all quarters, of a strange Musician, who had +come from Venus-Hill, who was travelling through the whole land, and +seducing men with his playing, so that they disappeared, and no one +could find any traces of them. Many credited the story, others not; +Eckart recollected the unhappy old man.</p> + +<p>"I have taken you for my sons," said he to the young Princes, as he once +stood with them on the hill before the Castle; "your happiness must now +be my posterity; when dead, I shall still live in your joy." They lay +down on the slope, from which the fair country was visible for many a +league; and here Eckart had to guard himself from speaking of his +children; for they seemed as if coming towards him from the distant +mountains, while he heard afar off a lovely sound.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Comes it not like dreams</div> +<div class="i1">Stealing o'er the vales and streams?</div> +<div class="i1">Out of regions far from this,</div> +<div class="i1">Like the song of souls in bliss?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">This to the youths did Eckart say,</div> +<div class="i1">And caught the sound from far away;</div> +<div class="i1">And as the magic tones came nigher,</div> +<div class="i1">A wicked strange desire</div> +<div class="i1">Awakens in the breasts of these pure boys,</div> +<div class="i1">That drives them forth to seek for unknown joys.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Come, let's to the fields, to the meadows and mountains,</div> +<div class="i1">The forests invite us, the streams and the fountains;</div> +<div class="i1">Soft voices in secret for loitering chide us,</div> +<div class="i1">Away to the Garden of Pleasure they'll guide us."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The Player comes in foreign guise,</div> +<div class="i1">Appears before their wondering eyes;</div> +<div class="i1">And higher swells the music's sound,</div> +<div class="i1">And brighter glows the emerald ground;</div> +<div class="i1">The flowers appear as drunk,</div> +<div class="i1">Twilight red has on them sunk;</div> +<div class="i1">And through the green grass play, with airy lightness,</div> +<div class="i1">Soft, fitful, blue and golden streaks of brightness.</div> +<div class="i1">Like a shadow, melts and flits away</div> +<div class="i1">All that bound men to this world of clay;</div> +<div class="i1">In Earth all toil and tumult cease,</div> +<div class="i1">Like one bright flower it blooms in peace;</div> +<div class="i1">The mountains rock in purple light,</div> +<div class="i1">The valleys shout as with delight;</div> +<div class="i1">All rush and whirl in the music's noise,</div> +<div class="i1">And long to share of these offer'd joys;</div> +<div class="i1">The soul of man is allured to gladness,</div> +<div class="i1">And lies entranced in that blissful madness.</div> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The Trusty Eckart felt it,</div> +<div class="i3">But wist not of the cause;</div> +<div class="i1">His heart the music melted,</div> +<div class="i3">He wondered what it was.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The world seems new and fairer,</div> +<div class="i3">All blooming like the rose;</div> +<div class="i1">Can Eckart be a sharer</div> +<div class="i3">In raptures such as those?</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"Ha! Are those tones restoring</div> +<div class="i3">My wife and bonny sons?</div> +<div class="i1">All that I was deploring,</div> +<div class="i3">My lost beloved ones?"</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Yet soon his sense collected</div> +<div class="i3">Brought doubt within his breast;</div> +<div class="i1">These hellish arts detected,</div> +<div class="i3">A horror him possessed.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And now he sees the raging</div> +<div class="i3">Of his young princes dear;</div> +<div class="i1">Themselves to Hell engaging,</div> +<div class="i3">His voice no more they hear.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And forth, in wild commotion,</div> +<div class="i3">They rush, not knowing where;</div> +<div class="i1">In tumult like the ocean,</div> +<div class="i3">When mad his billows are.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then, as these things assail'd him,</div> +<div class="i3">He wist not what to do;</div> +<div class="i1">His knighthood almost fail'd him</div> +<div class="i3">Amid that hellish crew.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then to his soul appeareth</div> +<div class="i3">The hour the Duke did die;</div> +<div class="i1">His friend's faint prayer he heareth,</div> +<div class="i3">He sees his fading eye.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And so his mind's in armour,</div> +<div class="i3">And hope is conquering fear;</div> +<div class="i1">When see, the fiendish Charmer</div> +<div class="i3">Himself comes piping near!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">His sword to draw he essayeth,</div> +<div class="i3">And smite the caitiff dead;</div> +<div class="i1">But as the music playeth,</div> +<div class="i3">His strength is from him fled.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And from the mountains issue</div> +<div class="i3">Crowds of distorted forms,</div> +<div class="i1">Of Dwarfs a boundless tissue</div> +<div class="i3">Come simmering round in swarms.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The youths, possess'd, are running</div> +<div class="i3">As frantic in the crowd:</div> +<div class="i1">In vain is force or cunning;</div> +<div class="i3">In vain to call aloud.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And hurries on by castle,</div> +<div class="i3">By tower and town, the rout;</div> +<div class="i1">Like imps in hellish wassail,</div> +<div class="i3">With cackling laugh and shout.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">He too is in the rabble;</div> +<div class="i3">May not resist their force,</div> +<div class="i1">Must hear their deafening babble,</div> +<div class="i3">Attend their frantic course.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">But now the Hill appeareth,</div> +<div class="i3">And music comes thereout;</div> +<div class="i1">And as the Phantoms hear it,</div> +<div class="i3">They halt, and raise a shout.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The Mountain starts asunder,</div> +<div class="i3">A motley crowd is seen;</div> +<div class="i1">This way and that they wander,</div> +<div class="i3">In red unearthly sheen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then his broad-sword he drew it,</div> +<div class="i3">And says: "Still true, though lost!"</div> +<div class="i1">And with mad force he heweth</div> +<div class="i3">Through that Infernal host.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">His youths he sees (how gladly!)</div> +<div class="i3">Escaping through the vale;</div> +<div class="i1">The Fiends are fighting madly,</div> +<div class="i3">And threatening to prevail.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">The Dwarfs, when hurt, fly downward,</div> +<div class="i3">And rise up cured again;</div> +<div class="i1">And other crowds rush onward,</div> +<div class="i3">And fight with might and main.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then saw he from a distance</div> +<div class="i3">The children safe, and cried:</div> +<div class="i1">"They need not my assistance,</div> +<div class="i3">I care not what betide."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">His good broad-sword doth glitter</div> +<div class="i3">And flash i' th' noontide ray;</div> +<div class="i1">The Dwarfs, with wailing bitter,</div> +<div class="i3">And howls, depart away.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Safe at the valley's ending,</div> +<div class="i3">The youths far off he spies;</div> +<div class="i1">Then faint and wounded, bending,</div> +<div class="i3">The hero falls and dies.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">So his last hour o'ertook him,</div> +<div class="i3">Fighting like lion brave;</div> +<div class="i1">His truth, it ne'er forsook him,</div> +<div class="i3">He was faithful to the grave.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Now Eckart having perish'd,</div> +<div class="i3">The eldest son bore sway;</div> +<div class="i1">His memory still he cherish'd,</div> +<div class="i3">With grateful heart would say:</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">"From foes and wreck to save me,</div> +<div class="i3">Like lion grim he fought;</div> +<div class="i1">My throne, my life, he gave me,</div> +<div class="i3">And with his heart's blood bought."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">And soon a wondrous rumour</div> +<div class="i3">The country round did fill,</div> +<div class="i1">That when a desp'rate humour</div> +<div class="i3">Doth send one to the Hill,</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">There straight a Shape will meet him,</div> +<div class="i3">The Trusty Eckart's ghost,</div> +<div class="i1">And wistfully entreat him</div> +<div class="i3">To turn, and not be lost.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">There he, though dead, yet ever</div> +<div class="i3">True watch and ward doth hold;</div> +<div class="i1">Upon the Earth shall never</div> +<div class="i3">Be man so true and bold.</div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h4>PART II.</h4> + +<p>More than four centuries had elapsed since the Trusty Eckart's death, +when a noble Tannenhäuser, in the station of Imperial Counsellor, was +living at Court in the highest estimation. The son of this knight +surpassed in beauty all the other nobles of the land, and on this +account was loved and prized by every one. Suddenly, however, after some +mysterious incidents had been observed to happen to him, the young man +disappeared; and no one knew or guessed what was become of him. Since +the times of the Trusty Eckart, there had always been a story current in +the land about the Venus-Hill; and many said that he had wandered +thither, and was lost forever.</p> + +<p>One of those that most lamented him was his young friend Friedrich von +Wolfsburg. They had grown up together, and their mutual attachment +seemed to each of them to have become a necessary of life. +Tannenhäuser's old father died: Friedrich married some years afterwards; +already was a ring of merry children round him, and still he heard no +tidings of his youthful friend; so that, in the end, he was forced to +conclude him dead.</p> + +<p>He was standing one evening under the gate of his Castle, when he +perceived afar off a pilgrim travelling towards the mansion. The +wayfaring man was clad in a strange garb; and his gait and gestures the +Knight thought extremely singular. On his approaching nearer, Wolfsburg +thought that he knew him; and at last he became convinced that the +stranger was no other than his long-lost friend, the Tannenhäuser. He +felt amazed, and a secret horror took possession of him, as he +recognised distinctly these much-altered features.</p> + +<p>The two friends embraced; then started back next moment; and gazed +astonished at each other as at unknown beings. Of questions, of +perplexed replies, were many. Friedrich often shuddered at the wild look +of his friend, which seemed to burn as with unearthly light. The +Tannenhäuser had reposed himself a day or two, when Friedrich learned +that he was on a pilgrimage to Rome.</p> + +<p>The two friends by and by renewed their former intimacy; took up their +old topics, and told stories to each other of their youth; but the +Tannenhäuser always carefully concealed where he had been since then. +Friedrich, however, pressed him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> disclose it, now that they were once +more on their ancient confidential footing: the other long endeavoured +to ward off the friendly prayer; but at last he exclaimed: "Well, be it +so; thy will be done! Thou shalt know all; but cast no reproaches on me +after, should the story fill thee with inquietude and horror."</p> + +<p>They went into the open air, and walked a little in a green wood of the +pleasure-grounds, where at last they sat down; and now the Tannenhäuser +hid his face among the grass, and, with loud sobs, held back his right +hand to his friend, who pressed it tenderly in his. The woe-worn pilgrim +raised himself, and began his story in the following words:</p> + +<p>"Believe me, Wolfsburg, many a man has, at his birth, an Evil Spirit +linked to him, that vexes him through life, and never lets him rest, +till he has reached his black destination. So has it been with me; my +whole existence has been but a continuing birth-pain, and my awakening +will be in Hell. For this have I already wandered so many weary steps, +and have so many yet before me on the pilgrimage which I am making to +the Holy Father, that I may endeavour to obtain forgiveness at Rome. In +his presence will I lay down the heavy burden of my sins; or fall +beneath it, and die despairing."</p> + +<p>Friedrich attempted to console him, but the Tannenhäuser seemed to pay +little heed to what he said; and, after a short while, he proceeded in +the following words: "There is an old legend of a Knight who is said to +have lived many centuries ago, under the name of the Trusty Eckart. They +tell how, in those days, a Musician issued from some marvellous Hill; +and, by his magic tones, awoke in the hearts of all that heard him so +deep a longing, such wild wishes, that he led them irresistibly along +with his music, and forced them to rush in with him to the Hill. Hell +had then opened wide her gates to poor mortals, and enticed them in with +seductive music. In boyhood I often heard this story, and at first +without particularly minding it; yet ere long it so took hold of me, +that all Nature, every sound, every flower, recalled to me the story of +these heart-subduing tones. I cannot tell thee what a sadness, what an +unutterable longing used to seize me, when I looked on the driving of +the clouds, and saw the light lordly blue peering out between them; or +what remembrances the meadows and the woods would awaken in my deepest +heart. Oftentimes the loveliness and fulness of royal Nature so affected +me, that I stretched out my arms, as if to fly away with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> wings; that I +might pour myself out like the Spirit of Nature over mountain and +valley; that I might brood over grass and forest, and inhale the riches +of her blessedness. And if by day the free landscape charmed me, by +night dark dreaming fantasies tormented me; and set themselves in +louring grimness before me, as if to shut up my path of life forever. +Above all, there was one dream that left an ineffaceable impression on +my feelings, though I never could distinctly call the forms of it to +memory. Methought there was a vast tumult in the streets; I heard +confused unintelligible speaking; it was dark night; I went to my +parents' house; none but my father was there, and he sick. Next morning +I clasped my parents in my arms, and pressed them with melting +tenderness to my breast, as if some hostile power had been about to tear +them from me. 'Am I to lose thee?' said I to my father. 'O! how wretched +and lonely were I without thee in this world!' They tried to comfort me, +but could not wipe away the dim image from my remembrance.</p> + +<p>"I grew older, still keeping myself apart from other boys of my age. I +often roamed solitary through the fields: and it happened one morning, +in my rambles, that I had lost my way; and so was wandering to and fro +in a thick wood, not knowing whither to turn. After long seeking vainly +for a road, I at last on a sudden came upon an iron-grated fence, within +which lay a garden. Through the bars, I saw fair shady walks before me; +fruit-trees and flowers; and close by me were rose-bushes glittering in +the sun. A nameless longing for these roses seized me; I could not help +rushing on; I pressed myself by force through between the bars, and was +now standing in the garden. Immediately I sank on my knees; clasped the +bushes in my arms; kissed the roses on their red lips, and melted into +tears. I had knelt a while, absorbed in a sort of rapture, when there +came two maidens through the alleys; the one of my own years, the other +elder. I awoke from my trance, to fall into a higher ecstasy. My eye +lighted on the younger, and I felt at this moment as if all my unknown +woe was healed. They took me to the house; their parents, having learned +my name, sent notice to my father, who, in the evening, came himself, +and brought me back.</p> + +<p>"From this day, the uncertain current of my life had got a fixed +direction; my thoughts forever hastened back to the castle and the +maiden; for here, it seemed to me, was the home of all my wishes. I +forgot my customary pleasures, I forsook my playmates,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> and often +visited the garden, the castle and Emma. Here I had, in a little time, +grown, as it were, an inmate of the house, so that they no longer +thought it strange to see me; and Emma was becoming dearer to me every +day. Thus passed my hours; and a tenderness had taken my heart captive, +though I myself was not aware of it. My whole destination seemed to me +fulfilled; I had no wish but still to come again; and when I went away, +to have the same prospect for the morrow.</p> + +<p>"Matters were in this state, when a young knight became acquainted in +the family; he was a friend of my parents; and he soon, like me, +attached himself to Emma. I hated him, from that moment, as my deadly +enemy; but nothing can describe my feelings, when I fancied I perceived +that Emma liked him more than me. From this hour, it was as if the +music, which had hitherto accompanied me, went silent in my bosom. I +meditated but on death and hatred; wild thoughts now awoke in my breast, +when Emma sang her well-known songs to her lute. Nor did I hide the +aversion which I felt; and when my parents tried to reason and +remonstrate with me, I grew fierce and contradictory.</p> + +<p>"I now roved about the woods and rocky wastes, infuriated against +myself. The death of my rival was a thing I had determined on. The young +knight, after some few months, made a formal offer of himself to the +parents of my mistress, and she was betrothed to him. All that was rare +and beautiful in Nature, all that had charmed me in her magnificence, +had been united in my soul with Emma's image; I fancied, knew or wished +for no other happiness but Emma; nay I had wilfully determined that the +day, which brought the loss of her, should also bring my own +destruction.</p> + +<p>"My parents sorrowed in heart at such perversion; my mother had fallen +sick, but I paid no heed to this; her situation gave me little trouble, +and I saw her seldom. The wedding-day of my enemy was coming on; and +with its approach increased the agony of mind which drove me over woods +and mountains. I execrated Emma and myself with the most horrid curses. +At this time I had no friend; no man would take any charge of me, for +all had given me up for lost.</p> + +<p>"The fearful marriage-eve came on. I had wandered deep among the cliffs, +I heard the rushing of the forest-streams below; I often shuddered at +myself. When the morning came, I saw my enemy proceeding down the +mountains; I assailed him with injurious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> speeches; he replied; we drew +our swords, and he soon fell beneath my furious strokes.</p> + +<p>"I hastened on, not looking after him, but his attendants took the +corpse away. At night, I hovered round the dwelling which enclosed my +Emma; and a few days afterwards, I heard in the neighbouring cloister +the sound of the funeral-bell, and the grave-song of the nuns. I +inquired; and was told that Fräulein Emma, out of sorrow for her +bridegroom's death, was dead.</p> + +<p>"I could stay no longer; I doubted whether I was living, whether it was +all truth or not. I hastened back to my parents; and came next night, at +a late hour, to the town where they lived. Here all was in confusion; +horses and military wagons filled the streets, soldiers were jostling +one another this way and that, and speaking in disordered haste: the +Emperor was on the point of undertaking a campaign against his enemies. +A solitary light was burning in my father's house when I entered; a +strangling oppression lay upon my breast. As I knocked, my father +himself, with slow, thoughtful steps, advanced to meet me; and +immediately I recollected the old dream of my childhood; and felt, with +cutting emotion, that now it was receiving its fulfilment. In +perplexity, I asked: 'Why are you up so late, Father?' He led me in, and +said: 'I may well be up, for thy mother is even now dead.'</p> + +<p>"His words struck through my soul like thunderbolts. He took a seat with +a meditative air; I sat down beside him. The corpse was lying in a bed, +and strangely wound in linen. My heart was like to burst. 'I wake here,' +said the old man, 'for my wife is still sitting by me.' My senses +failed; I fixed my eyes upon a corner; and, after a little while, there +rose, as it were, a vapour; it mounted and wavered; and the well-known +figure of my mother gathered itself visibly together from the midst of +it, and looked at me with an earnest mien. I wished to go, but I could +not; for the form of my mother beckoned to me, and my father held me in +his arms, and whispered to me, in a low voice: 'She died of grief for +thee.' I embraced him with a childlike transport of affection; I poured +burning tears on his breast. He kissed me; and I shuddered; for his +lips, as they touched me, were cold, like the lips of one dead. 'How art +thou, Father?' cried I, in horror. He writhed painfully together, and +made no reply. In a few moments, I felt him growing colder; I laid my +hand on his heart, but it was still; and, in wailing delirium, I held +the body fast clasped in my embrace.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>"As it were a gleam, like the first streak of dawn, went through the +dark room; and behold, the spirit of my father sat beside my mother's +form; and both looked at me compassionately, as I held the dear corpse +in my arms. After this my consciousness was over: exhausted and +delirious, the servants found me next morning in the chamber of the +dead."</p> + +<p>So far the Tannenhäuser had proceeded with his narrative: Friedrich was +listening to him with the deepest astonishment, when all on a sudden he +broke off, and paused with an expression of the keenest pain. Friedrich +felt embarrassed and immersed in thought; they both returned in company +to the Castle, but stayed in the same room apart from others.</p> + +<p>The Tannenhäuser had kept silence for a while, then he again began: "The +remembrance of those hours still agitates me deeply; I understand not +how I have survived them. The world, and its life, now appeared to me as +if dead and utterly desolate; without thoughts or wishes I lived on from +day to day. I then became acquainted with a set of wild young people; +and endeavoured, in the whirl of pleasure and intoxication, to lay the +tumultuous Evil Spirit that was in me. My ancient burning impatience +again awoke; and I could no longer understand myself or my wishes. A +debauchee, named Rudolf, had become my confidant; he, however, always +laughed to scorn my longings and complaints. About a year had passed in +this way, when my misery of spirit rose to desperation; there was +something drove me onwards, onwards, into unknown space; I could have +dashed myself down from the high mountains into the glowing green of the +meadows, into the cool rushing of the waters, to slake the burning +thirst, to stay the insatiability of my soul: I longed for annihilation; +and again, like golden morning clouds, did hope and love of life arise +before me, and entice me on. The thought then struck me, that Hell was +hungering for me, and was sending me my sorrows as well as my pleasures +to destroy me; that some malignant Spirit was directing all the powers +of my soul to the Infernal Abode; and leading me, as with a bridle, to +my doom. And I surrendered to him; that so these torments, these +alternating raptures and agonies, might leave me. In the darkest night, +I mounted a lofty hill; and called on the Enemy of God and man, with all +the energies of my heart, so that I felt he would be forced to hear me. +My words brought him: he stood suddenly before me, and I felt no horror. +Then in talking with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> him, the belief in that strange Hill again rose +within me; and he taught me a Song, which of itself would lead me by the +straight road thither. He disappeared, and for the first time since I +had begun to live, I was alone with myself; for I now understood my +wandering thoughts, which rushed as from a centre to find out another +world. I set forth on my journey; and the Song, which I sang with a loud +voice, led me over strange deserts; but all other things besides myself +I had forgotten. There was something carrying me, as on the strong wings +of desire, to my home: I wished to escape the shadow which, amid the +sunshine, threatens us; the wild tones which, amid the softest music, +chide us. So travelling on, I reached the Mountain, one night when the +moon was shining faintly from behind dim clouds. I proceeded with my +Song; and a giant form stood by me, and beckoned me back with his staff. +I went nearer: 'I am the Trusty Eckart,' said the superhuman figure; 'by +God's goodness, I am placed here as watchman, to warn men back from +their sinful rashness.'—I pressed through.</p> + +<p>"My path was now as in a subterraneous mine. The passage was so narrow, +that I had to press myself along; I caught the gurgling of hidden +waters; I heard spirits forming ore, and gold and silver, to entice the +soul of man; I found here concealed and separate the deep sounds and +tones from which earthly music springs: the farther I went, the more did +there fall, as it were, a veil from my sight.</p> + +<p>"I rested, and saw other forms of men come gliding towards me; my friend +Rudolf was among the number. I could not understand how they were to +pass me, so narrow was the way; but they went along, through the middle +of the rock, without perceiving me.</p> + +<p>"Anon I heard the sound of music; but music altogether different from +any that had ever struck my ear before. My thoughts within me strove +towards the notes: I came into an open space; and strange radiant +colours glittered on me from every side. This it was that I had always +been in search of. Close to my heart I felt the presence of the +long-sought, now-discovered glory; and its ravishments thrilled into me +with all their power. And then the whole crowd of jocund Pagan gods came +forth to meet me, Lady Venus at their head, and all saluted me. They +have been banished thither by the power of the Almighty; their worship +is abolished from the Earth; and now they work upon us from their +concealment.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>"All pleasures that Earth affords I here possessed and partook of in +their fullest bloom; insatiable was my heart, and endless my enjoyment. +The famed Beauties of the ancient world were present; what my thought +coveted was mine; one delirium of rapture was followed by another; and +day after day, the world appeared to burn round me in more glorious +hues. Streams of the richest wine allayed my fierce thirst; and +beauteous forms sported in the air, and soft eyes invited me; vapours +rose enchanting around my head: as if from the inmost heart of blissful +Nature, came a music and cooled with its fresh waves the wild tumult of +desire; and a horror, that glided faint and secret over the rose-fields, +heightened the delicious revel. How many years passed over me in this +abode I know not: for here there was no time and no distinctions; the +flowers here glowed with the charms of women; and in the forms of the +women bloomed the magic of flowers; colours here had another language; +the whole world of sense was bound together into one blossom, and the +spirits within it forever held their rejoicing.</p> + +<p>"Now, how it happened, I can neither say nor comprehend; but so it was, +that in all this pomp of sin, a love of rest, a longing for the old +innocent Earth, with her scanty joys, took hold of me here, as keenly as +of old the impulse which had driven me hither. I was again drawn on to +live that life which men, in their unconsciousness, go on leading: I was +sated with this splendour, and gladly sought my former home once more. +An unspeakable grace of the Almighty permitted my return; I found myself +suddenly again in the world; and now it is my intention to pour out my +guilty breast before the chair of our Holy Father in Rome; that so he +may forgive me, and I may again be reckoned among men."</p> + +<p>The Tannenhäuser ceased; and Friedrich long viewed him with an +investigating look, then took his hand, and said: "I cannot yet recover +from my wonder, nor can I understand thy narrative; for it is impossible +that all thou hast told me can be aught but an imagination. Emma still +lives, she is my wife; thou and I never quarrelled, or hated one +another, as thou thinkest: yet before our marriage, thou wert gone on a +sudden from the neighbourhood; nor didst thou ever tell me, by a single +hint, that Emma was dear to thee."</p> + +<p>Hereupon he took the bewildered Tannenhäuser by the hand, and led him +into another room to his wife, who had just then returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> from a visit +to her sister, which had kept her for the last few days from home. The +Tannenhäuser spoke not, and seemed immersed in thought; he viewed in +silence the form and face of the lady, then shook his head, and said: +"By Heaven, that is the strangest incident of all!"</p> + +<p>Friedrich, with precision and connectedness, related all that had +befallen him since that time; and tried to make his friend perceive that +it had been some singular madness which had, in the mean while, harassed +him. "I know very well how it stands," exclaimed the Tannenhäuser. "It +is now that I am crazy; and Hell has cast this juggling show before me, +that I may not go to Rome, and seek the pardon of my sins."</p> + +<p>Emma tried to bring his childhood to his recollection; but the +Tannenhäuser would not be persuaded. He speedily set out on his journey; +that he might the sooner get his absolution from the Pope.</p> + +<p>Friedrich and Emma often spoke of the mysterious pilgrim. Some months +had gone by, when the Tannenhäuser, pale and wasted, in a tattered +pilgrim's dress, and barefoot, one morning entered Friedrich's chamber, +while the latter was in bed asleep. He kissed his lips, and then said, +in breathless haste: "The Holy Father cannot, and will not, forgive me; +I must back to my old dwelling." And with this he went hurriedly away.</p> + +<p>Friedrich roused himself; but the ill-fated pilgrim was already gone. He +went to his lady's room; and her maids rushed out to meet him, crying +that the Tannenhäuser had pressed into the apartment early in the +morning, with the words: "She shall not obstruct me in my course!"—Emma +was lying murdered.</p> + +<p>Friedrich had not yet recalled his thoughts, when a horror came over +him: he could not rest; he ran into the open air. They wished to keep +him back; but he told them that the pilgrim had kissed his lips, and +that the kiss was burning him till he found the man again. And so, with +inconceivable rapidity, he ran away to seek the Tannenhäuser, and the +mysterious Hill; and, since that day, he was never seen any more. People +say, that whoever gets a kiss from any emissary of the Hill, is +thenceforth unable to withstand the lure that draws him with magic force +into the subterraneous chasm.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="THE_RUNENBERG" id="THE_RUNENBERG"></a>THE RUNENBERG.</h3> + + +<p>A young hunter was sitting in the heart of the Mountains, in a +thoughtful mood, beside his fowling-floor, while the noise of the waters +and the woods was sounding through the solitude. He was musing on his +destiny; how he was so young, and had forsaken his father and mother, +and accustomed home, and all his comrades in his native village, to seek +out new acquaintances, to escape from the circle of returning habitude; +and he looked up with a sort of surprise that he was here, that he found +himself in this valley, in this employment. Great clouds were passing +over him, and sinking behind the mountains; birds were singing from the +bushes, and an echo was replying to them. He slowly descended the hill; +and seated himself on the margin of a brook, that was gushing down among +the rocks with foamy murmur. He listened to the fitful melody of the +water; and it seemed to him as if the waves were saying to him, in +unintelligible words, a thousand things that concerned him nearly; and +he felt an inward trouble that he could not understand their speeches. +Then again he looked aloft, and thought that he was glad and happy; so +he took new heart, and sang aloud this hunting-song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Blithe and cheery through the mountains</div> +<div class="i3">Goes the huntsman to the chase,</div> +<div class="i1">By the lonesome shady fountains,</div> +<div class="i3">Till he finds the red-deer's trace.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Hark! his trusty dogs are baying</div> +<div class="i3">Through the bright-green solitude;</div> +<div class="i1">Through the groves the horns are playing:</div> +<div class="i3">O, thou merry gay green wood!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">In some dell, when luck hath blest him,</div> +<div class="i3">And his shot hath stretch'd the deer,</div> +<div class="i1">Lies he down, content, to rest him,</div> +<div class="i3">While the brooks are murmuring clear.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Leave the husbandman his sowing,</div> +<div class="i3">Let the shipman sail the sea;</div> +<div class="i1">None, when bright the morn is glowing,</div> +<div class="i3">Sees its red so fair as he,</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Wood and wold and game that prizes,</div> +<div class="i3">While Diana loves his art;</div> +<div class="i1">And, at last, some bright face rises:</div> +<div class="i3">Happy huntsman that thou art!</div> +</div></div> + +<p>Whilst he sung, the sun had sunk deeper, and broad shadows fell across +the narrow glen. A cooling twilight glided over the ground; and now only +the tops of the trees, and the round summits of the mountains, were +gilded by the glow of evening. Christian's heart grew sadder and sadder: +he could not think of going back to his birdfold, and yet he could not +stay; he felt himself alone, and longed to meet with men. He now +remembered with regret those old books, which he used to see at home, +and would never read, often as his father had advised him to it: the +habitation of his childhood came before him, his sports with the youth +of the village, his acquaintances among the children, the school that +had afflicted him so much; and he wished he were again amid these +scenes, which he had wilfully forsaken, to seek his fortune in unknown +regions, in the mountains, among strange people, in a new employment. +Meanwhile it grew darker; and the brook rushed louder; and the birds of +night began to shoot, with fitful wing, along their mazy courses. +Christian still sat disconsolate, and immersed in sad reflection; he was +like to weep, and altogether undecided what to do or purpose. +Unthinkingly, he pulled a straggling root from the earth; and on the +instant, heard, with affright, a stifled moan underground, which winded +downwards in doleful tones, and died plaintively away in the deep +distance. The sound went through his inmost heart; it seized him as if +he had unwittingly touched the wound, of which the dying frame of Nature +was expiring in its agony. He started up to fly; for he had already +heard of the mysterious mandrake-root, which, when torn, yields such +heart-rending moans, that the person who has hurt it runs distracted by +its wailing. As he turned to go, a stranger man was standing at his +back, who looked at him with a friendly countenance, and asked him +whither he was going. Christian had been longing for society, and yet he +started in alarm at this friendly presence.</p> + +<p>"Whither so fast?" said the stranger again.</p> + +<p>The young hunter made an effort to collect himself, and told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> how all at +once the solitude had seemed so frightful to him, he had meant to get +away; the evening was so dark, the green shades of the wood so dreary, +the brook seemed uttering lamentations, and his longing drew him over to +the other side of the hills.</p> + +<p>"You are but young," said the stranger, "and cannot yet endure the +rigour of solitude: I will accompany you, for you will find no house or +hamlet within a league of this; and in the way we may talk, and tell +each other tales, and so your sad thoughts will leave you: in an hour +the moon will rise behind the hills; its light also will help to chase +away the darkness of your mind."</p> + +<p>They went along, and the stranger soon appeared to Christian as if he +had been an old acquaintance. "Who are you?" said the man; "by your +speech I hear that you belong not to this part."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" replied the other, "upon this I could say much, and yet it is not +worth the telling you, or talking of. There was something dragged me, +with a foreign force, from the circle of my parents and relations; my +spirit was not master of itself: like a bird which is taken in a net, +and struggles to no purpose, so my soul was meshed in strange +imaginations and desires. We dwelt far hence, in a plain, where all +round you could see no hill, scarce even a height: few trees adorned the +green level; but meadows, fertile corn-fields, gardens stretched away as +far as the eye could reach; and a broad river glittered like a potent +spirit through the midst of them. My father was gardener to a nobleman, +and meant to breed me to the same employment. He delighted in plants and +flowers beyond aught else, and could unweariedly pass day by day in +watching them and tending them. Nay he went so far as to maintain, that +he could almost speak with them; that he got knowledge from their growth +and spreading, as well as from the varied form and colour of their +leaves. To me, however, gardening was a tiresome occupation; and the +more so as my father kept persuading me to take it up, or even attempted +to compel me to it with threats. I wished to be a fisherman, and tried +that business for a time; but a life on the waters would not suit me: I +was then apprenticed to a tradesman in the town; but soon came home from +this employment also. My father happened to be talking of the Mountains, +which he had travelled over in his youth; of the subterranean mines and +their workmen; of hunters and their occupation; and that instant there +arose in me the most decided wish,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> the feeling that at last I had found +out the way of life which would entirely fit me. Day and night I +meditated on the matter; representing to myself high mountains, chasms +and pine-forests; my imagination shaped wild rocks; I heard the tumult +of the chase, the horns, the cry of the hounds and the game; all my +dreams were filled with these things, and they left me neither peace nor +rest any more. The plain, our patron's castle, and my father's little +hampered garden, with its trimmed flower-beds; our narrow dwelling; the +wide sky which stretched above us in its dreary vastness, embracing no +hill, no lofty mountain, all became more dull and odious to me. It +seemed as if the people about me were living in most lamentable +ignorance; that every one of them would think and long as I did, should +the feeling of their wretchedness but once arise within their souls. +Thus did I bait my heart with restless fancies; till one morning I +resolved on leaving my father's house directly and forever. In a book I +had found some notice of the nearest mountains, some charts of the +neighbouring districts, and by them I shaped my course. It was early in +spring, and I felt myself cheerful, and altogether light of heart. I +hastened on, to get away the faster from the level country; and one +evening, in the distance, I descried the dim outline of the Mountains, +lying on the sky before me. I could scarcely sleep in my inn, so +impatient did I feel to have my foot upon the region which I regarded as +my home: with the earliest dawn I was awake, and again in motion. By the +afternoon, I had got among my beloved hills; and here, as if +intoxicated, I went on, then stopped a while, looked back; and drank, as +in inspiring draughts, the aspect of these foreign yet well-known +objects. Ere long, the plain was out of sight; the forest-streams were +rushing down to meet me; the oaks and beeches sounded to me from their +steep precipices with wavering boughs; my path led me by the edge of +dizzy abysses; blue hills were standing vast and solemn in the distance. +A new world was opened to me; I was never weary. Thus, after some days, +having roamed over great part of the Mountains, I reached the dwelling +of an old forester, who consented, at my urgent request, to take me in, +and instruct me in the business of the chase. It is now three months +since I entered his service. I took possession of the district where I +was to live, as of my kingdom. I got acquainted with every cliff and +dell among the mountains; in my occupation, when at dawn of day we moved +to the forest, when felling trees in the wood, when practising my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +fowling-piece, or training my trusty attendants, our dogs, to do their +feats, I felt completely happy. But for the last eight days I have +stayed up here at the fowling-floor, in the loneliest quarter of the +hills; and tonight I grew so sad as I never was in my life before; I +seemed so lost, so utterly unhappy; and even yet I cannot shake aside +that melancholy humour."</p> + +<p>The stranger had listened with attention, while they both wandered on +through a dark alley of the wood. They now came out into the open +country, and the light of the moon, which was standing with its horns +over the summit of the hill, saluted them like a friend. In +undistinguishable forms, and many separated masses, which the pale gleam +again perplexingly combined, lay the cleft mountain-range before them; +in the background a steep hill, on the top of which an antique weathered +ruin rose ghastly in the white light. "Our roads part here," said the +stranger; "I am going down into this hollow; there, by that old +mine-shaft, is my dwelling: the metal ores are my neighbours; the +mine-streams tell me wonders in the night; thither thou canst not follow +me. But look, there stands the Runenberg, with its wild ragged walls; +how beautiful and alluring the grim old rock looks down on us! Wert thou +never there?"</p> + +<p>"Never," said the hunter. "Once I heard my old forester relating strange +stories of that hill, which I, like a fool, have forgotten; only I +remember that my mind that night was full of dread and unearthly +notions. I could like to mount the hill some time; for the colours there +are of the fairest, the grass must be very green, the world around one +very strange; who knows, too, but one might chance to find some curious +relic of the ancient time up there?"</p> + +<p>"You could scarcely fail," replied the stranger; "whoever knows how to +seek, whoever feels his heart drawn towards it with a right inward +longing, will find friends of former ages there, and glorious things, +and all that he wishes most." With these words the stranger rapidly +descended to a side, without bidding his companion farewell; he soon +vanished in the tangles of the thicket, and after some few instants, the +sound of his footsteps also died away. The young hunter did not feel +surprised, he but went on with quicker speed towards the Runenberg: +thither all things seemed to beckon him; the stars were shining towards +it; the moon pointed out as it were a bright road to the ruins; light +clouds rose up to them; and from the depths, the waters and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> sounding +woods spoke new courage into him. His steps were as if winged; his heart +throbbed; he felt so great a joy within him, that it rose to pain. He +came into places he had never seen before; the rocks grew steeper; the +green disappeared; the bald cliffs called to him, as with angry voices, +and a lone moaning wind drove him on before it. Thus he hurried forward +without pause; and late after midnight he came upon a narrow footpath, +which ran along by the brink of an abyss. He heeded not the depth which +yawned beneath, and threatened to swallow him forever; so keenly was he +driven along by wild imaginations and vague wishes. At last his perilous +track led him close by a high wall, which seemed to lose itself in the +clouds; the path grew narrower every step; and Christian had to cling by +projecting stones to keep himself from rushing down into the gulf. Ere +long, he could get no farther; his path ended underneath a window: he +was obliged to pause, and knew not whether he should turn or stay. +Suddenly he saw a light, which seemed to move within the ruined edifice. +He looked towards the gleam; and found that he could see into an ancient +spacious hall, strangely decorated, and glittering in manifold +splendour, with multitudes of precious stones and crystals, the hues of +which played through each other in mysterious changes, as the light +moved to and fro; and this was in the hand of a stately female, who kept +walking with a thoughtful aspect up and down the apartment. She seemed +of a different race from mortals; so large, so strong was her form, so +earnest her look; yet the enraptured huntsman thought he had never seen +or fancied such surpassing beauty. He trembled, yet secretly wished she +might come near the window and observe him. At last she stopped, set +down the light on a crystal table, looked aloft, and sang with a +piercing voice:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">What can the Ancient keep</div> +<div class="i1">That they come not at my call?</div> +<div class="i1">The crystal pillars weep,</div> +<div class="i1">From the diamonds on the wall</div> +<div class="i1">The trickling tear-drops fall;</div> +<div class="i1">And within is heard a moan,</div> +<div class="i1">A chiding fitful tone:</div> +<div class="i1">In these waves of brightness,</div> +<div class="i1">Lovely changeful lightness,</div> +<div class="i1">Has the Shape been form'd,</div> +<div class="i1">By which the soul is charm'd,</div> +<div class="i1">And the longing heart is warm'd.</div> +<div class="i1">Come, ye Spirits, at my call,</div> +<div class="i1">Haste ye to the Golden Hall;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></div> +<div class="i1">Raise, from your abysses gloomy,</div> +<div class="i1">Heads that sparkle; faster</div> +<div class="i1">Come, ye Ancient Ones, come to me!</div> +<div class="i1">Let your power be master</div> +<div class="i1">Of the longing hearts and souls,</div> +<div class="i1">Where the flood of passion rolls,</div> +<div class="i1">Let your power be master!</div> +</div></div> + +<p>On finishing the song, she began undressing; laying her apparel in a +costly press. First, she took a golden veil from her head; and her long +black hair streamed down in curling fulness over her loins: then she +loosed her bosom-dress; and the youth forgot himself and all the world +in gazing at that more than earthly beauty. He scarcely dared to +breathe, as by degrees she laid aside her other garments: at last she +walked about the chamber naked; and her heavy waving locks formed round +her, as it were, a dark billowy sea, out of which, like marble, the +glancing limbs of her form beamed forth, in alternating splendour. After +a while, she went forward to another golden press; and took from it a +tablet, glittering with many inlaid stones, rubies, diamonds and all +kinds of jewels; and viewed it long with an investigating look. The +tablet seemed to form a strange inexplicable figure, from its individual +lines and colours; sometimes, when the glance of it came towards the +hunter, he was painfully dazzled by it; then, again, soft green and blue +playing over it, refreshed his eye: he stood, however, devouring the +objects with his looks, and at the same time sunk in deep thought. +Within his soul, an abyss of forms and harmony, of longing and +voluptuousness, was opened: hosts of winged tones, and sad and joyful +melodies flew through his spirit, which was moved to its foundations: he +saw a world of Pain and Hope arise within him; strong towering crags of +Trust and defiant Confidence, and deep rivers of Sadness flowing by. He +no longer knew himself: and he started as the fair woman opened the +window; handed him the magic tablet of stones, and spoke these words: +"Take this in memory of me!" He caught the tablet; and felt the figure, +which, unseen, at once went through his inmost heart; and the light, and +the fair woman, and the wondrous hall, had disappeared. As it were, a +dark night, with curtains of cloud, fell down over his soul: he searched +for his former feelings, for that inspiration and unutterable love; he +looked at the precious tablet, and the sinking moon was imaged in it +faint and bluish.</p> + +<p>He had still the tablet firmly grasped in his hands when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> morning +dawned; and he, exhausted, giddy and half-asleep, fell headlong down the +precipice.—</p> + +<p>The sun shone bright on the face of the stupefied sleeper; and, +awakening, he found himself upon a pleasant hill. He looked round, and +saw far behind him, and scarce discernible at the extreme horizon, the +ruins of the Runenberg; he searched for his tablet, and could find it +nowhere. Astonished and perplexed, he tried to gather his thoughts, and +connect together his remembrances; but his memory was as if filled with +a waste haze, in which vague irrecognisable shapes were wildly jostling +to and fro. His whole previous life lay behind him, as in a far +distance; the strangest and the commonest were so mingled, that all his +efforts could not separate them. After long struggling with himself, he +at last concluded that a dream, or sudden madness, had come over him +that night; only he could never understand how he had strayed so far +into a strange and remote quarter.</p> + +<p>Still scarcely waking, he went down the hill; and came upon a beaten +way, which led him out from the mountains into the plain country. All +was strange to him: he at first thought that he would find his old home; +but the country which he saw was quite unknown to him; and at length he +concluded that he must be upon the south side of the Mountains, which, +in spring, he had entered from the north. Towards noon, he perceived a +little town below him: from its cottages a peaceful smoke was mounting +up; children, dressed as for a holiday, were sporting on the green; and +from a small church came the sound of the organ, and the singing of the +congregation. All this laid hold of him with a sweet, inexpressible +sadness; it so moved him, that he was forced to weep. The narrow +gardens, the little huts with their smoking chimneys, the +accurately-parted corn-fields, reminded him of the necessities of poor +human nature; of man's dependence on the friendly Earth, to whose +benignity he must commit himself; while the singing, and the music of +the organ, filled the stranger's heart with a devoutness it had never +felt before. The desires and emotions of the bygone night seemed +reckless and wicked; he wished once more, in childlike meekness, +helplessly and humbly to unite himself to men as to his brethren, and +fly from his ungodly purposes and feelings. The plain, with its little +river, which, in manifold windings, clasped itself about the gardens and +meadows, seemed to him inviting and delightful: he thought with fear of +his abode among the lonely mountains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> amid waste rocks; he wished that +he could be allowed to live in this peaceful village; and so feeling, he +went into its crowded church.</p> + +<p>The psalm was just over, and the preacher had begun his sermon. It was +on the kindness of God in regard to Harvest; how His goodness feeds and +satisfies all things that live; how marvellously He has, in the fruits +of the Earth, provided support for men; how the love of God incessantly +displays itself in the bread He sends us; and how the humble Christian +may therefore, with a thankful spirit, perpetually celebrate a Holy +Supper. The congregation were affected; the eyes of the hunter rested on +the pious priest, and observed, close by the pulpit, a young maiden, who +appeared beyond all others reverent and attentive. She was slim and +fair; <ins title="'her blue eyes' may be more correct.">her blue eye</ins> gleamed with the most piercing softness; her face was +as if transparent, and blooming in the tenderest colours. The stranger +youth had never been as he now was; so full of charity, so calm, so +abandoned to the stillest, most refreshing feelings. He bowed himself in +tears, when the clergyman pronounced his blessing; he felt these holy +words thrill through him like an unseen power; and the vision of the +night drew back before them to the deepest distance, as a spectre at the +dawn. He issued from the church; stopped beneath a large lime-tree; and +thanked God, in a heartfelt prayer, that He had saved him, sinful and +undeserving, from the nets of the Wicked Spirit.</p> + +<p>The people were engaged in holding harvest-home that day, and every one +was in a cheerful mood; the children, with their gay dresses, were +rejoicing in the prospect of the sweetmeats and the dance; in the +village square, a space encircled with young trees, the youths were +arranging the preparations for their harvest sport; the players were +seated, and essaying their instruments. Christian went into the fields +again, to collect his thoughts and pursue his meditations; and on his +returning to the village, all had joined in mirth, and actual +celebration of their festival. The fair-haired Elizabeth was there, too, +with her parents; and the stranger mingled in the jocund throng. +Elizabeth was dancing; and Christian, in the mean time, had entered into +conversation with her father, a farmer, and one of the richest people in +the village. The man seemed pleased with his youth and way of speech; +so, in a short time, both of them agreed that Christian should remain +with him as gardener. This office Christian could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> engage with; for he +hoped that now the knowledge and employments, which he had so much +despised at home, would stand him in good stead.</p> + +<p>From this period a new life began for him. He went to live with the +farmer, and was numbered among his family. With his trade, he likewise +changed his garb. He was so good, so helpful and kindly; he stood to his +task so honestly, that ere long every member of the house, especially +the daughter, had a friendly feeling to him. Every Sunday, when he saw +her going to church, he was standing with a fair nosegay ready for +Elizabeth; and then she used to thank him with blushing kindliness: he +felt her absence, on days when he did not chance to see her; and at +night, she would tell him tales and pleasant histories. Day by day they +grew more necessary to each other; and the parents, who observed it, did +not seem to think it wrong; for Christian was the most industrious and +handsomest youth in the village. They themselves had, at first sight, +felt a touch of love and friendship for him. After half a year, +Elizabeth became his wife. Spring was come back; the swallows and the +singing-birds had revisited the land; the garden was standing in its +fairest trim; the marriage was celebrated with abundant mirth; bride and +bridegroom seemed intoxicated with their happiness. Late at night, when +they retired to their chamber, the husband whispered to his wife: "No, +thou art not that form which once charmed me in a dream, and which I +never can entirely forget; but I am happy beside thee, and blessed that +thou art mine."</p> + +<p>How delighted was the family, when, within a year, it became augmented +by a little daughter, who was baptised Leonora. Christian's looks, +indeed, would sometimes take a rather grave expression as he gazed on +the child; but his youthful cheeriness continually returned. He scarcely +ever thought of his former way of life, for he felt himself entirely +domesticated and contented. Yet, some months afterwards, his parents +came into his mind; and he thought how much his father, in particular, +would be rejoiced to see his peaceful happiness, his station as +husbandman and gardener; it grieved him that he should have utterly +forgotten his father and mother for so long a time; his own only child +made known to him the joy which children afford to parents; so at last +he took the resolution to set out, and again revisit home.</p> + +<p>Unwillingly he left his wife; all wished him speed; and the season being +fine, he went off on foot. Already at the distance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> a few miles, he +felt how much the parting grieved him; for the first time in his life, +he experienced the pains of separation; the foreign objects seemed to +him almost savage; he felt as if he had been lost in some unfriendly +solitude. Then the thought came on him, that his youth was over; that he +had found a home to which he now belonged, in which his heart had taken +root; he was almost ready to lament the lost levity of younger years; +and his mind was in the saddest mood, when he turned aside into a +village inn to pass the night. He could not understand how he had come +to leave his kind wife, and the parents she had given him; and he felt +dispirited and discontented, when he rose next morning to pursue his +journey.</p> + +<p>His pain increased as he approached the hills: the distant ruins were +already visible, and by degrees grew more distinguishable; many summits +rose defined and clear amid the blue vapour. His step grew timid; +frequently he paused, astonished at his fear; at the horror which, with +every step, fell closer on him. "Madness!" cried he, "I know thee well, +and thy perilous seductions; but I will withstand thee manfully. +Elizabeth is no vain dream; I know that even now she thinks of me, that +she waits for me, and fondly counts the hours of my absence. Do I not +already see forests like black hair before me? Do not the glancing eyes +look to me from the brook? Does not the stately form step towards me +from the mountains?" So saying, he was about to lay himself beneath a +tree, and take some rest; when he perceived an old man seated in the +shade of it, examining a flower with extreme attention; now holding it +to the sun, now shading it with his hands, now counting its leaves; as +if striving in every way to stamp it accurately in his memory. On +approaching nearer, he thought he knew the form; and soon no doubt +remained that the old man with the flower was his father. With an +exclamation of the liveliest joy, he rushed into his arms; the old man +seemed delighted, but not much surprised, at meeting him so suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Art thou with me already, my son?" said he: "I knew that I should find +thee soon, but I did not think such joy had been in store for me this +very day."</p> + +<p>"How did you know, father, that you would meet me?"</p> + +<p>"By this flower," replied the old gardener; "all my days I have had a +wish to see it; but never had I the fortune; for it is very scarce, and +grows only among the mountains. I set out to seek thee, for thy mother +is dead, and the loneliness at home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> made me sad and heavy. I knew not +whither I should turn my steps; at last I came among the mountains, +dreary as the journey through them had appeared to me. By the road, I +sought for this flower, but could find it nowhere; and now, quite +unexpectedly, I see it here, where the fair plain is lying stretched +before me. From this I knew that I should meet thee soon; and, lo, how +true the fair flower's prophecy has proved!"</p> + +<p>They embraced again, and Christian wept for his mother; but the old man +grasped his hand, and said: "Let us go, that the shadows of the +mountains may be soon out of view; it always makes me sorrowful in the +heart to see these wild steep shapes, these horrid chasms, these +torrents gurgling down into their caverns. Let us get upon the good, +kind, guileless level ground again."</p> + +<p>They went back, and Christian recovered his cheerfulness. He told his +father of his new fortune, of his child and home: his speech made +himself as if intoxicated; and he now, in talking of it, for the first +time truly felt that nothing more was wanting to his happiness. Thus, +amid narrations sad and cheerful, they returned into the village. All +were delighted at the speedy ending of the journey; most of all, +Elizabeth. The old father stayed with them, and joined his little +fortune to their stock; they formed the most contented and united circle +in the world. Their crops were good, their cattle throve; and in a few +years Christian's house was among the wealthiest in the quarter. +Elizabeth had also given him several other children.</p> + +<p>Five years had passed away in this manner, when a stranger halted from +his journey in their village; and took up his lodging in Christian's +house, as being the most respectable the place contained. He was a +friendly, talking man; he told them many stories of his travels; sported +with the children, and made presents to them: in a short time, all were +growing fond of him. He liked the neighbourhood so well, that he +proposed remaining in it for a day or two; but the days grew weeks, and +the weeks months. No one seemed to wonder at his loitering; for all of +them had grown accustomed to regard him as a member of the family. +Christian alone would often sit in a thoughtful mood; for it seemed to +him as if he knew this traveller of old, and yet he could not think of +any time when he had met with him. Three months had passed away, when +the stranger at last took his leave, and said: "My dear friends, a +wondrous destiny, and singular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> anticipations, drive me to the +neighbouring mountains; a magic image, not to be withstood, allures me: +I leave you now, and I know not whether I shall ever see you any more. I +have a sum of money by me, which in your hands will be safer than in +mine; so I ask you to take charge of it; and if within a year I come not +back, then keep it, and accept my thanks along with it for the kindness +you have shown me."</p> + +<p>So the traveller went his way, and Christian took the money in charge. +He locked it carefully up; and now and then, in the excess of his +anxiety, looked over it; he counted it to see that none was missing, and +in all respects took no little pains with it. "This sum might make us +very happy," said he once to his father; "should the stranger not +return, both we and our children were well provided for."</p> + +<p>"Heed not the gold," said the old man; "not in it can happiness be +found: hitherto, thank God, we have never wanted aught; and do thou put +away such thoughts far from thee."</p> + +<p>Christian often rose in the night to set his servants to their labour, +and look after everything himself: his father was afraid lest this +excessive diligence might harm his youth and health; so one night he +rose to speak with him about remitting such unreasonable efforts; when, +to his astonishment, he found him sitting with a little lamp at his +table, and counting, with the greatest eagerness, the stranger's gold. +"My son," said the old man, full of sadness, "must it come to this with +thee? Was this accursed metal brought beneath our roof to make us +wretched? Bethink thee, my son, or the Evil One will consume thy blood +and life out of thee."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied he; "it is true, I know myself no more; neither day nor +night does it give me any rest: see how it looks on me even now, till +the red glance of it goes into my very heart! Hark how it clinks, this +golden stuff! It calls me when I sleep; I hear it when music sounds, +when the wind blows, when people speak together on the street; if the +sun shines, I see nothing but these yellow eyes, with which it beckons +to me, as it were, to whisper words of love into my ear: and therefore I +am forced to rise in the night-time, though it were but to satisfy its +eagerness; and then I feel it triumphing and inwardly rejoicing when I +touch it with my fingers; in its joy it grows still redder and lordlier. +Do but look yourself at the glow of its rapture!" The old man, +shuddering and weeping, took his son in his arms; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> said a prayer, and +then spoke: "Christel, thou must turn again to the Word of God; thou +must go more zealously and reverently to church, or else, alas! my poor +child, thou wilt droop and die away in the most mournful wretchedness."</p> + +<p>The money was again locked up; Christian promised to take thought and +change his conduct, and the old man was composed. A year and more had +passed, and no tidings had been heard of the stranger: the old man at +last gave in to the entreaties of his son; and the money was laid out in +land, and other property. The young farmer's riches soon became the talk +of the village; and Christian seemed contented and comfortable, and his +father felt delighted at beholding him so well and cheerful; all fear +had now vanished from his mind. What then must have been his +consternation, when Elizabeth one evening took him aside; and told him, +with tears, that she could no longer understand her husband; how he +spoke so wildly, especially at night; how he dreamed strange dreams, and +would often in his sleep walk long about the room, not knowing it; how +he spoke strange things to her, at which she often shuddered. But what +terrified her most, she said, was his pleasantry by day; for his laugh +was wild and hollow, his look wandering and strange. The father stood +amazed, and the sorrowing wife proceeded: "He is always talking of the +traveller, and maintaining that he knew him formerly, and that the +stranger man was in truth a woman of unearthly beauty; nor will he go +any more into the fields or the garden to work, for he says he hears +underneath the ground a fearful moaning when he but pulls out a root; he +starts and seems to feel a horror at all plants and herbs."</p> + +<p>"Good God!" exclaimed the father, "is the frightful hunger in him grown +so rooted and strong, that it is come to this? Then is his spell-bound +heart no longer human, but of cold metal; he who does not love a flower, +has lost all love and fear of God."</p> + +<p>Next day the old man went to walk with his son, and told him much of +what Elizabeth had said; calling on him to be pious, and devote his soul +to holy contemplations. "Willingly, my father," answered Christian; "and +I often do so with success, and all is well with me: for long periods of +time, for years, I can forget the true form of my inward man, and lead a +life that is foreign to me, as it were, with cheerfulness: but then on a +sudden, like a new moon, the ruling star, which I myself am, arises +again in my heart, and conquers this other influence. I might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> be +altogether happy; but once, in a mysterious night, a secret sign was +imprinted through my hand deep on my soul; frequently the magic figure +sleeps and is at rest; I imagine it has passed away; but in a moment, +like a poison, it darts up and lives over all its lineaments. And then I +can think or feel nothing else but it; and all around me is transformed, +or rather swallowed up, by this subduing shape. As the rabid man recoils +at the sight of water, and the poison in him grows more fell; so too it +is with me at the sight of any cornered figure, any line, any gleam of +brightness; anything will then rouse the form that dwells in me, and +make it start into being; and my soul and body feel the throes of birth; +for as my mind received it by a feeling from without, she strives in +agony and bitter labour to work it forth again into an outward feeling, +that she may be rid of it, and at rest."</p> + +<p>"It was an evil star that took thee from us to the Mountains," said the +old man; "thou wert born for calm life, thy mind inclined to peace and +the love of plants; then thy impatience hurried thee away to the company +of savage stones: the crags, the torn cliffs, with their jagged shapes, +have overturned thy soul, and planted in thee the wasting hunger for +metals. Thou shouldst still have been on thy guard, and kept thyself +away from the view of mountains; so I meant to bring thee up, but it has +not so been to be. Thy humility, thy peace, thy childlike feeling, have +been thrust away by scorn, boisterousness and caprice."</p> + +<p>"No," said the son; "I remember well that it was a plant which first +made known to me the misery of the Earth; never, till then, did I +understand the sighs and lamentations one may hear on every side, +throughout the whole of Nature, if one but give ear to them. In plants +and herbs, in trees and flowers, it is the painful writhing of one +universal wound that moves and works; they are the corpse of foregone +glorious worlds of rock, they offer to our eye a horrid universe of +putrefaction. I now see clearly it was this, which the root with its +deep-drawn sigh was saying to me; in its sorrow it forgot itself, and +told me all. It is because of this that all green shrubs are so enraged +at me, and lie in wait for my life; they wish to obliterate that lovely +figure in my heart; and every spring, with their distorted deathlike +looks, they try to win my soul. Truly it is piteous to consider how they +have betrayed and cozened thee, old man; for they have gained complete +possession of thy spirit. Do but question<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> the rocks, and thou wilt be +amazed when thou shalt hear them speak."</p> + +<p>The father looked at him a long while, and could answer nothing. They +went home again in silence, and the old man was as frightened as +Elizabeth at Christian's mirth; for it seemed a thing quite foreign; and +as if another being from within were working out of him, awkwardly and +ineffectually, as out of some machine.</p> + +<p>The harvest-home was once more to be held; the people went to church, +and Elizabeth, with her little ones, set out to join the service; her +husband also seemed intending to accompany them, but at the threshold of +the church he turned aside; and with an air of deep thought, walked out +of the village. He set himself on the height, and again looked over upon +the smoking cottages; he heard the music of the psalm and organ coming +from the little church; children, in holiday dresses, were dancing and +sporting on the green. "How have I lost my life as in a dream!" said he +to himself: "years have passed away since I went down this hill to the +merry children; they who were then sportful on the green, are now +serious in the church; I also once went into it, but Elizabeth is now no +more a blooming childlike maiden; her youth is gone; I cannot seek for +the glance of her eyes with the longing of those days; I have wilfully +neglected a high eternal happiness, to win one which is finite and +transitory."</p> + +<p>With a heart full of wild desire, he walked to the neighbouring wood, +and immersed himself in its thickest shades. A ghastly silence +encompassed him; no breath of air was stirring in the leaves. Meanwhile +he saw a man approaching him from a distance, whom he recognised for the +stranger; he started in affright, and his first thought was, that the +man would ask him for his money. But as the form came nearer, he +perceived how greatly he had been mistaken; for the features, which he +had imagined known to him, melted into one another; an old woman of the +utmost hideousness approached; she was clad in dirty rags; a tattered +clout bound up her few gray hairs; she was limping on a crutch. With a +dreadful voice she spoke to him, and asked his name and situation; he +replied to both inquiries, and then said, "But who art thou?"</p> + +<p>"I am called the Woodwoman," answered she; "and every child can tell of +me. Didst thou never see me before?" With the last words she whirled +about, and Christian thought he recognised among the trees the golden +veil, the lofty gait, the large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> stately form which he had once beheld +of old. He turned to hasten after her, but nowhere was she to be seen.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile something glittered in the grass, and drew his eye to it. He +picked it up; it was the magic tablet with the coloured jewels, and the +wondrous figure, which he had lost so many years before. The shape and +the changeful gleams struck over all his senses with an instantaneous +power. He grasped it firmly, to convince himself that it was really once +more in his hands, and then hastened back with it to the village. His +father met him. "See," cried Christian, "the thing which I was telling +you about so often, which I thought must have been shown to me only in a +dream, is now sure and true."</p> + +<p>The old man looked a long while at the tablet, and then said: "My son, I +am struck with horror in my heart when I view these stones, and dimly +guess the meaning of the words on them. Look here, how cold they +glitter, what cruel looks they cast from them, bloodthirsty, like the +red eye of the tiger! Cast this writing from thee, which makes thee cold +and cruel, which will turn thy heart to stone:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">See the flowers, when morn is beaming,</div> +<div class="i3">Waken in their dewy place;</div> +<div class="i1">And, like children roused from dreaming,</div> +<div class="i3">Smiling look thee in the face.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">By degrees, that way and this,</div> +<div class="i3">To the golden Sun they're turning,</div> +<div class="i1">Till they meet his glowing kiss,</div> +<div class="i3">And their hearts with love are burning:</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">For, with fond and sad desire,</div> +<div class="i3">In their lover's looks to languish,</div> +<div class="i1">On his melting kisses to expire,</div> +<div class="i3">And to die of love's sweet anguish:</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">This is what they joy in most;</div> +<div class="i3">To depart in fondest weakness;</div> +<div class="i1">In their lover's being lost,</div> +<div class="i3">Faded stand in silent meekness.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Then they pour away the treasure</div> +<div class="i3">Of their perfumes, their soft souls,</div> +<div class="i1">And the air grows drunk with pleasure,</div> +<div class="i3">As in wanton floods it rolls.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i1">Love comes to us here below,</div> +<div class="i3">Discord harsh away removing;</div> +<div class="i1">And the heart cries: Now I know</div> +<div class="i3">Sadness, Fondness, Pain of Loving."</div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>"What wonderful incalculable treasures," said the other, "must there +still be in the depths of the Earth! Could one but sound into their +secret beds and raise them up, and snatch them to one's-self! Could one +but clasp this Earth like a beloved bride to one's bosom, so that in +pain and love she would willingly grant one her costliest riches! The +Woodwoman has called me; I go to seek for her. Near by is an old ruined +shaft, which some miner has hollowed out many centuries ago; perhaps I +shall find her there!"</p> + +<p>He hastened off. In vain did the old man strive to detain him; in a few +moments Christian had vanished from his sight. Some hours afterwards, +the father, with a strong effort, reached the ruined shaft: he saw +footprints in the sand at the entrance, and returned in tears; persuaded +that his son, in a state of madness, had gone in and been drowned in the +old collected waters and horrid caves of the mine.</p> + +<p>From that day his heart seemed broken, and he was incessantly in tears. +The whole neighbourhood deplored the fortune of the young farmer. +Elizabeth was inconsolable, the children lamented aloud. In half a year +the aged gardener died; the parents of Elizabeth soon followed him; and +she was forced herself to take charge of everything. Her multiplied +engagements helped a little to withdraw her from her sorrow; the +education of her children, and the management of so much property, left +little time for mourning. After two years, she determined on a new +marriage; she bestowed her hand on a young light-hearted man, who had +loved her from his youth. But, ere long, everything in their +establishment assumed another form. The cattle died; men and maid +servants proved dishonest; barns full of grain were burnt; people in the +town who owed them sums of money, fled and made no payment. In a little +while, the landlord found himself obliged to sell some fields and +meadows; but a mildew, and a year of scarcity, brought new +embarrassments. It seemed as if the gold, so strangely acquired, were +taking speedy flight in all directions. Meanwhile the family was on the +increase; and Elizabeth, as well as her husband, grew reckless and +sluggish in this scene of despair: he fled for consolation to the +bottle, he was often drunk, and therefore quarrelsome and sullen; so +that frequently Elizabeth bewailed her state with bitter tears. As their +fortune declined, their friends in the village stood aloof from them +more and more; so that after some few years they saw themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +entirely forsaken, and were forced to struggle on, in penury and +straits, from week to week.</p> + +<p>They had nothing but a cow and a few sheep left them; these Elizabeth +herself, with her children, often tended at their grass. She was sitting +one day with her work in the field, Leonora at her side, and a sucking +child on her breast, when they saw from afar a strange-looking shape +approaching towards them. It was a man with a garment all in tatters, +barefoot, sunburnt to a black-brown colour in the face, deformed still +farther by a long matted beard: he wore no covering on his head; but had +twisted a garland of green branches through his hair, which made his +wild appearance still more strange and haggard. On his back he bore some +heavy burden in a sack, very carefully tied, and as he walked he leaned +upon a young fir.</p> + +<p>On coming nearer, he put down his load, and drew deep draughts of +breath. He bade Elizabeth good-day; she shuddered at the sight of him, +the girl crouched close to her mother. Having rested for a little while, +he said: "I am getting back from a very hard journey among the wildest +mountains of the Earth; but to pay me for it, I have brought along with +me the richest treasures which imagination can conceive, or heart +desire. Look here, and wonder!" Thereupon he loosed his sack, and shook +it empty: it was full of gravel, among which were to be seen large bits +of chuck-stone, and other pebbles. "These jewels," he continued, "are +not ground and polished yet, so they want the glance and the eye; the +outward fire, with its glitter, is too deeply buried in their inmost +heart; yet you have but to strike it out and frighten them, and show +that no deceit will serve, and then you see what sort of stuff they +are." So saying, he took a piece of flinty stone, and struck it hard +against another, till they gave red sparks between them. "Did you see +the glance?" cried he. "Ay, they are all fire and light; they illuminate +the darkness with their laugh, though as yet it is against their will." +With this he carefully repacked his pebbles in the bag, and tied it hard +and fast. "I know thee very well," said he then, with a saddened tone; +"thou art Elizabeth." The woman started.</p> + +<p>"How comest thou to know my name?" cried she, with a forecasting +shudder.</p> + +<p>"Ah, good God!" said the unhappy creature, "I am Christian, he that was +a hunter: dost thou not know me, then?"</p> + +<p>She knew not, in her horror and deepest compassion, what to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> say. He +fell upon her neck and kissed her. Elizabeth exclaimed: "O Heaven! my +husband is coming!"</p> + +<p>"Be at thy ease," said he; "I am as good as dead to thee: in the forest, +there, my fair one waits for me; she that is tall and stately, with the +black hair and the golden veil. This is my dearest child, Leonora. Come +hither, darling: come, my pretty child; and give me a kiss, too; one +kiss, that I may feel thy mouth upon my lips once again, and then I +leave you."</p> + +<p>Leonora wept; she clasped close to her mother, who, in sobs and tears, +half held her towards the wanderer, while he half drew her towards him, +took her in his arms, and pressed her to his breast. Then he went away +in silence, and in the wood they saw him speaking with the hideous +Woodwoman.</p> + +<p>"What ails you?" said the husband, as he found mother and daughter pale +and melting in tears. Neither of them answered.</p> + +<p>The ill-fated creature was never seen again from that day.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="THE_ELVES" id="THE_ELVES"></a>THE ELVES.</h3> + + +<p>"Where is our little Mary?" said the father.</p> + +<p>"She is playing out upon the green there with our neighbour's boy," +replied the mother.</p> + +<p>"I wish they may not run away and lose themselves," said he; "they are +so thoughtless."</p> + +<p>The mother looked for the little ones, and brought them their evening +luncheon. "It is warm," said the boy; "and Mary had a longing for the +red cherries."</p> + +<p>"Have a care, children," said the mother, "and do not run too far from +home, and not into the wood; Father and I are going to the fields."</p> + +<p>Little Andres answered: "Never fear, the wood frightens us; we shall sit +here by the house, where there are people near us."</p> + +<p>The mother went in, and soon came out again with her husband. They +locked the door, and turned towards the fields to look after their +labourers, and see their hay-harvest in the meadow. Their house lay upon +a little green height, encircled by a pretty ring of paling, which +likewise enclosed their fruit and flower garden. The hamlet stretched +somewhat deeper down, and on the other side lay the castle of the Count. +Martin rented the large farm from this nobleman; and was living in +contentment with his wife and only child; for he yearly saved some +money, and had the prospect of becoming a man of substance by his +industry, for the ground was productive, and the Count not illiberal.</p> + +<p>As he walked with his wife to the fields, he gazed cheerfully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> round, +and said: "What a different look this quarter has, Brigitta, from the +place we lived in formerly! Here it is all so green; the whole village +is bedecked with thick-spreading fruit-trees; the ground is full of +beautiful herbs and flowers; all the houses are cheerful and cleanly, +the inhabitants are at their ease: nay I could almost fancy that the +woods are greener here than elsewhere, and the sky bluer; and, so far as +the eye can reach, you have pleasure and delight in beholding the +bountiful Earth."</p> + +<p>"And whenever you cross the stream," said Brigitta, "you are, as it +were, in another world, all is so dreary and withered; but every +traveller declares that our village is the fairest in the country far +and near."</p> + +<p>"All but that fir-ground," said her husband; "do but look back to it, +how dark and dismal that solitary spot is lying in the gay scene: the +dingy fir-trees with the smoky huts behind them, the ruined stalls, the +brook flowing past with a sluggish melancholy."</p> + +<p>"It is true," replied Brigitta; "if you but approach that spot, you grow +disconsolate and sad, you know not why. What sort of people can they be +that live there, and keep themselves so separate from the rest of us, as +if they had an evil conscience?"</p> + +<p>"A miserable crew," replied the young Farmer: "gipsies, seemingly, that +steal and cheat in other quarters, and have their hoard and hiding-place +here. I wonder only that his Lordship suffers them."</p> + +<p>"Who knows," said the wife, with an accent of pity, "but perhaps they +may be poor people, wishing, out of shame, to conceal their poverty; +for, after all, no one can say aught ill of them; the only thing is, +that they do not go to church, and none knows how they live; for the +little garden, which indeed seems altogether waste, cannot possibly +support them; and fields they have none."</p> + +<p>"God knows," said Martin, as they went along, "what trade they follow; +no mortal comes to them; for the place they live in is as if bewitched +and excommunicated, so that even our wildest fellows will not venture +into it."</p> + +<p>Such conversation they pursued, while walking to the fields. That gloomy +spot they spoke of lay aside from the hamlet. In a dell, begirt with +firs, you might behold a hut, and various ruined office-houses; rarely +was smoke seen to mount from it, still more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> rarely did men appear +there; though at times curious people, venturing somewhat nearer, had +perceived upon the bench before the hut, some hideous women, in ragged +clothes, dandling in their arms some children equally dirty and +ill-favoured; black dogs were running up and down upon the boundary; +and, of an evening, a man of monstrous size was seen to cross the +footbridge of the brook, and disappear in the hut; and, in the darkness, +various shapes were observed, moving like shadows round a fire in the +open air. This piece of ground, the firs and the ruined huts, formed in +truth a strange contrast with the bright green landscape, the white +houses of the hamlet, and the stately new-built castle.</p> + +<p>The two little ones had now eaten their fruit; it came into their heads +to run races; and the little nimble Mary always got the start of the +less active Andres. "It is not fair," cried Andres at last: "let us try +it for some length, then we shall see who wins."</p> + +<p>"As thou wilt," said Mary; "only to the brook we must not run."</p> + +<p>"No," said Andres; "but there, on the hill, stands the large pear-tree, +a quarter of a mile from this. I shall run by the left, round past the +fir-ground; thou canst try it by the right over the fields; so we do not +meet till we get up, and then we shall see which of us is swifter."</p> + +<p>"Done," cried Mary, and began to run; "for we shall not mar one another +by the way, and my father says it is as far to the hill by that side of +the Gipsies' house as by this."</p> + +<p>Andres had already started, and Mary, turning to the right, could no +longer see him. "It is very silly," said she to herself: "I have only to +take heart, and run along the bridge, past the hut, and through the +yard, and I shall certainly be first." She was already standing by the +brook and the clump of firs. "Shall I? No; it is too frightful," said +she. A little white dog was standing on the farther side, and barking +with might and main. In her terror, Mary thought the dog some monster, +and sprang back. "Fy! fy!" said she: "the dolt is gone half way by this +time, while I stand here considering." The little dog kept barking, and, +as she looked at it more narrowly, it seemed no longer frightful, but, +on the contrary, quite pretty: it had a red collar round its neck, with +a glittering bell; and as it raised its head, and shook itself in +barking, the little bell sounded with the finest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> tinkle. "Well, I must +risk it!" cried she: "I will run for life; quick, quick, I am through; +certainly to Heaven, they cannot eat me up alive in half a minute!" And +with this, the gay, courageous little Mary sprang along the footbridge; +passed the dog, which ceased its barking and began to fawn on her; and +in a moment she was standing on the other bank, and the black firs all +round concealed from view her father's house, and the rest of the +landscape.</p> + +<p>But what was her astonishment when here! The loveliest, most variegated +flower-garden, lay round her; tulips, roses and lilies were glittering +in the fairest colours; blue and gold-red butterflies were wavering in +the blossoms; cages of shining wire were hung on the espaliers, with +many-coloured birds in them, singing beautiful songs; and children, in +short white frocks, with flowing yellow hair and brilliant eyes, were +frolicking about; some playing with lambkins, some feeding the birds, or +gathering flowers, and giving them to one another; some, again, were +eating cherries, grapes and ruddy apricots. No hut was to be seen; but +instead of it, a large fair house, with a brazen door and lofty statues, +stood glancing in the middle of the space. Mary was confounded with +surprise, and knew not what to think; but, not being bashful, she went +right up to the first of the children, held out her hand, and wished the +little creature good-even.</p> + +<p>"Art thou come to visit us, then?" said the glittering child; "I saw +thee running, playing on the other side, but thou wert frightened at our +little dog."</p> + +<p>"So you are not gipsies and rogues," said Mary, "as Andres always told +me? He is a stupid thing, and talks of much he does not understand."</p> + +<p>"Stay with us," said the strange little girl; "thou wilt like it well."</p> + +<p>"But we are running a race."</p> + +<p>"Thou wilt find thy comrade soon enough. There, take and eat."</p> + +<p>Mary ate, and found the fruit more sweet than any she had ever tasted in +her life before; and Andres, and the race, and the prohibition of her +parents, were entirely forgotten.</p> + +<p>A stately woman, in a shining robe, came towards them, and asked about +the stranger child. "Fairest lady," said Mary, "I came running hither by +chance, and now they wish to keep me."</p> + +<p>"Thou art aware, Zerina," said the lady, "that she can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> here but for +a little while; besides, thou shouldst have asked my leave."</p> + +<p>"I thought," said Zerina, "when I saw her admitted across the bridge, +that I might do it; we have often seen her running in the fields, and +thou thyself hast taken pleasure in her lively temper. She will have to +leave us soon enough."</p> + +<p>"No, I will stay here," said the little stranger; "for here it is so +beautiful, and here I shall find the prettiest playthings, and store of +berries and cherries to boot. On the other side it is not half so +grand."</p> + +<p>The gold-robed lady went away with a smile; and many of the children now +came bounding round the happy Mary in their mirth, and twitched her, and +incited her to dance; others brought her lambs, or curious playthings; +others made music on instruments, and sang to it.</p> + +<p>She kept, however, by the playmate who had first met her; for Zerina was +the kindest and loveliest of them all. Little Mary cried and cried +again: "I will stay with you forever; I will stay with you, and you +shall be my sisters;" at which the children all laughed, and embraced +her. "Now we shall have a royal sport," said Zerina. She ran into the +Palace, and returned with a little golden box, in which lay a quantity +of seeds, like glittering dust. She lifted of it with her little hand, +and scattered some grains on the green earth. Instantly the grass began +to move, as in waves; and, after a few moments, bright rose-bushes +started from the ground, shot rapidly up, and budded all at once, while +the sweetest perfume filled the place. Mary also took a little of the +dust, and, having scattered it, she saw white lilies, and the most +variegated pinks, pushing up. At a signal from Zerina, the flowers +disappeared, and others rose in their room. "Now," said Zerina, "look +for something greater." She laid two pine-seeds in the ground, and +stamped them in sharply with her foot. Two green bushes stood before +them. "Grasp me fast," said she; and Mary threw her arms about the +slender form. She felt herself borne upwards; for the trees were +springing under them with the greatest speed; the tall pines waved to +and fro, and the two children held each other fast embraced, swinging +this way and that in the red clouds of the twilight, and kissed each +other; while the rest were climbing up and down the trunks with quick +dexterity, pushing and teasing one another with loud laughter when they +met; if any one fell down in the press, it flew through the air, and +sank slowly and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> surely to the ground. At length Mary was beginning to +be frightened; and the other little child sang a few loud tones, and the +trees again sank down, and set them on the ground as gradually as they +had lifted them before to the clouds.</p> + +<p>They next went through the brazen door of the palace. Here many fair +women, elderly and young, were sitting in the round hall, partaking of +the fairest fruits, and listening to glorious invisible music. In the +vaulting of the ceiling, palms, flowers and groves stood painted, among +which little figures of children were sporting and winding in every +graceful posture; and with the tones of the music, the images altered +and glowed with the most burning colours; now the blue and green were +sparkling like radiant light, now these tints faded back in paleness, +the purple flamed up, and the gold took fire; and then the naked +children seemed to be alive among the flower-garlands, and to draw +breath, and emit it through their ruby-coloured lips; so that by fits +you could see the glance of their little white teeth, and the lighting +up of their azure eyes.</p> + +<p>From the hall, a stair of brass led down to a subterranean chamber. Here +lay much gold and silver, and precious stones of every hue shone out +between them. Strange vessels stood along the walls, and all seemed +filled with costly things. The gold was worked into many forms, and +glittered with the friendliest red. Many little dwarfs were busied +sorting the pieces from the heap, and putting them in the vessels; +others, hunchbacked and bandy-legged, with long red noses, were +tottering slowly along, half-bent to the ground, under full sacks, which +they bore as millers do their grain; and, with much panting, shaking out +the gold-dust on the ground. Then they darted awkwardly to the right and +left, and caught the rolling balls that were like to run away; and it +happened now and then that one in his eagerness overset the other, so +that both fell heavily and clumsily to the ground. They made angry +faces, and looked askance, as Mary laughed at their gestures and their +ugliness. Behind them sat an old crumpled little man, whom Zerina +reverently greeted; he thanked her with a grave inclination of his head. +He held a sceptre in his hand, and wore a crown upon his brow, and all +the other dwarfs appeared to regard him as their master, and obey his +nod.</p> + +<p>"What more wanted?" asked he, with a surly voice, as the children came a +little nearer. Mary was afraid, and did not speak; but her companion +answered; they were only come to look about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> them in the chambers. +"Still your old child's tricks!" replied the dwarf: "Will there never be +an end to idleness?" With this, he turned again to his employment, kept +his people weighing and sorting the ingots; some he sent away on +errands, some he chid with angry tones.</p> + +<p>"Who is the gentleman?" said Mary.</p> + +<p>"Our Metal-Prince," replied Zerina, as they walked along.</p> + +<p>They seemed once more to reach the open air, for they were standing by a +lake, yet no sun appeared, and they saw no sky above their heads. A +little boat received them, and Zerina steered it diligently forwards. It +shot rapidly along. On gaining the middle of the lake, the stranger saw +that multitudes of pipes, channels and brooks, were spreading from the +little sea in every direction. "These waters to the right," said Zerina, +"flow beneath your garden, and this is why it blooms so freshly; by the +other side we get down into the great stream." On a sudden, out of all +the channels, and from every quarter of the lake, came a crowd of little +children swimming up; some wore garlands of sedge and water-lily; some +had red stems of coral, others were blowing on crooked shells; a +tumultuous noise echoed merrily from the dark shores; among the children +might be seen the fairest women sporting in the waters, and often +several of the children sprang about some one of them, and with kisses +hung upon her neck and shoulders. All saluted the strangers; and these +steered onwards through the revelry out of the lake, into a little +river, which grew narrower and narrower. At last the boat came aground. +The strangers took their leave, and Zerina knocked against the cliff. +This opened like a door, and a female form, all red, assisted them to +mount. "Are you all brisk here?" inquired Zerina. "They are just at +work," replied the other, "and happy as they could wish; indeed, the +heat is very pleasant."</p> + +<p>They went up a winding stair, and on a sudden Mary found herself in a +most resplendent hall, so that as she entered, her eyes were dazzled by +the radiance. Flame-coloured tapestry covered the walls with a purple +glow; and when her eye had grown a little used to it, the stranger saw, +to her astonishment, that, in the tapestry, there were figures moving up +and down in dancing joyfulness; in form so beautiful, and of so fair +proportions, that nothing could be seen more graceful; their bodies were +as of red crystal, so that it appeared as if the blood were visible +within them, flowing and playing in its courses. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> smiled on the +stranger, and saluted her with various bows; but as Mary was about +approaching nearer them, Zerina plucked her sharply back, crying: "Thou +wilt burn thyself, my little Mary, for the whole of it is fire."</p> + +<p>Mary felt the heat. "Why do the pretty creatures not come out," said +she, "and play with us?"</p> + +<p>"As thou livest in the Air," replied the other, "so are they obliged to +stay continually in Fire, and would faint and languish if they left it. +Look now, how glad they are, how they laugh and shout; those down below +spread out the fire-floods everywhere beneath the earth, and thereby the +flowers, and fruits, and wine, are made to flourish; these red streams +again, are to run beside the brooks of water; and thus the fiery +creatures are kept ever busy and glad. But for thee it is too hot here; +let us return to the garden."</p> + +<p>In the garden, the scene had changed since they left it. The moonshine +was lying on every flower; the birds were silent, and the children were +asleep in complicated groups, among the green groves. Mary and her +friend, however, did not feel fatigue, but walked about in the warm +summer night, in abundant talk, till morning.</p> + +<p>When the day dawned, they refreshed themselves on fruit and milk, and +Mary said: "Suppose we go, by way of change, to the firs, and see how +things look there?"</p> + +<p>"With all my heart," replied Zerina; "thou wilt see our watchmen too, +and they will surely please thee; they are standing up among the trees +on the mound." The two proceeded through the flower-garden by pleasant +groves, full of nightingales; then they ascended a vine-hill; and at +last, after long following the windings of a clear brook, arrived at the +firs, and the height which bounded the domain. "How does it come," said +Mary, "that we have to walk so far here, when without, the circuit is so +narrow?"</p> + +<p>"I know not," said her friend; "but so it is."</p> + +<p>They mounted to the dark firs, and a chill wind blew from without in +their faces; a haze seemed lying far and wide over the landscape. On the +top were many strange forms standing; with mealy, dusty faces; their +misshapen heads not unlike those of white owls; they were clad in folded +cloaks of shaggy wool; they held umbrellas of curious skins stretched +out above them; and they waved and fanned themselves incessantly with +large bat's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> wings, which flared out curiously beside the woollen +roquelaures. "I could laugh, yet I am frightened," cried Mary.</p> + +<p>"These are our good trusty watchmen," said her playmate; "they stand +here and wave their fans, that cold anxiety and inexplicable fear may +fall on every one that attempts to approach us. They are covered so, +because without it is now cold and rainy, which they cannot bear. But +snow, or wind, or cold air, never reaches down to us; here is an +everlasting spring and summer: yet if these poor people on the top were +not frequently relieved, they would certainly perish."</p> + +<p>"But who are you, then?" said Mary, while again descending to the +flowery fragrance; "or have you no name at all?"</p> + +<p>"We are called the Elves," replied the friendly child; "people talk +about us in the Earth, as I have heard."</p> + +<p>They now perceived a mighty bustle on the green. "The fair Bird is +come!" cried the children to them: all hastened to the hall. Here, as +they approached, young and old were crowding over the threshold, all +shouting for joy; and from within resounded a triumphant peal of music. +Having entered, they perceived the vast circuit filled with the most +varied forms, and all were looking upwards to a large Bird with glancing +plumage, that was sweeping slowly round in the dome, and in its stately +flight describing many a circle. The music sounded more gaily than +before; the colours and lights alternated more rapidly. At last the +music ceased; and the Bird, with a rustling noise, floated down upon a +glittering crown that hung hovering in air under the high window, by +which the hall was lighted from above. His plumage was purple and green, +and shining golden streaks played through it; on his head there waved a +diadem of feathers, so resplendent that they glanced like jewels. His +bill was red, and his legs of a glancing blue. As he moved, the tints +gleamed through each other, and the eye was charmed with their radiance. +His size was as that of an eagle. But now he opened his glittering beak; +and sweetest melodies came pouring from his moved breast, in finer tones +than the lovesick nightingale gives forth; still stronger rose the song, +and streamed like floods of Light, so that all, the very children +themselves, were moved by it to tears of joy and rapture. When he +ceased, all bowed before him; he again flew round the dome in circles, +then darted through the door, and soared into the light heaven, where he +shone far up like a red point, and then soon vanished from their eyes.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why are ye all so glad?" inquired Mary, bending to her fair playmate, +who seemed smaller than yesterday.</p> + +<p>"The King is coming!" said the little one; "many of us have never seen +him, and whithersoever he turns his face, there is happiness and mirth; +we have long looked for him, more anxiously than you look for spring +when winter lingers with you; and now he has announced, by his fair +herald, that he is at hand. This wise and glorious Bird, that has been +sent to us by the King, is called Phœnix; he dwells far off in +Arabia, on a tree, which there is no other that resembles on Earth, as +in like manner there is no second Phœnix. When he feels himself grown +old, he builds a pile of balm and incense, kindles it, and dies singing; +and then from the fragrant ashes, soars up the renewed Phœnix with +unlessened beauty. It is seldom he so wings his course that men behold +him; and when once in centuries this does occur, they note it in their +annals, and expect remarkable events. But now, my friend, thou and I +must part; for the sight of the King is not permitted thee."</p> + +<p>Then the lady with the golden robe came through the throng, and +beckoning Mary to her, led her into a sequestered walk. "Thou must leave +us, my dear child," said she; "the King is to hold his court here for +twenty years, perhaps longer; and fruitfulness and blessings will spread +far over the land, but chiefly here beside us; all the brooks and +rivulets will become more bountiful, all the fields and gardens richer, +the wine more generous, the meadows more fertile, and the woods more +fresh and green; a milder air will blow, no hail shall hurt, no flood +shall threaten. Take this ring, and think of us: but beware of telling +any one of our existence; or we must fly this land, and thou and all +around will lose the happiness and blessing of our neighbourhood. Once +more, kiss thy playmate, and farewell." They issued from the walk; +Zerina wept, Mary stooped to embrace her, and they parted. Already she +was on the narrow bridge; the cold air was blowing on her back from the +firs; the little dog barked with all its might, and rang its little +bell; she looked round, then hastened over, for the darkness of the +firs, the bleakness of the ruined huts, the shadows of the twilight, +were filling her with terror.</p> + +<p>"What a night my parents must have had on my account!" said she within +herself, as she stept on the green; "and I dare not tell them where I +have been, or what wonders I have witnessed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> nor indeed would they +believe me." Two men passing by saluted her; and as they went along, she +heard them say: "What a pretty girl! Where can she come from?" With +quickened steps she approached the house: but the trees which were +hanging last night loaded with fruit, were now standing dry and +leafless; the house was differently painted, and a new barn had been +built beside it. Mary was amazed, and thought she must be dreaming. In +this perplexity she opened the door; and behind the table sat her +father, between an unknown woman and a stranger youth. "Good God! +Father," cried she, "where is my mother?"</p> + +<p>"Thy mother!" said the woman, with a forecasting tone, and sprang +towards her: "Ha, thou surely canst not—Yes, indeed, indeed thou art my +lost, long-lost dear, only Mary!" She had recognised her by a little +brown mole beneath the chin, as well as by her eyes and shape. All +embraced her, all were moved with joy, and the parents wept. Mary was +astonished that she almost reached to her father's stature; and she +could not understand how her mother had become so changed and faded; she +asked the name of the stranger youth. "It is our neighbour's Andres," +said Martin. "How comest thou to us again, so unexpectedly, after seven +long years? Where hast thou been? Why didst thou never send us tidings +of thee?"</p> + +<p>"Seven years!" said Mary, and could not order her ideas and +recollections. "Seven whole years?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said Andres, laughing, and shaking her trustfully by the +hand; "I have won the race, good Mary; I was at the pear-tree and back +again seven years ago, and thou, sluggish creature, art but just +returned!"</p> + +<p>They again asked, they pressed her; but remembering her instruction, she +could answer nothing. It was they themselves chiefly that, by degrees, +shaped a story for her: How, having lost her way, she had been taken up +by a coach, and carried to a strange remote part, where she could not +give the people any notion of her parents' residence; how she was +conducted to a distant town, where certain worthy persons brought her up +and loved her; how they had lately died, and at length she had +recollected her birthplace, and so returned. "No matter how it is!" +exclaimed her mother; "enough, that we have thee again, my little +daughter, my own, my all!"</p> + +<p>Andres waited supper, and Mary could not be at home in anything she saw. +The house seemed small and dark; she felt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> astonished at her dress, +which was clean and simple, but appeared quite foreign; she looked at +the ring on her finger, and the gold of it glittered strangely, +enclosing a stone of burning red. To her father's question, she replied +that the ring also was a present from her benefactors.</p> + +<p>She was glad when the hour of sleep arrived, and she hastened to her +bed. Next morning she felt much more collected; she had now arranged her +thoughts a little, and could better stand the questions of the people in +the village, all of whom came in to bid her welcome. Andres was there +too with the earliest, active, glad, and serviceable beyond all others. +The blooming maiden of fifteen had made a deep impression on him; he had +passed a sleepless night. The people of the castle likewise sent for +Mary, and she had once more to tell her story to them, which was now +grown quite familiar to her. The old Count and his Lady were surprised +at her good-breeding; she was modest, but not embarrassed; she made +answer courteously in good phrases to all their questions; all fear of +noble persons and their equipage had passed away from her; for when she +measured these halls and forms by the wonders and the high beauty she +had seen with the Elves in their hidden abode, this earthly splendour +seemed but dim to her, the presence of men was almost mean. The young +lords were charmed with her beauty.</p> + +<p>It was now February. The trees were budding earlier than usual; the +nightingale had never come so soon; the spring rose fairer in the land +than the oldest men could recollect it. In every quarter, little brooks +gushed out to irrigate the pastures and meadows; the hills seemed +heaving, the vines rose higher and higher, the fruit-trees blossomed as +they had never done; and a swelling fragrant blessedness hung suspended +heavily in rosy clouds over the scene. All prospered beyond expectation: +no rude day, no tempest injured the fruits; the wine flowed blushing in +immense grapes; and the inhabitants of the place felt astonished, and +were captivated as in a sweet dream. The next year was like its +forerunner; but men had now become accustomed to the marvellous. In +autumn, Mary yielded to the pressing entreaties of Andres and her +parents; she was betrothed to him, and in winter they were married.</p> + +<p>She often thought with inward longing of her residence behind the +fir-trees; she continued serious and still. Beautiful as all that lay +around her was, she knew of something yet more beautiful;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> and from the +remembrance of this, a faint regret attuned her nature to soft +melancholy. It smote her painfully when her father and mother talked +about the gipsies and vagabonds, that dwelt in the dark spot of ground. +Often she was on the point of speaking out in defence of those good +beings, whom she knew to be the benefactors of the land; especially to +Andres, who appeared to take delight in zealously abusing them: yet +still she repressed the word that was struggling to escape her bosom. So +passed this year; in the next, she was solaced by a little daughter, +whom she named Elfrida, thinking of the designation of her friendly +Elves.</p> + +<p>The young people lived with Martin and Brigitta, the house being large +enough for all; and helped their parents in conducting their now +extended husbandry. The little Elfrida soon displayed peculiar faculties +and gifts; for she could walk at a very early age, and could speak +perfectly before she was a twelvemonth old; and after some few years, +she had become so wise and clever, and of such wondrous beauty, that all +people regarded her with astonishment; and her mother could not keep +away the thought that her child resembled one of those shining little +ones in the space behind the Firs. Elfrida cared not to be with other +children; but seemed to avoid, with a sort of horror, their tumultuous +amusements; and liked best to be alone. She would then retire into a +corner of the garden, and read, or work diligently with her needle; +often also you might see her sitting, as if deep sunk in thought; or +violently walking up and down the alleys, speaking to herself. Her +parents readily allowed her to have her will in these things, for she +was healthy, and waxed apace; only her strange sagacious answers and +observations often made them anxious. "Such wise children do not grow to +age," her grandmother, Brigitta, many times observed; "they are too good +for this world; the child, besides, is beautiful beyond nature, and will +never find its proper place on Earth."</p> + +<p>The little girl had this peculiarity, that she was very loath to let +herself be served by any one, but endeavoured to do everything herself. +She was almost the earliest riser in the house; she washed herself +carefully, and dressed without assistance: at night she was equally +careful; she took special heed to pack up her clothes and washes with +her own hands, allowing no one, not even her mother, to meddle with her +articles. The mother humoured her in this caprice, not thinking it of +any consequence. But what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> was her astonishment, when, happening one +holiday to insist, regardless of Elfrida's tears and screams, on +dressing her out for a visit to the castle, she found upon her breast, +suspended by a string, a piece of gold of a strange form, which she +directly recognised as one of that sort she had seen in such abundance +in the subterranean vault! The little thing was greatly frightened; and +at last confessed that she had found it in the garden, and as she liked +it much, had kept it carefully: she at the same time prayed so earnestly +and pressingly to have it back, that Mary fastened it again on its +former place, and, full of thoughts, went out with her in silence to the +castle.</p> + +<p>Sidewards from the farmhouse lay some offices for the storing of produce +and implements; and behind these there was a little green, with an old +grove, now visited by no one, as, from the new arrangement of the +buildings, it lay too far from the garden. In this solitude Elfrida +delighted most; and it occurred to nobody to interrupt her here, so that +frequently her parents did not see her for half a day. One afternoon her +mother chanced to be in these buildings, seeking for some lost article +among the lumber; and she noticed that a beam of light was coming in, +through a chink in the wall. She took a thought of looking through this +aperture, and seeing what her child was busied with; and it happened +that a stone was lying loose, and could be pushed aside, so that she +obtained a view right into the grove. Elfrida was sitting there on a +little bench, and beside her the well-known Zerina; and the children +were playing, and amusing one another, in the kindliest unity. The Elf +embraced her beautiful companion, and said mournfully: "Ah! dear little +creature, as I sport with thee, so have I sported with thy mother, when +she was a child; but you mortals so soon grow tall and thoughtful! It is +very hard: wert thou but to be a child as long as I!"</p> + +<p>"Willingly would I do it," said Elfrida; "but they all say, I shall come +to sense, and give over playing altogether; for I have great gifts, as +they think, for growing wise. Ah! and then I shall see thee no more, +thou dear Zerina! Yet it is with us as with the fruit-tree flowers: how +glorious the blossoming apple-tree, with its red bursting buds! It looks +so stately and broad; and every one, that passes under it, thinks surely +something great will come of it; then the sun grows hot, and the buds +come joyfully forth; but the wicked kernel is already there, which +pushes off and casts away the fair flower's dress; and now, in pain and +waxing, it can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> do nothing more, but must grow to fruit in harvest. An +apple, to be sure, is pretty and refreshing; yet nothing to the blossom +of spring. So is it also with us mortals: I am not glad in the least at +growing to be a tall girl. Ah! could I but once visit you!"</p> + +<p>"Since the King is with us," said Zerina, "it is quite impossible; but I +will come to thee, my darling, often, often; and none shall see me +either here or there. I will pass invisible through the air, or fly over +to thee like a bird. O! we will be much, much together, while thou art +still little. What can I do to please thee?"</p> + +<p>"Thou must like me very dearly," said Elfrida, "as I like thee in my +heart. But come, let us make another rose."</p> + +<p>Zerina took the well-known box from her bosom, threw two grains from it +on the ground; and instantly a green bush stood before them, with two +deep-red roses, bending their heads, as if to kiss each other. The +children plucked them smiling, and the bush disappeared. "O that it +would not die so soon!" said Elfrida; "this red child, this wonder of +the Earth!"</p> + +<p>"Give it me here," said the little Elf; then breathed thrice upon the +budding rose, and kissed it thrice. "Now," said she, giving back the +rose, "it will continue fresh and blooming till winter."</p> + +<p>"I will keep it," said Elfrida, "as an image of thee; I will guard it in +my little room, and kiss it night and morning, as if it were thyself."</p> + +<p>"The sun is setting," said the other; "I must home." They embraced +again, and Zerina vanished.</p> + +<p>In the evening, Mary clasped her child to her breast, with a feeling of +alarm and veneration. She henceforth allowed the good little girl more +liberty than formerly; and often calmed her husband, when he came to +search for the child; which for some time he was wont to do, as her +retiredness did not please him; and he feared that, in the end, it might +make her silly, or even pervert her understanding. The mother often +glided to the chink; and almost always found the bright Elf beside her +child, employed in sport, or in earnest conversation.</p> + +<p>"Wouldst thou like to fly?" inquired Zerina once.</p> + +<p>"O well! How well!" replied Elfrida; and the fairy clasped her mortal +playmate in her arms, and mounted with her from the ground, till they +hovered above the grove. The mother, in alarm, forgot herself, and +pushed out her head in terror to look after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> them; when Zerina, from the +air, held up her finger, and threatened yet smiled; then descended with +the child, embraced her, and disappeared. After this, it happened more +than once that Mary was observed by her; and every time, the shining +little creature shook her head, or threatened, yet with friendly looks.</p> + +<p>Often, in disputing with her husband, Mary had said in her zeal: "Thou +dost injustice to the poor people in the hut!" But when Andres pressed +her to explain why she differed in opinion from the whole village, nay +from his Lordship himself; and how she could understand it better than +the whole of them, she still broke off embarrassed, and became silent. +One day, after dinner, Andres grew more violent than ever; and +maintained that, by one means or another, the crew must be packed away, +as a nuisance to the country; when his wife, in anger, said to him: +"Hush! for they are benefactors to thee and to everyone of us."</p> + +<p>"Benefactors!" cried the other, in astonishment: "These rogues and +vagabonds?"</p> + +<p>In her indignation, she was now at last tempted to relate to him, under +promise of the strictest secrecy, the history of her youth: and as +Andres at every word grew more incredulous, and shook his head in +mockery, she took him by the hand, and led him to the chink; where, to +his amazement, he beheld the glittering Elf sporting with his child, and +caressing her in the grove. He knew not what to say; an exclamation of +astonishment escaped him, and Zerina raised her eyes. On the instant she +grew pale, and trembled violently; not with friendly, but with indignant +looks, she made the sign of threatening, and then said to Elfrida: "Thou +canst not help it, dearest heart; but they will never learn sense, wise +as they believe themselves." She embraced the little one with stormy +haste; and then, in the shape of a raven, flew with hoarse cries over +the garden, towards the Firs.</p> + +<p>In the evening, the little one was very still; she kissed her rose with +tears; Mary felt depressed and frightened, Andres scarcely spoke. It +grew dark. Suddenly there went a rustling through the trees; birds flew +to and fro with wild screaming, thunder was heard to roll, the Earth +shook, and tones of lamentation moaned in the air. Andres and his wife +had not courage to rise; they shrouded themselves within the curtains, +and with fear and trembling awaited the day. Towards morning, it grew +calmer; and all was silent when the Sun, with his cheerful light, rose +over the wood.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>Andres dressed himself; and Mary now observed that the stone of the ring +upon her finger had become quite pale. On opening the door, the sun +shone clear on their faces, but the scene around them they could +scarcely recognise. The freshness of the wood was gone; the hills were +shrunk, the brooks were flowing languidly with scanty streams, the sky +seemed gray; and when you turned to the Firs, they were standing there +no darker or more dreary than the other trees. The huts behind them were +no longer frightful; and several inhabitants of the village came and +told about the fearful night, and how they had been across the spot +where the gipsies had lived; how these people must have left the place +at last, for their huts were standing empty, and within had quite a +common look, just like the dwellings of other poor people: some of their +household gear was left behind.</p> + +<p>Elfrida in secret said to her mother: "I could not sleep last night; and +in my fright at the noise, I was praying from the bottom of my heart, +when the door suddenly opened, and my playmate entered to take leave of +me. She had a travelling-pouch slung round her, a hat on her head, and a +large staff in her hand. She was very angry at thee; since on thy +account she had now to suffer the severest and most painful punishments, +as she had always been so fond of thee; for all of them, she said, were +very loath to leave this quarter."</p> + +<p>Mary forbade her to speak of this; and now the ferryman came across the +river, and told them new wonders. As it was growing dark, a stranger man +of large size had come to him, and hired his boat till sunrise; and with +this condition, that the boatman should remain quiet in his house, at +least should not cross the threshold of his door. "I was frightened," +continued the old man, "and the strange bargain would not let me sleep. +I slipped softly to the window, and looked towards the river. Great +clouds were driving restlessly through the sky, and the distant woods +were rustling fearfully; it was as if my cottage shook, and moans and +lamentations glided round it. On a sudden, I perceived a white streaming +light, that grew broader and broader, like many thousands of falling +stars; sparkling and waving, it proceeded forward from the dark +Fir-ground, moved over the fields, and spread itself along towards the +river. Then I heard a trampling, a jingling, a bustling, and rushing, +nearer and nearer; it went forwards to my boat, and all stept into it, +men and women, as it seemed, and children; and the tall stranger ferried +them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> over. In the river were by the boat swimming many thousands of +glittering forms; in the air white clouds and lights were wavering; and +all lamented and bewailed that they must travel forth so far, far away, +and leave their beloved dwelling. The noise of the rudder and the water +creaked and gurgled between whiles, and then suddenly there would be +silence. Many a time the boat landed, and went back, and was again +laden; many heavy casks, too, they took along with them, which +multitudes of horrid-looking little fellows carried and rolled; whether +they were devils or goblins, Heaven only knows. Then came, in waving +brightness, a stately freight; it seemed an old man, mounted on a small +white horse, and all were crowding round him. I saw nothing of the horse +but its head; for the rest of it was covered with costly glittering +cloths and trappings: on his brow the old man had a crown, so bright +that, as he came across, I thought the sun was rising there, and the +redness of the dawn glimmering in my eyes. Thus it went on all night; I +at last fell asleep in the tumult, half in joy, half in terror. In the +morning all was still; but the river is, as it were, run off, and I know +not how I am to steer my boat in it now."</p> + +<p>The same year there came a blight; the woods died away, the springs ran +dry; and the scene, which had once been the joy of every traveller, was +in autumn standing waste, naked and bald; scarcely showing here and +there, in the sea of sand, a spot or two where grass, with a dingy +greenness, still grew up. The fruit-trees all withered, the vines faded +away, and the aspect of the place became so melancholy, that the Count, +with his people, next year left the castle, which in time decayed and +fell to ruins.</p> + +<p>Elfrida gazed on her rose day and night with deep longing, and thought +of her kind playmate; and as it drooped and withered, so did she also +hang her head; and before the spring, the little maiden had herself +faded away. Mary often stood upon the spot before the hut, and wept for +the happiness that had departed. She wasted herself away like her child, +and in a few years she too was gone. Old Martin, with his son-in-law, +returned to the quarter where he had lived before.</p> +<hr class="chap" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="THE_GOBLET" id="THE_GOBLET"></a>THE GOBLET.</h3> + + +<p>The forenoon bells were sounding from the high cathedral. Over the wide +square in front of it were men and women walking to and fro, carriages +rolling along, and priests proceeding to their various churches. +Ferdinand was standing on the broad stair, with his eyes over the +multitude, looking at them as they came up to attend the service. The +sunshine glittered on the white stones, all were seeking shelter from +the heat. He alone had stood for a long time leaning on a pillar, amid +the burning beams, without regarding them; for he was lost in the +remembrances which mounted up within his mind. He was calling back his +bygone life; and inspiring his soul with the feeling which had +penetrated all his being, and swallowed up every other wish in itself. +At the same hour, in the past year, had he been standing here, looking +at the women and the maidens coming to mass; with indifferent heart, and +smiling face, he had viewed the variegated procession; many a kind look +had roguishly met his, and many a virgin cheek had blushed; his busy eye +had observed the pretty feet, how they mounted the steps, and how the +wavering robe fell more or less aside, to let the dainty little ankles +come to sight. Then a youthful form had crossed the square: clad in +black; slender, and of noble mien, her eyes modestly cast down before +her, carelessly she hovered up the steps with lovely grace; the silken +robe lay round that fairest of forms, and rocked itself as in music +about the moving limbs; she was mounting the highest step, when by +chance she raised her head, and struck his eye with a ray of the purest +azure. He was pierced as if by lightning. Her foot caught the robe; and +quickly as he darted towards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> her, he could not prevent her having, for +a moment, in the most charming posture, lain kneeling at his feet. He +raised her; she did not look at him, she was all one blush; nor did she +answer his inquiry whether she was hurt. He followed her into the +church: his soul saw nothing but the image of that form kneeling before +him, and that loveliest of bosoms bent towards him. Next day he visited +the threshold of the church again; for him that spot was consecrated +ground. He had been intending to pursue his travels, his friends were +expecting him impatiently at home; but from henceforth his native +country was here, his heart and its wishes were inverted. He saw her +often, she did not shun him; yet it was but for a few separate and +stolen moments; for her wealthy family observed her strictly, and still +more a powerful and jealous bridegroom. They mutually confessed their +love, but knew not what to do; for he was a stranger, and could offer +his beloved no such splendid fortune as she was entitled to expect. He +now felt his poverty; yet when he reflected on his former way of life, +it seemed to him that he was passing rich; for his existence was +rendered holy, his heart floated forever in the fairest emotion; Nature +was now become his friend, and her beauty lay revealed to him; he felt +himself no longer alien from worship and religion; and he now crossed +this threshold, and the mysterious dimness of the temple, with far other +feelings than in former days of levity. He withdrew from his +acquaintances, and lived only to love. When he walked through her +street, and saw her at the window, he was happy for the day. He had +often spoken to her in the dusk of the evening; her garden was adjacent +to a friend's, who, however, did not know his secret. Thus a year had +passed away.</p> + +<p>All these scenes of his new existence again moved through his +remembrance. He raised his eyes; that noble form was even then gliding +over the square; she shone out of the confused multitude like a sun. A +lovely music sounded in his longing heart; and as she approached, he +retired into the church. He offered her the holy water; her white +fingers trembled as they touched his, she bowed with grateful kindness. +He followed her, and knelt down near her. His whole heart was melting in +sadness and love; it seemed to him as if, from the wounds of longing, +his being were bleeding away in fervent prayers; every word of the +priest went through him, every tone of the music poured new devotion +into his bosom; his lips quivered, as the fair maiden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> pressed the +crucifix of her rosary to her ruby mouth. How dim had been his +apprehension of this Faith and this Love before! The priest elevated the +Host, and the bell sounded; she bowed more humbly, and crossed her +breast; and, like a flash, it struck through all his powers and +feelings, and the image on the altar seemed alive, and the coloured +dimness of the windows as a light of paradise; tears flowed fast from +his eyes, and allayed the swelling fervour of his heart.</p> + +<p>The service was concluded. He again offered her the consecrated font; +they spoke some words, and she withdrew. He stayed behind, in order to +excite no notice; he looked after her till the hem of her garment +vanished round the corner; and he felt like the wanderer, weary and +astray, from whom, in the thick forest, the last gleam of the setting +sun departs. He awoke from his dream, as an old withered hand slapped +him on the shoulder, and some one called him by name.</p> + +<p>He started back, and recognised his friend, the testy old Albert, who +lived apart from men, and whose solitary house was open to Ferdinand +alone: "Do you remember our engagement?" said the hoarse husky voice. "O +yes," said Ferdinand: "and will you perform your promise today?"</p> + +<p>"This very hour," replied the other, "if you like to follow me."</p> + +<p>They walked through the city to a remote street, and there entered a +large edifice. "Today," said the old man, "you must push through with me +into my most solitary chamber, that we may not be disturbed." They +passed through many rooms, then along some stairs; they wound their way +through passages: and Ferdinand, who had thought himself familiar with +the house, was now astonished at the multitude of apartments, and the +singular arrangement of the spacious building; but still more that the +old man, a bachelor, and without family, should inhabit it by himself, +with a few servants, and never let out any part of the superfluous room +to strangers. Albert at length unbolted the door, and said: "Now, here +is the place." They entered a large high chamber, hung round with red +damask, which was trimmed with golden listings; the chairs were of the +same stuff; and, through heavy red silk curtains covering the windows, +came a purple light. "Wait a little," said the old man, and went into +another room. Ferdinand took up some books: he found them to contain +strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, with many curious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to be works on +alchemy; he was aware already that the old man had the reputation of a +gold-maker. A lute was lying on the table, singularly overlaid with +mother-of-pearl, and coloured wood; and representing birds and flowers +in very splendid forms. The star in the middle was a large piece of +mother-of-pearl, worked in the most skilful manner into many +intersecting circular figures, almost like the centre of a window in a +Gothic church. "You are looking at my instrument," said Albert, coming +back; "it is two hundred years old: I brought it with me as a memorial +of my journey into Spain. But let us leave all that, and do you take a +seat."</p> + +<p>They sat down beside the table, which was likewise covered with a red +cloth; and the old man placed upon it something which was carefully +wrapped up. "From pity to your youth," he began, "I promised lately to +predict to you whether you could ever become happy or not; and this +promise I will in the present hour perform, though you hold the matter +only as a jest. You need not be alarmed; for what I purpose will take +place without danger; no dread invocations shall be made by me, nor +shall any horrid apparition terrify your senses. The business I am on +may fail in two ways: either if you do not love so truly as you have +been willing to persuade me; for then my labour is in vain, and nothing +will disclose itself; or, if you shall disturb the oracle and destroy it +by a useless question, or a hasty movement, should you leave your seat +and dissipate the figure; you must therefore promise me to keep yourself +quite still."</p> + +<p>Ferdinand gave his word, and the old man unfolded from its cloths the +packet he had placed on the table. It was a golden goblet, of very +skilful and beautiful workmanship. Round its broad foot ran a garland of +flowers, intertwined with myrtles, and various other leaves and fruits, +worked out in high chasing with dim and with brilliant gold. A +corresponding ring, but still richer, with figures of children, and wild +little animals playing with them, or flying from them, wound itself +about the middle of the cup. The bowl was beautifully turned; it bent +itself back at the top as if to meet the lips; and within, the gold +sparkled with a red glow. Old Albert placed the cup between him and the +youth, whom he then beckoned to come nearer. "Do you not feel +something," said he, "when your eye loses itself in this splendour?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ferdinand, "this brightness glances into my inmost +heart; I might almost say I felt it like a kiss in my longing bosom."</p> + +<p>"It is right, then!" said the old man. "Now let not your eyes wander any +more, but fix them steadfastly on the glittering of this gold, and think +as intensely as you can of the woman whom you love."</p> + +<p>Both sat quiet for a while, looking earnestly upon the gleaming cup. Ere +long, however, Albert, with mute gestures, began, at first slowly, then +faster, and at last in rapid movements, to whirl his outstretched finger +in a constant circle round the glitter of the bowl. Then he paused, and +recommenced his circles in the opposite direction. After this had lasted +for a little, Ferdinand began to think he heard the sound of music; it +came as from without, in some distant street, but soon the tones +approached, they quivered more distinctly through the air; and at last +no doubt remained with him that they were flowing from the hollow of the +cup. The music became stronger, and of such piercing power, that the +young man's heart was throbbing to the notes, and tears were flowing +from his eyes. Busily old Albert's hand now moved in various lines +across the mouth of the goblet; and it seemed as if sparks were issuing +from his fingers, and darting in forked courses to the gold, and +tinkling as they met it. The glittering points increased; and followed, +as if strung on threads, the movements of his finger to and fro; they +shone with various hues, and crowded more and more together till they +joined in unbroken lines. And now it seemed as if the old man, in the +red dusk, were stretching a wondrous net over the gleaming gold; for he +drew the beams this way and that at pleasure, and wove up with them the +opening of the bowl; they obeyed him, and remained there like a cover, +wavering to and fro, and playing into one another. Having so fixed them, +he again described the circle round the rim; the music then moved off, +grew fainter and fainter, and at last died away. While the tones +departed, the sparkling net quivered to and fro as in pain. In its +increasing agitation it broke in pieces; and the beaming threads rained +down in drops into the cup; but as the drops fell, there arose from them +a ruddy cloud, which moved within itself in manifold eddies, and mounted +over the brim like foam. A bright point darted with exceeding swiftness +through the cloudy circle, and began to form the Image in the midst of +it. On a sudden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> there looked out from the vapour as it were an eye; +over this came a playing and curling as of golden locks; and soon there +went a soft blush up and down the shadow, and Ferdinand beheld the +smiling face of his beloved, the blue eyes, the tender cheeks, the fair +red mouth. The head waved to and fro; rose clearer and more visible upon +the slim white neck, and nodded towards the enraptured youth. Old Albert +still kept casting circles round the cup; and out of it emerged the +glancing shoulders; and as the fair form mounted more and more from its +golden couch, and bent in lovely kindness this way and that, the soft +curved parted breasts appeared, and on their summits two loveliest +rose-buds glancing with sweet secret red. Ferdinand fancied he felt the +breath, as the beloved form bent waving towards him, and almost touched +him with its glowing lips; in his rapture he forgot his promise and +himself; he started up and clasped that ruby mouth to him with a kiss, +and meant to seize those lovely arms, and lift the enrapturing form from +its golden prison. Instantly a violent trembling quivered through the +lovely shape; the head and body broke away as in a thousand lines; and a +rose was lying at the bottom of the goblet, in whose redness that sweet +smile still seemed to play. The longing young man caught it and pressed +it to his lips; and in his burning ardour it withered and melted into +air.</p> + +<p>"Thou hast kept thy promise badly," said the old man, with an angry +tone; "thou hast none but thyself to blame." He again wrapped up the +goblet, drew aside the curtains, and opened a window: the clear daylight +broke in; and Ferdinand, in sadness, and with many fruitless excuses, +left old Albert still in anger.</p> + +<p>In an agitated mood, he hastened through the streets of the city. +Without the gate, he sat down beneath the trees. She had told him in the +morning that she was to go that night, with some relations, to the +country. Intoxicated with love, he rose, he sat, he wandered in the +wood: that fair kind form was still before him, as it flowed and mounted +from the glowing gold; he looked that she would now step forth to meet +him in the splendour of her beauty, and again that loveliest image broke +away in pieces from his eyes; and he was indignant at himself that, by +his restless passion and the tumult of his senses, he should have +destroyed the shape, and perhaps his hopes, forever.</p> + +<p>As the walk, in the afternoon, became crowded, he withdrew deeper into +the thickets; but he still kept the distant highway<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> in his eye; and +every coach that issued from the gate was carefully examined by him.</p> + +<p>The night approached. The setting sun was throwing forth its red +splendour, when from the gate rushed out the richly gilded coach, +gleaming with a fiery brightness in the glow of evening. He hastened +towards it. Her eye had already seized him. Kindly and smilingly she +leaned her glittering bosom from the window; he caught her soft +salutation and signal; he was standing by the coach, her full look fell +on his, and as she drew back to move away, the rose which had adorned +her bosom flew out, and lay at his feet. He lifted it, and kissed it; +and he felt as if it presaged to him that he should not see his loved +one any more, that now his happiness had faded away from him forever.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Hurried steps were passing up stairs and down; the whole house was in +commotion; all was bustle and tumult, preparing for the great +festivities of the morrow. The mother was the gladdest and most active; +the bride heeded nothing, but retired into her chamber to meditate upon +her changing destiny. The family were still looking for their elder son, +the captain, with his wife; and for two elder daughters, with their +husbands: Leopold, the younger, was maliciously busied in increasing the +disorder, and deepening the tumult; perplexing all, while he pretended +to be furthering it. Agatha, his still unmarried sister, was in vain +endeavouring to make him reasonable, and persuade him simply to do +nothing, and to let the rest have peace; but her mother said: "Never +mind him and his folly; for today a little more or less of it amounts to +nothing; only this I beg of one and all of you, that as I have so much +to think about already, you would trouble me with no fresh tidings, +unless it be of something that especially concerns us. I care not +whether any one have let some china fall, whether one spoon or two +spoons are wanting, whether any of the stranger servants have been +breaking windows; with all such freaks as these, I beg you would not vex +me by recounting them. Were these days of tumult over, we will reckon +matters; not till then."</p> + +<p>"Bravely spoken, mother!" cried her son; "these sentiments are worthy of +a governor. And if it chance that any of the maids should break her +neck; the cook get tipsy, or set the chimney on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> fire; the butler, for +joy, let all the malmsey run upon the floor, or down his throat, you +shall not hear a word of such small tricks. If, indeed, an earthquake +were to overset the house! that, my dear mother, could not be kept +secret."</p> + +<p>"When will he leave his folly!" said the mother: "What must thy sisters +think, when they find thee every jot as riotous as when they left thee +two years ago?"</p> + +<p>"They must do justice to my force of character," said Leopold, "and +grant that I am not so changeable as they or their husbands, who have +altered so much within these few years, and so little to their +advantage."</p> + +<p>The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was +sent to call her. "Has Leopold made my request to you, my dear mother?" +said he.</p> + +<p>"I did, forsooth!" said Leopold. "There is such confusion here among us, +not one of them can think a reasonable thought."</p> + +<p>The bride entered, and the young pair joyfully saluted one another. "The +request I meant," continued the bridegroom, "is this: That you would not +take it ill, if I should bring another guest into your house, which, in +truth, is full enough already."</p> + +<p>"You are aware yourself," replied the mother, "that extensive as it is, +I could scarcely find another chamber."</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding, I have partly managed it already," cried Leopold; "I +have had the large apartment furbished up."</p> + +<p>"Why, that is quite a miserable place," replied the mother; "for many +years it has been nothing but a lumber-room."</p> + +<p>"But it is splendidly repaired," said Leopold; "and our friend, for whom +it is intended, does not mind such matters, he desires nothing but our +love. Besides, he has no wife, and likes to be alone; it is the very +place for him. We have had enough of trouble in persuading him to come, +and show himself again among his fellow-creatures."</p> + +<p>"Not your dismal conjuror and gold-maker, certainly?" cried Agatha.</p> + +<p>"No other," said the bridegroom, "if you will still call him so."</p> + +<p>"Then do not let him, mother," said the sister. "What should a man like +that do here? I have seen him on the street with Leopold, and I was +positively frightened at his face. The old sinner, too, almost never +goes to church; he loves neither God nor man; and it cannot come to good +to bring such infidels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> under the roof, on a solemnity like this. Who +knows what may be the consequence!"</p> + +<p>"To hear her talk!" said Leopold, in anger. "Thou condemnest without +knowing him; and because the cut of his nose does not please thee, and +he is no longer young and handsome, thou concludest him a wizard, and a +servant of the Devil."</p> + +<p>"Grant a place in your house, dear mother," said the bridegroom, "to our +old friend, and let him take a part in our general joy. He seems, my +dear Agatha, to have endured much suffering, which has rendered him +distrustful and misanthropic; he avoids all society, his only exceptions +are Leopold and myself. I owe him much; it was he that first gave my +mind a good direction; nay, I may say, it is he alone that has rendered +me perhaps worthy of my Julia's love."</p> + +<p>"He lends me all his books," continued Leopold; "and, what is more, his +old manuscripts; and what is more still, his money, on my bare word. He +is a man of the most christian turn, my little sister. And who knows, +when thou hast seen him better, whether thou wilt not throw off thy +coyness, and take a fancy to him, ugly as he now appears to thee?"</p> + +<p>"Well, bring him to us," said the mother; "I have had to hear so much of +him from Leopold already, that I have a curiosity to be acquainted with +him. Only you must answer for it, that I cannot lodge him better."</p> + +<p>Meantime strangers were announced. They were members of the family, the +married daughters, and the officer; they had brought their children with +them. The good old lady was delighted to behold her grandsons; all was +welcoming, and joyful talk; and Leopold and the bridegroom, having also +given and received their greeting, went away to seek their ancient +melancholic friend.</p> + +<p>The latter lived most part of the year in the country, about a league +from town; but he also kept a little dwelling for himself in a garden +near the gate. Here, by chance, the young men had become acquainted with +him. They now found him in a coffee-house, where they had previously +agreed to meet. As the evening had come on, they brought him, after some +little conversation, directly to the house.</p> + +<p>The stranger met a kindly welcome from the mother; the daughters stood a +little more aloof from him. Agatha especially was shy, and carefully +avoided his looks. But the first general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> compliments were scarcely +over, when the old man's eye appeared to settle on the bride, who had +entered the apartment later; he seemed as if transported, and it was +observed that he was struggling to conceal a tear. The bridegroom +rejoiced in his joy, and happening sometime after to be standing with +him by a side at the window, he took his hand, and asked him: "Now, what +think you of my lovely Julia? Is she not an angel?"</p> + +<p>"O my friend!" replied the old man, with emotion, "such grace and beauty +I have never seen; or rather, I should say (for that expression was not +just), she is so fair, so ravishing, so heavenly, that I feel as if I +had long known her; as if she were to me, utter stranger though she is, +the most familiar form of my imagination, some shape which had always +been an inmate of my heart."</p> + +<p>"I understand you," said the young man: "yes, the truly beautiful, the +great and sublime, when it overpowers us with astonishment and +admiration, still does not surprise us as a thing foreign, never heard +of, never seen; but, on the other hand, our own inmost nature in such +moments becomes clear to us, our deepest remembrances are awakened, our +dearest feelings made alive."</p> + +<p>The stranger, during supper, mixed but little in the conversation; his +looks were fixed on the bride, so earnestly and constantly, that she at +last became embarrassed and alarmed. The captain told of a campaign +which he had served in; the rich merchant of his speculations and the +bad times; the country gentleman of the improvements which he meant to +make in his estate.</p> + +<p>Supper being done, the bridegroom took his leave, returning for the last +time to his lonely chamber; for in future it was settled that the +married pair were to live in the mother's house, their chambers were +already furnished. The company dispersed, and Leopold conducted the +stranger to his room. "You will excuse us," said he, as they went along, +"for having been obliged to lodge you rather far away, and not so +comfortably as our mother wished; but you see, yourself, how numerous +our family is, and more relations are to come tomorrow. For one thing, +you will not run away from us; there is no finding of your course +through this enormous house."</p> + +<p>They went through several passages, and Leopold at last took leave, and +bade his guest good-night. The servant placed two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> wax-lights on the +table; then asked the stranger whether he should help him to undress, +and as the latter waived his help in that particular, he also went away, +and the stranger found himself alone.</p> + +<p>"How does it chance, then," said he, walking up and down, "that this +Image springs so vividly from my heart today? I forgot the long past, +and thought I saw herself. I was again young, and her voice sounded as +of old; I thought I was awakening from a heavy dream; but no, I am now +awake, and those fair moments were but a sweet delusion."</p> + +<p>He was too restless to sleep; he looked at some pictures on the walls, +and then round on the chamber. "Today," cried he, "all is so familiar to +me, I could almost fancy I had known this house and this apartment of +old." He tried to settle his remembrances, and lifted some large books +which were standing in a corner. As he turned their leaves, he shook his +head. A lute-case was leaning on the wall; he opened it, and found a +strange old instrument, time-worn, and without the strings. "No, I am +not mistaken!" cried he, in astonishment; "this lute is too remarkable; +it is the Spanish lute of my long-departed friend, old Albert! Here are +his magic books; this is the chamber where he raised for me that +blissful vision; the red of the tapestry is faded, its golden hem is +become dim; but strangely vivid in my heart is all pertaining to those +hours. It was for this the fear went over me as I was coming hither, +through these long complicated passages where Leopold conducted me. O +Heaven! On this very table did the Shape rise budding forth, and grow up +as if watered and refreshed by the redness of the gold. The same image +smiled upon me here, which has almost driven me crazy in the hall +tonight; in that hall where I have walked so often in trustful speech +with Albert!"</p> + +<p>He undressed, but slept very little. Early in the morning he was up, and +looking at the room again; he opened the window, and the same gardens +and buildings were lying before him as of old, only many other houses +had been built since then. "Forty years have vanished," sighed he, +"since that afternoon; and every day of those bright times has a longer +life than all the intervening space."</p> + +<p>He was called to the company. The morning passed in varied talk: at last +the bride entered in her marriage-dress. As the old man noticed her, he +fell into a state of agitation, such that every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> one observed it. They +proceeded to the church, and the marriage-ceremony was performed. The +party was again at home, when Leopold inquired: "Now, mother, how do you +like our friend, the good morose old gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"I had figured him, by your description," said she, "much more +frightful; he is mild and sympathetic, and might gain from one an honest +trust in him."</p> + +<p>"Trust?" cried Agatha; "in these burning frightful eyes, these +thousandfold wrinkles, that pale sunk mouth, that strange laugh of his, +which looks and sounds so mockingly? No; God keep me from such friends! +If evil spirits ever take the shape of men, they must assume some shape +like this."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps a younger and more handsome one," replied the mother; "but I +cannot recognise the good old man in thy description. One easily +observes that he is of a violent temperament, and has inured himself to +lock up his feelings in his own bosom; perhaps, too, as Leopold was +saying, he may have encountered many miseries; so he is grown +mistrustful, and has lost that simple openness, which is especially the +portion of the happy."</p> + +<p>The rest of the party entered, and broke off their conversation. Dinner +was served up; and the stranger sat between Agatha and the rich +merchant. When the toasts were beginning, Leopold cried out: "Now, stop +a little, worthy friends; we must have the golden goblet down for this, +then let it travel round."</p> + +<p>He was rising, but his mother beckoned him to keep his seat: "Thou wilt +not find it," said she, "for the plate is all stowed elsewhere." She +walked out rapidly to seek it herself.</p> + +<p>"How brisk and busy is our good old lady still!" observed the merchant. +"See how nimbly she can move, with all her breadth and weight, and +reckoning sixty by this time of day. Her face is always bright and +joyful, and today she is particularly happy, for she sees herself made +young again in Julia."</p> + +<p>The stranger gave assent, and the lady entered with the goblet. It was +filled with wine, and began to circulate, each toasting what was dearest +and most precious to him. Julia gave the welfare of her husband, he the +love of his fair Julia; and thus did every one as it became his turn. +The mother lingered, as the goblet came to her.</p> + +<p>"Come, quick with it," said the captain, somewhat hastily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> and rudely; +"we know, you reckon all men faithless, and not one among them worthy of +a woman's love. What, then, is dearest to you?"</p> + +<p>His mother looked at him, while the mildness of her brow was on a sudden +overspread with angry seriousness. "Since my son," said she, "knows me +so well, and can judge my mind so rigorously, let me be permitted <i>not</i> +to speak what I was thinking of, and let him endeavour, by a life of +constant love, to falsify what he gives out as my opinion." She pushed +the goblet on, without drinking, and the company was for a while +embarrassed and disturbed.</p> + +<p>"It is reported," said the merchant, in a whisper, turning to the +stranger, "that she did not love her husband; but another, who proved +faithless to her. She was then, it seems, the finest woman in the city."</p> + +<p>When the cup reached Ferdinand, he gazed upon it with astonishment; for +it was the very goblet out of which old Albert had called forth to him +the lovely shadow. He looked in upon the gold, and the waving of the +wine; his hand shook; it would not have surprised him, if from the magic +bowl that glowing Form had again mounted up, and brought with it his +vanished youth. "No!" said he, after some time, half-aloud, "it is wine +that is gleaming here!"</p> + +<p>"Ay, what else?" cried the merchant, laughing: "Drink and be merry."</p> + +<p>A thrill of terror passed over the old man; he pronounced the name +"Francesca" in a vehement tone, and set the goblet to his lips. The +mother cast upon him an inquiring and astonished look.</p> + +<p>"Whence is this bright goblet?" said Ferdinand, who also felt ashamed of +his embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Many years ago, long ere I was born," said Leopold, "my father bought +it, with this house and all its furniture, from an old solitary +bachelor; a silent man, whom the neighbours thought a dealer in the +Black Art."</p> + +<p>The stranger did not say that he had known this old man; for his whole +being was too much perplexed, too like an enigmatic dream, to let the +rest look into it, even from afar.</p> + +<p>The cloth being withdrawn, he was left alone with the mother, as the +young ones had retired to make ready for the ball. "Sit down by me," +said the mother; "we will rest, for our dancing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> years are past; and if +it is not rude, allow me to inquire whether you have seen our goblet +elsewhere, or what it was that moved you so intensely?"</p> + +<p>"O my lady," said the old man, "pardon my foolish violence and emotion; +but ever since I crossed your threshold, I feel as if I were no longer +myself; every moment I forget that my head is gray, that the hearts +which loved me are dead. Your beautiful daughter, who is now celebrating +the gladdest day of her existence, is so like a maiden whom I knew and +adored in my youth, that I could reckon it a miracle. Like, did I say? +No, she is not like; it is she herself! In this house, too, I have often +been; and once I became acquainted with this cup in a manner I shall not +forget." Here he told her his adventure. "On the evening of that day," +concluded he, "in the park, I saw my loved one for the last time, as she +was passing in her coach. A rose fell from her bosom; this I gathered; +she herself was lost to me, for she proved faithless, and soon after +married."</p> + +<p>"God in Heaven!" cried the lady, violently moved, and starting up, "thou +art not Ferdinand?"</p> + +<p>"It is my name," replied he.</p> + +<p>"I am Francesca," said the lady.</p> + +<p>They sprang forward to embrace, then started suddenly back. Each viewed +the other with investigating looks: both strove again to evolve from the +ruins of Time those lineaments which of old they had known and loved in +one another; and as, in dark tempestuous nights, amid the flight of +black clouds, there are moments when solitary stars ambiguously twinkle +forth, to disappear next instant, so to these two was there shown now +and then from the eyes, from the brow and lips, the transitory gleam of +some well-known feature; and it seemed as if their Youth stood in the +distance, weeping smiles. He bowed down, and kissed her hand, while two +big drops rolled from his eyes. They then embraced each other cordially.</p> + +<p>"Is thy wife dead?" inquired she.</p> + +<p>"I was never married," sobbed the other.</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" cried she, wringing her hands, "then it is I who have been +faithless! But no, not faithless. On returning from the country, where I +stayed two months, I heard from every one, thy friends as well as mine, +that thou wert long ago gone home, and married in thy own country. They +showed me the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> most convincing letters, they pressed me vehemently, they +profited by my despondency, my indignation; and so it was that I gave my +hand to another, a deserving husband; but my heart and my thoughts were +always thine."</p> + +<p>"I never left this town," said Ferdinand; "but after a while I heard +that thou wert married. They wished to part us, and they have succeeded. +Thou art a happy mother; I live in the past, and all thy children I will +love as if they were my own. But how strange that we should never once +have met!"</p> + +<p>"I seldom went abroad," said she; "and as my husband took another name, +soon after we were married, from a property which he inherited, thou +couldst have no suspicion that we were so near together."</p> + +<p>"I avoided men," said Ferdinand, "and lived for solitude. Leopold is +almost the only one that has attracted me, and led me out amongst my +fellows. O my beloved friend, it is like a frightful spectre-story, to +think how we lost, and have again found each other!"</p> + +<p>As the young people entered, the two were dissolved in tears, and in the +deepest emotion. Neither of them told what had occurred, the secret +seemed too holy. But ever after, the old man was the friend of the +house; and Death alone parted these two beings, who had found each other +so strangely, to reunite them in a short time, beyond the power of +separation.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JEAN_PAUL_FRIEDRICH_RICHTER" id="JEAN_PAUL_FRIEDRICH_RICHTER"></a>JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER.</h2> + + + + +<h3><a name="ARMY-CHAPLAIN_SCHMELZLES_JOURNEY_TO_FLAETZ" id="ARMY-CHAPLAIN_SCHMELZLES_JOURNEY_TO_FLAETZ"></a>ARMY-CHAPLAIN SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLÆTZ;</h3> + +<p class="center">WITH</p> + +<p class="center">A RUNNING COMMENTARY OF NOTES BY JEAN PAUL.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + + + + +<h4><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h4> + + +<p>This, I conceive, may be managed in two words.</p> + +<p>The <i>first</i> word must relate to the Circular Letter of Army-chaplain +Schmelzle, wherein he describes to his friends his Journey to the +metropolitan city of Flätz; after having, in an Introduction, premised +some proofs and assurances of his valour. Properly speaking, the +<i>Journey</i> itself has been written purely with a view that his +courageousness, impugned by rumour, may be fully evinced and +demonstrated by the plain facts which he therein records. Whether, in +the mean-time, there shall not be found certain quick-scented readers, +who may infer, directly contrariwise, that his breast is not everywhere +bomb-proof, especially in the left side: on this point I keep my +judgment suspended.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Prefatory Introduction to Richter, <i>suprà</i>, at p. 354, +Vol. VI. of <i>Works</i> (Vol. I. of <i>Miscellanies</i>).</p></div> + +<p>For the rest, I beg the judges of literature, as well as their +satellites, the critics of literature, to regard this <i>Journey</i>, for +whose literary contents I, as Editor, am answerable, solely in the light +of a Portrait (in the French sense), a little Sketch of Character. It is +a voluntary or involuntary comedy-piece, at which I have laughed so +often, that I purpose in time coming to paint some similar Pictures of +Character myself. And, for the present, when could such a little comic +toy be more fitly imparted and set forth to the world, than in these +very days, when the sound both of heavy money and of light laughter has +died away from among us; when, like the Turks, we count and pay merely +with sealed <i>purses</i>, and the coin within them has vanished?</p> + +<p>Despicable would it seem to me, if any clownish squire of the +goose-quill should publicly and censoriously demand of me, in what way +this self-cabinet-piece of Schmelzle's has come into my hands? I know it +well, and do not disclose it. This comedy-piece, for which I, at all +events, as my Bookseller will testify, draw the profit myself, I got +hold of so unblamably, that I await, with unspeakable composure, what +the Army-chaplain shall please to say against the publication of it, in +case he say anything at all. My conscience bears me witness, that I +acquired this article, at least by more honourable methods than are +those of the learned persons who steal with their ears, who, in the +character of spiritual auditory-thieves, and classroom cutpurses and +pirates, are in the habit of disloading their plundered Lectures, and +vending them up and down the country as productions of their own. +Hitherto, in my whole life, I have stolen little, except now and then in +youth some—glances.</p> + +<p>The <i>second</i> word must explain or apologise for the singular form of +this little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> Work, standing as it does on a substratum of Notes. I +myself am not contented with it. Let the World open, and look, and +determine, in like manner. But the truth is, this line of demarcation, +stretching through the whole book, originated in the following accident: +certain thoughts (or digressions) of my own, with which it was not +permitted me to disturb those of the Army-chaplain, and which could only +he allowed to fight behind the lines, in the shape of Notes, I, with a +view to conveniency and order, had written down in a separate paper; at +the same time, as will he observed, regularly providing every Note with +its Number, and thus referring it to the proper page of the main +Manuscript. But, in the copying of the latter, I had forgotten to insert +the corresponding numbers in the Text itself. Therefore, let no man, any +more than I do, cast a stone at my worthy Printer, inasmuch as he +(perhaps in the thought that it was my way, that I had some purpose in +it) took these Notes, just as they stood, pell-mell, without arrangement +of Numbers, and clapped them under the Text; at the same time, by a +praiseworthy artful computation, taking care at least, that, at the +bottom of every page in the Text, there should some portion of this +glittering Note-precipitate make its appearance. Well, the thing at any +rate is done, nay perpetuated, namely printed. After all, I might almost +partly rejoice at it. For, in good truth, had I meditated for years (as +I have done for the last twenty) how to provide for my digression-comets +new orbits, if not focal suns, for my episodes new epopees,—I could +scarce possibly have hit upon a better or more spacious Limbo for such +Vanities than Chance and Printer here accidentally offer me ready-made. +I have only to regret, that the thing has been printed, before I could +turn it to account. Heavens! what remotest allusions (had I known it +before printing) might not have been privily introduced in every +Text-page and Note-number; and what apparent incongruity in the real +congruity between this upper and under side of the cards! How vehemently +and devilishly might one not have cut aloft, and to the right and left, +from these impregnable casemates and covered ways; and what <i>læsio ultra +dimidium</i> (injury beyond the half of the Text) might not, with these +satirical injuries, have been effected and completed!</p> + +<p>But Fate meant not so kindly with me: of this golden harvest-field of +satire I was not to be informed till three days before the Preface.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, however, the writing world, by the little blue flame of this +accident, may be guided to a weightier acquisition, to a larger +subterranean treasure, than I, alas, have dug up! For, to the writer, +there is now a way pointed out of producing in one marbled volume a +group of altogether different works; of writing in one leaf, for both +sexes at the same time, without confounding them, nay, for the five +faculties all at once, without disturbing their limitations; since now, +instead of boiling up a vile fermenting shove-together, fit for nobody, +he has nothing to do but draw his note-lines or partition-lines; and so +on his five-story leaf give board and lodging to the most discordant +heads. Perhaps one might then read many a book for the fourth time, +simply because every time one had read but a fourth part of it.</p> + +<p>On the whole, this Work has at least the property of being a short one; +so that the reader, I hope, may almost run through it, and read it at +the bookseller's counter, without, as in the case of thicker volumes, +first needing to buy it. And why, indeed, in this world of Matter should +anything whatever be great, except only what belongs not to it, the +world of Spirit?</p> + +<p class="citation"> +<span class="smcap">Jean Paul Fr. Richter.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><i>Bayreuth, in the Hay and Peace Month</i>, 1807.</p> +<hr class="chap" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h4><a name="SCHMELZLES_JOURNEY_TO_FLAETZ" id="SCHMELZLES_JOURNEY_TO_FLAETZ"></a>SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLÆTZ.</h4> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Circular Letter of the proposed Catechetical Professor</i> <span class="smcap">Attila +Schmelzle</span> <i>to his Friends; containing some Account of a Holidays' +Journey to Flätz, with an Introduction, touching his Plight and his +Courage as former Army-chaplain.</i> </p></div> + +<p>Nothing can be more ludicrous, my esteemed Friends, than to hear people +stigmatising a man as cowardly and hare-hearted, who perhaps is +struggling all the while with precisely the opposite faults, those of a +lion; though indeed the African lion himself, since the time of +Sparrmann's Travels, passes among us for a poltroon. Yet this case is +mine, worthy Friends; and I purpose to say a few words thereupon, before +describing my Journey.</p> + +<p>You in truth are all aware that, directly in the teeth of this calumny, +it is courage, it is desperadoes (provided they be not braggarts and +tumultuous persons), whom I chiefly venerate; for example, my +brother-in-law, the Dragoon, who never in his life bastinadoed one man, +but always a whole social circle at the same time. How truculent was my +fancy, even in childhood, when I, as the parson was toning away to the +silent congregation, used to take it into my head: "How now, if thou +shouldst start up from the pew, and shout aloud: I am here too, Mr. +Parson!" and to paint out this thought in such glowing colours, that for +very dread, I have often been obliged to leave the church! Anything like +Rugenda's battle-pieces; horrid murder-tumults, sea-fights or Stormings +of Toulon, exploding fleets; and, in my childhood, Battles of Prague on +the harpsichord; nay, in short, every map of any remarkable scene of +war: these are perhaps too much my favourite objects; and I read—and +purchase nothing sooner; and doubtless, they might lead me into many +errors, were it not that, my circumstances restrain me. Now, if it be +objected that true courage is something higher than mere thinking and +willing, then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> you, my worthy Friends, will be the first to recognise +mine, when it shall break forth into, not barren and empty, but active +and effective words, while I strengthen my future Catechetical Pupils, +as well as can be done in a course of College Lectures, and steel them +into Christian heroes.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>103: Good princes easily obtain good subjects; not so easily good +subjects good princes: thus Adam, in the state of innocence, ruled over +animals all tame and gentle, till simply through his means they fell and +grew savage.</p> + +<p>5: For a good Physician saves, if not always from the disease, at +least from a bad Physician.</p> +</div> + +<p>It is well known that, out of care for the preservation of my life, I +never walk within at least ten fields of any shore full of bathers or +swimmers; merely because I foresee to a certainty, that in case one of +them were drowning, I should that moment (for the heart overbalances the +head) plunge after the fool to save him, into some bottomless depth or +other, where we should both perish. And if dreaming is the reflex of +waking, let me ask you, true Hearts, if you have forgotten my relating +to you dreams of mine, which no Cæsar, no Alexander or Luther, need have +felt ashamed of? Have I not, to mention a few instances, taken Rome by +storm; and done battle with the Pope, and the whole elephantine body of +the Cardinal College, at one and the same time? Did I not once on +horseback, while simply looking at a review of military, dash headlong +into a <i>bataillon quarré</i>; and then capture, in Aix-la-Chapelle, the +Peruke of Charlemagne, for which the town pays yearly ten reichsthalers +of barber-money; and carrying it off to Halberstadt and Herr Gleim's, +there in like manner seize the Great Frederick's Hat; put both Peruke +and Hat on my head, and yet return home, after I had stormed their +batteries, and turned the cannon against the cannoneers themselves? Did +I not once submit to be made a Jew of, and then be regaled with hams; +though they were ape-hams on the Orinocco (see Humboldt)? And a thousand +such things; for I have thrown the Consistorial President of Flätz; out +of the Palace window; those alarm-fulminators, sold by Heinrich Backofen +in Gotha, at six groschen the dozen, and each going off like a cannon, I +have listened to so calmly that the fulminators did not even awaken me; +and more of the like sort.</p> + +<p>But enough! It is now time briefly to touch that farther slander of my +chaplainship, which unhappily has likewise gained some circulation in +Flätz, but which, as Cæsar did Alexander, I shall now by my touch +dissipate into dust. Be what truth in it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> there can, it is still little +or nothing. Your great Minister and General in Flätz (perhaps the very +greatest in the world, for there are not many Schabackers) may indeed, +like any other great man, be turned against me, but not with the +Artillery of Truth; for this Artillery I here set before you, my good +Hearts, and do you but fire it off for my advantage! The matter is this: +Certain foolish rumours are afloat in the Flätz country, that I, on +occasion of some important battles, took leg-bail (such is their +plebeian phrase), and that afterwards, on the chaplain's being +called-for to preach a Thanksgiving sermon for the victory, no chaplain +whatever was to be found. The ridiculousness of this story will best +appear, when I tell you that I never was in any action; but have always +been accustomed, several hours prior to such an event, to withdraw so +many miles to the rear, that our men, so soon as they were beaten, would +be sure to find me. A good retreat is reckoned the masterpiece in the +art of war; and at no time can a retreat be executed with such order, +force and security, as just before the battle, when you are not yet +beaten.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>100: In books lie the Phœnix-ashes of a past Millennium and +Paradise; but War blows, and much ashes are scattered away.</p> + +<p>102: Dear Political or Religious Inquisitor! art thou aware that +Turin tapers never rightly begin shining, till thou breakest them, and +then they take fire?</p> +</div> + +<p>It is true, I might perhaps, as expectant Professor of Catechetics, sit +still and smile at such nugatory speculations on my courage; for if by +Socratic questioning I can hammer my future Catechist Pupils into the +habit of asking questions in their turn, I shall thereby have tempered +<i>them</i> into heroes, seeing they have nothing to fight with but +children—(Catechists at all events, though dreading fire, have no +reason to dread light, since in our days, as in London illuminations, it +is only the <i>unlighted</i> windows that are battered in; whereas, in other +ages, it was with nations and light, as it is with dogs and water; if +you give them none for a long time, they at last get a horror at +it);—and on the whole, for Catechists, any park looks kindlier, and +smiles more sweetly, than a sulphurous park of artillery; and the +Warlike Foot, which the age is placed on, is to them the true Devil's +cloven-foot of human nature.</p> + +<p>But for my part I think not so: almost as if the party-spirit influence +of my christian name, Attila, had passed into me more strongly than was +proper, I feel myself impelled still farther to prove my courageousness; +which, dearest Friends! I shall here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> in a few lines again do. This +proof I could manage by mere inferences and learned citations. For +example, if Galen remarks that animals with large hind-quarters are +timid, I have nothing to do but turn round, and show the enemy my back, +and what is under it, in order to convince him that I am not deficient +in valour, but in flesh. Again, if by well-known experiences it has been +found that flesh-eating produces courage, I can evince, that in this +particular I yield to no officer of the service; though it is the habit +of these gentlemen not only to run up long scores of roast-meat with +their landlords, but also to leave them unpaid, that so at every hour +they may have an open document in the hands of the enemy himself (the +landlord), testifying that they have eaten their own share (with some of +other people's too), and so put common butcher's-meat on a War-footing, +living not like others <i>by</i> bravery, but <i>for</i> bravery. As little have I +ever, in my character of chaplain, shrunk from comparison with any +officer in the regiment, who may be a true lion, and so snatch every +sort of plunder, but yet, like this King of the Beasts, is afraid of +<i>fire</i>; or who,—like King James of England, that scampered off at sight +of drawn swords, yet so much the more gallantly, before all Europe, went +out against the storming Luther with book and pen,<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>—does, from a +similar idiosyncrasy, attack all warlike armaments, both by word and +writing. And here I recollect with satisfaction a brave sub-lieutenant, +whose confessor I was (he still owes me the confession-money), and who, +in respect of stout-heartedness, had in him perhaps something of that +Indian dog which Alexander had presented to him, as a sort of +Dog-Alexander. By way of trying this crack dog, the Macedonian made +various heroic or heraldic beasts be let loose against him: first a +stag; but the dog lay still: then a sow; he lay still: then a bear; he +lay still. Alexander was on the point of condemning him; when a lion was +let forth: the dog rose, and tore the lion in pieces. So likewise the +sub-lieutenant. A challenger, a foreign enemy, a Frenchman, are to him +only stag, and sow, and bear, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> lies still in his place; but let +his oldest enemy, his creditor, come and knock at his gate, and demand +of him actual smart-money for long bygone pleasures, thus presuming to +rob him both of past and present; the sub-lieutenant rises, and throws +his creditor down stairs. I, alas, am still standing by the sow; and +thus, naturally enough, misunderstood.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>86: Very true! In youth we love and enjoy the most ill-assorted +friends, perhaps more than, in old age, the best-assorted.</p> + +<p>128: In Love there are Summer Holidays; but in Marriage also there +are Winter Holidays, I hope.</p> + +<p>143: Women have weekly at least one active and passive day of +glory, the holy day, the Sunday. The higher ranks alone have more +Sundays than workdays; as in great towns, you can celebrate your Sunday +on Friday with the Turks, on Saturday with the Jews, and on Sunday with +yourself.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>The good Professor of Catechetics is out here. <i>Indignor +quandoque bonus dormitat Schmelzlæus!</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p><i>Quo</i>, says Livy, xii. 5, and with great justice, <i>quo timoris minus +est, eo minus ferme periculi est</i>, The less fear you have, the less +danger you are likely to be in. With equal justice I invert the maxim, +and say: The less the danger, the smaller the fear; nay, there may be +situations, in which one has absolutely no knowledge of fear; and, among +these, mine is to be reckoned. The more hateful, therefore, must that +calumny about hare-heartedness appear to me.</p> + + +<p>To my Holidays' Journey I shall prefix a few facts, which prove how +easily foresight—that is to say, when a person would not resemble the +stupid marmot, that will even attack a man on horseback—may pass for +cowardice. For the rest, I wish only that I could with equal ease wipe +away a quite different reproach, that of being a foolhardy desperado; +though I trust, in the sequel, I shall be able to advance some facts +which invalidate it.</p> + +<p>What boots the heroic arm, without a hero's eye? The former readily +grows stronger and more nervous; but the latter is not so soon ground +sharper, like glasses. Nevertheless, the merits of foresight obtain from +the mass of men less admiration (nay, I should say, more ridicule) than +those of courage. Whoso, for instance, shall see me walking under quite +cloudless skies, with a wax-cloth umbrella over me, to him I shall +probably appear ridiculous, so long as he is not aware that I carry this +umbrella as a thunder-screen, to keep off any bolt out of the blue +heaven (whereof there are several examples in the history of the Middle +Ages) from striking me to death. My thunder-screen, in fact, is exactly +that of Reimarus: on a long walking-stick, I carry the wax-cloth roof; +from the peak of which depends a string of gold-lace as a conductor; and +this, by means of a key fastened to it, which it trails along the +ground, will lead off every possible bolt, and easily distribute it over +the whole superficies of the Earth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> With this <i>Paratonnerre Portatif</i> +in my hand, I can walk about for weeks, under the clear sky, without the +smallest danger. This Diving-bell, moreover, protects me against +something else; against shot. For who, in the latter end of Harvest, +will give me black on white that no lurking ninny of a sportsman +somewhere, when I am out enjoying Nature, shall so fire off his piece, +at an angle of 45°, that in falling down again, the shot needs only +light directly on my crown, and so come to the same as if I had been +shot through the brain from a side?</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>21: Schiller and Klopstock are Poetic Mirrors held up to the +Sun-god: the Mirrors reflect the Sun with such dazzling brightness, that +you cannot find the Picture of the World imaged forth in them.</p> +</div> + +<p>It is bad enough, at any rate, that we have nothing to guard us from the +Moon; which at present is bombarding us with stones like a very Turk: +for this paltry little Earth's trainbearer and errand-maid thinks, in +these rebellious times, that she too must begin, forsooth, to sling +somewhat against her Mother! In good truth, as matters stand, any young +Catechist of feeling may go out o' nights, with whole limbs, into the +moonshine, a-meditating; and ere long (in the midst of his meditation +the villanous Satellite hits him) come home a pounded jelly. By heaven! +new proofs of courage are required of us on every hand! No sooner have +we, with great effort, got thunder-rods manufactured, and comet-tails +explained away, than the enemy opens new batteries in the Moon, or +somewhere else in the Blue!</p> + +<p>Suffice one other story to manifest how ludicrous the most serious +foresight, with all imaginable inward courage, often externally appears +in the eyes of the many. Equestrians are well acquainted with the +dangers of a horse that runs away. My evil star would have it, that I +should once in Vienna get upon a hack-horse; a pretty enough +honey-coloured nag, but old and hard-mouthed as Satan; so that the +beast, in the next street, went off with me; and this in truth—only at +a <i>walk</i>. No pulling, no tugging, took effect; I, at last, on the back +of this Self-riding-horse, made signals of distress, and cried: "Stop +him, good people, for God's sake stop him, my horse is off!" But these +simple persons seeing the beast move along as slowly as a Reichshofrath +law-suit, or the Daily Postwagen, could not in the least understand the +matter, till I cried as if possessed: "Stop him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> then, ye blockheads and +joltheads; don't you see that I cannot hold the nag?" But now, to these +noodles, the sight of a hard-mouthed horse going off with its rider step +by step, seemed ridiculous rather than otherwise; half Vienna gathered +itself like a comet-tail behind my beast and me. Prince Kaunitz, the +best horseman of the century (the last), pulled up to follow me. I +myself sat and swam like a perpendicular piece of drift-ice on my +honey-coloured nag, which stalked on, on, step by step: a many-cornered, +red-coated letter-carrier, was delivering his letters, to the right and +left, in the various stories, and he still crossed over before me again, +with satirical features, because the nag went along too slowly. The +Schwanzschleuderer, or Train-dasher (the person, as you know, who drives +along the streets with a huge barrel of water, and besplashes them with +a leathern pipe of three ells long from an iron trough), came across the +haunches of my horse, and, in the course of his duty, wetted both these +and myself in a very cooling manner, though, for my part, I had too much +cold sweat on me already, to need any fresh refrigeration. On my +infernal Trojan Horse (only I myself was Troy, not beridden but riding +to destruction), I arrived at Malzlein (a suburb of Vienna), or perhaps, +so confused were my senses, it might be quite another range of streets. +At last, late in the dusk, I had to turn into the Prater; and here, long +after the Evening Gun, to my horror, and quite against the police-rules, +keep riding to and fro on my honey-coloured nag; and possibly I might +even have passed the night on him, had not my brother-in-law, the +Dragoon, observed my plight, and so found me still sitting firm as a +rock on my runaway steed. He made no ceremonies; caught the brute; and +put the pleasant question: Why I had not vaulted, and come off by +ground-and-lofty tumbling? though he knew full well, that for this a +wooden-horse, which stands still, is requisite. However, he took me +down; and so, after all this riding, horse and man got home with whole +skins and unbroken bones.</p> + +<p>But now at last to my Journey!</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>34: Women are like precious carved works of ivory; nothing is +whiter and smoother, and nothing sooner grows <i>yellow</i>.</p> + +<p>72: The Half-learned is adored by the Quarter-learned; the latter +by the Sixteenth-part-learned; and so on; but not the Whole-learned by +the Half-learned.</p> +</div> + +<h5><i>Journey to Flätz</i>.</h5> + +<p>You are aware, my friends, that this Journey to Flätz was necessarily to +take place in Vacation time; not only because the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> Cattle-market, and +consequently the Minister and General von Schabacker, was there then; +but more especially, because the latter (as I had it positively from a +private hand) did annually, on the 23d of July, the market-eve, about +five o'clock, become so full of gaudium and graciousness, that in many +cases he did not so much snarl on people, as listen to them, and grant +their prayers. The cause of this gaudium I had rather not trust to +paper. In short, my Petition, praying that he would be pleased to +indemnify and reward me, as an unjustly deposed Army-chaplain, by a +Catechetical Professorship, could plainly be presented to him at no +better season, than exactly about five o'clock in the evening of the +first dog-day. In less than a week, I had finished writing my Petition. +As I spared neither summaries nor copies of it, I had soon got so far as +to see the relatively best lying completed before me; when, to my +terror, I observed, that, in this paper, I had introduced above thirty +<i>dashes</i>, or breaks, in the middle of my sentences! Nowadays, alas, +these stings shoot forth involuntarily from learned pens, as from the +tails of wasps. I debated long within myself whether a private scholar +could justly be entitled to approach a minister with dashes,—greatly as +this level interlineation of thoughts, these horizontal note-marks of +poetical <i>music</i>-pieces, and these rope-ladders or Achilles' tendons of +philosophical <i>see</i>-pieces, are at present fashionable and +indispensable: but, at last, I was obliged (as erasures may offend +people of quality) to write my best proof-petition over again; and then +to afflict myself for another quarter of an hour over the name Attila +Schmelzle, seeing it is always my principle that this and the address of +the letter, the two cardinal points of the whole, can never be written +legibly enough.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>35: <i>Bien écouter c'est presque répondre</i>, says Marivaux justly of +social circles: but I extend it to round Councillor-tables and +Cabinet-tables, where reports are made, and the Prince listens.</p> +</div> + + +<h5><i>First Stage; from Neusattel to Vierstädten.</i></h5> + +<p>The 22d of July, or Wednesday, about five in the afternoon, was now, by +the way-bill of the regular Post-coach, irrevocably fixed for my +departure. I had still half a day to order my house; from which, for two +nights and two days and a half, my breast, its breastwork and palisado, +was now, along with my Self, to be withdrawn. Besides this, my good wife +Bergelchen, as I call my Teutoberga, was immediately to travel after me, +on Friday the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> 24th, in order to see and to make purchases at the yearly +Fair; nay, she was ready to have gone along with me, the faithful +spouse. I therefore assembled my little knot of domestics, and +promulgated to them the Household Law and Valedictory Rescript, which, +after my departure, in the first place <i>before</i> the outset of my wife, +and in the second place <i>after</i> this outset, they had rigorously to +obey; explaining to them especially whatever, in case of conflagrations, +house-breakings, thunder-storms, or transits of troops, it would behove +them to do. To my wife I delivered an inventory of the best goods in our +little Registership; which goods she, in case the house took fire, had, +in the first place, to secure. I ordered her, in stormy nights (the +peculiar thief-weather), to put our Eolian harp in the window, that so +any villanous prowler might imagine I was fantasying on my instrument, +and therefore awake: for like reasons, also, to take the house-dog +within doors by day, that he might sleep then, and so be livelier at +night. I farther counselled her to have an eye on the focus of every +knot in the panes of the stable-window, nay, on every glass of water she +might set down in the house; as I had already often recounted to her +examples of such accidental burning-glasses having set whole buildings +in flames. I then appointed her the hour when she was to set out on +Friday morning to follow me; and recapitulated more emphatically the +household precepts, which, prior to her departure, she must afresh +inculcate on her domestics. My dear, heart-sound, blooming Berga +answered her faithful lord, as it seemed very seriously: "Go thy ways, +little old one; it shall all be done as smooth as velvet. Wert thou but +away! There is no end of thee!" Her brother, my brother-in-law the +Dragoon, for whom, out of complaisance, I had paid the coach-fare, in +order to have in the vehicle along with me a stout swordsman and hector, +as spiritual relative and bully-rock, so to speak; the Dragoon, I say, +on hearing these my regulations, puckered up (which I easily forgave the +wild soldier and bachelor) his sunburnt face considerably into ridicule, +and said: "Were I in thy place, sister, I should do what I liked, and +then afterwards take a peep into these regulation-papers of his."</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>17: The Bed of Honour, since so frequently whole regiments lie on +it, and receive their last unction, and last honour but one, really +ought from time to time to be new-filled, beaten and sunned.</p> + +<p>120: Many a one becomes a free-spoken Diogenes, not when he dwells +in the Cask, but when the Cask dwells in him.</p> + +<p>3: Culture makes whole lands, for instance Germany, Gaul, and +others, physically warmer, but spiritually colder.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>"O!" answered I, "misfortune may conceal itself like a scorpion in any +corner: I might say, we are like children, who, looking at their gaily +painted toy-box, soon pull off the lid, and, pop! out springs a mouse +who has young ones."</p> + +<p>"Mouse, mouse!" said he, stepping up and down. "But, good brother, it is +five o'clock; and you will find, when you return, that all looks exactly +as it does today; the dog like the dog, and my sister like a pretty +woman: <i>allons donc!</i>" It was purely his blame that I, fearing his +misconceptions, had not previously made a sort of testament.</p> + +<p>I now packed-in two different sorts of medicines, heating as well as +cooling, against two different possibilities; also my old splints for +arm or leg breakages, in case the coach overset; and (out of foresight) +two times the money I was likely to need. Only here I could have wished, +so uncertain is the stowage of such things, that I had been an Ape with +cheek-pouches, or some sort of Opossum with a natural bag, that so I +might have reposited these necessaries of existence in pockets which +were sensitive. Shaving is a task I always go through before setting out +on journeys; having a rational mistrust against stranger bloodthirsty +barbers: but, on this occasion, I retained my beard; since, however +close shaved, it would have grown again by the road to such a length +that I could have fronted no Minister and General with it.</p> + +<p>With a vehement emotion, I threw myself on the pith-heart of my Berga, +and, with a still more vehement one, tore myself away: in her, however, +this our first marriage-separation seemed to produce less lamentation +than triumph, less consternation than rejoicing; simply because she +turned her eye not half so much on the parting, as on the meeting, and +the journey after me, and the wonders of the Fair. Yet she threw and +hung herself on my somewhat long and thin neck and body, almost +painfully, being indeed a too fleshy and weighty load, and said to me: +"Whisk thee off quick, my charming Attel (Attila), and trouble thy head +with no cares by the way, thou singular man! A whiff or two of ill luck +we can stand, by God's help, so long as my father is no beggar. And for +thee, Franz," continued she, turning with some heat to her brother, "I +leave my Attel on thy soul: thou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> well knowest, thou wild fly, what I +will do, if thou play the fool, and leave him anywhere in the lurch." +Her meaning here was good, and I could not take it ill: to you also, my +Friends, her wealth and her open-heartedness are nothing new.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>1: The more Weakness the more Lying: Force goes straight; any +cannonball with holes or cavities in it goes crooked.</p> +</div> + +<p>Melted into sensibility, I said: "Now, Berga, if there be a reunion +appointed for us, surely it is either in Heaven or in Flätz; and I hope +in God, the latter." With these words, we whirled stoutly away. I looked +round through the back-window of the coach at my good little village of +Neusattel, and it seemed to me, in my melting mood, as if its steeples +were rising aloft like an epitaphium over my life, or over my body, +perhaps to return a lifeless corpse. "How will it all be," thought I, +"when thou at last, after two or three days, comest back?" And now I +noticed my Bergelchen looking after us from the garret-window. I leaned +far out from the coach-door, and her falcon eye instantly distinguished +my head; kiss on kiss she threw with both hands after the carriage, as +it rolled down into the valley. "Thou true-hearted wife," thought I, +"how is thy lowly birth, by thy spiritual new-birth, made forgettable, +nay remarkable!"</p> + +<p>I must confess, the assemblage and conversational picnic of the +stage-coach was much less to my taste: the whole of them suspicious, +unknown rabble, whom (as markets usually do) the Flätz cattle-market was +alluring by its scent. I dislike becoming acquainted with strangers: not +so my brother-in-law, the Dragoon; who now, as he always does, had in a +few minutes elbowed himself into close quarters with the whole +ragamuffin posse of them. Beside me sat a person who, in all human +probability, was a Harlot; on her breast, a Dwarf intending to exhibit +himself at the Fair; on the other side was a Ratcatcher gazing at me; +and a Blind Passenger,<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> in a red mantle, had joined us down in the +valley. No one of them, except my brother-in-law, pleased me. That +rascals among these people would not study me and my properties and +accidents, to entangle me in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> snares, no man could be my surety. +In strange places, I even, out of prudence, avoid looking long up at any +jail-window; because some losel, sitting behind the bars, may in a +moment call down out of mere malice: "How goes it, comrade Schmelzle?" +or farther, because any lurking catchpole may fancy I am planning a +rescue for some confederate above. From another sort of prudence, little +different from this, I also make a point of never turning round when any +booby calls, Thief! behind me.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>38: Epictetus advises us to travel, because our old acquaintances, +by the influence of shame, impede our transition to higher virtues; as a +bashful man will rather lay aside his provincial accent in some foreign +quarter, and then return wholly purified to his own countrymen: in our +days, people of rank and virtue follow this advice, but inversely; and +travel because their old acquaintances, by the influence of shame, would +too much deter them from new sins.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +<p>'Live Passenger,' 'Nip;' a passenger taken up only by Jarvie's +authority, and for Jarvie's profit.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>As to the Dwarf himself, I had no objection to his travelling with me +whithersoever he pleased; but he thought to raise a particular +delectation in our minds, by promising that his Pollux and Brother in +Trade, an extraordinary Giant, who was also making for the Fair to +exhibit himself, would by midnight, with his elephantine pace, +infallibly overtake the coach, and plant himself among us, or behind on +the outside. Both these noodles, it appeared, are in the habit of going +in company to fairs, as reciprocal exaggerators of opposite magnitudes: +the Dwarf is the convex magnifying-glass of the Giant, the Giant the +concave diminishing-glass of the Dwarf. Nobody expressed much joy at the +prospective arrival of this Anti-dwarf, except my brother-in-law, who +(if I may venture on a play of words) seems made, like a clock, solely +for the purpose of <i>striking</i>, and once actually said to me: "That if in +the Upper world he could not get a soul to curry and towzle by a time, +he would rather go to the Under, where most probably there would be +plenty of cuffing and to spare." The Ratcatcher, besides the +circumstance that no man can prepossess us much in his favour, who lives +solely by poisoning, like this Destroying Angel of rats, this +mouse-Atropos; and also, which is still worse, that such a fellow bids +fair to become an increaser of the vermin kingdom, the moment he may +cease to be a lessener of it; besides all this, I say, the present +Ratcatcher had many baneful features about him: first, his stabbing +look, piercing you like a stiletto; then the lean sharp bony visage, +conjoined with his enumeration of his considerable stock of poisons; +then (for I hated him more and more) his sly stillness, his sly smile, +as if in some corner he noticed a mouse, as he would notice a man! To +me, I declare, though usually I take not the slightest exception against +people's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> looks, it seemed at last as if his throat were a Dog-grotto, a +<i>Grotta del cane</i>, his cheek-bones cliffs and breakers, his hot breath +the wind of a calcining furnace, and his black hairy breast a kiln for +parching and roasting.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>32: Our Age (by some called the Paper Age, as if it were made from +the rags of some better-dressed one) is improving in so far, as it now +tears its rags rather into Bandages than into Papers; although, or +because, the Rag-hacker (the Devil as they call it) will not altogether +be at rest. Meanwhile, if Learned Heads transform themselves into Books, +Crowned Heads transform and coin themselves into Government-paper: in +Norway, according to the <i>Universal Indicator</i>, the people have even +paper-houses; and in many good German States, the Exchequer Collegium +(to say nothing of the Justice Collegium) keeps its own paper-mills, to +furnish wrappage enough for the meal of its wind-mills. I could wish, +however, that our Collegiums would take pattern from that Glass +Manufactory at Madrid, in which (according to Baumgartner) there were +indeed nineteen clerks stationed, but also eleven workmen.</p> +</div> + +<p>Nor was I far wrong, I believe; for soon after this, he began quite +coolly to inform the company, in which were a dwarf and a female, that, +in his time, he had, not without enjoyment, run ten men through the +body; had with great convenience hewed off a dozen men's arms; slowly +split four heads, torn out two hearts, and more of the like sort; while +none of them, otherwise persons of spirit, had in the least resisted: +"but why?" added he, with a poisonous smile, and taking the hat from his +odious bald pate: "I am invulnerable. Let any one of the company that +chooses lay as much fire on my bare crown as he likes, I shall not mind +it."</p> + +<p>My brother-in-law, the Dragoon, directly kindled his tinder-box, and put +a heap of the burning matter on the Ratcatcher's pole; but the fellow +stood it, as if it had been a mere picture of fire, and the two looked +expectingly at one another; and the former smiled very foolishly, +saying: "It was simply pleasant to him, like a good warming-plaster; for +this was always the wintry region of his body."</p> + +<p>Here the Dragoon groped a little on the naked scull, and cried with +amazement, that "it was as cold as a knee-pan."</p> + +<p>But now the fellow, to our horror, after some preparations, actually +lifted off the quarter-scull and held it out to us, saying: "He had +sawed it off a murderer, his own having accidentally been broken;" and +withal explained, that the stabbing and arm-cutting he had talked of was +to be understood as a jest, seeing he had merely done it in the +character of Famulus at an Anatomical Theatre. However, the jester +seemed to rise little in favour with any of us; and for my part, as he +put his brain-lid and sham-scull on again, I thought to myself; "This +dungbed-bell has changed its place indeed, but not the hemlock it was +made to cover."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> + +<p>Farther, I could not but reckon it a suspicious circumstance, that he as +well as all the company (the Blind Passenger too) were making for this +very Flätz, to which I myself was bound: much good I could not expect of +this; and, in truth, turning home again would have been as pleasant to +me as going on, had I not rather felt a pleasure in defying the future.</p> + +<p>I come now to the red-mantled Blind Passenger; most probably an <i>Emigré</i> +or <i>Réfugié</i>; for he speaks German not worse than he does French; and +his name, I think, was <i>Jean Pierre</i> or <i>Jean Paul</i>, or some such thing, +if indeed he had any name. His red cloak, notwithstanding this his +identity of colour with the Hangman, would in itself have remained +heartily indifferent to me, had it not been for this singular +circumstance, that he had already five times, contrary to all +expectation, come upon me in five different towns (in great Berlin, in +little Hof, in Coburg, Meiningen and Bayreuth), and each of these times +had looked at me significantly enough, and then gone his ways. Whether +this <i>Jean Pierre</i> is dogging me with hostile intent or not, I cannot +say; but to our fancy, at any rate, no object can be gratifying that +thus, with corps of observation, or out of loopholes, holds and aims at +us with muskets, which for year after year it shall move to this side +and that, without our knowing on whom it is to fire. Still more +offensive did Redcloak become to me, when he began to talk about his +soft mildness of soul; a thing which seemed either to betoken pumping +you or undermining you.</p> + +<p>I replied: "Sir, I am just come, with my brother-in-law here, from the +field of battle (the last affair was at Pimpelstadt), and so perhaps am +too much of a humour for fire, pluck and war-fury; and to many a one, +who happens to have a roaring waterspout of a heart, it may be well if +his clerical character (which is mine) rather enjoins on him mildness +than wildness. However, all mildness has its iron limit. If any +thoughtless dog chance to anger me, in the first heat of rage I kick my +foot through him; and after me, my good brother here will perhaps drive +matters twice as far, for he is the man to do it. Perhaps it may be +singular; but I confess I regret to this day, that once when a boy I +received three blows from another, without tightly returning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> them; and +I often feel as if I must still pay them to his descendants. In sooth, +if I but chance to see a child running off like a dastard from the weak +attack of a child like himself, I cannot for my life understand his +running, and can scarcely keep from interfering to save him by a +decisive knock."</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>2: In his Prince, a soldier reverences and obeys at once his +Prince and his Generalissimo; a Citizen only his Prince.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Passenger meanwhile was smiling, not in the best fashion. He gave +himself out for a Legations-Rath, and seemed fox enough for such a post; +but a mad fox will, in the long-run, bite me as rabidly as a mad wolf +will. For the rest, I calmly went on with my eulogy on courage; only +that, instead of ludicrous gasconading, which directly betrays the +coward, I purposely expressed myself in words at once cool, clear and +firm.</p> + +<p>"I am altogether for Montaigne's advice," said I: "Fear nothing but +fear."</p> + +<p>"I again," replied the Legations-man, with useless wire-drawing, "I +should fear again that I did not sufficiently fear fear, but continued +too dastardly."</p> + +<p>"To this fear also," replied I coldly, "I set limits. A man, for +instance, may not in the least believe in, or be afraid of ghosts; and +yet by night may bathe himself in cold sweat, and this purely out of +terror at the dreadful fright he should be in (especially with what +whiffs of apoplexies, falling-sicknesses and so forth, he might be +visited), in case simply his own too vivid fancy should create any wild +fever-image, and hang it up in the air before him."</p> + +<p>"One should not, therefore," added my brother-in-law the Dragoon, +contrary to his custom, moralising a little, "one should not bamboozle +the poor sheep, man, with any ghost-tricks; the hen-heart may die on the +spot."</p> + +<p>A loud storm of thunder, overtaking the stage-coach, altered the +discourse. You, my Friends, knowing me as a man not quite destitute of +some tincture of Natural Philosophy, will easily guess my precautions +against thunder. I place myself on a chair in the middle of the room +(often, when suspicious clouds are out, I stay whole nights on it), and +by careful removal of all conductors, rings, buckles, and so forth, I +here sit thunder-proof, and listen with a cool spirit to this elemental +music of the cloud-kettledrum. These precautions have never harmed me, +for I am still alive at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> this date; and to the present hour I +congratulate myself on once hurrying out of church, though I had +confessed but the day previous; and running, without more ceremony, and +before I had received the sacrament, into the charnel-house, because a +heavy thunder-cloud (which did, in fact, strike the churchyard +linden-tree) was hovering over it. So soon as the cloud had disloaded +itself, I returned from the charnel-house into the church, and was happy +enough to come in after the Hangman (usually the last), and so still +participate in the Feast of Love.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>45: Our present writers shrug their shoulders most at those on +whose shoulders they stand; and exalt those most who crawl up along +them.</p> +</div> + +<p>Such, for my own part, is my manner of proceeding: but in the full +stage-coach I met with men to whom Natural Philosophy was no philosophy +at all. For when the clouds gathered dreadfully together over our +coach-canopy, and sparkling, began to play through the air like so many +fire-flies, and I at last could not but request that the sweating +coach-conclave would at least bring out their watches, rings, money and +suchlike, and put them all into one of the carriage-pockets, that none +of us might have a conductor on his body; not only would no one of them +do it, but my own brother-in-law the Dragoon even sprang out, with naked +drawn sword, to the coach-box, and swore that he would conduct the +thunder all away himself. Nor do I know whether this desperate mortal +was not acting prudently; for our position within was frightful, and any +one of us might every moment be a dead man. At last, to crown all, I got +into a half altercation with two of the rude members of our leathern +household, the Poisoner and the Harlot; seeing, by their questions, they +almost gave me to understand that, in our conversational picnic, +especially with the Blind Passenger, I had not always come off with the +best share. Such an imputation wounds your honour to the quick; and in +my breast there was a thunder louder than that above us: however, I was +obliged to carry on the needful exchange of sharp words as quietly and +slowly as possible; and I quarrelled softly, and in a low tone, lest in +the end a whole coachful of people, set in arms against each other, +might get into heat and perspiration; and so, by vapour steaming through +the coach-roof, conduct the too-near thunderbolt down into the midst of +us. At last, I laid before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> company the whole theory of Electricity, +in clear words, but low and slow (striving to avoid all emission of +vapour); and especially endeavoured to frighten them away from fear. For +indeed, through fear, the stroke—nay two strokes, the electric or the +apoplectic—might hit any one of us; since in Erxleben and Reimarus, it +is sufficiently proved, that violent fear, by the transpiration it +causes, may attract the lightning. I accordingly, in some fear of my own +and other people's fear, represented to the passengers that now, in a +coach so hot and crowded, with a drawn sword on the coach-box piercing +the very lightning, with the thunder-cloud hanging over us, and even +with so many transpirations from incipient fear; in short, with such +visible danger on every hand, they must absolutely fear nothing, if they +would not, all and sundry, be smitten to death in a few minutes.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>103: The Great perhaps take as good charge of their posterity as +the Ants: the eggs once laid, the male and female Ants fly about their +business, and confide them to the trusty <i>working-Ants</i>.</p> + +<p>10: And does Life offer us, in regard to our ideal hopes and +purposes, anything but a prosaic, unrhymed, unmetrical Translation?</p> +</div> + +<p>"O Heaven!" cried I, "Courage! only courage! No fear, not even fear of +fear! Would you have Providence to shoot you here sitting, like so many +hares hunted into a pinfold? Fear, if you like, when you are out of the +coach; fear to your heart's content in other places, where there is less +to be afraid of; only not here, not here!"</p> + +<p>I shall not determine—since among millions scarcely one man dies by +thunder-clouds, but millions perhaps by snow-clouds, and rain-clouds, +and thin mist—whether my Coach-sermon could have made any claim to a +prize for man-saving; however, at last, all uninjured, and driving +towards a rainbow, we entered the town of Vierstädten, where dwelt a +Postmaster, in the only street which the place had.</p> + + +<h5><i>Second Stage; from Vierstädten to Niederschöna.</i></h5> + +<p>The Postmaster was a churl and a striker; a class of mortals whom I +inexpressibly detest, as my fancy always whispers to me, in their +presence, that by accident or dislike I might happen to put on a +scornful or impertinent look, and hound these mastiffs on my own throat; +and so, from the very first, I must incessantly watch them. Happily, in +this case (supposing I even had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> made a wrong face), I could have +shielded myself with the Dragoon; for whose giant force such matter are +a tidbit. This brother-in-law of mine, for example, cannot pass any +tavern where he hears a sound of battle, without entering, and, as he +crosses the threshold, shouting: "Peace, dogs!"—and therewith, under +show of a peace-deputation, he directly snatches up the first chair-leg +in his hand, as if it were an American peace-calumet, and cuts to the +right and left among the belligerent powers, or he gnashes the hard +heads of the parties together (he himself takes no side), catching each +by the hind-lock; in such cases the rogue is in Heaven!</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>78: Our German frame of Government, cased in its harness, had much +difficulty in moving, for the same reason why Beetles cannot fly, when +their <i>wings</i> have <i>wing-shells</i>, of very sufficient strength, +and—grown together.</p> + +<p>8: Constitutions of Government are like highways: on a new and +quite untrodden one, where every carriage helps in the process of +bruising and smoothing, you are as much jolted and pitched as on an old +worn-out one, full of holes? What is to be done then? Travel on.</p> +</div> + +<p>I, for my part, rather avoid discrepant circles than seek them; as I +likewise avoid all dead or killed people: the prudent man easily +foresees what is to be got by them; either vexatious and injurious +witnessing, or often even (when circumstances conspire) painful +investigation, and suspicions of your being an accomplice.</p> + +<p>In Vierstädten, nothing of importance presented itself, except—to my +horror—a dog without tail, which came running along the town or street. +In the first fire of passion at this sight, I pointed it out to the +passengers, and then put the question, Whether they could reckon a +system of Medical Police well arranged, which, like this of Vierstädten, +allowed dogs openly to scour about, when their tails were wanting? "What +am I to do," said I, "when this member is cut away, and any such beast +comes running towards me, and I cannot, either by the tail being cocked +up or being drawn in, since the whole is snipt off, come to any +conclusion whether the vermin is mad or not? In this way, the most +prudent man may be bit, and become rabid, and so make shipwreck purely +for want of a tail-compass."</p> + +<p>The Blind Passenger (he now got himself inscribed as a Seeing one, God +knows for what objects) had heard my observation; which he now spun out +in my presence almost into ridicule, and at last awakened in me the +suspicion, that by an overdone flattery in imitating my style of speech, +he meant to banter me. "The Dog-tail," said he, "is, in truth, an +alarm-beacon, and finger-post for us, that we come not even into the +outmost precincts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> madness: cut away from Comets their tails, from +Bashaws theirs, from Crabs theirs (outstretched it denotes that they are +burst); and in the most dangerous predicaments of life we are left +without clew, without indicator, without hand <i>in margine</i>; and we +perish, not so much as knowing how."</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>3: In Criminal Courts, murdered children are often represented as +still-born; in Anticritiques, still-born as murdered.</p> + +<p>101: Not only were the Rhodians, from their Colossus, called +Colossians; but also innumerable Germans are, from their Luther, called +Lutherans.</p> +</div> + +<p>For the rest, this stage passed over without quarrelling or peril. About +ten o'clock, the whole party, including even the Postillion, myself +excepted, fell asleep. I indeed pretended to be sleeping, that I might +observe whether some one, for his own good reasons, might not also be +pretending it; but all continued snoring; the moon threw its brightening +beams on nothing but down-pressed eyelids.</p> + +<p>I had now a glorious opportunity of following Lavater's counsel, to +apply the physiognomical ellwand specially to sleepers, since sleep, +like death, expresses the genuine form in coarser lines. Other sleepers +not in stage-coaches I think it less advisable to mete with this +ellwand; having always an apprehension lest some fellow, but pretending +to be asleep, may, the instant I am near enough, start up as in a dream, +and deceitfully plant such a knock on the physiognomical mensurator's +own facial structure, as to exclude it forever from appearing in any +Physiognomical Fragments (itself being reduced to one), either in the +stippled or line style. Nay, might not the most honest sleeper in the +world, just while you are in hand with his physiognomical dissection, +lay about him, spurred on by honour in some cudgelling-scene he may be +dreaming; and in a few instants of clapper-clawing, and kicking, and +trampling, lull you into a much more lasting sleep than that out of +which he was awakened?</p> + +<p>In my <i>Adumbrating Magic-lantern</i>, as I have named the Work, the whole +physiognomical contents of this same sleeping stage-coach will be given +to the world: there I shall explain to you at large how the Poisoner, +with the murder-cupola, appeared to me devil-like; the Dwarf +old-childlike; the Harlot languidly shameless; my Brother-in-law +peacefully satisfied, with revenge or food; and the Legations-Rath, +<i>Jean Pierre</i>, Heaven only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> knows why, like a half angel,—though, +perhaps, it might be because only the fair body, not the other half, the +soul, which had passed away in sleep, was affecting me.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>88: Hitherto I have always regarded the Polemical writings of our +present philosophic and æsthetic Idealist Logic-buffers,—in which, +certainly, a few contumelies, and misconceptions, and misconclusions do +make their appearance,—rather on the fair side; observing in it merely +an imitation of classical Antiquity, in particular of the ancient +Athletes, who (according to Schottgen) besmeared their bodies with +<i>mud</i>, that they might not be laid hold of; and filled their hands with +<i>sand</i>, that they might lay hold of their antagonists.</p> +</div> + +<p>I had almost forgotten to mention, that in a little village, while my +Brother-in-law and the Postillion were sitting at their liquor, I +happily fronted a small terror, Destiny having twice been on my side. +Not far from a Hunting Box, beside a pretty clump of trees, I noticed a +white tablet, with a black inscription on it. This gave me hopes that +perhaps some little monumental piece, some pillar of honour, some battle +memento, might here be awaiting me. Over an untrodden flowery tangle, I +reach the black on white; and to my horror and amazement, I decipher in +the moonshine: <i>Beware of Spring-guns</i>! Thus was I standing perhaps half +a nail's breadth from the trigger, with which, if I but stirred my heel, +I should shoot myself off like a forgotten ramrod, into the other world, +beyond the verge of Time! The first thing I did was to cramp-down my +toe-nails, to bite, and, as it were, eat myself into the ground with +them; since I might at least continue in warm life so long as I pegged +my body firmly in beside the Atropos-scissors and hangman's block, which +lay beside me; then I endeavoured to recollect by what steps the fiend +had let me hither unshot, but in my agony I had perspired the whole of +it, and could remember nothing. In the Devil's village close at hand, +there was no dog to be seen and called to, who might have plucked me +from the water; and my Brother-in-law and the Postillion were both +carousing with full can. However, I summoned my courage and +determination; wrote down on a leaf of my pocket-book my last will, the +accidental manner of my death, and my dying remembrance of Berga; and +then, with full sails, flew helterskelter through the midst of it the +shortest way; expecting at every step to awaken the murderous engine, +and thus to clap over my still long candle of life the <i>bonsoir</i>, or +extinguisher, with my own hand. However, I got off without shot. In the +tavern, indeed, there was more than one fool to laugh at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> me; because, +forsooth, what none but a fool could know, this Notice had stood there +for the last ten years, without any gun, as guns often do without any +notice. But so it is, my Friends, with our game-police, which warns +against all things, only not against warnings.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>103: Or are all Mosques, Episcopal-churches, Pagodas, +Chapels-of-Ease, Tabernacles and Pantheons, anything else than the +Ethnic Forecourt of the Invisible Temple and its Holy of Holies?</p> + +<p>40: The common man is copious only in narration, not in reasoning; +the cultivated man is brief only in the former, not in the latter: +because the common man's reasons are a sort of sensations, which, as +well as things visible, he merely <i>looks at</i>; by the cultivated man, +again, both reasons and things visible are rather <i>thought</i> than looked +at.</p> +</div> + +<p>For the rest, throughout the whole stage, I had a constant source of +altercation with the coachman, because he grudged stopping perhaps once +in the quarter of an hour, when I chose to come out for a natural +purpose. Unhappily, in truth, one has little reason to expect +water-doctors among the postillion class, since Physicians themselves +have so seldom learned from Haller's large <i>Physiology</i>, that a +postponement of the above operation will precipitate devilish stoneware, +and at last precipitate the proprietor himself; this stone-manufactory +being generally concluded, not by the Lithotomist, but by Death. Had +postillions read that Tycho Brahe died like a bombshell by bursting, +they would rather pull up for a moment; with such unlooked-for +knowledge, they would see it to be reasonable that a man, though +expecting some time to carry his death-stone <i>on</i> him, should not +incline, for the time being, to carry it <i>in</i> him. Nay, have I not +often, at Weimar, in the longest concluding scenes of Schiller, run out +with tears in my eyes; purely that, while his Minerva was melting me on +the whole, I might not by the Gorgon's head on her breast be partially +turned to stone? And did I not return to the weeping playhouse, and fall +into the general emotion so much the more briskly, as now I had nothing +to give vent to but my heart?</p> + +<p>Deep in the dark we arrived at Niederschöna.</p> + + +<h5><i>Third Stage; from Niederschöna to Flätz.</i></h5> + +<p>While I am standing at the Posthouse musing, with my eye fixed on my +portmanteau, comes a beast of a watchman, and bellows and brays in his +night-tube so close by my ear, that I start back in trepidation, I whom +even a too hasty accosting will vex. Is there no medical police, then, +against such efflated hour fulminators and alarm-cannon, by which +notwithstanding no gunpowder cannon are saved? In my opinion, nobody +should be invested with the watchman-horn but some reasonable man, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +had already blown himself into an asthma, and who would consequently be +in case to sing out his hour-verse so low, that you could not hear it.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>9: In any national calamity, the ancient Egyptians took revenge on +the god Typhon, whom they blamed for it, by hurling his favourites, the +Asses, down over rocks. In similar wise have countries of a different +religion now and then taken their revenge.</p> +</div> + +<p>What I had long expected, and the Dwarf predicted, now took place: +deeply stooping, through the high Posthouse door, issued the Giant, and +raised, in the open air, a most unreasonably high figure, heightened by +the ell-long bonnet and feather on his huge jobber-nowl. My +Brother-in-law, beside him, looked but like his son of fourteen years; +the Dwarf like his lap-dog waiting for him on its two hind legs. "Good +friend," said my bantering Brother-in-law, leading him towards me and +the stage-coach, "just step softly in, we shall all be happy to make +room for you. Fold yourself neatly together, lay your head on your knee, +and it will do." The unseasonable banterer would willingly have seen the +almost stupid Giant (of whom he had soon observed that his brain was no +active substance, but in the inverse ratio of his trunk) squeezed in +among us in the post-chest, and lying kneaded together like a sand-bag +before him. "Won't do! Won't do!" said the Giant, looking in. "The +gentleman perhaps does not know," said the Dwarf, "how big the Giant is; +and so he thinks that because <i>I</i> go in—But that is another story; <i>I</i> +will creep into any hole, do but tell me where."</p> + +<p>In short, there was no resource for the Postmaster and the Giant, but +that the latter should plant himself behind, in the character of +luggage, and there lie bending down like a weeping willow over the whole +vehicle. To me such a back-wall and rear-guard could not be particularly +gratifying: and I may refer it, I hope, to any one of you, ye Friends, +if with such ware at your back, you would not, as clearly and earnestly +as I, have considered what manifold murderous projects a knave of a +Giant behind you, a <i>pursuer</i> in all senses, might not maliciously +attempt; say, that he broke in and assailed you by the back-window, or +with Titanian strength laid hold of the coach-roof and demolished the +whole party in a lump. However, this Elephant (who indeed seemed to owe +the similarity more to his overpowering mass than to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> quick light of +inward faculty), crossing his arms over the top of the vehicle, soon +began to sleep and snore above us; an Elephant, of whom, as I more and +more joyfully observed, my Brother-in-law the Dragoon could easily be +the tamer and bridle-holder, nay had already been so.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>70: Let Poetry veil itself in Philosophy, but only as the latter +does in the former. Philosophy in poetised Prose resembles those tavern +drinking-glasses, encircled with parti-coloured wreaths of figures, +which disturb your enjoyment both of the drink, and (often awkwardly +eclipsing and covering each other) of the carving also.</p> +</div> + +<p>As more than one person now felt inclined to sleep, but I, on the +contrary, as was proper, to wake, I freely offered my seat of honour, +the front place in the coach (meaning thereby to abolish many little +flaws of envy in my fellow-passengers), to such persons as wished to +take a nap thereon. The Legations-man accepted the offer with eagerness, +and soon fell asleep there sitting, under the Titan.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> To me this sort +of coach-sleeping of a diplomatic <i>chargé d'affaires</i> remained a thing +incomprehensible. A man that, in the middle of a stranger and often +barbarously-minded company, permits himself to slumber, may easily, +supposing him to talk in his sleep and coach (think of the Saxon +minister<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> before the Seven-Years War!), blab out a thousand secrets, +and crimes, some of which, perhaps, he has not committed. Should not +every minister, ambassador, or other man of honour and rank, really +shudder at the thought of insanity or violent fevers; seeing no mortal +can be his surety that he shall not in such cases publish the greatest +scandals, of which, it may be, the half are lies?</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> <p><i>Titan</i> is also the title of this Legations-Rath Jean Pierre or +Jean Paul (Friedrich Richter)'s chief novel.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> <p>Brühl, I suppose; but the historical edition of the matter is, +that Brühl's treasonable secrets were come at by the more ordinary means +of wax impressions of his keys.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>At last, after the long July night, we passengers, together with Aurora, +arrived in the precincts of Flätz, I looked with a sharp yet moistened +eye at the steeples: I believe, every man who has anything decisive to +seek in a town, and to whom it is either to be a judgment-seat of his +hopes, or their anchoring-station, either a battle-field or a +sugar-field, first and longest directs his eye on the steeples of the +town, as upon the indexes and balance-tongues of his future destiny; +these artificial peaks, which, like natural ones, are the thrones of our +Future. As I happened to express myself on this point perhaps too +poetically to <i>Jean Pierre</i>, he answered, with sufficient want of taste: +"The steeples of such towns are indeed the Swiss Alpine peaks, on which +we milk and manufacture the Swiss cheese of our Future." Did the +Legations-Peter mean with this style to make me ridiculous, or only +himself? Determine! </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here is the place, the town," said I in secret, "where today much and +for many years is to be determined; where thou, this evening, about five +o'clock, art to present thy petition and thyself: May it prosper! May it +be successful! Let Flätz, this arena of thy little efforts among the +rest, become a building-space for fair castles and air-castles to two +hearts, thy own and thy Berga's!"</p> + +<p>At the Tiger Inn I alighted.</p> + + +<h5><i>First Day in Flätz.</i></h5> + +<p>No mortal, in my situation at this Tiger-hotel, would have triumphed +much in his more immediate prospects. I, as the only man known to me, +especially in the way of love (of the runaway Dragoon anon!), looked out +from the windows of the overflowing Inn, and down on the rushing sea of +marketers, and very soon began to reflect, that except Heaven and the +rascals and murderers, none knew how many of the latter two classes were +floating among the tide; purposing perhaps to lay hold of the most +innocent strangers, and in part cut their purses, in part their throats. +My situation had a special circumstance against it. My Brother-in-law, +who still comes plump out with everything, had mentioned that I was to +put up at the Tiger: O Heaven, when will such people learn to be secret, +and to cover even the meanest pettinesses of life under mantles and +veils, were it only that a silly mouse may as often give birth to a +mountain, as a mountain to a mouse! The whole rabble of the stage-coach +stopped at the Tiger; the Harlot, the Ratcatcher, <i>Jean Pierre</i>, the +Giant, who had dismounted at the Gate of the town, and carrying the huge +block-head of the Dwarf on his shoulders as his own (cloaking over the +deception by his cloak), had thus, like a ninny, exhibited himself +gratis by half a dwarf more gigantic than he could be seen for money.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>158: Governments should not too often change the penny-trumps and +child's-drums of the Poets for the regimental trumpet and fire-drum: on +the other hand, good subjects should regard many a princely +drum-tendency simply as a disease, in which the patient, by air +insinuating under the skin, has got dreadfully swoln.</p> + +<p>89: In great towns, a stranger, for the first day or two after his +arrival, lives purely at his own expense in an inn; afterwards, in the +houses of his friends, without expense: on the other hand, if you arrive +at the Earth, as, for instance, I have done, you are courteously +maintained, precisely for the first few years, free of charges; but in +the next and longer series—for you often stay sixty—you are actually +obliged (I have the documents in my hands) to pay for every drop and +morsel, as if you were in the great Earth Inn, which indeed you are.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now for each of the Passengers, the question was, how he could make +the Tiger, the heraldic emblem of the Inn, his prototype; and so, what +lamb he might suck the blood of, and tear in pieces, and devour. My +Brother-in-law too left me, having gone in quest of some horse-dealer; +but he retained the chamber next mine for his sister: this, it appeared, +was to denote attention on his part. I remained solitary, left to my own +intrepidity and force of purpose.</p> + +<p>Yet among so many villains, encompassing if not even beleaguering me, I +thought warmly of one far distant, faithful soul, of my Berga in +Neusattel; a true heart of pith, which perhaps with many a weak +marriage-partner might have given protection rather than sought it.</p> + +<p>"Appear, then, quickly tomorrow at noon, Berga," said my heart; "and if +possible before noon, that I may lengthen thy market paradise so many +hours as thou arrivest earlier!"</p> + +<p>A clergyman, amid the tempests of the world, readily makes for a free +harbour, for the church: the church-wall is his casemate-wall and +fortification; and behind are to be found more peaceful and more +accordant souls than on the market-place: in short, I went into the High +Church. However, in the course of the psalm, I was somewhat disturbed by +a Heiduc, who came up to a well-dressed young gentleman sitting opposite +me, and tore the double opera-glass from his nose, it being against rule +in Flätz, as it is in Dresden, to look at the Court with glasses which +diminish and approximate. I myself had on a pair of spectacles, but they +were magnifiers. It was impossible for me to resolve on taking them off; +and here again, I am afraid, I shall pass for a foolhardy person and a +desperado; so much only I reckoned fit, to look invariably into my +psalm-book; not once lifting my eyes while the Court was rustling and +entering, thereby to denote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> that my glasses were ground convex. For the +rest, the sermon was good, if not always finely conceived for a +Court-church; it admonished the hearers against innumerable vices, to +whose counterparts, the virtues, another preacher might so readily have +exhorted us. During the whole service, I made it my business to exhibit +true deep reverence, not only towards God, but also towards my +illustrious Prince. For the latter reverence I had my private reason: I +wished to stamp this sentiment strongly and openly as with raised +letters on my countenance, and so give the lie to any malicious imp +about Court, by whom my contravention of the <i>Panegyric on Nero</i>, and my +free German satire on this real tyrant himself, which I had inserted in +the <i>Flätz Weekly Journal</i>, might have been perverted into a secret +characteristic portrait of my own Sovereign. We live in such times at +present, that scarcely can we compose a pasquinade on the Devil in Hell, +but some human Devil on Earth will apply it to an angel.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>107: Germany is a long lofty mountain—under the sea.</p> + +<p>144: The Reviewer does not in reality employ his pen for writing; +but he burns it, to awaken weak people from their swoons, with the +smell; he tickles with it the throat of the plagiary, to make him render +back; and he picks with it his own teeth. He is the only individual in +the whole learned lexicon that can never exhaust himself, never write +himself out, let him sit before the ink-glass for centuries or tens of +centuries. For while the Scholar, the Philosopher, and the Poet, produce +their new book solely from new materials and growth, the Reviewer merely +lays his old gage of taste and knowledge on a thousand new works; and +his light, in the ever-passing, ever-differently-cut glass-world which +he <i>elucidates</i>, is still refracted into new colours.</p> +</div> + +<p>When the Court at last issued from church, and were getting into their +carriages, I kept at such a distance that my face could not possibly be +noticed, in case I had happened to assume no reverent look, but an +indifferent or even proud one. God knows, who has kneaded into me those +mad desperate fancies and crotchets, which perhaps would sit better on a +Hero Schabacker than on an Army-chaplain under him. I cannot here +forbear recording to you, my Friends, one of the maddest among them, +though at first it may throw too glaring a light on me. It was at my +ordination to be Army-chaplain, while about to participate in the +Sacrament, on the first day of Easter. Now, here while I was standing, +moved into softness, before the balustrade of the altar, in the middle +of the whole male congregation,—nay, I perhaps more deeply moved than +any among them, since, as a person going to war, I might consider myself +a half-dead man, that was now partaking in the last Feast of Souls, as +it were like a person to be hanged on the morrow,—here then, amid the +pathetic effects of the organ and singing, there rose something—were it +the first Easter-day which awoke in me what primitive Christians called +their Easter-laughter, or merely the contrast between the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> most devilish +predicaments and the most holy,—in short there rose something in me +(for which reason, I have ever since taken the part of every simple +person, who might ascribe such things to the Devil), and this something +started the question: "Now, could there be aught more diabolical than if +thou, just in receiving the Holy Supper, wert madly and blasphemously to +begin laughing?" Instantly I took to wrestling with this hell-dog of a +thought; neglected the most precious feelings, merely to keep the dog in +my eye, and scare him away; yet was forced to draw back from him, +exhausted and unsuccessful, and arrived at the step of the altar with +the mournful certainty that in a little while I should, without more +ado, begin laughing, let me weep and moan inwardly as I liked. +Accordingly, while I and a very worthy old Bürgermeister were bowing +down together before the long parson, and the latter (perhaps kneeling +on the low cushion, I fancied him too long) put the wafer in my clenched +mouth, I felt all the muscles of laughter already beginning sardonically +to contract; and these had not long acted on the guiltless integument, +till an actual smile appeared there; and as we bowed the second time, I +was grinning like an ape. My companion the Bürgermeister justly +expostulated with me, in a low voice, as we walked round behind the +altar: "In Heaven's name, are you an ordained Preacher of the Gospel, or +a Merry-Andrew? Is it Satan that is laughing out of you?"</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>71: The Youth is singular from caprice, and takes pleasure in it; +the Man is so from constraint, unintentionally, and feels pain in it.</p> + +<p>198: The Populace and Cattle grow giddy on the edge of no abyss; +with the Man it is otherwise.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Ah, Heaven! who else?" said I; and this being over, I finished my +devotions in a more becoming fashion.</p> + +<p>From the church (I now return to the Flätz one), I proceeded to the +Tiger Inn, and dined at the <i>table-d'hôte</i>, being at no time shy of +encountering men. Previous to the second course, a waiter handed me an +empty plate, on which, to my astonishment, I noticed a French verse +scratched-in with a fork, containing nothing less than a lampoon on the +Commandant of Flätz. Without ceremony, I held out the plate to the +company; saying, I had just, as they saw, got this lampooning cover +presented to me, and must request them to bear witness that I had +nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> to do with the matter. An officer directly changed plates with +me. During the fifth course, I could not but admire the chemico-medical +ignorance of the company; for a hare, out of which a gentleman extracted +and exhibited several grains of shot, that is to say, therefore, of lead +alloyed with arsenic, and then cleaned by hot vinegar, did, +nevertheless, by the spectators (I excepted) continue to be pleasantly +eaten.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>11: The Golden Calf of Self-love soon waxes to be a burning +Phalaris' Bull, which reduces its father and adorer to ashes.</p> + +<p>103: The male Beau-crop which surrounds the female Roses and +Lilies, must (if I rightly comprehend its flatteries) most probably +presuppose in the fair the manners of the Spaniards and Italians, who +offer any valuable, by way of present, to the man who praises it +excessively.</p> +</div> + +<p>In the course of our table-talk, one topic seized me keenly by my weak +side, I mean by my honour. The law custom of the city happened to be +mentioned, as it affects natural children; and I learned that here a +loose girl may convert any man she pleases to select into the father of +her brat, simply by her oath. "Horrible!" said I, and my hair stood on +end. "In this way may the worthiest head of a family, with a wife and +children, or a clergyman lodging in the Tiger, be stript of honour and +innocence, by any wicked chambermaid whom he may have seen, or who may +have seen him, in the course of her employment!"</p> + +<p>An elderly officer observed: "But will the girl swear herself to the +Devil so readily?"</p> + +<p>What logic! "Or suppose," continued I, without answer, "a man happened +to be travelling with that Vienna Locksmith, who afterwards became a +mother, and was brought to bed of a baby son; or with any disguised +Chevalier d'Eon, who often passes the night in his company, whereby the +Locksmith or the Chevalier can swear to their private interviews: no +delicate man of honour will in the end risk travelling with another; +seeing he knows not how soon the latter may pull off his boots, and pull +on his women's-pumps, and swear his companion into fatherhood, and +himself to the Devil!"</p> + +<p>Some of the company, however, misunderstood my oratorical fire so much, +that they, sheep-wise, gave some insinuations as if I myself were not +strict in this point, but lax. By Heaven! I no longer knew what I was +eating or speaking. Happily, on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> opposite side of the table, some +lying story of a French defeat was started: now, as I had read on the +street-corners that French and German Proclamation, calling before the +Court Martial any one who had heard war-rumours (disadvantageous, +namely), without giving notice of them,—I, as a man not willing ever to +forget himself, had nothing more prudent to do in this case, than to +withdraw with empty ears, telling none but the landlord why.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>199: But not many existing Governments, I believe, do behead under +pretext of trepanning; or sew (in a more choice allegory) the people's +lips together, under pretence of sewing the harelips in them.</p> + +<p>67: Hospitable Entertainer, wouldst thou search into thy guest? +Accompany him to another Entertainer, and listen to him. Just so: +Wouldst thou become better acquainted with Mistress in an hour, than by +living with her for a month? Accompany her among her female friends and +female enemies (if that is no pleonasm), and look at her!</p> +</div> + +<p>It was no improper time; for I had previously determined to have my +beard shaven about half-past four, that so, towards five I might present +myself with a chin just polished by the razor smoothing-iron, and sleek +as wove-paper, without the smallest root-stump of a hair left on it. By +way of preparation, like Pitt before Parliamentary debates, I poured a +devilish deal of Pontac into my stomach, with true disgust, and contrary +to all sanitary rules; not so much for fronting the light stranger +Barber, as the Minister and General von Schabacker, with whom I had it +in view to exchange perhaps more than one fiery statement.</p> + +<p>The common Hotel Barber was ushered in to me; but at first view you +noticed in his polygonal zigzag visage, more of a man that would finally +go mad, than of one growing wiser. Now, madmen are a class of persons +whom I hate incredibly; and nothing can take me to see any madhouse, +simply because the first maniac among them may clutch me in his giant +fists if he like; and because, owing to infection, I cannot be sure that +I shall ever get out again with the sense which I brought in. In a +general way, I sit (when once I am lathered) in such a posture on my +chair as to keep both my hands (the eyes I fix intently on the barbering +countenance) lying clenched along my sides, and pointed directly at the +midriff of the barber; that so, on the smallest ambiguity of movement, I +may dash in upon him, and overset him in a twinkling.</p> + +<p>I scarce know rightly how it happened; but here, while I am anxiously +studying the foolish twisted visage of the shaver, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> he just then +chanced to lay his long-whetted weapon a little too abruptly against my +bare throat, I gave him such a sudden bounce on the abdominal viscera, +that the silly varlet had well-nigh suicidally slit his own windpipe. +For me, truly, nothing remained but to indemnify the man; and then, +contrary to my usual principles, to tie round a broad stuffed cravat, by +way of cloak to what remained unshorn.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>80: In the summer of life, men keep digging and filling ice-pits +as well as circumstances will admit; that so, in their Winter, they may +have something in store to give them coolness.</p> + +<p>28: It is impossible for me, amid the tendril-forest of allusions +(even this again is a tendril-twig), to state and declare on the spot +whether all the Courts or Heights, the (Bougouer) <i>Snowline</i> of Europe, +have ever been mentioned in my Writings or not; but I could wish for +information on the subject, that if not, I may try to do it still.</p> +</div> + +<p>And now at last I sallied forth to the General, drinking out the remnant +of the Pontac, as I crossed the threshold. I hope, there were plans +lying ready within me for answering rightly, nay for asking. The +Petition I carried in my pocket, and in my right hand. In the left I had +a duplicate of it. My fire of spirit easily helped over the living fence +of ministerial obstructions; and soon I unexpectedly found myself in the +ante-chamber, among his most distinguished lackeys; persons, so far as I +could see, not inclined to change flour for bran with any one. Selecting +the most respectable individual of the number, I delivered him my paper +request, accompanied with the verbal one that he would hand it in. He +took it, but ungraciously: I waited in vain till far in the sixth hour, +at which season alone the gay General can safely be applied to. At last +I pitch upon another lackey, and repeat my request: he runs about +seeking his runaway brother, or my Petition; to no purpose, neither of +them could be found. How happy was it that in the midst of my Pontac, +before shaving, I had written out the duplicate of this paper; and +therefore—simply on the principle that you should always keep a second +wooden leg packed into your knapsack when you have the first on your +body—and out of fear that if the original petition chanced to drop from +me in the way between the Tiger and Schabacker's, my whole journey and +hope would melt into water—and therefore, I say, having stuck the +repeating work of that original paper into my pocket, I had, in any +case, something to hand in, and that something truly a Ditto. I handed +it in.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>36: And so I should like, in all cases, to be the First, +especially in Begging. The first prisoner-of-war, the first cripple, the +first man ruined by burning (like him who brings the first fire-engine), +gains the head-subscription and the heart; the next-comer finds nothing +but Duty to address; and at last, in this melodious <i>mancando</i> of +sympathy, matters sink so far, that the last (if the last but one may at +least have retired laden with a rich "God help you!") obtains from the +benignant hand nothing more than its fist. And as in Begging the first, +so in Giving I should like to be the last: one obliterates the other, +especially the last the first. So, however, is the world ordered.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Unhappily six o'clock was already past. The lackey, however, did not +keep me long waiting; but returned with—I may say, the text of this +whole Circular—the almost rude answer (which you, my Friends, out of +regard for me and Schabacker, will not divulge) that: "In case I were +the Attila Schmelzle of Schabacker's Regiment, I might lift my +pigeon-liver flag again, and fly to the Devil, as I did at Pimpelstadt." +Another man would have dropt dead on the spot: I, however, walked quite +stoutly off, answering the fellow: "With great pleasure indeed, I fly to +the Devil; and so Devil a fly I care." On the road home I examined +myself whether it had not been the Pontac that spoke out of me (though +the very examination contradicted this, for Pontac never examines); but +I found that nothing but I, my heart, my courage perhaps, had spoken: +and why, after all, any whimpering? Does not the patrimony of my good +wife endow me better than ten Catechetical Professorships? And has she +not furnished all the corners of my book of Life with so many golden +clasps, that I can open it forever without wearing it? Let henhearts +cackle and pip; I flapped my pinions, and said: "Dash boldly through it, +come what may!" I felt myself excited and exalted; I fancied Republics, +in which I, as a hero, might be at home; I longed to be in that noble +Grecian time, when one hero readily put up with bastinadoes from +another, and said: "Strike, but hear!" and out of this ignoble one, +where men will scarcely put up with hard words, to say nothing of more. +I painted out to my mind how I should feel, if, in happier +circumstances, I were uprooting hollow Thrones, and before whole nations +mounting on mighty deeds as on the Temple-steps of Immortality; and in +gigantic ages, finding quite other men to outman and outstrip, than the +mite-populace about me, or, at the best, here and there a Vulcanello. I +thought and thought, and grew wilder and wilder, and intoxicated myself +(no Pontac intoxication therefore, which, you know, increases more by +continuance than cessation of drinking), and gesticulated openly, as I +put the question to myself: "Wilt thou be a mere state-lapdog? A +dog's-dog, a <i>pium desiderium</i> of an <i>impium desiderium</i>, an Ex-Ex, a +Nothing's-Nothing?—Fire and Fury!" With this, however, I dashed down my +hat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> into the mud of the market. On lifting and cleaning this old +servant, I could not but perceive how worn and faded it was; and I +therefore determined instantly to purchase a new one, and carry the same +home in my hand.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>136: If you mount too high above your time, your ears (on the side +of Fame) are little better off than if you sink too deep below it: in +truth, Charles up in his Balloon, and Halley down in his Diving-bell, +felt equally the same strange pain in their ears.</p> +</div> + +<p>I accomplished this; I bought one of the finest cut. Strangely enough, +by this hat, as if it had been a graduation-hat, was my head tried and +examined, in the Ziegengasse or Goat-gate of Flätz. For as General +Schabacker came driving along that street in his carriage, and I (it +need not be said) was determined to avenge myself, not by vulgar +clownishness, but by courtesy, I had here got one of the most ticklish +problems imaginable to solve on the spur of the instant. You observe, if +I swung only the fine hat which I carried in my hand, and kept the faded +one on my head,—I might have the appearance of a perfect clown, who +does not doff at all: if, on the other hand, I pulled the old hat from +my head, and therewith did my reverence, then two hats, both in play at +once (let me swing the other at the same time or not), brought my salute +within the verge of ridicule. Now do you, my Friends, before reading +farther, bethink you how a man was to extricate himself from such a +plight, without losing head! I think, perhaps, by this means: by merely +losing hat. In one word, then, I simply dropped the new hat from my hand +into the mud, to put myself in a condition for taking off the old hat by +itself, and swaying it in needful courtesy, without any shade of +ridicule.</p> + +<p>Arrived at the Tiger,—to avoid misconstructions, I first had the +glossy, fine and superfine hat cleaned, and some time afterwards the +mud-hat or rubbish-hat.</p> + +<p>And now, weighing my momentous Past in the adjusting balance within me, +I walked in fiery mood to and fro. The Pontac must—I know that there is +no unadulterated liquor here below—have been more than usually +adulterated; so keenly did it chase my fancy out of one fire into the +other. I now looked forth into a wide glittering life, in which I lived +without post, merely on money; and which I beheld, as it were, sowed +with the Delphic caves, and Zenonic walks, and Muse-hills of all the +Sciences,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> which I might now cultivate at my ease. In particular, I +should have it in my power to apply more diligently to writing +Prize-essays for Academies; of which (that is to say, of the +Prize-essays) no author need ever be ashamed, since, in all cases, there +is a whole crowning Academy to stand and blush for the crownee. And even +if the Prize-marksman does not hit the crown, he still continues more +unknown and more anonymous (his Device not being unsealed) than any +other author, who indeed can publish some nameless Long-ear of a book, +but not hinder it from being, by a Literary Ass-burial (<i>sepultura +asinina</i>), publicly interred, in a short time, before half the world.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>25: In youth, like a blind man just couched (and what is birth but +a couching of the sight?), you take the Distant for the Near, the starry +heaven for tangible room-furniture, pictures for objects; and, to the +young man, the whole world is sitting on his very nose, till repeated +bandaging and unbandaging have at last taught him, like the blind +patient, to estimate <i>Distance</i> and <i>Appearance</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p>Only one thing grieved me by anticipation; the sorrow of my Berga, for +whom, dear tired wayfarer, I on the morrow must overcloud her arrival, +and her shortened market-spectacle, by my negatory intelligence. She +would so gladly (and who can take it ill of a rich farmer's daughter?) +have made herself somebody in Neusattel, and overshone many a female +dignitary! Every mortal longs for his parade-place, and some earlier +living honour than the last honours. Especially so good a lowly-born +housewife as my Berga, conscious perhaps rather of her metallic than of +her spiritual treasure, would still wish at banquets to be mistress of +some seat or other, and so in place to overtop this or that plucked +goose of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>It is in this point of view that husbands are so indispensable. I +therefore resolved to purchase for myself, and consequently for her, one +of the best of those titles, which our Courts in Germany (as in a +Leipzig sale-room) stand offering to buyers, in all sizes and sorts, +from Noble and Half-noble down to Rath or Councillor; and once invested +therewith, to reflect from my own Quarter-nobility such an +Eighth-part-nobility on this true soul, that many a Neusattelitess (I +hope) shall half burst with envy, and say and cry: "Pooh, the stupid +farmer thing! See how it wabbles and bridles! It has forgot how matters +stood when it had no money-bag, and no Hofrath!" For to the Hofrathship +I shall before this have attained.</p> + +<p>But in the cold solitude of my room, and the fire of my remembrances,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> I +longed unspeakably for my Bergelchen: I and my heart were wearied with +the foreign busy day; no one here said a kind word to me, which he did +not hope to put in the bill. Friends! I languished for my friend, whose +heart would pour out its blood as a balsam for a second heart; I cursed +my over-prudent regulations, and wished that, to have the good Berga at +my side, I had given up the stupid houseware to all thieves and fires +whatsoever: as I walked to and fro, it seemed to me easier and easier to +become all things, an Exchequer-Rath, an Excise-Rath, any Rath in the +world, and whatever she required when she came.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>125: In the long-run, out of mere fear and necessity, we shall +become the warmest cosmopolites I know of; so rapidly do ships shoot to +and fro, and, like shuttles, weave Islands and Quarters of the World +together. For, let but the political weatherglass fall today in South +America, tomorrow we in Europe have storm and thunder.</p> +</div> + +<p>"See thou take thy pleasure in the town!" had Bergelchen kept saying the +whole week through. But how, without her, can I take any? Our tears of +sorrow friends dry up, and accompany with their own: but our tears of +joy we find most readily repeated in the eyes of our wives. Pardon me, +good Friends, these libations of my sensibility; I am but showing you my +heart and my Berga. If I need an Absolution-merchant, the +Pontac-merchant is the man.</p> + + +<h5><i>First Night in Flätz.</i></h5> + +<p>Yet the wine did not take from me the good sense to look under the bed, +before going into it, and examine whether any one was lurking there; for +example, the Dwarf, or the Ratcatcher, or the Legations-Rath; also to +shove the key under the latch (which I reckon the best bolting +arrangement of all), and then, by way of farther assurance, to bore my +night-screws into the door, and pile all the chairs in a heap behind it; +and, lastly, to keep on my breeches and shoes, wishing absolutely to +have no care upon my mind.</p> + +<p>But I had still other precautions to take in regard to sleepwalking. To +me it has always been incomprehensible how so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> many men can go to bed, +and lie down at their ease there, without reflecting that perhaps, in +the first sleep, they may get up again as Somnambulists, and crawl over +the tops of roofs and the like; awakening in some spot where they may +fall in a moment and break their necks. While at home, there is little +risk in my sleep: because, my right toe being fastened every night with +three ells of tape (I call it in jest our marriage-tie) to my wife's +left hand, I feel a certainty that, in case I should start up from this +bed-arrest, I must with the tether infallibly awaken her, and so by my +Berga, as by my living bridle, be again led back to bed. But here in the +Inn, I had nothing for it but to knot myself once or twice to the +bed-foot, that I might not wander; though in this way, an irruption of +villains would have brought double peril with it.—Alas! so dangerous is +sleep at all times, that every man, who is not lying on his back a +corpse, must be on his guard lest with the general system some limb or +other also fall asleep; in which case the sleeping limb (there are not +wanting examples of it in Medical History) may next morning be lying +ripe for amputation. For this reason, I have myself frequently awakened, +that no part of me fall asleep.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>19: It is easier, they say, to climb a hill when you ascend back +foremost. This, perhaps, might admit of application to political +eminences; if you still turned towards them that part of the body on +which you sit, and kept your face directed down to the people; all the +while, however, removing and mounting.</p> + +<p>26: Few German writers are not original, if we may ascribe +originality (as is at least the conversational practice of all people) +to a man, who merely dishes out his own thoughts without foreign +admixture. For as, between their Memory, where their reading or foreign +matter dwells, and their Imagination or Productive Power, where their +writing or own peculiar matter originates, a sufficient space +intervenes, and the boundary-stones are fixed-in so conscientiously and +firmly that nothing foreign may pass over into their own, or inversely, +so that they may really read a hundred works without losing their own +primitive flavour, or even altering it,—their individuality may, I +believe, be considered as secured; and their spiritual nourishment, +their pancakes, loaves, fritters, caviare and meat-balls, are not +assimilated to their system, but given back pure and unaltered. Often in +my own mind I figure such writers as living but thousandfold more +artificial Ducklings from Vaucanson's Artificial Duck of Wood. For in +fact they are not less cunningly put together than this timber Duck, +which will gobble meat, and apparently void it again, under show of +having digested it, and derived from it blood and juices; though the +secret of the business is, the artist has merely introduced an ingenious +compound ejective matter behind, with which concoction and nourishment +have nothing to do, but which the Duck illusorily gives forth and +publishes to the world.</p> +</div> + +<p>Having properly tied myself to the bed-posts, and at length got under +the coverlid, I now began to be dubious about my Pontac Fire-bath, and +apprehensive of the valorous and tumultuous dreams too likely to ensue; +which, alas, did actually prove to be nothing better than heroic and +monarchic feats, castle-stormings, rock-throwings, and the like. This +point also I am sorry to see so little attended to in medicine. Medical +gentlemen, as well as their customers, all stretch themselves quietly in +their beds, without one among them considering whether a furious rage +(supposing him also directly after to drink cold water in his dream), or +a heart-devouring grief, all which he may undergo in vision, does harm +to life or not.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p> + +<p>Shortly before midnight, I awoke from a heavy dream, to encounter a +ghost-trick much too ghostly for my fancy. My Brother-in-law, who +manufactured it, deserves for such vapid cookery to be named before you +without reserve, as the malt-master of this washy brewage. Had suspicion +been more compatible with intrepidity, I might perhaps, by his moral +maxim about this matter, on the road, as well as by his taking up the +side-room, at the middle door of which stood my couch, have easily +divined the whole. But now, on awakening, I felt myself blown upon by a +cold ghost-breath, which I could nowise deduce from the distant bolted +window; a point I had rightly decided, for the Dragoon was producing the +phenomenon, through the keyhole, by a pair of bellows. Every sort of +coldness, in the night-season, reminds you of clay-coldness and +spectre-coldness. I summoned my resolution, however, and abode the +issue: but now the very coverlid began to get in motion; I pulled it +towards me; it would not stay; sharply I sit upright in my bed, and cry: +"What is that?" No answer; everywhere silence in the Inn; the whole room +full of moonshine. And now my drawing-plaster, my coverlid, actually +rose up, and let in the air; at which I felt like a wounded man whose +cataplasm you suddenly pull off. In this crisis, I made a bold leap from +this Devil's-torus, and, leaping, snapped asunder my somnambulist +tether. "Where is the silly human fool," cried I, "that dares to ape the +unseen sublime world of Spirits, which may, in the instant, open before +him?" But on, above, under the bed, there was nothing to be heard or +seen. I looked out of the window: everywhere spectral moonlight and +street-stillness; nothing moving except (probably from the wind), on the +distant Gallows-hill, a person lately hanged.</p> + +<p>Any man would have taken it for self-deception as well as I: therefore I +again wrapped myself in my passive <i>lit de justice</i> and air-bed, and +waited with calmness to see whether my fright would subside or not.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>15: After the manner of the fine polished English folding-knives, +there are now also folding-war-swords, or in other words—Treaties of +Peace.</p> + +<p>13: <i>Omnibus una</i> <span class="smcap">salus</span> <i>Sanctis, sed</i> <span class="smcap">gloria</span> <i>dispar:</i> that is to +say (as Divines once taught) according to Saint Paul, we have all the +same Beatitude in Heaven, but different degrees of Honour. Here, on +Earth, we find a shadow of this in the writing world; for the Beatitude +of authors once beatified by Criticism, whether they be genial, good, +mediocre, or poor, is the same throughout; they all obtain the same +pecuniary Felicity, the same slender profit. But, Heavens! in regard to +the degrees of Fame, again, how far (in spite of the same emolument and +sale) will a Dunce, even in his lifetime, be put below a Genius! Is not +a shallow writer frequently forgotten in a single Fair, while a deep +writer, or even a writer of genius, will blossom through fifty Fairs, +and so may celebrate his Twenty-five Years' Jubilee, before, late +forgotten, he is lowered into the German Temple of Fame; a Temple +imitating the peculiarity of the <i>Padri Luichesi</i> churches in Naples, +which (according to Volkmann) permit <i>burials</i> under their roofs, but no +<i>tombstone</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> + +<p>In a few minutes, the coverlid, the infernal Faust's-mantle, again began +flying and towing; also, by way of change, the invisible bed-maker again +lifted me up. Accursed hour!—I should beg to know whether, in the whole +of cultivated Europe, there is one cultivated or uncultivated man, who, +in a case of this kind, would not have lighted on ghost-devilry? I +lighted on it, under my piece of (self) movable property, my coverlid: +and thought Berga had died suddenly, and was now, in spirit, laying hold +of my bed. However, I could not speak to her, nor as little to the +Devil, who might well be supposed to have a hand in the game; but I +turned myself solely to Heaven, and prayed aloud: "To thee I commit +myself; thou alone heretofore hast cared for thy weak servant; and I +swear that I will turn a new leaf,"—a promise which shall be kept +nevertheless, though the whole was but stupid treachery and trick.</p> + +<p>My prayer had no effect with the unchristian Dragoon, who now, once for +all, had got me prisoner in the dragnet of a coverlid; and heeded little +whether a guest's bed were, by his means, made a state-bed and death-bed +or not. He span out my nerves, like gold-wire through smaller and +smaller holes, to utter inanition and evanition; for the bed-clothes at +last literally marched off to the door of the room.</p> + +<p>Now was the moment to rise into the sublime; and to trouble myself no +longer about aught here below, but softly to devote myself to death. +"Snatch me away," cried I, and, without thinking, cut three crosses; +"quick, dispatch me, ye ghosts: I die more innocent than thousands of +tyrants and blasphemers, to whom ye yet appear not, but to unpolluted +me." Here I heard a sort of laugh, either on the street or in the +side-room: at this warm human tone, I suddenly bloomed up again, as at +the coming of a new Spring, in every twig and leaf. Wholly despising the +winged coverlid, which was not now to be picked from the door, I laid +myself down uncovered, but warm and perspiring from other causes, and +soon fell asleep. For the rest, I am not the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> least ashamed, in the face +of all refined capital cities,—though they were standing here at my +hand,—that by this Devil-belief and Devil-address I have attained some +likeness to our great German Lion, to Luther.</p> + + +<h5><i>Second Day in Flätz.</i></h5> + +<p>Early in the morning, I felt myself awakened by the well-known coverlid; +it had laid itself on me like a nightmare: I gaped up; quiet, in a +corner of the room, sat a red, round, blooming, decorated girl, like a +full-blown tulip in the freshness of life, and gently rustling with gay +ribbons as with leaves.</p> + +<p>"Who's there—how came you in?" cried I, half-blind.</p> + +<p>"I covered thee softly, and thought to let thee sleep," said Bergelchen; +"I have walked all night to be here early; do but look!"</p> + +<p>She showed me her boots, the only remnant of her travelling-gear, which, +in the moulting process of the toilette, she had not stript at the gate +of Flätz.</p> + +<p>"Is there," said I, alarmed at her coming six hours sooner, and the +more, as I had been alarmed all night and was still so, at her +mysterious entrance,—"is there some fresh woe come over us, fire, +murder, robbery?"</p> + +<p>She answered: "The old Rat thou hast chased so long died yesterday; +farther, there was nothing of importance."</p> + +<p>"And all has been managed rightly, and according to my Letter of +Instructions, at home?" inquired I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, truly," answered she; "only I did not see the Letter; it is lost; +thou hast packed it among thy clothes."</p> + +<p>Well, I could not but forgive the blooming brave pedestrian all +omissions. Her eye, then her heart was bringing fresh cool morning air +and morning red into my sultry hours. And yet, for this kind soul, +looking into life with such love and hope, I must in a little while +overcloud the merited Heaven of today, with tidings of my failure in the +Catechetical Professorship! I dallied and postponed to the utmost. I +asked how she had got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> in, as the whole <i>chevaux-de-frise</i> barricado of +chairs was still standing fast at the door. She laughed heartily, +curtseying in village fashion, and said, she had planned it with her +brother the day before yesterday, knowing my precautions in locking, +that he should admit her into my room, that so she might cunningly +awaken me. And now bolted the Dragoon with loud laughter into the +apartment, and cried: "Slept well, brother?"</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>79: Weak and wrong heads are the hardest to change; and their +inward man acquires a scanty covering: thus capons never moult.</p> + +<p>89: In times of misfortune, the Ancients supported themselves with +Philosophy or Christianity; the moderns again (for example, in the reign +of Terror), take to Pleasure; as the wounded Buffalo, for bandage and +salve, rolls himself in the mire.</p> +</div> + +<p>In this wise truly the whole ghost-story was now solved and expounded, +as if by the pen of a Biester or a Hennings; I instantly saw through the +entire ghost-scheme, which our Dragoon had executed. With some +bitterness I told him my conjecture, and his sister my story. But he +lied and laughed; nay, attempted shamelessly enough to palm +spectre-notions on me a second time, in open day. I answered coldly, +that in me he had found the wrong man, granting even that I had some +similarity with Luther, with Hobbes, with Brutus, all of whom had seen +and dreaded ghosts. He replied, tearing the facts away from their +originating causes: "All he could say was, that last night he had heard +some poor sinner creaking and lamenting dolefully enough; and from this +he had inferred, it must be an unhappy brother set upon by goblins."</p> + +<p>In the end, his sister's eyes also were opened to the low character +which he had tried to act with me: she sharply flew at him, pushed him +with both hands out of his and my door, and called after him: "Wait, +thou villain, I will mind it!"</p> + +<p>Then hastily turning round, she fell on my neck, and (at the wrong +place) into laughter, and said: "The wild fool! But I could not keep my +laugh another minute, and he was not to see it. Forgive the ninny, thou +a learned man, his ass pranks: what can one expect?"</p> + +<p>I inquired whether she, in her nocturnal travelling, had not met with +any spectral persons; though I knew that to her, a wild beast, a river, +a half abyss, are nothing. No, she had not; but the gay-dressed +town's-people, she said, had scared her in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> morning. O! how I do +love these soft Harmonica-quiverings of female fright!</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>181: God be thanked that we live nowhere forever except in Hell or +Heaven; on Earth otherwise we should grow to be the veriest rascals, and +the World a House of Incurables, for want of the dog-doctor (the +Hangman), and the issue-cord (on the Gallows), and the sulphur and +chalybeate medicines (on Battlefields). So that we too find our gigantic +moral force dependent on the <i>Debt of Nature</i> which we have to pay, +exactly as your politicians (for example, the Author of the <i>New +Leviathan</i>) demonstrate that the English have their <i>National Debt</i> to +thank for their superiority.</p> +</div> + +<p>At last, however, I was forced to bite or cut the coloquinta-apple, and +give her the half of it; I mean the news of my rejected petition for the +Catechetical Professorship. Wishing to spare this joyful heart the +rudeness of the whole truth, and to subtract something from a heavy +burden, more fit for the shoulders of a man, I began: "Bergelchen, the +Professorship affair is taking another, though still a good enough +course: the General, whom may the Devil and his Grandmother teach sense, +will not be taken except by storm; and storm he shall have, as certainly +as I have on my nightcap."</p> + +<p>"Then, thou art nothing yet?" inquired she.</p> + +<p>"For the moment, indeed, not!" answered I.</p> + +<p>"But before Saturday night?" said she.</p> + +<p>"Not quite," said I.</p> + +<p>"Then am I sore stricken, and could leap out of the window," said she, +and turned away her rosy face, to hide its wet eyes, and was silent very +long. Then, with painfully quivering voice, she began: "Good Christ +stand by me at Neusattel on Sunday, when these high-prancing prideful +dames look at me in church, and I grow scarlet for shame!"</p> + +<p>Here in sympathetic woe I sprang out of bed to the dear soul, over whose +brightly blooming cheeks warm tears were rolling, and cried: "Thou true +heart, do not tear me in pieces so! May I die, if yet in these dog-days +I become not all and everything that thou wishest! Speak, wilt thou be +Mining-räthin, Build-räthin, Court-räthin, War-räthin, Chamber-räthin, +Commerce-räthin, Legations-räthin, or Devil and his Dam's räthin: I am +here, and will buy it, and be it. Tomorrow I send riding posts to Saxony +and Hessia, to Prussia and Russia, to Friesland and Katzenellenbogen, +and demand patents. Nay, I will carry matters farther than another, and +be all things at once, Flachsenfingen Court-rath, Scheerau Excise-rath, +Haarhaar Building-rath, Pestitz<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> Chamber-rath (for we have the cash); +and thus, alone and single-handed, represent with one <i>podex</i> and +<i>corpus</i> a whole Rath-session of select Raths; and stand, a complete +Legion of Honour, on one single pair of legs: the like no man ever did."</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>63: To apprehend danger from the Education of the People, is like +fearing lest the thunderbolt strike into the house because it has +<i>windows</i>; whereas the lightning never comes through these, but through +their <i>lead</i> framing, or down by the <i>smoke</i> of the chimney.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> <p>Cities of Richter's romance kingdom. Flachsenfingen he +sometimes calls <i>Klein-Wien</i>, Little Vienna.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>"O! now thou art angel-good!" said she, and gladder tears rolled down; +"thou shalt counsel me thyself which are the finest Raths, and these we +will be."</p> + +<p>"No," continued I, in the fire of the moment, "neither shall this serve +us: to me it is not enough that to Mrs. Chaplain thou canst announce +thyself as Building-räthin, to Mrs. Town-parson as Legations-räthin, to +Mrs. Bürgermeister as Court-räthin, to Mrs. Road-and-toll-surveyor as +Commerce-räthin, or how and where thou pleasest——"</p> + +<p>"Ah! my own too good Attelchen!" said she.</p> + +<p>"—But," continued I, "I shall likewise become corresponding member of +the several Learned Societies in the several best capital cities (among +which I have only to choose); and truly no common actual member, but a +whole honorary member; then thee, as another honorary member, growing +out of my honorary membership, I uplift and exalt."</p> + +<p>Pardon me, my Friends, this warm cataplasm, or deception-balsam for a +wounded breast, whose blood is so pure and precious, that one may be +permitted to endeavour, with all possible stanching-lints and +spider-webs, to drive it back into the fair heart, its home.</p> + +<p>But now came bright and brightest hours. I had conquered Time, I had +conquered myself and Berga: seldom does a conqueror, as I did, bless +both the victorious and the vanquished party. Berga called back her +former Heaven, and pulled off her dusty boots, and on her flowery shoes. +Precious morning beverage, intoxicating to a heart that loves! I felt +(if the low figure may be permitted) a double-beer of courage in me, now +that I had one being more to protect. In general it is my nature—which +the honourable Premier seems not to be fully aware of—to grow bolder +not among the bold, but fastest among poltroons, the bad example acting +on me by the rule of contraries. Little touches may in this case shadow +forth man and wife, without casting them into the shade: When the trim +waiter with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> green silk apron brought up cracknels for breakfast, +and I told him: "Johann, for two!" Berga said: "He would oblige her very +much," and called him Herr Johann.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>76: Your economical, preaching Poetry, apparently supposes that a +surgical Stone-cutter is an Artistical one; and a Pulpit or a Sinai a +Hill of the Muses.</p> +</div> + +<p>Bergelchen, more familiar with rural burghs than capital cities, felt a +good deal amazed and alarmed at the coffee-trays, dressing-tables, +paper-hangings, sconces, alabaster inkholders, with Egyptian emblems, as +well as at the gilt bell-handle, lying ready for any one to pull out or +to push in. Accordingly, she had not courage to walk through the hall, +with its lustres, purely because a whistling, whiffling Cap-and-feather +was gesturing up and down in it. Nay, her poor heart was like to fail +when she peeped out of the window at so many gay promenading +town's-people (I was briskly whistling a Gascon air down over them); and +thought that in a little while, at my side, she must break into the +middle of this dazzling courtly throng. In a case like this, reasons are +of less avail than examples. I tried to elevate my Bergelchen, by +reciting some of my nocturnal dream-feats; for example, how, riding on a +whale's back, with a three-pronged fork, I had pierced and eaten three +eagles; and by more of the like sort: but I produced no effect; perhaps, +because to the timid female heart the battle-field was presented rather +than the conqueror, the abyss rather than the overleaper of it.</p> + +<p>At this time a sheaf of newspapers was brought me, full of gallant +decisive victories. And though these happen only on one side, and on the +other are just so many defeats, yet the former somehow assimilate more +with my blood than the latter, and inspire me (as Schiller's <i>Robbers</i> +used to do) with a strange inclination to lay hold of some one, and +thrash and curry him on the spot. Unluckily for the waiter, he had +chanced, even now, like a military host, to stand a triple bell-order +for march, before he would leave his ground and come up. "Sir," began I, +my head full of battle-fields, and my arm of inclination to baste him; +and Berga feared the very worst, as I gave her the well-known anger and +alarm signal, namely, shoved up my cap to my hindhead—"Sir, is this +your way of treating guests? Why don't you come promptly? Don't come so +again; and now be going, friend!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> Although his retreat was my victory, +I still kept briskly cannonading on the field of action, and fired the +louder (to let him hear it), the more steps he descended in his flight. +Bergelchen,—who felt quite horrorstruck at my fury, particularly in a +quite strange house, and at a quality waiter with silk apron,—mustered +all her soft words against the wild ones of a man-of-war, and spoke of +dangers that might follow. "Dangers," answered I, "are just what I seek; +but for a man there are none; in all cases he will either conquer or +evade them, either show them front or back."</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>115: According to Smith, the universal measure of economical value +is <i>Labour</i>. This fact, at least in regard to spiritual and poetical +value, we Germans had discovered before Smith; and to my knowledge we +have always preferred the learned poet to the poet of genius, and the +heavy book full of labour to the light one full of sport.</p> +</div> + +<p>I could scarcely lay aside this indignant mood, so sweet was it to me, +and so much did I feel refreshed by the fire of rage, and quickened in +my breast as by a benignant stimulant. It belongs certainly to the class +of Unrecognised Mercies (on which, in ancient times, special sermons +were preached), that one is never more completely in his Heaven and +<i>Monplaisir</i> (a pleasure-palace) than while in the midst of right hearty +storming and indignation. Heavens! what might not a man of weight +accomplish in this new walk of charity! The gall-bladder is for us the +chief swimming-bladder and Montgolfier; and the filling of it costs us +nothing but a contumelious word or two from some bystander. And does not +the whirlwind Luther, with whom I nowise compare myself, confess, in his +<i>Table-talk</i>, that he never preached, sung, or prayed so well, as while +in a rage? Truly, he was a man sufficient of himself to rouse many +others into rage.</p> + +<p>The whole morning till noon now passed in viewing sights, and +trafficking for wares; and indeed, for the greatest part, in the broad +street of our Hotel. Berga needed but to press along with me into the +market throng; needed but to look, and see that she was decorated more +according to the fashion than hundreds like her. But soon, in her care +for household gear, she forgot that of dress, and in the potter-market +the toilette-table faded from her thoughts.</p> + +<p>I, for my share, full of true tedium, while gliding after her through +her various marts, with their long cheapenings and chafferings, merely +acted the Philosopher hid within me: I weighed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> this empty Life, and the +heavy value which is put upon it, and the daily anxiety of man lest it, +this lightest down-feather of the Earth, fly off, and feather him, and +take him with it. These thoughts, perhaps, I owe to the street-fry of +boys, who were turning their market-freedom to account, by throwing +stones at one another all round me: for, in the midst of this tumult, I +vividly figured myself to be a man who had never seen war; and who, +therefore, never having experienced, that often of a thousand bullets +not one will hit, feels apprehensive of these few silly stones lest they +beat-in his nose and eyes. O! it is the battle-field alone that sows, +manures and nourishes true courage, courage even for daily, domestic and +smallest perils. For not till he comes from the battle-field can a man +both sing and cannonade; like the canary-bird, which, though so +melodious, so timid, so small, so tender, so solitary, so +soft-feathered, can yet be trained to fire off cannon, though cannon of +smaller calibre.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>4: The Hypocrite does not imitate the old practice, of cutting +fruit by a knife poisoned only on the one side, and giving the poisoned +side to the victim, the cutter eating the sound side himself; on the +contrary, he so disinterestedly inverts this practice, that to others he +shows and gives the sound moral half, or side, and retains for himself +the poisoned one. Heavens! compared with such a man, how wicked does the +Devil seem!</p> +</div> + +<p>After dinner (in our room), we issued from the Purgatory of the +market-tumult,—where Berga, at every booth, had something to order, and +load her attendant maid with,—into Heaven, into the Dog Inn, as the +best Flätz public and pleasure-house without the gates is named, where, +in market-time, hundreds turn in, and see thousands going by. On the way +thither, my little wife, my elbow-tendril, as it were, had extracted +from me such a measure of courage, that, while going through the Gate +(where I, aware of the military order that you must not pass <i>near</i> the +sentry, threw myself over to the other side), she quietly glided on, +close by the very guns and fixed bayonets of the City Guard. Outside the +wall, I could direct her with my finger, to the bechained, begrated, +gigantic Schabacker-Palace, mounting up even externally on stairs, where +I last night had called and (it may be) stormed: "I had rather take a +peep at the Giant," said she, "and the Dwarf: why else are we under one +roof with them?"</p> + +<p>In the pleasure-house itself we found sufficient pleasure; encircled, as +we were, with blooming faces and meadows. In my secret heart, I all +along kept looking down, with success, on Schabacker's refusal; and till +midnight made myself a happy day of it:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> I had deserved it, Berga still +more. Nevertheless, about one in the morning, I was destined to find a +windmill to tilt with; a windmill, which truly lays about it with +somewhat longer, stronger and more numerous arms than a giant, for which +Don Quixote might readily enough have taken it. On the market-place, for +reasons more easily fancied than specified in words, I let Berga go +along some twenty paces before me; and I myself, for these foresaid +reasons, retire without malice behind a covered booth, the tent most +probably of some rude trader; and linger there a moment according to +circumstances: lo! steering hither with dart and spear, comes the +Booth-watcher, and coins and stamps me, on the spot, into a filcher and +housebreaker of his Booth-street; though the simpleton sees nothing but +that I am standing in the corner, and doing anything but—taking. A +sense of honour without callosity is never blunted for such attacks. But +how in the dead of night was a man of this kind, who had nothing in his +head—at the utmost beer, instead of brains—to be enlightened on the +truth of the matter?</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>67: Individual Minds, nay Political Bodies, are like organic +bodies: extract the <i>interior</i> air from them, the atmosphere crushes +them together; pump off under the bell the <i>exterior</i> resisting air, the +interior inflates and bursts them. Therefore, let every State keep up +its internal and its external resistance both at once.</p> +</div> + +<p>I shall not conceal my perilous resource: I seized the fox by the tail, +as we say; in other words, I made as if I had been muddled, and knew not +rightly, in my liquor, what I was about: I therefore mimicked everything +I was master of in this department; staggered hither and thither; +splayed out my feet like a dancing-master; got into zigzag in spite of +all efforts at the straight line; nay, I knocked my good head (perhaps +one of the clearest and emptiest of the night), like a full one, against +real posts.</p> + +<p>However, the Booth-bailiff, who probably had been oftener drunk than I, +and knew the symptoms better, or even felt them in himself at this +moment, looked upon the whole exhibition as mere craft, and shouted +dreadfully: "Stop, rascal; thou art no more drunk than I! I know thee of +old. Stand, I say, till I speak to thee! Wouldst have thy long finger in +the market, too? Stand, dog, or I'll make thee!"</p> + +<p>You see the whole <i>nodus</i> of the matter: I whisked away zigzag among the +booths as fast as possible, from the claws of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> rude Tosspot; yet he +still hobbled after me. But my Teutoberga, who had heard somewhat of it, +came running back; clutched the tipsy market-warder by the collar, and +said (shrieking, it is true, in village-wise): "Stupid sot, go sleep the +drink out of thy head, or I'll teach thee! Dost know, then, whom thou +art speaking to? My husband, Army-chaplain Schmelzle under General and +Minister von Schabacker at Pimpelstadt, thou blockhead!—Fye! Take +shame, fellow!" The watchman mumbled: "Meant no harm," and reeled about +his business. "O thou Lioness!" said I, in the transport of love, "why +hast thou never been in any deadly peril, that I might show thee the +Lion in thy husband?"</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>8: In great Saloons, the real stove is masked into a pretty +ornamented sham stove; so likewise, it is fit and pretty that a virgin +<i>Love</i> should always hide itself in an interesting virgin <i>Friendship</i>.</p> + +<p>12: Nations—unlike rivers, which precipitate their impurities in +level places and when at rest—drop their baseness just whilst in the +most violent motion; and become the dirtier the farther they flow along +through lazy flats.</p> +</div> + +<p>Thus lovingly we both reached home; and perhaps in the sequel of this +Fair day might still have enjoyed a glorious after-midnight, had not the +Devil led my eye to the ninth volume of Lichtenberg's Works, and the +206th page, where this passage occurs: "It is not impossible that at a +future period, our Chemists may light on some means of suddenly +decomposing the Atmosphere by a sort of Ferment. In this way the world +may be destroyed." Ah! true indeed! Since the Earth-ball is lapped up in +the larger Atmospheric ball, let but any chemical scoundrel, in the +remotest scoundrel-island, say in New Holland, devise some decomposing +substance for the Atmosphere, like what a spark of fire would be for a +powder-wagon: in a few seconds, the monstrous devouring world-storm +catches me and you in Flätz by the throat; my breathing, and the like, +in this choke-air is over, and the whole game ended! The Earth becomes a +boundless gallows, where the very cattle are hanged: worm-powder, and +bug-liquor, Bradly ant-ploughs, and rat-poison, and wolf-traps are, in +this universal world-trap and world-poison, no longer specially needful; +and the Devil takes the whole, in the Bartholomew-night, when this +cursed "Ferment" is invented.</p> + +<p>From the true soul, however, I concealed these deadly Night Thoughts; +seeing she would either painfully have sympathised in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> them, or else +mirthfully laughed at them. I merely gave orders that next morning +(Saturday) she was to be standing booted and ready, at the outset of the +returning coach; if so were she would have me speedily fulfil her wishes +in regard to that stock of Rathships which lay so near her heart. She +rejoiced in my purpose, gladly surrendering the market for such +prospects. I too slept sound, my great toe tied to her finger, the whole +night through.</p> + +<div class="note"> +<p>28: When Nature takes the huge old Earth-round, the Earth-loaf, +and kneads it up again, for the purpose of introducing under this +pie-crust new stuffing and Dwarfs,—she then, for most part, as a mother +when baking will do to her daughters, gives in jest a little fraction of +the dough (two or three thousand square leagues of such dough are enough +for a child) to some Poetical or Philosophical, or Legislative polisher, +that so the little elf may have something to be shaping and +manufacturing beside its mother. And when the other young ones get a +taste of sisterkin's baking, they all clap hands, and cry: "Aha, Mother! +canst; bake, like <i>Suky</i> here?"</p> +</div> + +<p>The Dragoon, next morning, twitched me by the ear, and secretly +whispered into it that he had a pleasant fairing to give his sister; and +so would ride off somewhat early, on the nag he had yesterday purchased +of the horse-dealer. I thanked him beforehand.</p> + +<p>At the appointed hour, all gaily started from the Staple, I excepted; +for I still retained, even in the fairest daylight, that nocturnal +Devil's-Ferment and Decomposition (of my cerebral globe as well as of +the Earth-globe) fermenting in my head; a proof that the night had not +affected me, or exaggerated my fear. The Blind Passenger, whom I liked +so ill, also mounted along with us, and looked at me as usual, but +without effect; for on this occasion, when the destruction not of myself +only, but of worlds, was occupying my thoughts, the Passenger was +nothing to me but a joke and a show: as a man, while his leg is being +sawed off, does not feel the throbbing of his heart; or amid the humming +of cannon, does not guard himself from that of wasps; so to me any +Passenger, with all the fire-brands he might throw into my near or +distant Future, could appear but ludicrous, at a time when I was +reflecting that the "Ferment" might, even in my journey between Flätz +and Neusattel, be, by some American or European man of science, quite +guiltlessly experimenting and decomposing, hit upon by accident and let +loose. The question, nay prize-question now, however, were this: "In how +far, since Lichtenberg's threatening, it may not appear world-murderous +and self-murderous, if enlightened Potentates of chemical nations do not +enjoin it on their chemical subjects, who in their decompositions and +separations may so easily separate the soul from their body, and unite +Heaven with Earth,—not in future to make any other chemical experiments +than those already made, which hitherto have profited the State rather +than harmed it?"</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, I continued sunk in this Domsday of the Ferment with all +my thoughts and meditations, without, in the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> course of our return +from Flätz to Neusattel, suffering or observing anything, except that I +actually arrived there, and at the same time saw the Blind Passenger +once more go his ways.</p> + +<p>My Bergelchen alone had I constantly looked at by the road, partly that +I might still see her, so long as life and eyes endured; partly that, +even at the smallest danger to her, be it a great, or even +all-over-sweeping Deluge and World's-doom, I might die, if not <i>for</i> +her, at least <i>by</i> her, and so united with that stanch true heart, cast +away a plagued and plaguing life, in which, at any rate, not half of my +wishes for her have been fulfilled.</p> + +<p>So then were my Journey over,—crowned with some <i>Historiolæ</i>; and in +time coming, perhaps, still more rewarded through you, ye Friends about +Flätz, if in these pages you shall find any well-ground pruning-knives, +whereby you may more readily out-root the weedy tangle of Lies, which +for the present excludes me from the gallant Schabacker:—Only this +cursed Ferment still sits in my head. Farewell then, so long as there +are Atmospheres left us to breathe. I wish I had that Ferment out of my +head.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:50%;"> +Yours always,</p> +<p style="margin-left:60%;"> +<span class="smcap">Attila Schmelzle</span>. +</p> + +<p>P.S.—My Brother-in-law has kept his promise well, and Berga is dancing. +Particulars in my next!</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + + +<div class="chap"> +<h3><a name="LIFE_OF_QUINTUS_FIXLEIN" id="LIFE_OF_QUINTUS_FIXLEIN"></a>LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN,</h3> + +<p class="center">DOWN TO OUR OWN TIMES;</p> + +<p class="center">EXTRACTED FROM</p> + +<p class="center">FIFTEEN LETTER-BOXES BY JEAN PAUL.</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="LETTER_TO_MY_FRIENDS" id="LETTER_TO_MY_FRIENDS"></a>LETTER TO MY FRIENDS,<br /><br /> + +INSTEAD OF PREFACE.</h4> + + +<p>Merchants, Authors, young Ladies and Quakers, call all persons, with +whom they have any business, Friends; and my readers accordingly are my +table and college Friends. Now, at this time, I am about presenting so +many hundred Friends with just as many hundred gratis copies; and my +Bookseller has orders to supply each on request, after the Fair, with +his copy—in return for a trifling consideration and <i>don gratuit</i> to +printers, pressmen and other such persons. But as I could not, like the +French authors, send the whole Edition to the binder, the blank leaf in +front was necessarily wanting; and thus to write a complimentary word or +two upon it was out of my power. I have therefore caused a few white +leaves to be inserted directly after the title-page: on these we are now +printing.</p> + +<p>My Book contains the Life of a Schoolmaster, extracted and compiled from +various public and private documents. With this Biography, dear Friends, +it is the purpose of the Author not so much to procure you a pleasure, +as to teach you how to enjoy one. In truth, King Xerxes should have +offered his prize-medals not for the invention of new pleasures, but for +a good methodology and directory to use the old ones.</p> + +<p>Of ways for becoming happier (not happy) I could never inquire out more +than three. The first, rather an elevated road, is this: To soar away so +far above the clouds of life, that you see the whole external world, +with its wolf-dens, charnel-houses and thunder-rods, lying far down +beneath you, shrunk into a little child's garden. The second is: Simply +to sink down into this little garden; and there to nestle yourself so +snugly, so homewise, in some furrow, that in looking out from your warm +lark-nest, you likewise can discern no wolf-dens, charnel-houses or +thunder-rods, but only blades and ears, every one of which, for the +nest-bird, is a tree, and a sun-screen, and rain-screen. The third, +finally, which I look upon as the hardest and cunningest, is that of +alternating between the other two.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p> + +<p>This I shall now satisfactorily expound to men at large.</p> + +<p>The Hero, the Reformer, your Brutus, your Howard, your Republican, he +whom civic storm, or genius, poetic storm, impels; in short, every +mortal with a great Purpose, or even a perennial Passion (were it but +that of writing the largest folios), all these men fence themselves in +by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as +the madman in a worse sense does: every <i>fixed</i> idea, such as rules +every genius, every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and +elevates a man above the bed and board of this Earth, above its +Dog's-grottoes, buckthorns and Devil's-walls; like the Bird of Paradise, +he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions, oversleeps +unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of Life, in his long +fair dream of his ideal Motherland,—Alas! to few is this dream granted; +and these few are so often awakened by Flying Dogs!<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> So are the Vampires called.</p></div> + +<p>This skyward track, however, is fit only for the winged portion of the +human species, for the smallest. What can it profit poor quill-driving +brethren, whose souls have not even wing-shells, to say nothing of +wings? Or these tethered persons with the best back, breast and neck +fins, who float motionless in the wicker Fish-box of the State, and are +not allowed to swim, because the Box or State, long ago tied to the +shore, itself swims in the name of the Fishes? To the whole standing and +writing host of heavy-laden State-domestics, Purveyors, Clerks of all +departments, and all the lobsters packed together heels over head into +the Lobster-basket of the Government office-rooms, and for refreshment, +sprinkled over with a few nettles; to these persons, what way of +becoming happy <i>here</i>, can I possibly point out?</p> + +<p>My <i>second</i> merely; and that is as follows: To take a compound +microscope, and with it to discover, and convince themselves, that their +drop of Burgundy is properly a Red Sea, that butterfly-dust is +peacock-feathers, mouldiness a flowery-field, and sand a heap of jewels. +These microscopic recreations are more lasting than all costly +watering-place recreations.—But I must explain these metaphors by new +ones. The purpose, for which I have sent <i>Fixleins Life</i> into the +Messrs. Lübeks' Warehouse, is simply that in this same +<i>Life</i>,—therefore in this Preface it is less needful,—I may show to +the whole Earth that we ought to value little joys more than great ones, +the nightgown more than the dresscoat; that Plutus' heaps are worth less +than his handfuls, the plum than the penny for a rainy day; and that not +great, but little good-haps can make us happy.—Can I accomplish this, I +shall, through means of my Book, bring up for Posterity, a race of men +finding refreshment in all things; in the warmth of their rooms and of +their nightcaps; in their pillows; in the three High Festivals; in mere +Apostles' days; in the Evening Moral Tales of their wives, when these +gentle persons have been forth as ambassadresses visiting some Dowager +Residence, whither the husband could not be persuaded; in the +bloodletting-day of these their news-bringers; in the day of +slaughtering, salting, potting against the rigour of grim winter; and in +all such days. You perceive, my drift is that man must become a little +Tailor-bird, which, not amid the crashing boughs of the storm-tost, +roaring,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> immeasurable tree of Life, but on one of its leaves, sews +itself a nest together, and there lies snug. The most essential sermon +one could preach to our century, were a sermon on the duty of staying at +home.</p> + +<p>The <i>third</i> skyward road is the alternation between the other two. The +foregoing <i>second</i> way is not good enough for man, who here on Earth +should take into his hand not the Sickle only, but also the Plough. The +<i>first</i> is too good for him. He has not always the force, like Rugendas, +in the midst of the Battle to compose Battle-pieces; and, like +Backhuysen in the Shipwreck, to clutch at no board but the drawing-board +to paint it on. And then his <i>pains</i> are not less lasting than his +<i>fatigues</i>. Still oftener is Strength denied its Arena: it is but the +smallest portion of life that, to a working soul, offers Alps, +Revolutions, Rhine-falls, Worms Diets, and Wars with Xerxes; and for the +whole it is better so: the longer portion of life is a field beaten flat +as a threshing-floor, without lofty Gothard Mountains; often it is a +tedious ice-field, without a single glacier tinged with dawn.</p> + +<p>But even by walking, a man rests and recovers himself for climbing; by +little joys and duties, for great. The victorious Dictator must contrive +to plough down his battle Mars-field into a flax and carrot field; to +transform his theatre of war into a parlour theatre, on which his +children may enact some good pieces from the <i>Children's Friend</i>. Can he +accomplish this, can he turn so softly from the path of poetical +happiness into that of household happiness,—then is he little different +from myself, who even now, though modesty might forbid me to disclose +it—who even now, I say, amid the creation of this Letter, have been +enabled to reflect, that when it is done, so also will the Roses and +Elder-berries of pastry be done, which a sure hand is seething in butter +for the Author of this Work.</p> + +<p>As I purpose appending to this Letter a Postscript (at the end of the +Book), I reserve somewhat which I had to say about the Third<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +half-satirical half-philosophical part of the Work, till that +opportunity.</p> + +<p>Here, out of respect for the rights of a Letter, the Author drops his +half anonymity,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> and for the first time subscribes himself with his +<i>whole</i> true name,</p> + +<p class="citation"> +<span class="smcap">Jean Paul Friedrich Richter.</span> +</p> +<p><i>Hof in Voigtland, 29th June 1795.</i> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Fixlein</i> stands in the middle of the volume; preceded by +<i>Einer Mustheil für Madchen</i> (A Jelly-course for Young Ladies); and +followed by <i>Some</i> <span class="smcap">Jus de Tablette</span> <i>for Men</i>. A small portion of the +Preface relating to the first I have already omitted. Neither of the two +has the smallest relation to <i>Fixlein</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>J. P. H., Jean Paul</i> <span class="smcap">Hasus</span>, <i>Jean Paul</i>, &c. have in +succession been Richter's signatures. At present even, his German +designation, either in writing or speech, is never <i>Richter</i>, but <i>Jean +Paul</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></span></p></div> + + + + +<h4>LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN.<br /><br /> + +FIRST LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Dog-days Vacation. Visits. An Indigent of Quality</i>.</p> + + +<p>Egidius Zebedæus Fixlein had just for eight days been Quintus,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> and +fairly commenced his teaching duties, when Fortune tabled out for him +four refreshing courses and collations, besprinkled with flowers and +sugar. These were the four canicular weeks. I could find in my heart, at +this hour, to pat the cranium of that good-man who invented the Dog-days +Vacation: I never go to walk in that season, without thinking how a +thousand down-pressed pedagogic persons are now erecting themselves in +the open air; and the stiff knapsack is lying unbuckled at their feet, +and they can seek whatsoever their soul desires; butterflies,—or roots +of numbers,—or roots of words,—or herbs,—or their native villages.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> For understanding many little hints which occur in this +<i>Life of Fixlein</i>, it will be necessary to bear in mind the following +particulars: A German <i>Gymnasium</i>, in its complete state, appears to +include eight Masters; Rector, Conrector, Subrector, Quintus, Quartus, +Tertius, &c., to the <i>first</i> or lowest. The <i>forms</i>, or classes, again, +are arranged in an inverse order; the <i>Primaner</i> (boys of the <i>Prima</i>, +or first form) being the most advanced, and taught by the Rector; the +<i>Secundaner</i>, by the Conrector, &c., and therefore the <i>Quartaner</i> by +the Quintus. In many cases, it would seem, the number of Teachers is +only six; but, in this Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, we have express +evidence that there was no curtailment.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<p>The last did our Fixlein. He moved not, however, till Sunday,—for you +like to know how holidays taste in the city; and then, in company with +his Shock and a Quintaner, or Fifth-Form boy, who carried his Green +nightgown, he issued through the gate in the morning. The dew was still +lying; and as he reached the back of the gardens, the children of the +Orphan Hospital were uplifting with clear voices their morning hymn. The +city was Flachsenfingen, the village Hukelum, the dog Schil, and the +year of Grace 1791.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Manikin," said he to the Quintaner, for he liked to speak as Love, +children, and the people of Vienna do, in diminutives, "Manikin, give me +the bundle to the village: run about, and seek thee a little bird, as +thou art thyself, and so have something to pet too in vacation-time." +For the manikin was at once his page, lackey, room-comrade, train-bearer +and gentleman-in-waiting; and the Shock also was his manikin.</p> + +<p>He stept slowly along, through the crisped cole-beds, overlaid with +coloured beads of dew; and looked at the bushes, out of which, when the +morning wind bent them asunder, there seemed to start a flight of +jewel-colibri, so brightly did they glitter. From time to time he drew +the bell-rope of his—whistle, that the manikin might not skip away too +far; and he shortened his league and half of road, by measuring it not +in leagues, but in villages. It is more pleasant for pedestrians—for +geographers it is not—to count by wersts than by miles. In walking, our +Quintus farthermore got by heart the few fields, on which the grain was +already reaped.</p> + +<p>But now roam slower, Fixlein, through his Lordship's garden of Hukelum; +not, indeed, lest thy coat sweep away any tulip-stamina, but that thy +good mother may have time to lay her Cupid's-band of black taffeta about +her smooth brow. I am grieved to think my fair readers take it ill of +her, that she means first to iron this same band: they cannot know that +she has no maid; and that today the whole Preceptorial dinner—the money +purveyances the guest has made over to her three days before—is to be +arranged and prepared by herself, without the aid of any Mistress of the +Household whatever; for indeed she belongs to the <i>Tiers Etat</i>, being +neither more nor less than a gardener's widow.</p> + +<p>You can figure how this true, warm-hearted mother may have lain in wait +all morning for her Schoolman, whom she loved as the apple of her eye; +since, on the whole populous Earth, she had not (her first son, as well +as her husband, was dead) any other for her soul, which indeed +overflowed with love; not any other but her Zebedäus. Could she ever +tell you aught about him, I mean aught joyful, without ten times wiping +her eyes? Nay, did she not once divide her solitary Kirmes (or +Churchale) cake between two mendicant students, because she thought +Heaven would punish her for so feasting, while her boy in Leipzig had +nothing to feast on, and must pass the cake-garden like other gardens, +merely smelling at it?</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Dickens! Thou already, Zebedäus!" said the mother, giving an +embarrassed smile, to keep from weeping, as the son, who, had ducked +past the window, and crossed the grassy threshold without knocking, +suddenly entered. For joy she forgot to put the heater into the +smoothing-iron, as her illustrious scholar, amid the loud boiling of the +soup, tenderly kissed her brow, and even said Mamma; a name which +lighted on her breast like downy silk. All the windows were open; and +the garden, with its flower-essences, and bird-music, and +butterfly-collections, was almost half within the room: but I suppose I +have not yet mentioned that the little garden-house, rather a chamber +than a house, was situated on the western cape of the Castle garden. The +owner had graciously allowed the widow to retain this dowager-mansion; +as indeed the mansion would otherwise have stood empty, for he now kept +no gardener.</p> + +<p>But Fixlein, in spite of his joy, could not stay long with her; being +bound for the Church, which, to his spiritual appetite, was at all times +a king's kitchen; a mother's. A sermon pleased him simply because it was +a sermon, and because he himself had once preached one. The mother was +contented he should go: these good women think they enjoy their guests, +if they can only give them aught to enjoy.</p> + +<p>In the choir, this Free-haven and Ethnic Forecourt of stranger +church-goers, he smiled on all parishioners; and, as in his childhood, +standing under the wooden wing of an archangel, he looked down on the +coifed <i>parterre</i>. His young years now enclosed him like children in +their smiling circle; and a long garland wound itself in rings among +them, and by fits they plucked flowers from it, and threw them in his +face: Was it not old Senior Astman that stood there on the pulpit +Parnassus, the man by whom he had been so often flogged, while acquiring +Greek with him from a grammar written in Latin, which he could not +explain, yet was forced to walk by the light of? Stood there not behind +the pulpit-stairs the sacristy-cabin, and in this was there not a +church-library of consequence—no schoolboy could have buckled it wholly +in his book-strap—lying under the minever cover of pastil dust? And did +it not consist of the Polyglott in folio, which he, spurred on by +Pfeiffer's <i>Critica Sacra</i>, had turned up leaf by leaf, in his early +years, excerpting therefrom the <i>literæ inversæ</i>, <i>majusculæ</i>, +<i>minusculæ</i>, and so forth, with an immensity of toil? And could he not +at present, the sooner the more readily, have wished to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> cast this +alphabetic soft-fodder into the Hebrew letter-trough, whereto your +Oriental Rhizophagi (Root-eaters) are tied, especially as here they get +so little vowel hard-fodder to keep them in heart?—Stood there not +close by him the organ-stool, the throne to which, every Apostle-day, +the Schoolmaster had by three nods elevated him, thence to fetch down +the sacred hyssop, the sprinkler of the Church?</p> + +<p>My readers themselves will gather spirits when they now hear that our +Quintus, during the outshaking of the poor-bag, was invited by the +Senior to come over in the afternoon; and to them, it will be little +less gratifying than if he had invited themselves. But what will they +say, when they get home with him to mother and dinner-table, both +already clad in their white Sunday dress; and behold the large cake +which Fräulein Thiennette (Stephanie) has rolled from her peel? In the +first place, however, they will wish to know who <i>she</i> is?</p> + +<p>She is,—for if (according to Lessing) in the very excellence of the +Iliad, we neglect the personalities of its author; the same thing will +apply to the fate of several authors, for instance to my own; but an +authoress of cakes must not be forgotten in the excellence of her +baking,—Thiennette is a poor, indigent, insolvent young lady; has not +much, except years, of which she counts five-and-twenty; no near +relations living now; no acquirements (for in literature she does not +even know <i>Werter</i>) except economical; reads no books, not even mine; +inhabits, that is, watches like a wardeness, quite alone, the thirteen +void disfurnished chambers of the Castle of Hukelum, which belongs to + +the Dragoon Rittmeister Aufhammer, at present resident in his other +mansion of Schadeck: on occasion, she commands and feeds his soccagers +and handmaids; and can write herself By the grace of God,—which, in the +thirteenth century, the country nobles did as well as princes,—for she +lives by the grace of man, at least of woman, the Lady Rittmeisterinn +Aufhammer's grace, who, at all times, blesses those vassals whom her +husband curses. But, in the breast of the orphaned Thiennette lay a +sugared marchpane heart, which, for very love, you could have devoured: +her fate was hard, but her soul was soft; she was modest, courteous and +timid, but too much so;—cheerfully and coldly she received the most +cutting humiliations in Schadeck, and felt no pain, and not till some +days after did she see it all clearly, and then these cuts began sharply +to bleed, and she wept in her loneliness over her lot.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is hard for me to give a light tone, after this deep one, and to add, +that Fixlein had been almost brought up beside her, and that she, his +school-moiety over with the Senior, while the latter was training him +for the dignities of the Third Form, had learned the <i>Verba Anomala</i> +along with him.</p> + +<p>The Achilles'-shield of the cake, jagged and embossed with carved work +of brown scales, was whirling round in the Quintus like a swing-wheel of +hungry and thankful ideas. Of that philosophy which despises eating, and +of that high breeding which wastes it, he had not so much about him as +belongs to the ungratefulness of such cultivated persons; but for his +platter of meat, for his dinner of herbs, he could never give thanks +enough.</p> + +<p>Innocent and contented, the quadruple dinner-party,—for the Shock with +his cover under the stove cannot be omitted,—now began their Feast of +Sweet Bread, their Feast of Honour for Thiennette, their Grove-feast in +the garden. It may truly be a subject of wonder how a man who has not, +like the King of France, four hundred and forty-eight persons (the +hundred and sixty-one <i>Garçons de la Maison-bouche</i> I do not reckon) in +his kitchen, nor a <i>Fruiterie</i> of thirty-one human bipeds, nor a +Pastry-cookery of three-and-twenty, nor a daily expenditure of 387 +livres 21 sous,—how such a man, I say, can eat with any satisfaction. +Nevertheless, to me, a cooking mother is as dear as a whole royal +cooking household, given rather to feed upon me than to feed me.—The +most precious fragments which the Biographer and the World can gather +from this meal, consist of here and there an edifying piece of +table-talk. The mother had much to tell. Thiennette is this night, she +mentions, for the first time, to put on her morning promenade-dress of +white muslin, as also a satin girdle and steel buckle: but, adds she, it +will not sit her; as the Rittmeisterinn (for this lady used to hang her +cast clothes on Thiennette, as Catholics do their cast crutches and +sores on their patron Saints) was much thicker. Good women grudge each +other nothing, save only clothes, husbands and flax. In the fancy of the +Quintus, by virtue of this apparel, a pair of angel pinions were +sprouting forth from the shoulder-blades of Thiennette: for him a +garment was a sort of hollow half-man, to whom only the nobler parts and +the first principles were wanting: he honoured these wrappages and hulls +of our interior, not as an Elegant, or a Critic of Beauty, but because +it was not possible for him to despise aught which he saw others +honouring. Farther, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> good mother read to him, as it were, the +monumental inscription of his father, who had sunk into the arms of +Death in the thirty-second year of his age, from a cause which I explain +not here, but in a future Letter-box, having too much affection for the +reader. Our Quintus could not sate himself with hearing of his father.</p> + +<p>The fairest piece of news was, that Fräulein Thiennette had sent word +today: "he might visit Her Ladyship tomorrow, as My Lord, his godfather, +was to be absent in town." This, however, I must explain. Old Aufhammer +was called <i>Egidius</i>, and was Fixlein's godfather: but he,—though the +Rittmeisterinn duly covered the cradle of the child with nightly +offerings, with flesh-tithes and grain-tithes,—had frugally made him no +christening present, except that of his name, which proved to be the +very balefulest. For, our <i>Egidius</i> Fixlein, with his Shock, which, by +reason of the French convulsions, had, in company with other emigrants, +run off from Nantes, was but lately returned from college,—when he and +his dog, as ill luck would have it, went to walk in the Hukelum wood. +Now, as the Quintus was ever and anon crying out to his attendant: +"Coosh, Schil" (<i>Couche, Gilles</i>), it must apparently have been the +Devil that had just then planted the Lord of Aufhammer among the trees +and bushes in such a way, that this whole travestying and docking of his +name,—for Gilles means Egidius,—must fall directly into his ear. +Fixlein could neither speak French, nor any offence to mortal: he knew +not head or tail of what <i>couche</i> signified; a word, which, in Paris, +even the plebeian dogs are now in the habit of saying to their <i>valets +de chiens</i>. But there were three things which Von Aufhammer never +recalled; his error, his anger and his word. The provokee, therefore, +determined that the plebeian provoker and honour-stealer should never +more speak to him, or—get a doit from him.</p> + +<p>I return. After dinner he gazed out of the little window into the +garden, and saw his path of life dividing into four branches, leading +towards just as many skyward Ascensions; towards the Ascension into the +Parsonage, and that into the Castle to Thiennette, for this day; and +towards the third into Schadeck for the morrow; and lastly, into every +house in Hukelum as the fourth. And now when the mother had long enough +kept cheerfully gliding about on tiptoe, "not to disturb him in studying +his Latin Bible" (the <i>Vulgata</i>), that is, in reading the +<i>Litteratur-zeitung</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> he at last rose to his own feet; and the humble +joy of the mother ran long after the courageous son, who dared to go +forth and speak to a Senior, quite unappalled. Yet it was not without +reverence that he entered the dwelling of his old, rather gray than +bald-headed teacher, who was not only Virtue itself, but also Hunger, +eating frequently, and with the appetite of Pharaoh's lean kine. A +schoolman, that expects to become a professor, will scarcely deign to +cast an eye on a pastor; but one, who is himself looking up to a +parsonage as to his working-house and breeding-house, knows how to value +such a character. The new parsonage,—as if it had, like a <i>Casa Santa</i>, +come flying out of Erlangen, or the Berlin Friedrichs-strasse, and +alighted in Hukelum,—was for the Quintus a Temple of the Sun, and the +Senior a Priest of the Sun. To be Parson there himself, was a thought +overlaid with virgin honey; such a thought as occurs but one other time +in History, namely, in the head of Hannibal, when he projected stepping +over the Alps, that is to say, over the threshold of Rome.</p> + +<p>The landlord and his guest formed an excellent <i>bureau d'esprit</i>: people +of office, especially of the same office, have more to tell each other, +namely, their own history, than your idle May-chafers and +Court-celestials, who must speak only of other people's.—The Senior +made a soft transition from his iron-ware (in the stable furniture), to +the golden age of his Academic life, of which such people like as much +to think, as poets do of their childhood. So good as he was, he still +half joyfully recollected that he had once been less so: but joyful +remembrances of wrong actions are their half repetition, as repentant +remembrances of good ones are their half abolishment.</p> + +<p>Courteously and kindly did Zebedäus (who could not even enter in his +Notebook the name of a person of quality without writing an H. for Herr +before it) listen to the Academic Saturnalia of the old gentleman, who +in Wittenberg had toped as well as written, and thirsted not more for +the Hippocrene than for Guk-guk.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> A university beer.</p></div> + +<p>Herr Jerusalem has observed, that the barbarism which often springs up, +close on the brightest efflorescence of the sciences, is a sort of +strengthening mudbath, good for averting the over-refinement, wherewith +such efflorescence always threatens us. I believe that a man who +considers how high the sciences have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> mounted with our upper +classes,—for instance with every Patrician's son in Nürnberg, to whom +the public must present 1000 florins for studying with,—I believe that +such a man will not grudge the Son of the Muses a certain barbarous +Middle-age (the Burschen or Student Life, as it is called), which may +again so case-harden him that his refinement shall not go beyond the +limits. The Senior, while in Wittenberg, had protected the one hundred +and eighty Academic Freedoms,—so many of them has Petrus Rebuffus +summed up,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>—against prescription, and lost none except his moral +one, of which truly a man, even in a convent, can seldom make much. This +gave our Quintus courage to relate certain pleasant somersets of his +own, which at Leipzig, under the Incubus-pressure of poverty, he had +contrived to execute. Let us hear him: His landlord, who was at the same +time Professor and Miser, maintained in his enclosed court a whole +community of hens: Fixlein, in company with three room-mates, without +difficulty mastered the rent of a chamber, or closet: in general their +main equipments, like Phœnixes, existed but in the singular number; +one bed, in which always the one pair slept before midnight, the other +after midnight, like nocturnal watchmen; one coat, in which one after +the other they appeared in public, and which, like a watch-coat, was the +national uniform of the company; and several other <i>ones</i>, Unities both +of Interest and Place. Nowhere can you collect the stress-memorials and +siege-medals of Poverty more pleasantly and philosophically than at +College; the Academic burgher exhibits to us how many humorists and +Diogeneses Germany has in it. Our Unitarians had just one thing four +times, and that was hunger. The Quintus related, perhaps with a too +pleasurable enjoyment of the recollection, how one of this famishing +<i>coro</i> invented means of appropriating the Professor's hens as just +tribute, or subsidies. He said (he was a Jurist), they must once for all +borrow a legal fiction from the Feudal code, and look on the Professor +as the soccage tenant, to whom the usufruct of the hen-yard and +hen-house belonged; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> on themselves, as the feudal superiors of the +same, to whom accordingly the vassal was bound to pay his feudal dues. +And now, that the Fiction might follow Nature, continued he,—"<i>fictio +sequitur naturam</i>,"—it behoved them to lay hold of said Yule-hens, by +direct personal distraint. But into the court-yard there was no getting. +The feudalist, therefore, prepared a fishing-line; stuck a bread-pill on +the hook, and lowered his fishing-tackle, anglerwise, down into the +court. In a few seconds the barb stuck in a hen's throat, and the hen +now communicating with its feudal superior, could silently, like ships +by Archimedes, be heaved aloft to the hungry air-fishing society, where, +according to circumstances, the proper feudal name and title of +possession failed not to be awaiting her: for the updrawn fowls were now +denominated Christmas-fowls, now Forest-hens, Bailiff-hens, Pentecost +and Summer-hens. "I begin," said the angling lord of the manor, "with +taking <i>Rutcher-dues</i>, for so we call the triple and quintuple of the +original quit-rent, when the vassal, as is the case here, has long +neglected payment." The Professor, like any other prince, observed with +sorrow the decreasing population of his hen-yard, for his subjects, like +the Hebrews, were dying by enumeration. At last he had the happiness, +while reading his lecture,—he was just come to the subject of <i>Forest +Salt and Coin Regalities</i>,—to descry, through the window of his +auditorium, a quit-rent hen suspended, like Ignatius Loyola in prayer, +or Juno in her punishment, in middle air: he followed the +incomprehensible direct ascension of the aeronautic animal, and at last +descried at the upper window the attracting artist, and +animal-magnetiser, who had drawn his lot for dinner from the hen-yard +below. Contrary to all expectation, he terminated this fowling sport +sooner than his Lecture on Regalities.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> From Peter I will copy one or two of these privileges; the +whole of which were once, at the origin of universities, in full force. +For instance, a student can compel a citizen to let him his house and +his horse; an injury, done even to his relations, must be made good +fourfold; he is not obliged to fulfil the written commands of the Pope; +the neighbourhood must indemnify him for what is stolen from him; if he +and a non-student are living at variance, the latter only can be +expelled from the boarding-house; a Doctor is obliged to support a poor +student; if he is killed, the next ten houses are laid under interdict +till the murderer is discovered; his legacies are not abridged by +<i>falcidia</i>, &c. &c.</p></div> + +<p>Fixlein walked home, amid the vesperal melodies of the steeple +sounding-holes; and by the road, courteously took off his hat before the +empty windows of the Castle: houses of quality were to him like persons +of quality, as in India the Pagoda at once represents the temple and the +god. To the mother he brought feigned compliments, which she repaid with +authentic ones; for this afternoon she had been over, with her +historical tongue and nature-interrogating eye, visiting the +white-muslin Thiennette. The mother was wont to show her every spare +penny which he dropped into her large empty purse, and so raise him in +the good graces of the Fräulein; for women feel their hearts much more +attracted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> towards a son, who tenderly reserves for a mother some of his +benefits, than we do to a daughter anxiously caring for her father; +perhaps from a hundred causes, and this among the rest, that in their +experience of sons and husbands they are more used to find these persons +mere six-feet thunder-clouds, forked waterspouts, or even reposing +tornadoes.</p> + +<p>Blessed Quintus! on whose Life this other distinction like an order of +nobility does also shine, that thou canst tell it over to thy mother; +as, for example, this past afternoon in the parsonage. Thy joy flows +into another heart, and streams back from it, redoubled, into thy own. +There is a closer approximating of hearts, and also of sounds, than that +of the <i>Echo</i>; the highest approximation melts Tone and Echo into +<i>Resonance</i> together.</p> + +<p>It is historically certain that both of them supped this evening; and +that instead of the whole dinner fragments which tomorrow might +themselves represent a dinner, nothing but the cake-offering or pudding +was laid upon the altar of the table. The mother, who for her own child +would willingly have neglected not herself only, but all other people, +now made a motion that to the Quintaner, who was sporting out of doors +and baiting a bird instead of himself, there should no crum of the +precious pastry be given, but only table-bread without the crust. But +the Schoolman had a Christian disposition, and said that it was Sunday, +and the young man liked something delicate to eat as well as he. +Fixlein,—the counterpart of great men and geniuses,—was inclined to +treat, to gift, to gratify a serving house-mate, rather than a man who +is for the first time passing through the gate, and at the next +post-stage will forget both his hospitable landlord and the last +postmaster. On the whole, our Quintus had a touch of honour in him, and +notwithstanding his thrift and sacred regard for money, he willingly +gave it away in cases of honour, and unwillingly in cases of +overpowering sympathy, which too painfully filled the cavities of his +heart, and emptied those of his purse. Whilst the Quintaner was +exercising the <i>jus compascui</i> on the cake, and six arms were peacefully +resting on Thiennette's free-table, Fixlein read to himself and the +company the Flachsenfingen Address-calendar; any higher thing, except +Meusel's <i>Gelehrtes Deutschland</i>,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> he could not figure: the +Kammerherrs and Raths of the Calendar went tickling over his tongue like +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> raisins of the cake; and of the more rich church-livings he, by +reading, as it were levied a tithe.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Literary Germany</i>; a work (I believe of no great merit) +which Richter often twitches in the same style.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<p>He purposely remained his own Edition in Sunday Wove-paper; I mean, he +did not lay away his Sunday coat, even when the Prayer-bell tolled; for +he had still much to do.</p> + +<p>After supper, he was just about visiting the Fräulein, when he descried +her in person, like a lily dipt in the red twilight, in the +Castle-garden, whose western limit his house constituted, the southern +one being the Chinese wall of the Castle.... By the way, how I got to +the knowledge of all this, what Letter-boxes are, whether I myself was +ever there, &c. &c.,—the whole of this shall, upon my life, be soon and +faithfully communicated to the reader, and that too in the present Book.</p> + +<p>Fixlein hopped forth like a Will-o'-wisp into the garden, whose +flower-perfume was mingling with his supper-perfume. No one bowed lower +to a nobleman than he, not out of plebeian servility, nor of +self-interested cringing, but because he thought "a nobleman was a +nobleman." But in this case his bow, instead of falling forwards, fell +obliquely to the right, as it were after his hat: for he had not risked +taking a stick with him; and hat and stick were his proppage and +balance-wheel, in short, his bowing-gear, without which it was out of +his power to produce any courtly bow, had you offered him the High +Church of Hamburg for so doing. Thiennette's mirthfulness soon unfolded +his crumpled soul into straight form, and into the proper tone. He +delivered her a long neat Thanksgiving and Harvest sermon for the scaly +cake; which appeared to her at once kind and tedious. Young women +without the polish of high life reckon tedious pedantry, merely like +snuffing, one of the necessary ingredients of a man: they reverence us +infinitely; and as Lambert could never speak to the King of Prussia, by +reason of his sun-eyes, except in the dark, so they, I believe, often +like better,—also by reason of our sublime air,—if they can catch us +in the dark too. <i>Him</i> Thiennette edified by the Imperial History of +Herr von Aufhammer and Her Ladyship his spouse, who meant to put him, +the Quintus, in her will: <i>her</i> he edified by his Literary History, as +relating to himself and the Subrector; how, for instance, he was at +present vicariating in the Second Form, and ruling over scholars as long +in stature as himself. And thus did the two in happiness, among red +bean-blossoms, red may-chafers, before the red of the twilight burning +lower and lower on the horizon, walk to and fro in the garden;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> and turn +always with a smile as they approached the head of the ancient +gardeneress, standing like a window-bust through the little lattice, +which opened in the bottom of a larger one.</p> + +<p>To me it is incomprehensible he did not fall in love. I know his +reasons, indeed: in the first place, she had nothing; secondly, he had +nothing, and school-debts to boot; thirdly, her genealogical tree was a +boundary-tree and warning-post; fourthly, his hands were tied up by +another nobler thought, which, for good cause, is yet reserved from the +reader. Nevertheless—Fixlein! I durst not have been in thy place! I +should have looked at her, and remembered her virtues and our +school-years, and then have drawn forth my too fusible heart, and +presented it to her as a bill of exchange, or insinuated it as a +summons. For I should have considered that she resembled a nun in two +senses, in her good heart and in her good pastry; that, in spite of her +intercourse with male vassals, she was no Charles Genevieve Louise +Auguste Timothé Eon de Beaumont,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> but a smooth, fair-haired, +white-capped dove; that she sought more to please her own sex than ours; +that she showed a melting heart, not previously borrowed from the +Circulating Library, in tears, for which in her innocence she rather +took shame than credit.—At the very first cheapening, I should, on +these grounds, have been out with my heart.—Had I fully reflected, +Quintus! that I knew her as myself; that her hands and mine (to wit, had +I been thou) had both been guided by the same Senior to Latin +penmanship; that we two, when little children, had kissed each other +before the glass, to see whether the two image-children would do it +likewise in the mirror; that often we had put hands of both sexes into +the same muff, and there played with them in secret; had I, lastly, +considered that we were here standing before the glass-house, now +splendent in the enamel of twilight, and that on the cold panes of this +glass-house we two (she within, I without) had often pressed our warm +cheeks together, parted only by the thickness of the glass,—then had I +taken this poor gentle soul, pressed asunder by Fate, and seeing, amid +her thunder-clouds, no higher elevation to part them and protect her +than the grave, and had drawn her to my own soul, and warmed her on my +heart, and encompassed her about with my eyes.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See <i>Schmelzle's Journey</i>, <a href="#Page_284">p. 284.</a>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<p>In truth, the Quintus would have done so too, had not the +above-mentioned nobler thought, which I yet disclose not, kept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> him +back. Softened, without knowing the cause—(accordingly he gave his +mother a kiss)—and blessed without having had a literary conversation; +and dismissed with a freight of humble compliments, which he was to +disload on the morrow before the Dragoon Rittmeisterinn, he returned to +his little cottage, and looked yet a long while out of its dark windows, +at the light ones of the Castle. And then, when the first quarter of the +moon was setting, that is, about midnight, he again, in the cool sigh of +a mild, fanning, moist and directly heart-addressing night-breeze, +opened the eyelids of a sight already sunk in dreaming....</p> + +<p>Sleep, for today thou hast done naught ill! I, whilst the drooping shut +flower-bell of thy spirit sinks on thy pillow, will look forth into the +breezy night over thy morning footpath, which, through the translucent +little wood, is to lead thee to Schadeck, to thy patroness. All +prosperity attend thee, thou foolish Quintus!—</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="SECOND_LETTER-BOX" id="SECOND_LETTER-BOX"></a>SECOND LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Frau von Aufhammer. Childhood-Resonance. Authorcraft.</i></p> + + +<p>The early piping which the little thrush last night adopted by the +Quintaner from its nest, started for victual about two o'clock, soon +drove our Quintus into his clothes; whose calender-press and +parallel-ruler the hands of his careful mother had been, for she would +not send him to the Rittmeisterinn "like a runagate dog." The Shock was +incarcerated, the Quintaner taken with him, as likewise many wholesome +rules from Mother Fixlein, how to conduct himself towards the +Rittmeisterinn. But the son answered: "Mamma, when a man has been in +company, like me, with high people, with a Fräulein Thiennette, he soon +knows whom he is speaking to, and what polished manners and Saver di +veaver (<i>Savoir vivre</i>) require."</p> + +<p>He arrived with the Quintaner, and green fingers (dyed with the leaves +he had plucked on the path), and with a half-nibbled rose between his +teeth, in presence of the sleek lackeys of Schadeck.—If women are +flowers,—though as often silk and Italian and gum-flowers as botanical +ones,—then was Frau von Aufhammer a ripe flower, with (adipose) +neck-bulb, and tuberosity (of lard). Already, in the half of her body, +cut away from life by the apoplexy, she lay upon her lard-pillow but as +on a softer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> grave: nevertheless, the portion of her that remained was +at once lively, pious and proud. Her heart was a flowing cornucopia to +all men, yet this not from philanthropy, but from rigid devotion: the +lower classes she assisted, cherished and despised, regarding nothing in +them, except it were their piety. She received the bowing Quintus with +the back-bowing air of a patroness; yet she brightened into a look of +kindliness at his disloading of the compliments from Thiennette.</p> + +<p>She began the conversation, and long continued it alone, and said,—yet +without losing the inflation of pride from her countenance: "She should +soon die; but the god-children of her husband she would remember in her +will." Farther, she told him directly in the face, which stood there all +over-written with the Fourth Commandment before her, that "he must not +build upon a settlement in Hukelum; but to the Flachsenfingen +Conrectorate (to which the Bürgermeister and Council had the right of +nomination), she hoped to promote him, as it was from the then +Bürgermeister that she bought her coffee, and from the Town-Syndic (he +drove a considerable wholesale and retail trade in Hamburg candles) that +she bought both her wax and tallow lights."</p> + +<p>And now by degrees he arrived at his humble petition, when she asked him +sick-news of Senior Astmann, who guided himself more by Luther's +Catechism than by the Catechism of Health. She was Astmann's patroness +in a stricter than ecclesiastical sense; and she even confessed that she +would soon follow this, true shepherd of souls, when she heard, here at +Shadeck, the sound of his funeral-bell. Such strange chemical affinities +exist between our dross and our silver veins; as, for example, here +between Pride and Love: and I could wish that we would pardon this +hypostatic union in all persons, as readily as we do it in the fair, +who, with all their faults, are nevertheless by us,—as, according to Du +Fay, iron, though mixed with any other metal, is, by the +magnet,—attracted and held fast.</p> + +<p>Supposing even that the Devil <i>had</i>, in some idle minute, sown a handful +or two of the seeds of Envy in our Quintus' soul, yet they had not +sprouted; and today especially they did not, when he heard the praises +of a man who had been his teacher, and who,—what he reckoned a Titulado +of the Earth, not from vanity but from piety,—was a clergyman. So much, +however, is, according to History, not to be denied: That he now +straight-way came forth with his petition to the noble lady, signifying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +that "indeed he would cheerfully content himself for a few years in the +school; but yet in the end he longed to be in some small quiet priestly +office." To her question, "But was he orthodox?" he answered, that "he +hoped so; he had in Leipzig, not only attended all the public lectures +of Dr. Burscher, but also had taken private instructions from several +sound teachers of the faith, well knowing that the Consistorium, in its +examinations as to purity of doctrine, was now more strict than +formerly."</p> + +<p>The sick lady required him to make a proof-shot, namely, to administer +to her a sick-bed exhortation. By Heaven! he administered to her one of +the best. Her pride of birth now crouched before his pride of office and +priesthood; for though he could not, with the Dominican monk, Alanus de +Rupe, believe that a priest was greater than God, inasmuch as the latter +could only make a World, but the former a God (in the mass); yet he +could not but fall-in with Hostiensis, who shows that the priestly +dignity is seven thousand six hundred and forty-four times greater than +the kingly, the Sun being just so many times greater than the Moon.—But +a Rittmeisterinn—<i>she</i> shrinks into absolute nothing before a parson.</p> + +<p>In the servants' hall he applied to the lackeys for the last annual +series of the <i>Hamburg Political Journal</i>; perceiving, that with these +historical documents of the time, they were scandalously papering the +buttons of travelling raiment. In gloomy harvest evenings, he could now +sit down and read for himself what good news were transpiring in the +political world—twelve months ago.</p> + +<p>On a Triumphal Car, full-laden with laurel, and to which Hopes alone +were yoked, he drove home at night, and by the road advised the +Quintaner not to be puffed up with any earthly honour, but silently to +thank God, as himself was now doing.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The thickset blooming grove of his four canicular weeks, and the flying +tumult of blossoms therein, are already painted on three of the sides. I +will now clutch blindfold into his days, and bring out one of them: one +smiles and sends forth its perfumes like another.</p> + +<p>Let us take, for instance, the Saint's day of his mother, <i>Clara</i>, the +twelfth of August. In the morning, he had perennial, fireproof joys, +that is to say, Employments. For he was writing, as I am doing. Truly, +if Xerxes proposed a prize for the invention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> of a new pleasure, any man +who had sat down to write his thoughts on the prize-question, had the +new pleasure already among his fingers. I know only one thing sweeter +than making a book, and that is, to project one. Fixlein used to write +little works, of the twelfth part of an alphabet in size, which in their +manuscript state he got bound by the bookbinder in gilt boards, and +betitled with printed letters, and then inserted them among the literary +ranks of his book-board. Every one thought they were novelties printed +in writing types. He had laboured,—I shall omit his less interesting +performances,—at a <i>Collection of Errors of the Press</i>, in German +writings: he compared <i>Errata</i> with each other; showed which occurred +most frequently; observed that important results were to be drawn from +this, and advised the reader to draw them.</p> + +<p>Moreover, he took his place among the German <i>Masorites</i>. He observes +with great justice in his Preface: "The Jews had their <i>Masora</i> to show, +which told them how often every letter was to be found in their Bible; +for example, the Aleph (the A) 42,377 times; how many verses there are +in which all the consonants appear (there are 26 verses), or only eighty +(there are 3); how many verses we have into which 42 words and 160 +consonants enter (there is just one, Jeremiah xxi. 7); which is the +middle letter in certain books (in the Pentateuch, it is in Leviticus +xi. 42, the noble V<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>), or in the whole Bible itself. But where have +we Christians any similar Masora for Luther's Bible to show? Has it been +accurately investigated which is the middle word, or the middle letter +here, which vowel appears seldomest, and how often each vowel? Thousands +of Bible-Christians go out of the world, without ever knowing that the +German A occurs 323,015 times (therefore above 7 times oftener than the +Hebrew one) in their Bible."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> As in the State.—V. or Von, <i>de</i>, <i>of</i>, being the symbol +of the nobility, the middle order of the State.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>I could wish that inquirers into Biblical Literature among our Reviewers +would publicly let me know, if on a more accurate summation they find +this number incorrect.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> In Erlang, my petition has been granted. The <i>Bible +Institution</i> of that town have found instead of the 116,301 A's, which +Fixlein at first pretended with such certainty to find in the +Bible-books (which false number was accordingly given in the first +Edition of this Work, p. 81), the above-mentioned 323,015; which +(uncommonly singular) is precisely the sum of all the letters in the +Koran put together. See <i>Lüdeke's Beschr. des Türk. Reichs</i> (Lüdeke's +Description of the Turkish Empire. New edition, 1780).</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>Much also did the Quintus <i>collect</i>: he had a fine <i>Almanac Collection</i>, +a <i>Catechism</i> and <i>Pamphlet Collection</i>; also a <i>Collection of +Advertisements</i>, which he began, is not so incomplete as you most +frequently see such things. He puts high value on his <i>Alphabetical +Lexicon of German Subscribers for Books</i>, where my name also occurs +among the J's.</p> + +<p>But what he liked best to produce were Schemes of Books. Accordingly, he +sewed together a large work, wherein he merely advised the Learned of +things they ought to introduce in Literary History, which History he +rated some ells higher than Universal or Imperial History. In his +Prolegomena to this performance, he transiently submitted to the +Literary republic that Hommel had given a register of Jurists who were +sons of wh—, of others who had become Saints; that Baillet enumerates +the Learned who <i>meant</i> to write something; and Ancillon those who wrote +nothing at all; and the Lübeck Superintendent Götze, those who were +shoemakers, those who were drowned; and Bernhard those whose fortunes +and history before birth were interesting. This (he could now continue) +should, as it seems, have excited us to similar muster-rolls and +matriculations of other kinds of Learned; whereof he proposed a few: for +example, of the Learned, who were unlearned; of those who were entire +rascals; of such as wore their own hair,—of cue-preachers, +cue-psalmists, cue-annalists, and so forth; of the Learned who had worn +black leather breeches, of others who had worn rapiers; of the Learned +who had died in their eleventh year,—in their twentieth—twenty-first, +&c.,—in their hundred and fiftieth, of which he knew no instance, +unless the Beggar Thomas Parr might be adduced; of the Learned who wrote +a more abominable hand than the other Learned (whereof we know only +Rolfinken and his letters, which were as long as his hands<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>); or of +the Learned who had clipt nothing from each other but the beard (whereof +no instance is known, save that of Philelphus and Timotheus<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>).</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Paravicini Singularia de viris claris. Cent. I. 2.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Ejusd. Cent. II.</i> Philelphus quarrelled with the Greek +about the quantity of a syllable: the prize or bet was the beard of the +vanquished. Timotheus lost his.</p></div> + +<p>Such by-studies did he carry on along with his official labours: but I +think the State in viewing these matters is actually mad; it compares +the man who is great in Philosophy and Belles Lettres at the expense of +his jog-trot officialities, to <i>concert-clocks</i>, which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> though striking +their hours in flute-melodies, are worse time-keepers than your gross +stupid <i>steeple-clocks</i>.</p> + +<p>To return to St. Clara's day. Fixlein, after such mental exertions, +bolted out under the music-bushes and rustling-trees; and returned not +again out of warm Nature, till plate and chair were already placed at +the table. In the course of the repast, something occurred which a +Biographer must not omit: for his mother had, by request, been wont to +map out for him, during the process of mastication, the chart of his +child's-world, relating all the traits which in any way prefigured what +he had now grown to. This perspective sketch of his early Past, he +committed to certain little leaves, which merit our undivided attention. +For such leaves exclusively, containing scenes, acts, plays of his +childhood, he used chronologically to file and arrange in separate +drawers in a little child's-desk of his; and thus to divide his +Biography, as Moser did his Publicistic Materials, into separate +<i>letter-boxes</i>. He had boxes or drawers for memorial-letters of his +twelfth, of his thirteenth, fourteenth, &c. of his twenty-first year, +and so on. Whenever he chose to conclude a day of pedagogic drudgery by +an evening of peculiar rest, he simply pulled out a letter-drawer, a +register-bar in his Life-hand-organ, and recollected the whole.</p> + +<p>And here must I in reference to those reviewing Mutes, who may be for +casting the noose of strangulation round my neck, most particularly beg, +that, before doing so on account of my Chapters being called +Letter-boxes, they would have the goodness to look whose blame it was, +and to think whether I could possibly help it, seeing the Quintus had +divided his Biography into such Boxes himself: they have Christian +bowels.</p> + +<p>But about his elder brother he put no saddening question to his mother: +this poor boy a peculiar Fate had laid hold of, and with all his genial +endowment, dashed to pieces on the iceberg of Death. For he chanced to +leap on an ice-board that had jammed itself among several others; but +these recoiled, and his shot forth with him; melted away as it floated +under his feet, and so sunk his heart of fire amid the ice and waves. It +grieved his mother that he was not found, that her heart had not been +harrowed by the look of the swoln corpse.—O good mother, rather thank +God for it!—</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>After breakfast, to fortify himself with new vigour for his desk,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> he +for some time strolled idly over the house, and, like a Police +Fire-inspector, visited all the nooks of his cottage, to gather from +them here and there a live ember from the ash-covered rejoicing-fire of +his childhood. He mounted to the garret, to the empty bird-coops of his +father, who in winter had been a birder; and he transiently reviewed the +lumber of his old playthings, which were lying in the netted enclosure +of a large canary breeding-cage. In the minds of children, it is regular +<i>little</i> forms, such as those of balls and dies, that impress and +express themselves most forcibly. From this may the reader explain to +himself Fixlein's delight in the red acorn-blockhouse, in the sparwork +glued together out of white chips and husks of potato-plums, in the +cheerful glass-house of a cube-shaped lantern, and other the like +products of his early architecture. The following, however, I explain +quite differently: he had ventured, without leave given from any lord of +the manor, to build a clay house; not for cottagers, but for flies; and +which, therefore, you could readily enough have put in your pocket. This +fly-hospital had its glass windows, and a red coat of colouring, and +very many alcoves, and three balconies: balconies, as a sort of house +within a house, he had loved from of old so much, that he could scarcely +have liked Jerusalem well, where (according to Lightfoot) no such thing +is permitted to be built. From the glistening eyes, with which the +architect had viewed his tenantry creeping about the windows or feeding +out of the sugar-trough,—for, like the Count St. Germain, they ate +nothing but sugar,—from this joy an adept in the art of education might +easily have prophesied his turn for household contraction; to his fancy, +in those times, even gardeners'-huts were like large waste Arks and +Halls, and nothing bigger than such a fly-Louvre seemed a true, snug, +citizen's-house. He now felt and handled his old high child's-stool, +which had, in former days, resembled the <i>Sedes Exploratoria</i> of the +Pope; he gave his child's-coach a tug and made it run; but he could not +understand what balsam and holiness so much distinguished it from all +other child's-coaches. He wondered that the real sports of children +should not so delight him, as the emblems of these sports, when the +child that had carried them on was standing grown up to manhood in his +presence.</p> + +<p>Before one article in the house he stood heart-melted and sad; before a +little angular clothes-press, which was no higher than my table, and +which had belonged to his poor drowned brother.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> When the boy with the +key of it was swallowed by the waves, the excruciated mother had made a +vow that this toy-press of his should never be broken up by violence. +Most probably there is nothing in it, but the poor soul's playthings. +Let us look away from this bloody urn.——</p> + +<p>Bacon reckons the remembrances of childhood among wholesome medicinal +things; naturally enough, therefore, they acted like a salutary +digestive on the Quintus. He could now again betake him with new heart +to his desk, and produce something quite peculiar—petitions for +church-livings. He took the Address-calendar, and for every country +parish that he found in it, got a petition in readiness; which he then +laid aside, till such time as the present incumbent should decease. For +Hukelum alone he did not solicit.—It is a pretty custom in +Flachsenfingen that for every office which is vacant, you are required, +if you want it, to sue. As the higher use of Prayer consists not in its +fulfilment, but in its accustoming you to pray; so likewise petitionary +papers ought to be given in, not indeed that you may get the +office,—this nothing but your money can do,—but that you may learn to +write petitions. In truth, if among the Calmucks, the turning of a +calabash<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> stands in the place of Prayer, a slight movement of the +purse may be as much as if you supplicated in words.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Their prayer-barrel, Kürüdu, is a hollowed shell, a +calabash, full of unrolled formulas of prayer; they sway it from side to +side, and then it works. More philosophically viewed, since in prayer +the feeling only is of consequence, it is much the same whether this +express itself by motion of the mouth or of the calabash.</p></div> + +<p>Towards evening—it was Sunday—he went out roving over the village; he +pilgrimed to his old sporting-places, and to the common where he had so +often driven his snails to pasture; visited the peasant, who, from +school-times upwards, had been wont, to the amazement of the rest, to +<i>thou</i><a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> him; went, an Academic Tutor, to the Schoolmaster; then to +the Senior; then to the Episcopal-barn or church. This last no mortal +understands, till I explain it. The case was this: some three-and-forty +years ago,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> a fire had destroyed the church (not the steeple), the +parsonage, and—what was not to be replaced—the church-records. (For +this reason, it was only the smallest portion of the Hukelum people that +knew exactly how old they were; and the memory of our Quintus himself +vibrated between adopting the thirty-third year and the thirty-second.) +In consequence, the preaching had now to be carried on where formerly +there had been thrashing; and the seed of the divine word to be turned +over on the same threshing-floor with natural corn-seed. The Chanter and +the Schoolboys took up the threshing-floor; the female +mother-church-people stood on the one sheaves-loft, the Schadeck +womankind on the other; and their husbands clustered pyramidically, like +groschen and farthing-gallery men, about the barn-stairs; and far up on +the straw-loft, mixed souls stood listening. A little flute was their +organ, an upturned beer-cask their altar, round which they had to walk. +I confess, I myself could have preached in such a place, not without +humour. The Senior (at that time still a Junior), while the parsonage +was building, dwelt and taught in the Castle: it was here, accordingly, +that Fixlein had learned the <i>Irregular Verbs</i> with Thiennette.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> In German, as in some other languages, the common mode of +address is by the <i>third</i> person: plural, it indicates respect; +singular, command: the <i>second</i> person is also used; plural, it +generally denotes indifference; singular, great familiarity, and +sometimes its product, contempt. <i>Dutzenfreund, Thouing-friend</i>, is the +strictest term of intimacy; and among the wild <i>Burschen</i> (Students) +many a duel (happily, however, often ending like the <i>Polemo-Midinia</i> in +<i>one</i> drop of blood) has been fought, in consequence of saying <i>Du</i> +(thou) and <i>Sie</i> (they) in the wrong place.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>These voyages of discovery completed, our Hukelum voyager could still, +after evening prayers, pick leaf-insects, with Thiennette, from the +roses; worms from the beds, and a Heaven of joy from every minute. Every +dew-drop was coloured as with oil of cloves and oil of gladness; every +star was a sparkle from the sun of happiness; and in the closed heart of +the maiden, there lay near to him, behind a little wall of separation +(as near to the Righteous man behind the thin wall of Life), an +outstretched blooming Paradise.... I mean, she loved him a little.</p> + +<p>He might have known it, perhaps. But to his compressed delight he gave +freer vent, as he went to bed, by early recollections on the stair. For +in his childhood he had been accustomed, by way of evening-prayer, to go +over, under his coverlid, as it were, a rosary, including fourteen Bible +Proverbs, the first verse of the Psalm, "All people that on Earth," the +Tenth Commandment, and, lastly, a long blessing. To get the sooner done +with it, he had used to begin his devotion, not only on the stair, but +before leaving that place where Alexander studied men, and Semler stupid +books. Moored in the haven of the down-waves, he was already over with +his evening supplication; and could now,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> without farther exertion, shut +his eyes and plump into sleep.——Thus does there lurk, in the smallest +<i>homunculus</i>, the model of—the Catholic Church.</p> + +<p>So far the Dog-days of Quintus Zebedäus Egidius Fixlein.—I, for the +second time, close a Chapter of this <i>Life</i>, as Life itself is closed, +with a sleep.</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="THIRD_LETTER-BOX" id="THIRD_LETTER-BOX"></a>THIRD LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Christmas Recollections. New Occurrence.</i></p> + + +<p>For all of us the passage to the grave is, alas! a string of empty +insipid days, as of glass pearls, only here and there divided by an +orient one of price. But you die murmuring, unless, like the Quintus, +you regard your existence as a drum: this has only one single <i>tone</i>, +but variety of <i>time</i> gives the sound of it cheerfulness enough. Our +Quintus taught in the Fourth Class; vicariated in the Second; wrote at +his desk by night; and so lived on in the usual monotonous fashion—all +the time from the Holidays—till Christmas-eve, 1791; and nothing was +remarkable in his history except this same eve, which I am now about to +paint.</p> + +<p>But I shall still have time to paint it, after, in the first place, +explaining shortly how, like birds of passage, he had contrived to soar +away over the dim cloudy Harvest. The secret was, he set upon the +<i>Hamburg Political Journal</i>, with which the lackeys of Schadeck had been +for papering their buttons. He could now calmly, with his back at the +stove, accompany the winter campaigns of the foregoing year; and fly +after every battle, as the ravens did after that of Pharsalia. On the +printed paper he could still, with joy and admiration, walk round our +German triumphal arches and scaffoldings for fireworks: while to the +people in the town, who got only the newest newspapers, the very +fragments of these our trophies, maliciously torn down by the French, +were scarcely discernible; nay, with old plans he could drive back and +discomfit the enemy, while later readers in vain tried to resist them +with new ones.</p> + +<p>Moreover, not only did the facility of conquering the French prepossess +him in favour of this journal; but also the circumstance that it—cost +him nothing. His attachment to gratis reading was decided. And does not +this throw light on the fact, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> he, as Morhof advised, was wont +sedulously to collect the separate leaves of waste-paper books as they +came from the grocer, and to rake among the same, as Virgil did in +Ennius? Nay, for him the grocer was a Fortius (the scholar), or a +Frederick (the king), both which persons were in the habit of simply +cutting from complete books such leaves as contained anything. It was +also this respect for all waste-paper that inspired him with such esteem +for the aprons of French cooks, which it is well known consist of +printed paper; and he often wished some German would translate these +aprons: indeed I am willing to believe that a good version of more than +one of such paper aprons might contribute to elevate our Literature +(this Muse <i>à belles fesses</i>), and serve her in place of drivel-bib.—On +many things a man puts a <i>pretium affectionis</i>, simply because he hopes +he may have half stolen them: on this principle, combined with the +former, our Quintus adopted into his belief anything he could snap away +from an open Lecture, or as a visitor in class-rooms; opinions only for +which the Professor must be paid, he rigorously examined.—I return to +the Christmas-eve.</p> + +<p>At the very first, Egidius was glad, because out of doors millers and +bakers were at fisty-cuffs (as we say of drifting snow in large flakes), +and the ice-flowers of the window were blossoming; for external frost, +with a snug warm room, was what he liked. He could now put fir-wood into +his stove, and Mocha coffee into his stomach; and shove his right foot +(not into the slipper, but) under the warm side of his Shock, and also +on the left keep swinging his pet Starling, which was pecking at the +snout of old Schil; and then with the right hand—with the left he was +holding his pipe—proceed, so undisturbed, so intrenched, so cloud-capt, +without the smallest breath of frost, to the highest enterprise which a +Quintus can attempt,—to writing the Class-prodromus of the +Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, namely, the eighth part thereof. I hold the +<i>first printing</i> in the history of a literary man to be more important +than the <i>first printing</i> in the history of Letters: Fixlein could not +sate himself with specifying what he purposed, God willing, in the +following year, to treat of; and accordingly, more for the sake of +printing than of use, he farther inserted three or four pedagogic +glances at the plan of operations to be followed by his schoolmaster +colleagues as a body.</p> + +<p>He lastly introduced a few dashes, by way of hooking his thoughts +together; and then laid aside the <i>Opus</i>, and would no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> longer look at +it, that so, when printed, he might stand astonished at his own +thoughts. And now he could take the Leipzig Fair Catalogue, which he +purchased yearly, instead of the books therein, and open it without a +sigh: he too was in print, as well as I am.</p> + +<p>The happy fool, while writing, had shaken his head, rubbed his hands, +hitched about on his chair, puckered his face, and sucked the end of his +cue.—He could now spring up about five o'clock in the evening, to +recreate himself; and across the magic vapour of his pipe, like a +new-caught bird, move up and down in his cage. On the warm smoke, the +long galaxy of street-lamps was gleaming; and red on his bed-curtains +lay the fitful reflection of the blazing windows, and illuminated trees +in the neighbourhood. And now he shook away the snow of Time from the +winter-green of Memory; and beheld the fair years of his childhood, +uncovered, fresh, green and balmy, standing afar off before him. From +his distance of twenty years, he looked into the quiet cottage of his +parents, where his father and his brother had not yet been reaped away +by the sickle of Death. He said to himself: "I will go through the whole +Christmas-eve from the very dawn, as I had it of old."</p> + +<p>At his very rising he finds spangles on the table; sacred spangles from +the gold-leaf and silver-leaf, with which the Christ-child<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> has been +emblazoning and coating his apples and nuts, the presents of the +night.—On the mint-balance of joy, this metallic foam pulls heavier +than the golden calves, and golden Pythagoras'-legs, and golden +Philistine-mice of wealthier capitalists.—Then came his mother, +bringing him both Christianity and clothes: for in drawing on his +trousers, she easily recapitulated the Ten Commandments, and, in tying +his garters, the Apostles' Creed. So soon as candle-light was over, and +day-light come, he clambers to the arm of the settle, and then measures +the nocturnal growth of the yellow wiry grove of Christmas-Birch; and +devotes far less attention than usual to the little white +winter-flowerage, which the seeds shaken from the bird-cage are sending +forth in the wet joints of the window-panes.—I nowise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> grudge J. J. +Rousseau his <i>Flora Petrinsularis</i>;<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> but let him also allow our +Quintus his <i>Window-flora</i>.—There was no such thing as school all day; +so he had time enough to seek his Butcher (his brother), and commence +(when could there be finer frost for it?) the slaughtering of their +winter-meat. Some days before, the brother, at the peril of his life and +of a cudgelling, had caught their stalled-beast—so they called the +sparrow—under a window-sill in the Castle. Their slaughtering wants not +an axe (of wood), nor puddings, nor potted meat.—About three o'clock +the old Gardener, whom neighbours have to call the Professor of +Gardening, takes his place on his large chair, with his Cologne +tobacco-pipe; and after this no mortal shall work a stroke. He tells +nothing but lies; of the aeronautic Christ-child, and the jingling +Ruprecht with his bells. In the dusk, our little Quintus takes an apple; +divides it into all the figures of stereometry, and spreads the +fragments in two heaps on the table: then as the lighted candle enters, +he starts up in amazement at the unexpected present, and says to his +brother: "Look what the good Christ-child has given thee and me; and I +saw one of his wings glittering." And for this same glittering he +himself lies in wait the whole evening.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> These antique Christmas festivities Richter describes with +equal <i>gusto</i> in another work (<i>Briefe und Zukünftige Lebenslemf</i>); +where the Christ-child (falsely reported to the young ones, to have been +seen flying through the air, with gold wings); the Birch-bough fixed in +a corner of the room, and by him made to grow; the fruit, of gilt +sweetmeats, apples, nuts, which (for good boys) it suddenly produces, +&c. &c. are specified with the same fidelity as here.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Which he purposed to make for his Island of St. Pierre in +the Bienne Lake.</p></div> + +<p>About eight o'clock,—here he walks chiefly by the chronicle of his +letter-drawer,—both of them, with necks almost excoriated with washing, +and in clean linen, and in universal anxiety lest the Holy Christ-child +find them up, are put to bed. What a magic night!—What tumult of +dreaming hopes!—The populous, motley, glittering cave of Fancy opens +itself, in the length of the night, and in the exhaustion of dreamy +effort, still darker and darker, fuller and more grotesque; but the +awakening gives back to the thirsty heart its hopes. All accidental +tones, the cries of animals, of watchmen, are, for the timidly devout +Fancy, sounds out of Heaven; singing voices of Angels in the air, +church-music of the morning worship.</p> + +<p>Ah! it was not the mere Lubberland of sweetmeats and playthings which +then, with its perspective, stormed like a river of joy against the +chambers of our hearts; and which yet, in the moonlight of memory, with +its dusky landscapes, melts our souls in sweetness. Ah! this was it, +that then for our boundless wishes there were still boundless hopes: but +now reality is round us, and the wishes are all that we have left!</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> + +<p>At last came rapid lights from the neighbourhood playing through the +window on the walls, and the Christmas trumpets, and the crowing from +the steeple, hurries both the boys from their bed. With their clothes in +their hands, without fear for the darkness, without feeling for the +morning-frost, rushing, intoxicated, shouting, they hurry down-stairs +into the dark room. Fancy riots in the pastry and fruit-perfume of the +still eclipsed treasures, and paints her air-castles by the glimmering +of the Hesperides-fruit with which the Birch-tree is loaded. While their +mother strikes a light, the falling sparks sportfully open and shroud +the dainties on the table, and the many-coloured grove on the wall; and +a single atom of that fire bears on it a hanging garden of Eden.——</p> + +<p>—On a sudden all grew light; and the Quintus got—the Conrectorship, +and a table-clock.</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="FOURTH_LETTER-BOX" id="FOURTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>FOURTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Office-brokage. Discovery of the promised Secret. Hans van Füchslein.</i></p> + + +<p>For while the Quintus, in his vapoury chamber, was thus running over the +sounding-board of his early years, the Rathsdiener, or City-officer, +entered with a lantern and the Presentation; and behind him the courier +of the Frau von Aufhammer with a note and a table-clock. The +Rittmeisterinn had transformed her payment for the Dog-days +sickbed-exhortation into a Christmas present; which consisted, <i>first</i>, +of a table-clock, with a wooden ape thereon, starting out when the hours +struck, and drumming along with every stroke; <i>secondly</i>, of the +Conrectorate, which she had procured for him.</p> + +<p>As in the public this appointment from the private Flachsenfingen +Council has not been judged of as it deserved, I consider it my duty to +offer a defence for the body corporate; and that rather here, than in +the <i>Reichsanzeiger</i>, or <i>Imperial Indicator</i>.—I have already +mentioned, in the Second Letter-Box, that the Town-Syndic drove a trade +in Hamburg candles; and the then Bürgermeister in coffee-beans, which he +sold as well whole as ground. Their joint traffic, however, which they +carried on exclusively, was in the eight School-offices of +Flachsenfingen: the other members of the Council acting only as +bale-wrappers, shopmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> and accountants in the Council wareroom. A +Council-house, indeed, is like an India-house, where not only +resolutions or appointments, but also shoes and cloth, are exposed to +sale. Properly speaking, the Councillor derives his freedom of +office-trading from that principle of the Roman law: <i>Cui jus est +donandi, eidem et vendendi jus est</i>, that is to say, He who has the +right of giving anything away, has also a right to dispose of it for +money, if he can. Now as the Council-members have palpably the right of +conferring offices gratis, the right of selling them must follow of +course.</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Short Extra-word on Appointment-brokers in general.</i></p> + +<p>My chief anxiety is lest the Academy-product-sale-Commission<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> of the +State carry on its office-trade too slackly. And what but the commonweal +must suffer in the long-run, if important posts are distributed, not +according to the current cash, which is laid down for them, but +according to connexions, relationships, party recommendations, and +bowings and cringings? Is it not a contradiction, to charge titulary +offices dearer than real ones? Should not one rather expect that the +real Hofrath would pay higher by the <i>alterum tantum</i> than the mere +titulary Hofrath?—Money, among European nations, is now the equivalent +and representative of value in all things, and consequently in +understanding; the rather as a <i>head</i> is stamped on it: to pay down the +purchase-money of an office is therefore neither more nor less than to +stand an <i>examen rigorosum</i>, which is held by a good <i>schema +examinandi</i>. To invert this, to pretend exhibiting your qualifications, +in place of these their surrogates, and assignates and <i>monnoie de +confiance</i>, is simply to resemble the crazy philosophers in <i>Gulliver's +Travels</i>, who, for social converse, instead of names of things, brought +the things themselves tied up in a bag; it is, indeed, plainly as much +as trying to fall back into the barbarous times of trade by barter, when +the Romans, instead of the figured cattle on their leather money, drove +forth the beeves themselves.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Borrowed from the "Imperial Mine-product-sale-Commission," +in Vienna: in their very names these Vienna people show taste.</p></div> + +<p>From all such injudicious notions I myself am so far removed, that often +when I used to read that the King of France was devising new offices, to +stand and sell them under the booth of his Baldaquin, I have set myself +to do something of the like. This I shall now at least calmly propose; +not vexing my heart whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> Governments choose to adopt it or not. As +our Sovereign will not allow us to multiply offices purely for sale, +nay, on the contrary, is day and night (like managers of strolling +companies) meditating how to give more parts to one State-actor; and +thus to the Three Stage Unities to add a Fourth, that of Players; as the +above French method, therefore, will not apply, could not we at least +contrive to invent some Virtues harmonising with the offices, along with +which they might be sold as titles? Might we not, for instance, with the +office of a Referendary, put off at the same time a titular +Incorruptibility, for a fair consideration; and so that this virtue, as +not belonging to the office, must be separately paid for by the +candidate? Such a market-title and patent of nobility could not but be +ornamental to a Referendary. We forget that in former times such high +titles were appended to all posts whatsoever: the scholastic Professor +then wrote himself (besides his official designation) "The Seraphic," +"The Incontrovertible," "The Penetrating;" the King wrote himself "The +Great," "The Bald," "The Bold," and so also did the Rabbins. Could it be +unpleasant to gentlemen in the higher stations of Justice, if the titles +of Impartiality, Rapidity, &c. might be conferred on them by sale, as +well as the posts themselves? Thus with the appointment of a Kammerrath, +or Councillor of Revenue, the virtue of Patriotism might fitly be +conjoined; and I believe, few Advocates would grudge purchasing the +title of Integrity (as well as their common one of Government-advocacy), +were it to be had in the market. If, however, any candidate chose to +take his post without the virtues, then it would stand with himself to +do so, and in the adoption of this reflex morality, Government should +not constrain him.</p> + +<p>It might be that, as, according to Tristram Shandy, clothes; according +to Walter Shandy and Lavater, proper names exert an influence on men, +appellatives would do so still more; since, on us, as on testaceous +animals, <i>the foam so often hardens into shell</i>: but such internal +morality is not a thing the State can have an eye to; for, as in the +fine arts, it is not this, but the <i>representation</i> of it, which forms +her true aim.</p> + +<p>I have found it rather difficult to devise for our different offices +different verbal-virtues; but I should think there might many such +divisions of Virtue (at this moment, Love of Freedom, Public-spirit, +Sincerity and Uprightness occur to me) be hunted out; were but some +well-disposed minister of state to appoint a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> Virtue-board or Moral +Address Department, with some half dozen secretaries, who, for a small +salary, might devise various virtues for the various posts. Were I in +their place, I should hold a good prism before the white ray of Virtue, +and divide it completely. Pity that it were not crimes we wanted—their +subdivision I mean;—our country Judges might then be selected for this +purpose. For in their tribunals, where only inferior jurisdiction, and +no penalty above five florins Frankish, is admitted, they have a daily +training how out of every mischief to make several small ones, none of +which they ever punish to a greater amount than their five florins. This +is a precious moral <i>Rolfinkenism</i>, which our Jurists have learned from +the great Sin-cutters, St. Augustin and his Sorbonne, who together have +carved more sins on Adam's Sin-apple than ever Rolfinken did faces on a +cherry-stone. How different one of our Judges from a Papal Casuist, who, +by side-scrapings, will rasp you down the best deadly sin into a +venial!—</p> + +<p>School-offices (to come to these) are a small branch of traffic +certainly; yet still they are monarchies,—school-monarchies, to +wit,—resembling the Polish crown, which, according to Pope's verse, is +twice exposed to sale in the century; a statement, I need hardly say, +arithmetically false, Newton having settled the average duration of a +reign at twenty-two years. For the rest, whether the city Council bring +the young of the community a Hameln <i>Rat</i>-and-Child-<i>catcher</i>; or a +Weisse's <i>Child's-friend</i>,—this to the Council can make no difference; +seeing the Schoolmaster is not a horse, for whose secret defects the +horse-dealer is to be responsible. It is enough if Town-Syndic and Co. +cannot reproach themselves with having picked out any fellow of genius; +for a genius, as he is useless to the State, except for recreation and +ornament, would at the very least exclude the duller, cooler head, who +properly forms the true care and profit of the State; as your costly +carat-pearl is good for show alone, but coarse grain-pearls for +medicine. On the whole, if a schoolmaster be adequate to flog his +scholars, it should suffice; and I cannot but blame our Commission of +Inspectors when they go examining schools, that they do not make the +schoolmaster go through the duty of firking one or two young persons of +his class in their presence, by way of trial, to see what is in him.</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>End of the Extra-word on Appointment-brokers in general.</i></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now again to our history! The Councillor Heads of the Firm had conferred +the Conrectorate on my hero, not only with a view to the continued +consumpt of candles and beans, but also on the strength of a quite mad +notion: they believed, the Quintus would very soon die.</p> + +<p>—And here I have reached a most important circumstance in this History, +and one into which I have yet let no mortal look: now, however, it no +longer depends on my will whether I shall shove aside the folding-screen +from it or not; but I must positively lay it open, nay hang a +reverberating-lamp over it.</p> + +<p>In medical history, it is a well-known fact that in certain families the +people all die precisely at the same age, just as in these families they +are all born at the same age (of nine months); nay, from Voltaire, I +recollect one family, the members of which at the same age all killed +themselves. Now, in the Fixleinic lineage, it was the custom that the +male ascendants uniformly on Cantata-Sunday, in their thirty-second +year, took to bed and died: every one of my readers would do well to +insert in his copy of the <i>Thirty-Years War</i>, Schiller having entirely +omitted it, the fact, that in the course thereof, one Fixlein died of +the plague, another of hunger, another of a musket-bullet; all in their +thirty-second year. True Philosophy explains the matter thus: "The first +two or three times, it happened purely by accident; and the other times, +the people died of sheer fright: if not so, the whole fact is rather to +be questioned."</p> + +<p>But what did Fixlein make of the affair? Little or nothing: the only +thing he did was, that he took little or no pains to fall in love with +Thiennette; that so no other might have cause for fear on his account. +He himself, however, for five reasons, minded it so little, that he +hoped to be older than Senior Astmann before he died: First, because +three Gipsies, in three different places and at three different times, +had each shown him the same long vista of years in her magic mirror. +Secondly, because he had a sound constitution. Thirdly, because his own +brother had formed an exception, and perished before the thirties. +Fourthly, on this ground: When a boy he had fallen sick of sorrow, on +the very Cantata-Sunday when his father was lying in the winding-sheet, +and only been saved from death by his playthings; and with this +Cantata-sickness, he conceived that he had given the murderous Genius of +his race the slip. Fifthly, the church-books being destroyed, and with +them the certainty of his age, he could never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> fall into a right +definite deadly fear: "It may be," said he, "that I have got whisked +away over this whoreson year, and no one the wiser." I will not deny +that last year he had fancied he was two-and-thirty: "however," said he, +"if I am not to be so till, God willing, the next (1792), it may run +away as smoothly as the last; am I not always in <i>His</i> keeping? And were +it unjust if the pretty years that were broken off from the life of my +brother should be added to mine?"—Thus, under the cold snow of the +Present, does poor man strive to warm himself, or to mould out of it a +fair snow-man.</p> + +<p>The Councillor Oligarchy, however, built upon the opposite opinion; and, +like a Divinity, elevated our Quintus all at once from the Quintusship +to the Conrectorate; swearing to themselves, that he would soon vacate +it again. Properly speaking, by school-seniority, this holy chair should +have belonged to the Subrector Hans von Füchslein; but he wished it not; +being minded to become Hukelum Parson; especially, as Astmann's +Death-angel, according to sure intelligence, was opening more and more +widely the door of this spiritual sheepfold. "If the fellow weather +another year, 'tis more than I expect," said Hans.</p> + +<p>This Hans was such a churl, that it is pity he had not been a Hanoverian +Postboy; that so, by the Mandate of the Hanoverian Government, enjoining +on all its Post-officers an elegant style of manners, he might have +somewhat refined himself. To our poor Quintus, whom no mortal disliked, +and who again could hate no mortal, he alone bore a grudge; simply +because <i>Fixlein</i> did not write himself <i>Füchslein</i>, and had not chosen +along with him to purchase a Patent of Nobility. The Subrector, on this +his Patent triumphal chariot, drawn by a team of four specified +ancestors, was obliged to see the Quintus, who was related to him, +clutching by the lackey-straps behind the carriage; and to hear him, in +the most despicable raiment, saying to the train: "He that rides there +is my cousin, and a mortal, and I always remind him of it." The mild +compliant Quintus never noticed this large wasp-poisonbag in the +Subrector, but took it for a honeybag; nay, by his brotherly warmness, +which the nobleman regarded as mere show, he concreted these venomous +juices into still feller consistency. The Quintus, in his simplicity, +took Füchslein's contempt for envy of his pedagogic talents.</p> + +<p>A Catherinenhof, an Annenhof, an Elizabethhof, Stralenhof and Petershof, +all these Russian pleasure palaces, a man can dispense<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> with (if not +despise), who has a room, in which on Christmas-eve he walks about with +a Presentation in his hand. The new Conrector now longed for nothing +but—daylight: joys always (cares never) nibbled from him, like +sparrows, his sleep-grains; and tonight, moreover, the registrator of +his glad time, the clock-ape, drummed out every hour to him, which, +accordingly, he spent in gay dreaming, rather than in sound snoring.</p> + +<p>On Christmas-morn, he looked at his Class-prodromus, and thought but +little of it; he scarcely knew what to make of his last night's foolish +inflation about his Quintusship: "the Quintus-post," said he to himself, +"is not to be named in the same day with the Conrectorate; I wonder how +I could parade so last night before my promotion; at present, I had more +reason." Today he ate, as on all Sundays and holydays, with the +Master-Butcher Steinberger, his former Guardian. To this man, Fixlein +was, what common people are <i>always</i>, but polished philosophical and +sentimental people very <i>seldom</i> are,—<i>thankful</i>: a man thanks you the +less for presents, the more inclined he is to give presents of his own; +and the beneficent is rarely a grateful person. Meister Steinberger, in +the character of store-master, had introduced into the wire-cage of a +garret, where Fixlein, while a Student at Leipzig, was suspended, many a +well-filled trough with good canary-meat, of hung-beef, of household +bread and <i>Sauerkraut</i>. Money indeed was never to be wrung from him: it +is well known that he often sent the best calfskins gratis to the +tanner, to be boots for our Quintus; but the tanning-charges the Ward +himself had to bear.—On Fixlein's entrance, as was at all times +customary, a smaller damask table-cloth was laid upon the large coarser +one; the armchair; silver implements, and a wine-stoup were handed him; +mere waste, which, as the Guardian used to say, suited well enough for a +Scholar; but for a Flesher not at all. Fixlein first took his victuals, +and then signified that he was made Conrector. "Ward," said Steinberger, +"if you are made that, it is well.—Seest thou, Eva, I cannot buy a tail +of thy cows now; I must have smelt it beforehand." He was hereby +informing his daughter that the cash set apart for the fatted cattle +must now be applied to the Conrectorate; for he was in the habit of +advancing all instalment-dues to his ward, at an interest of four and a +half per cent. Fifty gulden he had already lent the Quintus on his +advancement to the Quintusship: of these the interest had to be duly +paid; yet, on the day of payment, the Quintus always got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> some +abatement; being wont every Sunday after dinner to instruct his +guardian's daughter in arithmetic, writing and geography. Steinberger +with justice required of his own grown-up daughter that she should know +all the towns, where he in his wanderings as a journeyman had slain fat +oxen; and if she slipped, or wrote crookedly, or subtracted wrong, he +himself, as Academical Senate and Justiciary, was standing behind her +chair, ready, so to speak, with the forge-hammer of his fist to beat out +the dross from her brain, and at a few strokes hammer it into right +ductility. The soft Quintus, for his part, had never struck her. On this +account she had perhaps, with a few glances, appointed him executor and +assignee of her heart. The old Flesher—simply because his wife was +dead—had constantly been in the habit of searching with mine-lamps and +pokers into all the corners of Eva's heart; and had in consequence long +ago observed—what the Quintus never did—that she had a mind for the +said Quintus. Young women conceal their sorrows more easily than their +joys: today at the mention of this Conrectorate, Eva had become +unusually <i>red</i>.</p> + +<p>When she went after breakfast to bring in coffee, which the Ward had to +drink down to the grounds: "I beat Eva to death if she but look at him," +said he. Then addressing Fixlein: "Hear you, Ward, did you never cast an +eye on my Eva? She can suffer you, and if you want her, you get her; but +<i>we</i> have done with one another: for a learned man needs quite another +sort of thing."</p> + +<p>"Herr Regiments-Quartermaster," said Fixlein (for this post Steinberger +filled in the provincial Militia), "such a match were far too rich, at +any rate, for a Schoolman." The Quartermaster nodded fifty times; and +then said to Eva, as she returned,—at the same time taking down from +the shelf a wooden crook, on which he used to rack out and suspend his +slain calves: "Stop!—Hark, dost wish the present Herr Conrector here +for thy husband?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, good Heaven!" said Eva.</p> + +<p>"Mayst wish him or not," continued the Flesher; "with this crook, thy +father knocks thy brains out, if thou but think of a learned man. Now +make his coffee." And so by the dissevering stroke of this wooden crook +was a love easily smitten asunder, which in a higher rank, by such +cutting through it with the sword, would only have foamed and hissed the +keenlier.</p> + +<p>Fixlein might now, at any hour he liked, lay hold of fifty florins +Frankish, and clutch the pedagogic sceptre, and become coadjutor of the +Rector, that is, Conrector. We may assert, that it is with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> debts, as +with proportions in Architecture; of which Wolf has shown that those are +the best, which can be expressed in the smallest numbers. Nevertheless, +the Quartermaster cheerfully took learned men under his arm: for the +notion that his debtor would decease in his thirty-second year, and that +so Death, as creditor in the first rank, must be paid his Debt of +Nature, before the other creditors could come forward with their +debts—this notion he named stuff and oldwifery; he was neither +superstitious nor fanatical, and he walked by firm principles of action, +such as the common man much oftener has than your vapouring man of +letters, or your empty dainty man of rank.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>As it is but a few clear Ladydays, warm Mayday-nights, at the most a few +odorous Rose-weeks, which I am digging from this Fixleinic Life, +embedded in the dross of week-day cares; and as if they were so many +veins of silver, am separating, stamping, smelting and burnishing for +the reader,—I must now travel on with the stream of his history to +Cantata-Sunday, 1792, before I can gather a few handfuls of this +gold-dust, to carry in and wash in my biographical gold-hut. That +Sunday, on the contrary, is very metalliferous: do but consider that +Fixlein is yet uncertain (the ashes of the Church-books not being +legible) whether it is conducting him into his thirty-second or his +thirty-third year.</p> + +<p>From Christmas till then he did nothing, but simply became Conrector. +The new chair of office was a Sun-altar, on which, from his +Quintus-ashes, a young Phœnix combined itself together. Great +changes—in offices, marriages, travels—make us younger; we always date +our history from the last revolution, as the French have done from +theirs. A colonel, who first set foot on the ladder of seniority as +corporal, is five times younger than a king, who in his whole life has +never been aught else except a—crown-prince.</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="FIFTH_LETTER-BOX" id="FIFTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>FIFTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Cantata-Sunday. Two Testaments. Pontac; Blood; Love.</i></p> + + +<p>The Spring months clothe the earth in new variegated hues; but man they +usually dress in black. Just when our icy regions are becoming fruitful, +and the flower-waves of the meadows are rolling together over our +quarter of the globe, we on all hands meet with men in sables, the +beginning of whose Spring is full<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> of tears. But, on the other hand, +this very upblooming of the renovated earth is itself the best balm for +sorrow over those who lie under it; and graves are better hid by +blossoms than by snow.</p> + +<p>In April, which is no less deadly than it is fickle, old Senior Astmann, +our Conrector's teacher, was overtaken by death. His departure it was +meant to hide from the Rittmeisterinn; but the unusual ringing of +funereal peals carried his swan-song to her heart; and gradually set the +curfew-bell of her life into similar movement. Age and sufferings had +already marked out the first incisions for Death, so that he required +but little effort to cut her down; for it is with men as with trees, +they are notched long before felling, that their life-sap may exude. The +second stroke of apoplexy was soon followed by the last: it is strange +that Death, like criminal courts, cites the apoplectic thrice.</p> + +<p>Men are apt to postpone their <i>last</i> will as long as their <i>better</i> one: +the Rittmeisterinn would perhaps have let all her hours, till the +speechless and deaf one, roll away without testament, had not +Thiennette, during the last night, before from sick-nurse she became +corpse-watcher, reminded the patient of the poor Conrector, and of his +meagre hunger-bitten existence, and of the scanty aliment and +board-wages which Fortune had thrown him, and of his empty Future, +where, like a drooping yellow plant in the parched deal-box of the +schoolroom between scholars and creditors, he must languish to the end. +Her own poverty offered her a model of his; and her inward tears were +the fluid tints with which she coloured her picture. As the +Rittmeisterinn's testament related solely to domestics and dependents, +and as she began with the male ones, Fixlein stood at the top; and +Death, who must have been a special friend of the Conrector's, did not +lift his scythe and give the last stroke till his protegee had been with +audible voice declared testamentary heir; then he cut all away, life, +testament and hopes.</p> + +<p>When the Conrector, in a wash-bill from his mother, received these two +Death's-posts and Job's-posts in his class, the first thing he did was +to dismiss his class-boys, and break into tears before reaching home. +Though the mother had informed him that he had been remembered in the +will (I could wish, however, that the Notary had blabbed how much it +was), yet almost with every O which he masoretically excerpted from his +German Bible, and entered in his Masoretic Work, great drops fell down +on his pen, and made his black ink pale. His sorrow was not the +gorgeous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> sorrow of the Poet, who veils the gaping wounds of the +departed in the winding-sheet, and breaks the cry of anguish in soft +tones of plaintiveness; nor the sorrow of the Philosopher, who, through +one open grave, must look into the whole catacomb-Necropolis of the +Past, and before whom the spectre of a friend expands into the spectral +Shadow of this whole Earth: but it was the woe of a child, of a mother, +whom this thought itself, without subsidiary reflections, bitterly cuts +asunder: "So I shall never more see thee; so must thou moulder away, and +I shall never see thee, thou good soul, never, never any more!"—And +even because he neither felt the philosophical nor the poetical sadness, +every trifle could make a division, a break in his mourning; and, like a +woman, he was that very evening capable of sketching some plans for the +future employment of his legacy.</p> + +<p>Four weeks after, to wit, on the 5th of May, the testament was unsealed; +but not till the 6th (Cantata-Sunday) did he go down to Hukelum. His +mother met his salutations with tears; which she shed, over the corpse +for grief, over the testament for joy.—To the now Conrector Egidius +Zebedäus was left: <i>In the first place</i>, a large sumptuous bed, with a +mirror-tester, in which the giant Goliath might have rolled at his ease, +and to which I and my fair readers will by and by approach nearer, to +examine it; <i>secondly</i>, there was devised to him, as unpaid +Easter-godchild-money, for every year that he had lived, one ducat; +<i>thirdly</i>, all the admittance and instalment dues, which his elevation +to the Quintate and Conrectorate had cost him, were to be made good to +the utmost penny. "And dost thou know, then," proceeded the mother, +"what the poor Fräulein has got? Ah Heaven! Nothing! Not one brass +farthing!" For Death had stiffened the hand which was just stretching +itself out to reach the poor Thiennette a little rain-screen against the +foul weather of life. The mother related this perverse trick of Fortune +with true condolence; which in women dissipates envy, and comes easier +to them than congratulation, a feeling belonging rather to men. In many +female hearts sympathy and envy are such near door-neighbours that they +could be virtuous nowhere except in Hell, where men have such frightful +times of it; and vicious nowhere except in Heaven, where people have +more happiness than they know what to do with.</p> + +<p>The Conrector was now enjoying on Earth that Heaven to which his +benefactress had ascended. First of all, he started off—without so much +as putting up his handkerchief, in which lay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> his emotion—up-stairs to +see the legacy-bed unshrouded; for he had a <i>female</i> predilection for +furniture. I know not whether the reader ever looked at or mounted any +of these ancient chivalric beds, into which, by means of a little stair +without balustrades, you can easily ascend; and in which you, properly +speaking, sleep always at least one story above ground. Nazianzen +informs us (<i>Orat. XVI.</i>) that the Jews, in old times, had high beds +with cock-ladders of this sort; but simply because of vermin. The legacy +bed-Ark was quite as large as one of these; and a flea would have +measured it not in Diameters of the Earth, but in Distances of Sirius. +When Fixlein beheld this colossal dormitory, with the curtains drawn +asunder, and its canopy of looking-glass, he could have longed to be in +it; and had it been in his power to cut from the opaque hemisphere of +Night, at that time in America, a small section, he would have +established himself there along with it, just to swim about, for one +half hour, with his thin lath figure, in this sea of down. The mother, +by longer chains of reasoning and chains of calculation than the bed +was, had not succeeded in persuading him to have the broad mirror on the +top cut in pieces, though his large dressing-table had nothing to see +itself in but a mere shaving-glass: he let the mirror lie where it was +for this reason: "Should I ever, God willing, get married," said he, "I +shall then, towards morning, be able to look at my sleeping wife, +without sitting up in bed."</p> + +<p>As to the second article of the testament, the godchild Easter-pence, +his mother had, last night, arranged it perfectly. The Lawyer took her +evidence on the years of the heir; and these she had stated at exactly +the teeth-number, two-and-thirty. She would willingly have lied, and +passed off her son, like an Inscription, for older than he was: but +against this <i>venia ætatis</i>, she saw too well, the authorities would +have taken exception, "that it was falsehood and cozenage; had the son +been two-and-thirty, he must have been dead some time ago, as it could +not but be presumed that he then was."</p> + +<p>And just as she was recounting this, a servant from Schadeck called, and +delivered to the Conrector, in return for a discharge and ratification +of the birth-certificate given out by his mother, a gold bar of +two-and-thirty ducat age-counters, like a helm-bar for the voyage of his +life: Herr von Aufhammer was too proud to engage in any pettifogging +discussion over a plebeian birth-certificate.</p> + +<p>And thus, by a proud open-handedness, was one of the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> lawsuits +thrown to the dogs: seeing this gold bar might, in the wire-mill of the +judgment-bench, have been drawn out into the finest threads. From such a +tangled lock, which was not to be unravelled—for, in the first place, +there was no document to prove Fixlein's age; in the second place, so +long as he lived, the necessary conclusion was, that he was not yet +thirty-two<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a>—from such a lock, might not only silk and hanging-cords, +but whole dragnets have been spun and twisted. Clients in general would +have less reason to complain of their causes, if these lasted longer: +Philosophers contend for thousands of years over philosophical +questions; and it seems an unaccountable thing, therefore, that +Advocates should attempt to end their juristical questions in a space of +eighty, or even sometimes of sixty years. But the professors of law are +not to blame for this: on the other hand, as Lessing asserts of Truth, +that not the <i>finding</i> but the <i>seeking</i> of it profits men, and that he +himself would willingly make over his claim to all truths in return for +the sweet labour of investigation, so is the professor of Law not +profited by the finding and deciding, but by the investigation of a +juridical truth,—which is called pleading and practising,—and he would +willingly consent to approximate to Truth forever, like an hyperbola to +its asymptote, without ever meeting it, seeing he can subsist as an +honourable man with wife and child, let such approximation be as tedious +as it likes.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> As, by the evidence at present before us, we can found on +no other presumption, than that he must die in his thirty-second year; +it would follow, that, in case he died two-and-thirty years after the +death of the testatrix, no farthing could he claimed by him; since, +according to our notion, at the making of the testament he was not even +one year old.</p></div> + +<p>The Schadeck servant had, besides the gold legacy, a farther commission +from the Lawyer, whereby the testamentary heir was directed to sum up +the mint-dues which he had been obliged to pay while lying under the +coining-press of his superiors, as Quintus and Conrector; the which, +properly documented and authenticated, were forthwith to be made good to +him.</p> + +<p>Our Conrector, who now rated himself among the great capitalists of the +world, held his short gold-roll like a sceptre in his hand; like a +basket-net lifted from the sea of the Future, which was now to run on, +and bring him all manner of fed-fishes, well-washed, sound and in good +season.</p> + +<p>I cannot relate all things at once; else I should ere now have told the +reader, who must long have been waiting for it, that to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> the moneyed +Conrector his two-and-thirty godchild-pennies but too much prefigured +the two-and-thirty years of his age; besides which, today the +Cantata-Sunday, this Bartholomew-night and Second of September of his +family, came in as a farther aggravation. The mother, who should have +known the age of her child, said she had forgotten it; but durst wager +he was thirty-two a year ago; only the Lawyer was a man you could not +speak to. "I could swear it myself," said the capitalist; "I recollect +how stupid I felt on Cantata-Sunday last year." Fixlein beheld Death, +not as the poet does, in the up-towering, asunder-driving concave-mirror +of Imagination; but as the child, as the savage, as the peasant, as the +woman does, in the plane octavo-mirror on the board of a Prayer-book; +and Death looked to him like an old white-headed man, sunk down into +slumber in some latticed pew.—</p> + +<p>And yet he thought oftener of him than last year: for joy readily melts +us into softness; and the lackered Wheel of Fortune is a cistern-wheel +that empties its water in our eyes.... But the friendly Genius of this +terrestrial, or rather aquatic Ball,—for, in the physical and in the +moral world, there are more tear-seas than firm land,—has provided for +the poor water-insects that float about in it, for us namely, a quite +special elixir against spasms in the soul: I declare this same Genius +must have studied the whole pathology of man with care; for to the poor +devil who is no Stoic, and can pay no Soul-doctor, that for the fissures +of his cranium and his breast might prepare costly prescriptions of +simples, he has stowed up cask-wise in all cellarages a precious +wound-water, which the patient has only to take and pour over his +slashes and bone-breakages—gin-twist, I mean, or beer, or a touch of +wine.... By Heaven! it is either stupid ingratitude towards this +medicinal Genius on the one hand, or theological confusion of permitted +tippling with prohibited drunkenness on the other, if men do not thank +God that they have something at hand, which, in the nervous vertigos of +life, will instantly supply the place of Philosophy, Christianity, +Judaism, Paganism and <i>Time</i>;—liquor, as I said.</p> + +<p>The Conrector had long before sunset given the village post three +groschens of post-money, and commissioned,—for he had a whole cabinet +of ducats in his pocket, which all day he was surveying in the dark with +his hand,—three thalers' worth of Pontac from the town. "I must have a +Cantata merrying-making," said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> he; "if it be my last day, let it be my +gayest too!" I could wish he had given a larger order; but he kept the +bit of moderation between his teeth at all times; even in a threatened +sham-death-night, and in the midst of jubilee. The question is, Whether +he would not have restricted himself to a single bottle, if he had not +wished to treat his mother and the Fräulein. Had he lived in the tenth +century, when the Day of Judgment was thought to be at hand, or in other +centuries, when new Noah's Deluges were expected, and when, accordingly, +like sailors in a shipwreck, people bouzed up all,—he would not have +spent one kreutzer more on that account. His joy was, that with his +legacy he could now satisfy his head-creditor Steinberger, and leave the +world an honest man: just people, who make much of money, pay their +debts the most punctually.</p> + +<p>The purple Pontac arrived at a time when Fixlein could compare the +red-chalk-drawings and red-letter-titles of joy, which it would bring +out on the cheeks of its drinker and drinkeresses,—with the +Evening-carnation of the last clouds about the Sun....</p> + +<p>I declare, among all the spectators of this History, no one can be +thinking more about poor Thiennette than I; nevertheless, it is not +permitted me to bring her out from her tiring-room to my historical +scene, before the time. Poor girl! The Conrector cannot wish more warmly +than his Biographer, that, in the Temple of Nature as in that of +Jerusalem, there were a special door—besides that of Death—standing +open, through which only the afflicted entered, that a Priest might give +them solace. But Thiennette's heart-sickness over all her vanished +prospects, over her entombed benefactress, over a whole life enwrapped +in the pall, had hitherto, in a grief which the stony Rittmeister rather +made to bleed than alleviated, swept all away from her, occupations +excepted; had fettered all her steps which led not to some task, and +granted to her eyes nothing to dry them or gladden them, save +down-falling eyelids full of dreams and sleep.</p> + +<p>All sorrow raises us above the civic Ceremonial-law, and makes the +Prosaist a Psalmist: in sorrow alone have women courage to front +opinion. Thiennette walked out only in the evening, and then only in the +garden.</p> + +<p>The Conrector could scarcely wait for the appearance of his fair friend, +to offer his thanks,—and tonight also—his Pontac. Three Pontac +decanters and three wine-glasses were placed outside on the projecting +window-sill of his cottage; and every time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> he returned from the dusky +covered-way amid the flower-forests, he drank a little from his +glass,—and the mother sipped now and then from within through the +opened window.</p> + +<p>I have already said, his Life-laboratory lay in the south-west corner of +the garden or park, over against the Castle-Escurial, which stretched +back into the village. In the north-west corner bloomed an acacia-grove, +like the floral crown of the garden. Fixlein turned his steps in that +direction also; to see if, perhaps, he might not cast a happy glance +through the wide-latticed grove over the intervening meads to +Thiennette. He recoiled a little before two stone steps leading down +into a pond before this grove, which were sprinkled with fresh blood. On +the flags, also, there was blood hanging. Man shudders at this oil of +our life's lamp where he finds it shed: to him it is the red +death-signature of the Destroying Angel. Fixlein hurried apprehensively +into the grove; and found here his paler benefactress leaning on the +flower-bushes; her hands with their knitting-ware sunk into her bosom, +her eyes lying under their lids as if in the bandage of slumber; her +left arm in the real bandage of blood-letting; and with cheeks to which +the twilight was lending as much red, as late woundings—this day's +included—had taken from them. Fixlein, after his first terror—not at +this flower's-sleep, but at his own abrupt entrance—began to unrol the +spiral butterfly's-sucker of his vision, and to lay it on the motionless +leaves of this same sleeping flower. At bottom, I may assert, that this +was the first time he had ever looked at her: he was now among the +thirties; and he still continued to believe, that, in a young lady, he +must look at the clothes only, not the person, and wait on her with his +ears, not with his eyes.</p> + +<p>I impute it to the elevating influences of the Pontac, that the +Conrector plucked up courage to—turn, to come back, and employ the +resuscitating means of coughing, sneezing, trampling and calling to his +Shock, in stronger and stronger doses on the fair sleeper. To take her +by the hand, and, with some medical apology, gently pull her out of +sleep, this was an audacity of which the Conrector, so long as he could +stand for Pontac, and had any grain of judgment left, could never dream.</p> + +<p>However, he did awake her, by those other means.</p> + +<p>Wearied, heavy-laden Thiennette! how slowly does thy eye open! The +warmest balsam of this earth, soft sleep has shifted aside, and the +night-air of memory is again blowing on thy naked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> wounds!—And yet was +the smiling friend of thy youth the fairest object which thy eye could +light on, when it sank from the hanging garden of Dreams into this lower +one round thee.</p> + +<p>She herself was little conscious,—and the Conrector not at all,—that +she was bending her flower-leaves imperceptibly towards a terrestrial +body, namely towards Fixlein: she resembled an Italian flower, that +contains cunningly concealed within it a newyear's gift, which the +receiver knows not at first how to extract. But now the golden chain of +her late kind deed attracted her as well towards him, as him towards +her.—She at once gave her eye and her voice a mask of joy; for she did +not put her tears, as Catholics do those of Christ, in relic-vials, upon +altars to be worshiped. He could very suitably preface his invitation to +the Pontac festival, with a long acknowledgment of thanks for the kind +intervention which had opened to him the sources for procuring it. She +rose slowly, and walked with him to the banquet of wine; but he was not +so discreet, as at first to attempt leading her, or rather not so +courageous; he could more easily have offered a young lady his hand +(that is, with marriage ring) than offered her his arm. One only time in +his life had he escorted a female, a Lombard Countess from the theatre; +a thing truly not to be believed, were not this the secret of it, that +he was obliged; for the lady, a foreigner, parted in the press from all +her people, in a bad night, had laid hold of him as a sable Abbé by the +arm, and requested him to take her to her inn. He, however, knew the +fashions of society, and attended her no farther than the porch of his +Quintus-mansion, and there directed her with his finger to her inn, +which, with thirty blazing windows, was looking down from another +street.</p> + +<p>These things he cannot help. But tonight he had scarcely, with his fair +faint companion, reached the bank of the pond, into which some +superstitious dread of water-sprites had lately poured the pure blood of +her left arm,—when, in his terror lest she fell in, with the rest of +her blood, over the brink, he quite valiantly laid hold of the sick arm. +Thus will much Pontac and a little courage at all times put a Conrector +in case to lay hold of a Fräulein. I aver, that, at the banquet-board of +the wine, at the window-sill, he continued in the same conducting +position. What a soft group in the penumbra of the Earth, while Night, +with its dusky waters, was falling deeper and deeper, and the +silver-light of the Moon was already glancing back from the copper-ball +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> the steeple! I call the group soft, because it consists of a maiden +that in two senses has been bleeding; of a mother again with tears +giving her thanks for the happiness of her child; and of a pious, modest +man, pouring wine, and drinking health to both, and who traces in his +veins a burning lava-stream, which is boiling through his heart, and +threatening piece by piece to melt it and bear it away.—A candle stood +without among the three bottles, like Reason among the Passions; on this +account the Conrector looked without intermission at the window-panes, +for on them (the darkness of the room served as mirror-foil) was +painted, among other faces which Fixlein liked, the face he liked best +of all, and which he dared to look at only in reflection, the face of +Thiennette.</p> + +<p>Every minute was a Federation-festival, and every second a +Preparation-Sabbath for it. The Moon was gleaming from the evening dew, +and the Pontac from their eyes, and the bean-stalks were casting a +shorter grating of shadow.—The quicksilver-drops of stars were hanging +more and more continuous in the sable of night.—The warm vapour of the +wine set our two friends (like steam-engines) again in motion.</p> + +<p>Nothing makes the heart fuller and bolder than walking to and fro in the +night. Fixlein now led the Fräulein in his arm without scruple. By +reason of her lancet-wound, Thiennette could only put her hand, in a +clasping position, in his arm; and he, to save her the trouble of +holding fast, held fast himself, and pressed her fingers as well as +might be with his arm to his heart. It would betray a total want of +polished manners to censure his. At the same time, trifles are the +provender of Love; the fingers are electric dischargers of a fire +sparkling along every fibre; sighs are the guiding tones of two +approximating hearts; and the worst and most effectual thing of all in +such a case is some misfortune; for the fire of Love, like that of +naphtha, likes to swim on water. Two teardrops, one in another's, one in +your own eyes, compose, as with two convex lenses, a microscope which +enlarges everything, and changes all sorrows into charms. Good sex! I +too consider every sister in misfortune as fair; and perhaps thou +wouldst deserve the name of the Fair, even because thou art the +Suffering sex!</p> + +<p>And if Professor Hunczogsky in Vienna modelled all the wounds of the +human frame in wax, to teach his pupils how to cure them, I also, thou +good sex, am representing in little figures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> the cuts and scars of thy +spirit, though only to keep away rude hands from inflicting new ones....</p> + +<p>Thiennette felt not the loss of the inheritance, but of her that should +have left it; and this more deeply for one little trait, which she had +already told his mother, as she now told him: In the last two nights of +the Rittmeisterinn, when the feverish watching was holding up to +Thiennette's imagination nothing but the winding-sheet and the +mourning-coaches of her protectress; while she was sitting at the foot +of the bed, looking on those fixed eyes, unconsciously quick drops often +trickled over her cheeks, while in thought she prefigured the heavy, +cumbrous dressing of her benefactress for the coffin. Once, after +midnight, the dying lady pointed with her finger to her own lips. +Thiennette understood her not; but rose and bent over her face. The +Enfeebled tried to lift her head, but could not,—and only rounded her +lips. At last, a thought glanced through Thiennette, that the Departing, +whose dead arms could now press no beloved heart to her own, wished that +she herself should embrace her. O then, that instant, keen and tearful +she pressed her warm lips on the colder,—and she was silent like her +that was to speak no more,—and she embraced alone and was not embraced. +About four o'clock, the finger waved again;—she sank down on the +stiffened lips—but this had been no signal, for the lips of her friend +under the long kiss had grown stiff and cold....</p> + +<p>How deeply now, before the infinite Eternity's-countenance of Night, did +the cutting of this thought pass through Fixlein's warm soul: "O thou +forsaken one beside me! No happy accident, no twilight hast thou, like +that now glimmering in the heavens, to point to the prospect of a sunny +day: without parents art thou, without brother, without friend; here +alone on a disblossomed, emptied corner of the Earth; and thou, left +Harvest-flower, must wave lonely and frozen over the withered stubble of +the Past." That was the meaning of his thoughts, whose internal words +were: "Poor young lady! Not so much as a half-cousin left; no nobleman +will seek her, and she grows old so forgotten, and she is so good from +the very heart—Me she has made happy—Ah, had I the presentation to the +parish of Hukelum in my pocket, I should make a trial.".... Their mutual +lives, which a straitcutting bond of Destiny was binding so closely +together, now rose before him overhung with sable,—and he forthwith +conducted his friend (for a bashful man may in an hour and a half be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +transformed into the boldest, and then continues so) back to the last +flask, that all these upsprouting thistles and passion-flowers of sorrow +might therewith be swept away. I remark, in passing, that this was +stupid: the torn vine is full of water-veins as well as grapes; and a +soft oppressed heart the beverage of joy can melt only into tears.</p> + +<p>If any man disagree with me, I shall desire him to look at the +Conrector, who demonstrates my experimental maxim like a very +syllogism.—One might arrive at some philosophic views, if one traced +out the causes, why liquors—that is to say, in the long-run, more +plentiful secretion of the nervous spirits—make men at once pious, soft +and poetical. The Poet, like Apollo his father, is <i>forever a youth</i>; +and is, what other men are only once, namely in love,—or only after +Pontac, namely intoxicated,—all his life long. Fixlein, who had been no +poet in the morning, now became one at night: wine made him pious and +soft; the Harmonica-bells in man, which sound to the tones of a higher +world, must, like the glass Harmonica-bells, if they are to act, be kept +<i>moist</i>.</p> + +<p>He was now standing with her again beside the wavering pond, in which +the second blue hemisphere of heaven, with dancing stars and amid +quivering trees, was playing; over the green hills ran the white crooked +footpaths dimly along; on the one mountain was the twilight sinking +together, on the other was the mist of night rising up; and over all +these vapours of life, hung motionless and flaming the thousand-armed +lustre of the starry heaven, and every arm held in it a burning +galaxy....</p> + +<p>It now struck eleven.... Amid such scenes, an unknown hand stretches +itself out in man, and writes in foreign language on his heart, a dread +<i>Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin</i>. "Perhaps by twelve I am dead," thought our +friend, in whose soul the Cantata-Sunday, with all its black funeral +piles, was mounting up.</p> + +<p>The whole future Crucifixion-path of his friend lay prickly and +bethorned before him; and he saw every bloody trace from which she +lifted her foot,—she who had made his own way soft with flowers and +leaves. He could no longer restrain himself; trembling in his whole +frame, and with a trembling voice, he solemnly said to her: "If the Lord +this night call me away, let the half of my fortune be yours; for it is +your goodness I must thank that I am free of debts, as few Teachers +are."</p> + +<p>Thiennette, unacquainted with our sex, naturally mistook this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> speech +for a proposal of marriage; and the fingers of her wounded arm, tonight +for the first time, pressed suddenly against the arm in which they lay; +the only living mortal's arm, by which Joy, Love and the Earth, were +still united with her bosom. The Conrector, rapturously terrified at the +first pressure of a female hand, bent over his right to take hold of her +left; and Thiennette, observing his unsuccessful movement, lifted her +fingers, and laid her whole wounded arm in his, and her whole left hand +in his right. Two lovers dwell in the Whispering-gallery,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> where the +faintest breath bodies itself forth into a sound. The good Conrector +received and returned this blissful love-pressure, wherewith our poor +powerless soul, stammering, hemmed in, longing, distracted, seeks for a +warmer language, which exists not: he was overpowered; he had not the +courage to look at her; but he looked into the gleam of the twilight, +and said (and here for unspeakable love the tears were running warm over +his cheeks): "Ah, I will give you all; fortune, life and all that I +have, my heart and my hand."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> In St. Paul's Church at London, where the slightest +whisper sounds over across a space of 143 feet.</p></div> + +<p>She was about to answer, but casting a side-glance, she cried, with a +shriek: "Ah, Heaven!" He started round; and perceived the white muslin +sleeve all dyed with blood; for in putting her arm into his, she had +pushed away the bandage from the open vein. With the speed of lightning, +he hurried her into the acacia-grove; the blood was already running from +the muslin; he grew paler than she, for every drop of it was coming from +his heart. The blue-white arm was bared; the bandage was put on; he tore +a piece of gold from his pocket; clapped it, as one does, with open +arteries, on the spouting fountain, and bolted with this golden bar, and +with the bandage over it, the door out of which her afflicted life was +hurrying.—</p> + +<p>When it was over, she looked up to him; pale, languid, but her eyes were +two glistening fountains of an unspeakable love, full of sorrow and full +of gratitude.—The exhausting loss of blood was spreading her soul +asunder in sighs. Thiennette was dissolved into inexpressible softness; +and the heart, lacerated by so many years, by so many arrows, was +plunging with all its wounds in warm streams of tears, to be healed; as +chapped flutes close together by lying in water, and get back their +tones.—Before such a magic form, before such a pure heavenly love, her +sympathising friend was melted between the flames of joy and grief;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> and +sank, with stifled voice, and bent down by love and rapture, on the pale +angelic face, the lips of which he timidly pressed, but did not kiss, +till all-powerful Love bound its girdles round them, and drew the two +closer and closer together, and their two souls, like two tears, melted +into one. O now, when it struck twelve, the hour of death, did not the +lover fancy that her lips were drawing his soul away, and all the fibres +and all the nerves of his life closed spasmodically round the last heart +in this world, round the last rapture of existence?... Yes, happy man, +thou didst express thy love; for in thy love thou thoughtest to die....</p> + +<p>However, he did not die. After midnight, there floated a balmy morning +air through the shaken flowers, and the whole spring was breathing. The +blissful lover, setting bounds even to his sea of joy, reminded his +delicate beloved, who was now his bride, of the dangers from night-cold; +and himself of the longer night-cold of Death, which was now for long +years passed over.—Innocent and blessed, they rose from the grove of +their betrothment, from its dusk broken by white acacia-flowers and +straggling moonbeams. And without, they felt as if a whole wide Past had +sunk away in a convulsion of the world; all was new, light and young. +The sky stood full of glittering dewdrops from the everlasting Morning; +and the stars quivered joyfully asunder, and sank, resolved into beams, +down into the hearts of men.—The Moon, with her fountain of light, had +overspread and kindled all the garden; and was hanging above in a +starless Blue, as if she had consumed the nearest stars; and she seemed +like a smaller wandering Spring, like a Christ's-face smiling in love of +man.—</p> + +<p>Under this light they looked at one another for the first time, after +the first words of love; and the sky gleamed magically down on the +disordered features with which the first rapture of love was still +standing written on their faces....</p> + +<p>Dream, ye beloved, as ye wake, happy as in Paradise, innocent as in +Paradise!</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="SIXTH_LETTER-BOX" id="SIXTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>SIXTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Office-impost. One of the most important of Petitions.</i></p> + +<p>The finest thing was his awakening in his European Settlement in the +giant Schadeck bed!—With the inflammatory, tickling,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> eating fever of +love in his breast; with the triumphant feeling, that he had now got the +introductory program of love put happily by; and with the sweet +resurrection from his living prophetic burial; and with the joy that +now, among his thirties, he could, for the first time, cherish hopes of +a longer life (and did not longer mean at least till seventy?) than he +could ten years ago;—with all this stirring life-balsam, in which the +living fire-wheel of his heart was rapidly revolving, he lay here, and +laughed at his glancing portrait in the bed-canopy; but he could not do +it long, he was obliged to move. For a less happy man, it would have +been gratifying to have measured,—as pilgrims measure the length of +their pilgrimage,—not so much by steps as by body-lengths, like +Earth-diameters, the superficial content of the bed. But Fixlein, for +his own part, had to launch from his bed into warm billowy Life, he had +now his dear good Earth again to look after, and a Conrectorship +thereon, and a bride to boot. Besides all this, his mother downstairs +now admitted that he had last night actually glided through beneath the +scythe of Death, like supple-grass, and that yesterday she had not told +him merely out of fear of his fear. Still a cold shudder went over +him,—especially as he was sober now,—when he looked round at the high +Tarpeian Rock, four hours' distance behind him, on the battlements of +which he had last night walked hand in hand with Death.</p> + +<p>The only thing that grieved him was, that it was Monday, and that he +must back to the Gymnasium. Such a freightage of joys he had never taken +with him on his road to town. After four he issued from his house, +satisfied with coffee (which he drank in Hukelum merely for his mother's +sake, who, for two days after, would still have portions of this +woman's-wine to draw from the lees of the pot-sediment) into the +<i>cooling</i> dawning May-morning (for joy needs coolness, sorrow sun); his +Betrothed comes—not indeed to meet him, but still—into his hearing, by +her distant morning hymn; he makes but one momentary turn into the +blissful haven of the blooming acacia-grove, which still, like the +covenant sealed in it, has no thorns; he dips his warm hand in the +cold-bath of the dewy leaves; he wades with pleasure through the +beautifying-water of the dew, which, as it imparts colour to faces, eats +it away from boots ("but with thirty ducats, a Conrector may make shift +to keep two pairs of boots on the hook").—And now the Moon, as it were +the hanging seal of his last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> night's happiness, dips down into the +West, like an emptied bucket of light, and in the East the other +overrunning bucket, the Sun, mounts up, and the gushes of light flow +broader and broader.—</p> + +<p>The city stood in the celestial flames of Morning. Here his divining-rod +(his gold-roll, which, excepting one sixteenth of an inch broken off +from it, he carried along with him) began to quiver over all the spots +where booty and silver-veins of enjoyment were concealed; and our +rod-diviner easily discovered that the city and the future were a true +entire Potosi of delights.</p> + +<p>In his Conrectorate closet he fell upon his knees, and thanked God—not +so much for his heritage and bride as—for his life: for he had gone +away on Sunday morning with doubts whether he should ever come back; and +it was purely out of love to the reader, and fear lest he might fret +himself too much with apprehension, that I cunningly imputed Fixlein's +journey more to his desire of knowing what was in the will, than of +making his own will in presence of his mother. Every recovery is a +bringing back and palingenesia of our youth: one loves the Earth and +those that are on it with a new love.—The Conrector could have found in +his heart to take all his class by the locks, and press them to his +breast; but he only did so to his adjutant, the Quartaner, who, in the +first Letter-box, was still sitting in the rank of a Quintaner....</p> + +<p>His first expedition, after school-hours, was to the house of Meister +Steinberger, where, without speaking a word, he counted down fifty +florins cash, in ducats, on the table: "At last I repay you," said +Fixlein, "the moiety of my debt, and give you many thanks."</p> + +<p>"Ey, Herr Conrector," said the Quartermaster, and continued calmly +stuffing puddings as before, "in my bond it is said, <i>payable at three +months' mutual notice</i>. How could a man like me go on, else?—However, I +will change you the gold pieces." Thereupon he advised him that it might +be more judicious to take back a florin or two, and buy himself a better +hat, and whole shoes: "if you like," added he, "to get a calfskin and +half a dozen hareskins dressed, they are lying upstairs."—I should +think, for my own part, that to the reader it must be as little a matter +of indifference as it was to the Butcher, whether the hero of such a +History appear before him with an old tattered potlid of a hat, and a +pump-sucker and leg-harness pair of boots,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> or in suitable apparel.—In +short, before St. John's day, the man was dressed with taste and pomp.</p> + +<p>But now came two most peculiarly important papers—at bottom only one, +the Petition for the Hukelum parsonship—to be elaborated; in regard to +which I feel as if I myself must assist.... It were a simple turn, if +now at least the assembled public did not pay attention.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the Conrector searched out and sorted all the +Consistorial and Councillor quittances, or rather the toll-bills of the +road-money, which he had been obliged to pay, before the toll-gates at +the Quintusship and Conrectorship had been thrown open: for the executor +of the Schadeck testament had to reimburse him the whole, as his +discharge would express it, "to penny and farthing." Another would have +summed up this post-excise much more readily; by merely looking what +he—owed; as these debt-bills and those toll-bills, like parallel +passages, elucidate and confirm each other. But in Fixlein's case, there +was a small circumstance of peculiarity at work; which I cannot explain +till after what follows.</p> + +<p>It grieved him a little that for his two offices he had been obliged to +pay and to borrow no larger a sum than 135 florins, 41 kreutzers and one +halfpenny. The legacy, it is true, was to pass directly from the hands +of the testamentary executor into those of the Regiments-Quartermaster; +but yet he could have liked well, had he—for man is a fool from the +very foundation of him—had more to pay, and therefore to inherit. The +whole Conrectorate he had, by a slight deposit of 90 florins, plucked, +as it were, from the Wheel of Fortune; and so small a sum must surprise +my reader: but what will he say, when I tell him that there are +countries where the entry-money into schoolrooms is even more moderate? +In Scherau, a Conrector is charged only 88 florins, and perhaps he may +have an income triple of this sum. Not to speak of Saxony (what, in +truth, was to be expected from the cradle of the Reformation, in +Religion and Polite Literature), where a schoolmaster and a parson have +<i>nothing</i> to pay,—even in Bayreuth, for example, in Hof, the progress +of improvement has been such, that a Quartus—a Quartus do I say,—a +Tertius—a Tertius do I say,—a Conrector, at entrance on his post, is +not required to pay down more than:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" summary="required payment"> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tdc">Fl. rhen.</td><td class="tdc">Kr. rhen.</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tdr">30</td><td class="tdr">49 </td><td class="tdl">For taking the oaths at the Consistorium.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tdr">4</td><td class="tdr">0 </td><td class="tdl">To the Syndic for the Presentation.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdr">0 </td><td class="tdl">To the then Bürgermeister.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tdr">45</td><td class="tdr">7½</td><td class="tdl">For the Government-sanction.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Total</td><td class="tdr">81 fl.</td><td class="tdr">56½ kr.</td><td> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>If the printing-charges of a Rector do stand a little higher in some +points, yet, on the other hand, a Tertius, Quartus &c. come cheaper from +the press than even a Conrector. Now it is clear that in this case a +schoolmaster can subsist; since, in the course of the very first year, +he gets an overplus beyond this <i>dock-money</i> of his office. A +schoolmaster must, like his scholars, have been advanced from class to +class, before these his loans to Government, together with the interest +for delay of payment, can jointly amount to so much as his yearly income +in the highest class. Another thing in his favour is, that our +institutions do not—as those of Athens did—prohibit people from +entering on office while in debt; but every man, with his debt-knapsack +on his shoulders, mounts up, step after step, without obstruction. The +Pope, in large benefices, appropriates the income of the first year +under the title of <i>Annates</i>, or First Fruits; and accordingly he, in +all cases, bestows any large benefice on the possessor of a smaller one, +thereby to augment both his own revenues and those of others; but it +shows, in my opinion, a bright distinction between Popery and +Lutheranism, that the Consistoriums of the latter abstract from their +school-ministers and church-ministers not perhaps above two-thirds of +their first yearly income; though they too, like the Pope, must +naturally have an eye to vacancies.</p> + +<p>It may be that I shall here come in collision with the Elector of Mentz, +when I confess, that in Schmausen's <i>Corp. Jur. Pub. Germ.</i> I have +turned up the Mentz-Imperial-Court-Chancery-tax-ordinance of the 6th +January 1659; and there investigated how much this same +Imperial-Court-Chancery demands, as contrasted with a Consistorium. For +example, any man that wishes to be baked or sodden into a <i>Poet +Laureate</i>, has 50 florins tax-dues, and 20 florins Chancery-dues to pay +down; whereas, for 20 florins more, he might have been made a Conrector, +who is a poet of this species, as it were by the by and <i>ex +officio</i>.—The institution of a Gymnasium is permitted for 1000 florins; +an extraordinary sum, with which the whole body of the teachers in the +instituted Gymnasium might with us clear off the entrymoneys of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +schoolrooms. Again, a Freiherr, who, at any rate, often enough grows old +without knowing how, must purchase the <i>venia ætatis</i> with 200 hard +florins; while with the half sum he might have become a schoolmaster, +and here <i>age</i> would have come of its own accord.—And a thousand such +things!—They prove, however, that matters can be at no bad pass in our +Governments and Circles, where promotions are sold dearer to Folly than +to Diligence, and where it costs more to institute a school than to +serve in one.</p> + +<p>The remarks I made on this subject to a Prince, as well as the remarks a +Town-Syndic made on it to myself, are too remarkable to be omitted for +mere dread of digressiveness.</p> + +<p>The Syndic—a man of enlarged views, and of fiery patriotism, the warmth +of which was the more beneficent that he collected all the beams of it +into one focus, and directed them to himself and his family—gave me (I +had perhaps been comparing the School-bench and the School-stair to the +<i>bench</i> and the <i>ladder</i>, on which people are laid when about to be +tortured) the best reply: "If a schoolmaster consume nothing but 30 +reichsthalers;<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> if he annually purchase manufactured goods, according +as Political Economists have calculated for each individual, namely, to +the amount of 5 reichsthalers; and no more hundredweights of victual +than these assume, namely 10; in short, if he live like a substantial +wood-cutter,—then the Devil must be in it, if he cannot yearly lay by +so much net profit, as shall, in the long-run, pay the interest of his +entry-debts."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> So much, according to Political Economists, a man yearly +requires in Germany.</p></div> + +<p>The Syndic must have failed to convince me at the time, since I +afterwards told the Flachsenfingen Prince:<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> "Illustrious Sir, you +know not, but I do—not a player in your Theatre would act the +Schoolmaster in Engel's <i>Prodigal Son</i>, three nights running, for such a +sum as every real Schoolmaster has to take for acting it all the days of +the year.—In Prussia, Invalids are made Schoolmasters; with us, +Schoolmasters are made Invalids."...</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> This singular tone of my address to a Prince can only be +excused by the equally singular relation, wherein the Biographer stands +to the Flachsenfingen Sovereign, and which I would willingly unfold +here, were it not that, in my Book, which, under the title of +<i>Dog-post-days</i>, I mean to give to the world at Easter-fair 1795, I +hoped to expound the matter to universal satisfaction.</p></div> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>But to our story! Fixlein wrote out the inventory of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> Crown-debts; +but with quite a different purpose than the reader will guess, who has +still the Schadeck testament in his head. In one word, he wanted to be +Parson of Hukelum. To be a clergyman, and in the place where his cradle +stood, and all the little gardens of his childhood, his mother also, and +the grove of betrothment,—this was an open gate into a New Jerusalem, +supposing even that the living had been nothing but a meagre +penitentiary. The main point was, he might marry, if he were appointed. +For, in the capacity of lank Conrector, supported only by the +strengthening-girth of his waistcoat, and with emoluments whereby +scarcely the purchase-money of a—purse was to be come at; in this way +he was more like collecting wick and tallow for his burial-torch than +for his bridal one.</p> + +<p>For the Schoolmaster class are, in well-ordered States, as little +permitted to marry as the Soldiery. In <i>Conringius de Antiquitutibus +Academicis</i>, where in every leaf it is proved that all cloisters were +originally schools, I hit upon the reason. Our schools are now +cloisters, and consequently we endeavour to maintain in our teachers at +least an imitation of the Three Monastic Vows. The vow of Obedience +might perhaps be sufficiently enforced by School-Inspectors; but the +second vow, that of Celibacy, would be more hard of attainment, were it +not that, by one of the best political arrangements, the third vow, I +mean a beautiful equality in Poverty, is so admirably attended to, that +no man who has made it needs any farther <i>testimonium paupertatis</i>;—and +now <i>let</i> this man, if he likes, lay hold of a matrimonial half, when of +the two halves each has a whole stomach, and nothing for it but +half-coins and half-beer!...</p> + +<p>I know well, millions of my readers would themselves compose this +Petition for the Conrector, and ride with it to Schadeck to his +Lordship, that so the poor rogue might get the sheepfold, with the +annexed wedding-mansion: for they see clearly enough, that directly +thereafter one of the best Letter-Boxes would be written that ever came +from such a repository.</p> + +<p>Fixlein's Petition was particularly good and striking: it submitted to +the Rittmeister four grounds of preference: 1. "He was a native of the +parish: his parents and ancestors had already done Hukelum service; +therefore he prayed," &c.</p> + +<p>2. "The here-documented official debts of 135 florins, 41 kreutzers and +one halfpenny, the cancelling of which a never-to-be-forgotten testament +secured him, he himself could clear, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> case he obtained the living, +and so hereby give up his claim to the legacy," &c.</p> + +<p><i>Voluntary Note by me.</i> It is plain he means to bribe his Godfather, +whom the lady's testament has put into a fume. But, gentle reader, blame +not without mercy a poor, oppressed, heavy-laden school-man and +school-horse for an indelicate insinuation, which truly was never mine. +Consider, Fixlein knew that the Rittmeister was a cormorant towards the +poor, as he was a squanderer towards the rich. It may be, too, the +Conrector might once or twice have heard, in the Law Courts, of patrons, +by whom not indeed the church and churchyard—though these things are +articles of commerce in England—so much as the true management of them +had been sold, or rather farmed to farming-candidates. I know from +Lange,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> that the Church must support its patron, when he has nothing +to live upon: and might not a nobleman, before he actually began +begging, be justified in taking a little advance, a fore-payment of his +alimentary moneys, from the hands of his pulpit-farmer?—</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> His <i>Clerical Law</i>, p. 551.</p></div> + +<p>3. "He had lately betrothed himself with Fräulein von Thiennette, and +given her a piece of gold, as marriage-pledge; and could therefore wed +the said Fräulein were he once provided for," &c.</p> + +<p><i>Voluntary Note by me.</i> I hold this ground to be the strongest in the +whole Petition. In the eyes of Herr von Aufhammer, Thiennette's +genealogical tree was long since stubbed, disleaved, worm-eaten and full +of millepedes: she was his Œconoma, his Castle-Stewardess and +Legatess <i>a Latere</i> for his domestics; and with her pretensions for an +alms-coffer, was threatening in the end to become a burden to him. His +indignant wish that she had been provided for with Fixlein's legacy +might now be fulfilled. In a word, if Fixlein become Parson, he will +have the third ground to thank for it; not at all the mad fourth....</p> + +<p>4. "He had learned with sorrow, that the name of his Shock, which he had +purchased from an Emigrant at Leipzig, meant Egidius in German; and that +the dog had drawn upon him the displeasure of his Lordship. Far be it +from him so to designate the Shock in future; but he would take it as a +special grace, if for the dog, which he at present called without any +name, his Lordship would be pleased to appoint one himself."</p> + +<p><i>My Voluntary Note.</i> The dog then, it seems, to which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> nobleman has +hitherto been godfather, is to receive its name a <i>second</i> time from +him!—But how can the famishing gardener's son, whose career never +mounted higher than from the school-bench to the school-chair, and who +never spoke with polished ladies, except singing, namely in the church, +how can he be expected, in fingering such a string, to educe from it any +finer tone than the pedantic one? And yet the source of it lies deeper: +not the contracted <i>situation</i>, but the contracted <i>eye</i>, not a +favourite science, but a narrow plebeian soul, makes us pedantic, a soul +that cannot <i>measure</i> and <i>separate</i> the <i>concentric</i> circles of human +knowledge and activity, that confounds the focus of universal human +life, by reason of the focal distance, with every two or three +converging rays; and that cannot see all, and tolerate all——In short, +the true Pedant is the Intolerant.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The Conrector wrote out his petition splendidly in five propitious +evenings; employed a peculiar ink for the purpose; worked not indeed so +long over it as the stupid Manucius over a Latin letter, namely, some +months, if Scioppius' word is to be taken; still less so long as another +scholar at a Latin epistle, who—truly we have nothing but Morhof's word +for it—hatched it during four whole months; inserting his variations, +adjectives, feet, with the authorities for his phrases, accurately +marked between the lines. Fixlein possessed a more thorough-going +genius, and had completely mastered the whole enterprise in sixteen +days. While sealing, he thought, as we all do, how this cover was the +seed-husk of a great entire Future, the rind of many sweet or bitter +fruits, the swathing of his whole after-life.</p> + +<p>Heaven bless his cover; but I let you throw me from the Tower of Babel, +if he get the parsonage: can't you see, then, that Aufhammer's hands are +tied? In spite of all his other faults, or even because of them, he will +stand like iron by his word, which he has given so long ago to the +Subrector. It were another matter had he been resident at Court; for +there, where old German manners still are, no promise is kept; for as, +according to Möser, the Ancient Germans kept only such promises as they +made in the <i>forenoon</i> (in the afternoon they were all dead-drunk),—so +the Court Germans likewise keep no afternoon promise; forenoon ones they +would keep if they made any, which, however, cannot possibly happen, as +at those hours they are—sleeping.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h4><a name="SEVENTH_LETTER-BOX" id="SEVENTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>SEVENTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Sermon. School-Exhibition. Splendid Mistake.</i></p> + + +<p>The Conrector received his 135 florins, 43 kreutzers, one halfpenny +Frankish; but no answer: the dog remained without name, his master +without parsonage. Meanwhile the summer passed away; and the Dragoon +Rittmeister had yet drawn out no pike from the Candidate +<i>breeding-pond</i>, and thrown him into the <i>feeding-pond</i> of the Hukelum +parsonage. It gratified him to be behung with prayers like a Spanish +guardian Saint; and he postponed (though determined to prefer the +Subrector) granting any one petition, till he had seven-and-thirty +dyers', buttonmakers', tinsmiths' sons, whose petitions he could at the +same time refuse. Grudge not him of Aufhammer this outlengthening of his +electorial power! He knows the privileges of rank; feels that a nobleman +is like Timoleon, who gained his greatest victories on his birthday, and +had nothing more to do than name some squiress, countess, or the like, +as his mother. A man, however, who has been exalted to the Peerage, +while still a fœtus, may with more propriety be likened to the +<i>spinner</i>, which, contrariwise to all other insects, passes from the +chrysalis state, and becomes a perfect insect in its mother's womb.—</p> + +<p>But to proceed! Fixlein was at present not without cash. It will be the +same as if I made a present of it to the reader, when I reveal to him, +that of the legacy, which was clearing off old scores, he had still +thirty-five florins left to himself, as <i>allodium</i> and pocket-money, +wherewith he might purchase whatsoever seemed good to him. And how came +he by so large a sum, by so considerable a competence? Simply by this +means: Every time he changed a piece of gold, and especially at every +payment he received, it had been his custom to throw in, blindly at +random, two, three, or four small coins, among the papers of his trunk. +His purpose was to astonish himself one day, when he summed up and took +possession of this sleeping capital. And, by Heaven! he reached it too, +when on mounting the throne of his Conrectorate, he drew out these funds +from among his papers, and applied them to the coronation charges. For +the present, he sowed them in again among his waste letters. Foolish +Fixlein! I mean, had he not luckily exposed his legacy to jeopardy, +having offered it as bounty-money, and luck-penny to the patron, this +false clutch of his at the knocker of the Hukelum church-door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> would +certainly have vexed him; but now if he had missed the knocker, he had +the luck-penny again, and could be merry.</p> + +<p>I now advance a little way in his History, and hit, in the rock of his +Life, upon so fine a vein of silver, I mean upon so fine a day, that I +must (I believe) content myself even in regard to the twenty-third of +Trinity-term, when he preached a vacation sermon in his dear native +village, with a brief transitory notice.</p> + +<p>In itself the sermon was good and glorious; and the day a rich day of +pleasure; but I should really need to have more hours at my disposal +than I can steal from May, in which I am at present living and writing; +and more strength than wandering through this fine weather has left me +for landscape pictures of the same, before I could attempt, with any +well-founded hope, to draw out a mathematical estimate of the length and +thickness, and the vibrations and accordant relations to each other, of +the various strings, which combined together to form for his heart a +Music of the Spheres, on this day of Trinity-term, though such a thing +would please myself as much as another.... Do not ask me! In my opinion, +when a man preaches on Sunday before all the peasants, who had carried +him in their arms when a gardener's boy; farther, before his mother, who +is leading off her tears through the conduit of her satin muff; farther, +before his Lordship, whom he can positively command to be blessed; and +finally, before his muslin bride, who is already blessed, and changing +almost into stone, to find that the same lips can both kiss and preach: +in my opinion, I say, when a man effects all this, he has some right to +require of any Biographer who would paint his situation, that he—hold +his jaw; and of the reader who would sympathise with it, that he open +his, and preach himself.——</p> + +<p>But what I must <i>ex officio</i> depict, is the day to which this Sunday was +but the prelude, the vigil and the whet; I mean the prelude, the vigil +and the whet to the <i>Martini Actus</i>, or <i>Martinmas Exhibition</i>, of his +school. On Sunday was the Sermon, on Wednesday the Actus, on Tuesday the +Rehearsal. This Tuesday shall now be delineated to the universe.</p> + +<p>I count upon it that I shall not be read by mere people of the world +alone, to whom a School-Actus cannot truly appear much better, or more +interesting, than some Investiture of a Bishop, or the <i>opera seria</i> of +a Frankfort Coronation; but that I likewise have people before me, who +have been at schools, and who know how the school-drama of an Actus, and +the stage-manager, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> the playbill (the Program) thereof are to be +estimated, still without overrating their importance.</p> + +<p>Before proceeding to the Rehearsal of the <i>Martini Actus</i>, I impose upon +myself, as dramaturgist of the play, the duty, if not of extracting, at +least of recording the Conrector's Letter of Invitation. In this +composition he said many things; and (what an author likes so well) made +proposals rather than reproaches; interrogatively reminding the public, +Whether in regard to the well-known head-breakages of Priscian on the +part of the Magnates in Pest and Poland, our school-houses were not the +best quarantine and lazar-houses to protect us against infectious +<i>barbarisms</i>? Moreover, he defended in schools what could be defended +(and nothing in the world is sweeter or easier than a defence); and +said, Schoolmasters, who not quite justifiably, like certain Courts, +spoke nothing, and let nothing be spoken to them but Latin, might plead +the Romans in excuse, whose subjects, and whose kings, at least in their +epistles and public transactions, were obliged to make use of the Latin +tongue. He wondered why only our Greek, and not also our Latin Grammars, +were composed in Latin, and put the pregnant question: Whether the +Romans, when they taught their little children the Latin tongue, did it +in any other than in this same? Thereupon he went over to the Actus, and +said what follows, in his own words:</p> + +<p>"I am minded to prove, in a subsequent Invitation, that everything which +can be said or known about the great founder of the Reformation, the +subject of our present Martini Prolusions, has been long ago exhausted, +as well by Seckendorf as others. In fact, with regard to Luther's +personalities, his table-talk, incomes, journeys, clothes, and so forth, +there can now nothing new be brought forward, if at the same time it is +to be true. Nevertheless, the field of the Reformation history is, to +speak in a figure, by no means wholly cultivated; and it does appear to +me as if the inquirer even of the present day might in vain look about +for correct intelligence respecting the children, grandchildren and +children's children, down to our own times, of this great Reformer; all +of whom, however, appertain, in a more remote degree, to the Reformation +history, as he himself in a nearer. Thou shalt not perhaps be threshing, +said I to myself, altogether empty straw, if, according to thy small +ability, thou bring forward and cultivate this neglected branch of +History. And so have I ventured, with the last male descendant of +Luther, namely, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> the Advocate Martin Gottlob Luther, who practised +in Dresden, and deceased there in 1759, to make a beginning of a more +special Reformation history. My feeble attempt, in regard to this +Reformationary Advocate, will be sufficiently rewarded, should it excite +to better works on the subject: however, the little which I have +succeeded in digging up and collecting with regard to him I here +submissively, obediently, and humbly request all friends and patrons of +the Flachsenfingen Gymnasium to listen to, on the 14th of November, from +the mouths of sis well-conditioned perorators. In the first place, shall</p> + +<p>"<i>Gottlieb Spiesglass</i>, a Flachsenfinger, endeavour to show, in a Latin +oration, that Martin Gottlob Luther was certainly descended of the +Luther family. After him strives</p> + +<p>"<i>Friedrich Christian Krabbler</i>, from Hukelum, in German prose, to +appreciate the influence which Martin Gottlob Luther exercised on the +then existing Reformation; whereupon, after him, will</p> + +<p>"<i>Daniel Lorenz Stenzinger</i> deliver, in Latin verse, an account of +Martin Gottlob Luther's lawsuits; embracing the probable merits of +Advocates generally, in regard to the Reformation. Which then will give +opportunity to</p> + +<p>"<i>Nikol Tobias Pfizman</i> to come forward in French, and recount the most +important circumstances of Martin Gottlob Luther's school-years, +university-life and riper age. And now, when</p> + +<p>"<i>Andreas Eintarm</i> shall have endeavoured, in German verse, to apologise +for the possible failings of this representative of the great Luther, +will</p> + +<p>"<i>Justus Strobel</i>, in Latin verse according to ability, sing his +uprightness and integrity in the Advocate profession; whereafter I +myself shall mount the cathedra, and most humbly thank all the patrons +of the Flachsenfingen School, and then farther bring forward those +portions in the life of this remarkable man, of which we yet know +absolutely nothing, they being spared <i>Deo volente</i> for the speakers of +the next <i>Martini Actus</i>."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The day before the Actus offered as it were the proof-shot and +sample-sheet of the Wednesday. Persons who on account of dress could not +be present at the great school-festival, especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> ladies, made their +appearance on Tuesday, during the six proof-orations. No one can be +readier than I to subordinate the proof-Actus to the Wednesday-Actus; +and I do anything but need being stimulated suitably to estimate the +solemn feast of a School; but on the other hand I am equally convinced +that no one, who did not go to the real Actus of Wednesday, could +possibly figure anything more splendid than the proof-day preceding; +because he could have no object wherewith to compare the pomp in which +the Primate of the festival drove in with his triumphal chariot and +six—to call the six brethren-speakers coach-horses—next morning in +presence of ladies and Councillor gentlemen. Smile away, Fixlein, at +this astonishment over thy today's <i>Ovation</i>, which is leading on +tomorrow's <i>Triumph</i>: on thy dissolving countenance quivers happy Self, +feeding on these incense-fumes; but a vanity like thine, and that only, +which enjoys without comparing or despising, can one tolerate, will one +foster. But what flowed over all his heart, like a melting sunbeam over +wax, was his mother, who after much persuasion had ventured in her +Sunday clothes humbly to place herself quite low down, beside the door +of the Prima class-room. It were difficult to say who is happier, the +mother, beholding how he whom she has borne under her heart can direct +such noble young gentlemen, and hearing how he along with them can talk +of these really high things and understand them too;—or the son, who, +like some of the heroes of Antiquity, has the felicity of triumphing in +the lifetime of his mother. I have never in my writings or doings cast a +stone upon the late Burchardt Grossmann, who under the initial letters +of the stanzas in his song, "<i>Brich an, du liebe Morgenröthe</i>," inserted +the letters of his own name; and still less have I ever censured any +poor herbwoman for smoothing out her winding-sheet, while still living, +and making herself one-twelfth of a dozen of grave-shifts. Nor do I +regard the man as wise—though indeed as very clever and pedantic—who +can fret his gall-bladder full because every one of us leaf-miners views +the leaf whereon he is mining as a park-garden, as a fifth Quarter of +the World (so near and rich is it); the leaf-pores as so many Valleys of +Tempe, the leaf-skeleton as a Liberty-tree, a Bread-tree and Life-tree, +and the dew-drops as the Ocean. We poor day-moths, evening-moths and +night-moths, fall universally into the same error, only on different +leaves; and whosoever (as I do) laughs at the important airs with which +the schoolmaster issues his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> programs, the dramaturgist his playbills, +the classical variation-alms-gatherer his alphabetic letters,—does it, +if he is wise (as is the case here), with the consciousness of his own +<i>similar</i> folly; and laughs in regard to his neighbour, at nothing but +mankind and himself.</p> + +<p>The mother was not to be detained; she must off, this very night, to +Hukelum, to give the Fräulein Thiennette at least some tidings of this +glorious business.—</p> + +<p>And now the World will bet a hundred to one, that I forthwith take +biographical wax, and emboss such a wax-figure cabinet of the Actus +itself as shall be single of its kind.</p> + +<p>But on Wednesday morning, while the hope-intoxicated Conrector was just +about putting on his fine raiment, something knocked.——</p> + +<p>It was the well-known servant of the Rittmeister, carrying the Hukelum +Presentation for the Subrector <i>Füchs</i>lein in his pocket. To the +last-named gentleman he had been sent with this call to the parsonage: +but he had distinguished ill betwixt <i>Sub</i> and <i>Con</i>rector; and had +besides his own good reasons for directing his steps to the latter; for +he thought: "Who can it be that gets it, but the parson that preached +last Sunday, and that comes from the village, and is engaged to our +Fräulein Thiennette, and to whom I brought a clock and a roll of ducats +already?" That his Lordship could pass over his own godson, never +entered the man's head.</p> + +<p>Fixlein read the address of the Appointment: "To the Reverend the Parson +<i>Fixlein</i> of Hukelum." He naturally enough made the same mistake as the +lackey; and broke up the Presentation as his own: and finding moreover +in the body of the paper no special mention of persons, but only of a +<i>Schul-unter-befehlslaber</i> or School-undergovernor (instead of +Subrector), he could not but persist in his error. Before I properly +explain why the Rittmeister's Lawyer, the framer of the Presentation, +had so designated a Subrector—we two, the reader and myself, will keep +an eye for a moment on Fixlein's joyful saltations—on his +gratefully-streaming eyes—on his full hands so laden with bounty—on +the present of two ducats, which he drops into the hands of the +mitre-bearer, as willingly as he will soon drop his own pedagogic +office. Could he tell what to think (of the Rittmeister), or to write +(to the same), or to table (for the lackey)? Did he not ask tidings of +the noble health of his benefactor over and over,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> though the servant +answered him with all distinctness at the very first? And was not this +same man, who belonged to the nose-upturning, shoulder-shrugging, +shoulder-knotted, toad-eating species of men, at last so moved by the +joy which he had imparted, that he determined on the spot, to bestow his +presence on the new clergyman's School-Actus, though no person of +quality whatever was to be there? Fixlein, in the first place, sealed +his letter of thanks; and courteously invited this messenger of good +news to visit him frequently in the Parsonage; and to call this evening +in passing at his mother's, and give her a lecture for not staying last +night, when she might have seen the Presentation from his Lordship +arrive today.</p> + +<p>The lackey being gone, Fixlein for joy began to grow sceptical—and +timorous (wherefore, to prevent filching, he stowed his Presentation +securely in his coffer, under keeping of two padlocks); and devout and +softened, since he thanked God without scruple for all good that +happened to him, and never wrote this Eternal Name but in pulpit +characters and with coloured ink, as the Jewish copyists never wrote it +except in ornamental letters and when newly washed;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a>—and deaf also +did the parson grow, so that he scarcely heard the soft wooing-hour of +the Actus—for a still softer one beside Thiennette, with its +rose-bushes and rose-honey, would not leave his thoughts. He who of old, +when Fortune made a wry face at him, was wont, like children in their +sport at one another, to laugh at her so long till she herself was +obliged to begin smiling,—he was now flying as on a huge seesaw higher +and higher, quicker and quicker aloft.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Eichhorn's <i>Einleit. ins A. T.</i> (Introduction to the Old +Testament), vol. ii.</p></div> + +<p>But before the Actus, let us examine the Schadeck Lawyer. <i>Fixlein</i> +instead of <i>Füchslein</i><a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> he had written from uncertainty about the +spelling of the name; the more naturally as in transcribing the +Rittmeisterinn's will, the former had occurred so often. <i>Von</i>, this +triumphal arch he durst not set up before Füchslein's new name, because +Aufhammer forbade it, considering Hans Füchslein as a mushroom who had +no right to <i>vons</i> and titles of nobility, for all his patents. In fine, +the Presentation-writer was possessed with Campe's<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> whim of +Germanising everything, minding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> little though when Germanised it should +cease to be intelligible;—as if a word needed any better act of +naturalisation than that which universal intelligibility imparts to it. +In itself it is the same—the rather as all languages, like all men, are +cognate, intermarried and intermixed—whether a word was invented by a +savage or a foreigner; whether it grew up like moss amid the German +forests, or like street-grass, in the pavement of the Roman forum. The +Lawyer, on the other hand, contended that it was different; and +accordingly he hid not from any of his clients that <i>Tagefarth</i> +(Day-turn) meant <i>Term</i>, and that <i>Appealing</i> was <i>Berufen</i> (Becalling). +On this principle he dressed the word <i>Subrector</i> in the new livery of +<i>School-undergovernor</i>. And this version farther converted the +Schoolmaster into Parson: to such a degree does our <i>civic</i> fortune—not +our <i>personal</i> well-being, which supports itself on our own internal +soil and resources—grow merely on the <i>drift-mould</i> of accidents, +connexions, acquaintances, and Heaven or the Devil knows what!—</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Both have the same sound. <i>Füchslein</i> means Foxling, +Foxwhelp.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Campe, a German philologist, who, along with several +others of that class, has really proposed, as represented in the Text, +to substitute for all Greek or Latin derivatives corresponding German +terms of the like import. <i>Geography</i>, which may be <i>Erdbeschreibung</i> +(Earth-description), was thenceforth to be nothing else; a <i>Geometer</i> +became an <i>Earthmeasurer</i>, &c. &c. <i>School-undergovernor</i>, instead of +<i>Subrector</i>, is by no means the happiest example of the system, and +seems due rather to the Schadeck Lawyer than to Campe, whom our Author +has elsewhere more than once eulogised for his project in similar +style.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>By the by, from a Lawyer, at the same time a Country Judge, I should +certainly have looked for more sense; I should (I may be mistaken) have +presumed he knew that the <i>Acts</i> or Reports, which in former times (see +Hoffmann's <i>German or un-German Law-practice</i>) were written in Latin, as +before the times of Joseph the Hungarian,—are now, if we may say so +without offence, perhaps written fully more in the German dialect than +in the Latin; and in support of this opinion, I can point to whole lines +of German language, to be found in these Imperial-Court-Confessions. +However, I will not believe that the Jurist is endeavouring, because +Imhofer declares the Roman tongue to be the mother tongue in the other +world, to disengage himself from a language, by means of which, like the +Roman <i>Eagle</i>, or later, like the Roman <i>Fish-heron</i> (Pope), he has +clutched such abundant booty in his talons.——</p> + +<p>Toll, toll your bell for the Actus; stream in, in to the ceremony: who +cares for it? Neither I nor the Ex-Conrector. The six pigmy Ciceros will +in vain set forth before us in sumptuous dress their thoughts and +bodies. The draught-wind of Chance has blown away from the Actus its +powder-nimbus of glory; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> the Conrector that was has discovered how +small a matter a cathedra is, and how great a one a pulpit: "I should +not have thought," thought he now, "when I became Conrector, that there +could he anything grander, I mean a Parson." Man, behind his everlasting +blind, which he only colours differently, and makes no thinner, carries +his pride with him from one step to another; and, on the higher step, +blames only the pride of the lower.</p> + +<p>The best of the Actus was, that the Regiments-Quartermaster, and Master +Butcher, Steinberg, attended there, embaled in a long woollen shag. +During the solemnity, the Subrector Hans von Füchslein cast several +gratified and inquiring glances on the Schadeck servant, who did not +once look at him: Hans would have staked his head, that after the Actus, +the fellow would wait upon him. When at last the sextuple cockerel-brood +had on their dunghill done crowing, that is to say, had perorated, the +scholastic cocker, over whom a higher banner was now waving, himself +came upon the stage; and delivered to the School-Inspectorships, to the +Subrectorship, to the Guardianship and the Lackeyship, his most grateful +thanks for their attendance; shortly announcing to them at the same +time, "that Providence had now called him from his post to another; and +committed to him, unworthy as he was, the cure of souls in the Hukelum +parish, as well as in the Schadeck chapel of ease."</p> + +<p>This little address, to appearance, well-nigh blew up the then Subrector +Hans von Füchslein from his chair; and his face looked of a mingled +colour, like red bole, green chalk, tinsel-yellow and <i>vomissement de la +reine</i>.</p> + +<p>The tall Quartermaster erected himself considerably in his shag, and +hummed loud enough in happy forgetfulness: "The Dickens!—Parson?"——</p> + +<p>The Subrector dashed by like a comet before the lackey: ordered him to +call and take a letter for his master; strode home, and prepared for his +patron, who at Schadeck was waiting for a long thanksgiving psalm, a +short satirical epistle, as nervous as haste would permit, and mingled a +few nicknames and verbal injuries along with it.</p> + +<p>The courier handed in, to his master, Fixlein's song of gratitude, and +Füchslein's invectives, with the same hand. The Dragoon Rittmeister, +incensed at the ill-mannered churl, and bound to his word, which Fixlein +had publicly announced in his Actus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> forthwith wrote back to the new +Parson an acceptance and ratification; and Fixlein is and remains, to +the joy of us all, incontestable ordained parson of Hukelum.</p> + +<p>His disappointed rival has still this consolation, that he holds a seat +in the wasp-nest of the <i>Neue Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek</i>.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> +Should the Parson ever chrysalise himself into an author, the watch-wasp +may then buzz out, and dart its sting into the chrysalis, and put its +own brood in the room of the murdered butterfly. As the Subrector +everywhere went about, and threatened in plain terms that he would +review his colleague, let not the public be surprised that Fixlein's +<i>Errata</i>, and his Masoretic <i>Exercitationes</i>, are to this hour withheld +from it.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>New Universal German Library</i>, a reviewing periodical; in +those days conducted by Nicolai, a sworn enemy to what has since been +called the New School. (See Tieck, <i>ante</i>)—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>In spring, the widowed church receives her new husband; and how it will +be, when Fixlein, under a canopy of flower-trees, takes the <i>Sponsa +Christi</i> in one hand, and his own <i>Sponsa</i> in the other,—this, without +an Eighth Letter-Box, which, in the present case, may be a true +jewel-box and rainbow-key,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> can no mortal figure, except the +<i>Sponsus</i> himself.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Superstition declares, that on the spot where the rainbow +rises, a golden key is left.</p></div> + + + + +<h4><a name="EIGHTH_LETTER-BOX" id="EIGHTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>EIGHTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Instalment in the Parsonage.</i></p> + + +<p>On the 15th of April 1793, the reader may observe, far down in the +hollow, three baggage-wagons groaning along. These baggage-wagons are +transporting the house-gear of the new Parson to Hukelum: the proprietor +himself, with a little escort of his parishioners, is marching at their +side, that of his china sets and household furniture there may be +nothing broken in the eighteenth century, as the whole came down to him +unbroken from the seventeenth. Fixlein hears the School-bell ringing +behind him; but this chime now sings to him, like a curfew, the songs of +future rest: he is now escaped from the Death-valley of the Gymnasium, +and admitted into the abodes of the Blessed. Here dwells no envy, no +colleague, no Subrector; here in the heavenly country, no man works in +the <i>New Universal German Library</i>; here, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> the heavenly Hukelumic +Jerusalem, they do nothing but sing praises in the church; and here the +Perfected requires no more increase of knowledge.... Here too one need +not sorrow that Sunday and Saint's day so often fall together into one.</p> + +<p>Truth to tell, the Parson goes too far: but it was his way from of old +never to paint out the whole and half shadows of a situation, till he +was got into a new one; the beauties of which he could then enhance by +contrast with the former. For it requires little reflection to discover +that the torments of a schoolmaster are nothing so extraordinary; but, +on the contrary, as in the Gymnasium, he mounts from one degree to +another, not very dissimilar to the common torments of Hell, which, in +spite of their eternity, grow weaker from century to century. Moreover, +since, according to the saying of a Frenchman, <i>deux afflictions mises +ensemble peuvent devenir une consolation</i>, a man gets afflictions enow +in a school to console him; seeing out of eight combined afflictions—I +reckon only one for every teacher—certainly more comfort is to be +extracted than out of two. The only pity is, that school-people will +never act towards each other as court-people do: none but polished men +and polished glasses will readily cohere. In addition to all this, in +schools—and in offices generally—one is always recompensed: for, as in +the second life, a greater virtue is the recompense of an earthly one, +so, in the Schoolmaster's case, his merits are always rewarded by more +opportunities for new merits; and often enough he is not dismissed from +his post at all.—</p> + +<p>Eight Gymnasiasts are trotting about in the Parsonage, setting up, +nailing to, hauling in. I think, as a scholar of Plutarch, I am right to +introduce such seeming <i>minutiæ</i>. A man whom grown-up people love, +children love still more. The whole school had smiled on the smiling +Fixlein, and liked him in their hearts, because he did not thunder, but +sport with them; because he said <i>Sie</i> (They) to the Secundaners, and +the Subrector said <i>Ihr</i> (Ye); because his uprearing forefinger was his +only sceptre and baculus; because in the Secunda he had interchanged +Latin epistles with his scholars; and in the Quinta, had taught not with +Napier's Rods (or rods of a sharper description), but with sticks of +barley-sugar.</p> + +<p>Today his churchyard appeared to him so solemn and festive, that he +wondered (though it was Monday) why his parishioners were not in their +holiday, but merely in their weekday drapery.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> Under the door of the +Parsonage stood a weeping woman; for she was too happy, and he was +her—son. Yet the mother, in the height of her emotion, contrives quite +readily to call upon the carriers, while disloading, not to twist off +the four corner globes from the old Frankish chest of drawers. Her son +now appeared to her as venerable, as if he had sat for one of the +copperplates in her pictured Bible; and that simply, because he had cast +off his pedagogue hair-cue, as the ripening tadpole does its tail; and +was now standing in a clerical periwig before her: he was now a Comet, +soaring away from the profane Earth, and had accordingly changed from a +<i>stella caudata</i> into a <i>stella crinita</i>.</p> + +<p>His bride also had, on former days, given sedulous assistance in this +new improved edition of his house, and laboured faithfully among the +other furnishers and furbishers. But today she kept aloof; for she was +too good to forget the maiden in the bride. Love, like men, dies oftener +of excess than of hunger; it lives on love, but it resembles those +Alpine flowers, which feed themselves by <i>suction</i> from the wet clouds, +and die if you <i>besprinkle</i> them.—</p> + +<p>At length the Parson is settled, and of course he must—for I know my +fair readers, who are bent on it as if they were bridemaids—without +delay get married. But he may not: before Ascension-day there can +nothing be done, and till then are full four weeks and a half. The +matter was this: He wished in the first place to have the murder-Sunday, +the Cantata, behind him; not indeed because he doubted of his earthly +continuance, but because he would not (even for the bride's sake) that +the slightest apprehension should mingle with these weeks of glory.</p> + +<p>The main reason was, He did not wish to marry till he were betrothed: +which latter ceremony was appointed, with the Introduction Sermon, to +take place next Sunday. It is the Cantata-Sunday. Let not the reader +afflict himself with fears. Indeed, I should not have molested an +enlightened century with this Sunday-<i>Wauwau</i> at all, were it not that I +delineate with such extreme fidelity. Fixlein himself—especially as the +Quartermaster asked him if he was a baby—at last grew so sensible, that +he saw the folly of it; nay, he went so far, that he committed a greater +folly. For as dreaming that you die signifies, according to the exegetic +<i>rule of false</i>, nothing else than long life and welfare, so did Fixlein +easily infer that his death-imagination was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> just such a lucky dream; +the rather as it was precisely on this Cantata-Sunday that Fortune had +turned up her cornucopia over him, and at once showered down out of it a +bride, a presentation and a roll of ducats. Thus can Superstition imp +its wings, let Chance favour it or not.</p> + +<p>A Secretary of State, a Peace-treaty writer, a Notary, any such +incarcerated Slave of the Desk, feels excellently well how far he is +beneath a Parson composing his inaugural sermon. The latter (do but look +at my Fixlein) lays himself heartily over the paper—injects the venous +system of his sermon-preparation with coloured ink—has a +Text-Concordance on the right side, and a Song-Concordance on the left; +is there digging out a marrowy sentence, here clipping off a +song-blossom, with both to garnish his homiletic pastry;—sketches out +the finest plan of operations, not, like a man of the world, to subdue +the heart of one woman, but the hearts of all women that hear him, and +of their husbands to boot;—draws every peasant passing by his window +into some niche of his discourse, to coöperate with the result;—and, +finally, scoops out the butter of the smooth soft hymn-book, and +therewith exquisitely fattens the black broth of his sermon, which is to +feed five thousand men.——</p> + +<p>At last, in the evening, as the red sun is dazzling him at the desk, he +can rise with heart free from guilt; and, amid twittering sparrows and +finches, over the cherry-trees encircling the parsonage, look toward the +west, till there is nothing more in the sky but a faint gleam among the +clouds. And then when Fixlein, amid the tolling of the evening +prayer-bell, <i>slowly</i> descends the stair to his cooking mother, there +must be some miracle in the case, if for him whatever has been done or +baked, or served up in the lower regions, is not right and good.... A +bound, after supper, into the Castle; a look into a pure loving eye; a +word without falseness to a bride without falseness; and then under the +coverlid, a soft-breathing breast, in which there is nothing but +Paradise, a sermon and evening prayer.... I swear, with this I will +satisfy a Mythic God, who has left his Heaven, and is seeking a new one +among us here below!</p> + +<p>Can a mortal, can a Me in the wet clay of Earth, which Death will soon +dry into dust, ask more in one week than Fixlein is gathering into his +heart? I see not how: At least I should suppose, if such a dust-framed +being, after such a twenty-thousand prize from the Lottery of Chance, +could require aught more, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> would at most be the twenty-one-thousand +prize, namely, the inaugural discourse itself.</p> + +<p>And this prize our Zebedäus actually drew on Sunday: he preached—he +preached with unction,——he did it before the crowding, rustling press +of people; before his Guardian, and before the Lord of Aufhammer, the +godfather of the priest and the dog;—a flock with whom in childhood he +had driven out the Castle herds about the pasture, he was now, himself a +spiritual <ins title="'sheep-shearer' may be correct.">sheep-smearer</ins>, leading out to pasture;—he was standing to the +ankles among Candidates and Schoolmasters, for today (what none of them +could) at the altar, with the nail of his finger, he might scratch a +large cross in the air, baptisms and marriages not once mentioned.... I +believe, I should feel less scrupulous than I do to chequer this +sunshiny esplanade with that thin shadow of the grave, which the +preacher threw over it, when, in the application, with wet heavy eyes, +he looked round over the mute attentive church, as if in some corner of +it he would seek the mouldering teacher of his youth and of this +congregation, who without, under the white tombstone, the wrong-side of +life, had laid away the garment of his pious spirit. And when he, +himself hurried on by the internal stream, inexpressibly softened by the +farther recollections of his own fear of death on this day, of his life +now overspread with flowers and benefits, of his entombed benefactress +resting here in her narrow bed—when he now—before the dissolving +countenance of her friend, his Thiennette—overpowered, motionless and +weeping, looked down from the pulpit to the door of the Schadeck vault, +and said: "Thanks, thou pious soul, for the good thou hast done to this +flock and to their new teacher; and, in the fulness of time, may the +dust of thy god-fearing and man-loving breast gather itself, +transfigured as gold-dust, round thy reawakened heavenly heart,"—was +there an eye in the audience dry? Her husband sobbed aloud; and +Thiennette, her beloved, bowed her head, sinking down with inconsolable +remembrances, over the front of the seat, like kindred mourners in a +funeral train.</p> + +<p>No fairer forenoon could prepare the way for an afternoon in which a man +was to betroth himself forever, and to unite the exchanged rings with +the Ring of Eternity. Except the bridal pair, there was none present but +an ancient pair; the mother and the long Guardian. The bridegroom wrote +out the marriage-contract or marriage-charter with his own hand; hereby +making over to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> his bride, from this day, his whole moveable property +(not, as you may suppose, his pocket-library, but his whole library; +whereas, in the Middle Ages, the daughter of a noble was glad to get one +or two books for marriage-portion);—in return for which, she liberally +enough contributed—a whole nuptial coach or car, laden as follows: with +nine pounds of feathers, not feathers for the cap such as we carry, but +of the lighter sort such as carry us;—with a sumptuous dozen of +godchild-plates and godchild-spoons (gifts from Schadeck), together with +a fish-knife;—of silk, not only stockings (though even King Henri II. +of France could dress no more than his legs in silk), but whole +gowns;—with jewels and other furnishings of smaller value. Good +Thiennette! in the chariot of thy spirit lies the true dowry; namely, +thy noble, soft, modest heart, the morning-gift of Nature!</p> + +<p>The Parson,—who, not from mistrust but from "the uncertainty of life," +could have wished for a notary's seal on everything; to whom no security +but a hypothecary one appeared sufficient, and who, in the depositing of +every barleycorn, required quittances and contracts,—had now, when the +marriage-charter was completed, a lighter heart; and through the whole +evening the good man ceased not to thank his bride for what she had +given him. To me, however, a marriage-contract were a thing as painful +and repulsive,—I confess it candidly, though you should in consequence +upbraid me with my great youth,—as if I had to take my love-letter to a +Notary Imperial, and make him docket and countersign it before it could +be sent. Heavens! to see the light flower of Love, whose perfume acts +not on the balance, so laid like tulip-bulbs on the hay-beam of Law; two +hearts on the cold councillor-and flesh-beam of relatives and advocates, +who are heaping on the scales nothing but houses, fields and tin—this, +to the interested party, may be as delightful as, to the intoxicated +suckling and nursling of the Muses and Philosophy, it is to carry the +evening and morning sacrifices he has offered up to his goddess into the +book-shop, and there to change his devotions into money, and sell them +by weight and measure.——</p> + +<p>From Cantata-Sunday to Ascension, that is, to marriage-day, are one and +a half weeks—or one and a half blissful eternities. If it is pleasant +that nights or winter separate the days and seasons of joy to a +comfortable distance; if, for example, it is pleasant that birthday, +Saint's-day, betrothment, marriage and baptismal day, do not all occur +on the same day (for with very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> few do those festivities, like Holiday +and Apostle's day, commerge),—then is it still more pleasant to make +the interval, the flower-border, between betrothment and marriage, of an +extraordinary breadth. Before the marriage-day are the true honey-weeks; +then come the wax-weeks; then the honey-vinegar-weeks.</p> + +<p>In the Ninth Letter-Box, our Parson celebrates his wedding; and here, in +the Eighth, I shall just briefly skim over his way and manner of +existence till then; an existence, as might have been expected, +celestial enough. To few is it allotted, as it was to him, to have at +once such wings and such flowers (to fly over) before his nuptials; to +few is it allotted, I imagine, to purchase flour and poultry on the same +day, as Fixlein did;—to stuff the wedding-turkey with +hangman-meals;—to go every night into the stall, and see whether the +wedding-pig, which his Guardian has given him by way of +marriage-present, is still standing and eating;—to spy out for his +future wife the flax-magazines and clothes-press-niches in the +house;—to lay in new wood-stores in the prospect of winter;—to obtain +from the Consistorium directly, and for little smart-money, their Bull +of Dispensation, their remission of the threefold proclamation of +banns;—to live not in a city, where you must send to every fool +(because you are one yourself), and disclose to him that you are going +to be married; but in a little angular hamlet, where you have no one to +tell aught, but simply the Schoolmaster that he is to ring a little +later, and put a knee-cushion before the altar.——</p> + +<p>O! if the Ritter Michaelis maintains that Paradise was little, because +otherwise the people would not have found each other,—a hamlet and its +joys are little and narrow, so that some shadow of Eden may still linger +on our Ball.——</p> + +<p>I have not even hinted that, the day before the wedding, the +Regiments-Quartermaster came uncalled, and killed the pig, and made +puddings gratis, such as were never eaten at any Court.</p> + +<p>And besides, dear Fixlein, on this soft rich oil of joy there was also +floating gratis a vernal sun,—and red twilights,—and +flower-garlands,—and a bursting half world of buds!...</p> + +<p>How didst thou behave thee in these hot whirlpools of pleasure?—Thou +movedst thy Fishtail (Reason), and therewith describedst for thyself a +rectilineal course through the billows. For even half as much would have +hurried another Parson from his study; but the very crowning felicity of +ours was, that he stood as if rooted to the boundary-hill of Moderation, +and from thence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> looked down on what thousands flout away. Sitting +opposite the Castle-windows, he was still in a condition to reckon up +that <i>Amen</i> occurs in the Bible one hundred and thirty times. Nay, to +his old learned laboratory he now appended a new chemical stove: he +purposed writing to Nürnberg and Bayreuth, and there offering his pen to +the Brothers Senft, not only for composing practical <i>Receipts</i> at the +end of their <i>Almanacs</i>, but also for separate <i>Essays</i> in front under +the copperplate title of each Month, because he had a thought of making +some reformatory cuts at the common people's mental habitudes.... And +now, when in the capacity of Parson he had less to do, and could add to +the holy resting-day of the congregation six literary creating-days, he +determined (even in these Carnival weeks) to strike his plough into the +hitherto quite fallow History of Hukelum, and soon to follow the plough +with his drill....</p> + +<p>Thus roll his minutes, on golden wheels-of-fortune, over the twelve +days, which form the glancing star-paved road to the third-heaven of the +thirteenth, that is to the</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="NINTH_LETTER-BOX" id="NINTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>NINTH LETTER-BOX,</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Or to the Marriage.</i></p> + + +<p>Rise, fair Ascension and Marriage day, and gladden readers also! Adorn +thyself with the fairest jewel, with the bride, whose soul is as pure +and glittering as its vesture; like pearl and pearl-muscle, the one as +the other, lustrous and ornamental! And so over the espalier, whose +fruit-hedge has hitherto divided our darling from his Eden, every reader +now presses after him!—</p> + +<p>On the 9th of May 1793, about three in the morning, there came a sharp +peal of trumpets, like a light-beam, through the dim-red May-dawn: two +twisted horns, with a straight trumpet between them, like a note of +admiration between interrogation-points, were clanging from a house in +which only a parishioner (not the Parson) dwelt and blew: for this +parishioner had last night been celebrating the same ceremony which the +pastor had this day before him. The joyful tallyho raised our Parson +from his broad bed (and the Shock from beneath it, who some weeks ago +had been exiled from the white sleek coverlid), and this so early, that +in the portraying tester, where on every former morning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> he had observed +his ruddy visage and his white bedclothes, all was at present dim and +crayonned.</p> + +<p>I confess, the new-painted room, and a gleam of dawn on the wall, made +it so light, that he could see his knee-buckles glancing on the chair. +He then softly awakened his mother (the other guests were to lie for +hours in the sheets), and she had the city cookmaid to awaken, who, like +several other articles of wedding-furniture, had been borrowed for a day +or two from Flachsenfingen. At two doors he knocked in vain, and without +answer; for all were already down at the hearth, cooking, blowing and +arranging.</p> + +<p>How softly does the Spring day gradually fold back its nun-veil, and the +Earth grow bright, as if it were the morning of a Resurrection!—The +quicksilver-pillar of the barometer, the guiding Fire-pillar of the +weather-prophet, rests firmly on Fixlein's Ark of the Covenant. The Sun +raises himself, pure and cool, into the morning-blue, instead of into +the morning-red. Swallows, instead of clouds, shoot skimming through the +melodious air.... O, the good Genius of Fair Weather, who deserves many +temples and festivals (because without him no festival could be held), +lifted an ethereal azure Day, as it were, from the well-clear atmosphere +of the Moon, and sent it down, on blue butterfly-wings—as if it were a +<i>blue</i> Monday—glittering below the Sun, in the zigzag of joyful +quivering descent, upon the narrow spot of Earth, which our heated +fancies are now viewing.... And on this balmy vernal spot, stand amid +flowers, over which the trees are shaking blossoms instead of leaves, a +bride and a bridegroom.... Happy Fixlein! how shall I paint thee without +deepening the sighs of longing in the fairest souls?—</p> + +<p>But soft! we will not drink the magic cup of Fancy to the bottom at six +in the morning; but keep sober till towards night!</p> + +<p>At the sound of the morning prayer-bell, the bridegroom, for the din of +preparation was disturbing his quiet orison, went out into the +churchyard, which (as in many other places), together with the church, +lay round his mansion like a court. Here on the moist green, over whose +closed flowers the churchyard-wall was still spreading broad shadows, +did his spirit cool itself from the warm dreams of Earth: here, where +the white flat grave-stone of his Teacher lay before him like the +fallen-in door on the Janus'-temple of Life, or like the windward side +of the narrow house, turned towards the tempests of the world: here, +where the little shrunk metallic door on the grated cross of his father +uttered to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> him the inscriptions of death, and the year when his parent +departed, and all the admonitions and mementos, graven on the +lead;—there, I say, his mood grew softer and more solemn; and he now +lifted up by heart his morning prayer, which usually he read; and +entreated God to bless him in his office, and to spare his mother's +life; and to look with favour and acceptance on the purpose of +today.—Then over the graves he walked into his fenceless little angular +flower-garden; and here, composed and confident in the divine keeping, +he pressed the stalks of his tulips deeper into the mellow earth.</p> + +<p>But on returning to the house, he was met on all hands by the +bell-ringing and the janissary-music of wedding-gladness;—the +marriage-guests had all thrown off their nightcaps, and were drinking +diligently;—there was a clattering, a cooking, a +frizzling;—tea-services, coffee-services and warm-beer-services, were +advancing in succession; and plates full of bride-cakes were going round +like potter's frames or cistern-wheels.—The Schoolmaster, with three +young lads, was heard rehearsing from his own house an <i>Arioso</i>, with +which, so soon as they were perfect, he purposed to surprise his +clerical superior.—But now rushed all the arms of the foaming +joy-streams into one, when the sky-queen besprinkled with blossoms, the +bride, descended upon Earth in her timid joy, full of quivering humble +love;—when the bells began;—when the procession-column set forth with +the whole village round and before it;—when the organ, the +congregation, the officiating priest and the sparrows on the trees of +the church-window, struck louder and louder their rolling peals on the +drum of the jubilee-festival.... The heart of the singing bridegroom was +like to leap from its place for joy, "that on his bridal-day it was all +so respectable and grand."—Not till the marriage-benediction could he +pray a little.</p> + +<p>Still worse and louder grew the business during dinner, when pastry-work +and marchpane-devices were brought forward,—when glasses and slain +fishes (laid under the napkins to frighten the guests) went round;—and +when the guests rose, and themselves rent round, and at length danced +round: for they had instrumental music from the city there.</p> + +<p>One minute handed over to the other the sugar-bowl and bottle-case of +joy: the guests heard and saw less and less, and the villagers began to +see and hear more and more, and towards night they penetrated like a +wedge into the open door,—nay two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> youths ventured even in the middle +of the parsonage-court, to mount a plank over a beam, and commence +seesawing.—Out of doors, the gleaming vapour of the departed Sun was +encircling the Earth, the evening-star was glittering over parsonage and +churchyard; no one heeded it.</p> + +<p>However, about nine o'clock,—when the marriage-guests had well-nigh +forgotten the marriage-pair, and were drinking or dancing along for +their own behoof; when poor mortals, in this sunshine of Fate, like +fishes in the sunshine of the sky, were leaping up from their wet cold +element; and when the bridegroom under the star of happiness and love, +casting like a comet its long train of radiance over all his heaven, had +in secret pressed to his joy-filled breast his bride and his +mother,—then did he lock a slice of wedding-bread privily into a press, +in the old superstitious belief that this residue secured continuance of +bread for the whole marriage. As he returned, with greater love for the +sole partner of his life, she herself met him with his mother, to +deliver him in private the bridal-nightgown and bridal-shirt, as is the +ancient usage. Many a countenance grows pale in violent emotions, even +of joy: Thiennette's wax-face was bleaching still whiter under the +sunbeams of Happiness. O never fall, thou lily of Heaven, and may four +springs instead of four seasons open and shut thy flower-bells to the +sun!—All the arms of his soul, as he floated on the sea of joy, were +quivering to clasp the soft warm heart of his beloved, to encircle it +gently and fast, and draw it to his own....</p> + +<p>He led her from the crowded dancing-room into the cool evening. Why does +the evening, does the night put warmer love in our hearts? Is it the +nightly pressure of helplessness; or is it the exalting separation from +the turmoil of life; that veiling of the world, in which for the soul +nothing more remains but souls;—is it therefore, that the letters in +which the loved name stands written on our spirit appear, like +phosphorus-writing, by night <i>in fire</i>, while by day in their <i>cloudy</i> +traces they but smoke?</p> + +<p>He walked with his bride into the Castle-garden: she hastened quickly +through the Castle, and past its servants'-hall, where the fair flowers +of her young life had been crushed broad and dry, under a long dreary +pressure; and her soul expanded and breathed in the free open garden, on +whose flowery soil destiny had cast forth the first seeds of the +blossoms which today were gladdening her existence. Still Eden! green +flower-chequered <i>chiaroscuro</i>!—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> moon is sleeping underground like +a dead one; but beyond the garden the sun's red evening-clouds have +fallen down like rose-leaves; and the evening-star, the brideman of the +sun, hovers, like a glancing butterfly, above the rosy red, and, modest +as a bride, deprives no single starlet of its light.</p> + +<p>The wandering pair arrived at the old gardener's hut; now standing +locked and dumb, with dark windows in the light garden, like a fragment +of the Past surviving in the Present. Bared twigs of trees were folding, +with clammy half-formed leaves, over the thick intertwisted tangles of +the bushes.—The Spring was standing, like a conqueror, with Winter at +his feet.—In the blue pond, now bloodless, a dusky evening-sky lay +hollowed out, and the gushing waters were moistening the +flower-beds.—The silver sparks of stars were rising on the altar of the +East, and falling down extinguished in the red sea of the West.</p> + +<p>The wind whirred, like a night-bird, louder through the trees; and gave +tones to the acacia-grove, and the tones called to the pair who had +first become happy within it: "Enter, new mortal pair, and think of what +is past, and of my withering and your own; and be holy as Eternity, and +weep not only for joy, but for gratitude also!"—And the wet-eyed +bridegroom led his wet-eyed bride under the blossoms, and laid his soul, +like a flower, on her heart, and said: "Best Thiennette, I am +unspeakably happy, and would say much, and cannot.—Ah, thou Dearest, we +will live like angels, like children together! Surely I will do all that +is good to thee; two years ago I had nothing, no nothing; ah, it is +through thee, best Love, that I am happy. I call thee Thou, now, thou +dear good soul!" She drew him closer to her, and said, though without +kissing him: "Call me Thou always, Dearest!"</p> + +<p>And as they stept forth again from the sacred grove into the magic-dusky +garden, he took off his hat; first, that he might internally thank God, +and secondly, because he wished to look into this fairest evening sky.</p> + +<p>They reached the blazing, rustling marriage-house, but their softened +hearts sought stillness; and a foreign touch, as in the blossoming vine, +would have disturbed the flower-nuptials of their souls. They turned +rather, and winded up into the churchyard to preserve their mood. +Majestic on the groves and mountains stood the Night before man's heart, +and made it also great. Over the <i>white</i> steeple-obelisk the sky rested +<i>bluer</i> and <i>darker</i>; and behind it wavered the withered summit of the +May-pole with faded flag.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> The son noticed his father's grave, on which +the wind was opening and shutting, with harsh noise, the little door of +the metal cross, to let the year of his death be read on the brass plate +within. An overpowering sadness seized his heart with violent streams of +tears, and drove him to the sunk hillock, and he led his bride to the +grave, and said: "Here sleeps he, my good father; in his thirty-second +year, he was carried hither to his long rest. O thou good, dear father, +couldst thou today but see the happiness of thy son, like my mother! But +thy eyes are empty, and thy breast is full of ashes, and thou seest us +not."—He was silent. The bride wept aloud; she saw the mouldering +coffins of her parents open, and the two dead arise and look round for +their daughter, who had stayed so long behind them, forsaken on the +Earth. She fell upon his heart, and faltered: "O beloved, I have neither +father nor mother, do not forsake me!"</p> + +<p>O thou who hast still a father and a mother, thank God for it, on the +day when thy soul is full of joyful tears, and needs a bosom wherein to +shed them....</p> + +<p>And with this embracing at a father's grave, let this day of joy be +holily concluded.—</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="TENTH_LETTER-BOX" id="TENTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>TENTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>St. Thomas's Day and Birthday.</i></p> + + +<p>An Author is a sort of bee-keeper for his reader-swarm; in whose behalf +he separates the Flora kept for their use into different seasons, and +here accelerates, and there retards, the blossoming of many a flower, +that so in all chapters there be blooming.</p> + +<p>The goddess of Love and the angel of Peace conducted our married pair on +tracks running over full meadows, through the Spring; and on footpaths +hidden by high cornfields, through the Summer; and Autumn, as they +advanced towards Winter, spread her marbled leaves under their feet. And +thus they arrived before the low dark gate of Winter, full of life, full +of love, trustful, contented, sound and ruddy.</p> + +<p>On St. Thomas's day was Thiennette's birthday as well as Winter's. About +a quarter past nine, just when the singing ceases in the church, we +shall take a peep through the window into the interior of the parsonage. +There is nothing here but the old mother, who has all day (the son +having restricted her to rest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> and not work) been gliding about, and +brushing, and burnishing, and scouring, and wiping: every carved +chair-leg, and every brass nail of the waxcloth-covered table, she has +polished into brightness;—everything hangs, as with all married people +who have no children, in its right place, brushes, fly-flaps and +almanacs;—the chairs are stationed by the room-police in their ancient +corners;—a flax-rock, encircled with a diadem, or scarf of azure +ribbon, is lying in the Schadeckbed, because, though it is a half +holiday, some spinning may go on;—the narrow slips of paper, whereon +heads of sermons are to be arranged, lie white beside the sermons +themselves, that is, beside the octavo paper-book which holds them, for +the Parson and his work-table, by reason of the cold, have migrated from +the study to the sitting-room;—his large furred doublet is hanging +beside his clean bridegroom nightgown: there is nothing wanting in the +room but He and She. For he had preached her with him tonight into the +empty Apostle's-day church, that so her mother, without +witnesses—except the two or three thousand readers who are peeping with +me through the window—might arrange the provender-baking, and whole +commissariat department of the birthday-festival, and spread out her +best table-gear and victual-stores without obstruction.</p> + +<p>The soul-curer reckoned it no sin to admonish, and exhort, and +encourage, and threaten his parishioners, till he felt pretty certain +that the soup must be smoking on the plates. Then he led his birthday +helpmate home, and suddenly placed her before the altar of +meat-offering, before a sweet title-page of bread-tart, on which her +name stood baked, in true <i>monastic characters</i>, in tooth-letters of +almonds. In the background of time and of the room, I yet conceal +two—bottles of Pontac. How quickly, under the sunshine of joy, do thy +cheeks grow ripe, Thiennette, when thy husband solemnly says: "This is +thy birthday; and may the Lord bless thee and watch over thee, and cause +his countenance to shine on thee, and send thee, to the joy of our +mother and thy husband especially, a happy glad <i>recovery</i>. Amen!"—And +when Thiennette perceived that it was the old mistress who had cooked +and served up all this herself, she fell upon her neck, as if it had +been not her husband's mother, but her own.</p> + +<p>Emotion conquers the appetite. But Fixlein's stomach was as strong as +his heart; and with him no species of movement could subdue the +peristaltic. Drink is the friction-oil of the tongue, as eating is its +drag. Yet, not till he had eaten and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> spoken much, did the pastor fill +the glasses. Then indeed he drew the cork-sluice from the bottle, and +set forth its streams. The sickly mother, of a being still hid beneath +her heart, turned her eyes, in embarrassed emotion, on the old woman +only; and could scarcely chide him for sending to the city wine-merchant +on her account. He took a glass in each hand, for each of the two whom +he loved, and handed them to his mother and his wife, and said: "To thy +long, long life, Thiennette!—And your health and happiness, Mamma!—And +a glad arrival to our little one, if God so bless us!"—"My son," said +the gardeneress, "it is to thy long life that we must drink; for it is +by thee we are supported. God grant thee length of days!" added she, +with stifled voice, and her eyes betrayed her tears.</p> + +<p>I nowhere find a livelier emblem of the female sex in all its boundless +levity, than in the case where a woman is carrying the angel of Death +beneath her heart, and yet in these nine months full of mortal tokens +thinks of nothing more important, than of who shall be the gossips, and +what shall be cooked at the christening. But thou, Thiennette, hadst +nobler thoughts, though these too along with them. The still-hidden +darling of thy heart was resting before thy eyes like a little angel +sculptured on a grave-stone, and pointing with its small finger to the +hour when thou shouldst die; and every morning and every evening, thou +thoughtest of death, with a certainty, of which I yet knew not the +reasons; and to thee it was as if the Earth were a dark mineral cave +where man's blood like stalactitic water drops down, and in dropping +raises shapes which gleam so transiently, and so quickly fade away! And +that was the cause why tears were continually trickling from thy soft +eyes, and betraying all thy anxious thoughts about thy child: but thou +repaidst these sad effusions of thy heart by the embrace in which, with +new-awakened love, thou fellest on thy husband's neck, and saidst: "Be +as it may, God's will be done, so thou and my child are left alive!—But +I know well that thou, Dearest, lovest me as I do thee.".... Lay thy +hand, good mother, full of blessings, on the two; and thou kind Fate, +never lift thine away from them!—</p> + +<p>It is with emotion and good wishes that I witness the kiss of two fair +friends, or the embracing of two virtuous lovers; and from the fire of +their altar sparks fly over to me: but what is this to our sympathetic +exaltation, when we see two mortals, bending under the same burden, +bound to the same duties, animated by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> the same care for the same little +darlings—fall on one another's overflowing hearts, in some fair hour? +And if these, moreover, are two mortals who already wear the +mourning-weeds of life, I mean old age, whose hair and cheeks are now +grown colourless, and eyes grown dim, and whose faces a thousand thorns +have marred into images of Sorrow;—when these two clasp each other with +such wearied aged arms, and so near to the precipice of the grave, and +when they say or think: "All in us is dead, but not our love—O, we have +lived and suffered long together, and now we will hold out our hands to +Death together also, and let him carry us away together,"—does not all +within us cry: O Love, thy spark is superior to Time; it burns neither +in joy nor in the cheek of roses; it dies not, neither under a thousand +tears, nor under the snow of old age, nor under the ashes of +thy—beloved? It never dies: and Thou, All-good! if there were no +eternal love, there were no love at all....</p> + +<p>To the Parson it was easier than it is to me to pave for himself a +transition from the heart to the digestive faculty. He now submitted to +Thiennette (whose voice at once grew cheerful, while her eyes time after +time began to sparkle) his purpose to take advantage of the frosty +weather, and have the winter meat slaughtered and salted: "the pig can +scarcely rise," said he; and forthwith he fixed the determination of the +women, farther the butcher, and the day, and all <i>et ceteras</i>; +appointing everything with a degree of punctuality, such as the +war-college (when it applies the cupping-glass, the battle-sword, to the +overfull system of mankind) exhibits on the previous day, in its +arrangements, before it drives a province into the baiting-ring and +slaughter-house.</p> + +<p>This settled, he began to talk and feel quite joyously about the course +of winter, which had commenced today at two-and-twenty minutes past +eight in the morning: "for," said he, "new-year is close at hand; and we +shall not need so much candle tomorrow night as tonight." His mother, it +is true, came athwart him with the weapons of her five senses: but he +fronted her with his Astronomical Tables, and proved that the +lengthening of the day was no less undeniable than imperceptible. In the +last place, like most official and married persons, heeding little +whether his women took him or not, he informed them in +juristico-theological phrase: "That he would put off no longer, but +write this very afternoon to the venerable Consistorium, in whose hands +lay the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> <i>jus circa sacra</i>, for a new Ball to the church-steeple; and +the rather, as he hoped before newyear's day to raise a bountiful +subscription from the parish for this purpose.—If God spare us till +Spring," added he with peculiar cheerfulness, "and thou wert happily +recovered, I might so arrange the whole that the Ball should be set up +at thy first church-going, dame!"</p> + +<p>Thereupon he shifted his chair from the dinner and dessert table to the +work-table; and spent the half of his afternoon over the petition for +the steeple-ball. As there still remained a little space till dusk, he +clapped his tackle to his new learned <i>Opus</i>, of which I must now afford +a little glimpse. Out of doors among the snow, there stood near Hukelum +an old Robber-Castle, which Fixlein, every day in Autumn, had hovered +round like a <i>revenant</i>, with a view to gauge it, ichnographically to +delineate it, to put every window-bar and every bridle-hook of it +correctly on paper. He believed he was not expecting too much, if +thereby—and by some drawings of the not so much vertical as horizontal +walls—he hoped to impart to his "<i>Architectural Correspondence of two +Friends concerning the Hukelum Robber-Castle</i>" that last polish and +<i>labor limæ</i> which contents Reviewers. For towards the critical +Starchamber of the Reviewers he entertained not that contempt which some +authors actually feel—or only affect, as for instance, I. From this +mouldered Robber-<i>Louvre</i>, there grew for him more flowers of joy, than +ever in all probability had grown from it of old for its owners.—To my +knowledge, it is an anecdote not hitherto made public, that for all this +no man but <i>Büsching</i> has to answer. Fixlein had not long ago, among the +rubbish of the church letter-room, stumbled on a paper wherein the +Geographer had been requesting special information about the statistics +of the village. Büsching, it is true, had picked up +nothing—accordingly, indeed, Hukelum, in his <i>Geography</i>, is still +omitted altogether;—but this pestilential letter had infected Fixlein +with the spring-fever of Ambition, so that his palpitating heart was no +longer to be stilled or held in check, except by the +assafœtida-emulsion of a review. It is with authorcraft as with love: +both of them for decades long one may equally desire and forbear: but is +the first spark once thrown into the powder-magazine, it burns to the +end of the chapter.</p> + +<p>Simply because winter had commenced by the Almanac, the fire must be +larger than usual; for warm rooms, like large furs and bearskin-caps, +were things which he loved more than you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> would figure. The dusk, this +fair <i>chiaroscuro</i> of the day, this coloured foreground of the night, he +lengthened out as far as possible, that he might study Christmas +discourses therein: and yet could his wife, without scruple, just as he +was pacing up and down the room, with the sowing-sheet full of divine +word-seeds hung round his shoulder,—hold up to him a spoonful of +alegar, that he might try the same in his palate, and decide whether she +should yet draw it off. Nay, did he not in all cases, though fonder of +roe-fishes himself, order a milter to be drawn from the herring-barrel, +because his good-wife liked it better?—</p> + +<p>Here light was brought in; and as Winter was just now commencing his +glass-painting on the windows, his ice flower-pieces, and his +snow-foliage, our Parson felt that it was time to read something cold, +which he pleasantly named his cold collation; namely, the description of +some unutterably frosty land. On the present occasion, it was the winter +history of the four Russian sailors on Nova Zembla. I, for my share, do +often in summer, when the sultry zephyr is inflating the flower-bells, +append certain charts and sketches of Italy, or the East, as additional +landscapes to those among which I am sitting. And yet tonight he farther +took up the <i>Weekly Chronicle</i> of Flachsenfingen; and amid the +bombshells, pestilences, famines, comets with long tails, and the +roaring of all the Hell-floods of another Thirty-Years War, he could +still listen with the one ear towards the kitchen, where the salad for +his roast-duck was just a-cutting.</p> + +<p>Good-night, old Fixlein! I am tired. May kind Heaven send thee with the +young year 1794, when the Earth shall again carry her people, like +precious night-moths, on leaves and flowers, the new steeple-ball, and a +thick handsome—boy to boot!</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="ELEVENTH_LETTER-BOX" id="ELEVENTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>ELEVENTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Spring; Investiture; and Childbirth.</i></p> + + +<p>I have just risen from a singular dream; but the foregoing Box makes it +natural. I dreamed that all was verdant, all full of odours; and I was +looking up at a steeple-ball glittering in the sun, from my station in +the window of a little white garden-house, my eyelids full of +flower-pollen, my shoulders full of thin cherry-blossoms, and my ears +full of humming from the neighbouring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> bee-hives. Then, methought, +advancing slowly through the beds, came the Hukelum Parson, and stept +into the garden-house, and solemnly said to me: "Honoured Sir, my wife +has just brought me a little boy; and I make bold to solicit <i>your +Honour</i> to do the holy office for the same, when it shall be received +into the bosom of the church."</p> + +<p>I naturally started up, and there was—Parson Fixlein standing bodily at +my bedside, and requesting me to be godfather: for Thiennette had given +him a son last night about one o'clock. The confinement had been as +light and happy as could be conceived; for this reason, that the father +had, some months before, been careful to provide one of those +<i>Klappersteins</i>, as we call them, which are found in the aerie of the +eagle, and therewith to alleviate the travail: for this stone performs, +in its way, all the service which the bonnet of that old Minorite monk +in Naples, of whom Gorani informs us, could accomplish for people in +such circumstances, who put it on....</p> + +<p>—I might vex the reader still longer; but I willingly give up, and show +him how the matter stood.</p> + +<p>Such a May as the present (of 1794), Nature has not, in the memory of +man—begun: for this is but the fifteenth of it. People of reflection +have for centuries been vexed once every year, that our German singers +should indite May-songs, since several other months deserve such a +poetical night-music much better; and I myself have often gone so far as +to adopt the idiom of our market-women, and instead of May butter, to +say June butter, as also June, March, April songs.—But thou, kind May +of this year, thou deservest to thyself all the songs which were ever +made on thy rude namesakes! By Heaven! when I now issue from the +wavering chequered acacia-grove of the Castle-garden, in which I am +writing this Chapter, and come forth into the broad living day, and look +up to the warming Heaven, and over its Earth budding out beneath +it,—the Spring rises before me like a vast full cloud, with a splendour +of blue and green. I see the Sun standing amid roses in the western sky, +into which he has thrown his ray-brush, wherewith he has today been +painting the Earth;—and when I look round a little in our +picture-exhibition, his enamelling is still hot on the mountains; on the +moist chalk of the moist Earth, the flowers full of sap-colours are laid +out to dry, and the forget-me-not with miniature colours; under the +varnish of the streams, the skyey Painter has pencilled his own eye; and +the clouds, like a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> decoration-painter, he has touched off with wild +outlines and single tints: and so he stands at the border of the Earth, +and looks back upon his stately Spring, whose robe-folds are valleys, +whose breast-bouquet is gardens, and whose blush is a vernal evening, +and who, when she arises, shall be—Summer.</p> + +<p>But to proceed! Every spring—and especially in such a spring—I imitate +on foot our birds of passage; and travel off the hypochondriacal +sediment of winter: but I do not think I should have seen even the +steeple-ball of Hukelum, which is to be set up one of these days, to say +nothing of the Parson's family, had not I happened to be visiting the +Flachsenfingen Superintendent and Consistorialrath. From him I got +acquainted with Fixlein's history (every Candidatus must deliver an +account of his life to the Consistorium), and with his still madder +petition for a steeple-ball. I observed, with pleasure, how gaily the +cob was diving and swashing about in his duck-pool and milk-bath of +life; and forthwith determined on a journey to his shore. It is +singular, that is to say, manlike, that when we have for years kept +prizing and describing some original person or original book, yet the +moment we see such, they anger us: we would have them fit us and delight +us in all points, as if any originality could do this but our own.</p> + +<p>It was Saturday the third of May, when I, with the Superintendent, the +<i>Senior Capituli</i>, and some temporal Raths, mounted and rolled off, and +in two carriages were driven to the Parson's door. The matter was, he +was not yet—<i>invested</i>, and tomorrow this was to be done. I little +thought, while we whirled by the white espalier of the Castle-garden, +that there I was to write another book.</p> + +<p>I still see the Parson, in his peruke-minever and head-case, come +springing to the coach-door and lead us out; so smiling—so +courteous—so vain of the disloaded freight, and so attentive to it. He +looked as if in the journey of life he had never once put on the +<i>travelling-gauze</i> of Sorrow: Thiennette again seemed never to have +thrown hers back. How neat was everything in the house, how dainty, +decorated and polished! And yet so quiet, without the cursed +alarm-ringing of servants' bells, and without the bass-drum tumult of +stair-pedaling. Whilst the gentlemen, my road-companions, were sitting +in state in the upper room, I flitted, as my way is, like a smell, over +the whole house, and my path led me through the sitting-room over the +kitchen, and at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> last into the churchyard beside the house. Good +Saturday! I will paint thy hours as I may, with the black asphaltos of +ink, on the tablets of other souls! In the sitting-room, I lifted from +the desk a volume gilt on the back and edges, and bearing this title: +"<i>Holy Sayings, by Fixlein. First Collection.</i>" And as I looked to see +where it had been printed, the Holy Collection turned out to be in +writing. I handled the quills, and dipped into the negro-black of the +ink, and I found that all was right and good: with your fluttering +gentlemen of letters, who hold only a department of the foreign, and +none of the home affairs, nothing (except some other things about them) +can be worse than their ink and pens. I also found a little copperplate, +to which I shall in due time return.</p> + +<p>In the kitchen, a place not more essential for the writing of an English +novel, than for the acting of a German one, I could plant myself beside +Thiennette, and help her to blow the fire, and look at once into her +face and her burning coals. Though she was in wedlock, a state in which +white roses on the cheeks are changed for red ones, and young women are +similar to a similitude given in my Note;<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>—and although the blazing +wood threw a false rouge over her, I guessed how pale she must have +been; and my sympathy in her paleness rose still higher at the thought +of the burden which Fate had now not so much taken from her, as laid in +her arms and nearer to her heart. In truth, a man must never have +reflected on the Creation-moment, when the Universe first rose from the +bosom of an Eternity, if he does not view with philosophic reverence a +woman, whose thread of life a secret all-wondrous Hand is spinning to a +second thread, and who veils within her the transition from Nothingness +to Existence, from Eternity to Time;—but still less can a man have any +heart of flesh, if his soul, in presence of a woman, who, to an unknown +unseen being, is sacrificing more than we will sacrifice when it is seen +and known, namely, her nights, her joys, often her life, does not bow +lower, and with deeper emotion, than in presence of a whole +nun-orchestra on their Sahara-desert;—and worse than either is the man +for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> To the Spring, namely, which begins with snowdrops, and +ends with roses and pinks.—</p></div> + +<p>"It is little serviceable to thee, poor Thiennette," thought I, "that +now, when thy bitter cup of sickness is made to run over,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> thou must +have loud festivities come crowding round thee." I meant the Investiture +and the Ball-raising. My rank, the diploma of which the reader will find +stitched in with the <i>Dog-post-days</i>, and which had formerly been hers, +brought about my ears a host of repelling, embarrassed, wavering titles +of address from her; which people, to whom they have once belonged, are +at all times apt to parade before superiors or inferiors, and which it +now cost me no little trouble to disperse. Through the whole Saturday +and Sunday, I could never get into the right track either with her or +him, till the other guests were gone. As for the mother, she acted, like +obscure ideas, powerfully and constantly, but out of view: this arose in +part from her idolatrous fear of us; and partly also from a slight shade +of care (probably springing from the state of her daughter), which had +spread over her like a little cloud.</p> + +<p>I cruised about, so long as the moon-crescent glimmered in the sky, over +the churchyard; and softened my fantasies, which are at any rate too +prone to paint with the brown of crumbling mummies, not only by the red +of twilight, but also by reflecting how easily our eyes and our hearts +can become reconciled even to the ruins of Death; a reflection which the +Schoolmaster, whistling as he arranged the charnel-house for the morrow, +and the Parson's maid singing, as she reaped away the grass from the +graves, readily enough suggested to me. And why should not this +habituation to all forms of Fate in the other world, also, be a gift +reserved for us in our nature by the bounty of our great Preserver?—I +perused the grave-stones; and I think even now that Superstition<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> is +right in connecting with the reading of such things a loss of <i>memory</i>; +at all events, one does <i>forget</i> a thousand things belonging to this +world....</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> This Christian superstition is not only a Rabbinical, but +also a Roman one. <i>Cicero de Senectute</i>.</p></div> + +<p>The Investiture on Sunday (whose Gospel, of the good shepherd, suited +well with the ceremony) I must dispatch in few words; because nothing +truly sublime can bear to be treated of in many. However, I shall impart +the most memorable circumstances, when I say that there was—drinking +(in the Parsonage),—music-making (in the Choir),—reading (of the +Presentation by the Senior, and of the Ratification-rescript by the lay +Rath),—and preaching, by the Consistorialrath, who took the soul-curer +by the hand, and presented, made over and guaranteed him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> the +congregation, and them to him. Fixlein felt that he was departing as a +high-priest from the church, which he had entered as a country parson; +and all day he had not once the heart to ban. When a man is treated with +solemnity, he looks upon himself as a higher nature, and goes through +his solemn feasts devoutly.</p> + +<p>This indenturing, this monastic profession, our Head-Rabbis and +Lodge-masters (our Superintendents) have usually a taste for putting off +till once the pastor has been some years ministering among the people, +to whom they hereby present him; as the early Christians frequently +postponed their consecration and investiture to Christianity, their +baptism namely, till the day when they died: nay, I do not even think +this clerical Investiture would lose much of its usefulness, if it and +the declaring-vacant of the office were reserved for the same day; the +rather as this usefulness consists entirely in two items; what the +Superintendent and his Raths can eat, and what they can pocket.</p> + +<p>Not till towards evening did the Parson and I get acquainted. The +Investiture officials, and elevation pulley-men, had, throughout the +whole evening, been very violently—breathing. I mean thus: as these +gentlemen could not but be aware, by the most ancient theories and the +latest experiments, that air was nothing else than a sort of rarefied +and exploded water, it became easy for them to infer that, conversely, +water was nothing else than a denser sort of air. Wine-drinking, +therefore, is nothing else but the breathing of an air pressed together +into proper spissitude, and sprinkled over with a few perfumes. Now, in +our days, by clerical persons too much (fluid) breath can never be +inhaled through the mouth; seeing the dignity of their station excludes +them from that breathing through the <i>smaller</i> pores, which Abernethy so +highly recommends under the name of <i>air-bath</i>: and can the Gullet in +their case be aught else than door-neighbour to the Windpipe, the +<i>consonant</i> and fellow-shoot of the Windpipe?—I am running astray: I +meant to signify, that I this evening had adopted the same opinion; only +that I used this air or ether, not like the rest for loud laughter, but +for the more quiet contemplation of life in general. I even shot forth +at my gossip certain speeches, which betrayed devoutness: these he at +first took for jests, being aware that I was from Court, and of quality. +But the concave mirror of the wine-mist at length suspended the images +of my soul, enlarged and embodied like spiritual shapes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> in the air +before me.—Life shaded itself off to my eyes like a hasty summer night, +which we little fire-flies shoot across with transient gleam;—I said to +him that man must turn himself like the leaves of the great mallow, at +the different day-seasons of his life, now to the rising sun, now to the +setting, now to the night, towards the Earth and its graves;—I said, +the omnipotence of Goodness was driving us and the centuries of the +world towards the gates of the City of God, as, according to Euler, the +resistance of the <i>Ether</i> leads the circling Earth towards the Sun, &c. +&c.</p> + +<p>On the strength of these entremets, he considered me the first +theologian of his age; and had he been obliged to go to war, would +previously have taken my advice on the matter, as belligerent powers +were wont of old from the theologians of the Reformation. I hide not +from myself, however, that what preachers call vanity of the world, is +something altogether different from what philosophy so calls. When I, +moreover, signified to him that I was not ashamed to be an Author; but +had a turn for working up this and the other biography; and that I had +got a sight of his <i>Life</i> in the hands of the Superintendent; and might +be in case to prepare a printed one therefrom, if so were he would +assist me with here and there a tint of flesh-colour,—then was my silk, +which, alas! not only isolates one from electric fire, but also from a +kindlier sort of it, the only grate which rose between his arms and me; +for, like the most part of poor country parsons, it was not in his power +to forget the rank of any man, or to vivify his own on a higher one. He +said: "He would acknowledge it with veneration, if I should mention him +in print; but he was much afraid his life was too common and too poor +for a biography." Nevertheless, he opened me the drawer of his +Letter-boxes; and said, perhaps, he had hereby been paving the way for +me.</p> + +<p>The main point, however, was, he hoped that his <i>Errata</i>, his +<i>Exercitationes</i>, and his <i>Letters on the Robber-Castle</i>, if I should +previously send forth a Life of the Author, might be better received; +and that it would be much the same as if I accompanied them with a +Preface.</p> + +<p>In short, when on Monday the other dignitaries with their nimbus of +splendour had dissipated, I alone, like a precipitate, abode with him; +and am still abiding, that is, from the fifth of May (the Public should +take the Almanac of 1794, and keep it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> open beside them) to the +fifteenth: today is Thursday, tomorrow is the sixteenth and Friday, when +comes the Spinat-Kirmes, or Spinage-Wake, as they call it, and the +uplifting of the steeple-ball, which I just purposed to await before I +went. Now, however, I do not go so soon; for on Sunday I have to assist +at the baptismal ceremony, as baptismal agent for my little future +godson. Whoever pays attention to me, and keeps the Almanac open, may +readily guess why the christening is put off till Sunday: for it is that +memorable Cantata-Sunday, which once, for its mad narcotic +hemlock-virtues, was of importance in our History; but is now so only +for the fair betrothment, which after two years we mean to celebrate +with a baptism.</p> + +<p>Truly it is not in my power—for want of colours and presses—to paint +or print upon my paper the soft balmy flower-garland of a fortnight +which has here wound itself about my sickly life; but with a single day +I shall attempt it. Man, I know well, cannot prognosticate either his +joys or his sorrows, still less repeat them, either in living or +writing.</p> + +<p>The black hour of coffee has gold in its mouth for us and honey; here, +in the morning coolness, we are all gathered; we maintain popular +conversation, that so the parsoness and the gardeneress may be able to +take share in it. The morning-service in the church, where often the +whole people<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> are sitting and singing, divides us. While the bell is +sounding, I march with my writing-gear into the singing Castle-garden; +and seat myself in the fresh acacia-grove, at the dewy two-legged table. +Fixlein's Letter-boxes I keep by me in my pocket; and I have only to +look and abstract from his what can be of use in my own.—Strange +enough! so easily do we forget a thing in describing it, I really did +not recollect for a moment that I am now sitting at the very +grove-table, of which I speak, and writing all this.—</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> For according to the Jurists, fifteen persons make a +people.</p></div> + +<p>My gossip in the mean time is also labouring for the world. His study is +a sort of sacristy, and his printing-press a pulpit, wherefrom he +preaches to all men; for an Author is the Town-chaplain of the Universe. +A man, who is making a Book, will scarcely hang himself; all rich +Lords'-sons, therefore, should labour for the press; for, in that case, +when you awake too early in bed, you have always a <i>plan</i>, an aim, and +therefore a cause before you why you should get out of it. Better off +too is the author who collects rather than invents,—for the latter with +its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> eating fire calcines the heart: I praise the Antiquary, the +Heraldist, Notemaker, Compiler; I esteem the <i>Title-perch</i> (a fish +called <i>Perca-Diagramma</i>, because of the letters on its scales), and the +<i>Printer</i> (a chafer, called <i>Scarabæus Typographus</i>, which eats letters +in the bark of fir),—neither of them needs any greater or fairer arena +in the world than a piece of rag-paper, or any other laying-apparatus +than a pointed pencil, wherewith to lay his four-and-twenty +letter-eggs.—In regard to the <i>catalogue raisonné</i>, which my gossip is +now drawing up of German <i>Errata</i>, I have several times suggested to +him, "that it were good if he extended his researches in one respect, +and revised the rule, by which it has been computed, that <i>e. g.</i> for a +hundredweight of pica black-letter, four hundred and fifty semicolons, +three hundred periods, &c. are required; and to recount, and see whether +in Political writings and Dedications the fifty notes of admiration for +a hundredweight of pica black-letter were not far too small an +allowance, and if so, what the real quantity was?"</p> + +<p>Several days he wrote nothing; but wrapped himself in the slough of his +parson's-cloak; and so in his canonicals, beside the Schoolmaster, put +the few A-b-c shooters, which were not, like forest-shooters, absent on +furlough by reason of the spring,—through their platoon firing in the +Hornbook. He never did more than his duty, but also never less. It +brought a soft benignant warmth over his heart, to think that he, who +had once ducked under a School-inspectorship, was now one himself.</p> + +<p>About ten o'clock, we meet from our different museums, and examine the +village, especially the Biographical furniture and holy places, which I +chance that morning to have had under my pen or pantagraph; because I +look at them with more interest <i>after</i> my description than <i>before</i> it.</p> + +<p>Next comes dinner.—</p> + +<p>After the concluding grace, which is too long, we both of us set to +entering the charitable subsidies, and religious donations, which our +parishioners have remitted to the sinking or rather rising fund of the +church-box for the purchase of the new steeple-globe, into two ledgers: +the one of these, with the names of the subscribers, or (in case they +have subscribed for their children) with their children's names also, is +to be inurned in a leaden capsule, and preserved in the steeple-ball; +the other will remain below among the parish Registers. You cannot fancy +what contributions the ambition of getting into the Ball brings us in; +I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> declare, several peasants who had given and well once already, +contributed again when they had baptisms: must not little Hans be in the +Ball too?</p> + +<p>After this book-keeping by double-entry, my gossip took to engraving on +copper. He had been so happy as to elicit the discovery, that from a +certain stroke resembling an inverted Latin S, the capital letters of +our German Chancery-hand, beautiful and intertwisted as you see them +stand in Law-deeds and Letters-of-nobility, may every one of them be +composed and spun out.</p> + +<p>"Before you can count sixty," said he to me, "I take my +fundamental-stroke and make you any letter out of it."</p> + +<p>I merely inverted this fundamental-stroke, that is, gave him a German S, +and counted sixty till he had it done. This line of beauty, when once it +has been twisted and flourished into all the capitals, he purposes by +copperplates which he is himself engraving, to make more common for the +use of Chanceries; and I may take upon me to give the Russian, the +Prussian, and a few other smaller Courts, hopes of proof impressions +from his hand: to under-secretaries they are indispensable.</p> + +<p>Now comes evening; and it is time for us both, here forking about with +our fruit-hooks on the literary Tree of Knowledge, at the risk of our +necks, to clamber down again into the meadow-flowers and pasturages of +rural joy. We wait, however, till the busy Thiennette, whom we are now +to receive into our communion, has no more walks to take but the one +between us. Then slowly we stept along (the sick lady was weak) through +the office-houses; that is to say, through stalls and their population, +and past a horrid lake of ducks, and past a little milk-pond of carps, +to both of which colonies, I and the rest, like princes, gave bread, +seeing we had it in view on the Sunday after the christening, to—take +them for bread ourselves.</p> + +<p>The sky is still growing kindlier and redder, the swallows and the +blossom-trees louder, the house-shadows broader, and men more happy. The +clustering blossoms of the acacia-grove hang down over our cold +collation; and the ham is not stuck (which always vexes me) with +flowers, but beshaded with them from a distance....</p> + +<p>And now the deeper evening and the nightingale conspire to soften me; +and I soften in my turn the mild beings round me; especially the pale +Thiennette, to whom, or to whose heart, after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> the apoplectic crushings +of a downpressed youth, the most violent pulses of joy are heavier than +the movements of pensive sadness. And thus beautifully runs our pure +transparent life along, under the blooming curtains of May; and in our +modest pleasures we look with timidity neither behind us nor before; as +people who are lifting treasure gaze not round at the road they came, or +the road they are going.</p> + +<p>So pass our days. Today, however, it was different: by this time, +usually, the evening meal is over; and the Shock has got the osseous +preparation of our supper between his jaws; but tonight I am still +sitting here alone in the garden, writing the Eleventh Letter-Box, and +peeping out every instant over the meadows, to see if my gossip is not +coming.</p> + +<p>For he is gone to town, to bring a whole magazine of spiceries: his +coat-pockets are wide. Nay, it is certain enough that oftentimes he +brings home with him, simply in his coat-pocket, considerable +flesh-tithes from his Guardian, at whose house he alights; though truly +intercourse with the polished world and city, and the refinement of +manners thence arising,—for he calls on the bookseller, on +school-colleagues, and several respectable shopkeepers,—does, much more +than flesh-fetching, form the object of these journeys to the city. This +morning he appointed me regent head of the house, and delivered me the +<i>fasces</i> and <i>curule chair</i>. I sat the whole day beside the young pale +mother; and could not but think, simply because the husband had left me +there as his representative, that I liked the fair soul better. She had +to take dark colours, and paint out for me the winter landscape and ice +region of her sorrow-wasted youth; but often, contrary to my intention, +by some simple elegiac word, I made her still eye wet; for the too full +heart, which had been crushed with other than sentimental woes, +overflowed at the smallest pressure. A hundred times in the recital I +was on the point of saying: "O yes, it was with winter that your life +began, and the course of it has resembled winter!"—Windless, cloudless +day! Three more words about thee, the world will still not take amiss +from me!</p> + +<p>I advanced nearer and nearer to the heart-central-fire of the women; and +at last they mildly broke forth in censure of the Parson; the best wives +will complain of their husbands to a stranger, without in the smallest +liking them the less on that account. The mother and the wife, during +dinner, accused him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> of buying lots at every book-auction; and, in +truth, in such places, he does strive and bid not so much for good or +for bad books—or old ones—or new ones—or such as he likes to read—or +any sort of favourite books—but simply for books. The mother blamed +especially his squandering so much on copperplates; yet some hours +after, when the Schultheis, or Mayor, who wrote a beautiful hand, came +in to subscribe for the steeple-ball, she pointed out to him how finely +her son could engrave, and said that it was well worth while to spend a +groschen or two on such capitals as these.</p> + +<p>They then handed me,—for when once women are in the way of a full +open-hearted effusion, they like (only you must not turn the stop-cock +of inquiry) to pour out the whole,—a ring-case, in which he kept a +Chamberlain's key that he had found, and asked me if I knew who had lost +it. Who could know such a thing, when there are almost more Chamberlains +than picklocks among us?—</p> + +<p>At last I took heart, and asked after the little toy-press of the +drowned son, which hitherto I had sought for in vain over all the house. +Fixlein himself had inquired for it, with as little success. Thiennette +gave the old mother a persuading look full of love; and the latter led +me up-stairs to an outstretched hoop-petticoat, covering the poor press +as with a dome. On the way thither the mother told me, she kept it hid +from her son, because the recollection of his brother would pain him. +When this deposit-chest of Time (the lock had fallen off) was laid open +to me, and I had looked into the little charnel-house, with its wrecks +of a childlike sportful Past, I, without saying a word, determined, some +time ere I went away, to unpack these playthings of the lost boy, before +his surviving brother: Can there be aught finer than to look at these +ash-buried, deep-sunk Herculanean ruins of childhood, now dug up and in +the open air?</p> + +<p>Thiennette sent twice to ask me whether he was come. He and she, +precisely because they do not give their love the weakening expression +of phrases, but the strengthening one of actions, have a boundless +feeling of it towards one another. Some wedded pairs eat each other's +lips and hearts and love away by kisses,—as in Rome, the statues of +Christ (by Angelo) have lost their feet by the same process of kissing, +and got leaden ones instead; in other couples, again, you may see, by +mere inspection, the number of their conflagrations and eruptions, as in +Vesuvius you can discover his, of which there are now forty-three: but +in these two beings rose the Greek fire of a moderate and everlasting +love, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> gave warmth without casting forth sparks, and flamed straight +up without crackling. The evening-red is flowing back more magically +from the windows of the gardener's cottage into my grove; and I feel as +if I must say to Destiny: "Hast thou a sharp sorrow, then throw it +rather into my breast, and strike not with it three good souls, who are +too happy not to bleed by it, and too sequestered in their little dim +village not to shrink back at the thunderbolt which hurries a stricken +spirit from its earthly dwelling."——</p> + +<p>Thou good Fixlein! Here comes he hurrying over the parsonage-green. What +languishing looks full of love already rest in the eye of thy +Thiennette!—What news wilt thou bring us tonight from the town!—How +will the ascending steeple-ball refresh thy soul tomorrow!—</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="TWELFTH_LETTER-BOX" id="TWELFTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>TWELFTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Steeple-ball-Ascension. The Toy-press.</i></p> + + +<p>How, on this sixteenth of May, the old steeple-ball was twisted-off from +the Hukelum steeple, and a new one put on in its stead, will I now +describe to my best ability; but in that simple historical style of the +Ancients, which, for great events, is perhaps the most suitable.</p> + +<p>At a very early hour, a coach arrived containing Messrs. Court-Guilder +Zeddel and Locksmith Wächser, and the new Peter's-cupola of the steeple. +Towards eight o'clock the community, consisting of subscribers to the +Globe, was visibly collecting. A little later came the Lord Dragoon +Rittmeister von Aufhammer, as Patron of the church and steeple, attended +by Mr. Church-Inspector Streichert. Hereupon my Reverend Cousin Fixlein +and I repaired, with the other persons whom I have already named, into +the Church, and there celebrated before innumerable hearers a weekday +prayer-service. Directly afterwards, my Reverend Friend made his +appearance above in the pulpit, and endeavoured to deliver a speech +which might correspond to the solemn transaction;—and immediately +thereafter, he read aloud the names of the patrons and charitable souls, +by whose donations the Ball had been put together; and showed to the +congregation the leaden box in which they were specially recorded; +observing, that the book from which he had recited them was to be +reposited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> in the Parish Register-office. Next he held it necessary to +thank them and God, that he, above his deserts, had been chosen as the +instrument and undertaker of such a work. The whole he concluded with a +short prayer for Mr. Stechmann the Slater (who was already hanging on +the outside on the steeple, and loosening the old shaft); and entreated +that he might not break his neck, or any of his members. A short hymn +was then sung, which the most of those assembled without the +church-doors sang along with us, looking up at the same time to the +steeple.</p> + +<p>All of us now proceeded out likewise; and the discarded ball, as it were +the amputated cock's-comb of the church, was lowered down and untied. +Church-Inspector Streichert drew a leaden case from the crumbling ball, +which my Reverend Friend put into his pocket, purposing to read it at +his convenience; I, however, said to some peasants: "See, thus will your +names also be preserved in the new Ball, and when, after long years, it +shall be taken down, the box lies within it, and the then parson becomes +acquainted with you all."—And now was the new steeple-globe, with the +leaden cup in which lay the names of the bystanders, at length +full-laden so to speak, and saturated, and fixed to the +pulley-rope;—and so did this the whilom cupping-glass of the community +ascend aloft....</p> + +<p>By heaven! the unadorned style is here a thing beyond my power: for when +the Ball moved, swung, mounted, there rose a drumming in the centre of +the steeple; and the Schoolmaster, who, till now, had looked down +through a sounding-hole directed towards the congregation, now stept out +with a trumpet at a side sounding-hole, which the mounting Ball was not +to cross.—But when the whole Church rung and pealed, the nearer the +capital approached its crown,—and when the Slater clutched it and +turned it round, and happily incorporated the spike of it, and delivered +down, between Heaven and Earth, and leaning on the Ball, a +Topstone-speech to this and all of us,—and when my gossip's eyes, in +his rapture at being Parson on this great day, were running over, and +the tears trickling down his priestly garment;—I believe I was the only +man,—as his mother was the only woman,—whose souls a common grief laid +hold of to press them even to bleeding; for I and the mother had +yesternight, as I shall tell more largely afterwards, discovered in the +little chest of the drowned boy, from a memorial in his father's hand, +that, on the day after the morrow, on Cantata-Sunday and his +baptismal-Sunday,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> he would be—two-and-thirty years of age. "O!" +thought I, while I looked at the blue heaven, the green graves, the +glittering ball, the weeping priest, "so, at all times, stands poor man +with bandaged eyes before thy sharp sword, incomprehensible Destiny! And +when thou drawest it and brandishest it aloft, he listens with pleasure +to the whizzing of the stroke before it falls!"—</p> + +<p>Last night I was aware of it; but to the reader, whom I was preparing +for it afar off, I would tell nothing of the mournful news, that, in the +press of the dead brother, I had found an old Bible which the boys had +used at school, with a white blank leaf in it, on which the father had +written down the dates of his children's birth. And even this it was +that raised in thee, thou poor mother, the shade of sorrow which of late +we have been attributing to smaller causes; and thy heart was still +standing amid the rain, which seemed to us already past over and changed +into a rainbow!—Out of love to him, she had yearly told one falsehood, +and concealed his age. By extreme good luck, he had not been present +when the press was opened. I still purpose, after this fatal Sunday, to +surprise him with the parti-coloured reliques of his childhood, and so +of these old Christmas-presents to make him new ones. In the mean while, +if I and his mother can but follow him incessantly, like +fish-hook-floats and foot-clogs, through tomorrow and next day, that no +murderous accident lift aside the curtain from his +birth-certificate,—all may yet be well. For now, in truth, to his eyes, +this birthday, in the metamorphotic mirror of his superstitious +imagination, and behind the magnifying magic vapour of his present joys, +would burn forth like a red death-warrant.... But besides all this, the +leaf of the Bible is now sitting higher than any of us, namely, in the +new steeple-ball, into which I this morning prudently introduced it. +Properly speaking there is indeed no danger.</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="THIRTEENTH_LETTER-BOX" id="THIRTEENTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>THIRTEENTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Christening.</i></p> + + +<p>Today is that stupid Cantata-Sunday; but nothing now remains of it save +an hour.—By heaven! in right spirits were we all today. I believe I +have drunk as faithfully as another.—In truth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> one should be moderate +in all things, in writing, in drinking, in rejoicing; and as we lay +straws into the honey for our bees that they may not drown in their +sugar, so ought one at all times to lay a few firm Principles, and twigs +from the tree of Knowledge, into the Syrup of life, instead of those +same bee-straws, that so one may cling thereto, and not drown like a +rat. But now I do purpose in earnest to—write (and also live) with +steadfastness; and therefore, that I may record the christening ceremony +with greater coolness,—to besprinkle my fire with the night-air, and to +roam out for an hour into the blossom-and-wave-embroidered night, where +a lukewarm breath of air, intoxicated with soft odours, is sinking down +from the blossom-peaks to the low-bent flowers, and roaming over the +meadows, and at last launching on a wave, and with it sailing down the +moonshiny brook. O, without, under the stars, under the tones of the +nightingale, which seem to reverberate, not from the echo, but from the +far-off down-glancing worlds; beside that moon, which the gushing brook +in its flickering watery band is carrying away, and which creeps under +the little shadows of the bank as under clouds,—O, amid such forms and +tones, the heart of man grows serious; and as of old an evening bell was +rung to direct the wanderer through the deep forests to his nightly +home, so in our Night are such voices within us and about us, which call +to us in our strayings, and make us calmer, and teach us to moderate our +own joys, and to conceive those of others.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>I return, peaceful and cool enough, to my narrative. All yesternight I +left not the worthy Parson half an hour from my sight, to guard him from +poisoning the well of his life. Full of paternal joy, and with the +skeleton of the sermon (he was committing it to memory) in his hand, he +set before me all that he had; and pointed out to me the fruit-baskets +of pleasures which Cantata-Sunday always plucked and filled for him. He +recounted to me, as I did not go away, his baptisms, his accidents of +office; told me of his relatives; and removed my uncertainty with regard +to the public revenues—of his parish, to the number of his communicants +and expected catechumens. At this point, however, I am afraid that many +a reader will in vain endeavour to transport himself into my situation, +and still be unable to discover why I said to Fixlein: "Worthy gossip, +better no man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> could wish himself." I lied not, for so it is.... But +look in the Note.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> A long philosophical elucidation is indispensably +requisite: which will be found in this Book, under the title: <i>Natural +Magic of the Imagination</i>. [A part of the <i>Jus de Tablette</i> appended to +this Biography, unconnected with it, and not given here.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.]</p></div> + +<p>At last rose the Sunday, the present; and on this holy day, simply +because my little godson was for going over to Christianity, there was a +vast racket made: every time a conversion happens, especially of +nations, there is an uproaring and a shooting; I refer to the two +Thirty-Years Wars, to the more recent one, and to the earlier, which +Charlemagne so long carried on with the heathen Saxons: thus, in the +<i>Palais Royal</i>, the Sun, at his transit over the meridian, fires off a +cannon.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> But this morning the little Unchristian, my godson, was +precisely the person least attended to; for, in thinking of the +conversion, they had no time left to think of the convert. Therefore I +strolled about with him myself half the forenoon; and, in our walk, +hastily conferred on him a private-baptism; having named him <i>Jean Paul</i> +before the priest did so. At midday, we sent the beef away as it had +come; the Sun of happiness having desiccated all our gastric juices. We +now began to look about us for pomp; I for scientific decorations of my +hair, my godson for his christening-shirt, and his mother for her +dress-cap. Yet before the child's-rattle of the christening-bell had +been jingled, I and the midwife, in front of the mother's bed, +instituted Physiognomical Travels<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> on the countenance of the small +Unchristian, and returned with the discovery, that some features had +been embossed by the pattern of the mother, and many firm portions +resembled me; a double similarity, in which my readers can take little +interest. <i>Jean Paul</i> looks very sensible for his years, or rather for +his minutes, for it is the small one I am speaking of.——</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> This pigmy piece of ordnance, with its cunningly devised +burning-glass, is still to be seen on the south side of the Paris +Vanity-Fair; and in fine weather, to be heard, on all sides thereof, +proclaiming the <i>conversion</i> (so it seems to Richter) of the Day from +Forenoon to Afternoon.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> See <i>Musäus</i>, ante.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>But now I would ask, what German writer durst take it upon him to spread +out and paint a large historic sheet, representing the whole of us as we +went to church? Would he not require to draw the father, with swelling +canonicals, moving forward slowly, devoutly, and full of emotion? Would +he not have to sketch the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> godfather, minded this day to lend out his +names, which he derived from two Apostles (John and Paul), as Julius +Cæsar lent out his names to two things still living even now (to a +month, and a throne)?—And must he not put the godson on his sheet, with +whom even the Emperor Joseph (in his need of nurse-milk) might become a +foster-brother, in his old days, if he were still in them?—</p> + +<p>In my chamber, I have a hundred times determined to smile at +solemnities, in the midst of which I afterwards, while assisting at +them, involuntarily wore a petrified countenance, full of dignity and +seriousness. For, as the Schoolmaster, just before the baptism, began to +sound the organ,—an honour never paid to any other child in +Hukelum,—and when I saw the wooden christening-angel, like an alighted +Genius, with his painted timber arm spread out under the baptismal ewer, +and I myself came to stand close by him, under his gilt wing, I protest +the blood went slow and solemn, warm and close, through my pulsing head, +and my lungs full of sighs; and, to the silent darling lying in my arms, +whose unripe eyes Nature yet held closed from the full perspective of +the Earth, I wished, with more sadness than I do to myself, for his +Future also as soft a sleep as today; and as good an angel as today, but +a more living one, to guide him into a more living religion, and, with +invisible hand, conduct him unlost through the forest of Life, through +its falling trees, and Wild Hunters,<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> and all its storms and +perils.... Will the world not excuse me, if when, by a side-glance, I +saw on the paternal countenance prayers for the son, and tears of joy +trickling down into the prayer; and when I noticed on the countenance of +the grandmother far darker and fast-hidden drops, which she could not +restrain, while I, in answer to the ancient question, engaged to provide +for the child if its parents died,—am I not to be excused if I then +cast my eyes deep down on my little godson, merely to hide their running +over?—For I remembered that his father might perhaps this very day grow +pale and cold before a suddenly arising mask of Death; I thought how the +poor little one had only changed his bent posture in the womb with a +freer one, to bend and cramp himself ere long more harshly in the strait +arena of life; I thought of his inevitable follies and errors and sins; +of these soiled steps to the Grecian Temple of our Perfection; I thought +that one day his own fire of genius might reduce himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> to ashes, as a +man that is electrified can kill himself with his own lightning.... All +the theological wishes, which, on the godson-billet printed over with +them, I placed in his young bosom, were glowing written in mine.... But +the white feathered-pink of my joy had then, as it always has, a bloody +point within it,—I again, as it always is, went to nest, like a +woodpecker, in a skull.... And as I am doing so even now, let the +describing of the baptism be over for today, and proceed again +tomorrow....</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> The Wild Hunter, <i>Wilde Jäger</i>, is a popular spectre of +Germany.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + + + + +<h4><a name="FOURTEENTH_LETTER-BOX" id="FOURTEENTH_LETTER-BOX"></a>FOURTEENTH LETTER-BOX.</h4> + + +<p>O, so is it ever! So does Fate set fire to the theatre of our little +plays, and our bright-painted curtain of Futurity! So does the Serpent +of Eternity wind round us and our joys, and crush, like the royal-snake, +what it does not poison! Thou good Fixlein!—Ah! last night, I little +thought that thou, mild soul, while I was writing beside thee, wert +already journeying into the poisonous Earth-shadow of Death.</p> + +<p>Last night, late as it was, he opened the lead box found in the old +steeple-ball; a catalogue of those who had subscribed to the last +repairing of the church was there; and he began to read it now; my +presence and his occupations having prevented him before. O, how shall I +tell that the record of his birth-year, which I had hidden in the new +Ball, was waiting for him in the old one? that in the register of +contributions he found his father's name, with the appendage, "given for +his new-born son Egidius"?—</p> + +<p>This stroke sank deep into his bosom, even to the rending of it asunder: +in this warm hour, full of paternal joy, after such fair days, after +such fair employments, after dread of death so often survived, here, in +the bright smooth sea, which is rocking and bearing him along, starts +snorting, from the bottomless abyss, the sea-monster Death; and the +monster's throat yawns wide, and the silent sea rushes into it in +whirlpools, and hurries him along with it.</p> + +<p>But the patient man, quietly and slowly, and with a heart silent, though +deadly cold, laid the leaves together;—looked softly and firmly over +the churchyard, where, in the moonshine, the grave of his father was to +be distinguished;—gazed timidly up to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> the sky, full of stars, which a +white overarching laurel-tree half screened from his sight;—and though +he longed to be in bed, to settle there and sleep it off, yet he paused +at the window to pray for his wife and child, in case this night were +his last.</p> + +<p>At this moment the steeple-clock struck twelve; but from the breaking of +a pin, the weights kept rolling down, and the clock-hammer struck +without stopping,—and he heard with horror the chains and wheels +rattling along; and he felt as if Death were hurling forth in a heap all +the longer hours which he might yet have had to live,—and now to his +eyes, the churchyard began to quiver and heave, the moonlight flickered +on the church-windows, and in the church there were lights flitting to +and fro, and in the charnel-house there was a motion and a tumult.</p> + +<p>His heart fainted within him, and he threw himself into bed, and closed +his eyes that he might not see;—but Imagination in the gloom now blew +aloft the dust of the dead, and whirled it into giant shapes, and chased +these hollow fever-born masks alternately into lightning and shadow. +Then at last from transparent thoughts grew coloured visions, and he +dreamed this dream: He was standing at the window looking out into the +churchyard; and Death, in size as a scorpion, was creeping over it, and +seeking for his bones. Death found some arm-bones and thigh-bones on the +graves, and said: "They are my bones;" and he took a spine and the +bone-legs, and stood with them, and the two arm-bones and clutched with +them, and found on the grave of Fixlein's father a skull, and put it on. +Then he lifted a scythe beside the little flower-garden, and cried: +"Fixlein, where art thou? My finger is an icicle and no finger, and I +will tap on thy heart with it." The skeleton, thus piled together, now +looked for him who was standing at the window, and powerless to stir +from it; and carried in the one hand, instead of a sandglass, the +ever-striking steeple-clock, and held out the finger of ice, like a +dagger, far into the air....</p> + +<p>Then he saw his victim above at the window, and raised himself as high +as the laurel-tree to stab straight into his bosom with the finger,—and +stalked towards him. But as he came nearer, his pale bones grew redder, +and vapours floated woolly round his haggard form. Flowers started up +from the ground; and he stood transfigured and without the <ins title="'calm of the grave' seems more correct.">clam of the +grave</ins>, hovering above them, and the balm-breath from the flower-cups +wafted him gently on;—and as he came nearer, the scythe and cloak were +gone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> and in his bony breast he had a heart, and on his bony head red +lips;—and nearer still, there gathered on him soft, transparent, +rosebalm-dipt flesh, like the splendour of an Angel flying hither from +the starry blue;—and close at hand, he was an Angel with shut +snow-white eyelids....</p> + +<p>The heart of my friend, quivering like a Harmonica-bell, now melted in +bliss in his clear bosom;—and when the Angel opened its eyes, his were +pressed together by the weight of celestial rapture, and his dream fled +away.——</p> + +<p>But not his life: he opened his hot eyes, and—his good wife had hold of +his feverish hand, and was standing in room of the Angel.</p> + +<p>The fever abated towards morning: but the certainty of dying still +throbbed in every artery of the hapless man. He called for his fair +little infant into his sick-bed, and pressed it silently, though it +began to cry, too hard against his paternal heavy-laden breast. Then +towards noon his soul became cool, and the sultry thunder-clouds within +it drew back. And here he described to us the previous (as it were, +arsenical) fantasies of his usually quiet head. But it is even those +tense nerves, which have not quivered at the touch of a poetic hand +striking them to melody of sorrow, that start and fly asunder more +easily under the fierce hand of Fate, when with sweeping stroke it +smites into discord the firm-set strings.</p> + +<p>But towards night his ideas again began rushing in a torch-dance, like +fire-pillars round his soul: every artery became a burning-rod, and the +heart drove flaming naphtha-brooks into the brain. All within his soul +grew bloody: the blood of his drowned brother united itself with the +blood which had once flowed from Thiennette's arm, into a bloody +rain;—he still thought he was in the garden in the night of +betrothment, he still kept calling for bandages to stanch blood, and was +for hiding his head in the ball of the steeple. Nothing afflicts one +more than to see a reasonable moderate man, who has been so even in his +passions, raving in the poetic madness of fever. And yet if nothing save +this mouldering corruption can soothe the hot brain; and if, while the +reek and thick vapour of a boiling nervous-spirit, and the hissing +water-spouts of the veins are encircling and eclipsing the stifled soul, +a higher Finger presses through the cloud, and suddenly lifts the poor +bewildered spirit from amid the smoke to a sun—is it more just to +complain, than to reflect that Fate is like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> the oculist, who, when +about to open to a blind eye the world of light, first bandages and +darkens the other eye that sees?</p> + +<p>But the sorrow does affect me, which I read on Thiennette's pale lips, +though do not hear. It is not the distortion of an excruciating agony, +nor the burning of a dried-up eye, nor the loud lamenting or violent +movement of a tortured frame that I see in her; but what I am forced to +see in her, and what too keenly cuts the sympathising heart, is a pale, +still, unmoved, undistorted face, a pale bloodless head, which Sorrow is +as it were holding up after the stroke, like a head just severed by the +axe of the headsman; for, O! on this form the wounds, from which the +three-edged dagger had been drawn, are all fallen firmly together, and +the blood is flowing from them in secret into the choking heart. O +Thiennette, go away from the sick-bed, and hide that face which is +saying to us: "Now do I know that I shall not have any happiness on +Earth; now do I give over hoping—would this life were but soon done."</p> + +<p>You will not comprehend my sympathy, if you know not what, some hours +ago, the too loud lamenting mother told me. Thiennette, who of old had +always trembled for his thirty-second year, had encountered this +superstition with a nobler one: she had purposely stood farther back at +the marriage-altar, and in the bridal-night fallen sooner asleep than +he; thereby—as is the popular belief—so to order it that she might +also die sooner. Nay, she has determined if he die, to lay with his +corpse a piece of her apparel, that so she may descend the sooner to +keep him company in his narrow house. Thou good, thou faithful wife, but +thou unhappy one!—</p> + + + + +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_LAST" id="CHAPTER_LAST"></a>CHAPTER LAST.</h4> + + +<p>I have left Hukelum, and my gossip his bed; and the one is as sound as +the other. The cure was as foolish as the malady.</p> + +<p>It first occurred to me, that as Boerhaave used to remedy convulsions by +convulsions, one fancy might in my gossip's case be remedied by another; +namely, by the fancy that he was yet no man of thirty-two, but only a +man of six or nine. Deliriums are dreams not encircled by sleep; and all +dreams transport us back into youth, why not deliriums too? I +accordingly directed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> every one to leave the patient: only his mother, +while the fiercest meteors were dancing and hissing before his fevered +soul, was to sit down by him alone, and speak to him as if he were a +child of eight years. The bed-mirror also I directed her to cover. She +did so; she spoke to him as if he had the small-pox fever; and when he +cried: "Death is standing with two-and-thirty pointed teeth before me, +to eat my heart," she said to him: "Little dear, I will give thee thy +roller-hat, and thy copybook, and thy case, and thy hussar-cloak again, +and more too, if thou wilt be good." A reasonable speech he would have +taken up and heeded much less than he did this foolish one.</p> + +<p>At last she said,—for to women in the depth of sorrow, dissimulation +becomes easy: "Well, I will try it this once, and give thee thy +playthings: but do the like again, thou rogue, and roll thyself about in +the bed so, with the small-pox on thee!" And with this, from her full +apron she shook out on the bed the whole stock of playthings and +dressing-ware, which I had found in the press of the drowned brother. +First of all his copybook, where Egidius in his eighth year had put down +his name, which he necessarily recognised as his own handwriting; then +the black velvet <i>fall-hat</i> or roller-cap; then the red and white +leading-strings; his knife-case, with a little pamphlet of tin-leaves; +his green hussar-cloak, with its stiff facings; and a whole <i>orbis +pictus</i> or <i>fictus</i> of Nürnberg puppets....</p> + +<p>The sick man recognised in a moment these projecting peaks of a +spring-world sunk in the stream of Time,—these half shadows, this dusk +of down-gone days,—this conflagration-place and Golgotha of a heavenly +time, which none of us forgets, which we love forever, and look back to +even from the grave.... And when he saw all this, he slowly turned round +his head, as if he were awakening from a long heavy dream; and his whole +heart flowed down in warm showers of tears, and he said, fixing his full +eyes on the eyes of his mother: "But are my father and brother still +living, then?"—"They are dead lately," said the wounded mother; but her +heart was overpowered, and she turned away her eyes, and bitter tears +fell unseen from her down-bent head. And now at once that evening, when +he lay confined to bed by the death of his father, and was cured by his +playthings, overflowed his soul with splendour and lights, and presence +of the past.</p> + +<p>And so Delirium dyed for itself rosy wings in the Aurora of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> life, and +fanned the panting soul,—and shook down golden butterfly-dust from its +plumage on the path, on the flowerage of the suffering man;—in the far +distance rose lovely tones, in the distance floated lovely clouds,—O, +his heart was like to fall in pieces, but only into fluttering +flower-stamina, into soft sentient nerves; his eyes were like to melt +away, but only into dewdrops for the cups of joy-blossoms, into +blooddrops for loving hearts; his soul was floating, palpitating, +drinking and swimming in the warm relaxing rose-perfume of the brightest +delusion....</p> + +<p>The rapture bridled his feverish heart; and his mad pulse grew calm. +Next morning, his mother, when she saw that all was prospering, would +have had the church-bells rung, to make him think that the second Sunday +was already here. But his wife (perhaps out of shame in my presence) was +averse to the lying; and said it would be all the same if we moved the +month-hand of his clock (but otherwise than Hezekiah's Dial) eight days +forward; especially as he was wont rather to rise and look at his clock +for the day of the month, than to turn it up in the Almanac. I for my +own part simply went up to the bedside, and asked him: "If he was +cracked—what in the world he meant with his mad death-dreams, when he +had lain so long, and passed clean over the Cantata-Sunday, and yet, out +of sheer terror, was withering to a lath?"</p> + +<p>A glorious reinforcement joined me; the Flesher or Quartermaster. In his +anxiety, he rushed into the room, without saluting the women, and I +forthwith addressed him aloud: "My gossip here is giving me trouble +enough, Mr. Regiments-Quartermaster: last night, he let them persuade +him he was little older than his own son: here is the child's fall-hat +he was for putting on." The Guardian deuced and devilled, and said: +"Ward, are you a parson or a fool?—Have not I told you twenty times, +there was a maggot in your head about this?"—</p> + +<p>At last he himself perceived that he was not rightly wise, and so grew +better; besides the guardian's invectives, my oaths contributed a good +deal; for I swore I would hold him as no right gossip, and edit no word +of his Biography, unless he rose directly and got better....</p> + +<p>—In short, he showed so much politeness to me that he rose and got +better.—He was still sickly, it is true, on Saturday; and on Sunday +could not preach a sermon (something of the sort the Schoolmaster read, +instead); but yet he took Confessions on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> Saturday, and at the altar +next day he dispensed the Sacrament. Service ended, the feast of his +recovery was celebrated, my farewell-feast included; for I was to go in +the afternoon.</p> + +<p>This last afternoon I will chalk out with all possible breadth, and +then, with the pantagraph of free garrulity, fill up the outline and +draw on the great scale.</p> + +<p>During the Thanksgiving-repast, there arrived considerable personal +tribute from his catechumens, and fairings by way of bonfire for his +recovery; proving how much the people loved him, and how well he +deserved it: for one is oftener hated without reason by the many, than +without reason loved by them. But Fixlein was friendly to every child; +was none of those clergy, who never pardon their enemies except +in—God's stead; and he praised at once the whole world, his wife and +himself.</p> + +<p>I then attended at his afternoon's catechising; and looked down (as he +did in the first Letter-Box) from the choir, under the wing of the +wooden cherub. Behind this angel, I drew out my note-book, and shifted a +little under the cover of the Black Board, with its white +Psalm-ciphers,<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> and wrote down what I was there—thinking. I was well +aware, that when I today, on the twenty-fifth of May, retired from this +<i>Salernic</i><a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> spinning-school, where one is taught to spin out the +thread of life, in fairer wise, and without wetting it by foreign +mixtures,—I was well aware, I say, that I should carry off with me far +more elementary principles of the Science of Happiness, than the whole +Chamberlain piquet ever muster all their days. I noted down my first +impression, in the following Rules of Life for myself and the press:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Indicating to the congregation what Psalm is to be +sung.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Salerno was once famous for its medical science; but here, +as in many other cases, we could desire the aid of Herr Reinhold with +his <i>Lexicon-Commentary</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>"Little joys refresh us constantly like house-bread, and never bring +disgust; and great ones, like sugar-bread, briefly, and then bring +it.—Trifles we should let, not plague us only, but also gratify us; we +should seize not their poison-bags only, but their honey-bags also: and +if flies often buz about our room, we should, like Domitian, amuse +ourselves with flies, or, like a certain still living Elector,<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> feed +them.—For <i>civic</i> life and its micrologies, for which the Parson has a +natural taste, we must acquire an artificial one; must learn to love +without esteeming it; learn,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> far as it ranks beneath <i>human</i> life, to +enjoy it like another twig of this human life, as poetically as we do +the pictures of it in romances. The loftiest mortal loves and seeks the +<i>same sort</i> of things with the meanest; only from higher grounds and by +higher paths. Be every minute, Man, a full life to thee!—Despise +anxiety and wishing, the Future and the Past!—If the <i>Second-pointer</i> +can be no road-pointer into an Eden for thy soul, the <i>Month-pointer</i> +will still less be so, for thou livest not from month to month, but from +second to second! Enjoy thy Existence more than thy Manner of Existence, +and let the dearest object of thy Consciousness be this Consciousness +itself!—Make not the Present a means of thy Future; for this Future is +nothing but a coming Present; and the Present, which thou despisest, was +once a Future which thou desiredst!—Stake in no lotteries,—keep at +home,—give and accept no pompous entertainments,—travel not abroad +every year!—Conceal not from thyself, by long plans, thy household +goods, thy chamber, thy acquaintance!—Despise Life, that thou mayst +enjoy it!—Inspect the neighbourhood of thy life; every shelf, every +nook of thy abode; and nestling in, quarter thyself in the farthest and +most domestic winding of thy snail-house!—Look upon a capital but as a +collection of villages, a village as some blind-alley of a capital; fame +as the talk of neighbours at the street-door; a library as a learned +conversation, joy as a second, sorrow as a minute, life as a day; and +three things as all in all: God, Creation, Virtue!"——</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> This hospitable Potentate is as unknown to me as to any of +my readers.—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>And if I would follow myself and these rules, it will behove me not to +make so much of this Biography; but once for all, like a moderate man, +to let it sound out.</p> + +<p>After the Catechising, I stept down to my wide-gowned and black-gowned +gossip. The congregation gone, we clambered up to all high places, +perused the plates on the pews,—I took a lesson on the altar on its +inscription incrusted with the <i>sediment of Time</i> (I speak not +metaphorically); I organed, my gossip managing the bellows; I mounted +the pulpit, and was happy enough there to alight on one other +rose-shoot, which, in the farewell minute, I could still plant in the +rose-garden of my Fixlein. For I descried aloft, on the back of a wooden +Apostle, the name <i>Lavater</i>, which the Zurich Physiognomist had been +pleased to leave on this sacred Torso in the course of his wayfaring. +Fixlein did not know the hand, but I did, for I had seen it frequently +in Flachsenfingen, not only on the tapestry of a Court Lady there,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> but +also in his <i>Hand-Library</i>;<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> and met with it besides in many country +churches, forming, as it were, the Directory and Address-Calendar of +this wandering name, for Lavater likes to inscribe in pulpits, as a +shepherd does in trees, the name of his beloved. I could now advise my +gossip prudently to cut away the name, with the chip of wood containing +it, from the back of the Apostle, and to preserve it carefully among his +<i>curiosa</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> A little work printed in manuscript types; and seldom +given by him to any but Princes. This piece of print-writing he +intentionally passes off to the great as a piece of hand-writing; these +persons being both more habituated and inclined to the reading of +manuscript than of print.</p></div> + +<p>On returning to the parsonage, I made for my hat and stick; but the +design, as it were the projection and contour of a supper in the +acacia-grove, had already been sketched by Thiennette. I declared that I +would stay till evening, in case the young mother went out with us to +the proposed meal ... and truly the Biographer at length got his way, +all doctors' regulations notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>I then constrained the Parson to put on his Kräutermütze,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> or +Herb-cap, which he had stitched together out of simples for the +strengthening of his memory; "Would to Heaven," said I, "that Princes +instead of their Princely Hats, Doctors and Cardinals instead of theirs, +and Saints instead of martyr-crowns, would clap such memory-bonnets on +their heads!"—Thereupon, till the roasting and cooking within doors +were over, we marched out alone over the parsonage meadows, and talked +of learned matters, we packed ourselves into the ruined Robber-Castle, +on which my gossip, as already mentioned, has a literary work in hand. I +deeply approved, the rather as this Kidnapper-tower had once belonged to +an Aufhammer, his intention of dedicating the description to the +Rittmeister: that nobleman, I think, will sooner give his name to the +Book than to the Shock. For the rest, I exhorted my fellow-craftsman to +pluck up literary heart, and said to him: "A fearless pen, good gossip! +Let Subrector Hans von Füchslein be, if he like, the Dragon of the +Apocalypse, lying in wait for the delivery of the fugitive Woman, to +swallow the offspring; I am there too, and have my friend the Editor of +the <i>Litteraturzeitung</i> at my side, who will gladly permit me to give an +<i>anticritique</i>, on paying the insertion-dues!"—I especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> excited +him to new fillings and return-freights of his Letter-Boxes. I have not +taken oath that into this biographical chest-of-drawers, I will not in +the course of time introduce another Box. "Neither to my godson, worthy +gossip, will it do any harm that he is presented, poor child, even now +to the reading public, when he does not count more months than, as +Horace will have it, a literary child should count years, namely, +<i>nine</i>."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Thus defined by Adelung in his Lexicon: "<i>Kräutermütze</i>, +in Medicine, a cap with various dried herbs sewed into it, and which is +worn for all manner of troubles in the head."—<span class="smcap">Ed</span>.</p></div> + +<p>In walking homewards, I praised his wife. "If marriage," said I to him, +"is the madder, which in maids, as in cotton, makes the colours visible, +then I contend, that Thiennette, when a maid, could scarcely be so good +as she is now when a wife. By Heaven! in such a marriage, I should write +Books of quite another sort, divine ones; in a marriage, I mean, where +beside the writing-table (as beside the great voting-table at the +Regensburg Diets, there are little tables of confectionery); where in +like manner, I say, a little jar of marmalade were standing by me, +namely, a sweetened, dainty, lovely face, and out of measure fond of the +Letter-Box-writer, gossip! Your marriage will resemble the Acacia-grove +we are now going to, the leaves of which grow thicker with the heat of +summer, while other shrubs are yielding only shrunk and porous shade."</p> + +<p>As we entered through the upper garden-door into this same bower, the +supper and the good mistress were already there. Nothing is more pure +and tender than the respect with which a wife treats the benefactor or +comrade of her husband: and happily the Biographer himself was this +comrade, and the object of this respect. Our talk was cheerful, but my +spirit was oppressed. The fetters, which bind the mere reader to my +heroes, were in my case of triple force; as I was at once their guest +and their portrait-painter. I told the Parson that he would live to a +greater age than I, for that his temperate temperament was balanced as +if by a doctor so equally between the nervousness of refinement, and the +hot thick-bloodedness of the rustic. Fixlein said that if he lived but +as long as he had done, namely, two-and-thirty years, it would amount, +exclusive of the leap-year-days, to 280,320 seconds, which in itself was +something considerable; and that he often reckoned up with satisfaction +the many thousand persons of his own age that would have a life equally +long.</p> + +<p>At last I tried to get in motion; for the red lights of the falling sun +were mounting up over the grove, and dipping us still deeper in the +shadows of night: the young mother had grown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> chill in the evening dew. +In confused mood, I invited the Parson to visit me soon in the city, +where I would show him not only all the chambers of the Palace, but the +Prince himself. Gladder there was nothing this day on our old world than +the face to which I said so; and than the other one which was the mild +reflexion of the former.—For the Biographer it would have been too +hard, if now in that minute, when his fancy, like mirror-telescopes, was +representing every object in a <i>tremulous</i> form, he had been obliged to +cut and run; if, I will say, it had not occurred to him that to the +young mother it could do little harm (but much good), were she to take a +short walk, and assist in escorting the Author and architect of the +present Letter-Box out of the garden to his road.</p> + +<p>In short, I took this couple one in each hand, instead of under each +arm, and moved with them through the garden to the Flachsenfingen +highway. I often abruptly turned round my head between them, as if I had +heard some one coming after us; but in reality I only meant once more, +though mournfully, to look back into the happy hamlet, whose houses were +all dwellings of contented still Sabbath-joy, and which is happy enough, +though over its wide-parted pavement-stones there passes every week but +one barber, every holiday but one dresser of hair, and every year but +one hawker of parasols. Then truly I had again to turn round my head, +and look at the happy pair beside me. My otherwise affectionate gossip +could not rightly suit himself to these tokens of sorrow: but in thy +heart, thou good, so oft afflicted sex, every mourning-bell soon finds +its unison; and Thiennette, ennobled with the thin trembling <i>resonance</i> +of a reverberating soul, gave me back all my tones with the beauties of +an echo.——At last we reached the boundary, over which Thiennette +could not be allowed to walk; and now must I part from my gossip, with +whom I had talked so gaily every morning (each of us from his bed), and +from the still circuit of modest hope where he dwelt, and return once +more to the rioting, fermenting Court-sphere, where men in bull-beggar +tone demand from Fate a root of Life-Licorice, thick as the arm, like +the botanical one on the Wolga, not so much that they may chew the sweet +beam themselves, as fell others to earth with it.</p> + +<p>As I thought to myself that I would say, Farewell! to them, all the +coming plagues, all the corpses, and all the marred wishes of this good +pair, arose before my heart; and I remembered that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> little save the +falling asleep of joy-flowers would mark the current of their Life-day, +as it does of mine and of every one's.—And yet is it fairer, if they +measure their years not by the <i>Water-clock</i> of falling tears, but by +the <i>Flower-clock</i><a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> of asleep-going flowers, whose bells in our +short-lived garden are sinking together before us from hour to hour.—</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Linné formed in Upsal a flower-clock, the flowers of +which, by their different times of falling asleep, indicated the hours +of the day.</p></div> + +<p>I would even now—for I still recollect how I hung with streaming eyes +over these two loved ones, as over their corpses—address myself, and +say: Far too soft, <i>Jean Paul</i>, whose chalk still sketches the models of +Nature on a ground of Melancholy; harden thy heart like thy frame, and +waste not thyself and others by such thoughts. Yet why should I do it, +why should I not confess directly what, in the softest emotion, I said +to these two beings? "May all go right with you, ye mild beings," I +said, for I no longer thought of courtesies, "may the arm of Providence +bear gently your lacerated hearts, and the good Father, above all these +suns which are now looking down on us, keep you ever united, and exalt +you still undivided to his bosom and his lips!"—"Be you too right happy +and glad!" said Thiennette.—"And to you, Thiennette," continued I, "Ah! +to your pale cheeks, to your oppressed heart, to your long cold +maltreated youth, I can never, never wish enough. No! But all that can +soothe a wounded soul, that can please a pure one, that can still the +hidden sigh—O, all that you deserve—may this be given you; and when +you see me again, then say to me, 'I am now much happier!'"</p> + +<p>We were all of us too deeply moved. We at last tore ourselves asunder +from repeated embraces; my friend retired with the soul whom he +loves;—I remained alone behind him with the Night.</p> + +<p>And I walked without aim through woods, through valleys, and over +brooks, and through sleeping villages, to enjoy the great Night like a +Day. I walked, and still looked like the magnet, to the region of +midnight, to strengthen my heart at the gleaming twilight, at this +upstretching Aurora of a morning beneath our feet. White +night-butterflies flitted, white blossoms fluttered, white stars fell, +and the white snow-powder hung silvery in the high Shadow of the Earth, +which reaches beyond the Moon, and which is our Night. Then began the +Eolian Harp of the Creation to tremble and to sound, blown on from +above, and my immortal soul was a string in this Harp.—The heart of a +brother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> everlasting Man swelled under the everlasting Heaven, as the +seas swell under the Sun and under the Moon.—The distant village-clocks +struck midnight, mingling, as it were, with the ever-pealing tone of +ancient Eternity.—The limbs of my buried ones touched cold on my soul, +and drove away its blots, as dead hands heal eruptions of the skin.—I +walked silently through little hamlets, and close by their outer +churchyards, where crumbled upcast coffin-boards were glimmering, while +the once bright eyes that had laid in them were mouldered into gray +ashes.—Cold thought! clutch not like a cold spectre at my heart: I look +up to the starry sky, and an everlasting chain stretches thither, and +over and below; and all is Life, and Warmth, and Light, and all is +godlike or God....</p> + +<p>Towards morning I descried thy late lights, little city of my dwelling, +which I belong to on this side the grave; I returned to the Earth; and +in thy steeples, behind the by-advanced great Midnight, it struck +half-past two; about this hour, in 1794, Mars went down in the west, and +the Moon rose in the east; and my soul desired, in grief for the noble +warlike blood which is still streaming on the blossoms of Spring: "Ah +retire, bloody War, like red Mars; and thou, still Peace, come forth +like the mild divided Moon!"—</p> +</div> <!-- chap --> + +<p class="center">THE END.</p> + +<h2>Transcriber's Notes</h2> + +<p>Footnotes in (Schmelzle's Journey to Flætz) are numbered as in the original. +They are placed at the end of the paragraph, so as not to split the paragraph. +None of these footnotes seem to link directly to the text. This is explained +by the author in the introduction.</p> + +<p>Each of the following hyphenated words is used interchangeably with its +non-hyphenated form:</p> + +<ul> +<li>bed-chamber</li> +<li>bed-clothes</li> +<li>bed-room</li> +<li>bed-side</li> +<li>block-head</li> +<li>break-neck</li> +<li>class-room</li> +<li>corn-fields</li> +<li>day-light</li> +<li>dew-drops</li> +<li>down-pressed</li> +<li>down-stairs</li> +<li>good-will</li> +<li>hand-writing</li> +<li>hind-head</li> +<li>Litteratur-zeitung</li> +<li>love-sick</li> +<li>mid-day</li> +<li>re-awakened</li> +<li>Ring-dove</li> +<li>school-man</li> +<li>tear-drops</li> +<li>to-night</li> +<li>train-bearer</li> +<li>up-stairs</li> +<li>water-spouts</li> +<li>week-day</li> +<li>wood-cutter</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#Page_59">Page 59</a></p> + +<p>'the keeper had lost its tract,' may be 'the keeper had lost its track,'</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_208">Page 208</a></p> + +<p>'her blue eye gleamed' may be 'her blue eyes gleamed'. Unchanged.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_376">Page 376</a></p> + +<p>'sheep-smearer' may be 'sheep-shearer'. Unchanged.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_408">Page 408</a></p> + +<p>'without the clam of the grave,' may be 'without the calm of the grave,'. +Unchanged.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Translations from the German (Vol 3 of +3), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38779-h.htm or 38779-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/7/38779/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +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: Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) + Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Release Date: February 6, 2012 [EBook #38779] +[Last updated: January 6, 2014] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN + +BY + +THOMAS CARLYLE. + + + +UNIFORM WITH HIS COLLECTED WORKS. + + + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. III. + +MUSAEUS, TIECK, RICHTER. + + + + LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED), + 11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. + + + + +TALES + +BY + +MUSAEUS, TIECK, RICHTER. + + + +TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN + +BY + +THOMAS CARLYLE. + + + +[1827.] + + + + LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED), + 11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + MUSAEUS: + PAGE + DUMB LOVE 3 + LIBUSSA 58 + MELECHSALA 98 + + + TIECK: + + THE FAIR-HAIRED ECKBERT 159 + THE TRUSTY ECKART 175 + THE RUNENBERG 200 + THE ELVES 220 + THE GOBLET 238 + + + RICHTER: + + SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLAETZ 257 + LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN 305 + + + + +MUSAEUS. + + + + +DUMB LOVE.[1] + + +There was once a wealthy merchant, Melchior of Bremen by name, who used +to stroke his beard with a contemptuous grin, when he heard the Rich Man +in the Gospel preached of, whom, in comparison, he reckoned little +better than a petty shopkeeper. Melchior had money in such plenty, that +he floored his dining-room all over with a coat of solid dollars. In +those frugal times, as in our own, a certain luxury prevailed among the +rich; only then it had a more substantial shape than now. But though +this pomp of Melchior's was sharply censured by his fellow-citizens and +consorts, it was, in truth, directed more to trading speculation than to +mere vain-glory. The cunning Bremer easily observed, that those who +grudged and blamed this seeming vanity, would but diffuse the reputation +of his wealth, and so increase his credit. He gained his purpose to the +full; the sleeping capital of old dollars, so judiciously set up to +public inspection in the parlour, brought interest a hundredfold, by the +silent surety which it offered for his bargains in every market; yet, at +last, it became a rock on which the welfare of his family made +shipwreck. + + [1] Prefatory Introduction to Musaeus, _supra_, at p. 316, Vol. VI. + of _Works_ (Vol. I. of _Miscellanies_). + +Melchior of Bremen died of a surfeit at a city-feast, without having +time to set his house in order; and left all his goods and chattels to +an only son, in the bloom of life, and just arrived at the years when +the laws allowed him to take possession of his inheritance. Franz +Melcherson was a brilliant youth, endued by nature with the best +capacities. His exterior was gracefully formed, yet firm and sinewy +withal; his temper was cheery and jovial, as if hung-beef and old French +wine had joined to influence his formation. On his cheeks bloomed +health; and from his brown eyes looked mirthfulness and love of joy. He +was like a marrowy plant, which needs but water and the poorest ground +to make it grow to strength; but which, in too fat a soil, will shoot +into luxuriant overgrowth, without fruit or usefulness. The father's +heritage, as often happens, proved the ruin of the son. Scarce had he +felt the joy of being sole possessor and disposer of a large fortune, +when he set about endeavouring to get rid of it as of a galling burden; +began to play the Rich Man in the Gospel to the very letter; went +clothed in fine apparel, and fared sumptuously every day. No feast at +the bishop's court could be compared for pomp and superfluity with his; +and never while the town of Bremen shall endure, will such another +public dinner be consumed, as it yearly got from him; for to every +burgher of the place he gave a Krusel-soup and a jug of Spanish wine. +For this, all people cried: Long life to him! and Franz became the hero +of the day. + +In this unceasing whirl of joviality, no thought was cast upon the +Balancing of Entries, which, in those days, was the merchant's +vade-mecum, though in our times it is going out of fashion, and for want +of it the tongue of the commercial beam too frequently declines with a +magnetic virtue from the vertical position. Some years passed on without +the joyful Franz's noticing a diminution in his incomes; for at his +father's death every chest and coffer had been full. The voracious host +of table-friends, the airy company of jesters, gamesters, parasites, and +all who had their living by the prodigal son, took special care to keep +reflection at a distance from him; they hurried him from one enjoyment +to another; kept him constantly in play, lest in some sober moment +Reason might awake, and snatch him from their plundering claws. + +But at last their well of happiness went suddenly dry; old Melchior's +casks of gold were now run off even to the lees. One day, Franz ordered +payment of a large account; his cash-keeper was not in a state to +execute the precept, and returned it with a protest. This +counter-incident flashed keenly through the soul of Franz; yet he felt +nothing else but anger and vexation at his servant, to whose +unaccountable perversity, by no means to his own ill husbandry, he +charged the present disorder in his finances. Nor did he give himself +the trouble to investigate the real condition of the business; but after +flying to the common Fool's-litany, and thundering out some scores of +curses, he transmitted to his shoulder-shrugging steward the laconic +order: Find means. + +Bill-brokers, usurers and money-changers now came into play. For high +interest, fresh sums were poured into the empty coffers; the silver +flooring of the dining-room was then more potent in the eyes of +creditors, than in these times of ours the promissory obligation of the +Congress of America, with the whole thirteen United States to back it. +This palliative succeeded for a season; but, underhand, the rumour +spread about the town, that the silver flooring had been privily +removed, and a stone one substituted in its stead. The matter was +immediately, by application of the lenders, legally inquired into, and +discovered to be actually so. Now, it could not be denied, that a +marble-floor, worked into nice Mosaic, looked much better in a parlour, +than a sheet of dirty, tarnished dollars: the creditors, however, paid +so little reverence to the proprietor's refinement of taste, that on the +spot they, one and all, demanded payment of their several moneys; and as +this was not complied with, they proceeded to procure an act of +bankruptcy; and Melchior's house, with its appurtenances, offices, +gardens, parks and furniture, were sold by public auction, and their +late owner, who in this extremity had screened himself from jail by some +chicanery of law, judicially ejected. + +It was now too late to moralise on his absurdities, since philosophical +reflections could not alter what was done, and the most wholesome +resolutions would not bring him back his money. According to the +principles of this our cultivated century, the hero at this juncture +ought to have retired with dignity from the stage, or in some way +terminated his existence; to have entered on his travels into foreign +parts, or opened his carotid artery; since in his native town he could +live no longer as a man of honour. Franz neither did the one nor the +other. The _qu'en-dira-t-on_, which French morality employs as bit and +curb for thoughtlessness and folly, had never once occurred to the +unbridled squanderer in the days of his profusion, and his sensibility +was still too dull to feel so keenly the disgrace of his capricious +wastefulness. He was like a toper, who has been in drink, and on +awakening out of his carousal, cannot rightly understand how matters are +or have been with him. He lived according to the manner of unprospering +spendthrifts; repented not, lamented not. By good fortune, he had picked +some relics from the wreck; a few small heir-looms of the family; and +these secured him for a time from absolute starvation. + +He engaged a lodging in a remote alley, into which the sun never shone +throughout the year, except for a few days about the solstice, when it +peeped for a short while over the high roofs. Here he found the little +that his now much-contracted wants required. The frugal kitchen of his +landlord screened him from hunger, the stove from cold, the roof from +rain, the four walls from wind; only from the pains of tedium he could +devise no refuge or resource. The light rabble of parasites had fled +away with his prosperity; and of his former friends there was now no one +that knew him. Reading had not yet become a necessary of life; people +did not yet understand the art of killing time by means of those amusing +shapes of fancy which are wont to lodge in empty heads. There were yet +no sentimental, pedagogic, psychologic, popular, simple, comic, or moral +tales; no novels of domestic life, no cloister-stories, no romances of +the middle ages; and of the innumerable generation of our Henrys, and +Adelaides, and Cliffords, and Emmas, no one had as yet lifted up its +mantua-maker voice, to weary out the patience of a lazy and discerning +public. In those days, knights were still diligently pricking round the +tilt-yard; Dietrich of Bern, Hildebrand, Seyfried with the Horns, +Rennewart the Strong, were following their snake and dragon hunt, and +killing giants and dwarfs of twelve men's strength. The venerable epos, +_Theuerdank_, was the loftiest ideal of German art and skill, the latest +product of our native wit, but only for the cultivated minds, the poets +and thinkers of the age. Franz belonged to none of those classes, and +had therefore nothing to employ himself upon, except that he tuned his +lute, and sometimes twanged a little on it; then, by way of variation, +took to looking from the window, and instituted observations on the +weather; out of which, indeed, there came no inference a whit more +edifying than from all the labours of the most rheumatic meteorologist +of this present age. Meanwhile his turn for observation ere long found +another sort of nourishment, by which the vacant space in his head and +heart was at once filled. + +In the narrow lane right opposite his window dwelt an honest matron, +who, in hope of better times, was earning a painful living by the long +threads, which, assisted by a marvellously fair daughter, she winded +daily from her spindle. Day after day the couple spun a length of yarn, +with which the whole town of Bremen, with its walls and trenches, and +all its suburbs, might have been begirt. These two spinners had not been +born for the wheel; they were of good descent, and had lived of old in +pleasant affluence. The fair Meta's father had once had a ship of his +own on the sea, and, freighting it himself, had yearly sailed to +Antwerp; but a heavy storm had sunk the vessel, "with man and mouse," +and a rich cargo, into the abysses of the ocean, before Meta had passed +the years of her childhood. The mother, a staid and reasonable woman, +bore the loss of her husband and all her fortune with a wise composure; +in her need she refused, out of noble pride, all help from the +charitable sympathy of her relations and friends; considering it as +shameful alms, so long as she believed, that in her own activity she +might find a living by the labour of her hands. She gave up her large +house, and all her costly furniture, to the rigorous creditors of her +ill-fated husband, hired a little dwelling in the lane, and span from +early morning till late night, though the trade went sore against her, +and she often wetted the thread with her tears. Yet by this diligence +she reached her object, of depending upon no one, and owing no mortal +any obligation. By and by she trained her growing daughter to the same +employment; and lived so thriftily, that she laid-by a trifle of her +gainings, and turned it to account by carrying on a little trade in +flax. + +She, however, nowise purposed to conclude her life in these poor +circumstances; on the contrary, the honest dame kept up her heart with +happy prospects into the future, and hoped that she should once more +attain a prosperous situation, and in the autumn of her life enjoy her +woman's-summer. Nor were these hopes grounded altogether upon empty +dreams of fancy, but upon a rational and calculated expectation. She saw +her daughter budding up like a spring rose, no less virtuous and modest +than she was fair; and with such endowments of art and spirit, that the +mother felt delight and comfort in her, and spared the morsel from her +own lips, that nothing might be wanting in an education suitable to her +capacities. For she thought, that if a maiden could come up to the +sketch which Solomon, the wise friend of woman, has left of the ideal of +a perfect wife, it could not fail that a pearl of such price would be +sought after, and bidden for, to ornament some good man's house; for +beauty combined with virtue, in the days of Mother Brigitta, were as +important in the eyes of wooers, as, in our days, birth combined with +fortune. Besides, the number of suitors was in those times greater; it +was then believed that the wife was the most essential, not, as in our +refined economical theory, the most superfluous item in the household. +The fair Meta, it is true, bloomed only like a precious rare flower in +the greenhouse, not under the gay, free sky; she lived in maternal +oversight and keeping, sequestered and still; was seen in no walk, in no +company; and scarcely once in the year passed through the gate of her +native town; all which seemed utterly to contradict her mother's +principle. The old Lady E * * of Memel understood it otherwise, in her +time. She sent the itinerant Sophia, it is clear as day, from Memel into +Saxony, simply on a marriage speculation, and attained her purpose +fully. How many hearts did the wandering nymph set on fire, how many +suitors courted her! Had she stayed at home, as a domestic modest +maiden, she might have bloomed away in the remoteness of her virgin +cell, without even making a conquest of Kubbuz the schoolmaster. Other +times, other manners. Daughters with us are a sleeping capital, which +must be put in circulation if it is to yield any interest; of old, they +were kept like thrifty savings, under lock and key; yet the bankers +still knew where the treasure lay concealed, and how it might be come +at. Mother Brigitta steered towards some prosperous son-in-law, who +might lead her back from the Babylonian captivity of the narrow lane +into the land of superfluity, flowing with milk and honey; and trusted +firmly, that in the urn of Fate, her daughter's lot would not be coupled +with a blank. + +One day, while neighbour Franz was looking from the window, making +observations on the weather, he perceived the charming Meta coming with +her mother from church, whither she went daily, to attend mass. In the +times of his abundance, the unstable voluptuary had been blind to the +fairer half of the species; the finer feelings were still slumbering in +his breast; and all his senses had been overclouded by the ceaseless +tumult of debauchery. But now the stormy waves of extravagance had +subsided; and in this deep calm, the smallest breath of air sufficed to +curl the mirror surface of his soul. He was enchanted by the aspect of +this, the loveliest female figure that had ever flitted past him. He +abandoned from that hour the barren study of the winds and clouds, and +now instituted quite another set of Observations for the furtherance of +Moral Science, and one which afforded to himself much finer occupation. +He soon extracted from his landlord intelligence of this fair neighbour, +and learned most part of what we know already. + +Now rose on him the first repentant thought for his heedless +squandering; there awoke a secret good-will in his heart to this new +acquaintance; and for her sake he wished that his paternal inheritance +were his own again, that the lovely Meta might be fitly dowered with it. +His garret in the narrow lane was now so dear to him, that he would not +have exchanged it with the Schudding itself.[2] Throughout the day he +stirred not from the window, watching for an opportunity of glancing at +the dear maiden; and when she chanced to show herself, he felt more +rapture in his soul than did Horrox in his Liverpool Observatory, when +he saw, for the first time, Venus passing over the disk of the Sun. + + [2] One of the largest buildings in Bremen, where the meetings of + the merchants are usually held. + +Unhappily the watchful mother instituted counter-observations, and ere +long discovered what the lounger on the other side was driving at; and +as Franz, in the capacity of spendthrift, already stood in very bad +esteem with her, this daily gazing angered her so much, that she +shrouded her lattice as with a cloud, and drew the curtains close +together. Meta had the strictest orders not again to appear at the +window; and when her mother went with her to mass, she drew a rain-cap +over her face, disguised her like a favourite of the Grand Signior, and +hurried till she turned the corner with her, and escaped the eyes of the +lier-in-wait. + +Of Franz, it was not held that penetration was his master faculty; but +Love awakens all the talents of the mind. He observed, that by his +imprudent spying, he had betrayed himself; and he thenceforth retired +from the window, with the resolution not again to look out at it, though +the _Venerabile_ itself were carried by. On the other hand, he meditated +some invention for proceeding with his observations in a private manner; +and without great labour, his combining spirit mastered it. + +He hired the largest looking-glass that he could find, and hung it up in +his room, with such an elevation and direction, that he could distinctly +see whatever passed in the dwelling of his neighbours. Here, as for +several days the watcher did not come to light, the screens by degrees +went asunder; and the broad mirror now and then could catch the form of +the noble maid, and, to the great refreshment of the virtuoso, cast it +truly back. The more deeply love took root in his heart,[3] the more +widely did his wishes extend. It now struck him that he ought to lay his +passion open to the fair Meta, and investigate the corresponding state +of her opinions. The commonest and readiest way which lovers, under such +a constellation of their wishes, strike into, was in his position +inaccessible. In those modest ages, it was always difficult for Paladins +in love to introduce themselves to daughters of the family; toilette +calls were not in fashion; trustful interviews tete-a-tete were punished +by the loss of reputation to the female sharer; promenades, esplanades, +masquerades, pic-nics, goutes, soupes, and other inventions of modern +wit for forwarding sweet courtship, had not then been hit upon; yet, +notwithstanding, all things went their course, much as they do with us. +Gossipings, weddings, lykewakes, were, especially in our Imperial +Cities, privileged vehicles for carrying on soft secrets, and expediting +marriage contracts; hence the old proverb, _One wedding makes a score._ +But a poor runagate no man desired to number among his baptismal +relatives; to no nuptial dinner, to no wakesupper, was he bidden. The +by-way of negotiating, with the woman, with the young maid, or any other +serviceable spirit of a go-between, was here locked up. Mother Brigitta +had neither maid nor woman; the flax and yarn trade passed through no +hands but her own; and she abode by her daughter as closely as her +shadow. + + [3] [Greek: Apo tou horan erchetai to eran.] + +In these circumstances, it was clearly impossible for neighbour Franz to +disclose his heart to the fair Meta, either verbally or in writing. Ere +long, however, he invented an idiom, which appeared expressly calculated +for the utterance of the passions. It is true, the honour of the first +invention is not his. Many ages ago, the sentimental Celadons of Italy +and Spain had taught melting harmonies, in serenades beneath the +balconies of their dames, to speak the language of the heart; and it is +said that this melodious pathos had especial virtue in love-matters; +and, by the confession of the ladies, was more heart-affecting and +subduing, than of yore the oratory of the reverend Chrysostom, or the +pleadings of Demosthenes and Tully. But of all this the simple Bremer +had not heard a syllable; and consequently the invention of expressing +his emotions in symphonious notes, and trilling them to his beloved +Meta, was entirely his own. + +In an hour of sentiment, he took his lute: he did not now tune it merely +to accompany his voice, but drew harmonious melodies from its strings; +and Love, in less than a month, had changed the musical scraper to a new +Amphion. His first efforts did not seem to have been noticed; but soon +the population of the lane were all ear, every time the dilettante +struck a note. Mothers hushed their children, fathers drove the noisy +urchins from the doors, and the performer had the satisfaction to +observe that Meta herself, with her alabaster hand, would sometimes open +the window as he began to prelude. If he succeeded in enticing her to +lend an ear, his voluntaries whirled along in gay _allegro_, or skipped +away in mirthful jigs; but if the turning of the spindle, or her thrifty +mother, kept her back, a heavy-laden _andante_ rolled over the bridge of +the sighing lute, and expressed, in languishing modulations, the feeling +of sadness which love-pain poured over his soul. + +Meta was no dull scholar; she soon learned to interpret this expressive +speech. She made various experiments to try whether she had rightly +understood it, and found that she could govern at her will the +dilettante humours of the unseen lute-twanger; for your silent modest +maidens, it is well known, have a much sharper eye than those giddy +flighty girls, who hurry with the levity of butterflies from one object +to another, and take proper heed of none. She felt her female vanity a +little flattered; and it pleased her that she had it in her power, by a +secret magic, to direct the neighbouring lute, and tune it now to the +note of joy, now to the whimpering moan of grief. Mother Brigitta, on +the other hand, had her head so constantly employed with her traffic on +the small scale, that she minded none of these things; and the sly +little daughter took especial care to keep her in the dark respecting +the discovery; and, instigated either by some touch of kindness for her +cooing neighbour, or perhaps by vanity, that she might show her +hermeneutic penetration, meditated on the means of making some +symbolical response to these harmonious apostrophes to her heart. She +expressed a wish to have flower-pots on the outside of the window; and +to grant her this innocent amusement was a light thing for the mother, +who no longer feared the coney-catching neighbour, now that she no +longer saw him with her eyes. + +Henceforth Meta had a frequent call to tend her flowers, to water them, +to bind them up, and guard them from approaching storms, and watch their +growth and flourishing. With inexpressible delight the happy Franz +explained this hieroglyphic altogether in his favour; and the speaking +lute did not fail to modulate his glad emotions, through the alley, into +the heedful ear of the fair friend of flowers. This, in her tender +virgin heart, worked wonders. She began to be secretly vexed, when +Mother Brigitta, in her wise table-talk, in which at times she spent an +hour chatting with her daughter, brought their melodious neighbour to +her bar, and called him a losel and a sluggard, or compared him with the +Prodigal in the Gospel. She always took his part; threw the blame of his +ruin on the sorrowful temptations he had met with; and accused him of +nothing worse than not having fitly weighed the golden proverb, _A penny +saved is a penny got_. Yet she defended him with cunning prudence; so +that it rather seemed as if she wished to help the conversation, than +took any interest in the thing itself. + +While Mother Brigitta within her four walls was inveighing against the +luckless spendthrift, he on his side entertained the kindest feelings +towards her; and was considering diligently how he might, according to +his means, improve her straitened circumstances, and divide with her the +little that remained to him, and so that she might never notice that a +portion of his property had passed over into hers. This pious outlay, in +good truth, was specially intended not for the mother, but the daughter. +Underhand he had come to know, that the fair Meta had a hankering for a +new gown, which her mother had excused herself from buying, under +pretext of hard times. Yet he judged quite accurately, that a present of +a piece of stuff, from an unknown hand, would scarcely be received, or +cut into a dress for Meta; and that he should spoil all, if he stept +forth and avowed himself the author of the benefaction. Chance afforded +him an opportunity to realise this purpose in the way he wished. + +Mother Brigitta was complaining to a neighbour, that flax was very dull; +that it cost her more to purchase than the buyers of it would repay; and +that hence this branch of industry was nothing better, for the present, +than a withered bough. Eaves-dropper Franz did not need a second +telling; he ran directly to the goldsmith, sold his mother's ear-rings, +bought some stones of flax, and, by means of a negotiatress, whom he +gained, had it offered to the mother for a cheap price. The bargain was +concluded; and it yielded so richly, that on All-Saints' day the fair +Meta sparkled in a fine new gown. In this decoration, she had such a +splendour in her watchful neighbour's eyes, that he would have +overlooked the Eleven Thousand Virgins, all and sundry, had it been +permitted him to choose a heart's-mate from among them, and fixed upon +the charming Meta. + +But just as he was triumphing in the result of his innocent deceit, the +secret was betrayed. Mother Brigitta had resolved to do the +flax-retailer, who had brought her that rich gain, a kindness in her +turn; and was treating her with a well-sugared rice-pap, and a +quarter-stoop of Spanish sack. This dainty set in motion not only the +toothless jaw, but also the garrulous tongue of the crone: she engaged +to continue the flax-brokerage, should her consigner feel inclined, as +from good grounds she guessed he would. One word produced another; +Mother Eve's two daughters searched, with the curiosity peculiar to +their sex, till at length the brittle seal of female secrecy gave way. +Meta grew pale with affright at the discovery, which would have charmed +her, had her mother not partaken of it. But she knew her strict ideas of +morals and decorum; and these gave her doubts about the preservation of +her gown. The serious dame herself was no less struck at the tidings, +and wished, on her side too, that she alone had got intelligence of the +specific nature of her flax-trade; for she dreaded that this neighbourly +munificence might make an impression on her daughter's heart, which +would derange her whole calculations. She resolved, therefore, to root +out the still tender germ of this weed, in the very act, from the maiden +heart. The gown, in spite of all the tears and prayers of its lovely +owner, was first hypothecated, and next day transmitted to the +huckster's shop; the money raised from it, with the other profits of the +flax speculation, accurately reckoned up, were packed together, and +under the name of an old debt, returned to "Mr. Franz Melcherson, in +Bremen," by help of the Hamburg post. The receiver, nothing doubting, +took the little lot of money as an unexpected blessing; wished that all +his father's debtors would clear off their old scores as conscientiously +as this honest unknown person; and had not the smallest notion of the +real position of affairs. The talking brokeress, of course, was far from +giving him a true disclosure of her blabbing; she merely told him that +Mother Brigitta had given up her flax-trade. + +Meanwhile, the mirror taught him, that the aspects over the way had +altered greatly in a single night. The flower-pots were entirely +vanished; and the cloudy veil again obscured the friendly horizon of the +opposite window. Meta was seldom visible; and if for a moment, like the +silver moon, from among her clouds in a stormy night, she did appear, +her countenance was troubled, the fire of her eyes was extinguished, and +it seemed to him, that, at times, with her finger, she pressed away a +pearly tear. This seized him sharply by the heart; and his lute +resounded melancholy sympathy in soft Lydian mood. He grieved, and +meditated to discover why his love was sad; but all his thinking and +imagining were vain. After some days were past, he noticed, to his +consternation, that his dearest piece of furniture, the large mirror, +had become entirely useless. He set himself one bright morning in his +usual nook, and observed that the clouds over the way had, like natural +fog, entirely dispersed; a sign which he at first imputed to a general +washing; but ere long he saw that, in the chamber, all was waste and +empty; his pleasing neighbours had in silence withdrawn the night +before, and broken up their quarters. + +He might now, once more, with the greatest leisure and convenience, +enjoy the free prospect from his window, without fear of being +troublesome to any; but for him it was a dead loss to miss the kind +countenance of his Platonic love. Mute and stupefied, he stood, as of +old his fellow-craftsman, the harmonious Orpheus, when the dear shadow +of his Eurydice again vanished down to Orcus; and if the bedlam humour +of those "noble minds," who raved among us through the bygone lustre, +but have now like drones disappeared with the earliest frost, had then +been ripened to existence, this calm of his would certainly have passed +into a sudden hurricane. The least he could have done, would have been +to pull his hair, to trundle himself about upon the ground, or run his +head against the wall, and break his stove and window. All this he +omitted; from the very simple cause, that true love never makes men +fools, but rather is the universal remedy for healing sick minds of +their foolishness, for laying gentle fetters on extravagance, and +guiding youthful giddiness from the broad way of ruin to the narrow path +of reason; for the rake whom love will not recover is lost +irrecoverably. + +When once his spirit had assembled its scattered powers, he set on foot +a number of instructive meditations on the unexpected phenomenon, but +too visible in the adjacent horizon. He readily conceived that he was +the lever which had effected the removal of the wandering colony: his +money-letter, the abrupt conclusion of the flax-trade, and the +emigration which had followed thereupon, were like reciprocal exponents +to each other, and explained the whole to him. He perceived that Mother +Brigitta had got round his secrets, and saw from every circumstance that +he was not her hero; a discovery which yielded him but little +satisfaction. The symbolic responses of the fair Meta, with her +flower-pots, to his musical proposals of love; her trouble, and the tear +which he had noticed in her bright eyes shortly before her departure +from the lane, again animated his hopes, and kept him in good heart. His +first employment was to go in quest, and try to learn where Mother +Brigitta had pitched her residence, in order to maintain, by some means +or other, his secret understanding with the daughter. It cost him little +toil to find her abode; yet he was too modest to shift his own lodging +to her neighbourhood; but satisfied himself with spying out the church +where she now attended mass, that he might treat himself once each day +with a glance of his beloved. He never failed to meet her as she +returned, now here, now there, in some shop or door which she was +passing, and salute her kindly; an equivalent for a _billet-doux_, and +productive of the same effect. + +Had not Meta been brought up in a style too nunlike, and guarded by her +rigid mother as a treasure, from the eyes of thieves, there is little +doubt that neighbour Franz, with his secret wooing, would have made no +great impression on her heart. But she was at the critical age, when +Mother Nature and Mother Brigitta, with their wise nurture, were +perpetually coming into collision. The former taught her, by a secret +instinct, the existence of emotions, for which she had no name, and +eulogised them as the panacea of life; the latter warned her to beware +of the surprisals of a passion, which she would not designate by its +true title, but which, as she maintained, was more pernicious and +destructive to young maidens than the small-pox itself. The former, in +the spring of life, as beseemed the season, enlivened her heart with a +genial warmth; the latter wished that it should always be as cold and +frosty as an ice-house. These conflicting pedagogic systems of the two +good mothers gave the tractable heart of the daughter the direction of a +ship which is steered against the wind, and follows neither the wind nor +the helm, but a course between the two. She maintained the modesty and +virtue which her education, from her youth upwards, had impressed upon +her; but her heart continued open to all tender feelings. And as +neighbour Franz was the first youth who had awakened these slumbering +emotions, she took a certain pleasure in him, which she scarcely owned +to herself, but which any less unexperienced maiden would have +recognised as love. It was for this that her departure from the narrow +lane had gone so near her heart; for this that the little tear had +trickled from her beautiful eyes; for this that, when the watchful +Franz saluted her as she came from church, she thanked him so kindly, +and grew scarlet to the ears. The lovers had in truth never spoken any +word to one another; but he understood her, and she him, so perfectly, +that in the most secret interview they could not have explained +themselves more clearly; and both contracting parties swore in their +silent hearts, each for himself, under the seal of secrecy, the oath of +faithfulness to the other. + +In the quarter, where Mother Brigitta had now settled, there were +likewise neighbours, and among these likewise girl-spiers, whom the +beauty of the charming Meta had not escaped. Right opposite their +dwelling lived a wealthy Brewer, whom the wags of the part, as he was +strong in means, had named the Hop-King. He was a young stout widower, +whose mourning year was just concluding, so that now he was entitled, +without offending the precepts of decorum, to look about him elsewhere +for a new helpmate to his household. Shortly after the departure of his +whilom wife, he had in secret entered into an engagement with his Patron +Saint, St. Christopher, to offer him a wax-taper as long as a hop-pole, +and as thick as a mashing-beam, if he would vouchsafe in this second +choice to prosper the desire of his heart. Scarcely had he seen the +dainty Meta, when he dreamed that St. Christopher looked in upon him, +through the window of his bedroom in the second story,[4] and demanded +payment of his debt. To the quick widower this seemed a heavenly call to +cast out the net without delay. Early in the morning he sent for the +brokers of the town, and commissioned them to buy bleached wax; then +decked himself like a Syndic, and set forth to expedite his marriage +speculation. He had no musical talents, and in the secret symbolic +language of love he was no better than a blockhead; but he had a rich +brewery, a solid mortgage on the city-revenues, a ship on the Weser, and +a farm without the gates. With such recommendations he might have +reckoned on a prosperous issue to his courtship, independently of all +assistance from St. Kit, especially as his bride was without dowry. + + [4] St. Christopher never appears to his favourites, like the other + Saints, in a solitary room, encircled with a glory: there is no + room high enough to admit him; thus the celestial Son of Anak is + obliged to transact all business with his wards outside the window. + +According to old use and wont, he went directly to the master hand, and +disclosed to the mother, in a kind neighbourly way, his christian +intentions towards her virtuous and honourable daughter. No angel's +visit could have charmed the good lady more than these glad tidings. She +now saw ripening before her the fruit of her prudent scheme, and the +fulfilment of her hope again to emerge from her present poverty into her +former abundance; she blessed the good thought of moving from the +crooked alley, and in the first ebullition of her joy, as a thousand gay +ideas were ranking themselves up within her soul, she also thought of +neighbour Franz, who had given occasion to it. Though Franz was not +exactly her bosom-youth, she silently resolved to gladden him, as the +accidental instrument of her rising star, with some secret gift or +other, and by this means likewise recompense his well-intended +flax-dealing. + +In the maternal heart the marriage-articles were as good as signed; but +decorum did not permit these rash proceedings in a matter of such +moment. She therefore let the motion lie _ad referendum_, to be +considered by her daughter and herself; and appointed a term of eight +days, after which "she hoped she should have it in her power to give the +much-respected suitor a reply that would satisfy him;" all which, as the +common manner of proceeding, he took in good part, and with his usual +civilities withdrew. No sooner had he turned his back, than +spinning-wheel and reel, swingling-stake and hatchel, without regard +being paid to their faithful services, and without accusation being +lodged against them, were consigned, like some luckless Parliament of +Paris, to disgrace, and dismissed as useless implements into the +lumber-room. On returning from mass, Meta was astonished at the sudden +catastrophe which had occurred in the apartment; it was all decked out +as on one of the three high Festivals of the year. She could not +understand how her thrifty mother, on a work-day, had so neglectfully +put her active hand in her bosom; but before she had time to question +the kindly-smiling dame concerning this reform in household affairs, she +was favoured by the latter with an explanation of the riddle. Persuasion +rested on Brigitta's tongue; and there flowed from her lips a stream of +female eloquence, depicting the offered happiness in the liveliest hues +which her imagination could lay on. She expected from the chaste Meta +the blush of soft virgin bashfulness, which announces the novitiate in +love; and then a full resignation of herself to the maternal will. For +of old, in proposals of marriage, daughters were situated as our +princesses are still; they were not asked about their inclination, and +had no voice in the selection of their legal helpmate, save the Yes +before the altar. + +But Mother Brigitta was in this point widely mistaken; the fair Meta did +not at the unexpected announcement grow red as a rose, but pale as +ashes. An hysterical giddiness swam over her brain, and she sank +fainting in her mother's arms. When her senses were recalled by the +sprinkling of cold water, and she had in some degree recovered strength, +her eyes overflowed with tears, as if a heavy misfortune had befallen +her. From all these symptoms, the sagacious mother easily perceived that +the marriage-trade was not to her taste; at which she wondered not a +little, sparing neither prayers nor admonitions to her daughter to +secure her happiness by this good match, not flout it from her by +caprice and contradiction. But Meta could not be persuaded that her +happiness depended on a match, to which her heart gave no assent. The +debates between the mother and the daughter lasted several days, from +early morning to late night; the term for decision was approaching; the +sacred taper for St. Christopher, which Og King of Bashan need not have +disdained had it been lit for him as a marriage-torch at his espousals, +stood in readiness, all beautifully painted with living flowers like a +many-coloured light, though the Saint had all the while been so inactive +in his client's cause, that the fair Meta's heart was still bolted and +barred against him fast as ever. + +Meanwhile she had bleared her eyes with weeping, and the maternal +rhetoric had worked so powerfully, that, like a flower in the sultry +heat, she was drooping together, and visibly fading away. Hidden grief +was gnawing at her heart; she had prescribed herself a rigorous fast, +and for three days no morsel had she eaten, and with no drop of water +moistened her parched lips. By night sleep never visited her eyes; and +with all this she grew sick to death, and began to talk about extreme +unction. As the tender mother saw the pillar of her hope wavering, and +bethought herself that she might lose both capital and interest at once, +she found, on accurate consideration, that it would be more advisable to +let the latter vanish, than to miss them both; and with kindly +indulgence plied into the daughter's will. It cost her much constraint, +indeed, and many hard battles, to turn away so advantageous an offer; +yet at last, according to established order in household governments, +she yielded unconditionally to the inclination of her child, and +remonstrated no more with her beloved patient on the subject. As the +stout widower announced himself on the appointed day, in the full trust +that his heavenly deputy had arranged it all according to his wish, he +received, quite unexpectedly, a negative answer, which, however, was +sweetened with such a deal of blandishment, that he swallowed it like +wine-of-wormwood mixed with sugar. For the rest, he easily accommodated +himself to his destiny; and discomposed himself no more about it, than +if some bargain for a ton of malt had chanced to come to nothing. Nor, +on the whole, had he any cause to sorrow without hope. His native town +has never wanted amiable daughters, who come up to the Solomonic sketch, +and are ready to make perfect spouses; besides, notwithstanding this +unprospered courtship, he depended with firm confidence upon his Patron +Saint; who in fact did him such substantial service elsewhere, that ere +a month elapsed, he had planted with much pomp his devoted taper at the +friendly shrine. + +Mother Brigitta was now fain to recall the exiled spinning-tackle from +its lumber-room, and again set it in action. All once more went its +usual course. Meta soon bloomed out anew, was active in business, and +diligently went to mass; but the mother could not hide her secret +grudging at the failure of her hopes, and the annihilation of her +darling plan; she was splenetic, peevish and dejected. Her ill-humour +had especially the upper hand that day when neighbour Hop-King held his +nuptials. As the wedding company proceeded to the church, with the +town-band bedrumming and becymballing them in the van, she whimpered and +sobbed as in the evil hour when the Job's-news reached her, that the +wild sea had devoured her husband, with ship and fortune. Meta looked at +the bridal pomp with great equanimity; even the royal ornaments, the +jewels in the myrtle-crown, and the nine strings of true pearls about +the neck of the bride, made no impression on her peace of mind; a +circumstance in some degree surprising, since a new Paris cap, or any +other meteor in the gallery of Mode, will so frequently derange the +contentment and domestic peace of an entire parish. Nothing but the +heart-consuming sorrow of her mother discomposed her, and overclouded +the gay look of her eyes; she strove by a thousand caresses and little +attentions to work herself into favour; and she so far succeeded that +the good lady grew a little more communicative. + +In the evening, when the wedding-dance began, she said, "Ah, child! this +merry dance it might have been thy part to lead off. What a pleasure, +hadst thou recompensed thy mother's care and toil with this joy! But +thou hast mocked thy happiness, and now I shall never see the day when I +am to attend thee to the altar."--"Dear mother," answered Meta, "I +confide in Heaven; and if it is written above that I am to be led to the +altar, you will surely deck my garland: for when the right wooer comes, +my heart will soon say Yes."--"Child, for girls without dowry there is +no press of wooers; they are heavy ware to trade with. Nowadays the +bachelors are mighty stingy; they court to be happy, not to make happy. +Besides, thy planet bodes thee no good; thou wert born in April. Let us +see how it is written in the Calendar: 'A damsel born in this month is +comely of countenance, slender of shape, but of changeful humour, has a +liking to men. Should have an eye upon her maiden garland, and so a +laughing wooer come, not miss her fortune.' Alas, it answers to a hair! +The wooer has been here, comes not again: thou hast missed him."--"Ah, +mother! let the planet say its pleasure, never mind it; my heart says to +me that I should love and honour the man who asks me to be his wife: and +if I do not find that man, or he do not seek me, I will live in good +courage by the labour of my hands, and stand by you, and nurse you in +your old age, as beseems a good daughter. But if the man of my heart do +come, then bless my choice, that it may be well with your daughter on +the Earth; and ask not whether he is noble, rich, or famous, but whether +he is good and honest, whether he loves and is loved."--"Ah, daughter! +Love keeps a sorry kitchen, and feeds one poorly, along with bread and +salt."--"But yet Unity and Contentment delight to dwell with him, and +these season bread and salt with the cheerful enjoyment of our days." + +The pregnant subject of bread and salt continued to be sifted till the +night was far spent, and the last fiddle in the wedding-dance was +resting from its labours. The moderation of the prudent Meta, who, with +youth and beauty on her side, pretended only to an altogether bounded +happiness, after having turned away an advantageous offer, led the +mother to conjecture that the plan of some such salt-trade might already +have been sketched in the heart of the virgin. Nor did she fail to guess +the trading-partner in the lane, of whom she never had believed that he +would be the tree for rooting in the lovely Meta's heart. She had looked +upon him only as a wild tendril, that stretches out towards every +neighbouring twig, to clamber up by means of it. This discovery +procured her little joy; but she gave no hint that she had made it. +Only, in the spirit of her rigorous morality, she compared a maiden who +lets love, before the priestly benediction, nestle in her heart, to a +worm-eaten apple, which is good for the eye, but no longer for the +palate, and is laid upon a shelf and no more heeded, for the pernicious +worm is eating its internal marrow, and cannot be dislodged. She now +despaired of ever holding up her head again in Bremen; submitted to her +fate, and bore in silence what she thought was now not to be altered. + +Meanwhile the rumour of the proud Meta's having given the rich Hop-King +the basket, spread over the town, and sounded even into Franz's garret +in the alley. Franz was transported with joy to hear this tale +confirmed; and the secret anxiety lest some wealthy rival might expel +him from the dear maiden's heart tormented him no more. He was now +certain of his object; and the riddle, which for every one continued an +insoluble problem, had no mystery for him. Love had already changed a +spendthrift into a dilettante; but this for a bride-seeker was the very +smallest of recommendations, a gift which in those rude times was +rewarded neither with such praise nor with such pudding, as it is in our +luxurious century. The fine arts were not then children of superfluity, +but of want and necessity. No travelling professors were at that time +known, save the Prague students, whose squeaking symphonies solicited a +charitable coin at the doors of the rich. The beloved maiden's sacrifice +was too great to be repaid by a serenade. And now the feeling of his +youthful dissipation became a thorn in the soul of Franz. Many a +touching monodrama did he begin with an O and an Ah, besighing his past +madness: "Ah, Meta," said he to himself, "why did I not know thee +sooner! Thou hadst been my guardian angel, thou hadst saved me from +destruction. Could I live my lost years over again, and be what I was, +the world were now Elysium for me, and for thee I would make it an Eden! +Noble maiden, thou sacrificest thyself to a wretch, to a beggar, who has +nothing in the world but a heart full of love, and despair that he can +offer thee no happiness such as thou deservest." Innumerable times, in +the paroxysms of these pathetic humours, he struck his brow in fury, +with the repentant exclamation: "O fool! O madman! thou art wise too +late." + +Love, however, did not leave its working incomplete. It had already +brought about a wholesome fermentation in his spirit, a desire to put +in use his powers and activity, to try if he might struggle up from his +present nothingness: it now incited him to the attempt of executing +these good purposes. Among many speculations he had entertained for the +recruiting of his wrecked finances, the most rational and promising was +this: To run over his father's ledgers, and there note down any small +escheats which had been marked as lost, with a view of going through the +land, and gleaning, if so were that a lock of wheat might still be +gathered from these neglected ears. With the produce of this enterprise, +he would then commence some little traffic, which his fancy soon +extended over all the quarters of the world. Already, in his mind's eye, +he had vessels on the sea, which were freighted with his property. He +proceeded rapidly to execute his purpose; changed the last golden +fragment of his heritage, his father's hour-egg,[5] into money, and +bought with it a riding nag, which was to bear him as a Bremen merchant +out into the wide world. + + [5] The oldest watches, from the shape they had, were named + hour-eggs. + +Yet the parting with his fair Meta went sore against his heart. "What +will she think," said he to himself, "of this sudden disappearance, when +thou shalt no more meet her in the church-way? Will she not regard thee +as faithless, and banish thee from her heart?" This thought afflicted +him exceedingly; and for a great while he could think of no expedient +for explaining to her his intention. But at last inventive Love +suggested the idea of signifying to her from the pulpit itself his +absence and its purpose. With this view, in the church, which had +already favoured the secret understanding of the lovers, he bought a +Prayer "for a young Traveller, and the happy arrangement of his +affairs;" which was to last, till he should come again and pay his +groschen for the Thanksgiving. + +At the last meeting, he had dressed himself as for the road; he passed +quite near his sweetheart; saluted her expressively, and with less +reserve than before; so that she blushed deeply; and Mother Brigitta +found opportunity for various marginal notes, which indicated her +displeasure at the boldness of this ill-bred fop, in attempting to get +speech of her daughter, and with which she entertained the latter not in +the most pleasant style the livelong day. From that morning Franz was no +more seen in Bremen, and the finest pair of eyes within its circuit +sought for him in vain. Meta often heard the Prayer read, but she did +not heed it, for her heart was troubled because her lover had become +invisible. This disappearance was inexplicable to her; she knew not what +to think of it. After the lapse of some months, when time had a little +softened her secret care, and she was suffering his absence with a +calmer mind, it happened once, as the last appearance of her love was +hovering upon her fancy, that this same Prayer struck her as a strange +matter. She coupled one thing with another, she guessed the true +connexion of the business, and the meaning of that notice. And although +church litanies and special prayers have not the reputation of extreme +potency, and for the worthy souls that lean on them are but a supple +staff, inasmuch as the fire of devotion in the Christian flock is wont +to die out at the end of the sermon; yet in the pious Meta's case, the +reading of the last Prayer was the very thing which fanned that fire +into a flame; and she never neglected, with her whole heart, to +recommend the young traveller to his guardian angel. + +Under this invisible guidance, Franz was journeying towards Brabant, to +call in some considerable sums that were due him at Antwerp. A journey +from Bremen to Antwerp, in the time when road-blockades were still in +fashion, and every landlord thought himself entitled to plunder any +traveller who had purchased no safe-conduct, and to leave him pining in +the ward-room of his tower, was an undertaking of more peril and +difficulty, than in our days would attend a journey from Bremen to +Kamtschatka: for the _Land-fried_ (or Act for suppressing Private Wars), +which the Emperor Maximilian had proclaimed, was in force through the +Empire, rather as a law than an observance. Nevertheless our solitary +traveller succeeded in arriving at the goal of his pilgrimage, without +encountering more than a single adventure. + +Far in the wastes of Westphalia, he rode one sultry day till nightfall, +without reaching any inn. Towards evening stormy clouds towered up at +the horizon, and a heavy rain wetted him to the skin. To the fondling, +who from his youth had been accustomed to all possible conveniences, +this was a heavy matter, and he felt himself in great embarrassment how +in this condition he should pass the night. To his comfort, when the +tempest had moved away, he saw a light in the distance; and soon after, +reached a mean peasant hovel, which afforded him but little consolation. +The house was more like a cattle-stall than a human habitation; and the +unfriendly landlord refused him fire and water, as if he had been an +outlaw. For the man was just about to stretch himself upon the straw +among his steers; and too tired to relight the fire on his hearth, for +the sake of a stranger. Franz in his despondency uplifted a mournful +_miserere_, and cursed the Westphalian steppes with strong maledictions: +but the peasant took it all in good part; and blew out his light with +great composure, troubling himself no farther about the stranger; for in +the laws of hospitality he was altogether uninstructed. But as the +wayfarer, standing at the door, would not cease to annoy him with his +lamentations, he endeavoured in a civil way to get rid of him, consented +to answer, and said: "Master, if you want good entertainment, and would +treat yourself handsomely, you could not find what you are seeking here. +But ride there to the left hand, through the bushes; a little way +behind, lies the Castle of the valiant Eberhard Bronkhorst, a knight who +lodges every traveller, as a Hospitaller does the pilgrims from the Holy +Sepulchre. He has just one maggot in his head, which sometimes twitches +and vexes him; he lets no traveller depart from him unbasted. If you do +not lose your way, though he may dust your jacket, you will like your +cheer prodigiously." + +To buy a mess of pottage, and a stoup of wine, by surrendering one's +ribs to the bastinado, is in truth no job for every man, though your +spungers and plate-lickers let themselves be tweaked and snubbed, and +from rich artists willingly endure all kinds of tar-and-feathering, so +their palates be but tickled for the service. Franz considered for a +while, and was undetermined what to do; at last he resolved on fronting +the adventure. "What is it to me," said he, "whether my back be broken +here on miserable straw, or by the Ritter Bronkhorst? The friction will +expel the fever which is coming on, and shake me tightly if I cannot dry +my clothes." He put spurs to his nag, and soon arrived before a +castle-gate of old Gothic architecture; knocked pretty plainly on the +iron door, and an equally distinct "Who's there?" resounded from within. +To the freezing passenger, the long entrance ceremonial of this +door-keeper precognition was as inconvenient, as are similar delays to +travellers who, at barriers and gates of towns, bewail or execrate the +despotism of guards and tollmen. Nevertheless he must submit to use and +wont, and patiently wait to see whether the philanthropist in the Castle +was disposed that night for cudgelling a guest, or would choose rather +to assign him a couch under the open canopy. + +The possessor of this ancient tower had served, in his youth, as a stout +soldier in the Emperor's army, under the bold Georg von Fronsberg, and +led a troop of foot against the Venetians; had afterwards retired to +repose, and was now living on his property; where, to expiate the sins +of his campaigns, he employed himself in doing good works; in feeding +the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, lodging pilgrims, and +cudgelling his lodgers out of doors. For he was a rude wild son of war; +and could not lay aside his martial tone, though he had lived for many +years in silent peace. The traveller, who had now determined for good +quarters to submit to the custom of the house, had not waited long till +the bolts and locks began rattling within, and the creaking gate-leaves +moved asunder, moaning in doleful notes, as if to warn or to deplore the +entering stranger. Franz felt one cold shudder after the other running +down his back, as he passed in; nevertheless he was handsomely received; +some servants hastened to assist him in dismounting; speedily unbuckled +his luggage, took his steed to the stable, and its rider to a large +well-lighted chamber, where their master was in waiting. + +The warlike aspect of this athletic gentleman,--who advanced to meet his +guest, and shook him by the hand so heartily, that he was like to shout +with pain, and bade him welcome with a Stentor's voice, as if the +stranger had been deaf, and seemed withal to be a person still in the +vigour of life, full of fire and strength,--put the timorous wanderer +into such a terror, that he could not hide his apprehensions, and began +to tremble over all his body. + +"What ails you, my young master," asked the Ritter, with a voice of +thunder, "that you quiver like an aspen-leaf, and look as pale as if +Death had you by the throat?" + +Franz plucked up a spirit; and considering that his shoulders had at all +events the score to pay, his poltroonery passed into a species of +audacity. + +"Sir," replied he, "you perceive that the rain has soaked me, as if I +had swum across the Weser. Let me have my clothes dried or changed; and +get me, by way of luncheon, a well-spiced aleberry, to drive away the +ague-fit that is quaking through my nerves; then I shall come to heart, +in some degree." + +"Good!" replied the Knight; "demand what you want; you are at home +here." + +Franz made himself be served like a bashaw; and having nothing else but +currying to expect, he determined to deserve it; he bantered and +bullied, in his most imperious style, the servants that were waiting on +him; it comes all to one, thought he, in the long-run. "This waistcoat," +said he, "would go round a tun; bring me one that fits a little better: +this slipper burns like a coal against my corns; pitch it over the +lists: this ruff is stiff as a plank, and throttles me like a halter; +bring one that is easier, and is not plastered with starch." + +At this Bremish frankness, the landlord, far from showing any anger, +kept inciting his servants to go briskly through with their commands, +and calling them a pack of blockheads, who were fit to serve no +stranger. The table being furnished, the Ritter and his guest sat down +to it, and both heartily enjoyed their aleberry. The Ritter asked: +"Would you have aught farther, by way of supper?" + +"Bring us what you have," said Franz, "that I may see how your kitchen +is provided." + +Immediately appeared the Cook, and placed upon the table a repast with +which a duke might have been satisfied. Franz diligently fell to, +without waiting to be pressed. When he had satisfied himself: "Your +kitchen," said he, "is not ill-furnished, I perceive; if your cellar +corresponds to it, I shall almost praise your housekeeping." + +Bronkhorst nodded to his Butler, who directly filled the cup of welcome +with common table wine, tasted, and presented it to his master, and the +latter cleared it at a draught to the health of his guest. Franz pledged +him honestly, and Bronkhorst asked: "Now, fair sir, what say you to the +wine?" + +"I say," answered Franz, "that it is bad, if it is the best sort in your +catacombs; and good, if it is your meanest number." + +"You are a judge," replied the Ritter: "Here, Butler, bring us of the +mother-cask." + +The Butler put a stoup upon the table, as a sample, and Franz having +tasted it, said, "Ay, this is genuine last year's growth; we will stick +by this." + +The Ritter made a vast pitcher of it be brought in; soon drank himself +into hilarity and glee beside his guest; began to talk of his campaigns, +how he had been encamped against the Venetians, had broken through their +barricado, and butchered the Italian squadrons, like a flock of sheep. +In this narrative he rose into such a warlike enthusiasm, that he hewed +down bottles and glasses, brandishing the carving-knife like a lance, +and in the fire of action came so near his messmate with it, that the +latter was in fright for his nose and ears. + +It grew late, but no sleep came into the eyes of the Ritter; he seemed +to be in his proper element, when he got to speak of his Venetian +campaigns. The vivacity of his narration increased with every cup he +emptied; and Franz was afraid that this would prove the prologue to the +melodrama, in which he himself was to play the most interesting part. To +learn whether it was meant that he should lodge within the Castle, or +without, he demanded a bumper by way of good-night. Now, he thought, his +host would first force him to drink more wine, and if he refused, would, +under pretext of a drinking quarrel, send him forth, according to the +custom of the house, with the usual _viaticum_. Contrary to his +expectation, the request was granted without remonstrance; the Ritter +instantly cut asunder the thread of his narrative, and said: "Time will +wait on no one; more of it tomorrow!" + +"Pardon me, Herr Ritter," answered Franz, "tomorrow by sunrise I must +over hill and dale; I am travelling a far journey to Brabant, and must +not linger here. So let me take leave of you tonight, that my departure +may not disturb you in the morning." + +"Do your pleasure," said the Ritter; "but depart from this you shall +not, till I am out of the feathers, to refresh you with a bit of bread, +and a toothful of Dantzig, then attend you to the door, and dismiss you +according to the fashion of the house." + +Franz needed no interpretation of these words. Willingly as he would +have excused his host this last civility, attendance to the door, the +latter seemed determined to abate no whit of the established ritual. He +ordered his servants to undress the stranger, and put him in the +guest's-bed; where Franz, once settled on elastic swan's down, felt +himself extremely snug, and enjoyed delicious rest; so that ere he fell +asleep, he owned to himself that, for such royal treatment, a moderate +bastinado was not too dear a price. Soon pleasant dreams came hovering +round his fancy. He found his charming Meta in a rosy grove, where she +was walking with her mother, plucking flowers. Instantly he hid himself +behind a thick-leaved hedge, that the rigorous duenna might not see him. +Again his imagination placed him in the alley, and by his looking-glass +he saw the snow-white hand of the maiden busied with her flowers; soon +he was sitting with her on the grass, and longing to declare his +heartfelt love to her, and the bashful shepherd found no words to do it +in. He would have dreamed till broad mid-day, had he not been roused by +the sonorous voice and clanking spurs of the Ritter, who, with the +earliest dawn, was holding a review of kitchen and cellar, ordering a +sufficient breakfast to be readied, and placing every servant at his +post, to be at hand when the guest should awake, to dress him, and wait +upon him. + +It cost the happy dreamer no small struggling to forsake his safe and +hospitable bed. He rolled to this side and to that; but the pealing +voice of the worshipful Knight came heavy on his heart; and dally as he +might, the sour apple must at last be bit. So he rose from his down; and +immediately a dozen hands were busy dressing him. The Ritter led him +into the parlour, where a small well-furnished table waited them; but +now, when the hour of reckoning had arrived, the traveller's appetite +was gone. The host endeavoured to encourage him. "Why do you not get to? +Come, take somewhat for the raw foggy morning." + +"Herr Ritter," answered Franz, "my stomach is still too full of your +supper; but my pockets are empty; these I may fill for the hunger that +is to come." + +With this he began stoutly cramming, and stowed himself with the +daintiest and best that was transportable, till all his pockets were +bursting. Then, observing that his horse, well curried and equipt, was +led past, he took a dram of Dantzig for good-b'ye, in the thought that +this would be the watch-word for his host to catch him by the neck, and +exercise his household privileges. + +But, to his astonishment, the Ritter shook him kindly by the hand, as at +his first entrance, wished him luck by the way, and the bolted door was +thrown open. He loitered not in putting spurs to his nag; and, tip! tap! +he was without the gate, and no hair of him harmed. + +A heavy stone was lifted from his heart as he found himself in safety, +and saw that he had got away with a whole skin. He could not understand +how the landlord had trusted him the shot, which, as he imagined, must +have run pretty high on the chalk; and he embraced with warm love the +hospitable man, whose club-law arm he had so much dreaded; and he felt a +strong desire to search out, at the fountain-head, the reason or +unreason of the ill report which had affrighted him. Accordingly he +turned his horse, and cantered back. The Knight was still standing in +the gate, and descanting with his servants, for the forwarding of the +science of horse-flesh, on the breed, shape and character of the nag, +and his hard pace: he supposed the stranger must have missed something +in his travelling gear, and he already looked askance at his servants +for such negligence. + +"What is it, young master," cried he, "that makes you turn again, when +you were for proceeding?" + +"Ah! yet a word, valiant Knight," cried the traveller. "An ill report +has gone abroad, that injures your name and breeding. It is said that +you treat every stranger that calls upon you with your best; and then, +when he leaves you, let him feel the weight of your strong fists. This +story I have credited, and spared nothing to deserve my due from you. I +thought within myself, His worship will abate me nothing; I will abate +him as little. But now you let me go, without strife or peril; and that +is what surprises me. Pray tell me, is there any shadow of foundation +for the thing; or shall I call the foolish chatter lies next time I hear +it?" + +The Ritter answered: "Report has nowise told you lies; there is no +saying that circulates among the people but contains in it some grain of +truth. Let me tell you accurately how the matter stands. I lodge every +stranger that comes beneath my roof, and divide my morsel with him, for +the love of God. But I am a plain German man, of the old cut and +fashion; speak as it lies about my heart, and require that my guest also +should be hearty and confiding; should enjoy with me what I have, and +tell frankly what he wants. Now, there is a sort of people that vex me +with all manner of grimaces; that banter me with smirkings, and bows, +and crouchings; put all their words to the torture; make a deal of talk +without sense or salt; think they will cozen me with smooth speeches; +behave at dinner as women at a christening. If I say, Help yourself! out +of reverence, they pick you a fraction from the plate which I would not +offer to my dog: if I say, Your health! they scarcely wet their lips +from the full cup, as if they set God's gifts at naught. Now, when the +sorry rabble carry things too far with me, and I cannot, for the soul of +me, know what they would be at, I get into a rage at last, and use my +household privilege; catch the noodle by the spall, thrash him +sufficiently, and pack him out of doors. This is the use and wont with +me, and I do so with every guest that plagues me with these freaks. But +a man of your stamp is always welcome: you told me plump out in plain +German what you thought, as is the fashion with the Bremers. Call on me +boldly again, if your road lead you hither. And so, God be with you." + +Franz now moved on, with a joyful humour, towards Antwerp; and he wished +that he might everywhere find such a reception as he had met with from +the Ritter Eberhard Bronkhorst. On approaching the ancient queen of the +Flemish cities, the sail of his hope was swelled by a propitious breeze. +Riches and superfluity met him in every street; and it seemed as if +scarcity and want had been exiled from the busy town. In all +probability, thought he, there must be many of my father's debtors who +have risen again, and will gladly make me full payment whenever I +substantiate my claims. After resting for a while from his fatigues, he +set about obtaining, in the inn where he was quartered, some preliminary +knowledge of the situation of his debtors. + +"How stands it with Peter Martens?" inquired he one day of his +companions at table; "is he still living, and doing much business?" + +"Peter Martens is a warm man," answered one of the party; "has a brisk +commission trade, and draws good profit from it." + +"Is Fabian van Plurs still in good circumstances?" + +"O! there is no end to Fabian's wealth. He is a Councillor; his woollen +manufactories are thriving incredibly." + +"Has Jonathan Frischkier good custom in his trade?" + +"Ah! Jonathan were now a brisk fellow, had not Kaiser Max let the French +chouse him out of his Princess.[6] Jonathan had got the furnishing of +the lace for the bride's dress; but the Kaiser has left poor Frischkier +in the lurch, as the bride has left himself. If you have a fair one, +whom you would remember with a bit of lace, he will give it you at +half-price." + + [6] Anne of Brittany. + +"Is the firm Op de Buetekant still standing, or has it sunk?" + +"There was a crack in the beams there some years ago; but the Spanish +caravelles have put a new prop to it, and it now holds fast." + +Franz inquired about several other merchants who were on his list; found +that most of them, though in his father's time they had "failed," were +now standing firmly on their legs; and inferred from this, that a +judicious bankruptcy has, from of old, been the mine of future gains. +This intelligence refreshed him mightily: he hastened to put his +documents in order, and submit them to the proper parties. But with the +Antwerpers, he fared as his itinerating countrymen do with shopkeepers +in the German towns: they find everywhere a friendly welcome at their +first appearance, but are looked upon with cheerfulness nowhere when +they come collecting debts. Some would have nothing to do with these +former sins; and were of opinion, that by the tender of the legal +five-per-cent composition they had been entirely abolished: it was the +creditor's fault if he had not accepted payment in time. Others could +not recollect any Melchior of Bremen; opened their Infallible Books; +found no debtor-entry marked for this unknown name. Others, again, +brought out a strong counter-reckoning; and three days had not passed +till Franz was sitting in the Debtors' Ward, to answer for his father's +credit, not to depart till he had paid the uttermost farthing. + +These were not the best prospects for the young man, who lad set his +hope and trust upon the Antwerp patrons of his fortune, and now saw the +fair soap-bubble vanish quite away. In his strait confinement, he felt +himself in the condition of a soul in Purgatory, now that his skiff had +run ashore and gone to pieces, in the middle of the haven where he +thought to find security. Every thought of Meta was as a thorn in his +heart; there was now no shadow of a possibility, that from the whirlpool +which had sunk him, he could ever rise, and stretch out his hand to her; +nor, suppose he should get his head above water, was it in poor Meta's +power to pull him on dry land. He fell into a sullen desperation; had no +wish but to die speedily, and give his woes the slip at once; and, in +fact, he did attempt to kill himself by starvation. But this is a sort +of death which is not at the beck of every one, so ready as the shrunk +Pomponius Atticus found it, when his digestive apparatus had already +struck work. A sound peptic stomach does not yield so tamely to the +precepts of the head or heart. After the moribund debtor had abstained +two days from food, a ravenous hunger suddenly usurped the government of +his will, and performed, of its own authority, all the operations which, +in other cases, are directed by the mind. It ordered his hand to seize +the spoon, his mouth to receive the victual, his inferior maxillary jaw +to get in motion, and itself accomplished the usual functions of +digestion, unordered. Thus did this last resolve make shipwreck, on a +hard bread-crust; for, in the seven-and-twentieth year of life, it has +a heroism connected with it, which in the seven-and-seventieth is +entirely gone. + +At bottom, it was not the object of the barbarous Antwerpers to squeeze +money from the pretended debtor, but only to pay him none, as his +demands were not admitted to be liquid. Whether it were, then, that the +public Prayer in Bremen had in truth a little virtue, or that the +supposed creditors were not desirous of supporting a superfluous boarder +for life, true it is, that after the lapse of three months Franz was +delivered from his imprisonment, under the condition of leaving the city +within four-and-twenty hours, and never again setting foot on the soil +and territory of Antwerp. At the same time, he received five crowns for +travelling expenses from the faithful hands of Justice, which had taken +charge of his horse and luggage, and conscientiously balanced the +produce of the same against judicial and curatory expenses. + +With heavy-laden heart, in the humblest mood, with his staff in his +hand, he left the rich city, into which he had ridden some time ago with +high-soaring hopes. Broken down, and undetermined what to do, or rather +altogether without thought, he plodded through the streets to the +nearest gate, not minding whither the road into which chance conducted +him might lead. He saluted no traveller, he asked for no inn, except +when fatigue or hunger forced him to lift up his eyes, and look around +for some church-spire, or sign of human habitation, when he needed human +aid. Many days he had wandered on, as if unconsciously; and a secret +instinct had still, by means of his uncrazed feet, led him right forward +on the way to home; when, all at once, he awoke as from an oppressive +dream, and perceived on what road he was travelling. + +He halted instantly, to consider whether he should proceed or turn back. +Shame and confusion took possession of his soul, when he thought of +skulking about in his native town as a beggar, branded with the mark of +contempt, and claiming the charitable help of his townsmen, whom of old +he had eclipsed by his wealth and magnificence. And how in this form +could he present himself before his fair Meta, without disgracing the +choice of her heart? He did not leave his fancy time to finish this +doleful picture; but wheeled about to take the other road, as hastily as +if he had been standing even then at the gate of Bremen, and the ragged +apprentices had been assembling to accompany him with jibes and mockery +through the streets. His purpose was formed: he would make for the +nearest seaport in the Netherlands; engage as sailor in a Spanish ship, +to work his passage to the new world; and not return to his country, +till in the Peruvian land of gold he should have regained the wealth, +which he had squandered so heedlessly, before he knew the worth of +money. In the shaping of this new plan, it is true, the fair Meta fell +so far into the background, that even to the sharpest prophetic eye she +could only hover as a faint shadow in the distance; yet the wandering +projector pleased himself with thinking that she was again interwoven +with the scheme of his life; and he took large steps, as if by this +rapidity he meant to reach her so much the sooner. + +Already he was on the Flemish soil once more; and found himself at +sunset not far from Rheinberg, in a little hamlet, Rummelsburg by name, +which has since, in the Thirty-Years War, been utterly destroyed. A +caravan of carriers from Lyke had already filled the inn, so that Mine +Host had no room left, and referred him to the next town; the rather +that he did not draw too flattering a presage from his present vagabond +physiognomy, and held him to be a thieves' purveyor, who had views upon +the Lyke carriers. He was forced, notwithstanding his excessive +weariness, to gird himself for march, and again to take his bundle on +his back. + +As in retiring, he was muttering between his teeth some bitter +complaints and curses of the Landlord's hardness of heart, the latter +seemed to take some pity on the forlorn wayfarer, and called after him, +from the door: "Stay, neighbour, let me speak to you: if you wish to +rest here, I can accommodate you after all. In that Castle there are +empty rooms enow, if they be not too lonely; it is not inhabited, and I +have got the keys." Franz accepted the proposal with joy, praised it as +a deed of mercy, and requested only shelter and a supper, were it in a +castle or a cottage. Mine Host, however, was privily a rogue, whom it +had galled to hear the stranger drop some half-audible contumelies +against him, and meant to be avenged on him, by a Hobgoblin that +inhabited the old fortress, and had many long years before expelled the +owners. + +The Castle lay hard by the hamlet, on a steep rock, right opposite the +inn, from which it was divided merely by the highway, and a little +gurgling brook. The situation being so agreeable, the edifice was still +kept in repair, and well provided with all sorts of house-gear; for it +served the owner as a hunting-lodge, where he frequently caroused all +day; and so soon as the stars began to twinkle in the sky, retired with +his whole retinue, to escape the mischief of the Ghost, who rioted about +in it the whole night over, but by day gave no disturbance. Unpleasant +as the owner felt this spoiling of his mansion by a bugbear, the +nocturnal sprite was not without advantages, for the great security it +gave from thieves. The Count could have appointed no trustier or more +watchful keeper over the Castle, than this same Spectre, for the rashest +troop of robbers never ventured to approach its station. Accordingly he +knew of no safer place for laying up his valuables, than this old tower, +in the hamlet of Rummelsburg, near Rheinberg. + +The sunshine had sunk, the dark night was coming heavily on, when Franz, +with a lantern in his hand, proceeded to the castle-gate, under the +guidance of Mine Host, who carried in his hand a basket of victuals, +with a flask of wine, which he said should not be marked against him. He +had also taken along with him a pair of candlesticks, and two +wax-lights; for in the whole Castle there was neither lamp nor taper, as +no one ever stayed in it after twilight. In the way, Franz noticed the +creaking heavy-laden basket, and the wax-lights, which he thought he +should not need, and yet must pay for. Therefore he said: "What is this +superfluity and waste, as at a banquet? The light in the lantern is +enough to see with, till I go to bed; and when I awake, the sun will be +high enough, for I am tired completely, and shall sleep with both eyes." + +"I will not hide from you," replied the Landlord, "that a story runs of +there being mischief in the Castle, and a Goblin that frequents it. You, +however, need not let the thing disturb you; we are near enough, you +see, for you to call us, should you meet with aught unnatural; I and my +folks will be at your hand in a twinkling, to assist you. Down in the +house there we keep astir all night through, some one is always moving. +I have lived here these thirty years; yet I cannot say that I have ever +seen aught. If there be now and then a little hurly-burlying at nights, +it is nothing but cats and martins rummaging about the granary. As a +precaution, I have provided you with candles: the night is no friend of +man; and the tapers are consecrated, so that sprites, if there be such +in the Castle, will avoid their shine." + +It was no lying in Mine Host to say that he had never seen anything of +spectres in the Castle; for by night he had taken special care not once +to set foot in it; and by day the Goblin did not come to sight. In the +present case, too, the traitor would not risk himself across the border. +After opening the door, he handed Franz the basket, directed him what +way to go, and wished him good-night. Franz entered the lobby without +anxiety or fear; believing the ghost-story to be empty tattle, or a +distorted tradition of some real occurrence in the place, which idle +fancy had shaped into an unnatural adventure. He remembered the stout +Ritter Eberhard Bronkhorst, from whose heavy arm he had apprehended such +maltreatment, and with whom, notwithstanding, he had found so hospitable +a reception. On this ground he had laid it down as a rule deduced from +his travelling experiences, when he heard any common rumour, to believe +exactly the reverse, and left the grain of truth, which, in the opinion +of the wise Knight, always lies in such reports, entirely out of sight. + +Pursuant to Mine Host's direction, he ascended the winding stone stair; +and reached a bolted door, which he opened with his key. A long dark +gallery, where his footsteps resounded, led him into a large hall, and +from this, a side-door, into a suite of apartments, richly provided with +all furniture for decoration or convenience. Out of these he chose the +room which had the friendliest aspect, where he found a well-pillowed +bed; and from the window could look right down upon the inn, and catch +every loud word that was spoken there. He lit his wax-tapers, furnished +his table, and feasted with the commodiousness and relish of an +Otaheitean noble. The big-bellied flask was an antidote to thirst. So +long as his teeth were in full occupation, he had no time to think of +the reported devilry in the Castle. If aught now and then made a stir in +the distance, and Fear called to him, "Hark! hark! there comes the +Goblin;" Courage answered: "Stuff! it is cats and martins bickering and +caterwauling." But in the digestive half-hour after meat, when the sixth +sense, that of hunger and thirst, no longer occupied the soul, she +directed her attention from the other five exclusively upon the sense of +hearing; and already Fear was whispering three timid thoughts into the +listener's ear, before Courage had time to answer once. + +As the first resource, he locked the door, and bolted it; made his +retreat to the walled seat in the vault of the window. He opened this, +and to dissipate his thoughts a little, looked out on the spangled sky, +gazed at the corroded moon, and counted how often the stars snuffed +themselves. On the road beneath him all was void; and in spite of the +pretended nightly bustle in the inn, the doors were shut, the lights +out, and everything as still as in a sepulchre. On the other hand, the +watchman blew his horn, making his "List, gentlemen!" sound over all the +hamlet; and for the composure of the timorous astronomer, who still kept +feasting his eyes on the splendour of the stars, uplifted a rusty +evening-hymn right under his window; so that Franz might easily have +carried on a conversation with him, which, for the sake of company, he +would willingly have done, had he in the least expected that the +watchman would make answer to him. + +In a populous city, in the middle of a numerous household, where there +is a hubbub equal to that of a bee-hive, it may form a pleasant +entertainment for the thinker to philosophise on Solitude, to decorate +her as the loveliest playmate of the human spirit, to view her under all +her advantageous aspects, and long for her enjoyment as for hidden +treasure. But in scenes where she is no exotic, in the isle of Juan +Fernandez, where a solitary eremite, escaped from shipwreck, lives with +her through long years; or in the dreary night-time, in a deep wood, or +in an old uninhabited castle, where empty walls and vaults awaken +horror, and nothing breathes of life, but the moping owl in the ruinous +turret; there, in good sooth, she is not the most agreeable companion +for the timid anchorite that has to pass his time in her abode, +especially if he is every moment looking for the entrance of a spectre +to augment the party. In such a case it may easily chance that a window +conversation with the watchman shall afford a richer entertainment for +the spirit and the heart, than a reading of the most attractive eulogy +on solitude. If Ritter Zimmermann had been in Franz's place, in the +castle of Rummelsburg, on the Westphalian marches, he would doubtless in +this position have struck out the fundamental topics of as interesting a +treatise on _Society_, as, inspired to all appearance by the irksomeness +of some ceremonious assembly, he has poured out from the fulness of his +heart in praise of _Solitude_. + +Midnight is the hour at which the world of spirits acquires activity and +life, when hebetated animal nature lies entombed in deep slumber. Franz +inclined getting through this critical hour in sleep rather than awake; +so he closed his window, went the rounds of his room once more, spying +every nook and crevice, to see whether all was safe and earthly; snuffed +the lights to make them burn clearer; and without undressing or +delaying, threw himself upon his bed, with which his wearied person felt +unusual satisfaction. Yet he could not get asleep so fast as he wished. +A slight palpitation at the heart, which he ascribed to a tumult in the +blood, arising from the sultriness of the day, kept him waking for a +while; and he failed not to employ this respite in offering up such a +pithy evening prayer as he had not prayed for many years. This produced +the usual effect, that he softly fell asleep while saying it. + +After about an hour, as he supposed, he started up with a sudden terror; +a thing not at all surprising when there is tumult in the blood. He was +broad awake: he listened whether all was quiet, and heard nothing but +the clock strike twelve; a piece of news which the watchman forthwith +communicated to the hamlet in doleful recitative. Franz listened for a +while, turned on the other side, and was again about to sleep, when he +caught, as it were, the sound of a door grating in the distance, and +immediately it shut with a stifled bang. "Alake! alake!" bawled Fright +into his ear; "this is the Ghost in very deed!"--"'Tis nothing but the +wind," said Courage manfully. But quickly it came nearer, nearer, like +the sound of heavy footsteps. Clink here, clink there, as if a criminal +were rattling his irons, or as if the porter were walking about the +Castle with his bunch of keys. Alas, here was no wind business! Courage +held his peace; and quaking Fear drove all the blood to the heart, and +made it thump like a smith's fore-hammer. + +The thing was now beyond jesting. If Fear would still have let Courage +get a word, the latter would have put the terror-struck watcher in mind +of his subsidiary treaty with Mine Host, and incited him to claim the +stipulated assistance loudly from the window; but for this there was a +want of proper resolution. The quaking Franz had recourse to the +bed-clothes, the last fortress of the timorous, and drew them close over +his ears, as Bird Ostrich sticks his head in the grass, when he can no +longer escape the huntsman. Outside it came along, door up, door to, +with hideous uproar; and at last it reached the bed-room. It jerked +sharply at the lock, tried several keys till it found the right one; yet +the bar still held the door, till a bounce like a thunder-clap made bolt +and rivet start, and threw it wide open. Now stalked in a long lean man, +with a black beard, in ancient garb, and with a gloomy countenance, his +eyebrows hanging down in deep earnestness from his brow. Over his right +shoulder he had a scarlet cloak; and on his head he wore a peaked hat. +With a heavy step he walked thrice in silence up and down the chamber; +looked at the consecrated tapers, and snuffed them that they might burn +brighter. Then he threw aside his cloak, girded on a scissor-pouch which +he had under it, produced a set of shaving-tackle, and immediately began +to whet a sharp razor on the broad strap which he wore at his girdle. + +Franz perspired in mortal agony under his coverlet; recommended himself +to the keeping of the Virgin; and anxiously speculated on the object of +this manoeuvre, not knowing whether it was meant for his throat or his +beard. To his comfort, the Goblin poured some water from a silver flask +into a basin of silver, and with his skinny hand lathered the soap into +light foam; then set a chair, and beckoned with a solemn look to the +quaking looker-on to come forth from his recess. + +Against so pertinent a sign, remonstrance was as bootless as it is +against the rigorous commands of the Grand Turk, when he transmits an +exiled vizier to the Angel of Death, the Capichi Bashi with the Silken +Cord, to take delivery of his head. The most rational procedure that can +be adopted in this critical case, is to comply with necessity, put a +good face on a bad business, and with stoical composure let one's throat +be noosed. Franz honoured the Spectre's order; the coverlet began to +move, he sprang sharply from his couch, and took the place pointed out +to him on the seat. However strange this quick transition from the +uttermost terror to the boldest resolution may appear, I doubt not but +Moritz in his _Psychological Journal_ could explain the matter till it +seemed quite natural. + +Immediately the Goblin Barber tied the towel about his shivering +customer; seized the comb and scissors, and clipped off his hair and +beard. Then he soaped him scientifically, first the beard, next the +eyebrows, at last the temples and the hind-head; and shaved him from +throat to nape as smooth and bald as a Death's-head. This operation +finished, he washed his head, dried it clean, made his bow, and +buttoned-up his scissor-pouch; wrapped himself in his scarlet mantle, +and made for departing. The consecrated tapers had burnt with an +exquisite brightness through the whole transaction; and Franz, by the +light of them, perceived in the mirror that the shaver had changed him +into a Chinese pagoda. In secret he heartily deplored the loss of his +fair brown locks; yet now took fresh breath, as he observed that with +this sacrifice the account was settled, and the Ghost had no more power +over him. + +So it was in fact; Redcloak went towards the door, silently as he had +entered, without salutation or good-b'ye; and seemed entirely the +contrast of his talkative guild-brethren. But scarcely was he gone three +steps, when he paused, looked round with a mournful expression at his +well-served customer, and stroked the flat of his hand over his black +bushy beard. He did the same a second time; and again, just as he was in +the act of stepping out at the door. A thought struck Franz that the +Spectre wanted something; and a rapid combination of ideas suggested, +that perhaps he was expecting the very service he himself had just +performed. + +As the Ghost, notwithstanding his rueful look, seemed more disposed for +banter than for seriousness, and had played his guest a scurvy trick, +not done him any real injury, the panic of the latter had now almost +subsided. So he ventured the experiment, and beckoned to the Ghost to +take the seat from which he had himself just risen. The Goblin instantly +obeyed, threw off his cloak, laid his barber tackle on the table, and +placed himself in the chair, in the posture of a man that wishes to be +shaved. Franz carefully observed the same procedure which the Spectre +had observed to him, clipped his beard with the scissors, cropt away his +hair, lathered his whole scalp, and the Ghost all the while sat steady +as a wig-block. The awkward journeyman came ill at handling the razor: +he had never had another in his hand; and he shore the beard right +against the hair; whereat the Goblin made as strange grimaces as +Erasmus's Ape, when imitating its master's shaving. Nor was the +unpractised bungler himself well at ease, and he thought more than once +of the sage aphorism, _What is not thy trade make not thy business_; yet +he struggled through the task, the best way he could, and scraped the +Ghost as bald as he himself was. + +Hitherto the scene between the Spectre and the traveller had been played +pantomimically; the action now became dramatic. "Stranger," said the +Ghost, "accept my thanks for the service thou hast done me. By thee I am +delivered from the long imprisonment, which has chained me for three +hundred years within these walls; to which my departed soul was doomed, +till a mortal hand should consent to retaliate on me what I practised on +others in my lifetime. + +"Know that of old a reckless scorner dwelt within this tower, who took +his sport on priests as well as laics. Count Hardman, such his name, was +no philanthropist, acknowledged no superior and no law, but practised +vain caprice and waggery, regarding not the sacredness of hospitable +rights: the wanderer who came beneath his roof, the needy man who asked +a charitable alms of him, he never sent away unvisited by wicked joke. I +was his Castle Barber, still a willing instrument, and did whatever +pleased him. Many a pious pilgrim, journeying past us, I allured with +friendly speeches to the hall; prepared the bath for him, and when he +thought to take good comfort, shaved him smooth and bald, and packed him +out of doors. Then would Count Hardman, looking from the window, see +with pleasure how the foxes' whelps of children gathered from the hamlet +to assail the outcast, and to cry as once their fellows to Elisha: +'Baldhead! Baldhead!' In this the scoffer took his pleasure, laughing +with a devilish joy, till he would hold his pot-paunch, and his eyes ran +down with water. + +"Once came a saintly man, from foreign lands; he carried, like a +penitent, a heavy cross upon his shoulder, and had stamped five +nail-marks on his hands, and feet, and side; upon his head there was a +ring of hair like to the Crown of Thorns. He called upon us here, +requesting water for his feet, and a small crust of bread. Immediately I +took him to the bath, to serve him in my common way; respected not the +sacred ring, but shore it clean from off him. Then the pious pilgrim +spoke a heavy malison upon me: 'Know, accursed man, that when thou +diest, Heaven, and Hell, and Purgatory's iron gate, are shut against thy +soul. As goblin it shall rage within these walls, till unrequired, +unbid, a traveller come and exercise retaliation on thee.' + +"That hour I sickened, and the marrow in my bones dried up; I faded like +a shadow. My spirit left the wasted carcass, and was exiled to this +Castle, as the saint had doomed it. In vain I struggled for deliverance +from the torturing bonds that fettered me to Earth; for thou must know, +that when the soul forsakes her clay, she panteth for her place of rest, +and this sick longing spins her years to aeons, while in foreign element +she languishes for home. Now self-tormenting, I pursued the mournful +occupation I had followed in my lifetime. Alas! my uproar soon made +desolate this house! But seldom came a pilgrim here to lodge. And though +I treated all like thee, no one would understand me, and perform, as +thou, the service which has freed my soul from bondage. Henceforth shall +no hobgoblin wander in this Castle; I return to my long-wished-for rest. +And now, young stranger, once again my thanks, that thou hast loosed me! +Were I keeper of deep-hidden treasures, they were thine; but wealth in +life was not my lot, nor in this Castle lies there any cash entombed. +Yet mark my counsel. Tarry here till beard and locks again shall cover +chin and scalp; then turn thee homewards to thy native town; and on the +Weser-bridge of Bremen, at the time when day and night in Autumn are +alike, wait for a Friend, who there will meet thee, who will tell thee +what to do, that it be well with thee on Earth. If from the golden horn +of plenty, blessing and abundance flow to thee, then think of me; and +ever as the day thou freedst me from the curse comes round, cause for my +soul's repose three masses to be said. Now fare thee well. I go, no more +returning."[7] + + [7] I know not whether the reader has observed that our Author + makes the Spectre speak in _iambics_; a whim which here and there + comes over him in other tales also.--WIELAND. + +With these words the Ghost, having by his copiousness of talk +satisfactorily attested his former existence as court-barber in the +Castle of Rummelsburg, vanished into air, and left his deliverer full of +wonder at the strange adventure. He stood for a long while motionless; +in doubt whether the whole matter had actually happened, or an unquiet +dream had deluded his senses; but his bald head convinced him that here +had been a real occurrence. He returned to bed, and slept, after the +fright he had undergone, till the hour of noon. The treacherous Landlord +had been watching since morning, when the traveller with the scalp was +to come forth, that he might receive him with jibing speeches under +pretext of astonishment at his nocturnal adventure. But as the stranger +loitered too long, and mid-day was approaching, the affair became +serious; and Mine Host began to dread that the Goblin might have treated +his guest a little harshly, have beaten him to a jelly perhaps, or so +frightened him that he had died of terror; and to carry his wanton +revenge to such a length as this had not been his intention. He +therefore rang his people together, hastened out with man and maid to +the tower, and reached the door of the apartment where he had observed +the light on the previous evening. He found an unknown key in the lock; +but the door was barred within; for after the disappearance of the +Goblin, Franz had again secured it. He knocked with a perturbed +violence, till the Seven Sleepers themselves would have awoke at the +din. Franz started up, and thought in his first confusion that the Ghost +was again standing at the door, to favour him with another call. But +hearing Mine Host's voice, who required nothing more but that his guest +would give some sign of life, he gathered himself up and opened the +room. + +With seeming horror at the sight of him, Mine Host, striking his hands +together, exclaimed: "By Heaven and all the saints! Redcloak" (by this +name the Ghost was known among them) "_has_ been here, and has shaved +you bald as a block! Now, it is clear as day that the old story is no +fable. But tell me how looked the Goblin: what did he say to you? what +did he do?" + +Franz, who had now seen through the questioner, made answer: "The Goblin +looked like a man in a red cloak; what he did is not hidden from you, +and what he said I well remember: 'Stranger,' said he, 'trust no +innkeeper who is a Turk in grain. What would befall thee here he knew. +Be wise and happy. I withdraw from this my ancient dwelling, for my time +is run. Henceforth no goblin riots here; I now become a silent Incubus, +to plague the Landlord; nip him, tweak him, harass him, unless the Turk +do expiate his sin; do freely give thee prog and lodging till brown +locks again shall cluster round thy head.'"[8] + + [8] Here too, on the Spectre's score, Franz makes extempore + _iambics_.--WIELAND. + +The Landlord shuddered at these words, cut a large cross in the air +before him, vowed by the Holy Virgin to give the traveller free board so +long as he liked to continue, led him over to his house, and treated him +with the best. By this adventure, Franz had well-nigh got the reputation +of a conjuror, as the spirit thenceforth never once showed face. He +often passed the night in the tower; and a desperado of the village once +kept him company, without having beard or scalp disturbed. The owner of +the place, having learned that Redcloak no longer walked in Rummelsburg, +was, of course, delighted at the news, and ordered that the stranger, +who, as he supposed, had laid him, should be well taken care of. + +By the time when the clusters were beginning to be coloured on the vine, +and the advancing autumn reddened the apples, Franz's brown locks were +again curling over his temples, and he girded up his knapsack; for all +his thoughts and meditations were turned upon the Weser-bridge, to seek +the Friend, who, at the behest of the Goblin Barber, was to direct him +how to make his fortune. When about taking leave of Mine Host, that +charitable person led from his stable a horse well saddled and equipt, +which the owner of the Castle had presented to the stranger, for having +made his house again habitable; nor had the Count forgot to send a +sufficient purse along with it, to bear its travelling charges; and so +Franz came riding back into his native city, brisk and light of heart, +as he had ridden out of it twelve months ago. He sought out his old +quarters in the alley, but kept himself quite still and retired; only +inquiring underhand how matters stood with the fair Meta, whether she +was still alive and unwedded. To this inquiry he received a satisfactory +answer, and contented himself with it in the mean while; for, till his +fate were decided, he would not risk appearing in her sight, or making +known to her his arrival in Bremen. + +With unspeakable longing, he waited the equinox; his impatience made +every intervening day a year. At last the long-wished-for term appeared. +The night before, he could not close an eye, for thinking of the wonders +that were coming. The blood was whirling and beating in his arteries, as +it had done at the Castle of Rummelsburg, when he lay in expectation of +his spectre visitant. To be sure of not missing his expected Friend, he +rose by daybreak, and proceeded with the earliest dawn to the +Weser-bridge, which as yet stood empty and untrod by passengers. He +walked along it several times in solitude, with that presentiment of +coming gladness, which includes in it the real enjoyment of all +terrestrial felicity; for it is not the attainment of our wishes, but +the undoubted hope of attaining them, which offers to the human soul the +full measure of highest and most heartfelt satisfaction. He formed many +projects as to how he should present himself to his beloved Meta, when +his looked-for happiness should have arrived; whether it would be better +to appear before her in full splendour, or to mount from his former +darkness with the first gleam of morning radiance, and discover to her +by degrees the change in his condition. Curiosity, moreover, put a +thousand questions to Reason in regard to the adventure. Who can the +Friend be that is to meet me on the Weser-bridge? Will it be one of my +old acquaintances, by whom, since my ruin, I have been entirely +forgotten? How will he pave the way to me for happiness? And will this +way be short or long, easy or toilsome? To the whole of which Reason, +in spite of all her thinking and speculating, answered not a word. + +In about an hour, the Bridge began to get awake; there was riding, +driving, walking to and fro on it; and much commercial ware passing this +way and that. The usual day-guard of beggars and importunate persons +also by degrees took up this post, so favourable for their trade, to +levy contributions on the public benevolence; for of poor-houses and +work-houses, the wisdom of the legislature had as yet formed no scheme. +The first of the tattered cohort that applied for alms to the jovial +promenader, from whose eyes gay hope laughed forth, was a discharged +soldier, provided with the military badge of a timber leg, which had +been lent him, seeing he had fought so stoutly in former days for his +native country, as the recompense of his valour, with the privilege of +begging where he pleased; and who now, in the capacity of physiognomist, +pursued the study of man upon the Weser-bridge, with such success, that +he very seldom failed in his attempts for charity. Nor did his +exploratory glance in anywise mislead him in the present instance; for +Franz, in the joy of his heart, threw a white engel-groschen into the +cripple's hat. + +During the morning hours, when none but the laborious artisan is busy, +and the more exalted townsman still lies in sluggish rest, he scarcely +looked for his promised Friend; he expected him in the higher classes, +and took little notice of the present passengers. About the +council-hour, however, when the Proceres of Bremen were driving past to +the hall, in their gorgeous robes of office, and about exchange-time, he +was all eye and ear; he spied the passengers from afar; and when a right +man came along the bridge, his blood began to flutter, and he thought +here was the creator of his fortune. Meanwhile hour after hour passed +on; the sun rose high; ere long the noontide brought a pause in +business; the rushing crowd faded away; and still the expected Friend +appeared not. Franz now walked up and down the Bridge quite alone; had +no society in view but the beggars, who were serving out their cold +collations, without moving from the place. He made no scruple to do the +same; and, not being furnished with provisions, he purchased some fruit, +and took his dinner _inter ambulandum_. + +The whole club that was dining on the Bridge had remarked the young man, +watching here from early morning till noon, without addressing any one, +or doing any sort of business. They held him to be a lounger; and +though all of them had tasted his bounty, he did not escape their +critical remarks. In jest, they had named him the Bridge-bailiff. The +physiognomist with the timber-toe, however, noticed that his countenance +was not now so gay as in the morning; he appeared to be reflecting +earnestly on something; he had drawn his hat close over his face; his +movement was slow and thoughtful; he had nibbled at an apple-rind for +some time, without seeming to be conscious that he was doing so. From +this appearance of affairs, the man-spier thought he might extract some +profit; therefore he put his wooden and his living leg in motion, and +stilted off to the other end of the Bridge, and lay in wait for the +thinker, that he might assail him, under the appearance of a new +arrival, for a fresh alms. This invention prospered to the full: the +musing philosopher gave no heed to the mendicant, put his hand into his +pocket mechanically, and threw a six-groat piece into the fellow's hat, +to be rid of him. + +In the afternoon, a thousand new faces once more came abroad. The +watcher was now tired of his unknown Friend's delaying, yet hope still +kept his attention on the stretch. He stept into the view of every +passenger, hoped that one of them would clasp him in his arms; but all +proceeded coldly on their way; the most did not observe him at all, and +few returned his salute with a slight nod. The sun was already verging +to decline, the shadows were becoming longer, the crowd upon the Bridge +diminished; and the beggar-piquet by degrees drew back into their +barracks in the Mattenburg. A deep sadness sank upon the hopeless Franz, +when he saw his expectation mocked, and the lordly prospect which had +lain before him in the morning vanish from his eyes at evening. He fell +into a sort of sulky desperation; was on the point of springing over the +parapet, and dashing himself down from the Bridge into the river. But +the thought of Meta kept him back, and induced him to postpone his +purpose till he had seen her yet once more. He resolved to watch next +day when she should go to church, for the last time to drink delight +from her looks, and then forthwith to still his warm love forever in the +cold stream of the Weser. + +While about to leave the Bridge, he was met by the invalided pikeman +with the wooden leg, who, for pastime, had been making many speculations +as to what could be the young man's object, that had made him watch upon +the Bridge from dawn to darkness. He himself had lingered beyond his +usual time, that he might wait him out; but as the matter hung too long +upon the pegs, curiosity incited him to turn to the youth himself, and +question him respecting it. + +"No offence, young gentleman," said he: "allow me to ask you a +question." + +Franz, who was not in a very talking humour, and was now meeting, from +the mouth of a cripple, the address which he had looked for with such +longing from a friend, answered rather testily: "Well, then, what is it? +Speak, old graybeard!" + +"We two," said the other, "were the first upon the Bridge today, and +now, you see, we are the last. As to me and others of my kidney, it is +our vocation brings us hither, our trade of alms-gathering; but for you, +in sooth you are not of our guild; yet you have watched here the whole +blessed day. Now I pray you, tell me, if it is not a secret, what it is +that brings you hither; or what stone is lying on your heart, that you +wished to roll away." + +"What good were it to thee, old blade," said Franz bitterly, "to know +where the shoe pinches me, or what concern is lying on my heart? It will +give thee small care." + +"Sir, I have a kind wish towards you, because you opened your hand to +me, and twice gave me alms, for which God reward you; but your +countenance at night was not so cheerful as in the morning, and that +grieves my heart." + +The kindly sympathy of this old warrior pleased the misanthrope, so that +he willingly pursued the conversation. + +"Why, then," answered he, "if thou wouldst know what has made me battle +here all day with tedium, thou must understand that I was waiting for a +Friend, who appointed me hither, and now leaves me to expect in vain." + +"Under favour," answered Timbertoe, "if I might speak my mind, this +Friend of yours, be who he like, is little better than a rogue, to lead +you such a dance. If he treated _me_ so, by my faith, his crown should +get acquainted with my crutch next time we met. If he could not keep his +word, he should have let you know, and not bamboozled you as if you were +a child." + +"Yet I cannot altogether blame this Friend," said Franz, "for being +absent; he did not promise; it was but a dream that told me I should +meet him here." + +The goblin-tale was too long for him to tell, so he veiled it under +cover of a dream. + +"Ah! that is another story," said the beggar; "if you build on dreams, +it is little wonder that your hope deceives you. I myself have dreamed +much foolish stuff in my time; but I was never such a madman as to heed +it. Had I all the treasures that have been allotted to me in dreams, I +might buy the city of Bremen, were it sold by auction. But I never +credited a jot of them, or stirred hand or foot to prove their worth or +worthlessness: I knew well it would be lost. Ha! I must really laugh in +your face, to think that on the order of an empty dream, you have +squandered a fair day of your life, which you might have spent better at +a merry banquet." + +"The issue shows that thou art right, old man, and that dreams many +times deceive. But," continued Franz, defensively, "I dreamed so vividly +and circumstantially, above three months ago, that on this very day, in +this very place, I should meet a Friend, who would tell me things of the +deepest importance, that it was well worth while to go and see if it +would come to pass." + +"O, as for vividness," said Timbertoe, "no man can dream more vividly +than I. There is one dream I had, which I shall never in my life forget. +I dreamed, who knows how many years ago, that my Guardian Angel stood +before my bed in the figure of a youth, with golden hair, and two silver +wings on his back, and said to me: 'Berthold, listen to the words of my +mouth, that none of them be lost from thy heart. There is a treasure +appointed thee, which thou shalt dig, to comfort thy heart withal for +the remaining days of thy life. Tomorrow, about evening, when the sun is +going down, take spade and shovel on thy shoulder; go forth from the +Mattenburg on the right, across the Tieber, by the Balkenbruecke, past +the Cloister of St. John's, and on to the Great Roland.[9] Then take thy +way over the Court of the Cathedral, through the Schusselkorb, till thou +arrive without the city at a garden, which has this mark, that a stair +of three stone steps leads down from the highway to its gate. Wait by a +side, in secret, till the sickle of the moon shall shine on thee, then +push with the strength of a man against the weak-barred gate, which will +resist thee little. Enter boldly into the garden, and turn thee to the +vine-trellises which overhang the covered-walk; behind this, on the +left, a tall apple-tree overtops the lowly shrubs. Go to the trunk of +this tree, thy face turned right against the moon: look three ells +before thee on the ground, thou shalt see two cinnamon-rose bushes; +there strike in, and dig three spans deep, till thou find a stone plate; +under this lies the treasure, buried in an iron chest, full of money and +money's worth. Though the chest be heavy and clumsy, avoid not the +labour of lifting it from its bed; it will reward thy trouble well, if +thou seek the key which lies hid beneath it.'" + + [9] The rude figure of a man in armour, usually erected in the + public square or market-place of old German towns, is called the + _Rolandsaule_, or _Rutlandsaule_, from its supposed reference to + Roland the famous peer of Charlemagne. The proper and ancient name, + it seems, is _Ruegelandsaule_, or Pillar of Judgment; and the stone + indicated, of old, that the town possessed an independent + jurisdiction.--ED. + +In astonishment at what he heard, Franz stared and gazed upon the +dreamer, and could not have concealed his amazement, had not the dusk of +night been on his side. By every mark in the description, he had +recognised his own garden, left him by his father. It had been the good +man's hobby in his life; but on this account had little pleased his son; +according to the rule that son and father seldom sympathise in their +favourite pursuit, unless indeed it be a vice, in which case, as the +adage runs, the apple often falls at no great distance from the trunk. +Father Melchior had himself laid out this garden, altogether to his own +taste, in a style as wonderful and varied as that of his +great-great-grandson, who has immortalised his paradise by an original +description in _Hirschfeld's Garden-Calendar_. He had not, it is true, +set up in it any painted menagerie for the deception of the eye; but he +kept a very large one, notwithstanding, of springing-horses, +winged-lions, eagles, griffins, unicorns and other wondrous beasts, all +stamped on pure gold, which he carefully concealed from _every_ eye, and +had hid in their iron case beneath the ground. This paternal Tempe the +wasteful son, in the days of his extravagance, had sold for an old song. + +To Franz the pikeman had at once become extremely interesting, as he +perceived that this was the very Friend, to whom the Goblin in the +Castle of Rummelsburg had consigned him. Gladly could he have embraced +the veteran, and in the first rapture called him friend and father: but +he restrained himself, and found it more advisable to keep his thoughts +about this piece of news to himself. So he said: "Well, this is what I +call a circumstantial dream. But what didst thou do, old master, in the +morning, on awakening? Didst thou not follow whither thy Guardian Angel +beckoned thee?" + +"Pooh," said the dreamer, "why should I toil, and have my labour for my +pains? It was nothing, after all, but a mere dream. If my Guardian +Angel had a fancy for appearing to me, I have had enow of sleepless +nights in my time, when he might have found me waking. But he takes +little charge of me, I think, else I should not, to his shame, be going +hitching here on a wooden leg." + +Franz took out the last piece of silver he had on him: "There," said he, +"old Father, take this other gift from me, to get thee a pint of wine +for evening-cup: thy talk has scared away my ill humour. Neglect not +diligently to frequent this Bridge; we shall see each other here, I +hope, again." + +The lame old man had not gathered so rich a stock of alms for many a +day, as he was now possessed of; he blessed his benefactor for his +kindness, hopped away into a drinking-shop, to do himself a good turn; +while Franz, enlivened with new hope, hastened off to his lodging in the +alley. + +Next day he got in readiness everything that is required for +treasure-digging. The unessential equipments, conjurations, magic +formulas, magic girdles, hieroglyphic characters, and suchlike, were +entirely wanting: but these are not indispensable, provided there be no +failure in the three main requisites: shovel, spade, and, before all, a +treasure underground. The necessary implements he carried to the place a +little before sunset, and hid them for the mean while in a hedge; and as +to the treasure itself, he had the firm conviction that the Goblin in +the Castle, and the Friend on the Bridge, would prove no liars to him. +With longing impatience he expected the rising of the moon; and no +sooner did she stretch her silver horns over the bushes, than he briskly +set to work; observing exactly everything the Invalid had taught him; +and happily accomplished the raising of the treasure, without meeting +any adventure in the process; without any black dog having frightened +him, or any bluish flame having lighted him to the spot. + +Father Melchior, in providently burying this penny for a rainy day, had +nowise meant that his son should be deprived of so considerable a part +of his inheritance. The mistake lay in this, that Death had escorted the +testator out of the world in another way than said testator had +expected. He had been completely convinced, that he should take his +journey, old and full of days, after regulating his temporal concerns +with all the formalities of an ordinary sick-bed; for so it had been +prophesied to him in his youth. In consequence he purposed, when, +according to the usage of the Church, extreme unction should have been +dispensed to him, to call his beloved son to his bed-side, having +previously dismissed all bystanders; there to give him the paternal +blessing, and by way of farewell memorial direct him to this treasure +buried in the garden. All this, too, would have happened in just order, +if the light of the good old man had departed, like that of a wick whose +oil is done; but as Death had privily snuffed him out at a feast, he +undesignedly took along with him his Mammon secret to the grave; and +almost as many fortunate concurrences were required before the secreted +patrimony could arrive at the proper heir, as if it had been forwarded +to its address by the hand of Justice itself. + +With immeasurable joy the treasure-digger took possession of the +shapeless Spanish pieces, which, with a vast multitude of other finer +coins, the iron chest had faithfully preserved. When the first +intoxication of delight had in some degree evaporated, he bethought him +how the treasure was to be transported, safe and unobserved, into the +narrow alley. The burden was too heavy to be carried without help; thus, +with the possession of riches, all the cares attendant on them were +awakened. The new Croesus found no better plan, than to intrust his +capital to the hollow trunk of a tree that stood behind the garden, in a +meadow: the empty chest he again buried under the rose-bush, and +smoothed the place as well as possible. In the space of three days, the +treasure had been faithfully transmitted by instalments from the hollow +tree into the narrow alley; and now the owner of it thought he might +with honour lay aside his strict incognito. He dressed himself with the +finest; had his Prayer displaced from the church; and required, instead +of it, "a Christian Thanksgiving for a Traveller, on returning to his +native town, after happily arranging his affairs." He hid himself in a +corner of the church, where he could observe the fair Meta, without +himself being seen; he turned not his eye from the maiden, and drank +from her looks the actual rapture, which in foretaste had restrained him +from the break-neck somerset on the Bridge of the Weser. When the +Thanksgiving came in hand, a glad sympathy shone forth from all her +features, and the cheeks of the virgin glowed with joy. The customary +greeting on the way homewards was so full of emphasis, that even to the +third party who had noticed them, it would have been intelligible. + +Franz now appeared once more on the Exchange; began a branch of trade +which in a few weeks extended to the great scale; and as his wealth +became daily more apparent, Neighbour Grudge, the scandal-chewer, was +obliged to conclude, that in the cashing of his old debts, he must have +had more luck than sense. He hired a large house, fronting the Roland, +in the Market-place; engaged clerks and warehousemen, and carried on his +trade unweariedly. Now the sorrowful populace of parasites again +diligently handled the knocker of his door; appeared in crowds, and +suffocated him with assurances of friendship, and joy-wishings on his +fresh prosperity; imagined they should once more catch him in their +robber claws. But experience had taught him wisdom; he paid them in +their own coin, feasted their false friendship on smooth words, and +dismissed them with fasting stomachs; which sovereign means for scaring +off the cumbersome brood of pickthanks and toadeaters produced the +intended effect, that they betook them elsewhither. + +In Bremen, the remounting Melcherson had become the story of the day; +the fortune which in some inexplicable manner he had realised, as was +supposed, in foreign parts, was the subject-matter of all conversations +at formal dinners, in the Courts of Justice and at the Exchange. But in +proportion as the fame of his fortune and affluence increased, the +contentedness and peace of mind of the fair Meta diminished. The friend +_in petto_ was now, in her opinion, well qualified to speak a plain +word. Yet still his Love continued Dumb; and except the greeting on the +way from church, he gave no tidings of himself. Even this sort of visit +was becoming rarer, and such aspects were the sign not of warm, but of +cold weather in the atmosphere of Love. Jealousy,[10] the baleful Harpy, +fluttered round her little room by night, and when sleep was closing her +blue eyes, croaked many a dolorous presage into the ear of the +re-awakened Meta. "Forego the flattering hope of binding an inconstant +heart, which, like a feather, is the sport of every wind. He loved thee, +and was faithful to thee, while his lot was as thy own: like only draws +to like. Now a propitious destiny exalts the Changeful far above thee. +Ah! now he scorns the truest thoughts in mean apparel, now that pomp, +and wealth, and splendour dazzle him once more; and courts who knows +what haughty fair one that disdained him when he lay among the pots, and +now with siren call allures him back to her. Perhaps her cozening voice +has turned him from thee, speaking with false words: 'For thee, God's +garden blossoms in thy native town: friend, thou hast now thy choice of +all our maidens; choose with prudence, not by the eye alone. Of girls +are many, and of fathers many, who in secret lie in wait for thee; none +will withhold his darling daughter. Take happiness and honour with the +fairest; likewise birth and fortune. The councillor dignity awaits thee, +where vote of friends is potent in the city.'" + + [10] Jealousy too (at bottom a very sad spectre, but not here + introduced as one) now _croaks_ in iambics, as the Goblin Barber + lately spoke in them.--WIELAND. + +These suggestions of Jealousy disturbed and tormented her heart without +ceasing: she reviewed her fair contemporaries in Bremen, estimated the +ratio of so many splendid matches to herself and her circumstances; and +the result was far from favourable. The first tidings of her lover's +change of situation had in secret charmed her; not in the selfish view +of becoming participatress in a large fortune; but for her mother's +sake, who had abdicated all hopes of earthly happiness, ever since the +marriage project with neighbour Hop-King had made shipwreck. But now +poor Meta wished that Heaven had not heard the Prayer of the Church, or +granted to the traveller any such abundance of success; but rather kept +him by the bread and salt, which he would willingly have shared with +her. + +The fair half of the species are by no means calculated to conceal an +inward care: Mother Brigitta soon observed the trouble of her daughter; +and without the use of any great penetration, likewise guessed its +cause. The talk about the re-ascending star of her former +flax-negotiator, who was now celebrated as the pattern of an orderly, +judicious, active tradesman, had not escaped her, any more than the +feeling of the good Meta towards him; and it was her opinion, that if he +loved in earnest, it was needless to hang off so long, without +explaining what he meant. Yet out of tenderness to her daughter, she let +no hint of this discovery escape her; till at length poor Meta's heart +became so full, that of her own accord she made her mother the +confidante of her sorrow, and disclosed to her its true origin. The +shrewd old lady learned little more by this disclosure than she knew +already. But it afforded opportunity to mother and daughter for a full, +fair and free discussion of this delicate affair. Brigitta made her no +reproaches on the subject; she believed that what was done could not be +undone; and directed all her eloquence to strengthen and encourage the +dejected Meta to bear the failure of her hopes with a steadfast mind. + +With this view, she spelt out to her the extremely reasonable moral, +_a_, _b_, _ab_; discoursing thus: "My child, thou hast already said _a_, +thou must now say _b_ too; thou hast scorned thy fortune when it sought +thee, now thou must submit when it will meet thee no longer. Experience +has taught me, that the most confident Hope is the first to deceive us. +Therefore, follow my example; abandon the fair cozener utterly, and thy +peace of mind will no longer be disturbed by her. Count not on any +improvement of thy fate; and thou wilt grow contented with thy present +situation. Honour the spinning-wheel, which supports thee: what are +fortune and riches to thee, when thou canst do without them?" + +Close on this stout oration followed a loud humming symphony of +snap-reel and spinning-wheel, to make up for the time lost in speaking. +Mother Brigitta was in truth philosophising from the heart. After her +scheme for the restoration of her former affluence had gone to ruin, she +had so simplified the plan of her life, that Fate could not perplex it +any more. But Meta was still far from this philosophical centre of +indifference; and hence this doctrine, consolation and encouragement +affected her quite otherwise than had been intended: the conscientious +daughter now looked upon herself as the destroyer of her mother's fair +hopes, and suffered from her own mind a thousand reproaches for this +fault. Though she had never adopted the maternal scheme of marriage, and +had reckoned only upon bread and salt in her future wedlock; yet, on +hearing of her lover's riches and spreading commerce, her diet-project +had directly mounted to six plates; and it delighted her to think, that +by her choice she should still realise her good mother's wish, and see +her once more planted in her previous abundance. + +This fair dream now vanished by degrees, as Franz continued silent. To +make matters worse, there spread a rumour over all the city, that he was +furnishing his house in the most splendid fashion for his marriage with +a rich Antwerp lady, who was already on her way to Bremen. This +Job's-news drove the lovely maiden from her last defence: she passed on +the apostate sentence of banishment from her heart; and vowed from that +hour never more to think of him; and as she did so, wetted the twining +thread with her tears. + +In a heavy hour she was breaking this vow, and thinking, against her +will, of the faithless lover: for she had just spun off a rock of flax; +and there was an old rhyme which had been taught her by her mother for +encouragement to diligence: + + 'Spin, daughterkin, spin; + Thy sweetheart's within!' + +which she always recollected when her rock was done; and along with it +the memory of the Deceitful necessarily occurred to her. In this heavy +hour, a finger rapped with a most dainty patter at the door. Mother +Brigitta looked forth: the sweetheart was without. And who could it be? +Who else but neighbour Franz, from the alley? He had decked himself with +a gallant wooing-suit; and his well-dressed, thick brown locks shook +forth perfume. This stately decoration boded, at all events, something +else than flax-dealing. Mother Brigitta started in alarm; she tried to +speak, but words failed her. Meta rose in trepidation from her seat, +blushed like a purple rose, and was silent. Franz, however, had the +power of utterance; to the soft _adagio_ which he had in former days +trilled forth to her, he now appended a suitable text, and explained his +dumb love in clear words. Thereupon he made solemn application for her +to the mother; justifying his proposal by the statement, that the +preparations in his house had been meant for the reception of a bride, +and that this bride was the charming Meta. + +The pointed old lady, having brought her feelings once more into +equilibrium, was for protracting the affair to the customary term of +eight days for deliberation; though joyful tears were running down her +cheeks, presaging no impediment on her side, but rather answer of +approval. Franz, however, was so pressing in his suit, that she fell +upon a middle path between the wooer's ardour and maternal use and wont, +and empowered the gentle Meta to decide in the affair according to her +own good judgment. In the virgin heart there had occurred, since Franz's +entrance, an important revolution. His presence here was the most +speaking proof of his innocence; and as, in the course of conversation, +it distinctly came to light, that his apparent coldness had been nothing +else than zeal and diligence in putting his commercial affairs in order, +and preparing what was necessary for the coming nuptials, it followed +that the secret reconciliation would proceed forthwith without any stone +of stumbling in its way. She acted with the outlaw, as Mother Brigitta +with her disposted spinning gear, or the First-born Son of the Church +with an exiled Parliament; recalled him with honour to her high-beating +heart, and reinstated him in all his former rights and privileges there. +The decisive three-lettered little word, that ratifies the happiness of +love, came gliding with such unspeakable grace from her soft lips, that +the answered lover could not help receiving it with a warm melting kiss. + +The tender pair had now time and opportunity for deciphering all the +hieroglyphics of their mysterious love; which afforded the most pleasant +conversation that ever two lovers carried on. They found, what our +commentators ought to pray for, that they had always understood and +interpreted the text aright, without once missing the true sense of +their reciprocal proceedings. It cost the delighted bridegroom almost as +great an effort to part from his charming bride, as on the day when he +set out on his crusade to Antwerp. However, he had an important walk to +take; so at last it became time to withdraw. + +This walk was directed to the Weser-bridge, to find Timbertoe, whom he +had not forgotten, though he had long delayed to keep his word to him. +Sharply as the physiognomist, ever since his interview with the +open-handed Bridge-bailiff, had been on the outlook, he could never +catch a glimpse of him among the passengers, although a second visit had +been faithfully promised. Yet the figure of his benefactor had not +vanished from his memory. The moment he perceived the fair-apparelled +youth from a distance, he stilted towards him, and gave him kindly +welcome. Franz answered his salutation, and said: "Friend, canst thou +take a walk with me into the Neustadt, to transact a small affair? Thy +trouble shall not be unpaid." + +"Ah! why not?" replied the old blade; "though I have a wooden leg, I can +step you with it as stoutly as the lame dwarf that crept round the +city-common;[11] for the wooden leg, you must know, has this good +property, it never tires. But excuse me a little while till Graycloak is +come: he never misses to pass along the Bridge between day and night." + + [11] There is an old tradition, that a neighbouring Countess + promised in jest to give the Bremers as much land as a cripple, who + was just asking her for alms, would creep round in a day. They took + her at her word; and the cripple crawled so well, that the town + obtained this large common by means of him. + +"What of Graycloak?" inquired Franz: "let me know about him." + +"Graycloak brings me daily about nightfall a silver groschen, I know not +from whom. It is of no use prying into things, so I never mind. +Sometimes it occurs to me Graycloak must be the devil, and means to buy +my soul with the money. But devil or no devil, what care I? I did not +strike him on the bargain, so it cannot hold." + +"I should not wonder," answered Franz, with a smile, "if Graycloak were +a piece of a knave. But do thou follow me: the silver groschen shall not +fail thee." + +Timbertoe set forth, hitched on briskly after his guide, who conducted +him up one street and down another, to a distant quarter of the city, +near the wall; then halted before a neat little new-built house, and +knocked at the door. When it was opened: "Friend," said he, "thou madest +one evening of my life cheerful; it is just that I should make the +evening of thy life cheerful also. This house, with its appurtenances, +and the garden where it stands, are thine; kitchen and cellar are full; +an attendant is appointed to wait upon thee; and the silver groschen, +over and above, thou wilt find every noon lying under thy plate. Nor +will I hide from thee that Graycloak was my servant, whom I sent to give +thee daily an honourable alms, till I had got this house made ready for +thee. If thou like, thou mayest reckon me thy proper Guardian Angel, +since the other has not acted to thy satisfaction." + +He then led the old man into his dwelling, where the table was standing +covered, and everything arranged for his convenience and comfortable +living. The grayhead was so astonished at his fortune, that he could not +understand or even believe it. That a rich man should take such pity on +a poor one, was incomprehensible: he felt disposed to take the whole +affair for magic or jugglery, till Franz removed his doubts. A stream of +thankful tears flowed down the old man's cheeks; and his benefactor, +satisfied with this, did not wait till he should recover from his +amazement and thank him in words, but, after doing this angel-message, +vanished from the old man's eyes, as angels are wont; and left him to +piece together the affair as he best could. + +Next morning, in the habitation of the lovely Meta, all was as a fair. +Franz dispatched to her a crowd of merchants, jewellers, milliners, +lace-dealers, tailors, sutors and sempstresses, in part to offer her all +sorts of wares, in part their own good services. She passed the whole +day in choosing stuffs, laces and other requisites for the condition of +a bride, or being measured for her various new apparel. The dimensions +of her dainty foot, her beautifully-formed arm, and her slim waist, were +as often and as carefully meted, as if some skilful statuary had been +taking from her the model for a Goddess of Love. Meanwhile the +bridegroom went to appoint the bans; and before three weeks were past, +he led his bride to the altar, with a solemnity by which even the +gorgeous wedding-pomp of the Hop-King was eclipsed. Mother Brigitta had +the happiness of twisting the bridal-garland for her virtuous Meta; she +completely attained her wish of spending her woman's-summer in +propitious affluence; and deserved this satisfaction, as a recompense +for one praiseworthy quality which she possessed: She was the most +tolerable mother-in-law that has ever been discovered. + + + + +LIBUSSA.[12] + + +Deep in the Bohemian forest, which has now dwindled to a few scattered +woodlands, there abode, in the primeval times, while it stretched its +umbrage far and wide, a spiritual race of beings, airy and avoiding +light, incorporeal also, more delicately fashioned than the clay-formed +sons of men; to the coarser sense of feeling imperceptible, but to the +finer, half-visible by moonlight; and well known to poets by the name of +Dryads, and to ancient bards by that of Elves. From immemorial ages, +they had dwelt here undisturbed; till all at once the forest sounded +with the din of warriors, for Duke Czech of Hungary, with his Sclavonic +hordes, had broken over the mountains, to seek in these wild tracts a +new habitation. The fair tenants of the aged oaks, of the rocks, clefts +and grottos, and of the flags in the tarns and morasses, fled before the +clang of arms and the neighing of chargers: the stout Erl-King himself +was annoyed by the uproar, and transferred his court to more sequestered +wildernesses. One solitary Elf could not resolve to leave her darling +oak; and as the wood began here and there to be felled for the purposes +of cultivation, she alone undertook to defend her tree against the +violence of the strangers, and chose the towering summit of it for her +residence. + + [12] From _Jo. Dubravii Historia Bohemica_, and _AEneae Sylvii + Cardinalis de Bohemarum Origine ac Gestis Historia_. + +Among the retinue of the Duke was a young Squire, Krokus by name, full +of spirit and impetuosity; stout and handsome, and of noble mien, to +whom the keeping of his master's stud had been entrusted, which at times +he drove far into the forest for their pasture. Frequently he rested +beneath the oak which the Elf inhabited: she observed him with +satisfaction; and at night, when he was sleeping at the root, she would +whisper pleasant dreams into his ear, and announce to him in expressive +images the events of the coming day. When any horse had strayed into the +desert, and the keeper had lost its tract, and gone to sleep with +anxious thoughts, he failed not to see in vision the marks of the hidden +path, which led him to the spot where his lost steed was grazing. + +The farther the new colonists extended, the nearer came they to the +dwelling of the Elf; and as by her gift of divination, she perceived how +soon her life-tree would be threatened by the axe, she determined to +unfold this sorrow to her guest. One moonshiny summer evening, Krokus +had folded his herd somewhat later than usual, and was hastening to his +bed under the lofty oak. His path led him round a little fishy lake, on +whose silver face the moon was imaging herself like a gleaming ball of +gold; and across this glittering portion of the water, on the farther +side, he perceived a female form, apparently engaged in walking by the +cool shore. This sight surprised the young warrior: What brings the +maiden hither, thought he, by herself, in this wilderness, at the season +of the nightly dusk? Yet the adventure was of such a sort, that, to a +young man, the more strict investigation of it seemed alluring rather +than alarming. He redoubled his steps, keeping firmly in view the form +which had arrested his attention; and soon reached the place where he +had first noticed it, beneath the oak. But now it looked to him as if +the thing he saw were a shadow rather than a body; he stood wondering +and motionless, a cold shudder crept over him; and he heard a sweet soft +voice address to him these words: "Come hither, beloved stranger, and +fear not; I am no phantasm, no deceitful shadow: I am the Elf of this +grove, the tenant of the oak, under whose leafy boughs thou hast often +rested. I rocked thee in sweet delighting dreams, and prefigured to thee +thy adventures; and when a brood-mare or a foal had chanced to wander +from the herd, I told thee of the place where thou wouldst find it. +Repay this favour by a service which I now require of thee; be the +Protector of this tree, which has so often screened thee from the shower +and the scorching heat; and guard the murderous axes of thy brethren, +which lay waste the forest, that they harm not this venerable trunk." + +The young warrior, restored to self-possession by this soft still voice, +made answer: "Goddess or mortal, whoever thou mayest be, require of me +what thou pleasest; if I can, I will perform it. But I am a man of no +account among my people, the servant of the Duke my lord. If he tell me +today or tomorrow, Feed here, feed there, how shall I protect thy tree +in this distant forest? Yet if thou commandest me, I will renounce the +service of princes, and dwell under the shadow of thy oak, and guard it +while I live." + +"Do so," said the Elf: "thou shalt not repent it." + +Hereupon she vanished; and there was a rustling in the branches above, +as if some breath of an evening breeze had been entangled in them, and +had stirred the leaves. Krokus, for a while, stood enraptured at the +heavenly form which had appeared to him. So soft a female, of such +slender shape and royal bearing, he had never seen among the short squat +damsels of his own Sclavonic race. At last he stretched himself upon the +moss, but no sleep descended on his eyes; the dawn overtook him in a +whirl of sweet emotions, which were as strange and new to him as the +first beam of light to the opened eye of one born blind. With the +earliest morning he hastened to the Court of the Duke, required his +discharge, packed up his war-accoutrements, and, with rapid steps, his +burden on his shoulders, and his head full of glowing enthusiasm, hied +him back to his enchanted forest-hermitage. + +Meanwhile, in his absence, a craftsman among the people, a miller by +trade, had selected for himself the round straight trunk of the oak to +be an axle, and was proceeding with his mill-men to fell it. The +affrighted Elf sobbed bitterly, as the greedy saw began with iron tooth +to devour the foundations of her dwelling. She looked wildly round, from +the highest summit, for her faithful guardian, but her glance could find +him nowhere; and the gift of prophecy, peculiar to her race, was in the +present case so ineffectual, that she could as little read the fate that +stood before her, as the sons of AEsculapius, with their vaunted +prognosis, can discover ways and means for themselves when Death is +knocking at their own door. + +Krokus, however, was approaching, and so near the scene of this +catastrophe, that the screeching of the busy saw did not escape his ear. +Such a sound in the forest boded no good: he quickened his steps, and +beheld before his eyes the horror of the devastation that was visiting +the tree which he had taken under his protection. Like a fury he rushed +upon the wood-cutters, with pike and sword, and scared them from their +work; for they concluded he must be a forest-demon, and fled in great +precipitation. By good fortune, the wound of the tree was still curable; +and the scar of it disappeared in a few summers. + +In the solemn hour of evening, when the stranger had fixed upon the spot +for his future habitation; had meted out the space for hedging round as +a garden, and was weighing in his mind the whole scheme of his future +hermitage; where, in retirement from the society of men, he purposed to +pass his days in the service of a shadowy companion, possessed +apparently of little more reality than a Saint of the Calendar, whom a +pious friar chooses for his spiritual paramour,--the Elf appeared before +him at the brink of the lake, and with gentle looks thus spoke: + +"Thanks to thee, beloved stranger, that thou hast turned away the +wasteful arms of thy brethren from ruining this tree, with which my life +is united. For thou shalt know that Mother Nature, who has granted to my +race such varied powers and influences, has combined the fortune of our +life with the growth and duration of the oak. By us the sovereign of the +forest raises his venerable head above the populace of other trees and +shrubs; we further the circulation of the sap through his trunk and +boughs, that he may gain strength to battle with the tempest, and for +long centuries to defy destructive Time. On the other hand, our life is +bound to his: when the oak, which the lot of Destiny has appointed for +the partner of our existence, fades by years, we fade along with him; +and when he dies, we die, and sleep, like mortals, as it were a sort of +death-sleep, till, by the everlasting cycle of things, Chance, or some +hidden provision of Nature, again weds our being to a new germ; which, +unfolded by our enlivening virtue, after the lapse of long years, +springs up to be a mighty tree, and affords us the enjoyment of +existence anew. From this thou mayest perceive what a service thou hast +done me by thy help, and what gratitude I owe thee. Ask of me the +recompense of thy noble deed; disclose to me the wish of thy heart, and +this hour it shall be granted thee." + +Krokus continued silent. The sight of the enchanting Elf had made more +impression on him than her speech, of which, indeed, he understood but +little. She noticed his embarrassment; and, to extricate him from it, +plucked a withered reed from the margin of the lake, broke it into three +pieces, and said: "Choose one of these three stalks, or take one without +a choice. In the first, lie Honour and Renown; in the second, Riches +and the wise enjoyment of them; in the third is happiness in Love laid +up for thee." + +The young man cast his eyes upon the ground, and answered: "Daughter of +Heaven, if thou wouldst deign to grant the desire of my heart, know that +it lies not in these three stalks which thou offerest me; the recompense +I aim at is higher. What is Honour but the fuel of Pride? what are +Riches but the root of Avarice? and what is Love but the trap-door of +Passion, to ensnare the noble freedom of the heart? Grant me my wish, to +rest under the shadow of thy oak-tree from the toils of warfare, and to +hear from thy sweet mouth the lessons of wisdom, that I may understand +by them the secrets of the future." + +"Thy request," replied the Elf, "is great; but thy deserving toward me +is not less so: be it then as thou hast asked. Nor, with the fruit, +shall the shell be wanting to thee; for the wise man is also honoured; +he alone is rich, for he desires nothing more than he needs, and he +tastes the pure nectar of Love without poisoning it by polluted lips." + +So saying, she again presented him the three reed-stalks, and vanished +from his sight. + +The young Eremite prepared his bed of moss, beneath the oak, exceedingly +content with the reception which the Elf had given him. Sleep came upon +him like a strong man; gay morning dreams danced round his head, and +solaced his fancy with the breath of happy forebodings. On awakening, he +joyfully began his day's work; ere long he had built himself a pleasant +hermit's-cottage; had dug his garden, and planted in it roses and +lilies, with other odoriferous flowers and herbs; not forgetting pulse +and cole, and a sufficiency of fruit-trees. The Elf never failed to +visit him at twilight; she rejoiced in the prospering of his labours; +walked with him, hand in hand, by the sedgy border of the lake; and the +wavering reeds, as the wind passed through them, whispered a melodious +evening salutation to the trustful pair. She instructed her attentive +disciple in the secrets of Nature; showed him the origin and causes of +things; taught him their common and their magic properties and effects; +and formed the rude soldier into a thinker and philosopher. + +In proportion as the feelings and senses of the young man grew refined +by this fair spiritual intercourse, it seemed as if the tender form of +the Elf were condensing, and acquiring more consistency; her bosom +caught warmth and life; her brown eyes sparkled with the fire of love; +and with the shape, she appeared to have adopted the feelings of a young +blooming maiden. The sentimental hour of dusk, which is as if expressly +calculated to awaken slumbering feelings, had its usual effect; and +after a few moons from their first acquaintance, the sighing Krokus +found himself possessed of the happiness in Love, which the Third +Reed-stalk had appointed him; and did not repent that by the trap-door +of Passion the freedom of his heart had been ensnared. Though the +marriage of the tender pair took place without witnesses, it was +celebrated with as much enjoyment as the most tumultuous espousal; nor +were speaking proofs of love's recompense long wanting. The Elf gave her +husband three daughters at a birth; and the father, rejoicing in the +bounty of his better half, named, at the first embrace, the eldest +infant, Bela; the next born, Therba; and the youngest, Libussa. They +were all like the Genies in beauty of form; and though not moulded of +such light materials as the mother, their corporeal structure was finer +than the dull earthy clay of the father. They were also free from all +the infirmities of childhood; their swathings did not gall them; they +teethed without epileptic fits, needed no calomel taken inwardly, got no +rickets; had no small-pox, and, of course, no scars, no scum-eyes, or +puckered faces: nor did they require any leading-strings; for after the +first nine days, they ran like little partridges; and as they grew up, +they manifested all the talents of the mother for discovering hidden +things, and predicting what was future. + +Krokus himself, by the aid of time, grew skilful in these mysteries +also. When the wolf had scattered the flocks through the forest, and the +herdsmen were seeking for their sheep and horses; when the woodman +missed an axe or bill, they took counsel from the wise Krokus, who +showed them where to find what they had lost. When a wicked prowler had +abstracted aught from the common stock; had by night broken into the +pinfold, or the dwelling of his neighbour, and robbed or slain him, and +none could guess the malefactor, the wise Krokus was consulted. He led +the people to a green; made them form a ring; then stept into the midst +of them, set the faithful sieve a-running, and so failed not to discover +the misdoer. By such acts his fame spread over all the country of +Bohemia; and whoever had a weighty care, or an important undertaking, +took counsel from the wise Krokus about its issue. The lame and the +sick, too, required from him help and recovery; even the unsound cattle +of the fold were driven to him; and his gift of curing sick kine by his +shadow, was not less than that of the renowned St. Martin of Schierbach. +By these means the concourse of the people to him grew more frequent, +day by day, no otherwise than if the Tripod of the Delphic Apollo had +been transferred to the Bohemian forest: and though Krokus answered all +inquiries, and cured the sick and afflicted, without fee or reward, yet +the treasure of his secret wisdom paid him richly, and brought him in +abundant profit; the people crowded to him with gifts and presents, and +almost oppressed him with testimonies of their good-will. It was he that +first disclosed the mystery of washing gold from the sands of the Elbe; +and for his recompense he had a tenth of all the produce. By these means +his wealth and store increased; he built strongholds and palaces; had +vast herds of cattle; possessed fertile pasturages, fields and woods; +and thus found himself imperceptibly possessed of all the Riches which +the beneficently foreboding Elf had enclosed for him in the Second Reed. + +One fine summer evening, when Krokus with his train was returning from +an excursion, having by special request been settling the disputed +marches of two townships, he perceived his spouse on the margin of the +sedgy lake, where she had first appeared to him. She waved him with her +hand; so he dismissed his servants, and hastened to clasp her in his +arms. She received him, as usual, with tender love; but her heart was +sad and oppressed; from her eyes trickled down ethereal tears, so fine +and fugitive, that as they fell they were greedily inhaled by the air, +and not allowed to reach the ground. Krokus was alarmed at this +appearance; he had never seen his wife's fair eyes otherwise than +cheerful, and sparkling with youthful gaiety. "What ails thee, beloved +of my heart?" said he; "black forebodings overcast my soul. Speak, say +what mean those tears." + +The Elf sobbed, leaned her head sorrowfully on his shoulder, and said: +"Beloved husband, in thy absence I have looked into the Book of Destiny; +a doleful chance overhangs my life-tree; I must part from thee forever. +Follow me into the Castle, till I bless my children; for from this day +you will never see me more." + +"Dearest wife," said Krokus, "chase away these mournful thoughts. What +misfortune is it that can harm thy tree? Behold its sound boughs, how +they stretch forth loaded with fruit and leaves, and how it raises its +top to the clouds. While this arm can move, it shall defend thy tree +from any miscreant that presumes to wound its stem." + +"Impotent defence," replied she, "which a mortal arm can yield! Ants can +but secure themselves from ants, flies from flies, and the worms of +Earth from other earthly worms. But what can the mightiest among you do +against the workings of Nature, or the unalterable decisions of Fate? +The kings of the Earth can heap up little hillocks, which they name +fortresses and castles; but the weakest breath of air defies their +authority, blows where it lists, and mocks at their command. This +oak-tree thou hast guarded from the violence of men; canst thou likewise +forbid the tempest that it rise not to disleaf its branches; or if a +hidden worm is gnawing in its marrow, canst thou draw it out, and tread +it under foot?" + +Amid such conversation they arrived at the Castle. The slender maidens, +as they were wont at the evening visit of their mother, came bounding +forth to meet them; gave account of their day's employments, produced +their needlework, and their embroideries, to prove their diligence: but +now the hour of household happiness was joyless. They soon observed that +the traces of deep suffering were imprinted on the countenance of their +father; and they looked with sympathising sorrow at their mother's +tears, without venturing to inquire their cause. The mother gave them +many wise instructions and wholesome admonitions; but her speech was +like the singing of a swan, as if she wished to give the world her +farewell. She lingered with her husband, till the morning-star went up +in the sky; then she embraced him and her children with mournful +tenderness; and at dawn of day retired, as was her custom, through the +secret door, to her oak-tree, and left her friends to their own sad +forebodings. + +Nature stood in listening stillness at the rising sun; but heavy black +clouds soon veiled his beaming head. The day grew sultry and oppressive; +the whole atmosphere was electric. Distant thunder came rolling over the +forest; and the hundred-voiced Echo repeated, in the winding valleys, +its baleful sound. At the noontide, a forked thunderbolt struck +quivering down upon the oak; and in a moment shivered with resistless +force the trunk and boughs, and the wreck lay scattered far around it in +the forest. When Father Krokus was informed of this, he rent his +garments, went forth with his daughters to deplore the life-tree of his +spouse, and to collect the fragments of it, and preserve them as +invaluable relics. But the Elf from that day was not seen any more. + +In some few years, the tender girls had waxed in stature; their maiden +forms blossomed forth, as the rose pushing up from the bud; and the fame +of their beauty spread abroad over all the land. The noblest youths of +the people crowded round, with cases to submit to Father Krokus for his +counsel; but at bottom, these their specious pretexts were directed to +the fair maidens, whom they wished to get a glimpse of; as is the mode +with young men, who delight to have some business with the master of the +household, when his daughters are beautiful. The three sisters lived in +great simplicity and unity together; as yet but little conscious of +their talents. The gift of prophecy had been communicated to them in an +equal degree; and all their words were oracles, although they knew it +not. Yet soon their vanity awoke at the voice of flattery; word-catchers +eagerly laid hold of every sound proceeding from their lips; Celadons +noted down every look, spied out the faintest smile, explored the aspect +of their eyes, and drew from it more or less favourable prognostics, +conceiving that their own destiny was to be read by means of it; and +from this time, it has become the mode with lovers to deduce from the +horoscope of the eyes the rising or declining of their star in +courtship. Scarcely had Vanity obtained a footing in the virgin heart, +till Pride, her dear confidante, with her wicked rabble of a train, +Self-love, Self-praise, Self-will, Self-interest, were standing at the +door; and all of them in time sneaked in. The elder sisters struggled to +outdo the younger in their arts; and envied her in secret her +superiority in personal attractions. For though they all were very +beautiful, the youngest was the most so. Fraeulein Bela turned her chief +attention to the science of plants; as Fraeulein Medea did in earlier +times. She knew their hidden virtues, could extract from them poisons +and antidotes; and farther, understood the art of making from them sweet +or nauseous odours for the unseen Powers. When her censer steamed, she +allured to her Spirits out of the immeasurable depth of aether, from +beyond the Moon, and they became her subjects, that with their fine +organs they might be allowed to snuff these delicious vapours: and when +she scattered villanous perfumes upon the coals, she could have smoked +away with it the very Zihim and the Ohim from the Wilderness. + +Fraeulein Therba was inventive as Circe in devising magic formulas, +which could command the elements, could raise tempests and whirlwinds, +also hail and thunder; could shake the bowels of the Earth, or lift +itself from the sockets of its axle. She employed these arts to terrify +the people, and be feared and honoured by them as a goddess; and she +could, in fact, arrange the weather more according to the wish and taste +of men than wise old Nature does. Two brothers quarrelled on this +subject, for their wishes never were the same. The one was a husbandman, +and still desired rain for the growth and strengthening of his crops. +The other was a potter, and desired constant sunshine to dry his dishes, +which the rain destroyed. And as Heaven never could content them in +disposing of this matter, they repaired one day with rich presents to +the Castle of the wise Krokus; and submitted their petitions to Therba. +The daughter of the Elf gave a smile over their unquiet grumbling at the +wise economy of Nature; and contented the demands of each: she made rain +fall on the seed-lands of the cultivator; and the sun shone on the +potter-field close by. By these enchantments both the sisters gained +much fame and riches, for they never used their gifts without a fee. +With their treasures they built castles and country-houses; laid out +royal pleasure-gardens; to their festivals and divertisements there was +no end. The gallants, who solicited their love, they gulled and laughed +at. + +Fraeulein Libussa was no sharer in the vain proud disposition of her +sisters. Though she had the same capacities for penetrating the secrets +of Nature, and employing its hidden powers in her service, she remained +contented with the gifts she had derived from her maternal inheritance, +without attempting to increase them, or turn them to a source of gain. +Her vanity extended not beyond the consciousness that she was beautiful; +she cared not for riches; and neither longed to be feared nor to be +honoured like her sisters. Whilst these were gadding up and down among +their country-houses, hastening from one tumultuous pleasure to another, +with the flower of the Bohemian chivalry fettered to their +chariot-wheels, she abode in her father's house, conducting the economy, +giving counsel to those who begged it, friendly help to the afflicted +and oppressed; and all from good-will, without remuneration.[13] Her +temper was soft and modest, and her conduct virtuous and discreet, as +beseems a noble virgin. She might secretly rejoice in the victories +which her beauty gained over the hearts of men, and accept the sighing +and cooing of her languishing adorers as a just tribute to her charms; +but none dared speak a word of love to her, or venture on aspiring to +her heart. Yet Amor, the roguish urchin, takes a pleasure in exerting +his privileges on the coy; and often hurls his burning torch upon the +lowly straw-roof, when he means to set on fire a lofty palace. + + [13] _Nulla Crocco virilis sexus proles fuit, sed moriturus tres a + morte sua filias superstites reliquit, omnes ut ipse erat + fatidicas, vel magas potius, qualis Medea et Circe fuerant. Nam + Bela natu filiarum maxima herbis incantandis Medeam imitabatur, + Tetcha (Therba) natu minor carminibus magicis Circem reddebat. Ad + utramque frequens multitudinis concursus; dum alii amores sibi + conciliare, alii cum bona valetudine in gratiam redire, alii res + amissas recuperare cupiunt. Illa arcem Belinam, haec altera arcem + Thetin ex mercenaria pecunia, nihil enim gratuito faciebant, + aedificandam curavit. Liberalior in hac re Lybussa natu minima + apparuit, ut quae a nemine quidquam extorquebat, et potius fata + publica omnibus, quam privata singulis, praecinebat: qua + liberalitate, et quia non gratuita solum sed etiam minus fallace + praedictione utebatur, assecuta est ut in locum patris Crocci + subrogaretur_.--DUBRAVIUS. + +Far in the bosom of the forest lived an ancient Knight, who had come +into the land with the host of Czech. In this seclusion he had fixed his +settlement; reduced the desert under cultivation, and formed for himself +a small estate, where he thought to pass the remainder of his days in +peace, and live upon the produce of his husbandry. A strong-handed +neighbour took forcible possession of the land, and expelled the owner, +whom a hospitable peasant sheltered in his dwelling. The distressed old +Knight had a son, who now formed the sole consolation and support of his +age; a bold active youth, but possessed of nothing save a hunting-spear +and a practised arm, for the sustenance of his gray-haired father. The +injustice of their neighbour stimulated him to revenge, and he had been +prepared for resisting force by force; but the command of the anxious +father, unwilling to expose his son to danger, had disarmed him. Yet ere +long he resumed his former purpose. Then the father called him to his +presence, and said: + +"Pass over, my son, to the wise Krokus, or to the cunning virgins his +daughters, and ask counsel whether the gods approve thy undertaking, and +will grant it a prosperous issue. If so, gird on thy sword, and take the +spear in thy hand, and go forth to fight for thy inheritance. If not, +stay here till thou hast closed my eyes and laid me in the earth; then +do what shall seem good to thee." + +The youth set forth, and first reached Bela's palace, a building like a +temple for the habitation of a goddess. He knocked at the door, and +desired to be admitted; but the porter observing that he came +empty-handed, dismissed him as a beggar, and shut the door in his face. +He went forward in sadness, and reached the house of sister Therba, +where he knocked and requested an audience. The porter looked upon him +through his window, and said: "If thou bringest gold in thy bag, which +thou canst weigh out to my mistress, she will teach thee one of her good +saws to read thy fortune withal. If not, then go and gather of it in the +sands of the Elbe as many grains as the tree hath leaves, the sheaf +ears, and the bird feathers, then will I open thee this gate." The +mocked young man glided off entirely dejected; and the more so, as he +learned that Seer Krokus was in Poland, arbitrating the disputes of some +contending Grandees. He anticipated from the third sister no more +flattering reception; and as he descried her father's castle from a hill +in the distance, he could not venture to approach it, but hid himself in +a thicket to pursue his bitter thoughts. Ere long he was roused by an +approaching noise; he listened, and heard a sound of horses' hoofs. A +flying roe dashed through the bushes, followed by a lovely huntress and +her maids on stately steeds. She hurled a javelin from her hand; it flew +whizzing through the air, but did not hit the game. Instantly the +watchful young man seized his bow, and launched from the twanging cord a +bolt, which smote the deer through the heart, and stretched it lifeless +on the spot. The lady, in astonishment at this phenomenon, looked round +to find her unknown hunting partner: and the archer, on observing this, +stept forward from his bush, and bent himself humbly before her to the +ground. Fraeulein Libussa thought she had never seen a finer man. At the +first glance, his figure made so deep an impression on her, that she +could not but award him that involuntary feeling of goodwill, which a +beautiful appearance claims as its prerogative. "Tell me, fair +stranger," said she to him, "who art thou, and what chance is it that +leads thee to these groves?" The youth guessed rightly that his lucky +star had brought him what he was in search of; he disclosed his case to +her in modest words; not hiding how disgracefully her sisters had +dismissed him, or how the treatment had afflicted him. She cheered his +heart with friendly words. "Follow me to my abode," said she; "I will +consult the Book of Fate for thee, and answer thy demand tomorrow by the +rising of the sun." + +The young man did as he was ordered. No churlish porter here barred for +him the entrance of the palace; the fair lady exercised the rights of +hospitality with generous attention. He was charmed by this benignant +reception, but still more by the beauty of his gentle hostess. Her +enchanting figure hovered all night before his eyes; he carefully +defended himself from sleep, that he might not for a moment lose from +his thoughts the delightful events of the day. Fraeulein Libussa, on the +contrary, enjoyed soft slumber: for seclusion from the influences of the +external senses, which disturb the finer presentiments of the future, is +an indispensable condition for the gift of prophecy. The glowing fancy +of the maiden blended the form of this young stranger with all the +dreaming images which hovered through her mind that night. She found him +where she had not looked for him, in connexion with affairs in which she +could not understand how this unknown youth had come to be involved. + +On her early awakening, at the hour when the fair prophetess was wont to +separate and interpret the visions of the night, she felt inclined to +cast away these phantasms from her mind, as errors which had sprung from +a disturbance in the operation of her prophetic faculty, and were +entitled to no heed from her. Yet a dim feeling signified that this +creation of her fancy was not idle dreaming; but had a significant +allusion to certain events which the future would unravel; and that last +night this presaging Fantasy had spied out the decrees of Fate, and +blabbed them to her, more successfully than ever. By help of it, she +found that her guest was inflamed with warm love to her; and with equal +honesty her heart confessed the same thing in regard to him. But she +instantly impressed the seal of silence on the news; as the modest youth +had, on his side, set a guard upon his lips and his eyes, that he might +not expose himself to a contemptuous refusal; for the chasm which +Fortune had interposed between him and the daughter of the wise Krokus +seemed impassable. + +Although the fair Libussa well knew what she had to say in answer to the +young man's question, yet it went against her heart to let him go from +her so soon. At sunrise she called him to her in her garden, and said: +"The curtain of darkness yet hangs before my eyes; abide with me till +sunset;" and at night she said: "Stay till sunrise;" and next morning: +"Wait another day;" and the third day: "Have patience till tomorrow." On +the fourth day she at last dismissed him; finding no more pretexts for +detaining him, with safety to her secret. At parting, she gave him his +response in friendly words: "The gods will not that thou shouldst +contend with a man of violence in the land; to bear and suffer is the +lot of the weaker. Return to thy father; be the comfort of his old age; +and support him by the labour of thy diligent hand. Take two white +Steers as a present from my herd; and this Staff to drive them; and when +it blossoms and bears fruit, the spirit of prophecy will descend on +thee." + +The young man felt himself unworthy of the gentle virgin's gift; and +blushed that he should receive it and make no return. With ineloquent +lips, but with looks so much the more eloquent, he took mournful leave +of her; and at the gate below found two white Steers awaiting him, as +sleek and glittering as of old the godlike Bull, on whose smooth back +the virgin Europa swam across the blue sea waves. Joyfully he loosed +them from the post, and drove them softly on before him. The distance +home seemed but a few ells, so much was his spirit busied with the fair +Libussa: and he vowed, that as he never could obtain her love, he would +love no other all his days. The old Knight rejoiced in the return of his +son; and still more in learning that the oracle of the fair heiress +agreed so completely with his own wishes. As husbandry had been +appointed by the gods for the young man's trade, he lingered not in +harnessing his white Steers, and yoking them to the plough. The first +trial prospered to his wish: the bullocks had such strength and alacrity +that they turned over in a single day more land than twelve yoke of oxen +commonly can master: for they were fiery and impetuous, as the Bull is +painted in the Almanac, where he rushes from the clouds in the sign of +April; not sluggish and heavy like the Ox, who plods on with his holy +consorts, in our Gospel-Book, phlegmatically, as a Dutch skipper in a +calm. + +Duke Czech, who had led the first colony of his people into Bohemia, was +now long ago committed to his final rest, yet his descendants had not +been promoted to succeed him in his princely dignity. The Magnates had +in truth, at his decease, assembled for a new election; but their wild +stormy tempers would admit of no reasonable resolution. Self-interest +and self-sufficiency transformed the first Bohemian Convention of +Estates into a Polish Diet: as too many hands laid hold of the princely +mantle, they tore it in pieces, and no one of them obtained it. The +government had dwindled to a sort of Anarchy; every one did what was +right in his own eyes; the strong oppressed the weak, the rich the +poor, the great the little. There was now no public security in the +land; yet the frank spirits of the time thought their new republic very +well arranged: "All is in order," said they, "every thing goes on its +way with us as well as elsewhere; the wolf eats the lamb, the kite the +dove, the fox the cock." This artless constitution could not last: when +the first debauch of fancied freedom had gone off, and the people were +again grown sober, reason asserted its rights; the patriots, the honest +citizens, whoever in the nation loved his country, joined together to +destroy the idol Hydra, and unite the people once more under a single +head. "Let us choose a Prince," said they, "to rule over us, after the +manner of our fathers, to tame the froward, and exercise right and +justice in the midst of us. Not the strongest, the boldest, or the +richest; the wisest be our Duke!" The people, wearied out with the +oppressions of their petty tyrants, had on this occasion but one voice, +and loudly applauded the proposal. A meeting of Estates was convoked; +and the choice unanimously fell upon the wise Krokus. An embassy of +honour was appointed, inviting him to take possession of the princely +dignity. Though he had never longed for lofty titles, he hesitated not +about complying with the people's wish. Invested with the purple, he +proceeded, with great pomp, to Vizegrad, the residence of the Dukes; +where the people met him with triumphant shouting, and did reverence to +him as their Regent. Whereby he perceived, that now the third Reed-stalk +of the bountiful Elf was likewise sending forth its gift upon him. + +His love of justice, and his wise legislation, soon spread his fame over +all the surrounding countries. The Sarmatic Princes, incessantly at feud +with one another, brought their contention from afar before his +judgment-seat. He weighed it with the undeceitful weights of natural +Justice, in the scales of Law; and when he opened his mouth, it was as +if the venerable Solon, or the wise Solomon from between the Twelve +Lions of his throne, had been pronouncing sentence. Some seditious +instigators having leagued against the peace of their country, and +kindled war among the Poles, he advanced at the head of his army into +Poland; put an end to the civil strife; and a large portion of the +people, grateful for the peace which he had given them, chose him for +their Duke also. He there built the city Cracow, which is called by his +name, and has the privilege of crowning the Polish Kings, even to the +present time. Krokus ruled with great glory to the end of his days. +Observing that he was now near their limit, and must soon set out, he +caused a coffin to be made from the fragments of the oak which his +spouse the Elf had inhabited; and then departed in peace, bewept by the +Princesses his three daughters, who deposited the Ducal remains in the +coffin, and consigned him to the Earth as he had commanded; and the +whole land mourned for him. + +When the obsequies were finished, the Estates assembled to deliberate +who should now possess the vacant throne. The people were unanimous for +one of Krokus's daughters; but which of the three they had not yet +determined. Fraeulein Bela had, on the whole, the fewest adherents; for +her heart was not good; and her magic-lantern was too frequently +employed in doing sheer mischief. But she had raised such a terror of +herself among the people, that no one liked to take exception at her, +lest he might draw down her vengeance on him. When the vote was called, +therefore, the Electors all continued dumb; there was no voice for her, +but also none against her. At sunset the representatives of the people +separated, adjourning their election to another day. Then Fraeulein +Therba was proposed: but confidence in her incantations had made +Fraeulein Therba's head giddy; she was proud and overbearing; required to +be honoured as a goddess; and if incense did not always smoke for her, +she grew peevish, cross, capricious; displaying all the properties by +which the fair sex, when they please, can cease to be fair. She was less +feared than her elder sister, but not on that account more loved. For +these reasons, the election-field continued silent as a lykewake; and +the vote was never called for. On the third day came Libussa's turn. No +sooner was this name pronounced, than a confidential hum was heard +throughout the electing circle; the solemn visages unwrinkled and +brightened up, and each of the Electors had some good to whisper of the +Fraeulein to his neighbour. One praised her virtue, another praised her +modesty, a third her prudence, a fourth her infallibility in prophecy, a +fifth her disinterestedness in giving counsel, a tenth her chastity, +other ninety her beauty, and the last her gifts as a housewife. When a +lover draws out such a catalogue of the perfections of his mistress, it +remains still doubtful whether she is really the possessor of a single +one among them; but the public seldom errs on the favourable side, +however often on the other, in the judgments it pronounces on good fame. +With so many universally acknowledged praiseworthy qualities, Fraeulein +Libussa was undoubtedly the favoured candidate, at least _in petto_, of +the sage Electors: but the preference of the younger sister to the elder +has so frequently, in the affair of marriage, as experience testifies, +destroyed the peace of the house, that reasonable fear might be +entertained lest in affairs of still greater moment it might disturb the +peace of the country. This consideration put the sapient guardians of +the people into such embarrassment, that they could come to no +conclusion whatever. There was wanting a speaker, to hang the +clock-weight of his eloquence upon the wheel of the Electors' favourable +will, before the business could get into motion, and the good +disposition of their minds become active and efficient; and this speaker +now appeared, as if appointed for the business. + +Wladomir, one of the Bohemian Magnates, the highest after the Duke, had +long sighed for the enchanting Libussa, and wooed her during Father +Krokus's lifetime. The youth being one of his most faithful vassals, and +beloved by him as a son, the worthy Krokus could have wished well that +love would unite this pair; but the coyness of the maiden was +insuperable, and he would in nowise force her inclination. Prince +Wladomir, however, would not be deterred by these doubtful aspects; but +still hoped, by fidelity and constancy, to tire out the hard heart of +the Fraeulein, and by his tender attentions make it soft and pliant. He +continued in the Duke's retinue to the end, without appearing by this +means to have advanced a hair's-breadth towards the goal of his desires. +But now, he thought, an opportunity was offered him for opening her +closed heart by a meritorious deed, and earning from her noble-minded +gratitude what love did not seem inclined to grant him voluntarily. He +determined on braving the hatred and vengeance of the two dreaded +sisters, and raising his beloved to her paternal throne. Observing the +indecision of the wavering assembly, he addressed them, and said: + +"If ye will hear me, ye courageous Knights and Nobles from among the +people, I will lay before you a similitude, by which you shall perceive +how this coming choice may be accomplished, to the weal and profit of +the land." + +Silence being ordered, he proceeded thus: + +"The Bees had lost their Queen, and the whole hive sat sad and moping; +they flew seldom and sluggishly out, had small heart or activity in +honey-making, and their trade and sustenance fell into decay. Therefore +they resolved upon a new sovereign, to rule over their community, that +discipline and order might not be lost from among them. Then came the +Wasp flying towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your Queen, I am +mighty and terrible; the strong horse is afraid of my sting; with it I +can even defy the lion, your hereditary foe, and prick him in the snout +when he approaches your store: I will watch you and defend you.' This +speech was pleasant to the Bees; but after deeply considering it, the +wisest among them answered: 'Thou art stout and dreadful, but even the +sting which is to guard us we fear: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then +the Humble-bee came buzzing towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your +Queen; hear ye not that the sounding of my wings announces loftiness and +dignity? Nor is a sting wanting to me, wherewith to protect you.' The +Bees answered: 'We are a peaceable and quiet people; the proud sounding +of thy wings would annoy us, and disturb the continuance of our +diligence: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then the Royal-bee requested +audience: 'Though I am larger and stronger than you,' said she, 'my +strength cannot hurt or damage you; for, lo, the dangerous sting is +altogether wanting. I am soft of temper, a friend of order and thrift, +can guide your honey-making, and further your labour.' 'Then,' said the +Bees, 'thou art worthy to rule over us: we obey thee; be our Queen.'" + +Wladomir was silent. The whole assembly guessed the meaning of his +speech, and the minds of all were in a favourable tone for Fraeulein +Libussa. But at the moment when the vote was to be put, a croaking raven +flew over their heads: this evil omen interrupted all deliberations, and +the meeting was adjourned till the morrow. It was Fraeulein Bela who had +sent this bird of black augury to stop their operations, for she well +knew how the minds of the Electors were inclining; and Prince Wladomir +had raised her bitterest spleen against him. She held a secret +consultation with her sister Therba; when it was determined to take +vengeance on their common slanderer, and to dispatch a heavy Incubus to +suffocate the soul from his body. The stout Knight, dreaming nothing of +this danger, went, as he was wont, to wait upon his mistress, and was +favoured by her with the first friendly look; from which he failed not +to presage for himself a heaven of delight; and if anything could still +have increased his rapture, it must have been the gift of a rose, which +was blooming on the Fraeulein's breast, and which she reached him, with +an injunction to let it wither on his heart. He interpreted these words +quite otherwise than they were meant; for of all the sciences, there is +none so deceitful as the science of expounding in matters of love: here +errors, as it were, have their home. The enamoured Knight was anxious to +preserve his rose as long as possible in freshness and bloom; he put it +in a flower-pot among water, and fell asleep with the most flattering +hopes. + +At gloomy midnight, the destroying angel sent by Fraeulein Bela glided +towards him; with panting breath blew off the bolts and locks of his +apartment; lighted like a mountain of lead upon the slumbering Knight, +and so squeezed him together, that he felt on awakening as if a +millstone had been hung about his neck. In this agonising suffocation, +thinking that the last moment of his life was at hand, he happily +remembered the rose, which was standing by his bed in a flower-pot, and +pressed it to his breast, saying: "Wither with me, fair rose, and die on +my chilled bosom, as a proof that my last thought was directed to thy +gentle mistress." In an instant all was light about his heart; the heavy +Incubus could not withstand the magic force of the flower; his crushing +weight would not now have balanced a feather; his antipathy to the +perfume soon scared him from the chamber; and the narcotic virtue of +this rose-odour again lulled the Knight into refreshing sleep. He rose +with the sun next morning, fresh and alert, and rode to the field, to +see what impression his similitude had made on the Electors, and to +watch what course the business was about to take; determined at all +hazards, should a contrary wind spring up, and threaten with shipwreck +the vessel of his hopes, to lay his hand upon the rudder, and steer it +into port. + +For the present this was not required. The electing Senate had +considered Wladomir's parable, and so sedulously ruminated and digested +it overnight, that it had passed into their hearts and spirits. A stout +Knight, who espied this favourable crisis, and who sympathised in the +concerns of his heart with the enamoured Wladomir, was endeavouring to +snatch away, or at least to share with him, the honour of exalting +Fraeulein Libussa to the throne. He stept forth, and drew his sword, and +with a loud voice proclaimed Libussa Duchess of Bohemia, calling upon +all who thought as he did, to draw their swords and justify the choice. +In a moment hundreds of swords were gleaming through the field; a loud +huzza announced the new Regent, and on all sides arose the joyful shout: +"Libussa be our Duchess!" A commission was appointed, with Wladomir and +the stout sword-drawer at its head, to acquaint the Fraeulein with her +exaltation to the princely rank. With that modest blush, which gives the +highest grace to female charms, she accepted the sovereignty over the +people; and the magic of her enrapturing look made all hearts subject to +her. The nation celebrated the event with vast rejoicings: and although +her two sisters envied her, and employed their secret arts to obtain +revenge on her and their country for the slight which had been put upon +them, and endeavoured by the leaven of criticism, by censuring all the +measures and transactions of their sister, to produce a hurtful +fermentation in the state, yet Libussa was enabled wisely to encounter +this unsisterly procedure, and to ruin all the hostile projects, magical +or other, of these ungentle persons; till at last, weary of assailing +her in vain, they ceased to employ their ineffectual arts against her. + +The sighing Wladomir awaited, in the mean time, with wistful longing, +the unfolding of his fate. More than once he had tried to read the final +issue of it in the fair eyes of his Princess; but Libussa had enjoined +them strict silence respecting the feelings of her heart; and for a +lover, without prior treaty with the eyes and their significant glances, +to demand an oral explanation, is at all times an unhappy undertaking. +The only favourable sign, which still sustained his hopes, was the +unfaded rose; for after a year had passed away, it still bloomed as +fresh as on the night when he received it from her fair hand. A flower +from a lady's hand, a nosegay, a ribbon, or a lock of hair, is certainly +in all cases better than an empty nut; yet all these pretty things are +but ambiguous pledges of love, if they have not borrowed meaning from +some more trustworthy revelation. Wladomir had nothing for it but to +play in silence the part of a sighing shepherd, and to watch what Time +and Chance might in the long-run do to help him. The unquiet Mizisla +pursued his courtship with far more vivacity: he pressed forward on +every occasion where he could obtain her notice. At the coronation, he +had been the first that took the oath of fealty to the Princess; he +followed her inseparably, as the Moon does the Earth, to express by +unbidden offices of zeal his devotion to her person; and on public +solemnities and processions, he flourished his sword before her, to keep +its good services in her remembrance. + +Yet Libussa seemed, like other people in the world, to have very +speedily forgotten the promoters of her fortune; for when an obelisk is +once standing perpendicular, one heeds not the levers and implements +which raised it; so at least the claimants of her heart explained the +Fraeulein's coldness. Meanwhile both of them were wrong in their opinion: +the Fraeulein was neither insensible nor ungrateful; but her heart was no +longer a free piece of property, which she could give or sell according +to her pleasure. The decree of Love had already passed in favour of the +trim Forester with the sure cross-bow. The first impression, which the +sight of him had made upon her heart, was still so strong, that no +second could efface it. In a period of three years, the colours of +imagination, in which that Divinity had painted the image of the +graceful youth, had no whit abated in their brightness; and love +therefore continued altogether unimpaired. For the passion of the fair +sex is of this nature, that if it can endure three moons, it will then +last three times three years, or longer if required. In proof of this, +see the instances occurring daily before our eyes. When the heroes of +Germany sailed over distant seas, to fight out the quarrel of a +self-willed daughter of Britain with her motherland, they tore +themselves from the arms of their dames with mutual oaths of truth and +constancy; yet before the last Buoy of the Weser had got astern of them, +the heroic navigators were for most part forgotten of their Chloes. The +fickle among these maidens, out of grief to find their hearts +unoccupied, hastily supplied the vacuum by the surrogate of new +intrigues; but the faithful and true, who had constancy enough to stand +the Weser-proof, and had still refrained from infidelity when the +conquerors of their hearts had got beyond the Black Buoy, these, it is +said, preserved their vow unbroken till the return of the heroic host +into their German native country; and are still expecting from the hand +of Love the recompense of their unwearied perseverance. + +It is therefore less surprising that the fair Libussa, under these +circumstances, could withstand the courting of the brilliant chivalry +who struggled for her love, than that Penelope of Ithaca could let a +whole cohort of wooers sigh for her in vain, when her heart had nothing +in reserve but the gray-headed Ulysses. Rank and birth, however, had +established such a difference in the situations of the Fraeulein and of +her beloved youth, that any closer union than Platonic love, a shadowy +business which can neither warm nor nourish, was not readily to be +expected. Though in those distant times, the pairing of the sexes was as +little estimated by parchments and genealogical trees, as the chaffers +were arranged by their antennae and shell-wings, or the flowers by their +pistils, stamina, calix and honey-produce; it was understood that with +the lofty elm the precious vine should mate itself, and not the rough +tangleweed which creeps along the hedges. A misassortment of marriage +from a difference of rank an inch in breadth excited, it is true, less +uproar than in these our classic times; yet a difference of an ell in +breadth, especially when rivals occupied the interstice, and made the +distance of the two extremities more visible, was even then a thing +which men could notice. All this, and much more, did the Fraeulein +accurately ponder in her prudent heart; therefore she granted Passion, +the treacherous babbler, no audience, loudly as it spoke in favour of +the youth whom Love had honoured. Like a chaste vestal, she made an +irrevocable vow to persist through life in her virgin closeness of +heart; and to answer no inquiry of a wooer, either with her eyes, or her +gestures, or her lips; yet reserving to herself, as a just +indemnification, the right of platonising to any length she liked. This +nunlike system suited the aspirants' way of thought so ill, that they +could not in the least comprehend the killing coldness of their +mistress; Jealousy, the confidant of Love, whispered torturing suspicion +in their ears; each thought the other was the happy rival, and their +penetration spied about unweariedly to make discoveries, which both of +them recoiled from. Yet Fraeulein Libussa weighed out her scanty graces +to the two valiant Ritters with such prudence and acuteness, on so fair +a balance, that the scale of neither rose above the other. + +Weary of this fruitless waiting, both of them retired from the Court of +their Princess, and settled, with secret discontent, upon the +affeoffments which Duke Krokus had conferred on them. They brought so +much ill-humour home with them, that Wladomir was an oppression to all +his vassals and his neighbours; and Ritter Mizisla, on the other hand, +became a hunter, followed deer and foxes over the seed-fields and fences +of his subjects, and often with his train, to catch one hare, would ride +ten acres of corn to nothing. In consequence, arose much sobbing and +bewailing in the land; yet no righteous judge stepped forth to stay the +mischief; for who would willingly give judgment against the stronger? +And so the sufferings of the people never reached the throne of the +Duchess. By the virtue of her second-sight, however, no injustice done +within the wide limits of her sway could escape her observation; and the +disposition of her mind being soft, like the sweet features of her +face, she sorrowed inwardly at the misdeeds of her vassals, and the +violence of the powerful. She took counsel with herself how the evil +might be remedied, and her wisdom suggested an imitation of the gods, +who, in their judicial procedure, do not fall upon the criminal, and cut +him off as it were with the red hand; though vengeance, following with +slow steps, sooner or later overtakes him. The young Princess appointed +a general Convention of her Chivalry and States, and made proclamation, +that whoever had a grievance or a wrong to be righted, should come +forward free and fearless, under her safe-conduct. Thereupon, from every +end and corner of her dominions, the maltreated and oppressed crowded +towards her; the wranglers also, and litigious persons, and whoever had +a legal cause against his neighbour. Libussa sat upon her throne, like +the goddess Themis, and passed sentence, without respect of persons, +with unerring judgment; for the labyrinthic mazes of chicane could not +lead her astray, as they do the thick heads of city magistrates; and all +men were astonished at the wisdom with which she unravelled the +perplexed hanks of processes for _meum_ and _tuum_, and at her unwearied +patience in picking out the threads of justice, never once catching a +false end, but passing them from side to side of their embroilments, and +winding them off to the uttermost thrum. + +When the tumult of the parties at her bar had by degrees diminished, and +the sittings were about to be concluded, on the last day of these +assizes audience was demanded by a free neighbour of the potent +Wladomir, and by deputies from the subjects of the hunter Mizisla. They +were admitted, and the Freeholder first addressing her, began: "An +industrious planter," said he, "fenced-in a little circuit, on the bank +of a broad river, whose waters glided down with soft rushing through the +green valley; for, he thought, The fair stream will be a guard to me on +this side, that no hungry wild-beast eat my crops, and it will moisten +the roots of my fruit-trees, that they flourish speedily and bring me +fruit. But when the earnings of his toil were about to ripen, the +deceitful stream grew troubled; its still waters began to swell and +roar, it overflowed its banks, and carried one piece after another of +the fruitful soil along with it; and dug itself a bed through the middle +of the cultivated land; to the sorrow of the poor planter, who had to +give up his little property to the malicious wasting of his strong +neighbour, the raging of whose waves he himself escaped with difficulty. +Puissant daughter of the wise Krokus, the poor planter entreats of thee +to command the haughty river no longer to roll its proud billows over +the field of the toilsome husbandman, or wash away the fruit of his +weary arms, his hope of glad harvest; but to flow peacefully along +within the limits of its own channel." + +During this speech, the cheerful brow of the fair Libussa became +overclouded; manly rigour gleamed from her eyes, and all around was ear +to catch her sentence, which ran thus: "Thy cause is plain and straight; +no force shall disturb thy rightful privileges. A dike, which it shall +not overpass, shall set bounds to the tumultuous river; and from its +fishes thou shalt be repaid sevenfold the plunder of its wasteful +billows." Then she beckoned to the eldest of the Deputies, and he bowed +his face to the earth, and said: "Wise daughter of the far-famed Krokus, +Whose is the grain upon the field, the sower's, who has hidden the +seed-corn in the ground that it spring up and bear fruit; or the +tempest's, which breaks it and scatters it away?" She answered: "The +sower's."--"Then command the tempest," said the spokesman, "that it +choose not our corn-fields for the scene of its caprices, to uproot our +crops and shake the fruit from our trees."--"So be it," said the +Duchess; "I will tame the tempest, and banish it from your fields; it +shall battle with the clouds, and disperse them, where they are rising +from the south, and threatening the land with hail and heavy weather." + +Prince Wladomir and Ritter Mizisla were both assessors in the general +tribunal. On hearing the complaint, and the rigorous sentence passed +regarding it, they waxed pale, and looked down upon the ground with +suppressed indignation; not daring to discover how sharply it stung them +to be condemned by a decree from female lips. For although, out of +tenderness to their honour, the complainants had modestly overhung the +charge with an allegorical veil, which the righteous sentence of the +fair President had also prudently respected, yet the texture of this +covering was so fine and transparent, that whoever had an eye might see +what stood behind it. But as they dared not venture to appeal from the +judgment-seat of the Princess to the people, since the sentence passed +upon them had excited universal joy, they submitted to it, though with +great reluctance. Wladomir indemnified his freeholding neighbour +sevenfold for the mischief done him; and Nimrod Mizisla engaged, on the +honour of a knight, no more to select the corn-fields of his subjects as +a chase for hare-catching. Libussa, at the same time, pointed out to +them a more respectable employment, for occupying their activity, and +restoring to their fame, which now, like a cracked pot when struck, +emitted nothing but discords, the sound ring of knightly virtues. She +placed them at the head of an army, which she was dispatching to +encounter Zornebock, the Prince of the Sorbi, a giant, and a powerful +magician withal, who was then meditating war against Bohemia. This +commission she accompanied with the penance, that they were not to +appear again at Court, till the one could offer her the plume, the other +the golden spurs, of the monster, as tokens of their victory. + +The unfading rose, during this campaign, displayed its magic virtues +once more. By means of it, Prince Wladomir was as invulnerable to mortal +weapons, as Achilles the Hero; and as nimble, quick and dextrous, as +Achilles the Light-of-foot. The armies met upon the southern boundaries +of the Kingdom, and joined in fierce battle. The Bohemian heroes flew +through the squadrons, like storm and whirlwind; and cut down the thick +spear-crop, as the scythe of the mower cuts a field of hay. Zornebock +fell beneath the strong dints of their falchions; they returned in +triumph with the stipulated spoils to Vizegrad; and the spots and +blemishes, which had soiled their knightly virtue, were now washed clean +away in the blood of their enemies. Libussa bestowed on them every mark +of princely honour, dismissed them to their homes when the army was +discharged; and gave them, as a new token of her favour, a purple-red +apple from her pleasure-garden, for a memorial of her by the road, +enjoining them to part the same peacefully between them, without cutting +it in two. They then went their way; put the apple on a shield, and had +it borne before them as a public spectacle, while they consulted +together how the parting of it might be prudently effected, according to +the meaning of its gentle giver. + +While the point where their roads divided lay before them at a distance, +they proceeded with their partition-treaty in the most accommodating +mood; but at last it became necessary to determine which of the two +should have the apple in his keeping, for both had equal shares in it, +and only one could get it, though each promised to himself great wonders +from the gift, and was eager to obtain possession of it. They split in +their opinions on this matter; and things went so far, that it appeared +as if the sword must decide, to whom this indivisible apple had been +allotted by the fortune of arms. But a shepherd driving his flock +overtook them as they stood debating; him they selected (apparently in +imitation of the Three Goddesses, who also applied to a shepherd to +decide their famous apple-quarrel), and made arbiter of their dispute, +and laid the business in detail before him. The shepherd thought a +little, then said: "In the gift of this apple lies a deep-hidden +meaning; but who can bring it out, save the sage Virgin who hid it +there? For myself, I conceive the apple is a treacherous fruit, that has +grown upon the Tree of Discord, and its purple skin may prefigure bloody +feud between your worshipful knightships; that each is to cut off the +other, and neither of you get enjoyment of the gift. For, tell me, how +is it possible to part an apple, without cutting it in twain?" The +Knights took the shepherd's speech to heart, and thought there was a +deal of truth in it. "Thou hast judged rightly," said they: "Has not +this base apple already kindled anger and contention between us? Were we +not standing harnessed to fight, for the deceitful gift of this proud +Princess? Did she not put us at the head of her army, with intention to +destroy us? And having failed in this, she now arms our hands with the +weapons of discord against each other! We renounce her crafty present; +neither of us will have the apple. Be it thine, as the reward of thy +righteous sentence: to the judge belongs the fruit of the process, and +to the parties the rind." + +The Knights then went their several ways, while the herdsman consumed +the _objectum litis_ with all the composure and conveniency common among +judges. The ambiguous present of the Duchess cut them to the heart; and +as they found, on returning home, that they could no longer treat their +subjects and vassals in the former arbitrary fashion, but were forced to +obey the laws, which Fraeulein Libussa had promulgated for the general +security among her people, their ill humour grew more deep and +rancorous. They entered into a league offensive and defensive with each +other; made a party for themselves in the country; and many mutinous +wrongheads joined them, and were sent abroad in packs to decry and +calumniate the government of women. "Shame! Shame!" cried they, "that we +must obey a woman, who gathers our victorious laurels to decorate a +distaff with them! The Man should be master of the house, and not the +Wife; this is his special right, and so it is established everywhere, +among all people. What is an army without a Duke to go before his +warriors, but a helpless trunk without a head? Let us appoint a Prince, +who may be ruler over us, and whom we may obey." + +These seditious speeches were no secret to the watchful Princess; nor +was she ignorant what wind blew them thither, or what its sounding +boded. Therefore she convened a deputation of the States; entered their +assembly with the stateliness of an earthly goddess, and the words of +her mouth dropped like honey from her virgin lips. "A rumour flies about +the land," said she, "that you desire a Duke to go before you to battle, +and that you reckon it inglorious to obey me any longer. Yet, in a free +and unconstrained election, you yourselves did not choose a man from +among you; but called one of the daughters of the people, and clothed +her with the purple, to rule over you according to the laws and customs +of the land. Whoso can accuse me of error in conducting the government, +let him step forward openly and freely, and bear witness against me. But +if I, after the manner of my father Krokus, have done prudently and +justly in the midst of you, making crooked things straight, and rough +places plain; if I have secured your harvests from the spoiler, guarded +the fruit-tree, and snatched the flock from the claws of the wolf; if I +have bowed the stiff neck of the violent, assisted the down-pressed, and +given the weak a staff to rest on; then will it beseem you to live +according to your covenant, and be true, gentle and helpful to me, as in +doing fealty to me you engaged. If you reckon it inglorious to obey a +woman, you should have thought of this before appointing me to be your +Princess; if there is disgrace here, it is you alone who ought to bear +it. But your procedure shows you not to understand your own advantage: +for woman's hand is soft and tender, accustomed only to waft cool air +with the fan; and sinewy and rude is the arm of man, heavy and +oppressive when it grasps the supreme control. And know ye not that +where a woman governs, the rule is in the power of men? For she gives +heed to wise counsellors, and these gather round her. But where the +distaff excludes from the throne, there is the government of females; +for the women, that please the king's eyes, have his heart in their +hand. Therefore, consider well of your attempt, lest ye repent your +fickleness too late." + +The fair speaker ceased; and a deep reverent silence reigned throughout +the hall of meeting; none presumed to utter a word against her. Yet +Prince Wladomir and his allies desisted not from their intention, but +whispered in each other's ear: "The sly Doe is loath to quit the fat +pastures; but the hunter's horn shall sound yet louder, and scare her +forth."[14] Next day they prompted the knights to call loudly on the +Princess to choose a husband within three days, and by the choice of her +heart to give the people a Prince, who might divide with her the cares +of government. At this unexpected requisition, coming as it seemed from +the voice of the nation, a virgin blush overspread the cheeks of the +lovely Princess; her clear eye discerned all the sunken cliffs, which +threatened her with peril. For even if, according to the custom of the +great world, she should determine upon subjecting her inclination to her +state-policy, she could only give her hand to one suitor, and she saw +well that all the remaining candidates would take it as a slight, and +begin to meditate revenge. Besides, the private vow of her heart was +inviolable and sacred in her eyes. Therefore she endeavoured prudently +to turn aside this importunate demand of the States; and again attempted +to persuade them altogether to renounce their schemes of innovation. +"The eagle being dead," said she, "the birds chose the Ring-dove for +their queen, and all of them obeyed her soft cooing call. But light and +airy, as is the nature of birds, they soon altered their determination, +and repented them that they had made it. The proud Peacock thought that +it beseemed him better to be ruler; the keen Falcon, accustomed to make +the smaller birds his prey, reckoned it disgraceful to obey the peaceful +Dove; they formed a party, and appointed the weak-eyed Owl to be the +spokesman of their combination, and propose a new election of a +sovereign. The sluggish Bustard, the heavy-bodied Heath-cock, the lazy +Stork, the small-brained Heron, and all the larger birds chuckled, +flapped, and croaked applause to him; and the host of little birds +twittered, in their simplicity, and chirped out of bush and grove to the +same tune. Then arose the warlike Kite, and soared boldly up into the +air, and the birds cried out: 'What a majestic flight! The brave, strong +Kite shall be our King!' Scarcely had the plundering bird taken +possession of the throne, when he manifested his activity and courage on +his winged subjects, in deeds of tyranny and caprice: he plucked the +feathers from the larger fowls, and eat the little songsters." + + [14] _Invita de laetioribus pascuis, autor seditionis inquit, bucula + ista decedit; sed jam vi inde deturbanda est, si sua sponte loco + suo concedere viro alicui principi noluerit_.--DUBRAVIUS. + +Significant as this oration was, it made but a small impression on the +minds of the people, hungering and thirsting after change; and they +abode by their determination, that within three days, Fraeulein Libussa +should select herself a husband. At this, Prince Wladomir rejoiced in +heart; for now, he thought, he should secure the fair prey, for which he +had so long been watching in vain. Love and ambition inflamed his +wishes, and put eloquence into his mouth, which had hitherto confined +itself to secret sighing. He came to Court, and required audience of the +Duchess. + +"Gracious ruler of thy people and my heart," thus he addressed her, +"from thee no secret is hidden; thou knowest the flames which burn in +this bosom, holy and pure as on the altar of the gods, and thou knowest +also what fire has kindled them. It is now appointed, that at the behest +of thy people, thou give the land a Prince. Wilt thou disdain a heart, +which lives and beats for thee? To be worthy of thy love, I risked my +life to put thee on the throne of thy father. Grant me the merit of +retaining thee upon it by the bond of tender affection: let us divide +the possession of thy throne and thy heart; the first be thine, the +second be mine, and my happiness will be exalted beyond the lot of +mortals." + +Fraeulein Libussa wore a most maidenlike appearance during this oration, +and covered her face with her veil, to hide the soft blush which +deepened the colour of her cheeks. On its conclusion, she made a sign +with her hand, not opening her lips, for the Prince to step aside; as if +she would consider what she should resolve upon, in answer to his suit. + +Immediately the brisk Knight Mizisla announced himself, and desired to +be admitted. + +"Loveliest of the daughters of princes," said he, as he entered the +audience-chamber, "the fair Ring-dove, queen of the air, must no longer, +as thou well knowest, coo in solitude, but take to herself a mate. The +proud Peacock, it is talked, holds up his glittering plumage in her +eyes, and thinks to blind her by the splendour of his feathers; but she +is prudent and modest, and will not unite herself with the haughty +Peacock. The keen Falcon, once a plundering bird, has now changed his +nature; is gentle and honest, and without deceit; for he loves the fair +Dove, and would fain that she mated with him. That his bill is hooked +and his talons, sharp, must not mislead thee: he needs them to protect +the fair Dove his darling, that no bird hurt her, or disturb the +habitation of her rule; for he is true and kindly to her, and first +swore fealty on the day when she was crowned. Now tell me, wise +Princess, if the soft Dove will grant to her trusty Falcon the love +which he longs for?" + +Fraeulein Libussa did as she had done before; beckoned to the Knight to +step aside; and, after waiting for a space, she called the two rivals +into her presence, and spoke thus: + +"I owe you great thanks, noble Knights, for your help in obtaining me +the princely crown of Bohemia, which my father Krokus honourably wore. +The zeal, of which you remind me, had not faded from my remembrance; nor +is it hid from my knowledge, that you virtuously love me, for your looks +and gestures have long been the interpreters of your feelings. That I +shut up my heart against you, and did not answer love with love, regard +not as insensibility; it was not meant for slight or scorn, but for +harmoniously determining a choice which was doubtful. I weighed your +merits, and the tongue of the trying balance bent to neither side. +Therefore I resolved on leaving the decision of your fate to yourselves; +and offered you the possession of my heart, under the figure of an +enigmatic apple; that it might be seen to which of you the greater +measure of judgment and wisdom had been given, in appropriating to +himself this gift, which could not be divided. Now tell me without +delay, In whose hands is the apple? Whichever of you has won it from the +other, let him from this hour receive my throne and my heart as the +prize of his skill." + +The two rivals looked at one another with amazement; grew pale, and held +their peace. At last, after a long pause, Prince Wladomir broke silence, +and said: + +"The enigmas of the wise are, to the foolish, a nut in a toothless +mouth, a pearl which the cock scratches from the sand, a lantern in the +hand of the blind. O Princess, be not wroth with us, that we neither +knew the use nor the value of thy gift; we misinterpreted thy purpose; +thought that thou hadst cast an apple of contention on our path, to +awaken us to strife and deadly feud; therefore each gave up his share, +and we renounced the divisive fruit, whose sole possession neither of us +would have peaceably allowed the other!" + +"You have given sentence on yourselves," replied the Fraeulein: "if an +apple could inflame your jealousy, what fighting would ye not have +fought for a myrtle-garland twined about a crown!" + +With this response she dismissed the Knights, who now lamented that +they had given ear to the unwise arbiter, and thoughtlessly cast away +the pledge of love, which, as it appeared, had been the casket of their +fairest hopes. They meditated severally how they might still execute +their purpose, and by force or guile get possession of the throne, with +its lovely occupant. + +Fraeulein Libussa, in the mean while, was not spending in idleness the +three days given her for consideration; but diligently taking counsel +with herself, how she might meet the importunate demand of her people, +give Bohemia a Duke, and herself a husband according to the choice of +her heart. She dreaded lest Prince Wladomir might still more pressingly +assail her, and perhaps deprive her of the throne. Necessity combined +with love to make her execute a plan, with which she had often +entertained herself as with a pleasant dream; for what mortal's head has +not some phantom walking in it, towards which he turns in a vacant hour, +to play with it as with a puppet? There is no more pleasing pastime for +a strait-shod maiden, when her galled corns are resting from the toils +of the pavement, than to think of a stately and commodious equipage; the +coy beauty dreams gladly of counts sighing at her feet; Avarice gets +prizes in the Lottery; the debtor in the jail falls heir to vast +possessions; the squanderer discovers the Hermetic Secret; and the poor +woodcutter finds a treasure in the hollow of a tree; all merely in +fancy, yet not without the enjoyment of a secret satisfaction. The gift +of prophecy has always been united with a warm imagination; thus the +fair Libussa had, like others, willingly and frequently given heed to +this seductive playmate, which, in kind companionship, had always +entertained her with the figure of the young Archer, so indelibly +impressed upon her heart. Thousands of projects came into her mind, +which Fancy palmed on her as feasible and easy. At one time she formed +schemes of drawing forth her darling youth from his obscurity, placing +him in the army, and raising him from one post of honour to another; and +then instantly she bound a laurel garland about his temples, and led +him, crowned with victory and honour, to the throne she could have been +so glad to share with him. At other times, she gave a different turn to +the romance: she equipped her darling as a knight-errant, seeking for +adventures; brought him to her Court, and changed him into a Huon of +Bourdeaux; nor was the wondrous furniture wanting, for endowing him as +highly as Friend Oberon did his ward. But when Common Sense again got +possession of the maiden's soul, the many-coloured forms of the magic +lantern waxed pale in the beam of prudence, and the fair vision vanished +into air. She then bethought her what hazards would attend such an +enterprise; what mischief for her people, when jealousy and envy raised +the hearts of her grandees in rebellion against her, and the alarum +beacon of discord gave the signal for uproar and sedition in the land. +Therefore she sedulously hid the wishes of her heart from the keen +glance of the spy, and disclosed no glimpse of them to any one. + +But now, when the people were clamouring for a Prince, the matter had +assumed another form: the point would now be attained, could she combine +her wishes with the national demand. She strengthened her soul with +manly resolution; and as the third day dawned, she adorned herself with +all her jewels, and her head was encircled with the myrtle crown. +Attended by her maidens, all decorated with flower garlands, she +ascended the throne, full of lofty courage and soft dignity. The +assemblage of knights and vassals around her stood in breathless +attention, to learn from her lips the name of the happy Prince with whom +she had resolved to share her heart and throne. "Ye nobles of my +people," thus she spoke, "the lot of your destiny still lies untouched +in the urn of concealment; you are still free as my coursers that graze +in the meadows, before the bridle and the bit have curbed them, or their +smooth backs have been pressed by the burden of the saddle and the +rider. It now rests with you to signify, Whether, in the space allowed +me for the choice of a spouse, your hot desire for a Prince to rule over +you has cooled, and given place to more calm scrutiny of this intention; +or you still persist inflexibly in your demand." She paused for a +moment; but the hum of the multitude, the whispering and buzzing, and +looks of the whole Senate, did not long leave her in uncertainty, and +their speaker ratified the conclusion, that the vote was still for a +Duke. "Then be it so!" said she; "the die is cast, the issue of it +stands not with me! The gods have appointed, for the kingdom of Bohemia, +a Prince who shall sway its sceptre with justice and wisdom. The young +cedar does not yet overtop the firm-set oaks; concealed among the trees +of the forest it grows, encircled with ignoble shrubs; but soon it shall +send forth branches to give shade to its roots; and its top shall touch +the clouds. Choose a deputation, ye nobles of the people, of twelve +honourable men from among you, that they hasten to seek out the Prince, +and attend him to the throne. My steed will point out your path; +unloaded and free it shall course on before you; and as a token that +you have found what you are sent forth to seek, observe that the man +whom the gods have selected for your Prince, at the time when you +approach him, will be eating his repast on an iron table, under the open +sky, in the shadow of a solitary tree. To him you shall do reverence, +and clothe his body with the princely robe. The white horse will let him +mount it, and bring him hither to the Court, that he may be my husband +and your lord." + +She then left the assembly, with the cheerful yet abashed countenance +which brides wear, when they look for the arrival of the bridegroom. At +her speech there was much wondering; and the prophetic spirit breathing +from it worked upon the general mind like a divine oracle, which the +populace blindly believe, and which thinkers alone attempt +investigating. The messengers of honour were selected, the white horse +stood in readiness, caparisoned with Asiatic pomp, as if it had been +saddled for carrying the Grand Signior to mosque. The cavalcade set +forth, attended by the concourse, and the loud huzzaing of the people; +and the white horse paced on before. But the train soon vanished from +the eyes of the spectators: and nothing could be seen but a little cloud +of dust whirling up afar off: for the spirited courser, getting to its +mettle when it reached the open air, began a furious gallop, like a +British racer, so that the squadron of deputies could hardly keep in +sight of it. Though the quick steed seemed abandoned to its own +guidance, an unseen power directed its steps, pulled its bridle, and +spurred its flanks. Fraeulein Libussa, by the magic virtues inherited +from her Elfine mother, had contrived so to instruct the courser, that +it turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from its path, but +with winged steps hastened on to its destination: and she herself, now +that all combined to the fulfilment of her wishes, awaited its returning +rider with tender longing. + +The messengers had in the mean time been soundly galloped; already they +had travelled many leagues, up hill and down dale; had swum across the +Elbe and the Moldau; and as their gastric juices made them think of +dinner, they recalled to mind the strange table, at which, according to +the Fraeulein's oracle, their new Prince was to be feeding. Their glosses +and remarks on it were many. A forward knight observed to his +companions: "In my poor view of it, our gracious lady has it in her eye +to bilk us, and make April messengers of us; for who ever heard of any +man in Bohemia that ate his victuals off an iron table? What use is it? +our sharp galloping will bring us nothing but mockery and scorn." +Another, of a more penetrating turn, imagined that the iron table might +be allegorical; that they should perhaps fall in with some +knight-errant, who, after the manner of the wandering brotherhood, had +sat down beneath a tree, and spread out his frugal dinner on his shield. +A third said, jesting: "I fear our way will lead us down to the workshop +of the Cyclops; and we shall find the lame Vulcan, or one of his +journeymen, dining from his stithy, and must bring _him_ to our Venus." + +Amid such conversation, they observed their guiding quadruped, which had +got a long start of them, turn across a new-ploughed field, and, to +their wonder, halt beside the ploughman. They dashed rapidly forward, +and found a peasant sitting on an upturned plough, and eating his black +bread from the iron ploughshare, which he was using as a table, under +the shadow of a fresh pear-tree. He seemed to like the stately horse; he +patted it, offered it a bit of bread, and it eat from his hand. The +Embassy, of course, was much surprised at this phenomenon; nevertheless, +no member of it doubted but that they had found their man. They +approached him reverently, and the eldest among them opened his lips, +and said: "The Duchess of Bohemia has sent us hither, and bids us +signify to thee the will and purpose of the gods, that thou change thy +plough with the throne of this kingdom, and thy goad with its sceptre. +She selects thee for her husband, to rule with her over the Bohemians." +The young peasant thought they meant to banter him; a thing little to +his taste, especially as he supposed that they had guessed his +love-secret, and were now come to mock his weakness. Therefore he +answered somewhat stoutly, to meet mockery with mockery: "But is your +dukedom worth this plough? If the prince cannot eat with better relish, +drink more joyously, or sleep more soundly than the peasant, then in +sooth it is not worth while to change this kindly furrow-field with the +Bohemian kingdom, or this smooth ox-goad with its sceptre. For, tell me, +Are not three grains of salt as good for seasoning my morsel as three +bushels?" + +Then one of the Twelve answered: "The purblind mole digs underground for +worms to feed upon; for he has no eyes which can endure the daylight, +and no feet which are formed for running like the nimble roe; the scaly +crab creeps to and fro in the mud of lakes and marshes, delights to +dwell under tree-roots and shrubs by the banks of rivers, for he wants +the fins for swimming; and the barn-door cock, cooped up within his +hen-fence, risks no flight over the low wall, for he is too timorous to +trust in his wings, like the high-soaring bird of prey. Have eyes for +seeing, feet for going, fins for swimming, and pinions for flight been +allotted thee, thou wilt not grub like a mole underground; nor hide +thyself like a dull shell-fish among mud; nor, like the king of the +poultry, be content with crowing from the barn-door: but come forward +into day; run, swim, or fly into the clouds, as Nature may have +furnished thee with gifts. For it suffices not the active man to +continue what he is; but he strives to become what he may be. Therefore, +do thou try being what the gods have called thee to; then wilt thou +judge rightly whether the Bohemian kingdom is worth an acre of corn-land +in barter, yea or not." + +This earnest oration of the Deputy, in whose face no jesting feature was +to be discerned; and still more the insignia of royalty, the purple +robe, the sceptre and the golden sword, which the ambassadors brought +forward as a reference and certificate of their mission's authenticity, +at last overcame the mistrust of the doubting ploughman. All at once, +light rose on his soul; a rapturous thought awoke in him, that Libussa +had discovered the feelings of his heart; had, by her skill in seeing +what was secret, recognised his faithfulness and constancy: and was +about to recompense him, so as he had never ventured even in dreams to +hope. The gift of prophecy predicted to him by her oracle, then came +into his mind; and he thought that now or never it must be fulfilled. +Instantly he grasped his hazel staff; stuck it deep into the ploughed +land; heaped loose mould about it, as you plant a tree; and, lo, +immediately the staff got buds, and shot forth sprouts and boughs with +leaves and flowers. Two of the green twigs withered, and their dry +leaves became the sport of the wind; but the third grew up the more +luxuriantly, and its fruits ripened. Then came the spirit of prophecy +upon the rapt ploughman; he opened his mouth, and said: "Ye messengers +of the Princess Libussa and of the Bohemian people, hear the words of +Primislaus the son of Mnatha, the stout-hearted Knight, for whom, blown +upon by the spirit of prophecy, the mists of the Future part asunder. +The man who guided the ploughshare, ye have called to seize the handles +of your princedom, before his day's work was ended. O that the glebe had +been broken by the furrow, to the boundary--stone; so had Bohemia +remained an independent kingdom to the utmost ages! But since ye have +disturbed the labour of the plougher too early, the limits of your +country will become the heritage of your neighbour, and your distant +posterity will be joined to him in unchangeable union. The three twigs +of the budding Staff are three sons which your Princess shall bear me: +two of them, as unripe shoots, shall speedily wither away; but the third +shall inherit the throne, and by him shall the fruit of late +grandchildren be matured, till the Eagle soar over your mountains and +nestle in the land; yet soon fly thence, and return as to his own +possession. And then, when the Son of the Gods arises,[15] who is his +plougher's friend, and smites the slave-fetters from his limbs, then +mark it, Posterity, for thou shalt bless thy destiny! For when he has +trodden under his feet the Dragon of Superstition, he will stretch out +his arm against the waxing moon, to pluck it from the firmament, that he +may himself illuminate the world as a benignant star." + + [15] Emperor Joseph II. + +The venerable deputation stood in silent wonder, gazing at the prophetic +man, like dumb idols: it was as if a god were speaking by his lips. He +himself turned away from them to the two white steers, the associates of +his toilsome labour; he unyoked and let them go in freedom from their +farm-service; at which they began frisking joyfully upon the grassy lea, +but at the same time visibly decreased in bulk; like thin vapour melted +into air, and vanished out of sight. Then Primislaus doffed his peasant +wooden shoes, and proceeded to the brook to clean himself. The precious +robes were laid upon him; he begirt himself with the sword, and had the +golden spurs put on him like a knight; then stoutly sprang upon the +white horse, which bore him peaceably along. Being now about to quit his +still asylum, he commanded the ambassadors to bring his wooden shoes +after him, and keep them carefully, as a token that the humblest among +the people had once been exalted to the highest dignity in Bohemia; and +as a memorial for his posterity to bear their elevation meekly, and, +mindful of their origin, to respect and defend the peasantry, from which +themselves had sprung. Hence came the ancient practice of exhibiting a +pair of wooden shoes before the Kings of Bohemia on their coronation; a +custom held in observance till the male line of Primislaus became +extinct. + +The planted hazel rod bore fruit and grew; striking roots out on every +side, and sending forth new shoots, till at last the whole field was +changed into a hazel copse; a circumstance of great advantage to the +neighbouring township, which included it within their bounds; for, in +memory of this miraculous plantation, they obtained a grant from the +Bohemian Kings, exempting them from ever paying any public contribution +in the land, except a pint of hazel nuts; which royal privilege their +late descendants, as the story runs, are enjoying at this day.[16] + + [16] AEneas Sylvius affirms that he saw, with his own eyes, a + renewal of this charter from Charles IV. _Vidi inter privilegia + regni literas Caroli Quarti, Romanorum Imperatoris, divi Sigumundi + patris in quibus (villae illius incolae) libertate donantur; nec plus + tributi pendere jubentur, quam nucum illius arboris exiguam + mensuram._ + +Though the white courser, which was now proudly carrying the bridegroom +to his mistress, seemed to outrun the winds, Primislaus did not fail now +and then to let him feel the golden spurs, to push him on still faster. +The quick gallop seemed to him a tortoise-pace, so keen was his desire +to have the fair Libussa, whose form, after seven years, was still so +new and lovely in his soul, once more before his eyes; and this not +merely as a show, like some bright peculiar anemone in the variegated +bed of a flower-garden, but for the blissful appropriation of victorious +love. He thought only of the myrtle-crown, which, in the lover's +valuation, far outshines the crown of sovereignty; and had he balanced +love and rank against each other, the Bohemian throne without Libussa +would have darted up, like a clipped ducat in the scales of the +money-changer. + +The sun was verging to decline, when the new Prince, with his escort, +entered Vizegrad. Fraeulein Libussa was in her garden, where she had just +plucked a basket of ripe plums, when her future husband's arrival was +announced to her. She went forth modestly, with all her maidens, to meet +him; received him as a bridegroom conducted to her by the gods, veiling +the election of her heart under a show of submission to the will of +Higher Powers. The eyes of the Court were eagerly directed to the +stranger; in whom, however, nothing could be seen but a fair handsome +man. In respect of outward form, there were several courtiers who, in +thought, did not hesitate to measure with him; and could not understand +why the gods should have disdained the anti-chamber, and not selected +from it some accomplished and ruddy lord, rather than the sunburnt +ploughman, to assist the Princess in her government. Especially in +Wladomir and Mizisla, it was observable that their pretensions were +reluctantly withdrawn. It behoved the Fraeulein then to vindicate the +work of the gods; and show that Squire Primislaus had been indemnified +for the defect of splendid birth, by a fair equivalent in sterling +common sense and depth of judgment. She had caused a royal banquet to be +prepared, no whit inferior to the feast with which the hospitable Dido +entertained her pious guest AEneas. The cup of welcome passed diligently +round, the presents of the Princess had excited cheerfulness and +good-humour, and a part of the night had already vanished amid jests and +pleasant pastime, when Libussa set on foot a game at riddles; and, as +the discovery of hidden things was her proper trade, she did not fail to +solve, with satisfactory decision, all the riddles that were introduced. + +When her own turn came to propose one, she called Prince Wladomir, +Mizisla and Primislaus to her, and said: "Fair sirs, it is now for you +to read a riddle, which I shall submit to you, that it may be seen who +among you is the wisest and of keenest judgment. I intended, for you +three, a present of this basket of plums, which I plucked in my garden. +One of you shall have the half, and one over; the next shall have the +half of what remains, and one over; the third shall again have the half, +and three over. Now, if so be that the basket is then emptied, tell me, +How many plums are in it now?" + +The headlong Ritter Mizisla took the measure of the fruit with his eye, +not the sense of the riddle with his understanding, and said: "What can +be decided with the sword I might undertake to decide; but thy riddles, +gracious Princess, are, I fear, too hard for me. Yet at thy request I +will risk an arrow at the bull's-eye, let it hit or miss: I suppose +there is a matter of some three score plums in the basket." + +"Thou hast missed, dear Knight," said Fraeulein Libussa. "Were there as +many again, half as many, and a third part as many as the basket has in +it, and five over, there would then be as many above three score as +there are now below it." + +Prince Wladomir computed as laboriously and anxiously, as if the post of +Comptroller-General of Finances had depended on a right solution; and at +last brought out the net product five-and-forty. The Fraeulein then said: + +"Were there a third, and a half, and a sixth as many again of them, the +number would exceed forty-five as much as it now falls short of it." + +Though, in our days, any man endowed with the arithmetical faculty of a +tapster, might have solved this problem without difficulty, yet, for an +untaught computant, the gift of divination was essential, if he meant to +get out of the affair with honour, and not stick in the middle of it +with disgrace. As the wise Primislaus was happily provided with this +gift, it cost him neither art nor exertion to find the answer. + +"Familiar companion of the heavenly Powers," said he, "whoso undertakes +to pierce thy high celestial meaning, undertakes to soar after the eagle +when he hides himself in the clouds. Yet I will pursue thy hidden +flight, as far as the eye, to which thou hast given its light, will +reach. I judge that of the plums which thou hast laid in the basket, +there are thirty in number, not one fewer, and none more." + +The Fraeulein cast a kindly glance on him, and said: "Thou tracest the +glimmering ember, which lies deep-hid among the ashes; for thee light +dawns out of darkness and vapour: thou hast read my riddle." + +Thereupon she opened her basket, and counted out fifteen plums, and one +over, into Prince Wladomir's hat, and fourteen remained. Of these she +gave Ritter Mizisla seven and one over, and there were still six in the +basket; half of these she gave the wise Primislaus and three over, and +the basket was empty. The whole Court was lost in wonder at the fair +Libussa's ciphering gift, and at the penetration of her cunning spouse. +Nobody could comprehend how human wit was able, on the one hand, to +enclose a common number so mysteriously in words; or, on the other hand, +to drag it forth so accurately from its enigmatical concealment. The +empty basket she conferred upon the two Knights, who had failed in +soliciting her love, to remind them that, their suit was voided. Hence +comes it, that when a wooer is rejected, people say, _His love has given +him the basket_, even to the present day. + +So soon as all was ready for the nuptials and coronation, both these +ceremonies were transacted with becoming pomp. Thus the Bohemian people +had obtained a Duke, and the fair Libussa had obtained a husband, each +according to the wish of their hearts; and what was somewhat wonderful, +by virtue of Chicane, an agent who has not the character of being too +beneficent or prosperous. And if either of the parties had been +overreached in any measure, it at least was not the fair Libussa. +Bohemia had a Duke in name, but the administration now, as formerly, +continued in the female hand. Primislaus was the proper pattern of a +tractable obedient husband, and contested with his Duchess neither the +direction of her house nor of her empire. His sentiments and wishes +sympathised with hers, as perfectly as two accordant strings, of which +when the one is struck, the other voluntarily trembles to the self-same +note. Nor was Libussa like those haughty overbearing dames, who would +pass for great matches; and having, as they think, made the fortune of +some hapless wight, continually remind him of his wooden shoes: but she +resembled the renowned Palmyran Queen; and ruled, as Zenobia did her +kindly Odenatus, by superiority of mental talent. + +The happy couple lived in the enjoyment of unchangeable love; according +to the fashion of those times, when the instinct which united hearts was +as firm and durable, as the mortar and cement with which they built +their indestructible strongholds. Duke Primislaus soon became one of the +most accomplished and valiant knights of his time, and the Bohemian +Court the most splendid in Germany. By degrees, many knights and nobles, +and multitudes of people from all quarters of the empire, drew to it; so +that Vizegrad became too narrow for its inhabitants; and, in +consequence, Libussa called her officers before her, and commanded them +to found a city, on the spot where they should find a man at noontide +making the wisest use of his teeth. They set forth, and at the time +appointed found a man engaged in sawing a block of wood. They judged +that this industrious character was turning his saw-teeth, at noontide, +to a far better use than the parasite does his jaw-teeth by the table of +the great; and doubted not but they had found the spot, intended by the +Princess for the site of their town. They marked out a space upon the +green with the ploughshare, for the circuit of the city walls. On asking +the workman what he meant to make of his sawed timber, he replied, +"Prah," which in the Bohemian language signifies a door-threshold. So +Libussa called her new city Praha, that is Prague, the well-known +capital upon the Moldau. In process of time, Primislaus's predictions +were punctually fulfilled. His spouse became the mother of three +Princes; two died in youth, but the third grew to manhood, and from him +went forth a glorious royal line, which flourished for long centuries on +the Bohemian throne. + + + + +MELECHSALA. + + +Father Gregory, the ninth of the name who sat upon St. Peter's chair, +had once, in a sleepless night, an inspiration from the spirit, not of +prophecy, but of political chicane, to clip the wings of the German +Eagle, lest it rose above the head of his own haughty Rome. No sooner +had the first sunbeam enlightened the venerable Vatican, than his +Holiness summoned his attendant chamberlain, and ordered him to call a +meeting of the Sacred College; where Father Gregory, in his pontifical +apparel, celebrated high mass, and after its conclusion moved a new +Crusade; to which all his cardinals, readily surmising the wise objects +of this armament for God's glory and the common weal of Christendom, +gave prompt and cordial assent. + +Thereupon, a cunning Nuncio started instantly for Naples, where the +Emperor Frederick of Swabia had his Court; and took with him in his +travelling-bag two boxes, one of which was filled with the sweet honey +of persuasion; the other with tinder, steel and flint, to light the fire +of excommunication, should the mutinous son of the Church hesitate to +pay the Holy Father due obedience. On arriving at Court, the Legate +opened his sweet box, and copiously gave out its smooth confectionery. +But the Emperor Frederick was a man delicate in palate; he soon smacked +the taste of the physic hidden in this sweetness, and he knew too well +its effects on the alimentary canal; so he turned away from the +treacherous mess, and declined having any more of it. Then the Legate +opened his other box, and made it spit some sparks, which singed the +Imperial beard, and stung the skin like nettles; whereby the Emperor +discovered that the Holy Father's finger might, ere long, be heavier on +him than the Legate's loins; therefore plied himself to the purpose, +engaged to lead the armies of the Lord against the Unbelievers in the +East, and appointed his Princes to assemble for an expedition to the +Holy Land. The Princes communicated the Imperial order to the Counts, +the Counts summoned out their vassals, the Knights and Nobles; the +Knights equipped their Squires and Horsemen; all mounted, and collected, +each under his proper banner. + +Except the night of St. Bartholomew, no night has ever caused such +sorrow and tribulation in the world, as this, which God's Vicegerent +upon Earth had employed in watching to produce a ruinous Crusade. Ah, +how many warm tears flowed, as knight and squire pricked off, and +blessed their dears! A glorious race of German heroes never saw the +light, because of this departure; but languished in embryo, as the germs +of plants in the Syrian desert, when the hot Sirocco has passed over +them. The ties of a thousand happy marriages were violently torn +asunder; ten thousand brides in sorrow hung their garlands, like the +daughters of Jerusalem, upon the Babylonian willow-trees, and sat and +wept; and a hundred thousand lovely maidens grew up for the bridegroom +in vain, and blossomed like a rose-bed in a solitary cloister garden, +for there was no hand to pluck them, and they withered away unenjoyed. +Among the sighing spouses, whom this sleepless night of his Holiness +deprived of their husbands, were St. Elizabeth, the Landgraf of +Thuringia's lady, and Ottilia, Countess of Gleichen; a wife not +standing, it is true, in the odour of sanctity, yet in respect of +personal endowments, and virtuous conduct, inferior to none of her +contemporaries. + +Landgraf Ludwig, a trusty feudatory of the Emperor, had issued general +orders for his vassals to collect, and attend him to the camp. But most +of them sought pretexts for politely declining this honour. One was +tormented by the gout, another by the stone; one had got his horses +foundered, another's armoury had been destroyed by fire. Count Ernst of +Gleichen, however, with a little troop of stout retainers, who were free +and unencumbered, and took pleasure in the prospect of distant +adventures, equipped their squires and followers, obeyed the orders of +the Landgraf, and led their people to the place of rendezvous. The Count +had been wedded for two years; and in this period his lovely consort had +presented him with two children, a little master and a little miss, +which, according to the custom of those stalwart ages, had been born +without the aid of science, fair and softly as the dew from the +Twilight. A third pledge, which she carried under her heart, was, by +virtue of the Pope's insomnolency, destined, when it saw the light, to +forego the embraces of its father. Although Count Ernst put on the +rugged aspect of a man, Nature maintained her rights in him, and he +could not hide his strong feelings of tenderness, when at parting he +quitted the embraces of his weeping spouse. As in dumb sorrow he was +leaving her, she turned hastily to the cradle of her children; plucked +out of it her sleeping boy; pressed it softly to her breast, and held it +with tearful eyes to the father, to imprint a parting kiss on its +unconscious cheek. With her little girl she did the same. This gave the +Count a sharp twinge about the heart: his lips began to quiver, his +mouth visibly increased in breadth; and sobbing aloud, he pressed the +infants to his steel cuirass, under which there beat a very soft and +feeling heart; kissed them from their sleep, and recommended them, +together with their much loved mother, to the keeping of God and all the +Saints. As he winded down along the castle road with his harnessed troop +from the high fortress of Gleichen, she looked after him with desolate +sadness, till his banner, upon which she herself had wrought the +Red-cross with fine purple silk, no longer floated in her vision. + +Landgraf Ludwig was exceedingly contented as he saw his stately vassal, +and his knights and squires, advancing with their flag unfurled; but on +viewing him more narrowly, and noticing his trouble, he grew wroth; for +he thought the Count was faint of heart, and out of humour with the +expedition, and following it against his will. Therefore his brow +wrinkled down into frowns, and the landgraphic nostrils sniffed +displeasure. Count Ernst had a fine pathognomic eye; he soon observed +what ailed his lord, and going boldly up, disclosed to him the reason of +his cloudy mood. His words were as oil on the vinegar of discontent; the +Landgraf, with honest frankness, seized his vassal's hand, and said: +"Ah, is it so, good cousin? Then the shoe pinches both of us in one +place; Elizabeth's good-b'ye has given me a sore heart too. But be of +good cheer! While we are fighting abroad, our wives will be praying at +home, that we may return with renown and glory." Such was the custom of +the country in those days: while the husband took the field, the wife +continued in her chamber, solitary and still, fasting and praying, and +making vows without end, for his prosperous return. This old usage is +not universal in the land at present; as the last crusade of our German +warriors to the distant West,[17] by the rich increase of families +during the absence of their heroic heads, has sufficiently made +manifest. + + [17] Of the Hessian troops to America, during the Revolutionary + War.--ED. + +The pious Elizabeth felt no less pain at parting from her husband than +her fair companion in distress, the Countess of Gleichen. Though her +lord the Landgraf was rather of a stormy disposition, she had lived with +him in the most perfect unity: and his terrestrial mass was by degrees +so imbued with the sanctity of his helpmate, that some beneficent +historians have appended to him likewise the title of Saint; which, +however, must be looked on rather as a charitable compliment than a real +statement of the truth; as with us, in these times, the epithets of +great, magnanimous, immortal, erudite, profound, for the most part +indicate no more than a little outward edge-gilding. So much appears +from all the circumstances, that the elevated couple did not always +harmonise in works of holiness; nay, that the Powers of Heaven had to +interfere at times in the domestic differences thence arising, to +maintain the family peace: as the following example will evince. The +pious lady, to the great dissatisfaction of her courtiers and +lip-licking pages, had the custom of reserving from the Landgraf's table +the most savoury dishes for certain hungry beggars, who incessantly +beleaguered the castle; and she used to give herself the satisfaction, +when the court dinner was concluded, of distributing this kind donation +to the poor with her own hands. According to the courtly system, whereby +thrift on the small scale is always to make up for wastefulness on the +great, the meritorious cook-department every now and then complained of +this as earnestly as if the whole dominions of Thuringia had run the +risk of being eaten up by these lank-sided guests; and the Landgraf, who +dabbled somewhat in economy, regarded it as so important an affair, +that, in all seriousness, he strictly forbade his consort this labour of +love, which had through time become her spiritual hobby. Nevertheless, +one day the impulse of benevolence, and the temptation to break through +her husband's orders in pursuit of it, became too strong to be resisted. +She beckoned to her women, who were then uncovering the table, to take +off some untouched dishes, with a few rolls of wheaten bread, and keep +them as smuggled goods. These she packed into a little basket, and stole +out with it by a postern gate. + +But the watchers had got wind of it, and betrayed it to the Landgraf, +who gave instant orders for a strict guard upon all the outlets of the +castle. Being told that his lady had been seen gliding with a heavy load +through the postern, he proceeded with majestic strides across the +court-yard, and stept out upon the drawbridge, as if to take a mouthful +of fresh air. Alas! The pious lady heard the jingling of his golden +spurs; and fear and terror came upon her, till her knees trembled, and +she could not move another footstep. She concealed the victual-basket +under her apron, that modest covering of female charms and roguery; but +whatever privileges this inviolable asylum may enjoy against excisemen +and officers of customs, it is no wall of brass for a husband. The +Landgraf, smelling mischief, hastened to the place; his sunburnt cheeks +were reddened with indignation, and the veins swelled fearfully upon his +brow. + +"Wife," said he, in a hasty tone, "what hast thou in the basket thou art +hiding from me? Is it victuals from my table, for thy vile crew of +vagabonds and beggars?" + +"Not at all, dear lord," replied Elizabeth, meekly, but with +embarrassment, who held herself entitled, without prejudice to her +sanctity, to make a little slip in the present critical position of +affairs: "it is nothing but a few roses that I gathered in the garden." + +Had the Landgraf been one of our contemporaries, he must have believed +his lady on her word of honour, and desisted from farther search; but in +those wild times the minds of men were not so polished. + +"Let us see," said the imperious husband, and sharply pulled the apron +to a side. The tender wife had no defence against this violence but by +recoiling: "O! softly, softly, my dear husband!" said she, and blushed +for shame at being detected in a falsehood, in presence of her servants. +But, O wonder upon wonder! the _corpus delicti_ was in very deed +transformed into the fairest blooming roses; the rolls had changed to +white roses, the sausages to red, the omelets to yellow ones! With +joyful amazement the saintly dame observed this metamorphosis, and knew +not whether to believe her eyes; for she had never given credit to her +Guardian Angel for such delicate politeness, as to work a miracle in +favour of a lady, when the point was to cajole a rigorous husband, and +make good a female affirmation. + +So visible a proof of innocence allayed the fierceness of the Lion. He +now turned his tremendous looks on the down-stricken serving-men, who, +as it was apparent, had been groundlessly calumniating his angelic wife; +he scornfully rated them, and swore a deep oath, that the first +eaves-dropping pickthank who again accused his virtuous wife to him, he +would cast into the dungeon, and there let him lie and rot. This done, +he took a rose from the basket, and stuck it in his hat, in triumph for +his lady's innocence. History has not certified us, whether, on the +following day, he found a withered rose or a cold sausage there: in the +mean time it assures us, that the saintly wife, when her lord had left +her with the kiss of peace, and she herself had recovered from her +fright, stept down the hill, much comforted in heart, to the meadow +where her nurslings, the lame and blind, the naked and the hungry, were +awaiting her, to dole out among them her intended bounty. For she well +knew that the miraculous deception would again vanish were she there, as +in reality it did; for, on opening her victual-magazine she found no +roses at all, but in their stead the nutritious crumbs which she had +snatched from the teeth of the castle bone-polishers. + +Though now, by the departure of her husband, she was to be freed from +his rigorous superintendence, and obtain free scope to execute her +labours of love in secret or openly, when and where it pleased her, yet +she loved her imperious husband so faithfully and sincerely, that she +could not part from him without the deepest sorrow. Ah! she foreboded +but too well, that in this world she should not see him any more. And +for the enjoyment of him in the other, the aspect of affairs was little +better. A canonised Saint has such preferment there, that all other +Saints compared with her are but a heavenly mob. + +High as the Landgraf had been stationed in this sublunary world, it was +a question whether, in the courts of Heaven, he might be found worthy to +kneel on the footstool of her throne, and raise his eyes to his former +bedmate. Yet, many vows as she made, many good works as she did, much as +her prayers in other cases had availed with all the Saints, her credit +in the upper world was not sufficient to stretch out her husband's term +a span. He died on this march, in the bloom of life, of a malignant +fever, at Otranto, before he had acquired the knightly merit of chining +a single Saracen. While he was preparing for departure, and the time was +come for him to give the world his blessing, he called Count Ernst from +among his other servants and vassals to his bedside; appointed him +commander of the troops which he himself had led thus far, and made him +swear that he would not return till he had thrice drawn his sword +against the Infidel. Then he took the holy viaticum from the hands of +his marching chaplain; and ordering as many masses for his soul, as +might have brought himself and all his followers triumphantly into the +New Jerusalem, he breathed his last. Count Ernst had the corpse of his +lord embalmed: he enclosed it in a silver coffin, and sent it to the +widowed lady, who wore mourning for her husband like a Roman Empress, +for she never laid her weeds aside while she continued in this world. + +Count Ernst of Gleichen forwarded the pilgrimage as much as possible, +and arrived in safety with his people in the camp at Ptolemais. Here, it +was rather a theatrical emblem of war than a serious campaign that met +his view. For as on our stages, when they represent a camp or field of +battle, there are merely a few tents erected in the foreground, and a +little handful of players scuffling together; but in the distance many +painted tents and squadrons to assist the illusion, and cheat the eye, +the whole being merely intended for an artificial deception of the +senses; so also was the crusading army a mixture of fiction and reality. +Of the numerous heroic hosts that left their native country, it was +always the smallest part that reached the boundaries of the land they +had gone forth to conquer. But few were devoured by the swords of the +Saracens. These Infidels had powerful allies, whom they sent beyond +their frontiers, and who made brisk work among their enemies, though +getting neither wages nor thanks for their good service. These allies +were, Hunger and Nakedness, Perils by land and water and among bad +brethren, Frost and Heat, Pestilence and malignant Boils; and the +grinding Home-sickness also fell at times like a heavy Incubus upon the +steel harness, and crushed it together like soft pasteboard, and spurred +the steed to a quick return. Under these circumstances, Count Ernst had +little hope of speedily fulfilling his oath, and thrice dyeing his +knightly sword in unbelieving blood, as must be done before he thought +of returning. For three days' journey round the camp, no Arab archer was +to be seen; the weakness of the Christian host lay concealed behind its +bulwarks and entrenchments; they did not venture out to seek the distant +enemy, but waited for the slow help of his slumbering Holiness, who, +since the wakeful night that gave rise to this Crusade, had enjoyed +unbroken sleep, and about the issue of the Holy War had troubled +himself very little. + +In this inaction, as inglorious to the Christian army, as of old that +loitering was to the Greeks before the walls of bloody but courageous +Troy, where the godlike Achilles, with his confederates, moped so long +about his fair Briseis,--the chivalry of Christendom kept up much +jollity and recreation in their camp, to kill lazy time, and scare away +the blue devils; the Italians, with song and harping, to which the +nimble-footed Frenchmen danced; the solemn Spaniards with chess; the +English with cock-fighting; the Germans with feasting and wassail. + +Count Ernst, taking small delight in any of these pastimes, amused +himself with hunting; made war on the foxes in the dry wildernesses, and +pursued the shy chamois into the barren mountains. The knights of his +train "disagreed" with the glowing sun by day, and the damp evening air +under the open sky, and sneaked to a side when their lord called for his +horses; therefore, in his hunting expeditions, he was generally attended +only by his faithful Squire, named the mettled Kurt, and a single groom. +Once, his eagerness in clambering after the chamois, had carried him to +such a distance, that the sun was dipping in the Mid-sea wave before he +thought of returning; and, fast as he hastened homewards, night came +upon him at a distance from the camp. The appearance of some treacherous +_ignes fatui_, which he mistook for the watch-fires, led him off still +farther. On discovering his error, he resolved to rest beneath a tree +till daybreak. The trusty Squire prepared a bed of soft moss for his +lord, who, wearied by the heat of the day, fell asleep before he could +lift his hand to bless himself, according to custom, with the sign of +the cross. But to the mettled Kurt there came no wink of sleep, for he +was by nature watchful like a bird of darkness; and though this gift had +not belonged to him, his faithful care for his lord would have kept him +waking. The night, as usual in the climate of Asia, was serene and +still; the stars twinkled in pure diamond light; and solemn silence, as +in the Valley of Death, reigned over the wide desert. No breath of air +was stirring, yet the nocturnal coolness poured life and refreshment +over herb and living thing. But about the third watch, when the morning +star had begun to announce the coming day, there arose a din in the +dusky remoteness, like the voice of a forest stream rushing over some +steep precipice. The watchful squire listened eagerly, and sent his +other senses also out for tidings, as his sharp eye could not pierce the +veil of darkness. He hearkened, and snuffed at the same time, like a +bloodhound, for a scent came towards him as of sweet-smelling herbs and +trodden grass, and the strange noise appeared to be approaching. He laid +his ear to the ground, and heard a trampling as of horses' hoofs, which +led him to conclude that the Infernal Chase was hunting in these parts. +A cold shudder passed over him, and his terror grew extreme. He shook +his master from sleep; and the latter, having roused himself, soon saw +that here another than a spectral host was to be fronted. Whilst his +groom girded up the horses, the Count had his harness buckled on in all +haste. + +The dim shadows gradually withdrew, and the advancing morning tinted the +eastern hem of the horizon with purple light. The Count now discovered, +what he had anticipated, a host of Saracens approaching, all equipped +for fight, to snatch some booty from the Christians. To escape their +hands was hopeless, and the hospitable tree in the wide solitary plain +gave no shelter to conceal horse and man behind it. Unluckily the massy +steed was not a Hippogryph, but a heavy-bodied Frieslander, to which, by +reason of its make, the happy talent of bearing off its master on the +wings of the wind had not been allotted; therefore the gallant hero gave +his soul to the keeping of God and the Holy Virgin, and resolved on +dying like a knight. He bade his servants follow him, and sell their +lives as dear as might be. Thereupon he pricked the Frieslander boldly +forward, and dashed right into the middle of the hostile squadron, who +had been expecting no such sudden onset from a single knight. The Pagans +started in astonishment, and flew asunder like light chaff when +scattered by the wind. But seeing that the enemy was only three men +strong, their courage rose, and there began an unequal battle, in which +valour was surpassed by number. The Count meanwhile kept plunging yarely +through the ranks; the point of his lance gleamed death and destruction +to the Infidel; and when it found its man, he flew inevitably from his +saddle. Their Captain himself, who ran at him with grim fury, his manly +arm laid low, and with his victorious spear transfixed him writhing in +the dust, as St. George of England did the Dragon. The mettled Kurt went +on with no less briskness; though availing little for attack, he was a +master in the science of dispatching, and sent all to pot who did not +make resistance; as a modern critic butchers the defenceless rabble of +the lame and halt, who venture with such courage in our days into the +literary tilt-yard: and if now and then some fainting invalid, with +furious aim, like an exasperated Reviewer-hunter, did hurl a stone at +him with enfeebled fist, he heeded it little; for he knew well that his +basnet and iron jack would turn a moderate thump. The groom, too, did +his best to make clear ground about him, and kept his master's back +unharmed. But as nine gad-flies will beat the strongest horse; four +Caffre bulls an African lion; and, by the common tale, one troop of mice +an archbishop, as the _Maeusethurm_, or Mouse-tower, on the Rhine, by +Huebner's account, gives open testimony; so the Count of Gleichen, after +doing knightly battle, was at length overpowered by the number of his +enemies. His arm grew weary, his lance was shivered into splinters, his +sword became blunt, and his Friesland horse at last staggered down upon +the gory battle-field. The Knight's fall was the watch-word of victory; +a hundred valiant arms stormed in on him to wrench away his sword, and +his hand had no longer any strength for resistance. As the mettled Kurt +observed the Knight come down, his own courage sank also, and along with +it the pole-axe, wherewith he had so magnanimously hammered in the +Saracenic skulls. He surrendered at discretion, and pressingly entreated +quarter. The groom stood in blank rumination; bore himself enduringly; +and awaited with oxlike equanimity the stroke of some mace upon his +basnet, which should crush him to the ground. + +But the Saracens were less inhuman victors than the conquered could have +expected; they disarmed their three prisoners of war, and did them no +bodily harm whatever. This mild usage took its rise not in any movement +of philanthropy, but in mere spy's-mercy: from a dead enemy there is +nothing to be learnt, and the special object of this roaming troop had +been to get correct intelligence about the state of matters in the +Christian host at Ptolemais. The captives, being questioned and heard, +were next, according to the Asiatic fashion, furnished with +slave-fetters; and as a ship was just then lying ready to set sail for +Alexandria, the Bey of Asdod sent them off with it as a present to the +Sultan of Egypt, to confirm at Court their description of the Christian +resources and position. The rumour of the bold Frank's valour had +arrived before him at the gates of Grand Cairo; and so pugnacious a +prisoner might, on entering the hostile metropolis, have merited as +pompous a reception as the Twelfth of April saw bestowed upon the Comte +de Grasse in London, where the merry capital emulously strove to let the +conquered sea-hero feel the honour which their victory had done him: but +Moslem self-conceit allows no justice to foreign merit. Count Ernst, in +the garb of a felon, loaded with heavy chains, was quietly locked into +the Grated Tower, where the Sultan's slaves were wont to be kept. + +Here, in long painful nights, and mournful solitary days, he had time +and leisure to survey the grim stony aspect of his future life; and it +required as much steadfastness and courage to bear up under these +contemplations, as to tilt it on the battle-field among a wandering +horde of Arabs. The image of his former domestic happiness kept hovering +before his eyes; he thought of his gentle wife, and the tender shoots of +their chaste love. Ah! how he cursed the miserable feud of Mother-church +with the Gog and Magog of the East, which had robbed him of his fair lot +in existence, and fettered him in slave-shackles never to be loosed! In +such moments he was ready to despair altogether; and his piety had +well-nigh made shipwreck on this rock of offence. + +In the days of Count Ernst there was current, among anecdotic persons, a +wondrous story of Duke Henry the Lion, which at that period, as a thing +that had occurred within the memory of man, found great credence in the +German Empire. The Duke, so runs the tale, while proceeding over sea to +the Holy Land, was, in a tempest, cast away upon a desert part of the +African coast; where, escaping alone from shipwreck, he found shelter +and succour in the den of a hospitable Lion. This kindness in the savage +owner of the cave had its origin not in the heart, but in the left +hind-paw; while hunting in the Libyan wilderness, he had run a thorn +into his foot, which so tormented him, that he could hardly move, and +had entirely forgotten his natural voracity. The acquaintance being +formed, and mutual confidence established between the parties, the Duke +assumed the office of chirurgeon to the royal beast, and laboriously +picked out the thorn from his foot. The patient rapidly recovered, and, +mindful of the service, entertained his lodger with his best from the +produce of his plunder; and, though a Lion, was as friendly and +officious towards him as a lap-dog. + +The Duke, however, soon grew weary of the cold collations of his +four-footed landlord, and began to long for the flesh-pots of his own +far-distant kitchen; for in readying the game handed in to him, he by no +means rivalled his Brunswick cook. Then the home-sickness came upon him +like a heavy load; and seeing no possibility of ever getting back to his +paternal heritage, the thought of this so grieved his soul, that he +wasted visibly, and pined like a wounded hart. Thereupon the Tempter, +with his wonted impudence in desert places, came before him, in the +figure of a little swart wrinkled manikin, whom the Duke at first sight +took for an ourang-outang; but it was the Devil himself, Satan in proper +person, and he grinned, and said: "Duke Henry, what ails thee? If thou +trust to me, I will put an end to all thy sorrow, and take thee home to +thy wife to sup with her this night in the Castle of Brunswick; for a +lordly supper is making ready there, seeing she is about to wed another +man, having lost hope of thy life." + +This despatch came rolling like a thunder-clap into the Duke's ear, and +cut him through the heart like a sharp two-edged sword. Rage burnt in +his eyes like flames of fire, and desperation uproared in his breast. If +Heaven will not help me in this crisis, thought he, then let Hell! It +was one of those entangling situations which the Arch-crimp, with his +consummate skill in psychological science, can employ so dextrously when +the enlisting of a soul that he has cast an eye on is to prosper in his +hands. The Duke, without hesitation, buckled on his golden spurs, girded +his sword about his loins, and put himself in readiness. "Quick, my good +fellow!" said he; "carry me, and this my trusty Lion, to Brunswick, +before the varlet reach my bed!"--"Well!" answered Blackbeard, "but dost +thou know the carriage-dues?"--"Ask what thou wilt!" said Duke Henry; +"it shall be given thee at thy word."--"Thy soul at sight in the other +world," replied Beelzebub.--"Done! Be it so!" cried furious jealousy, +from Henry's mouth. + +The bargain was forthwith concluded in legal form, between the two +contracting parties. The Infernal Kite directly changed himself into a +winged Griffin, and seizing the Duke in the one clutch, and the trusty +Lion in the other, conveyed them both in one night from the Libyan coast +to Brunswick, the towering city, founded on the lasting basis of the +Harz, which even the lying prophecies of the Zillerfeld vaticinator have +not ventured to overthrow. There he set down his burden safely in the +middle of the market-place, and vanished, just as the watchman was +blowing his horn with intent to proclaim the hour of midnight, and then +carol forth a superannuated bridal-song from his rusty mum-washed +weasand. The ducal palace, and the whole city, still gleamed like the +starry heaven with the nuptial illumination; every street resounded with +the din and tumult of the gay people streaming forward to gaze on the +decorated bride, and the solemn torch-dance with which the festival was +to conclude. The Aeronaut, unwearied by his voyage, pressed on amid the +crowding multitude through the entrance of the Palace; advanced with +clanking spurs, under the guidance of his trusty Lion, to the +banquet-chamber; drew his sword, and cried: "With me, whoever stands by +Duke Henry; and to traitors, death and hell!" The Lion also bellowed, as +if seven thunders had been uttering their united voices; shook his awful +mane, and furiously erected his tail, as the signal of attack. The +cornets and kettle-drums struck silent suddenly, and a horrid sound of +battle pealed from the tumult in the wedding-hall, up to the very Gothic +roof, till the walls rang with it, and the thresholds shook. + +The golden-haired bridegroom, and his party-coloured butterflies of +courtiers, fell beneath the sword of the Duke, as the thousand +Philistines beneath the ass's jaw-bone, in the sturdy fist of the son of +Manoah; and he who escaped the sword, rushed into the Lion's throat, and +was butchered like a defenceless lamb. When the forward wooer and his +retinue of serving-men and nobles were abolished, Duke Henry, having +used his household privilege as sternly as of old the wise Ulysses to +the wooing-club of his chaste Penelope, sat down to table, refreshed in +spirit, beside his wife, who was just beginning to recover from the +deadly fright his entrance had caused her. While briskly enjoying the +dainties of his cook, which had not been prepared for him, he cast a +glance of triumph on his new conquest, and perceived that she was bathed +in ambiguous tears, which might as well refer to loss as to gain. +However, like a man that knew the world, he explained them wholly to his +own advantage; and merely reproving her in gentle words for the hurry of +her heart, he from that hour entered upon all his former rights. + +Count Ernst had often listened to this strange story, from the lips of +his nurse; yet in riper years, as an enlightened sceptic, entertained +doubts of its truth. But in the dreary loneliness of his Grated Tower, +the whole incident acquired a form of possibility, and his wavering +nursery belief increased almost to conviction. A transit through the air +appeared to him the simplest thing in nature, if the Prince of Darkness, +in the gloomy midnight, chose to lend his bat-wings for the purpose. +Though in obedience to his religious principles, he no night neglected +to cut a large cross before him as he went to sleep; yet a secret +longing awoke in his heart, without its own distinct consciousness, to +accomplish the same adventure. If a wandering mouse in the night-season +happened to scratch upon the wainscot, he immediately supposed the +Hellish Proteus was announcing his arrival, and at times in thought he +went so far as settling the freight charges beforehand. But except the +illusion of a dream, which juggled him into an aerial journey to his +German native land, the Count gained nothing by his nursery faith, +except employing with these fantasies a few vacant hours; and like a +reader of novels, transporting himself into the situation of the acting +hero. Why old Abaddon showed himself so sluggish in this case, when the +kidnapping of a soul was in the wind, and in all likelihood the +enterprise must have succeeded, may be accounted for in two ways. Either +the Count's Guardian Angel was more watchful than the one to whom Duke +Henry had intrusted the keeping of his soul, and resisted so stoutly +that the Evil One could get no advantage over him; or the Prince of the +Air had grown disgusted with the transport-trade in this his own +element, having been bubbled out of his stipulated freightage by Duke +Henry after all their engagements; for when it came to the point with +Henry, his soul was found to have so many good works on her side of the +account, that the scores on the Infernal tally were altogether cancelled +by them. + +Whilst Count Ernst was weaving in romantic dreams a feeble shadow of +hope for deliverance from his captivity, and for a few moments in the +midst of them forgetting his dejection and misery, his returning +servants brought the Countess tidings that their master had vanished +from the camp, and none knew what had become of him. Some supposed that +he had been the prey of snakes or dragons; others that a pestilential +blast of wind had met him in the Syrian desert, and killed him; others +that he had been robbed and murdered, or taken captive, by some +plundering troop of Arabs. In one point all agreed: That he was to be +held _pro mortuo_, dead in law, and that the Countess was entirely +relieved and enfranchised from her matrimonial engagements. But to the +Countess herself, a secret foreboding still whispered that her lord was +alive notwithstanding. Nor did she by any means repress this thought, +which so solaced her heart; for hope is always the stoutest stay of the +afflicted, and the sweetest dream of life. To maintain it, she secretly +equipped a trusty servant, and sent him out for tidings, over sea into +the Holy Land. Like the raven from the Ark, this scout flew to and fro +upon the waters, and was no more heard of. Then she sent another forth; +who returned after several years' cruising over sea and land; but no +olive-leaf of hope was in his bill. Nevertheless the steadfast lady +doubted not in the least that she should yet meet her lord in the land +of the living: for she had a firm persuasion that so tender and true a +husband could not possibly have left the world without in the +catastrophe remembering his wife and little children at home, and giving +them some token of his death. Now, since the Count's departure, there +had nothing happened in the Castle; neither in the armoury by rattling +of the harness, nor in the garret by a rolling joist, nor in the +bed-chamber by a faint footstep, or heavy-booted tread. Nor had any +nightly moaning chanted its _Naenia_ down from the high battlements of +the palace; nor had the baleful bird Kreideweiss ever issued its +lugubrious death-summons. In the absence of all these signs of evil +omen, she inferred by the principles of female common-sense philosophy, +which even in our own times are by no means fallen into such desuetude +among the fair sex, as Father Aristotle's _Organum_ is among the male, +that her much-loved husband was still living; a conclusion, which we +know was perfectly correct. The fruitless issue of her first two +missions of discovery, the object of which was more important to her +than the finding of the Southern Polar Continent is to us, she allowed +not in the least to deter her from sending out a third Apostle into All +the World. This third was of a slow turn, and had imprinted on his mind +the adage, _As soon gets the snail to his bed as the swallow_; therefore +he called at every inn, and treated himself well. And it being +infinitely more convenient that the people whom he was to question about +his master should come to him, than that he should go tracking and +spying them out in the wide world, he determined on choosing a position +where he could examine every passenger from the East, with the insolent +inquisitiveness of a toll-man behind his barrier; and fixed his quarters +by the harbour of Venice. This Queen of the Waters was at that time, as +it were, the general gate, which all pilgrims and crusaders from the +Holy Land passed through in their way home. Whether this shrewd genius +chose the best or the worst means for discharging his appointed +function, will appear in the sequel. + +After a seven-years narrow custody in the Grated Tower at Grand +Cairo,--a term which to the Count seemed far longer than to the Seven +Sleepers their seventy-years sleep in the Roman catacombs,--he concluded +himself to be forsaken of Heaven and Hell, and utterly gave up hope of +ever getting out in the body from this melancholy cage, where the kind +face of the sun was not allowed to visit him, and the broken daylight +struggled faintly in through a window secured with iron bars. His +devil-romance was long ago concluded; and his faith in miraculous +assistance from his Guardian Saint was lighter than a mustard-seed. He +vegetated rather than lived; and if in these circumstances any wish +arose in him, it was the wish to be annihilated. + +From this lethargic stupor he was suddenly aroused by the rattling of a +bunch of keys, before the door of his cell. Since the day of his +entrance, his jailor had never more performed for him the office of +turnkey; for all the necessaries of the prisoner had been conveyed +through a trap-board in the door. Accordingly, it was not without long +resistance, and the bribery of a little vegetable oil, that the rusty +bolt obeyed him. But the creaking of the iron hinges, as the door went +up with reluctant grating, was to the Count a compound of more melodious +notes than ever came from the Harmonica of Franklin. A foreboding +palpitation of the heart set his stagnant blood in motion; and he +expected with impatient longing the intelligence of a change in his +fate: for the rest, it was indifferent to him whether it brought life or +death. Two black slaves entered with his jailor, at whose signal they +loosed the fetters from the prisoner; and a second mute sign from the +solemn graybeard commanded him to follow. He obeyed with faltering +steps; his feet refused their service, and he needed the support of the +two slaves, to totter down the winding stone stair. He was then +conducted to the Captain of the Prison, who, looking at him with a +reproachful air, thus spoke: "Obstinate Frank, what made thee hide the +craft thou art acquainted with, when thou wert put into the Grated +Tower? One of thy fellow-prisoners has betrayed thee, and informed us +that thou art a master in the art of gardening. Go, whither the will of +the Sultan calls thee; lay out a garden in the manner of the Franks, and +watch over it like the apple of thy eye; that the Flower of the World +may blossom in it pleasantly, for the adorning of the East." + +If the Count had got a call to Paris to be Rector of the Sorbonne, the +appointment could not have astonished him more, than this of being +gardener to the Sultan of Egypt. About gardening he understood as little +as a laic about the secrets of the Church. In Italy, it is true, he had +seen many gardens; and at Nuernberg, where the dawn of that art was now +first penetrating into Germany, though the horticultural luxury of the +Nuernbergers did not yet extend much farther than a bowling-green, and a +few beds of roman lettuce. But about the planning of gardens, and the +cultivation of plants, like a martial nobleman, he had never troubled +his head; and his botanic science was so limited, that the Flower of the +World had never once come under his inspection. Hence he knew not in the +least by what method it was to be treated; whether like the aloe it must +be brought to blossom by the aid of art, or like a common marigold by +the genial virtue of nature alone. Nevertheless, he did not venture to +acknowledge his ignorance, or decline the preferment offered him; being +reasonably apprehensive that they might convince him of his fitness for +the post, by a bastinading on the soles. + +A pleasant park was assigned him, which he was to change into a European +garden. The spot had, either by the hand of bountiful Nature, or of +ancient cultivation, been so happily disposed and ornamented already, +that the new Abdalonymus, let him cudgel his brains as he would, could +perceive no error or defect in it, nothing that admitted of improvement. +Besides, the aspect of living and active nature, which for seven long +years in his dreary prison he had been obliged to forego, affected him +at once so powerfully, that he inhaled rapture from every grass-flower, +and looked at all things around him with delight, like the First Man in +Paradise, to whom the scientific thought of censuring anything in the +arrangement of his Eden did not occur. The Count therefore found himself +in no small embarrassment about discharging his commission creditably; +he feared that every change would rob the garden of a beauty, and were +he detected as a botcher, he must travel back into his Grated Tower. + +In the mean time, as Shiek Kiamel, Overseer of the Gardens and favourite +of the Sultan, was diligently stimulating him to begin the work, he +required fifty slaves, as necessary for the execution of his enterprise. +Next morning at dawn, they were all ready, and passed muster before +their new commander, who as yet saw not how he should employ a man of +them. But how great was his joy as he perceived the mottled Kurt and the +ponderous Groom, his two companions of misfortune, ranked among the +troop! A hundredweight of lead rolled off his heart, the wrinkle of +dejection vanished from his brow, and his eyes were enlightened, as if +he had dipt his staff in honey and tasted thereof. He led the trusty +Squire aside, and frankly informed him into what a heterogeneous element +he had been cast by the caprices of fate, where he could neither fly nor +swim; nor could he in the least comprehend what enigmatical mistake had +exchanged his knightly sword with the gardener's spade. No sooner had he +done speaking, than the mettled Kurt, with wet eyes, fell at his feet, +then lifted up his voice and said: "Pardon, dear master! It is I that +have caused your perplexity and your deliverance from the rascally +Grated Tower, which has kept you so long in ward. Be not angry that the +innocent deceit of your servant has brought you out of it; be glad +rather that you see God's sky again above your head. The Sultan required +a garden after the manner of the Franks, and had proclamation made to +all the Christian captives in the Bazam, that the proper man should step +forth, and expect great recompense if the undertaking prospered. No one +of them durst meddle with it; but I recollected your heavy durance. Then +some good spirit whispered me the lie of announcing you as an adept in +the art of gardening, and it has succeeded perfectly. And now never vex +yourself about the way of managing the business: the Sultan, like the +great people of the world, has a fancy not for something better than he +has already, but for something different, that may be new and singular. +Therefore, delve and devastate, and cut and carve, in this glorious +field, according to your pleasure; and depend upon it, everything you do +or purpose will be right in his eyes." + +This speech was as the murmur of a running brook in the ears of a tired +wanderer in the desert. The Count drew balsam to his soul from it, and +courage to commence with boldness the ungainly undertaking. He set his +men to work at random, without plan; and proceeded with the well-ordered +shady park, as one of your "bold geniuses" proceeds with an antiquated +author, who falls into his creative hands, and, nill he will he, must +submit to let himself be modernised, that is to say, again made readable +and likeable; or as a new pedagogue with the ancient forms of the +Schools. He jumbled in variegated confusion what he found before him, +making all things different, nothing better. The profitable fruit-trees +he rooted out, and planted rosemary and valerian, and exotic shrubs, or +scentless amaranths, in their stead. The rich soil he dug away, and +coated the naked bottom with many-coloured gravel, which he carefully +stamped hard, and smoothed like a threshing-floor, that no blade of +grass might spring in it. The whole space he divided into various +terraces, which he begirt with a hem of green; and through these a +strangely-twisted flower-bed serpentised along, and ended in a knot of +villanously-smelling boxwood. And as from his ignorance of botany, he +paid no heed to the proper seasons for sowing and planting, his garden +project hovered for a long time between life and death, and had the +aspect of a suit of clothes _a feuille mourante_. + +Shiek Kiamel, and the Sultan himself, allowed the Western gardener to +take his course, without deranging his conception by their interference +or their dictatorial opinion, and by premature hypercriticism +interrupting the procedure of his horticultural genius. In this they +acted more wisely than our obstreperous public, which, from our famous +philanthropic scheme of sowing acorns, expected in a summer or two a +stock of strong oaks, fit to be masts for three-deckers; while the +plantation was as yet so soft and feeble, that a few frosty nights might +have sent it to destruction. Now, indeed, almost in the middle of the +second decade of years from the commencement of the enterprise, when the +first fruits must certainly be over-ripe, it were in good season for a +German Kiamel to step forward with the question: "Planter, what art thou +about? Let us see what thy delving, and the loud clatter of thy cars and +wheelbarrows have produced?" And if the plantation stood before him like +that of the Gleichic Garden at Grand Cairo, in the sere and yellow leaf, +then were he well entitled, after due consideration of the matter, like +the Shiek, to shake his head in silence, to spit a squirt through his +teeth, and think within himself: If this be all, it might have stayed as +it was. For one day, as the gardener was surveying his new creation with +contentment, sitting in judgment on himself, and pronouncing that the +work praised the master, and that, everything considered, it had fallen +out better than he could have anticipated, his whole ideal being before +his eyes, not only what was then, but what was to be made of it,--the +Overseer, the Sultan's favourite, stept into the garden, and said: +"Frank, what art thou about? And how far art thou got with thy labour?" +The Count easily perceived that the produce of his genius would now have +to stand a rigorous criticism; however, he had long been ready for this +accident. He collected all his presence of mind, and answered +confidently: "Come, sir, and see! This former wilderness has obeyed the +hand of art, and is now moulded, after the pattern of Paradise, into a +scene which the Houris would not disdain to select for their abode." The +Shiek, hearing a professed artist speak with such apparent warmth and +satisfaction of his own performance, and giving the master credit for +deeper insight in his own sphere than he himself possessed, restrained +the avowal of his discontentment with the whole arrangement, modestly +ascribing this dislike to his inacquaintance with foreign taste, and +leaving the matter to rest on its own basis. Nevertheless, he could not +help putting one or two questions, for his own information; to which the +garden satrap was not in the least behindhand with his answers. + +"Where are the glorious fruit-trees," began the Shiek, "which stood on +this sandy level, loaded with peaches and sweet lemons, which solaced +the eye, and invited the promenader to refreshing enjoyment?" + +"They are all hewn away by the surface, and their place is no longer to +be found." + +"And why so?" + +"Could the garden of the Sultan admit such trash of trees, which the +commonest citizen of Cairo cultivates, and the fruit of which is offered +for sale by assloads every day?" + +"What moved thee to desolate the pleasant grove of dates and tamarinds, +which was the wanderer's shelter against the sultry noontide, and gave +him coolness and refection under the vault of its shady boughs?" + +"What has shade to do in a garden which, while the sun shoots forth +scorching beams, stands solitary and deserted, and only exhales its +balsamic odours when fanned by the cool breeze of evening?" + +"But did not this grove cover, with an impenetrable veil, the secrets of +love, when the Sultan, enchanted by the charms of a fair Circassian, +wished to hide his tenderness from the jealous eyes of her companions?" + +"An impenetrable veil is to be found in that bower, overarched with +honeysuckle and ivy; or in that cool grotto, where a crystal fountain +gushes out of artificial rocks into a basin of marble; or in that +covered walk with its trellises of clustering vines; or on the sofa, +pillowed with soft moss, in the rustic reed-house by the pond; nor will +any of these secret shrines afford lodging for destructive worms, and +buzzing insects, or keep away the wafting air, or shut up the free +prospect, as the gloomy grove of tamarinds did." + +"But why hast thou planted sage, and hyssop which grows upon the wall, +here on this spot where formerly the precious balm-tree of Mecca +bloomed?" + +"Because the Sultan wanted no Arabian, but a European garden. In Italy, +and in the German gardens of the Nuernbergers, no dates are ripened, nor +does any balm-tree of Mecca bloom." + +To this last argument no answer could be made. As neither the Shiek nor +any of the Heathen in Cairo had ever been at Nuernberg, he had nothing +for it but to take this version of the garden from Arabic into German, +on the word of the interpreter. Only, he could not bring himself to +think that the present horticultural reform had been managed by the +pattern of the Paradise, appointed by the Prophet for believing +Mussulmans; and, allowing the pretension to be true, he promised to +himself, from the joys of the future life, no very special consolation. +There was nothing for him, therefore, but, in the way above mentioned, +to shake his head, contemplatively squirt a dash of liquid out over his +beard, and go the way whence he had come. + +The Sultan who at that time swayed the Egyptian sceptre was the gallant +Malek al Aziz Othman, a son of the renowned Saladin. The fame of Sultan +Malek rests less upon his qualities in the field or the cabinet, than +upon the unexampled numerousness of his offspring. Of princes he had so +many, that had every one of them been destined to wear a crown, he might +have stocked with them all the kingdoms of the then known world. +Seventeen years ago, however, this copious spring had, one hot summer, +finally gone dry. Princess Melechsala terminated the long series of the +Sultanic progeny; and, in the unanimous opinion of the Court, she was +the jewel of the whole. She enjoyed to its full extent the prerogative +of youngest children, preference to all the rest; and this distinction +was enhanced by the circumstance, that of all the Sultan's daughters, +she alone had remained in life; while Nature had adorned her with so +many charms, that they enchanted even the paternal eye. For this must in +general be conceded to the Oriental Princes, that in the scientific +criticism of female beauty they are infinitely more advanced than our +Occidentals, who are every now and then betraying their imperfect +culture in this point.[18] Melechsala was the pride of the Sultan's +family; her brothers themselves were unremitting in attentions to her, +and in efforts to outdo each other in affectionate regard. The grave +Divan was frequently employed in considering what Prince, by means of +her, might be connected, in the bonds of love, with the interest of the +Egyptian state. This her royal father made his smallest care; he was +solely and incessantly concerned to grant this darling of his heart her +every wish, to keep her spirit always in a cheerful mood, that no cloud +might overcast the serene horizon of her brow. + + [18] _Journal of Fashions_, June 1786. + +The first years of childhood she had passed under the superintendence of +a nurse, who was a Christian, and of Italian extraction. This slave had +in early youth been kidnapped from the beach of her native town by a +Barbary pirate; sold in Alexandria; and, by the course of trade, +transmitted from one hand to another, till at last she had arrived in +the palace of the Sultan, where her hale constitution recommended her to +this office, which she filled with the greatest reputation. Though less +tuneful than the French court-nurse, who used to give the signal for a +general chorus over all Versailles, whenever she uplifted, with +melodious throat, her _Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre_; yet nature had +sufficiently indemnified her by a glibness of tongue, in which she was +unrivalled. She knew as many tales and stories as the fair Sheherazade +in the Thousand-and-one Nights; a species of entertainment for which it +would appear the race of Sultans, in the privacy of their seraglios, +have considerable liking. The Princess, at least, found pleasure in it, +not for a thousand nights, but for a thousand weeks; and when once a +maiden has attained the age of a thousand weeks, she can no longer be +contented with the histories of others, for she sees materials in +herself to make a history of her own. In process of time, the gifted +waiting-woman changed her nursery-tales with the theory of European +manners and customs; and being herself a warm patriot, and recollecting +her native country with delight, she painted the superiorities of Italy +so vividly, that the fancy of her tender nursling became filled with the +subject, and the pleasant impression never afterwards faded from her +memory. The more this fair Princess grew in stature, the stronger grew +in her the love for foreign decoration; and her whole demeanour shaped +itself according to the customs of Europe rather than of Egypt. + +From youth upwards she had been a great lover of flowers: part of her +occupation had consisted in forming, according to the manner of the +Arabs, a constant succession of significant nosegays and garlands; with +which, in delicate expressiveness, she used to disclose the emotions of +her heart. Nay, she at last grew so inventive, that, by combining +flowers of various properties, she could compose, and often very +happily, whole sentences and texts of the Koran. These she would then +submit to her playmates for interpretation, which they seldom failed to +hit. Thus one day, for example, she formed with Chalcedonic Lychnis the +figure of a heart; surrounded it with white Roses and Lilies; fastened +under it two mounting Kingsweeds, enclosing a beautifully marked Anemone +between them; and her women, when she showed them, the wreath, +unanimously read: Innocence of heart is above Birth and Beauty. She +frequently presented her slaves with fresh nosegays: and these +flower-donations commonly included praise or blame for their receivers. +A garland of Peony-roses censured levity; the swelling Poppy, dulness +and vanity; a bunch of odoriferous Hyacinths, with drooping bells, was a +panegyric for modesty; the gold Lily, which shuts her leaves at sunset, +for prudence; the Marine Convolvulus rebuked eye-service; and the +blossoms of the Thorn-Apple, with the Daisy whose roots are poisonous, +indicated slander and private envy. + +Father Othman took a secret pleasure in this sprightly play of his +daughter's fancy, though he himself had no talent for deciphering these +witty hieroglyphics, and was frequently obliged to look with the +spectacles of his whole Divan before he could pierce their meaning. The +exotic taste of the Princess was not hidden from him; and though, as a +plain Mussulman, he could not sympathise with her in it, he endeavoured, +as a tender and indulgent parent, rather to maintain than to suppress +this favourite tendency of his daughter. He fell upon the project of +combining her passion for flowers with her preference for foreign parts, +and laying out a garden for her in the taste of the Franks. This idea +appeared to him so happy, that he lost not a moment in imparting it to +his favourite, Shiek Kiamel, and pressing him with the strictest +injunctions to realise it as speedily as possible. The Shiek, well +knowing that his master's wishes were for him commands, which he must +obey without reply, presumed not to mention the difficulties which he +saw in the attempt. He himself understood as little about European +gardens as the Sultan; and in all Cairo there was no mortal known to +him, with whom he might find counsel in the business. Therefore he made +search among the Christian slaves for a man skilful in gardening; and +lighted exactly on the wrong hand for extricating him from his +difficulty. It was no wonder, then, that Shiek Kiamel shook his head +contemplatively as he inspected the procedure of this horticultural +improvement; for he was apprehensive, that if it delighted the Sultan as +little as it did himself, he might be involved in a heavy +responsibility, and his favouriteship, at the very least, might take +wings and fly away. + +At Court, this project had hitherto been treated as a secret, and the +entrance of the place prohibited to every one in the seraglio. The +Sultan purposed to surprise his daughter with this present on her +birthday; to conduct her with ceremony into the garden, and make it over +to her as her own. This day was now approaching; and his Highness had a +wish to take a view of everything beforehand, to get acquainted with the +new arrangements; that he might give himself the happiness of pointing +out in person to his daughter the peculiar beauties of her garden. He +communicated this to the Shiek, whom the tidings did not much +exhilarate; and who, in consequence, composed a short defensive oration, +which he fondly hoped might extricate his head from the noose, if the +Sultan showed himself dissatisfied with the appearance of his Christian +garden. + +"Commander of the Faithful," he purposed to say, "thy nod is the +director of my path; my feet hasten whither thou leadest them, and my +hand holds fast what thou committest to it. Thou wishedst a garden after +the manner of the Franks: here stands it before thy eyes. These +untutored barbarians have no gardens; but meagre wastes of sand, which, +in their own rude climate, where no dates or lemons ripen, and there is +neither Kalaf nor Bahobab,[19] they plant with grass and weeds. For the +curse of the Prophet has smitten with perpetual barrenness the plains of +the Unbeliever, and forbidden him any foretaste of Paradise by the +perfume of the Mecca balm-tree, or the enjoyment of spicy fruits." + + [19] _Kalaf_, a shrub, from whose blossoms a liquor is extracted, + resembling our cherry-water, and much used in domestic medicine. + _Bahobab_, a sort of fruit, in great esteem among the Egyptians. + +The day was far spent, when the Sultan, attended only by the Shiek, +stept into the garden, in high expectation of the wonders he was to +behold. A wide unobstructed prospect over a part of the city, and the +mirror surface of the Nile with its _Musherns_, _Shamdecks_ and +_Sheomeons_[20] sailing to and fro; in the background, the +skyward-pointing pyramids, and a chain of blue vapoury mountains, met +his eye from the upper terrace, no longer shrouded-in by the leafy grove +of palms. A refreshing breath of air was also stirring in the place, and +fanning him agreeably. Crowds of new objects pressed on him from every +side. The garden had in truth got a strange foreign aspect; and the old +park which had been his promenade from youth upwards, and had long since +wearied him by its everlasting sameness, was no longer to be recognised. +The knowing Kurt had judged wisely, that the charm of novelty would have +its influence. The Sultan tried this horticultural metamorphosis not by +the principles of a critic, but by its first impression on the senses; +and as these are easily decoyed into contentment by the bait of +singularity, the whole seemed good and right to him there as he found +it. Even the crooked unsymmetrical walks, overlaid with hard stamped +gravel, gave his feet an elastic force, and a light firm tread, +accustomed as he was to move on nothing else but Persian carpets, or on +the soft greensward. He could not satisfy himself with wandering up and +down the labyrinthic walks; and he showed himself especially contented +with the rich variety of wild flowers, which had been fostered and +cultivated with the greatest care, though they were blossoming of their +own accord, outside the wall, with equal luxuriance and in greater +multitude. + + [20] Various sorts of sailing craft in use there. + +At last, having placed himself upon a seat, he turned to the Shiek with +a cheerful countenance, and said: "Kiamel, thou hast not deceived my +expectation: I well anticipated that thou wouldst transform me this old +park into something singular, and diverse from the fashion of the land; +and now I will not hide my satisfaction from thee. Melechsala may accept +thy work as a garden after the manner of the Franks." + +The Shiek, when he heard his despot talk in this dialect, marvelled much +that all things took so well; and blessed himself that he had held his +tongue, and retained his defensive oration to himself. Perceiving that +the Sultan seemed to look upon the whole as his invention, he directly +turned the rudder of his talk to the favourable breeze which was +rustling his sails, and spoke thus: "Puissant Commander of the Faithful, +be it known to thee that thy obedient slave took thought with himself +day and night how he might produce out of this old date-grove, at thy +beck and order, something unexampled, the like of which had never been +in Egypt before. Doubtless it was an inspiration of the Prophet that +suggested the idea of planning it according to the pattern of Paradise; +for I trusted, that by so doing I should not fail to meet the intention +of thy Highness." + +The worthy Sultan's conception of the Paradise, which to all appearance +by the course of nature he must soon become possessed of, had still been +exceedingly confused; or rather, like the favoured of fortune, who take +their ease in this lower world, he had never troubled himself much about +the other. But whenever any Dervish or Iman, or other spiritual person, +mentioned Paradise, some image of his old park used to rise on his +fancy; and the park was not by any means his favourite scene. Now, +however, his imagination had been steered on quite a different tack. The +new picture of his future happiness filled his soul with joy; at least +he could now suppose that Paradise might not be so dull as he had +hitherto figured it: and believing that he now possessed a model of it +on the small scale, he formed a high opinion of the garden; and +expressed this forthwith, by directly making Shiek Kiamel a Bey, and +presenting him with a splendid caftan. Your thorough-paced courtier +belies his nature in no quarter of the world: Kiamel, without the +slightest hesitation, modestly appropriated the reward of a service +which his functionary had performed; not uttering a syllable about him +to the Sultan, and thinking him rather too liberally rewarded by a few +aspers which he added to his daily pay. + +About the time when the Sun enters the Ram, a celestial phenomenon, +which in our climates is the watch-word for winter to commence his +operation; but under the milder sky of Egypt announces the finest season +of the year, the Flower of the World stept forth into the garden which +had been prepared for her, and found it altogether to her foreign taste. +She herself was, in truth, its greatest ornament: any scene where she +had wandered, had it been a desert in Arabia the Stony, or a Greenland +ice-field, would, in the eyes of a gallant person, have been changed +into Elysium at her appearance. The wilderness of flowers, which chance +had mingled in interminable rows, gave equal occupation to her eye and +her spirit: the disorder itself she assimilated, by her sprightly +allegories, to methodical arrangement. + +According to the custom of the country, every time she entered the +garden, all specimens of the male sex, planters, diggers, +water-carriers, were expelled by her guard of Eunuchs. The Grace for +whom our artist worked was thus hidden from his eyes, much as he could +have wished for once to behold this Flower of the World, which had so +long been a riddle in his botany. But as the Princess used to overstep +the fashions of the East in many points, so by degrees, while she grew +to like the garden more and more, and to pay it several visits daily, +she began to feel obstructed and annoyed by the attendance of her guard +sallying out before her in solemn parade, as if the Sultan had been +riding to Mosque in the Bairam festival. She frequently appeared alone, +or leaning on the arm of some favourite waiting-woman; always, however, +with a thin veil over her face, and a little rush basket in her hand: +she wandered up and down the walks, plucking flowers, which, according +to custom, she arranged into emblems of her thoughts, and distributed +among her people. + +One morning, before the hot season of the day, while the dewdrops were +still reflecting all the colours of the rainbow from the grass, she +visited her Tempe to enjoy the cool morning air, just as her gardener +was employed in lifting from the ground some faded plants, and replacing +them by others newly blown, which he was carefully transporting in +flower-pots, and then cunningly inserting in the soil with all their +appurtenances, as if by a magic vegetation they had started from the +bosom of the earth in a single night. The Princess noticed with pleasure +this pretty deception of the senses, and having now found out the secret +of the flowers which she plucked away being daily succeeded by fresh +ones, so that there was never any want, she thought of turning her +discovery to advantage, and instructing the gardener how and when to +arrange them, and make them blossom. On raising his eyes, the Count +beheld this female Angel, whom he took for the possessor of the garden, +for she was encircled with celestial charms as with a halo. He was so +surprised by this appearance that he dropped a flower-pot from his +hands, forgetful of the precious colocassia contained in it, which ended +its tender life as tragically as the Sieur Pilastre de Rosier, though +both only fell into the bosom of their mother Earth. + +The Count stood petrified like a statue without life or motion; one +might have broken off his nose, as the Turks do with stone statues in +temples and gardens, and never have aroused him. But the sweet voice of +the Princess, who opened her purple lips, recalled him to his senses. +"Christian," said she, "be not afraid! It is my blame that thou art here +beside me; go forward with thy work, and order thy flowers as I shall +bid thee."--"Glorious Flower of the World!" replied the gardener, "in +whose splendour all the colours of this blossomy creation wax pale, thou +reignest here as in thy firmament, like the Star-queen on the +battlements of Heaven. Let thy nod enliven the hand of the happiest +among thy slaves, who kisses his fetters, so thou think him worthy to +perform thy commands." The Princess had not expected that a slave would +open his mouth to her, still less pay her compliments, and her eyes had +been directed rather to the flowers than the planter. She now deigned to +cast a glance on him, and was astonished to behold a man of the most +noble form, surpassing in masculine grace all that she had ever seen or +dreamed of. + +Count Ernst of Gleichen had been celebrated for his manly beauty over +all Germany. At the tournament of Wuerzburg, he had been the hero of the +dames. When he raised his visor to take air, the running of the boldest +spearman was lost for every female eye; all looked on him alone; and +when he closed his helmet to begin a course, the chastest bosom heaved +higher, and all hearts beat anxious sympathy with the lordly Knight. The +partial hand of the Duke of Bavaria's love-sick niece had crowned him +with a guerdon, which the young man blushed to receive. His seven years' +durance in the Grated Tower, had indeed paled his blooming cheeks, +relaxed his firm-set limbs, and dulled the fire of his eyes; but the +enjoyment of the free atmosphere, and Labour, the playmate of Health, +had now made good the loss, with interest. He was flourishing like a +laurel, which has pined throughout the long winter in the greenhouse, +and at the return of spring sends forth new leaves, and gets a fair +verdant crown. + +With her predilection for all foreign things, the Princess could not +help contemplating with satisfaction the attractive figure of the +stranger; and it never struck her that the sight of an Endymion may have +quite another influence on a maiden's heart, than the creation of a +milliner, set up for show in her booth. With kind gentle voice, she gave +her handsome gardener orders how to manage the arrangement of his +flowers; often asked his own, advice respecting it, and talked with him +so long as any horticultural idea was in her head. She left him at +length, but scarcely was she gone five paces when she turned to give +him fresh commissions; and as she took a promenade along the +serpentine-walk, she called him again to her, and put new questions to +him, and proposed new improvements before she went away. As the day +began to cool, she again felt the want of fresh air, and scarcely had +the sun returned to gild the waxing Nile, when a wish to see the +awakening flowers unfold their blossoms, brought her back into the +garden. Day after day her love of fresh air and awakening flowers +increased; and in these visits she never failed to go directly to the +place where her florist was labouring, and give him new orders, which he +strove punctually and speedily to execute. + +One day the Bostangi,[21] when she came to see him, was not to be found; +she wandered up and down the intertwisted walks, regardless of the +flowers that were blooming around her, and, by the high tints of their +colours and the balmy air of their perfumes, as if striving with each +other to attract her attention; she expected him behind every bush, +searched every branching plant that might conceal him, fancied she +should find him in the grotto, and, on his failing to appear, made a +pilgrimage to all the groves in the garden, hoping to surprise him +somewhere asleep, and enjoying the embarrassment which he would feel +when she awoke him; but the head-gardener nowhere met her eye. By chance +she came upon the stoical Viet, the Count's Groom, a dull piece of +mechanism, whom his master had been able to make nothing out of but a +drawer of water. On perceiving her, he wheeled with his water-cans to +the left-about, that he might not meet her, but she called him to her, +and asked, Where the Bostangi was? "Where else," said he, in his sturdy +way, "but in the hands of the Jewish quack-salver, who will sweat the +soul from his body in a trice?" These tidings cut the lovely Princess to +the heart, for she had never dreamed that it was sickness which +prevented her Bostangi from appearing at his post. She immediately +returned to her palace, where her women saw, with consternation, that +the serene brow of their mistress was overcast, as when the moist breath +of the south wind has dimmed the mirror of the sky, and the hovering +vapours have collected into clouds. In retiring to the Seraglio, she had +plucked a variety of flowers, but all were of a mournful character, and +bound with cypress and rosemary, indicating clearly enough the sadness +of her mood. She did the same for several days, which brought her +council of women into much perplexity, and many deep debates about the +cause of their fair Melechsala's grief; but withal, as in female +consultations too often happens, they arrived at no conclusion, as in +calling for the vote there was such a dissonance of opinions, that no +harmonious note could be discovered in them. The truth was, Count +Ernst's too zealous efforts to anticipate every nod of the Princess, and +realise whatever she expressed the faintest hint of, had so acted on a +frame unused to labour, that his health suffered under it, and he was +seized with a fever. Yet the Jewish pupil of Galen, or rather the +Count's fine constitution, mastered the disease, and in a few days he +was able to resume his tasks. The instant the Princess noticed him, the +clouds fled away from her brow; and her female senate, to whom her +melancholy humour had remained an inexplicable riddle, now unanimously +voted that some flower-plant, of whose progress she had been in doubt, +had now taken root and begun to thrive,--a conclusion not inaccurate, if +taken allegorically. + + [21] Head-gardener. + +Princess Melechsala was still as innocent in heart as she had come from +the hands of Nature. She had never got the smallest warning or +foreboding of the rogueries, which Amor is wont to play on inexperienced +beauties. Hitherto, on the whole, there has been a want of _Hints for +Princesses and Maidens_ in regard to love; though a satisfactory theory +of that kind might do infinitely greater service to the world than any +_Hints for the Instructors of Princes_;[22] a class of persons who +regard no hint, however broad, nay sometimes take it ill; whereas +maidens never fail to notice every hint, and pay heed to it, their +perception being finer, and a secret hint precisely their affair. The +Princess was still in the first novitiate of love, and had not the +slightest knowledge of its mysteries. She therefore yielded wholly to +her feelings, without scrupling in the least, or ever calling a Divan of +the three confidantes of her heart, Reason, Prudence and Reflection, to +deliberate on the business. Had she done so, doubtless the concern she +felt in the circumstances of the Bostangi would have indicated to her +that the germ of an unknown passion was already vegetating strongly in +her heart, and Reason and Reflection would have whispered to her that +this passion was _love_. Whether in the Count's heart there was any +similar process going on in secret, we have no diplomatic evidence +before us: his over-anxious zeal to execute the commands of his +mistress might excite some such conjecture; and if so, a bunch of Lovage +with a withered stalk of Honesty, tied up together, might have befitted +him as an allegorical nosegay. Perhaps, however, it was nothing but an +innocent chivalrous feeling which occasioned this distinguished +alacrity; for in those times it was the most inviolable law of +Knighthood, that its professors should in all things rigorously conform +to the injunctions of the fair. + + [22] Allusion to a small Treatise, which, about the time Musaeus + wrote his story, had appeared under that title.--WIELAND. + +No day now passed without the good Melechsala's holding trustful +conversation with her Bostangi. The soft tone of her voice delighted his +ear, and every one of her expressions seemed to say something flattering +to him. Had he been endowed with the self-confidence of a court lord, he +would have turned so fair a situation to profit for making farther +advances: but he constantly restrained himself within the bounds of +modesty. And as the Princess was entirely inexperienced in the science +of coquetry, and knew not how to set about encouraging the timid +shepherd to the stealing of her heart, the whole intrigue revolved upon +the axis of mutual good-will; and might undoubtedly have long continued +so revolving, had not Chance, which we all know commonly officiates as +_primum mobile_ in every change of things, ere long given the scene +another form. + +About sunset, one very beautiful day, the Princess visited the garden; +her soul was as bright as the horizon; she talked delightfully with her +Bostangi about many indifferent matters, for the mere purpose of +speaking to him; and after he had filled her flower-basket, she seated +herself in a grove, and bound up a nosegay, with which she presented +him. The Count, as a mark of reverence to his fair mistress, fastened +it, with a look of surprise and delight, to the breast of his waistcoat, +without ever dreaming that the flowers might have a secret import; for +these hieroglyphics were hidden from his eyes, as from the eyes of a +discerning public the secret wheel-work of the famous Wooden +Chess-player. And as the Princess did not afterwards expound that secret +import, it has withered away with the blossoms, and been lost to the +knowledge of posterity. Meanwhile she herself supposed that the language +of flowers must be as plain to all mortals as their mother-tongue; she +never doubted, therefore, but her favourite had understood the whole +quite right; and as he looked at her with such an air of reverence when +he took the nosegay, she accepted his gestures as expressions of modest +thanks for the praise of his activity and zeal, which, in all +probability, the flowers had been meant to convey. She now took a +thought of putting his inventiveness to proof in her turn, and trying +whether in this flowery dialect of thanks he could pay a pretty +compliment; or, in a word, translate the present aspect of his +countenance, which betrayed the feelings of his heart, into +flower-writing; and accordingly, she asked him for a nosegay of his +composition. The Count, affected by such a proof of condescending +goodness, darted to the end of the garden, into a remote greenhouse, +where he had established his flower-depot, and out of which he was in +the habit of transferring his plants to the soil as they came into +blossom, without stirring them from their pots. There chanced to be an +aromatic plant just then in bloom, a flower named _Mushirumi_[23] by the +Arabs, and which hitherto had not appeared in the garden. With this +novelty Count Ernst imagined he might give a little harmless pleasure to +his fair florist; and accordingly, for want of a salver, having put a +broad fig-leaf under it, he held it to her on his knees, with a look +expressive of humility, yet claiming a little merit; for he thought to +earn a word of praise by it. But, with the utmost consternation, he +perceived that the Princess turned away her face, and, so far as he +could notice through the veil, cast down her eyes as if ashamed, and +looked on the ground, without uttering a word. She hesitated, and seemed +embarrassed in accepting it; not deigning to cast a look on it, but +laying it beside her on the seat. Her gay humour had departed; she +assumed a majestic attitude, announcing haughty earnestness; and after a +few moments left the grove, without taking any farther notice of her +favourite, not, however, leaving her _Mushirumi_ behind her, but +carefully concealing it under her veil. + + [23] _Hyacinthus Muscari_. + +The Count was thunderstruck at this enigmatical catastrophe; he could +not for his life understand the meaning of this strange behaviour, and +continued sitting on his knees, in the position of a man doing penance, +for some time after his Princess had left the place. It grieved him to +the heart that he should have displeased and alienated this divinity, +whom, for her condescending kindness, he venerated as a Saint of Heaven. +When his first consternation had subsided, he slunk home to his +dwelling, timid and rueful, like a man conscious of some heavy crime. +The mettled Kurt had supper on the table; but his master would not +bite, and kept forking about in the plate, without carrying a morsel to +his lips. By this the trusty _Dapifer_ perceived that all was not right +with the Count; wherefore he vanished speedily from the room, and +uncorked a flask of Chian wine; which Grecian care-dispeller did not +fail in its effect. The Count became communicative, and disclosed to his +faithful Squire the adventure in the garden. Their speculations on it +were protracted to a late hour, without affording any tenable hypothesis +for the displeasure of the Princess; and as with all their pondering +nothing could be discovered, master and servant betook them to repose. +The latter found it without difficulty; the former sought it in vain, +and watched throughout the painful night, till the dawn recalled him to +his employments. + +At the hour when Melechsala used to visit him, the Count kept an eager +eye on the entrance, but the door of the Seraglio did not open. He +waited the second day; then the third: the door of the Seraglio was as +if walled up within. Had not the Count of Gleichen been a sheer idiot in +flower-language, he would readily have found the key to this surprising +behaviour of the Princess. By presenting the flower to her, he had, in +fact, without knowing a syllable of the matter, made a formal +declaration of love, and that in no Platonic sense. For when an Arab +lover, by some trusty hand, privily transmits a _Mushirumi_ flower to +his mistress, he gives her credit for penetration enough to discover the +only rhyme which exists in the Arabian language for the word. This rhyme +is _Ydskerumi_, which, delicately rendered, means _reward of love_.[24] +To this invention it must be conceded, that there cannot be a more +compendious method of proceeding in the business than this of the +_Mushirumi_, which might well deserve the imitation of our Western +lovers. The whole insipid scribbling of _Billets-doux_, which often cost +their authors so much toil and brain-beating, often when they come into +the wrong hand are pitilessly mangled by hard-hearted jesters, often by +the fair receivers themselves mistreated or falsely interpreted, might +by this means be dispensed with. It need not be objected that the +_Mushirumi_, or _Muscadine-hyacinth_, flowers but rarely and for a short +time in our climates; because an imitation of it might be made by our +Parisian or native gumflower-makers, to supply the wants of lovers at +all seasons of the year; and an inland trade in this domestic +manufacture might easily afford better profit than our present +speculations with America. Nor would a Chevalier in Europe have to +dread that the presenting of so eloquent a flower might be charged upon +him as a capital offence, for which his life might have to answer, as in +the East could very simply happen. Had not Princess Melechsala been so +kind and soft a soul, or had not omnipotent Love subdued the pride of +the Sultan's daughter, the Count, for this flower-gallantry, innocently +as on his part it was intended, must have paid with his head. But the +Princess was in the main so little indignant at receiving this +expressive flower, that on the contrary the fancied proffer struck a +chord in her heart, which had long been vibrating before, and drew from +it a melodious tone. Yet her virgin modesty was hard put to proof, when +her favourite, as she supposed, presumed to entreat of her the reward of +love. It was on this account that she had turned away her face at his +proposal. A purple blush, which the veil had hidden from the Count, +overspread her tender cheeks, her snow-white bosom heaved, and her heart +beat higher beneath it. Bashfulness and tenderness were fighting a +fierce battle within it, and her embarrassment was such that she could +not utter a word. For a time she had been in doubt what to do with the +perplexing _Mushirumi_; to disdain it, was to rob her lover of all hope; +to accept it, was the promise that his wishes should be granted. The +balance of resolution wavered, now to this side, now to that, till at +length love decided; she took the flower with her, and this at least +secured the Count's head, in the first place. But in her solitary +chamber, there doubtless ensued much deep deliberation about the +consequences which this step might produce; and the situation of the +Princess was the more difficult, that in her ignorance of the concerns +of the heart, she knew not how to act of herself; and durst not risk +disclosing the affair to any other, if she would not leave the life of +her beloved and her own fate at the caprice of a third party. + + [24] Hasselquist's _Travels in Palestine_. + +It is easier to watch a goddess at the bath than to penetrate the +secrets of an Oriental Princess in the bedchamber of the Seraglio. It is +therefore difficult for the historian to determine whether Melechsala +left the _Mushirumi_ which she had accepted of to wither on her +dressing-table; or put it in fresh water, to preserve it for the solace +of her eyes as long as possible. In like manner, it is difficult to +discover whether this fair Princess spent the night asleep, with gay +dreams dancing round her, or awake, a victim to the wasting cares of +love. The latter is more probable, since early in the morning there +arose great dole and lamentation in the Palace, as the Princess made +her appearance with pale cheeks and languid eyes; so that her female +council dreaded the approach of grievous sickness. The Court Physician +was called in; the same bearded Hebrew who had floated off the Count's +fever in his sweat-bath; he was now to examine the pulse of a more +delicate patient. According to the custom of the country, she was lying +on a sofa, with a large screen in front of it, provided with a little +opening, through which she stretched her beautifully turned arm, twice +and three times wrapt with fine muslin, to protect it from the profane +glance of a masculine eye, "God help me!" whispered the Doctor into the +chief waiting-woman's ear: "Things have a bad look with her Highness; +the pulse is quivering like a mouse-tail." At the same time, with +practical policy, he shook his head dubitatingly, as cunning doctors are +wont; ordered abundance of Kalaf and other cordials, and with a shrug of +the shoulders predicted a dangerous fever. + +Nevertheless, these alarming symptoms, which the medical gentleman +considered as so many heralds announcing the approach of a malignant +distemper, appeared to be nothing more than the consequences of a bad +night's-rest; for the patient having taken her _siesta_ about noon, +found herself, to the Israelite's astonishment, out of danger in the +evening; needed no more drugs, and by the orders of her AEsculapius was +required merely to keep quiet for a day or two. This space she employed +in maturely deliberating her intrigue, and devising ways and means for +fulfilling the demands of the _Mushirumi_. She was diligently occupied, +inventing, proving, choosing and rejecting. One hour fancy smoothed away +the most impassable mountains; and the next, she saw nothing but clefts +and abysses, from the brink of which she shuddered back, and over which +the boldest imagination could not build a bridge. Yet on all these rocks +of offence she grounded the firm resolution to obey the feelings of her +heart, come what come might; a piece of heroism, not unusual with Mother +Eve's daughters; which in the mean time they often pay for with the +happiness and contentment of their lives. + +The bolted gate of the Seraglio at last went up, and the fair Melechsala +again passed through it into the garden, like the gay Sun through the +portals of the East. The Count observed her entrance from behind a grove +of ivy; and there began a knocking in his heart as in a mill; a thumping +and hammering as if he had just run a race. Was it joy, was it fear, or +anxious expecting of what this visit would announce to him--forgiveness +or disfavour? Who can unfold so accurately the heart of man, as to trace +the origin and cause of every start and throb in this irritable muscle? +In short, Count Ernst did feel considerable palpitations of the heart, +so soon as he descried the Princess from afar; but of their Whence or +Why, he could give his own mind no account. She very soon dismissed her +suite; and from all the circumstances it was clear that poetical +anthology was not her business in the present case. She bent her course +to the grove; and as the Count was not playing hide-and-seek with much +adroitness or zeal, she found him with great ease. While she was still +at some distance, he fell upon his knees with mute eloquence before her, +not venturing to raise his eyes, and looked as ruefully as a delinquent +when the judge is ready to pass sentence on him. The Princess, however, +with a soft voice and friendly gesture, said to him: "Bostangi, rise and +follow me into this grove." Bostangi obeyed in silence; and she having +taken her seat, spoke thus: "The will of the Prophet be done! I have +called on him three days and three nights long, to direct me by a sign +if my conduct were wavering between error and folly. He is silent; and +approves the purpose of the Ringdove to free the captive Linnet from the +chain with which he toilsomely draws water, and to nestle by his side. +The Daughter of the Sultan has not disdained the _Mushirumi_ from thy +fettered hand. My lot is cast! Loiter not in seeking the Iman, that he +lead thee to the Mosque, and confer on thee the Seal of the Faithful. +Then will my Father, at my request, cause thee to grow as the +Nile-stream, when it oversteps its narrow banks, and pours itself into +the valley. And when thou art governing a Province as its Bey, thou +mayest confidently raise thy eyes to the throne: the Sultan will not +reject the son-in-law whom the Prophet has appointed for his daughter." + +Like the conjuration of some potent Fairy, this address again +transformed the Count into the image of a stone statue; he gazed at the +Princess without life or motion; his cheeks grew pale, and his tongue +was chained. On the whole, he had caught the meaning of the speech: but +how he was to reach the unexpected honour of becoming the Sultan of +Egypt's son-in-law was an unfathomable mystery. In this predicament, he +certainly, for an accepted wooer, did not make the most imposing figure +in the world; but awakening love, like the rising sun, coats everything +with gold. The Princess took his dumb astonishment for excess of +rapture, and attributed his visible perplexity of spirit to the +overwhelming feeling of his unexpected success. Yet in her heart there +arose some virgin scruples lest she might have gone too fast to work +with the ultimatum of the courtship, and outrun the expectations of her +lover; therefore she again addressed him, and said: "Thou art silent, +Bostangi? Let it not surprise thee that the perfume of thy _Mushirumi_ +breathes back on thee the odour of my feelings; in the curtain of deceit +my heart has never been shrouded. Ought I by wavering hope to increase +the toil of the steep path, which thy foot must climb before the bridal +chamber can be opened to thee?" + +During this speech the Count had found time to recover his senses; he +roused himself, like a warrior from sleep when the alarm is sounded in +the camp. "Resplendent Flower of the East," said he, "how shall the tiny +herb that grows among the thorns presume to blossom under thy shadow? +Would not the watchful hand of the gardener pluck it out as an unseemly +weed, and cast it forth, to be trodden under foot on the highway, or +withered in the scorching sun? If a breath of air stir up the dust, that +it soil thy royal diadem, are not a hundred hands in instant employment +wiping it away? How should a slave desire the precious fruit, which +ripens in the garden of the Sultan for the palate of Princes? At thy +command I sought a pleasant flower for thee, and found the _Mushirumi_, +the name of which was as unknown to me, as its secret import still is. +Think not that I meant aught with it but to obey thee." + +This response distorted the fair plan of the Princess very considerably. +She had not expected that it could be possible for a European not to +combine with the _Mushirumi_, when presented to a lady, the same thought +which the two other quarters of the world unite with it. The error was +now clear as day; but love, which had once for all taken root in her +heart, now dextrously winded and turned the matter; as a seamstress does +a piece of work which she has cut wrong, till at last she makes ends +meet notwithstanding. The Princess concealed her embarrassment by the +playing of her fair hands with the hem of her veil; and, after a few +moments' silence, she said, with gentle gracefulness: "Thy modesty +resembles the night-violet, which covets not the glitter of the sun, yet +is loved for its aromatic odour. A happy chance has been the interpreter +of thy heart, and elicited the feelings of mine. They are no longer hid +from thee. Follow the doctrine of the Prophet, and thou art on the way +to gain thy wish." + +The Count now began to perceive the connection of the matter more and +more distinctly; the darkness vanished from his mind by degrees, as the +shades of night before the dawn. Here, then, the Tempter, whom, in the +durance of the Grated Tower, he had expected under the mask of a horned +satyr, or a black shrivelled gnome, appeared to him in the figure of +winged Cupid, and was employing all his treacherous arts, persuading him +to deny his faith, to forsake his tender spouse, and forget the pledges +of her chaste love. "It stands in thy power," said he, "to change thy +iron fetters with the kind ties of love. The first beauty in the world +is smiling on thee, and with her the enjoyment of all earthly happiness! +A flame, pure as the fire of Vesta, burns for thee in her bosom, and +would waste her life, should folly and caprice overcloud thy soul to the +refusing her favour. Conceal thy faith a little while under the turban; +Father Gregory has water enough in his absolution-cistern to wash thee +clean from such a sin. Who knows but thou mayest earn the merit of +saving the pure maiden's soul, and leading it to the Heaven for which it +was intended?" To this deceitful oration the Count would willingly have +listened longer, had not his good Angel twitched him by the ear, and +warned him to give no farther heed to the voice of temptation. So he +thought that he must not speak with flesh and blood any longer, but by +one bold effort gain the victory over himself. The word died away more +than once in his mouth; but at last he took heart, and said: "The +longing of the wanderer, astray in the Libyan wilderness, to cool his +parched lips in the fountains of the Nile, but aggravates the torments +of his thirsty heart, when he must still languish in the torrid waste. +Therefore think not, O best and gentlest of thy sex, that such a wish +has awakened within me, which, like a gnawing worm, would consume my +heart, since I could not nourish it with hope. Know that, in my home, I +am already joined by the indissoluble tie of marriage to a virtuous +wife, and her three tender children lisp their father's name. How could +a heart, torn asunder by sadness and longing, aspire to the Pearl of +Beauty, and offer her a divided love?" + +This explanation was distinct; and the Count believed that, as it were +by one stroke, and in the spirit of true knighthood, he had ended this +strife of love. He conceived that the Princess would now see her +over-hasty error, and renounce her plan. But here he was exceedingly +mistaken. The Princess could not bring herself to think that the Count, +a young blooming man, could be without eyes for her; she knew that she +was lovely; and this frank exposition of the state of his heart made no +impression on her whatever. According to the fashion of her country, she +had no thought of appropriating to herself the sole possession of it; +for, in the parabolic sport of the Seraglio, she had often heard, that +man's love is like a thread of silk, which may be split and parted, so +that every filament shall still remain a whole. In truth, a sensible +similitude; which the wit of our Occidental ladies has never yet lighted +on! Her father's Harem, had also, from her earliest years, set before +her numerous instances of sociality in love; the favourites of the +Sultan lived there with one another in the kindest unity. + +"Thou namest me the Flower of the World," replied the Princess; "but +behold, in this garden there are many flowers blossoming beside me, to +delight eye and heart by their variety of loveliness; nor do I forbid +thee to partake in this enjoyment along with me. Should I require of +thee, in thy own garden, to plant but a single flower, with the constant +sight of which thy eye would grow weary? Thy wife shall be sharer of the +happiness I am providing for thee; thou shalt bring her into thy Harem; +to me she shall be welcome; for thy sake she shall become my dearest +companion, and for thy sake she will love me in return. Her little +children also shall be mine; I will give them shade, that they bud +pleasantly, and take root in this foreign soil." + +The doctrine of Toleration in Love has, in our enlightened century, made +far slower progress than that of Toleration in Religion; otherwise this +declaration of the Princess could not seem to my fair readers so +repulsive, as in all probability it will. But Melechsala was an +Oriental; and under that mild sky, Megaera Jealousy has far less +influence on the lovelier half of the species than on the stronger; +whom, in return, she does indeed rule with an iron sceptre. + +Count Ernst was affected by this meek way of thinking; and who knows +what he might have resolved on, could he have depended on an equal +liberality of sentiment from his Ottilia at home, and contrived in any +way to overleap the other stone of stumbling which fronted him,--the +renunciation of his creed? He by no means hid this latter difficulty +from the goddess who was courting him so frankly; and, easy as it had +been for her to remove all previous obstacles, the present was beyond +her skill. The confidential session was adjourned, without any +settlement of this contested point. When the conference broke up, the +proposals stood as in a frontier conference between two neighbouring +states, where neither party will relinquish his rights, and the +adjustment of the matter is postponed to another term, while the +commissioners in the interim again live in peace with each other, and +enjoy good cheer together. + +In the secret conclave of the Count, the mettled Kurt, as we know, had a +seat and vote; his master opened to him in the evening the whole +progress of his adventure, for he was much disquieted; and it is very +possible that some spark of love may have sputtered over from the heart +of the Princess into his, too keen for the ashes of his lawful fire to +quench. An absence of seven years, the relinquished hope of ever being +re-united with the first beloved, and the offered opportunity of +occupying the heart as it desires, are three critical circumstances, +which, in so active a substance as love, may easily produce a +fermentation that shall quite change its nature. The sagacious Squire +pricked up his ears at hearing of these interesting events; and, as if +the narrow passage of the auditory nerves had not been sufficient to +convey the tidings fast enough into his brain, he likewise opened the +wide doorway of his mouth, and both heard and tasted the unexpected news +with great avidity. After maturely weighing everything, his vote ran +thus: To lay hold of the seeming hope of release with both hands, and +realise the Princess's plan; meanwhile, to do nothing either for it or +against it, and leave the issue to Heaven. "You are blotted out from the +book of the living," said he, "in your native land; from the abyss of +slavery there is no deliverance, if you do not hitch yourself up by the +rope of love. Your spouse, good lady, will never return to your +embraces. If, in seven years, sorrow for your loss has not overpowered +her and cut her off, Time has overpowered her sorrow, and she is happy +by the side of another. But, to renounce your religion! That is a hard +nut, in good sooth; too hard for you to crack. Yet there are means for +this, too. In no country on Earth is it the custom for the wife to teach +the husband what road to take for Heaven; no, she follows his steps, and +is led and guided by him as the cloud by the wind; looks neither to the +right hand nor to the left, nor behind her, like Lot's wife, who was +changed into a pillar of salt: for where the husband arrives, there is +her abode. I have a wife at home, too; but think you, if I were stuck in +Purgatory, she would hesitate to follow me, and waft fresh air upon my +poor soul with her fan? So, depend on it, the Princess will renounce her +false Prophet. If she love you truly, she will, to a certainty, be glad +to change her Paradise for ours." + +The mettled Kurt added much farther speaking to persuade his master that +he ought not to resist this royal passion, but to forget all other ties, +and free himself from his captivity. It did not strike him, that by his +confidence in the affection of his wife, he had recalled to his master's +memory the affection of his own amiable spouse; a remembrance which it +was his object to abolish. The heart of the Count felt crushed as in a +press; he rolled to this side and that on his bed; and his thoughts and +purposes ran athwart each other in the strangest perplexity, till, +towards morning, wearied out by this internal tumult, he fell into a +dead sleep. He dreamed that his fairest front-tooth had dropped, out, at +which he felt great grief and heaviness of heart; but on looking at the +gap in the mirror, to see whether it deformed him much, a fresh tooth +had grown forth in its place, fair and white as the rest, and the loss +could not be observed. So soon as he awoke, he felt a wish to have his +dream interpreted. The mettled Kurt soon hunted out a prophetic Gipsy, +who by trade read fortunes from the hand and brow, and also had the +talent of explaining dreams. The Count related his to her in all its +circumstances; and the dingy wrinkled Pythoness, after meditating long +upon it, opened her puckered mouth, and said: "What was dearest to thee +death has taken away, but fate will soon supply thy loss." + +Now, then, it was plain that the sage Squire's suppositions had been no +idle fancies, but that the good Ottilia, from sorrow at the loss of her +beloved husband, had gone down to the grave. The afflicted widower, who +as little doubted of this tragic circumstance as if it had been notified +to him on black-edged paper with seal and signature, felt all that a man +who values the integrity of his jaw must feel when he loses a tooth, +which bountiful Nature is about to replace by another; and comforted +himself under this dispensation with the well-known balm of widowers: +"It is the will of God; I must submit to it!" And now, holding himself +free and disengaged, he bent all his sails, hoisted his flags and +streamers, and steered directly for the haven of happy love. At the +next interview, he thought the Princess lovelier than ever; his looks +languished towards her, and her slender form enchanted his eye, and her +light soft gait was like the gait of a goddess, though she actually +moved the one foot past the other, in mortal wise, and did not, in the +style of goddesses, come hovering along the variegated sand-walk with +unbent limbs. "Bostangi," said she, with melodious voice, "hast thou +spoken to the Iman?" The Count was silent for a moment; he cast down his +beaming eyes, laid his hand submissively on his breast, and sank on his +knee before her. In this humble attitude, he answered resolutely: +"Exalted daughter of the Sultan! my life is at thy nod, but not my +faith. The former I will joyfully offer up to thee; but leave me the +latter, which is so interwoven with my soul, that only death can part +them." From this, it was apparent to the Princess that her fine +enterprise was verging towards shipwreck; wherefore she adopted a +heroical expedient, undoubtedly of far more certain effect than our +animal magnetism, with all its renowned virtues: she unveiled her face. +There stood she, in the full radiance of beauty, like the Sun when he +first raised his head from Chaos to hurl his rays over the gloomy Earth. +Soft blushes overspread her cheeks, and higher purple glowed upon her +lips; two beautifully-curved arches, on which love was sporting like the +many-coloured Iris on the rainbow, shaded her spirit-speaking eyes; and +two golden tresses kissed each other on her lily breast. The Count was +astonished and speechless; the Princess addressed him, and said: + +"See, Bostangi, whether this form pleases thy eyes, and whether it +deserves the sacrifice which I require of thee." + +"It is the form of an Angel," answered he, with looks of the highest +rapture, "and deserves to shine, encircled with a glory, in the courts +of the Christian Heaven, compared with which, the delights of the +Prophet's Paradise are empty shadows." + +These words, spoken with warmth and visible conviction, found free +entrance into the open heart of the Princess: especially, the glory, it +appeared to her, must be a sort of head-dress that would sit not ill +upon the face. Her quick fancy fastened on this idea, which she asked to +have explained; and the Count with all eagerness embraced this +opportunity of painting the Christian Heaven to her as charming as he +possibly could; he chose the loveliest images his mind would suggest; +and spoke with as much confidence as if he had descended directly from +the place on a mission to the Princess. Now, as it has pleased the +Prophet to endow the fair sex with very scanty expectations in the other +world, our apostolic preacher failed the less in his intentions; though +it cannot be asserted that he was preeminently qualified for the +missionary duty. But whether it were that Heaven itself favoured the +work of conversion, or that the foreign tastes of the Princess extended +to the spiritual conceptions of the Western nations, or that the person +of this Preacher to the Heathen mixed in the effect, certain it is she +was all ear, and would have listened to her pedagogue with pleasure for +many hours longer, had not the approach of night cut short their lesson. +For the present, she hastily dropped her veil, and retired to the +Seraglio. + +It is a well-known fact, that the children of princes are always very +docile, and make giant steps in every branch of profitable knowledge, as +our Journals often plainly enough testify; while the other citizens of +this world must content themselves with dwarf steps. It was not +surprising, therefore, that the Sultan of Egypt's daughter had in a +short space mastered the whole synopsis of Church doctrine as completely +as her teacher could impart it, bating a few heresies, which, in his +inacquaintance with the delicate shades of faith, he had undesignedly +mingled with it. Nor did this acquisition remain a dead letter with her; +it awakened the most zealous wish for proselytising. Accordingly, the +plan of the Princess had now in so far altered, that she no longer +insisted on converting the Count, but rather felt inclined to let +herself be converted by him; and this not only in regard to unity in +faith, but also to the purposed unity in love. The whole question now +was, by what means this intention could be realised. She took counsel +with Bostangi, he with the mettled Kurt, in their nocturnal +deliberations on this weighty matter; and the latter voted distinctly to +strike the iron while it was hot; to inform the fair proselyte of the +Count's rank and birth; propose to her to run away with him; instantly +to cross the water for the European shore; and live together in +Thuringia as Christian man and wife. + +The Count clapped loud applause to this well-grounded scheme of his wise +Squire; it was as if the mettled Kurt had read it in his master's eyes. +Whether the fulfilment of it might be clogged with difficulties or not, +was a point not taken into view in the first fire of the romantic +project: Love removes all mountains, overleaps walls and trenches, +bounds across abyss and chasm, and steps the barrier of a city as +lightly as it does a straw. At the next lecture, the Count disclosed the +plan to his beloved catechumena. + +"Thou reflection of the Holy Virgin," said he, "chosen of Heaven from an +outcast people, to gain the victory over prejudice and error, and +acquire a lot and inheritance in the Abodes of Felicity, hast thou the +courage to forsake thy native country, then prepare for speedy flight. I +will guide thee to Rome, where dwells the Porter of Heaven, St. Peter's +deputy, to whom are committed the keys of Heaven's gate; that he may +receive thee into the bosom of the Church, and bless the covenant of our +love. Fear not that thy father's potent arm may reach us; every cloud +above our heads will be a ship manned with angelic hosts, with diamond +shields and flaming swords; invisible indeed to mortal eye, but armed +with heavenly might, and appointed to watch and guard thee. Nor will I +conceal any longer, that I am, by birth and fortune, all that the +Sultan's favour could make me; a Count, that is a Bey born, who rules +over land and people. The limits of my lordship include towns and +villages, palaces also and strongholds. Knights and squires obey me; +horses and carriages stand ready for my service. In my native land, thou +thyself, enclosed by no walls of a seraglio, shalt live and rule in +freedom as a queen." + +This oration of the Count the Princess thought a message from above; she +entertained no doubts of his truth; and it seemed to please her that the +Ringdove was to nestle, not beside a Linnet, but beside a bird of the +family of the Eagle. Her warm fancy was filled with such sweet +anticipations, that she consented, with all the alacrity of the Children +of Israel, to forsake the land of Egypt, as if a new Canaan, in another +quarter of the world, had been waiting her beyond the sea. Confident in +the protection of the unseen life-guard promised to her, she would have +followed her conductor from the precincts of the Palace forthwith, had +he not instructed her that many preparations were required, before the +great enterprise could be engaged in with any hope of a happy issue. + +Among all privateering transactions by sea or land, there is none more +ticklish, or combined with greater difficulties, than that of kidnapping +the Grand Signior's favourite from his arms. Such a masterstroke could +only be imagined by the teeming fancy of a W*z*l,[25] nor could any but +a Kakerlak achieve it. Yet the undertaking of Count Ernst of Gleichen +to carry off the Sultan of Egypt's daughter, was environed with no fewer +difficulties; and as these two heroes come, to a certain extent, into +competition in this matter, we must say, that the adventure of the Count +was infinitely bolder, seeing everything proceeded merely by the course +of Nature, and no serviceable Fairy put a finger in the pie: +nevertheless, the result of both these corresponding enterprises, in the +one as well as in the other, came about entirely to the wish of parties. +The Princess filled her jewel-box sufficiently with precious stones; +changed her royal garment with a Kaftan; and one evening, under the +safe-conduct of her beloved, his trusty Squire and the phlegmatic +Water-drawer, glided forth from the Palace into the Garden, unobserved, +to enter on her far journey to the West. Her absence could not long +remain concealed; her women sought her, as the proverb runs, like a lost +pin; and as she did not come to light, the alarm in the Seraglio became +boundless. Hints here and there had already been dropped, and surmises +made, about the private audiences of the Bostangi; supposition and fact +were strung together; and the whole produced, in sooth, no row of +pearls, but the horrible discovery of the real nature of the case. The +Divan of Dames had nothing for it but to send advice of the occurrence +to the higher powers. Father Sultan, whom the virtuous Melechsala, +everything considered, might have spared this pang, and avoided flying +her country to make purchase of a glory, demeaned himself at this +intelligence like an infuriated lion, who shakes his brown mane with +dreadful bellowing, when by the uproar of the hunt, and the baying of +the hounds, he is frightened from his den. He swore by the Prophet's +beard that he would utterly destroy every living soul in the Seraglio, +if at sunrise the Princess were not again in her father's power. The +Mameluke guard had to mount, and gallop towards the four winds, in chase +of the fugitives, by every road from Cairo; and a thousand oars were +lashing the broad back of the Nile, in case she might have taken a +passage by water. + + [25] J. K. Wetzel, author of some plays and novels; among the + latter, of _Kakerlak_.--ED. + +Under such efforts, to elude the far-stretching arm of the Sultan was +impossible, unless the Count possessed the secret of rendering himself +and his travelling party invisible; or the miraculous gift of smiting +all Egypt with blindness. But of these talents neither had been lent +him. Only the mettled Kurt had taken certain measures, which, in regard +to their effect, might supply the place of miracles. He had rendered his +flying caravan invisible, by the darkness of an unlighted cellar in the +house of Adullam the sudorific Hebrew. This Jewish Hermes did not +satisfy himself with practising the healing art to good advantage, but +drew profit likewise from the gift which he had received by inheritance +from his fathers; and thus honoured Mercury in all his three qualities, +of Patron to Doctors, to Merchants, and to Thieves. He drove a great +trade in spiceries and herbs with the Venetians, from which he had +acquired much wealth; and he disdained no branch of business whereby +anything was to be made. This worthy Israelite, who for money and +money's worth, stood ready, without investigating moral tendencies, for +any sort of deed, the trusty Squire had prevailed on, by a jewel from +the casket of the Princess, to undertake the transport of the Count, +whose rank and intention were not concealed from him, with three +servants, to a Venetian ship that was loading at Alexandria; but it had +prudently been hidden from him, that in the course of this contraband +transaction, he must smuggle out his master's daughter. On first +inspecting his cargo, the figure of the fair youth struck him somewhat; +but he thought no ill of it, and took him for a page of the Count's. Ere +long the report of the Princess Melechsala's disappearance sounded over +all the city: then Adullam's eyes were opened; deadly terror took +possession of his heart, so that his gray beard began to stir, and he +wished with all his soul that his hands had been free of this perilous +concern. But now it was too late; his own safety required him to summon +all his cunning, and conduct this breakneck business to a happy end. In +the first place, he laid his subterranean lodgers under rigorous +quarantine; and then, after the sharpest of the search was over, the +hope of finding the Princess considerably faded, and the zeal in seeking +for her cooled, he packed the whole caravan neatly up in four bales of +herbs, put them on board a Nile-boat, and sent them with a proper +invoice, under God's guidance, safe and sound to Alexandria; where so +soon as the Venetian had gained the open sea, they were liberated, all +and sundry, from their strait confinement in the herb-sacks.[26] + + [26] The invention of travelling in a sack was several times + employed during the Crusades. Dietrich the Hard-bested, Markgraf of + Meissen (Misnia), returned from Palestine to his hereditary + possessions, under this incognito, and so escaped the snares of the + Emperor Henry VI., who had an eye to the productive mines of + Freyberg.--M. + +Whether the celestial body-guard, with diamond shields and flaming +swords, posted on a gorgeous train of clouds, did follow the swift ship, +could not now, as they were invisible, be properly substantiated in a +court of justice; yet there are not wanting symptoms in the matter which +might lead to some such conjecture. All the four winds of Heaven seem to +have combined to make the voyage prosperous; the adverse held their +breath; and the favourable blew so gaily in the sails, that the vessel +ploughed the soft-playing billows with the speed of an arrow. The +friendly moon was stretching her horns from the clouds for the second +time, when the Venetian, glad in heart, ran into moorings in the harbour +of his native town. + +Countess Ottilia's watchful spy was still at Venice; undismayed by the +fruitless toil of vain inquiries, from continuing his diets of +examination, and diligently questioning all passengers from the Levant. +He was at his post when the Count, with the fair Melechsala, came on +land. His master's physiognomy was so stamped upon his memory, that he +would have undertaken to discover it among a thousand unknown faces. +Nevertheless the foreign garb, and the finger of Time, which in seven +years produces many changes, made him for some moments doubtful. To be +certain of his object, he approached the stranger's suite, made up to +the trusty Squire, and asked him: "Comrade, whence come you?" + +The mettled Kurt rejoiced to meet a countryman, and hear the sound of +his mother-tongue; but saw no profit in submitting his concerns to the +questioning of a stranger, and answered briefly: "From sea." + +"Who is the gentleman thou followest?" + +"My master." + +"From what country come you?" + +"From the East." + +"Whither are you going?" + +"To the West." + +"To what province?" + +"To our home." + +"Where is it?" + +"Miles of road from this." + +"What is thy name?" + +"Start-the-game, that is my name. Strike-for-a-word, people call my +sword. Sorrow-of-life, so hight my wife. Rise, Lig-a-bed, she cries to +her maid. Still-at-a-stand, that is my man. Hobbletehoy, I christened +my boy. Lank-i'-the-bag, I scold my nag. Shamble-and-stalk, we call his +walk. Trot-i'-the-bog, I whistle my dog. Saw-ye-that, so jumps my cat. +Snug-in-the-rug, he is my bug. Now thou knowest me, with wife and child, +and all my household." + +"Thou seemest to me to be a queer fellow." + +"I am no fellow at all, for I follow no handicraft." + +"Answer me one question." + +"Let us hear it." + +"Hast thou any news of Count Ernst of Gleichen, from the East?" + +"Wherefore dost thou ask?" + +"Therefore." + +"Twiddle, twaddle! Wherefore, therefore!" + +"Because I am sent into all the world by the Countess Ottilia his wife, +to get her word whether her husband is still living, and in what corner +of the Earth he may be found." + +This answer put the mettled Kurt into some perplexity; and tuned him to +another key. "Wait a little, neighbour," said he; "perhaps my master +knows about the thing." Thereupon he ran to the Count, and whispered the +tidings in his ear. The feeling they awoke was complex; made up in equal +proportions of joy and consternation. Count Ernst perceived that his +dream, or the interpretation of it, had misled him; and that the conceit +of marrying his fair travelling companion might easily be baulked. On +the spur of the moment he knew not how he should get out of this +embroiled affair: meanwhile, the desire to learn how matters stood at +home outweighed all scruples. He beckoned to the emissary, whom he soon +recognised for his old valet; and who wetted with joyful tears the hand +of his recovered master, and told in many words what jubilee the +Countess would make, when she received the happy message of her +husband's return. The Count took him with the rest to the inn; and there +engaged in earnest meditation on the singular state of his heart, and +considered deeply what was to be done with his engagements to the fair +Saracen. Without loss of time the watchful spy was dispatched to the +Countess with a letter, containing a true statement of the Count's +fortunes in slavery at Cairo, and of his deliverance by means of the +Sultan's daughter; how she had abandoned throne and country for his +sake, under the condition that he was to marry her, which he himself, +deceived by a dream, had promised. By this narrative he meant not only +to prepare his wife for a participatress in her marriage rights; but +also endeavoured, in the course of it, by many sound arguments, to gain +her own consent to the arrangement. + +Countess Ottilia was standing at the window in her mourning weeds, as +the news-bringer for the last time gave his breathless horse the spur, +to hasten it up the steep Castle-path. Her sharp eye recognised him in +the distance; and he too being nothing of a blinkard,--a class of +persons very rare in the days of the Crusades,--recognised the Countess +also, raised the letter-bag aloft over his head, and waved it like a +standard in token of good news; and the lady understood his signal, as +well as if the Hanau _Synthematograph_ had been on duty there. "Hast +thou found him, the husband of my heart?" cried she, as he approached. +"Where lingers he, that I may rise and wipe the sweat from his brow, and +let him rest in my faithful arms from his toilsome journeying?"--"Joy to +you, my lady," said the post; "his lordship is well. I found him in the +Port of Venice, from which he sends you this under his hand and seal, to +announce his arrival himself." The Countess could not hastily enough +undo the seal; and at sight of her husband's hand, she felt as if the +breath of life were coming back to her. Three times she pressed the +letter to her beating heart, and three times touched it with her +languishing lips. A shower of joyful tears streamed over the parchment, +as she began reading: but the farther she read, the drops fell the +slower; and before the reading was completed, the fountain of tears had +dried up altogether. + +The contents of the letter could not all interest the good lady equally; +her husband's proposed partition treaty of his heart had not the +happiness to meet with her approval. Greatly as the spirit of partition +has acquired the upper hand nowadays, so that parted love and parted +provinces have become the device of our century; these things were +little to the taste of old times, when every heart had its own key, and +a master-key that would open several was regarded as a scandalous +thief-picklock. The intolerance of the Countess in this point was at +least a proof of her unvarnished love: "Ah! that doleful Crusade," cried +she, "is the cause of it all. I lent the Holy Church a Loaf, of which +the Heathen have eaten; and nothing but a Crust of it returns to me." A +vision of the night, however, soothed her troubled mind, and gave her +whole view of the affair another aspect. She dreamed that there came +two pilgrims from the Holy Sepulchre up the winding Castle-road, and +begged a lodging, which she kindly granted them. One of them threw off +his cloak, and behold it was the Count her lord! She joyfully embraced +him, and was in raptures at his return. The children too came in, and he +clasped them in his paternal arms, pressed them to his heart, and +praised their looks and growth. Meanwhile his companion laid aside his +travelling pouch; drew from it golden chains and precious strings of +jewelry, and hung them round the necks of the little ones, who showed +delighted with these glittering presents. The Countess was herself +surprised at this munificence, and asked the stranger who he was. He +answered: "I am the Angel Raphael, the guide of the loving, and have +brought thy husband to thee out of foreign lands." His pilgrim garments +melted away; and a shining angel stood before her, in an azure robe, +with two golden wings on his shoulders. Thereupon she awoke, and, in the +absence of an Egyptian Sibyl, herself interpreted the dream according to +her best skill; and found so many points of similarity between the Angel +Raphael and the Princess Melechsala, that she doubted not the latter had +been shadowed forth to her in vision under the figure of the former. At +the same time she took into consideration the fact that, without her +help, the Count could scarcely ever have escaped from slavery. And as it +behoves the owner of a lost piece of property to deal generously with +the finder, who might have kept it all to himself, she no longer +hesitated to resolve on the surrender. The water-bailiff, well rewarded +for his watchfulness, was therefore dispatched forthwith back into +Italy, with the formal consent of the Countess for her husband to +complete the trefoil of his marriage without loss of time. + +The only question now was, whether Father Gregory at Rome would give his +benediction to this matrimonial anomaly; and be persuaded, for the +Count's sake, to refound, by the word of his mouth, the substance, form +and essence of the Sacrament of Marriage. The pilgrimage accordingly set +forth from Venice to Rome, where the Princess Melechsala solemnly +abjured the Koran, and entered into the bosom of the Church. At this +spiritual conquest the Holy Father testified as much delight as if the +kingdom of Antichrist had been entirely destroyed, or reduced under +subjection to the Romish chair; and after the baptism, on which occasion +she had changed her Saracenic name for the more orthodox _Angelica_, he +caused a pompous _Te-deum_ to be celebrated in St. Peter's. These happy +aspects Count Ernst endeavoured to improve for his purpose, before the +Pope's good-humour should evaporate. He brought his matrimonial concern +to light without delay: but, alas! no sooner asked than rejected. The +conscience of St. Peter's Vicar was so tender in this case, that he +reckoned it a greater heresy to advocate triplicity in marriage than +Tritheism itself. Many plausible arguments as the Count brought forward +to accomplish an exception from the common rule in his own favour, they +availed no jot in moving the exemplary Pope to wink with one eye of his +conscience, and vouchsafe the petitioned dispensation: a result which +cut Count Ernst to the heart. His sly counsel, the mettled Kurt, had in +the mean time struck out a bright expedient for accomplishing the +marriage of his master with the fair convert, to the satisfaction of the +Pope and Christendom in general; only he had not risked disclosing it, +lest it might cost him his master's favour. Yet at last he found his +opportunity, and put the matter into words. "Dear master," said he, "do +not vex yourself so much about the Pope's perverseness. If you cannot +get round him on the one side, you must try him on the other: there are +more roads to the wood than one. If the Holy Father has too tender a +conscience to permit your taking two wives, then it is fair for you also +to have a tender conscience, though you are no priest but a layman. +Conscience is a cloak that covers every hole, and has withal the quality +that it can be turned according to the wind: at present, when the wind +is cross, you must put the cloak on the other shoulder. Examine whether +you are not related to the Countess Ottilia within the prohibited +degrees: if so, as will surely be the case, if you have a tender +conscience, then the game is your own. Get a divorce; and who the deuce +can hinder you from wedding the Princess then?" + +The Count had listened to his Squire till the sense of his oration was +completely before him; then he answered it with two words, shortly and +clearly: "Peace, Dog!" In the same moment, the mettled Kurt found +himself lying at full length without the door, and seeking for a tooth +or two which had dropped from him in this rapid transit. "Ah! the +precious tooth," cried he from without, "has been sacrificed to my +faithful zeal!" This tooth monologue reminded the Count of his dream. +"Ah! the cursed tooth," cried he from within, "which I dreamed of +losing, has been the cause of all this mischief!" His heart, between +self-reproaches for unfaithfulness to his amiable wife, and for +prohibited love to the charming Angelica, kept wavering like a bell, +which yields a sound on both sides, when set in motion. Still more than +the flame of his passion, the fire of indignation burnt and gnawed him, +now that he saw the visible impossibility of ever keeping his word to +the Princess, and taking her in wedlock. All which distresses, by the +way, led him to the just experimental conclusion, that a parted heart is +not the most desirable of things; and that the lover, in these +circumstances, but too much resembles the Ass Baldwin between his two +bundles of hay. + +In such a melancholy posture of affairs, he lost his jovial humour +altogether, and wore the aspect of an atrabiliar, whom in bad weather +the atmosphere oppresses till the spleen is like to crush the soul out +of his body. Princess Angelica observed that her lover's looks were no +longer as yesterday, and ere-yesterday: it grieved her soft heart, and +moved her to resolve on making trial whether she should not be more +successful, if she took the dispensation business in her own hand. She +requested audience of the conscientious Gregory; and appeared before him +closely veiled, according to the fashion of her country. No Roman eye +had yet seen her face, except the priest who baptised her. His Holiness +received the new-born daughter of the Church with all suitable respect, +offered her the palm of his right hand to kiss, and not his perfumed +slipper. The fair stranger raised her veil a little to touch the sacred +hand with her lips; then opened her mouth, and clothed her petition in a +touching address. Yet this insinuation through the Papal ear seemed not +sufficiently to know the interior organisation of the Head of the +Church; for instead of taking the road to the heart, it passed through +the other ear out into the air. Father Gregory expostulated long with +the lovely supplicant; and imagined he had found a method for in some +degree contenting her desire of union with a bridegroom, without offence +to the ordinations of the Church: he proposed to her a spiritual +wedlock, if she could resolve on a slight change of the veil, the +Saracenic for the Nun's. This proposal suddenly awakened in the Princess +such a horror at veils, that she directly tore away her own; sank full +of despair before the holy footstool, and with uplifted hands and +tearful eyes, conjured the venerable Father by his sacred slipper, not +to do violence to her heart, and constrain her to bestow it elsewhere. + +The sight of her beauty was more eloquent than her lips; it enraptured +all present; and the tear which gathered in her heavenly eye fell like a +burning drop of naphtha on the Holy Father's heart, and kindled the +small fraction of earthly tinder that still lay hid there, and warmed it +into sympathy for the petitioner. "Rise, beloved daughter," said he, +"and weep not! What has been determined in Heaven, shall be fulfilled in +thee on Earth. In three days thou shalt know whether this thy first +prayer to the Church can be granted by that gracious Mother, or must be +denied." Thereupon he summoned an assembly of all the Casuists in Rome; +had a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine distributed to each; and locked +them up in the Rotunda, with the warning that no one of them should be +let out again till the question had been determined unanimously. So long +as the loaves and wine held out, the disputes were so violent, that all +the Saints, had they been convened in the church, could not have argued +with greater noise. But so soon as the Digestive Faculty began to have a +voice in the meeting, he was listened to with the deepest attention, and +happily he spoke in favour of the Count, who had got a sumptuous feast +made ready for the entertainment of the casuistic Doctors, when the +Papal seal should be removed from their door. The Bull of Dispensation +was drawn out in proper form of law; in furtherance of which the fair +Angelica had, not at all reluctantly, inflicted a determined cut upon +the treasures of Egypt. Father Gregory bestowed his benediction on the +noble pair, and sent them away betrothed. They lost no time in leaving +Peter's Patrimony for the territories of the Count, to celebrate their +nuptials on arriving. + +When Count Ernst, on this side the Alps, again inhaled his native air, +and felt it come soft and kindly round his heart, he mounted his steed; +galloped forward, attended only by the heavy Groom, and left the +Princess, under the escort of the mettled Kurt, to follow him by easy +journeys. + +His heart beat high within him, when he saw in azure distance the three +towers of Gleichen. He meant to take his gentle Countess by surprise; +but the news of his approach had preceded him, as on the wings of the +wind; she went forth with man and maid, and met her husband a furlong +from the Castle, in a pleasant green, which, in memory of this event, is +called the Freudenthal, or Valley of Joy, to this day. The meeting on +both sides was as trustful and tender, as if no partition treaty had +ever been thought of: for Countess Ottilia was a proper pattern of the +pious wife, that obeys without commentary the marriage precept of +subjecting her will to the will of her husband. If at times there did +arise some small sedition in her heart, she did not on the instant ring +the alarm-bell; but she shut door and window, that no mortal eye might +look in and see what passed; and then summoned the rebel Passion to the +bar of Reason; gave it over in custody to Prudence, and imposed on +herself a voluntary penance. + +She could not pardon her heart for having murmured at the rival sun that +was to shine beside her on the matrimonial horizon; and to expiate the +offence, she had secretly commissioned a triple bedstead, with stout fir +posts, painted green, the colour of Hope; and a round vaulted tester, in +the form of a dome, adorned with winged puffy-cheeked heads of angels. +On the silken coverlet, which lay for show over the downy quilts, was +exhibited in fine embroidery, the Angel Raphael, as he had appeared to +her in vision, beside the Count in pilgrim weeds. This speaking proof of +her ready matrimonial complaisance affected her husband to the soul. He +clasped her to his breast, and overpowered her with kisses, at the sight +of this arrangement for the completion of his wedded joys. + +"Glorious wife!" cried he with rapture, "this temple of love exalts thee +above thousands of thy sex; as an honourable memorial, it will transmit +thy name to future ages; and while a splinter of this wood remains, +husbands will recount to their wives thy exemplary conduct." + +In a few days afterwards, the Princess also arrived in safety, and was +received by the Count in full gala. Ottilia came to meet her with open +arms and heart, and conducted her into the Palace, as the partner in all +its privileges. The double bridegroom then set out to Erfurt, for the +Bishop to perform the marriage ceremony. This pious prelate was +extremely shocked at the proposal, and signified, that in his diocese no +such scandal could be tolerated. But, on Count Ernst's bringing out the +papal dispensation, signed and sealed in due form, it acted as a lock on +his Reverence's lips; though his doubting looks, and shaking of the +head, still indicated that the Steersman of the bark of the universal +Church had bored a hole in the keel, which bade fair to swamp the +vessel, and send it to the bottom of the sea. + +The nuptials were celebrated with becoming pomp and splendour; Countess +Ottilia, who acted as mistress of the ceremonies, had invited widely; +and the counts and knights, over all Thuringia, far and wide, came +crowding to assist at this unusual wedding. Before the Count led his +bride to the altar, she opened her jewel-box, and consigned to him all +its treasures that remained from the expenses of the dispensation, as a +dowry; in return for which, he conferred on her the lands of Ehrenstein, +by way of jointure. The chaste myrtle twined itself about the golden +crown, which latter ornament the Sultan's daughter, as a testimony of +her high birth, retained through life; and was, in consequence, +invariably named the Queen by her subjects, and by her domestics +reverenced and treated like a queen. + +If any of my readers ever purchased for himself, for fifty guineas, the +costly pleasure of resting a night in Doctor Graham's _Celestial Bed_ at +London, he may form some slender conception of the Count's delight, when +the triple bed at Gleichen opened its elastic bosom to receive the +twice-betrothed, with both his spouses. Seven days long the nuptial +festivities continued; and the Count declared himself richly compensated +by them for the seven dreary years which he had been obliged to spend in +the Grated Tower at Grand Cairo. Nor would this appear to have been an +empty compliment on his part to his two faithful wives, if the +experimental apophthegm is just, that a single day of gladness sweetens +into oblivion the bitter dole and sorrow of a troublous year. + +Next to the Count, there was none who relished this exhilarating period +better than his trusty Squire, the mettled Kurt, who, in the well-stored +kitchen and cellar, found the elements of royal cheer, and stoutly +emptied the cup of joy which circulated fast among the servants; while +the full table pricked up their ears as he opened his lips, his inner +man once satisfied with good things, and began to recount them his +adventures. But when the Gleichic economy returned to its customary +frugal routine, he requested permission to set out for Ordruff, to visit +his kind wife, and overwhelm her with joy at his unexpected return. +During his long absence, he had constantly maintained a rigorous +fidelity, and he now longed for the just reward of so exemplary a walk +and conversation. Fancy painted to his mind's eye the image of his +virtuous Rebecca in the liveliest colours; and the nearer he approached +the walls which enclosed her, the brighter grew these hues. He saw her +stand before him in the charms which had delighted him on his +wedding-day; he saw how excess of joy at his happy arrival would +overpower her spirits, and she would sink in speechless rapture into his +arms. + +Encircled with this fair retinue of dreams, he arrived at the gate of +his native town, without observing it, till the watchful guardian of +public tranquillity let down his beam in front of him, and questioned +the stranger, Who he was, what business had brought him to the town, and +whether his intentions were peaceable or not? The mettled Kurt gave +ready answer; and now rode along the streets at a soft pace, lest his +horse's tramp might too soon betray the secret of his coming. He +fastened his beast to the door-ring, and stole, without noise, into the +court of his dwelling, where the old chained house-dog first received +him with joyful bark. Yet he wondered somewhat at the sight of two +lively chub-faced children, like the Angels in the Gleichen bed-tester, +frisking to and fro upon the area. He had no time to speculate on the +phenomenon, for the mistress of the house, in her carefulness, stept out +of doors to see who was there. Alas, what a difference between ideal and +original! The tooth of Time had, in these seven years, been mercilessly +busy with her charms; yet the leading features of her physiognomy had +been in so far spared, that to the eye of the critic she was still +recognisable, like the primary stamp of a worn coin. Joy at meeting +somewhat veiled this want of beauty from the mettled Kurt, and the +thought that sorrow for his absence had so furrowed the smooth face of +his consort put him into a sentimental mood; he embraced her with great +cordiality, and said: "Welcome, dear wife of my heart! Forget all thy +sorrow. See, I am still alive; thou hast got me back!" + +The pious Rebecca answered this piece of tenderness by a heavy thwack on +the short ribs, which thwack made the mettled Kurt stagger to the wall; +then raised loud shrieks, and shouted to her servants for help against +violence, and scolded and stormed like an Infernal Fury. The loving +husband excused this unloving reception, on the score of his virtuous +spouse's delicacy, which his bold kiss of welcome had offended, she not +knowing who he was; and tore his lungs with bawling to undo this error; +but his preaching was to deaf ears, and he soon found that there was no +misunderstanding in the case. "Thou shameless varlet," cried she, in +shrieking treble, "after wandering seven long years up and down the +world, following thy wicked courses with other women, dost thou think +that I will take thee back to my chaste bed? Off with thee! Did not I +publicly cite thee at three church-doors, and wert not thou, for thy +contumacious non-appearance, declared to be dead as mutton? Did not the +High Court authorise me to put aside my widow's chair, and marry +Buergermeister Wipprecht? Have not we lived six years as man and wife, +and received these children as a blessing of our wedlock? And now comes +the Marpeace to perplex my house! Off with thee! Pack, I say, this +instant, or the Amtmann shall crop thy ears, and put thee in the +pillory, to teach such vagabonds, that run and leave their poor tender +wives." This welcome from his once-loved helpmate was a sword's-thrust +through the heart of the mettled Kurt; but the gall poured itself as a +defence into his blood. + +"O thou faithless strumpet!" answered he; "what holds me that I do not +take thee and thy bastards, and wring your necks this moment? Dost thou +recollect thy promise, and the oath thou hast so often sworn in the +trustful marriage-bed, that death itself should not part thee from me? +Didst thou not engage, unasked, that should thy soul fly up directly +from thy mouth to Heaven, and I were roasting in Purgatory, thou wouldst +turn again from Heaven's gate, and come down to me, to fan cool air upon +me till I were delivered from the flames? Devil broil thy false tongue, +thou gallows carrion!" + +Though the Prima Donna of Ordruff was endowed with a glib organ, which, +in the faculty of cursing, yielded no whit to that of the tumultuous +pretender, she did not judge it good to enter into farther debate with +him, but gave her menials an expressive sign; and, in an instant, man +and maid seized hold of the mettled Kurt, and _brevi manu_ ejected his +body from the house; in which act of domestic jurisdiction Dame Rebecca +herself bore a hand with the besom, and so swept away this discarded +helpmate from the premises. The mettled Kurt, half-broken on the wheel, +then mounted his horse, and dashed full gallop down the street, which he +had rode along so gingerly some minutes before. + +As his blood, when he was on the road home, began to cool, he counted +loss and gain, and found himself not ill contented with the balance; for +he found, that except the comfort of having cool air fanned upon his +soul in Purgatory after death, his smart amounted to nothing. He never +more returned to Ordruff, but continued with the Count at Gleichen all +his life, and was an eye-witness of the most incredible occurrence, that +two ladies shared the love of one man without quarrelling or jealousy, +and this even under one bed-tester! The fair Angelica continued +childless, yet she loved and watched over her associate's children as if +they had been her own, and divided with Ottilia the care of their +education. In the trefoil of this happy marriage, she was the first leaf +which faded away in the autumn of life. Countess Ottilia soon followed +her; and the afflicted widower, now all too lonely in his large castle +and wide bed, lingered but a few months longer. The firmly-established +arrangement of these noble spouses in the marriage-bed through life, was +maintained unaltered after their death. They rest all three in one +grave, in front of the Gleichen Altar, in St. Peter's Church at Erfurt, +on the Hill; where their place of sepulture is still to be seen, +overlaid with a stone, on which the noble group are sculptured after the +life. To the right lies the Countess Ottilia, with a mirror in her hand, +the emblem of her praiseworthy prudence; on the left Angelica, adorned +with a royal crown; and in the midst, the Count reposing on his +coat-of-arms, the lion-leopard.[27] Their famous triple bedstead is +still preserved as a relic in the old Castle; it stands in the room +called the Junkernkammer, or Knight's Chamber; and a splinter of it, +worn by way of busk in a lady's bodice, is said to have the virtue of +dispelling every movement of jealousy from her heart. + + [27] A plate of this tombstone may be seen in Falkenstein's + _Analecta Nordgaviensia_.--M. + + + + +LUDWIG TIECK. + + + + +THE FAIR-HAIRED ECKBERT.[28] + + +In a district of the Harz dwelt a Knight, whose common designation in +that quarter was the Fair-haired Eckbert. He was about forty years of +age, scarcely of middle stature, and short light-coloured locks lay +close and sleek round his pale and sunken countenance. He led a retired +life, had never interfered in the feuds of his neighbours; indeed, +beyond the outer wall of his castle he was seldom to be seen. His wife +loved solitude as much as he; both seemed heartily attached to one +another; only now and then they would lament that Heaven had not blessed +their marriage with children. + +Few came to visit Eckbert; and when guests did happen to be with him, +their presence made but little alteration in his customary way of life. +Temperance abode in his household, and Frugality herself appeared to be +the mistress of the entertainment. On these occasions Eckbert was always +cheerful and lively; but when he was alone, you might observe in him a +certain mild reserve, a still, retiring melancholy. + +His most frequent guest was Philip Walther; a man to whom he had +attached himself, from having found in him a way of thinking like his +own. Walther's residence was in Franconia; but he would often stay for +half a year in Eckbert's neighbourhood, gathering plants and minerals, +and then sorting and arranging them. He lived on a small independency, +and was connected with no one. Eckbert frequently attended him in his +sequestered walks; year after year a closer friendship grew betwixt +them. + + [28] Prefatory Introduction to Tieck, _supra_, at p. 330, Vol. VI. + of _Works_ (Vol. I. of _Miscellanies_). + +There are hours in which a man feels grieved that he should have a +secret from his friend, which, till then, he may have kept with niggard +anxiety; some irresistible desire lays hold of our heart to open itself +wholly, to disclose its inmost recesses to our friend, that so he may +become our friend still more. It is in such moments that tender souls +unveil themselves, and stand face to face; and at times it will happen, +that the one recoils affrighted from the countenance of the other. + +It was late in Autumn, when Eckbert, one cloudy evening, was sitting, +with his friend and his wife Bertha, by the parlour fire. The flame cast +a red glimmer through the room, and sported on the ceiling; the night +looked sullenly in through the windows, and the trees without rustled in +wet coldness. Walther complained of the long road he had to travel; and +Eckbert proposed to him to stay where he was, to while away half of the +night in friendly talk, and then to take a bed in the house till +morning. Walther agreed, and the whole was speedily arranged: by and by +wine and supper were brought in; fresh wood was laid upon the fire; the +talk grew livelier and more confidential. + +The cloth being removed, and the servants gone, Eckbert took his +friend's hand, and said to him: "Now you must let my wife tell you the +history of her youth; it is curious enough, and you should know it." +"With all my heart," said Walther; and the party again drew round the +hearth. + +It was now midnight; the moon looked fitfully through the breaks of the +driving clouds. "You must not reckon me a babbler," began the lady. "My +husband says you have so generous a mind, that it is not right in us to +hide aught from you. Only do not take my narrative for a fable, however +strangely it may sound. + +"I was born in a little village; my father was a poor herdsman. Our +circumstances were not of the best; often we knew not where to find our +daily bread. But what grieved me far more than this, were the quarrels +which my father and mother often had about their poverty, and the bitter +reproaches they cast on one another. Of myself too, I heard nothing said +but ill; they were forever telling me that I was a silly stupid child, +that I could not do the simplest turn of work; and in truth I was +extremely inexpert and helpless; I let things fall; I neither learned to +sew nor spin; I could be of no use to my parents; only their straits I +understood too well. Often I would sit in a corner, and fill my little +heart with dreams, how I would help them, if I should all at once grow +rich; how I would overflow them with silver and gold, and feast myself +on their amazement; and then spirits came hovering up, and showed me +buried treasures, or gave me little pebbles which changed into precious +stones; in short, the strangest fancies occupied me, and when I had to +rise and help with anything, my inexpertness was still greater, as my +head was giddy with these motley visions. + +"My father in particular was always very cross to me; he scolded me for +being such a burden to the house; indeed he often used me rather +cruelly, and it was very seldom that I got a friendly word from him. In +this way I had struggled on to near the end of my eighth year; and now +it was seriously fixed that I should begin to do or learn something. My +father still maintained that it was nothing but caprice in me, or a lazy +wish to pass my days in idleness: accordingly he set upon me with +furious threats; and as these made no improvement, he one day gave me a +most cruel chastisement, and added that the same should be repeated day +after day, since I was nothing but a useless sluggard. + +"That whole night I wept abundantly; I felt myself so utterly forsaken, +I had such a sympathy with myself that I even longed to die. I dreaded +the break of day; I knew not on earth what I was to do or try. I wished +from my very heart to be clever, and could not understand how I should +be worse than the other children of the place. I was on the borders of +despair. + +"At the dawn of day I arose, and scarcely knowing what I did, unfastened +the door of our little hut. I stept upon the open field; next minute I +was in a wood, where the light of the morning had yet hardly penetrated. +I ran along, not looking round; for I felt no fatigue, and I still +thought my father would catch me, and in his anger at my flight would +beat me worse than ever. + +"I had reached the other side of the forest, and the sun was risen a +considerable way; I saw something dim lying before me, and a thick fog +resting over it. Ere long my path began to mount, at one time I was +climbing hills, at another winding among rocks; and I now guessed that I +must be among the neighbouring Mountains; a thought that made me shudder +in my loneliness. For, living in the plain country, I had never seen a +hill; and the very word Mountains, when I heard talk of them, had been a +sound of terror to my young ear. I had not the heart to go back, my fear +itself drove me on; often I looked round affrighted when the breezes +rustled over me among the trees, or the stroke of some distant woodman +sounded far through the still morning. And when I began to meet with +charcoal-men and miners, and heard their foreign way of speech, I had +nearly fainted for terror. + +"I passed through several villages; begging now and then, for I felt +hungry and thirsty; and fashioning my answers as I best could when +questions were put to me. In this manner I had wandered on some four +days, when I came upon a little footpath, which led me farther and +farther from the highway. The rocks about me now assumed a different and +far stranger form. They were cliffs so piled on one another, that it +looked as if the first gust of wind would hurl them all this way and +that. I knew not whether to go on or stop. Till now I had slept by night +in the woods, for it was the finest season of the year, or in some +remote shepherd's hut; but here I saw no human dwelling at all, and +could not hope to find one in this wilderness; the crags grew more and +more frightful; I had many a time to glide along by the very edge of +dreadful abysses; by degrees my footpath became fainter, and at last all +traces of it vanished from beneath me. I was utterly comfortless; I wept +and screamed; and my voice came echoing back from the rocky valleys with +a sound that terrified me. The night now came on, and I sought out a +mossy nook to lie down in. I could not sleep; in the darkness I heard +the strangest noises; sometimes I took them to proceed from wild-beasts, +sometimes from wind moaning through the rocks, sometimes from unknown +birds. I prayed; and did not sleep till towards morning. + +"When the light came upon my face, I awoke. Before me was a steep rock; +I clomb up, in the hope of discovering some outlet from the waste, +perhaps of seeing houses or men. But when I reached the top, there was +nothing still, so far as my eye could reach, but a wilderness of crags +and precipices; all was covered with a dim haze; the day was gray and +troubled, and no tree, no meadow, not even a bush could I find, only a +few shrubs shooting up stunted and solitary in the narrow clefts of the +rocks. I cannot utter what a longing I felt but to see one human +creature, any living mortal, even though I had been afraid of hurt from +him. At the same time I was tortured by a gnawing hunger; I sat down, +and made up my mind to die. After a while, however, the desire of living +gained the mastery; I roused myself, and wandered forward amid tears and +broken sobs all day; in the end, I hardly knew what I was doing; I was +tired and spent; I scarcely wished to live, and yet I feared to die. + +"Towards night the country seemed to grow a little kindlier; my +thoughts, my desires revived, the wish for life awoke in all my veins. I +thought I heard the rushing of a mill afar off; I redoubled my steps; +and how glad, how light of heart was I, when at last I actually gained +the limits of the barren rocks, and saw woods and meadows lying before +me, with soft green hills in the distance! I felt as if I had stept out +of hell into a paradise; my loneliness and helplessness no longer +frightened me. + +"Instead of the hoped-for mill, I came upon a waterfall, which, in +truth, considerably damped my joy. I was lifting a drink from it in the +hollow of my hand, when all at once I thought I heard a slight cough +some little way from me. Never in my life was I so joyfully surprised as +at this moment: I went near, and at the border of the wood I saw an old +woman sitting resting on the ground. She was dressed almost wholly in +black; a black hood covered her head, and the greater part of her face; +in her hand she held a crutch. + +"I came up to her, and begged for help; she made me sit by her, and gave +me bread, and a little wine. While I ate, she sang in a screeching tone +some kind of spiritual song. When she had done, she told me I might +follow her. + +"The offer charmed me, strange as the old woman's voice and look +appeared. With her crutch she limped away pretty fast, and at every step +she twisted her face so oddly, that at first I was like to laugh. The +wild rocks retired behind us more and more: I never shall forget the +aspect and the feeling of that evening. All things were as molten into +the softest golden red; the trees were standing with their tops in the +glow of the sunset; on the fields lay a mild brightness; the woods and +the leaves of the trees were standing motionless; the pure sky looked +out like an opened paradise, and the gushing of the brooks, and, from +time to time, the rustling of the trees, resounded through the serene +stillness, as in pensive joy. My young soul was here first taken with a +forethought of the world and its vicissitudes. I forgot myself and my +conductress; my spirit and my eyes were wandering among the shining +clouds. + +"We now mounted an eminence planted with birch-trees; from the top we +looked into a green valley, likewise full of birches; and down below, in +the middle of them, was a little hut. A glad barking reached us, and +immediately a little nimble dog came springing round the old woman, +fawned on her, and wagged its tail; it next came to me, viewed me on all +sides, and then turned back with a friendly look to its old mistress. + +"On reaching the bottom of the hill, I heard the strangest song, as if +coming from the hut, and sung by some bird. It ran thus: + + Alone in wood so gay + 'Tis good to stay, + Morrow like today, + Forever and aye: + O, I do love to stay + Alone in wood so gay. + +"These few words were continually repeated, and to describe the sound, +it was as if you heard forest-horns and shalms sounded together from a +far distance. + +"My curiosity was wonderfully on the stretch; without waiting for the +old woman's orders, I stept into the hut. It was already dusk; here all +was neatly swept and trimmed; some bowls were standing in a cupboard, +some strange-looking casks or pots on a table; in a glittering cage, +hanging by the window, was a bird, and this in fact proved to be the +singer. The old woman coughed and panted: it seemed as if she never +would get over her fatigue: she patted the little dog, she talked with +the bird, which only answered her with its accustomed song; and for me, +she did not seem to recollect that I was there at all. Looking at her +so, many qualms and fears came over me; for her face was in perpetual +motion; and, besides, her head shook from old age, so that, for my life, +I could not understand what sort of countenance she had. + +"Having gathered strength again, she lit a candle, covered a very small +table, and brought out supper. She now looked round for me, and bade me +take a little cane-chair. I was thus sitting close fronting her, with +the light between us. She folded her bony hands, and prayed aloud, still +twisting her countenance, so that I was once more on the point of +laughing; but I took strict care that I might not make her angry. + +"After supper she again prayed, then showed me a bed in a low narrow +closet; she herself slept in the room. I did not watch long, for I was +half stupefied; but in the night I now and then awoke, and heard the old +woman coughing, and between whiles talking with her dog and her bird, +which last seemed dreaming, and replied with only one or two words of +its rhyme. This, with the birches rustling before the window, and the +song of a distant nightingale, made such a wondrous combination, that I +never fairly thought I was awake, but only falling out of one dream into +another still stranger. + +"The old woman awoke me in the morning, and soon after gave me work. I +was put to spin, which I now learned very easily; I had likewise to take +charge of the dog and the bird. I soon learned my business in the house: +I now felt as if it all must be so; I never once remembered that the old +woman had so many singularities, that her dwelling was mysterious, and +lay apart from all men, and that the bird must be a very strange +creature. Its beauty, indeed, always struck me, for its feathers +glittered with all possible colours; the fairest deep blue, and the most +burning red, alternated about his neck and body; and when singing, he +blew himself proudly out, so that his feathers looked still finer. + +"My old mistress often went abroad, and did not come again till night; +on these occasions I went out to meet her with the dog, and she used to +call me child and daughter. In the end I grew to like her heartily; as +our mind, especially in childhood, will become accustomed and attached +to anything. In the evenings, she taught me to read; and this was +afterwards a source of boundless satisfaction to me in my solitude, for +she had several ancient-written books, that contained the strangest +stories. + +"The recollection of the life I then led is still singular to me: +Visited by no human creature, secluded in the circle of so small a +family; for the dog and the bird made the same impression on me which in +other cases long-known friends produce. I am surprised that I have never +since been able to recall the dog's name, a very odd one, often as I +then pronounced it. + +"Four years I had passed in this way (I must now have been nearly +twelve), when my old dame began to put more trust in me, and at length +told me a secret. The bird, I found, laid every day an egg, in which +there was a pearl or a jewel. I had already noticed that she often went +to fettle privately about the cage, but I had never troubled myself +farther on the subject. She now gave me charge of gathering these eggs +in her absence, and carefully storing them up in the strange-looking +pots. She would leave me food, and sometimes stay away longer, for +weeks, for months. My little wheel kept humming round, the dog barked, +the bird sang; and withal there was such a stillness in the +neighbourhood, that I do not recollect of any storm or foul weather all +the time I stayed there. No one wandered thither; no wild-beast came +near our dwelling: I was satisfied, and worked along in peace from day +to day. One would perhaps be very happy, could he pass his life so +undisturbedly to the end. + +"From the little that I read, I formed quite marvellous notions of the +world and its people; all taken from myself and my society. When I read +of witty persons, I could not figure them but like the little shock; +great ladies, I conceived, were like the bird; all old women like my +mistress. I had read somewhat of love, too; and often, in fancy, I would +sport strange stories with myself. I figured out the fairest knight on +Earth; adorned him with all perfections, without knowing rightly, after +all my labour, how he looked: but I could feel a hearty pity for myself +when he ceased to love me; I would then, in thought, make long melting +speeches, or perhaps aloud, to try if I could win him back. You smile! +These young days are, in truth, far away from us all. + +"I now liked better to be left alone, for I was then sole mistress of +the house. The dog loved me, and did all I wanted; the bird replied to +all my questions with his rhyme; my wheel kept briskly turning, and at +bottom I had never any wish for change. When my dame returned from her +long wanderings, she would praise my diligence; she said her house, +since I belonged to it, was managed far more perfectly; she took a +pleasure in my growth and healthy looks; in short, she treated me in all +points like her daughter. + +"'Thou art a good girl, child,' said she once to me, in her creaking +tone; 'if thou continuest so, it will be well with thee: but none ever +prospers when he leaves the straight path; punishment will overtake him, +though it may be late.' I gave little heed to this remark of hers at the +time, for in all my temper and movements I was very lively; but by night +it occurred to me again, and I could not understand what she meant by +it. I considered all the words attentively; I had read of riches, and at +last it struck me that her pearls and jewels might perhaps be something +precious. Ere long this thought grew clearer to me. But the straight +path, and leaving it? What could she mean by this? + +"I was now fourteen; it is the misery of man that he arrives at +understanding through the loss of innocence. I now saw well enough that +it lay with me to take the jewels and the bird in the old woman's +absence, and go forth with them and see the world which I had read of. +Perhaps, too, it would then be possible that I might meet that fairest +of all knights, who forever dwelt in my memory. + +"At first this thought was nothing more than any other thought; but when +I used to be sitting at my wheel, it still returned to me, against my +will; and I sometimes followed it so far, that I already saw myself +adorned in splendid attire, with princes and knights around me. On +awakening from these dreams, I would feel a sadness when I looked up, +and found myself still in the little cottage. For the rest, if I went +through my duties, the old woman troubled herself little about what I +thought or felt. + +"One day she went out again, telling me that she should be away on this +occasion longer than usual; that I must take strict charge of +everything, and not let the time hang heavy on my hands. I had a sort of +fear on taking leave of her, for I felt as if I should not see her any +more. I looked long after her, and knew not why I felt so sad; it was +almost as if my purpose had already stood before me, without myself +being conscious of it. + +"Never did I tend the dog and the bird with such diligence as now; they +were nearer to my heart than formerly. The old woman had been gone some +days, when I rose one morning in the firm mind to leave the cottage, and +set out with the bird to see this world they talked so much of. I felt +pressed and hampered in my heart; I wished to stay where I was, and yet +the thought of that afflicted me; there was a strange contention in my +soul, as if between two discordant spirits. One moment my peaceful +solitude would seem to me so beautiful; the next the image of a new +world, with its many wonders, would again enchant me. + +"I knew not what to make of it; the dog leaped up continually about me; +the sunshine spread abroad over the fields; the green birch-trees +glittered; I always felt as if I had something I must do in haste; so I +caught the little dog, tied him up in the room, and took the cage with +the bird under my arm. The dog writhed and whined at this unusual +treatment; he looked at me with begging eyes, but I feared to have him +with me. I also took one pot of jewels, and concealed it by me; the rest +I left. + +"The bird turned its head very strangely when I crossed the threshold; +the dog tugged at his cord to follow me, but he was forced to stay. + +"I did not take the road to the wild rocks, but went in the opposite +direction. The dog still whined and barked, and it touched me to the +heart to hear him; the bird tried once or twice to sing; but as I was +carrying him, the shaking put him out. + +"The farther I went, the fainter grew the barking, and at last it +altogether ceased. I wept, and had almost turned back, but the longing +to see something new still hindered me. + +"I had got across the hills, and through some forests, when the night +came on, and I was forced to turn aside into a village. I blushed +exceedingly on entering the inn; they showed me to a room and bed; I +slept pretty quietly, only that I dreamed of the old woman, and her +threatening me. + +"My journey had not much variety; the farther I went, the more was I +afflicted by the recollection of my old mistress and the little dog; I +considered that in all likelihood the poor shock would die of hunger, +and often in the woods I thought my dame would suddenly meet me. Thus +amid tears and sobs I went along; when I stopped to rest, and put the +cage on the ground, the bird struck up his song, and brought but too +keenly to my mind the fair habitation I had left. As human nature is +forgetful, I imagined that my former journey, in my childhood, had not +been so sad and woful as the present; I wished to be as I was then. + +"I had sold some jewels; and now, after wandering on for several days, I +reached a village. At the very entrance I was struck with something +strange; I felt terrified and knew not why; but I soon bethought myself, +for it was the village where I was born! How amazed was I! How the tears +ran down my cheeks for gladness, for a thousand singular remembrances! +Many things were changed: new houses had been built, some just raised +when I went away, were now fallen, and had marks of fire on them; +everything was far smaller and more confined than I had fancied. It +rejoiced my very heart that I should see my parents once more after such +an absence. I found their little cottage, the well-known threshold; the +door-latch was standing as of old; it seemed to me as if I had shut it +only yesternight. My heart beat violently, I hastily lifted that latch; +but faces I had never seen before looked up and gazed at me. I asked for +the shepherd Martin; they told me that his wife and he were dead three +years ago. I drew back quickly, and left the village weeping aloud. + +"I had figured out so beautifully how I would surprise them with my +riches: by the strangest chance, what I had only dreamed in childhood +was become reality; and now it was all in vain, they could not rejoice +with me, and that which had been my first hope in life was lost forever. + +"In a pleasant town I hired a small house and garden, and took to myself +a maid. The world, in truth, proved not so wonderful as I had painted +it: but I forgot the old woman and my former way of life rather more, +and, on the whole, I was contented. + +"For a long while the bird had ceased to sing; I was therefore not a +little frightened, when one night he suddenly began again, and with a +different rhyme. He sang: + + Alone in wood so gay, + Ah, far away! + But thou wilt say + Some other day, + 'Twere best to stay + Alone in wood so gay. + +"Throughout the night I could not close an eye; all things again +occurred to my remembrance; and I felt, more than ever, that I had not +acted rightly. When I rose, the aspect of the bird distressed me +greatly; he looked at me continually, and his presence did me ill. There +was now no end to his song; he sang it louder and more shrilly than he +had been wont. The more I looked at him, the more he pained and +frightened me; at last I opened the cage, put in my hand, and grasped +his neck; I squeezed my fingers hard together, he looked at me, I +slackened them; but he was dead. I buried him in the garden. + +"After this, there often came a fear over me for my maid; I looked back +upon myself, and fancied she might rob me or murder me. For a long while +I had been acquainted with a young knight, whom I altogether liked: I +bestowed on him my hand; and with this, Sir Walther, ends my story." + +"Ay, you should have seen her then," said Eckbert warmly; "seen her +youth, her loveliness, and what a charm her lonely way of life had given +her. I had no fortune; it was through her love these riches came to me; +we moved hither, and our marriage has at no time brought us anything but +good." + +"But with our tattling," added Bertha, "it is growing very late; we must +go to sleep." + +She rose, and proceeded to her chamber; Walther, with a kiss of her +hand, wished her good-night, saying: "Many thanks, noble lady; I can +well figure you beside your singing bird, and how you fed poor little +_Strohmian_." + +Walther likewise went to sleep; Eckbert alone still walked in a restless +humour up and down the room. "Are not men fools?" said he at last: "I +myself occasioned this recital of my wife's history, and now such +confidence appears to me improper! Will he not abuse it? Will he not +communicate the secret to others? Will he not, for such is human nature, +cast unblessed thoughts on our jewels, and form pretexts and lay plans +to get possession of them?" + +It now occurred to his mind that Walther had not taken leave of him so +cordially as might have been expected after such a mark of trust: the +soul once set upon suspicion finds in every trifle something to confirm +it. Eckbert, on the other hand, reproached himself for such ignoble +feelings to his worthy friend; yet still he could not cast them out. All +night he plagued himself with such uneasy thoughts, and got very little +sleep. + +Bertha was unwell next day, and could not come to breakfast; Walther did +not seem to trouble himself much about her illness, but left her husband +also rather coolly. Eckbert could not comprehend such conduct; he went +to see his wife, and found her in a feverish state; she said her last +night's story must have agitated her. + +From that day, Walther visited the castle of his friend but seldom; and +when he did appear, it was but to say a few unmeaning words and then +depart. Eckbert was exceedingly distressed by this demeanour: to Bertha +or Walther he indeed said nothing of it; but to any person his internal +disquietude was visible enough. + +Bertha's sickness wore an aspect more and more serious; the Doctor grew +alarmed; the red had vanished from his patient's cheeks, and her eyes +were becoming more and more inflamed. One morning she sent for her +husband to her bedside; the nurses were ordered to withdraw. + +"Dear Eckbert," she began, "I must disclose a secret to thee, which has +almost taken away my senses, which is ruining my health, unimportant +trifle as it may appear. Thou mayest remember, often as I talked of my +childhood, I could never call to mind the name of the dog that was so +long beside me: now, that night on taking leave, Walther all at once +said to me: 'I can well figure you, and how you fed poor little +_Strohmian_.' Is it chance? Did he guess the name; did he know it, and +speak it on purpose? If so, how stands this man connected with my +destiny? At times I struggle with myself, as if I but imagined this +mysterious business; but, alas! it is certain, too certain. I felt a +shudder that a stranger should help me to recall the memory of my +secrets. What sayest thou, Eckbert?" + +Eckbert looked at his sick and agitated wife with deep emotion; he stood +silent and thoughtful; then spoke some words of comfort to her, and went +out. In a distant chamber, he walked to and fro in indescribable +disquiet. Walther, for many years, had been his sole companion; and now +this person was the only mortal in the world whose existence pained and +oppressed him. It seemed as if he should be gay and light of heart, were +that one thing but removed. He took his bow, to dissipate these +thoughts; and went to hunt. + +It was a rough stormy winter-day; the snow was lying deep on the hills, +and bending down the branches of the trees. He roved about; the sweat +was standing on his brow; he found no game, and this embittered his +ill-humour. All at once he saw an object moving in the distance; it was +Walther gathering moss from the trunks of trees. Scarce knowing what he +did, he bent his bow; Walther looked round, and gave a threatening +gesture, but the arrow was already flying, and he sank transfixed by it. + +Eckbert felt relieved and calmed, yet a certain horror drove him home to +his castle. It was a good way distant; he had wandered far into the +woods. On arriving, he found Bertha dead: before her death, she had +spoken much of Walther and the old woman. + +For a great while after this occurrence, Eckbert lived in the deepest +solitude: he had all along been melancholy, for the strange history of +his wife disturbed him, and he dreaded some unlucky incident or other; +but at present he was utterly at variance with himself. The murder of +his friend arose incessantly before his mind; he lived in the anguish of +continual remorse. + +To dissipate his feelings, he occasionally moved to the neighbouring +town, where he mingled in society and its amusements. He longed for a +friend to fill the void in his soul; and yet, when he remembered +Walther, he would shudder at the thought of meeting with a friend; for +he felt convinced that, with any friend, he must be unhappy. He had +lived so long with his Bertha in lovely calmness; the friendship of +Walther had cheered him through so many years; and now both of them were +suddenly swept away. As he thought of these things, there were many +moments when his life appeared to him some fabulous tale, rather than +the actual history of a living man. + +A young knight, named Hugo, made advances to the silent melancholy +Eckbert, and appeared to have a true affection for him. Eckbert felt +himself exceedingly surprised; he met the knight's friendship with the +greater readiness, the less he had anticipated it. The two were now +frequently together; Hugo showed his friend all possible attentions; one +scarcely ever went to ride without the other; in all companies they got +together. In a word, they seemed inseparable. + +Eckbert was never happy longer than a few transitory moments: for he +felt too clearly that Hugo loved him only by mistake; that he knew him +not, was unacquainted with his history; and he was seized again with the +same old longing to unbosom himself wholly, that he might be sure +whether Hugo was his friend or not. But again his apprehensions, and the +fear of being hated and abhorred, withheld him. There were many hours in +which he felt so much impressed with his entire worthlessness, that he +believed no mortal not a stranger to his history, could entertain regard +for him. Yet still he was unable to withstand himself: on a solitary +ride, he disclosed his whole history to Hugo, and asked if he could love +a murderer. Hugo seemed touched, and tried to comfort him. Eckbert +returned to town with a lighter heart. + +But it seemed to be his doom that, in the very hour of confidence, he +should always find materials for suspicion. Scarcely had they entered +the public hall, when, in the glitter of the many lights, Hugo's looks +had ceased to satisfy him. He thought he noticed a malicious smile; he +remarked that Hugo did not speak to him as usual; that he talked with +the rest, and seemed to pay no heed to him. In the party was an old +knight, who had always shown himself the enemy of Eckbert, had often +asked about his riches and his wife in a peculiar style. With this man +Hugo was conversing; they were speaking privately, and casting looks at +Eckbert. The suspicions of the latter seemed confirmed; he thought +himself betrayed, and a tremendous rage took hold of him. As he +continued gazing, on a sudden he discerned the countenance of Walther, +all his features, all the form so well known to him; he gazed, and +looked, and felt convinced that it was none but Walther who was talking +to the knight. His horror cannot be described; in a state of frenzy he +rushed out of the hall, left the town overnight, and after many +wanderings, returned to his castle. + +Here, like an unquiet spirit, he hurried to and fro from room to room; +no thought would stay with him; out of one frightful idea he fell into +another still more frightful, and sleep never visited his eyes. Often he +believed that he was mad, that a disturbed imagination was the origin of +all this terror; then, again, he recollected Walther's features, and the +whole grew more and more a riddle to him. He resolved to take a journey, +that he might reduce his thoughts to order; the hope of friendship, the +desire of social intercourse, he had now forever given up. + +He set out, without prescribing to himself any certain route; indeed, he +took small heed of the country he was passing through. Having hastened +on some days at the quickest pace of his horse, he, on a sudden, found +himself entangled in a labyrinth of rocks, from which he could discover +no outlet. At length he met an old peasant, who took him by a path +leading past a waterfall: he offered him some coins for his guidance, +but the peasant would not have them. "What use is it?" said Eckbert. "I +could believe that this man, too, was none but Walther." He looked round +once more, and it was none but Walther. Eckbert spurred his horse as +fast as it could gallop, over meads and forests, till it sank exhausted +to the earth. Regardless of this, he hastened forward on foot. + +In a dreamy mood he mounted a hill: he fancied he caught the sound of +lively barking at a little distance; the birch-trees whispered in the +intervals, and in the strangest notes he heard this song: + + Alone in wood so gay, + Once more I stay; + None dare me slay, + The evil far away: + Ah, here I stay, + Alone in wood so gay. + +The sense, the consciousness of Eckbert had departed; it was a riddle +which he could not solve, whether he was dreaming now, or had before +dreamed of a wife and friend. The marvellous was mingled with the +common: the world around him seemed enchanted, and he himself was +incapable of thought or recollection. + +A crooked, bent old woman, crawled coughing up the hill with a crutch. +"Art thou bringing me my bird, my pearls, my dog?" cried she to him. +"See how injustice punishes itself! No one but I was Walther, was Hugo." + +"God of Heaven!" said Eckbert, muttering to himself; "in what frightful +solitude have I passed my life?" + +"And Bertha was thy sister." + +Eckbert sank to the ground. + +"Why did she leave me deceitfully? All would have been fair and well; +her time of trial was already finished. She was the daughter of a +knight, who had her nursed in a shepherd's house; the daughter of thy +father." + +"Why have I always had a forecast of this dreadful thought?" cried +Eckbert. + +"Because in early youth thy father told thee: he could not keep this +daughter by him for his second wife, her stepmother." + +Eckbert lay distracted and dying on the ground. Faint and bewildered, he +heard the old woman speaking, the dog barking, the bird repeating its +song. + + + + +THE TRUSTY ECKART. + + + Brave Burgundy no longer + Could fight for fatherland; + The foe they were the stronger, + Upon the bloody sand. + + He said: "The foe prevaileth, + My friends and followers fly, + My striving naught availeth, + My spirits sink and die. + + No more can I exert me, + Or sword and lance can wield; + O, why did he desert me, + Eckart, our trusty shield! + + In fight he used to guide me, + In danger was my stay; + Alas, he's not beside me, + But stays at home today! + + The crowds are gathering faster, + Took captive shall I be? + I may not run like dastard, + I'll die like soldier free." + + Thus Burgundy so bitter, + Has at his breast his sword; + When, see, breaks-in the Ritter + Eckart, to save his lord! + + With cap and armour glancing, + Bold on the foe he rides, + His troop behind him prancing, + And his two sons besides. + + Burgundy sees their token, + And cries: "Now, God be praised! + Not yet we're beat or broken, + Since Eckart's flag is raised." + + Then like a true knight, Eckart + Dash'd gaily through the foe: + But with his red blood flecker'd, + His little son lay low. + + And when the fight was ended, + Then Burgundy he speaks: + "Thou hast me well befriended, + Yet so as wets my cheeks. + + The foe is smote and flying; + Thou'st saved my land and life; + But here thy boy is lying, + Returns not from the strife." + + Then Eckart wept almost, + The tear stood in his eye; + He clasp'd the son he'd lost, + Close to his breast the boy. + + "Why diedst thou, Heinz, so early, + And scarce wast yet a man? + Thou'rt fallen in battle fairly; + For thee I'll not complain. + + Thee, Prince, we have deliver'd; + From danger thou art free: + The boy and I are sever'd; + I give my son to thee." + + Then Burgundy our chief, + His eyes grew moist and dim; + He felt such joy and grief, + So great that love to him. + + His heart was melting, flaming, + He fell on Eckart's breast, + With sobbing voice exclaiming: + "Eckart, my champion best, + + Thou stoodst when every other + Had fled from me away; + Therefore thou art my brother + Forever from this day. + + The people shall regard thee + As wert thou of my line; + And could I more reward thee, + How gladly were it thine!" + + And when we heard the same, + We joy'd as did our prince; + And Trusty Eckart is the name + We've call'd him ever since. + +The voice of an old peasant sounded over the rocks, as he sang this +ballad; and the Trusty Eckart sat in his grief, on the declivity of the +hill, and wept aloud. His youngest boy was standing by him: "Why weepest +thou aloud, my father Eckart?" said he: "Art thou not great and strong, +taller and braver than any other man? Whom, then, art thou afraid of?" + +Meanwhile the Duke of Burgundy was moving homewards to his Tower. +Burgundy was mounted on a stately horse, with splendid trappings; and +the gold and jewels of the princely Duke were glittering in the evening +sun; so that little Conrad could not sate himself with viewing and +admiring the magnificent procession. The Trusty Eckart rose, and looked +gloomily over it; and young Conrad, when the hunting train had +disappeared, struck up this stave: + + On good steed, + Sword and shield + Wouldst thou wield, + With spear and arrow; + Then had need + That the marrow + In thy arm, + That thy heart and blood, + Be good, + To save thy head from harm. + +The old man clasped his son to his bosom, looking with wistful +tenderness on his clear blue eyes. "Didst thou hear that good man's +song?" said he. + +"Ay, why not?" answered Conrad: "he sang it loud enough, and thou art +the Trusty Eckart thyself, so I liked to listen." + +"That same Duke is now my enemy," said Eckart; "he keeps my other son in +prison, nay has already put him to death, if I may credit what the +people say." + +"Take down thy broad-sword, and do not suffer it," cried Conrad; "they +will tremble to see thee, and all the people in the whole land will +stand by thee, for thou art their greatest hero in the land." + +"Not so, my son," said the other; "I were then the man my enemies have +called me; I dare not be unfaithful to my liege; no, I dare not break +the peace which I have pledged to him, and promised on his hand." + +"But what wants he with us, then?" said Conrad, impatiently. + +Eckart sat down again, and said: "My son, the entire story of it would +be long, and thou wouldst scarcely understand it. The great have always +their worst enemy in their own hearts, and they fear it day and night; +so Burgundy has now come to think that he has trusted me too far; that +he has nursed in me a serpent in his bosom. People call me the stoutest +warrior in our country; they say openly that he owes me land and life; I +am named the Trusty Eckart; and thus oppressed and suffering persons +turn to me, that I may get them help. All this he cannot suffer. So he +has taken up a grudge against me; and every one that wants to rise in +favour with him increases his distrust; so that at last he has quite +turned away his heart from me." + +Hereupon the hero Eckart told, in smooth words, how Burgundy had +banished him from his sight, how they had become entire strangers to +each other, as the Duke suspected that he even meant to rob him of his +dukedom. In trouble and sorrow, he proceeded to relate how the Duke had +cast his son into confinement, and was threatening the life of Eckart +himself, as of a traitor to the land. + +But Conrad said to his father: "Wilt thou let me go, my old father, and +speak with the Duke, to make him reasonable and kind to thee? If he has +killed my brother, then he is a wicked man, and thou must punish him; +but that cannot be, for he could not so falsely forget the great service +thou hast done him." + +"Dost thou know the old proverb?" said Eckart: + + "Doth the king require thy aid, + Thou'rt a friend can ne'er be paid; + Hast thou help'd him through his trouble + Friendship's grown an empty bubble. + +Yes; my whole life has been wasted in vain. Why did he make me great, to +cast me down the deeper? The friendship of princes is like a deadly +poison, which can only be employed against our enemies, and with which +at last we unwarily kill ourselves." + +"I will to the Duke," cried Conrad: "I will call back into his soul all +that thou hast done, that thou hast suffered for him; and he will again +be as of old." + +"Thou hast forgot," said Eckart, "that they look on us as traitors. +Therefore let us fly together to some foreign country, where a better +fortune may betide us." + +"At thy age," said Conrad, "wilt thou turn away thy face from thy kind +home? I will to Burgundy; I will quiet him, and reconcile him to thee. +What can he do to me, even though he still hate and fear thee?" + +"I let thee go unwillingly," said Eckart; "for my soul forebodes no +good; and yet I would fain be reconciled to him, for he is my old +friend; and fain save thy brother, who is pining in the dungeon beside +him." + +The sun threw his last mild rays on the green Earth: Eckart sat +pensively leaning back against a tree; he looked long at Conrad, then +said: "If thou wilt go, my little boy, go now, before the night grow +altogether dark. The windows in the Duke's Castle are already glittering +with lights, and I hear afar off the sound of trumpets from the feast; +perhaps his son's bride may have arrived, and his mind may be friendlier +to us." + +Unwillingly he let him go, for he no longer trusted to his fortune: but +Conrad's heart was light; for he thought it would be an easy task to +turn the mind of Burgundy, who had played with him so kindly but a short +while before. "Wilt thou come back to me, my little boy?" sobbed Eckart: +"if I lose thee, no other of my race remains." The boy consoled him; +flattered him with caresses: at last they parted. + +Conrad knocked at the gate of the Castle, and was let in; old Eckart +stayed without in the night alone. "Him too have I lost," moaned he in +his solitude; "I shall never see his face again." + +Whilst he so lamented, there came tottering towards him a gray-haired +man; endeavouring to get down the rocks; and seeming, at every step, to +fear that he should stumble into the abyss. Seeing the old man's +feebleness, Eckart held out his hand to him, and helped him to descend +in safety. + +"Which way come ye?" inquired Eckart. + +The old man sat down, and began to weep, so that the tears came running +over his cheeks. Eckart tried to soothe him and console him with +reasonable words; but the sorrowful old man seemed not at all to heed +these well-meant speeches, but to yield himself the more immoderately to +his sorrows. + +"What grief can it be that lies so heavy on you as to overpower you +utterly?" said Eckart. + +"Ah, my children!" moaned the old man. + +Then Eckart thought of Conrad, Heinz and Dietrich, and was himself +altogether comfortless. "Yes," said he, "if your children are dead, your +misery in truth is very great." + +"Worse than dead," replied the old man, with his mournful voice; "for +they are not dead, but lost forever to me. O, would to Heaven that they +were but dead!" + +These strange words astonished Eckart, and he asked the old man to +explain the riddle; whereupon the latter answered: "The age we live in +is indeed a marvellous age, and surely the last days are at hand; for +the most dreadful signs are sent into the world, to threaten it. Every +sort of wickedness is casting off its old fetters, and stalking bold and +free about the Earth; the fear of God is drying up and dispersing, and +can find no channel to unite in; and the Powers of Evil are rising +audaciously from their dark nooks, and celebrating their triumph. Ah, my +dear sir! we are old, but not old enough for such prodigious things. You +have doubtless seen the Comet, that wondrous light in the sky, that +shines so prophetically down upon us? All men predict evil; and no one +thinks of beginning the reform with himself, and so essaying to turn off +the rod. Nor is this enough; but portents are also issuing from the +Earth, and breaking mysteriously from the depths below, even as the +light shines frightfully on us from above. Have you never heard of the +Hill, which people call the Hill of Venus?" + +"Never," said Eckart, "far as I have travelled." + +"I am surprised at that," replied the old man; "for the matter is now +grown as notorious as it is true. To this Mountain have the Devils fled, +and sought shelter in the desert centre of the Earth, according as the +growth of our Holy Faith has cast down the idolatrous worship of the +Heathen. Here, they say, before all others, Lady Venus keeps her court, +and all her hellish hosts of worldly Lusts and forbidden Wishes gather +round her, so that the Hill has been accursed since time immemorial." + +"But in what country lies the Hill?" inquired Eckart. + +"There is the secret," said the old man, "that no one can tell this, +except he have first given himself up to be Satan's servant; and, +indeed, no guiltless person ever thinks of seeking it out. A wonderful +Musician on a sudden issues from below, whom the Powers of Hell have +sent as their ambassador; he roams through the world, and plays, and +makes music on a pipe, so that his tones sound far and wide. And whoever +hears these sounds is seized by him with visible yet inexplicable force, +and drawn on, on, into the wilderness; he sees not the road he travels; +he wanders, and wanders, and is not weary; his strength and his speed +go on increasing; no power can restrain him; but he runs frantic into +the Mountain, from which he can nevermore return. This power has, in our +day, been restored to Hell; and in this inverse direction, the +ill-starred, perverted pilgrims are travelling to a Shrine where no +deliverance awaits them, or can reach them any more. For a long while, +my two sons had given me no contentment; they were dissolute and +immoral; they despised their parents, as they did religion; but now the +Sound has caught and carried them off, they are gone into unseen +kingdoms; the world was too narrow for them, they are seeking room in +Hell." + +"And what do you intend to do in such a mystery?" said Eckart. + +"With this crutch I set out," replied the old man, "to wander through +the world, to find them again, or die of weariness and woe." + +So saying, he tore himself from his rest with a strong effort; and +hastened forth with his utmost speed, as if he had found himself +neglecting his most precious earthly hope; and Eckart looked with +compassion on his vain toil, and rated him in his thoughts as mad. + +It had been night, and was now day, and Conrad came not back. Eckart +wandered to and fro among the rocks, and turned his longing eyes on the +Castle; still he did not see him. A crowd came issuing through the gate; +and Eckart no longer heeded to conceal himself; but mounted his horse, +which was grazing in freedom; and rode into the middle of the troop, who +were now proceeding merrily and carelessly across the plain. On his +reaching them, they recognised him; but no one laid a hand on him, or +said a hard word to him; they stood mute for reverence, surrounded him +in admiration, and then went their way. One of the squires he called +back, and asked him: "Where is my Conrad?" + +"O! ask me not," replied the squire; "it would but cause you sorrow and +lamenting." + +"And Dietrich!" cried the father. + +"Name not their names any more," said the aged squire, "for they are +gone; the wrath of our master was kindled against them, and he meant to +punish you in them." + +A hot rage mounted up in Eckart's soul; and, for sorrow and fury, he was +no longer master of himself. He dashed the spurs into his horse, and +rode through the Castle-gate. All drew back, with timid reverence, from +his way; and thus he rode on to the front of the Palace. He sprang from +horseback, and mounted the great steps with wavering pace. "Am I here in +the dwelling of the man," said he, within himself, "who was once my +friend?" He endeavoured to collect his thoughts; but wilder and wilder +images kept moving in his eye, and thus he stept into the Prince's +chamber. + +Burgundy's presence of mind forsook him, and he trembled as Eckart stood +in his presence. "Art thou the Duke of Burgundy?" said Eckart to him. To +which the Duke answered, "Yes." + +"And thou hast killed my son Dietrich?" The Duke said, "Yes." + +"And my little Conrad too," cried Eckart, in his grief, "was not too +good for thee, and thou hast killed him also?" To which the Duke again +answered, "Yes." + +Here Eckart was unmanned, and said, in tears: "O! answer me not so, +Burgundy; for I cannot bear these speeches. Tell me but that thou art +sorry, that thou wishest it were yet undone, and I will try to comfort +myself; but thus thou art utterly offensive to my heart." + +The Duke said: "Depart from my sight, false traitor; for thou art the +worst enemy I have on Earth." + +Eckart said: "Thou hast of old called me thy friend; but these thoughts +are now far from thee. Never did I act against thee; still have I +honoured and loved thee as my prince; and God forbid that I should now, +as I well might, lay my hand upon my sword, and seek revenge of thee. +No, I will depart from thy sight, and die in solitude." + +So saying, he went out; and Burgundy was moved in his mind; but at his +call, the guards appeared with their lances, who encircled him on all +sides, and motioned to drive Eckart from the chamber with their weapons. + + To horse the hero springs, + Wild through the hills he rideth: + "Of hope in earthly things, + Now none with me abideth. + + My sons are slain in youth, + I have no child or wife; + The Prince suspects my truth, + Has sworn to take my life." + + Then to the wood he turns him, + There gallops on and on; + The smart of sorrow burns him, + He cries: "They're gone, they're gone + + All living men from me are fled, + New friends I must provide me, + To the oaks and firs beside me, + Complain in desert dead. + + There is no child to cheer me, + By cruel wolves they're slain; + Once three of them were near me, + I see them not again." + + As Eckart cried thus sadly, + His sense it pass'd away; + He rides in fury madly + Till dawning of the day. + + His horse in frantic speed + Sinks down at last exhausted; + And naught does Eckart heed, + Or think or know what caused it; + + But on the cold ground lie, + Not fearing, loving longer; + Despair grows strong and stronger, + He wishes but to die. + +No one about the Castle knew whither Eckart had gone; for he had lost +himself in the waste forests, and let no man see him. The Duke dreaded +his intentions; and he now repented that he had let him go, and not laid +hold of him. So, one morning, he set forth with a great train of hunters +and attendants, to search the woods, and find out Eckart; for he +thought, that till Eckart were destroyed, there could be no security. +All were unwearied, and regardless of toil; but the sun set without +their having found a trace of Eckart. + +A storm came on, and great clouds flew blustering over the forest; the +thunder rolled, and lightning struck the tall oaks: all present were +seized with an unquiet terror, and they gradually dispersed among the +bushes, or the open spaces of the wood. The Duke's horse plunged into +the thicket; his squires could not follow him: the gallant horse rushed +to the ground; and Burgundy in vain called through the tempest to his +servants; for there was no one that could hear him. + +Like a wild man had Eckart roamed about the woods, unconscious of +himself or his misfortunes; he had lost all thought, and in blank +stupefaction satisfied his hunger with roots and herbs: the hero could +not now be recognised by any one, so sore had the days of his despair +defaced him. As the storm came on, he awoke from his stupefaction, and +again felt his existence and his woes, and saw the misery that had +befallen him. He raised a loud cry of lamentation for his children; he +tore his white hair; and called out, in the bellowing of the storm: +"Whither, whither are ye gone, ye parts of my heart? And how is all +strength departed from me, that I could not even avenge your death? Why +did I hold back my arm, and did not send to death him who had given my +heart these deadly stabs? Ha, fool, thou deservest that the tyrant +should mock thee, since thy powerless arm and thy silly heart withstood +not the murderer. Now, O now were he with me! But it is in vain to wish +for vengeance, when the moment is gone by." + +Thus came on the night, and Eckart wandered to and fro in his sorrow. +From a distance he heard as it were a voice calling for help. Directing +his steps by the sound, he came up to a man in the darkness, who was +leaning on the stem of a tree, and mournfully entreating to be guided to +his road. Eckart started at the voice, for it seemed familiar to him; +but he soon recovered, and perceived that the lost wayfarer was the Duke +of Burgundy. Then he raised his hand to his sword, to cut down the man +who had been the murderer of his children; his fury came on him with new +force, and he was upon the point of finishing his bloody task, when all +at once he stopped, for his oath and the word he had pledged came into +his mind. He took his enemy's hand, and led him to the quarter where he +thought the road must be. + + The Duke foredone and weary + Sank in the wilder'd breaks; + Him in the tempest dreary + He on his shoulders takes. + + Said Burgundy: "I'm giving + Much toil to thee, I fear." + Eckart replied: "The living + On Earth have much to bear." + + "Yet," said the Duke, "believe me, + Were we out of the wood, + Since now thou dost relieve me, + Thy sorrows I'll make good." + + The hero at this promise + Felt on his cheek the tear; + Said he: "Indeed I nowise + Do look for payment here." + + "Harder our plight is growing," + The Duke cries, dreading scath, + "Now whither are we going? + Who art thou? Art thou Death?" + + "Not Death," said he, still weeping, + "Or any fiend am I; + Thy life is in God's keeping, + Thy ways are in his eye." + + "Ah," said the Duke, repenting, + "My breast is foul within; + I tremble, while lamenting, + Lest God requite my sin. + + My truest friend I've banish'd, + His children have I slain, + In wrath from me he vanish'd, + As foe he comes again. + + To me he was devoted, + Through good report and bad; + My rights he still promoted, + The truest man I had. + + Me he can never pardon, + I kill'd his children dear; + This night to pay my guerdon, + I' th' wood he lurks, I fear. + + This does my conscience teach me, + A threat'ning voice within; + If here to-night he reach me, + I die a child of sin." + + Said Eckart: "The beginning + Of our woes is guilt; + My grief is for thy sinning, + And for the blood thou'st spilt. + + And that the man will meet thee + Is likewise surely true; + Yet fear not, I entreat thee, + He'll harm no hair of you." + +Thus were they going forward talking, when another person in the forest +met them; it was Wolfram, the Duke's Squire, who had long been looking +for his master. The dark night was still lying over them, and no star +twinkled from between the wet black clouds. The Duke felt weaker, and +longed to reach some lodging, where he might sleep till day; besides, he +was afraid that he might meet with Eckart, who stood like a spectre +before his soul. He imagined he should never see the morning; and +shuddered anew when the wind again rustled through the high trees, and +the storm came down from the hollows of the mountains, and went rushing +over his head. "Wolfram," cried the Duke, in his anguish, "climb one of +these tall pines, and look about if thou canst spy no light, no house or +cottage, whither we may turn." + +The Squire, at the hazard of his life, clomb up a lofty pine, which the +storm was waving from the one side to the other, and ever and anon +bending down the top of it to the very ground; so that the Squire +wavered to and fro upon it like a little squirrel. At last he reached +the top, and cried: "Down there, in the valley, I see the glimmer of a +candle; thither must we turn." So he descended and showed the way; and +in a while, they all perceived the cheerful light; at which the Duke +once more took heart. Eckart still continued mute, and occupied within +himself; he spoke no word, and looked at his inward thoughts. On +arriving at the hut, they knocked; and a little old housewife let them +in: as they entered, the stout Eckart set the Duke down from his +shoulders, who threw himself immediately upon his knees, and in a +fervent prayer thanked God for his deliverance. Eckart took his seat in +a dark corner; and there he found fast asleep the poor old man, who had +lately told him of his great misery about his sons, and the search he +was making for them. + +When the Duke had done praying, he said: "Very strange have my thoughts +been this night, and the goodness of God and his almighty power never +showed themselves so openly before to my obdurate heart: my mind also +tells me that I have not long to live; and I desire nothing save that +God would pardon me my manifold and heavy sins. You two, also, who have +led me hither, I could wish to recompense, so far as in my power, before +my end arrive. To thee, Wolfram, I give both the castles that are on +these hills beside us; and in future, in remembrance of this awful +night, thou shalt call them the Tannenhaeuser, or Pine-houses. But who +art thou, strange man," continued he, "that hast placed thyself there in +the nook, apart? Come forth, that I may also pay thee for thy toil." + + Then rose the hero from his place, + And stept into the light before them; + Deep lines of woe were on his face, + But with a patient mind he bore them. + + And Burgundy, his heart forsook him, + To see that mild old gray-hair'd man; + His face grew pale, a trembling took him, + He swoon'd and sank to earth again. + + "O, saints of heaven," he wakes and cries, + "Is't thou that art before my eyes? + How shall I fly? Where shall I hide me? + Was't thou that in the wood didst guide me? + I kill'd thy children young and fair, + Me in thy arms how couldst thou bear?" + + Thus Burgundy goes on to wail, + And feels the heart within him fail; + Death is at hand, remorse pursues him, + With streaming eyes he sinks on Eckart's bosom; + And Eckart whispers to him low: + "Henceforth I have forgot the slight, + So thou and all the world may know, + Eckart was still thy trusty knight." + +Thus passed the hours till morning, when some other servants of the Duke +arrived, and found their dying master. They laid him on a mule, and took +him back to his castle. Eckart he could not suffer from his side; he +would often take his hand and press it to his breast, and look at him +with an imploring look. Then Eckart would embrace him, and speak a few +kind words to him, and so the Prince would feel composed. At last he +summoned all his Council, and declared to them that he appointed Eckart, +the trusty man, to be guardian of his sons, seeing he had proved himself +the noblest of all. And thus he died. + +Thenceforward Eckart took on him the government with all zeal; and every +person in the land admired his high manly spirit. Not long afterwards a +rumour spread abroad in all quarters, of a strange Musician, who had +come from Venus-Hill, who was travelling through the whole land, and +seducing men with his playing, so that they disappeared, and no one +could find any traces of them. Many credited the story, others not; +Eckart recollected the unhappy old man. + +"I have taken you for my sons," said he to the young Princes, as he once +stood with them on the hill before the Castle; "your happiness must now +be my posterity; when dead, I shall still live in your joy." They lay +down on the slope, from which the fair country was visible for many a +league; and here Eckart had to guard himself from speaking of his +children; for they seemed as if coming towards him from the distant +mountains, while he heard afar off a lovely sound. + + "Comes it not like dreams + Stealing o'er the vales and streams? + Out of regions far from this, + Like the song of souls in bliss?" + + This to the youths did Eckart say, + And caught the sound from far away; + And as the magic tones came nigher, + A wicked strange desire + Awakens in the breasts of these pure boys, + That drives them forth to seek for unknown joys. + + "Come, let's to the fields, to the meadows and mountains, + The forests invite us, the streams and the fountains; + Soft voices in secret for loitering chide us, + Away to the Garden of Pleasure they'll guide us." + + The Player comes in foreign guise, + Appears before their wondering eyes; + And higher swells the music's sound, + And brighter glows the emerald ground; + The flowers appear as drunk, + Twilight red has on them sunk; + And through the green grass play, with airy lightness, + Soft, fitful, blue and golden streaks of brightness. + Like a shadow, melts and flits away + All that bound men to this world of clay; + In Earth all toil and tumult cease, + Like one bright flower it blooms in peace; + The mountains rock in purple light, + The valleys shout as with delight; + All rush and whirl in the music's noise, + And long to share of these offer'd joys; + The soul of man is allured to gladness, + And lies entranced in that blissful madness. + + The Trusty Eckart felt it, + But wist not of the cause; + His heart the music melted, + He wondered what it was. + + The world seems new and fairer, + All blooming like the rose; + Can Eckart be a sharer + In raptures such as those? + + "Ha! Are those tones restoring + My wife and bonny sons? + All that I was deploring, + My lost beloved ones?" + + Yet soon his sense collected + Brought doubt within his breast; + These hellish arts detected, + A horror him possessed. + + And now he sees the raging + Of his young princes dear; + Themselves to Hell engaging, + His voice no more they hear. + + And forth, in wild commotion, + They rush, not knowing where; + In tumult like the ocean, + When mad his billows are. + + Then, as these things assail'd him, + He wist not what to do; + His knighthood almost fail'd him + Amid that hellish crew. + + Then to his soul appeareth + The hour the Duke did die; + His friend's faint prayer he heareth, + He sees his fading eye. + + And so his mind's in armour, + And hope is conquering fear; + When see, the fiendish Charmer + Himself comes piping near! + + His sword to draw he essayeth, + And smite the caitiff dead; + But as the music playeth, + His strength is from him fled. + + And from the mountains issue + Crowds of distorted forms, + Of Dwarfs a boundless tissue + Come simmering round in swarms. + + The youths, possess'd, are running + As frantic in the crowd: + In vain is force or cunning; + In vain to call aloud. + + And hurries on by castle, + By tower and town, the rout; + Like imps in hellish wassail, + With cackling laugh and shout. + + He too is in the rabble; + May not resist their force, + Must hear their deafening babble, + Attend their frantic course. + + But now the Hill appeareth, + And music comes thereout; + And as the Phantoms hear it, + They halt, and raise a shout. + + The Mountain starts asunder, + A motley crowd is seen; + This way and that they wander, + In red unearthly sheen. + + Then his broad-sword he drew it, + And says: "Still true, though lost!" + And with mad force he heweth + Through that Infernal host. + + His youths he sees (how gladly!) + Escaping through the vale; + The Fiends are fighting madly, + And threatening to prevail. + + The Dwarfs, when hurt, fly downward, + And rise up cured again; + And other crowds rush onward, + And fight with might and main. + + Then saw he from a distance + The children safe, and cried: + "They need not my assistance, + I care not what betide." + + His good broad-sword doth glitter + And flash i' th' noontide ray; + The Dwarfs, with wailing bitter, + And howls, depart away. + + Safe at the valley's ending, + The youths far off he spies; + Then faint and wounded, bending, + The hero falls and dies. + + So his last hour o'ertook him, + Fighting like lion brave; + His truth, it ne'er forsook him, + He was faithful to the grave. + + Now Eckart having perish'd, + The eldest son bore sway; + His memory still he cherish'd, + With grateful heart would say: + + "From foes and wreck to save me, + Like lion grim he fought; + My throne, my life, he gave me, + And with his heart's blood bought." + + And soon a wondrous rumour + The country round did fill, + That when a desp'rate humour + Doth send one to the Hill, + + There straight a Shape will meet him, + The Trusty Eckart's ghost, + And wistfully entreat him + To turn, and not be lost. + + There he, though dead, yet ever + True watch and ward doth hold; + Upon the Earth shall never + Be man so true and bold. + + +PART II. + +More than four centuries had elapsed since the Trusty Eckart's death, +when a noble Tannenhaeuser, in the station of Imperial Counsellor, was +living at Court in the highest estimation. The son of this knight +surpassed in beauty all the other nobles of the land, and on this + +account was loved and prized by every one. Suddenly, however, after some +mysterious incidents had been observed to happen to him, the young man +disappeared; and no one knew or guessed what was become of him. Since +the times of the Trusty Eckart, there had always been a story current in +the land about the Venus-Hill; and many said that he had wandered +thither, and was lost forever. + +One of those that most lamented him was his young friend Friedrich von +Wolfsburg. They had grown up together, and their mutual attachment +seemed to each of them to have become a necessary of life. +Tannenhaeuser's old father died: Friedrich married some years afterwards; +already was a ring of merry children round him, and still he heard no +tidings of his youthful friend; so that, in the end, he was forced to +conclude him dead. + +He was standing one evening under the gate of his Castle, when he +perceived afar off a pilgrim travelling towards the mansion. The +wayfaring man was clad in a strange garb; and his gait and gestures the +Knight thought extremely singular. On his approaching nearer, Wolfsburg +thought that he knew him; and at last he became convinced that the +stranger was no other than his long-lost friend, the Tannenhaeuser. He +felt amazed, and a secret horror took possession of him, as he +recognised distinctly these much-altered features. + +The two friends embraced; then started back next moment; and gazed +astonished at each other as at unknown beings. Of questions, of +perplexed replies, were many. Friedrich often shuddered at the wild look +of his friend, which seemed to burn as with unearthly light. The +Tannenhaeuser had reposed himself a day or two, when Friedrich learned +that he was on a pilgrimage to Rome. + +The two friends by and by renewed their former intimacy; took up their +old topics, and told stories to each other of their youth; but the +Tannenhaeuser always carefully concealed where he had been since then. +Friedrich, however, pressed him to disclose it, now that they were once +more on their ancient confidential footing: the other long endeavoured +to ward off the friendly prayer; but at last he exclaimed: "Well, be it +so; thy will be done! Thou shalt know all; but cast no reproaches on me +after, should the story fill thee with inquietude and horror." + +They went into the open air, and walked a little in a green wood of the +pleasure-grounds, where at last they sat down; and now the Tannenhaeuser +hid his face among the grass, and, with loud sobs, held back his right +hand to his friend, who pressed it tenderly in his. The woe-worn pilgrim +raised himself, and began his story in the following words: + +"Believe me, Wolfsburg, many a man has, at his birth, an Evil Spirit +linked to him, that vexes him through life, and never lets him rest, +till he has reached his black destination. So has it been with me; my +whole existence has been but a continuing birth-pain, and my awakening +will be in Hell. For this have I already wandered so many weary steps, +and have so many yet before me on the pilgrimage which I am making to +the Holy Father, that I may endeavour to obtain forgiveness at Rome. In +his presence will I lay down the heavy burden of my sins; or fall +beneath it, and die despairing." + +Friedrich attempted to console him, but the Tannenhaeuser seemed to pay +little heed to what he said; and, after a short while, he proceeded in +the following words: "There is an old legend of a Knight who is said to +have lived many centuries ago, under the name of the Trusty Eckart. They +tell how, in those days, a Musician issued from some marvellous Hill; +and, by his magic tones, awoke in the hearts of all that heard him so +deep a longing, such wild wishes, that he led them irresistibly along +with his music, and forced them to rush in with him to the Hill. Hell +had then opened wide her gates to poor mortals, and enticed them in with +seductive music. In boyhood I often heard this story, and at first +without particularly minding it; yet ere long it so took hold of me, +that all Nature, every sound, every flower, recalled to me the story of +these heart-subduing tones. I cannot tell thee what a sadness, what an +unutterable longing used to seize me, when I looked on the driving of +the clouds, and saw the light lordly blue peering out between them; or +what remembrances the meadows and the woods would awaken in my deepest +heart. Oftentimes the loveliness and fulness of royal Nature so affected +me, that I stretched out my arms, as if to fly away with wings; that I +might pour myself out like the Spirit of Nature over mountain and +valley; that I might brood over grass and forest, and inhale the riches +of her blessedness. And if by day the free landscape charmed me, by +night dark dreaming fantasies tormented me; and set themselves in +louring grimness before me, as if to shut up my path of life forever. +Above all, there was one dream that left an ineffaceable impression on +my feelings, though I never could distinctly call the forms of it to +memory. Methought there was a vast tumult in the streets; I heard +confused unintelligible speaking; it was dark night; I went to my +parents' house; none but my father was there, and he sick. Next morning +I clasped my parents in my arms, and pressed them with melting +tenderness to my breast, as if some hostile power had been about to tear +them from me. 'Am I to lose thee?' said I to my father. 'O! how wretched +and lonely were I without thee in this world!' They tried to comfort me, +but could not wipe away the dim image from my remembrance. + +"I grew older, still keeping myself apart from other boys of my age. I +often roamed solitary through the fields: and it happened one morning, +in my rambles, that I had lost my way; and so was wandering to and fro +in a thick wood, not knowing whither to turn. After long seeking vainly +for a road, I at last on a sudden came upon an iron-grated fence, within +which lay a garden. Through the bars, I saw fair shady walks before me; +fruit-trees and flowers; and close by me were rose-bushes glittering in +the sun. A nameless longing for these roses seized me; I could not help +rushing on; I pressed myself by force through between the bars, and was +now standing in the garden. Immediately I sank on my knees; clasped the +bushes in my arms; kissed the roses on their red lips, and melted into +tears. I had knelt a while, absorbed in a sort of rapture, when there +came two maidens through the alleys; the one of my own years, the other +elder. I awoke from my trance, to fall into a higher ecstasy. My eye +lighted on the younger, and I felt at this moment as if all my unknown +woe was healed. They took me to the house; their parents, having learned +my name, sent notice to my father, who, in the evening, came himself, +and brought me back. + +"From this day, the uncertain current of my life had got a fixed +direction; my thoughts forever hastened back to the castle and the +maiden; for here, it seemed to me, was the home of all my wishes. I +forgot my customary pleasures, I forsook my playmates, and often +visited the garden, the castle and Emma. Here I had, in a little time, +grown, as it were, an inmate of the house, so that they no longer +thought it strange to see me; and Emma was becoming dearer to me every +day. Thus passed my hours; and a tenderness had taken my heart captive, +though I myself was not aware of it. My whole destination seemed to me +fulfilled; I had no wish but still to come again; and when I went away, +to have the same prospect for the morrow. + +"Matters were in this state, when a young knight became acquainted in +the family; he was a friend of my parents; and he soon, like me, +attached himself to Emma. I hated him, from that moment, as my deadly +enemy; but nothing can describe my feelings, when I fancied I perceived +that Emma liked him more than me. From this hour, it was as if the +music, which had hitherto accompanied me, went silent in my bosom. I +meditated but on death and hatred; wild thoughts now awoke in my breast, +when Emma sang her well-known songs to her lute. Nor did I hide the +aversion which I felt; and when my parents tried to reason and +remonstrate with me, I grew fierce and contradictory. + +"I now roved about the woods and rocky wastes, infuriated against +myself. The death of my rival was a thing I had determined on. The young +knight, after some few months, made a formal offer of himself to the +parents of my mistress, and she was betrothed to him. All that was rare +and beautiful in Nature, all that had charmed me in her magnificence, +had been united in my soul with Emma's image; I fancied, knew or wished +for no other happiness but Emma; nay I had wilfully determined that the +day, which brought the loss of her, should also bring my own +destruction. + +"My parents sorrowed in heart at such perversion; my mother had fallen +sick, but I paid no heed to this; her situation gave me little trouble, +and I saw her seldom. The wedding-day of my enemy was coming on; and +with its approach increased the agony of mind which drove me over woods +and mountains. I execrated Emma and myself with the most horrid curses. +At this time I had no friend; no man would take any charge of me, for +all had given me up for lost. + +"The fearful marriage-eve came on. I had wandered deep among the cliffs, +I heard the rushing of the forest-streams below; I often shuddered at +myself. When the morning came, I saw my enemy proceeding down the +mountains; I assailed him with injurious speeches; he replied; we drew +our swords, and he soon fell beneath my furious strokes. + +"I hastened on, not looking after him, but his attendants took the +corpse away. At night, I hovered round the dwelling which enclosed my +Emma; and a few days afterwards, I heard in the neighbouring cloister +the sound of the funeral-bell, and the grave-song of the nuns. I +inquired; and was told that Fraeulein Emma, out of sorrow for her +bridegroom's death, was dead. + +"I could stay no longer; I doubted whether I was living, whether it was +all truth or not. I hastened back to my parents; and came next night, at +a late hour, to the town where they lived. Here all was in confusion; +horses and military wagons filled the streets, soldiers were jostling +one another this way and that, and speaking in disordered haste: the +Emperor was on the point of undertaking a campaign against his enemies. +A solitary light was burning in my father's house when I entered; a +strangling oppression lay upon my breast. As I knocked, my father +himself, with slow, thoughtful steps, advanced to meet me; and +immediately I recollected the old dream of my childhood; and felt, with +cutting emotion, that now it was receiving its fulfilment. In +perplexity, I asked: 'Why are you up so late, Father?' He led me in, and +said: 'I may well be up, for thy mother is even now dead.' + +"His words struck through my soul like thunderbolts. He took a seat with +a meditative air; I sat down beside him. The corpse was lying in a bed, +and strangely wound in linen. My heart was like to burst. 'I wake here,' +said the old man, 'for my wife is still sitting by me.' My senses +failed; I fixed my eyes upon a corner; and, after a little while, there +rose, as it were, a vapour; it mounted and wavered; and the well-known +figure of my mother gathered itself visibly together from the midst of +it, and looked at me with an earnest mien. I wished to go, but I could +not; for the form of my mother beckoned to me, and my father held me in +his arms, and whispered to me, in a low voice: 'She died of grief for +thee.' I embraced him with a childlike transport of affection; I poured +burning tears on his breast. He kissed me; and I shuddered; for his +lips, as they touched me, were cold, like the lips of one dead. 'How art +thou, Father?' cried I, in horror. He writhed painfully together, and +made no reply. In a few moments, I felt him growing colder; I laid my +hand on his heart, but it was still; and, in wailing delirium, I held +the body fast clasped in my embrace. + +"As it were a gleam, like the first streak of dawn, went through the +dark room; and behold, the spirit of my father sat beside my mother's +form; and both looked at me compassionately, as I held the dear corpse +in my arms. After this my consciousness was over: exhausted and +delirious, the servants found me next morning in the chamber of the +dead." + +So far the Tannenhaeuser had proceeded with his narrative: Friedrich was +listening to him with the deepest astonishment, when all on a sudden he +broke off, and paused with an expression of the keenest pain. Friedrich +felt embarrassed and immersed in thought; they both returned in company +to the Castle, but stayed in the same room apart from others. + +The Tannenhaeuser had kept silence for a while, then he again began: "The +remembrance of those hours still agitates me deeply; I understand not +how I have survived them. The world, and its life, now appeared to me as +if dead and utterly desolate; without thoughts or wishes I lived on from +day to day. I then became acquainted with a set of wild young people; +and endeavoured, in the whirl of pleasure and intoxication, to lay the +tumultuous Evil Spirit that was in me. My ancient burning impatience +again awoke; and I could no longer understand myself or my wishes. A +debauchee, named Rudolf, had become my confidant; he, however, always +laughed to scorn my longings and complaints. About a year had passed in +this way, when my misery of spirit rose to desperation; there was +something drove me onwards, onwards, into unknown space; I could have +dashed myself down from the high mountains into the glowing green of the +meadows, into the cool rushing of the waters, to slake the burning +thirst, to stay the insatiability of my soul: I longed for annihilation; +and again, like golden morning clouds, did hope and love of life arise +before me, and entice me on. The thought then struck me, that Hell was +hungering for me, and was sending me my sorrows as well as my pleasures +to destroy me; that some malignant Spirit was directing all the powers +of my soul to the Infernal Abode; and leading me, as with a bridle, to +my doom. And I surrendered to him; that so these torments, these +alternating raptures and agonies, might leave me. In the darkest night, +I mounted a lofty hill; and called on the Enemy of God and man, with all +the energies of my heart, so that I felt he would be forced to hear me. +My words brought him: he stood suddenly before me, and I felt no horror. +Then in talking with him, the belief in that strange Hill again rose +within me; and he taught me a Song, which of itself would lead me by the +straight road thither. He disappeared, and for the first time since I +had begun to live, I was alone with myself; for I now understood my +wandering thoughts, which rushed as from a centre to find out another +world. I set forth on my journey; and the Song, which I sang with a loud +voice, led me over strange deserts; but all other things besides myself +I had forgotten. There was something carrying me, as on the strong wings +of desire, to my home: I wished to escape the shadow which, amid the +sunshine, threatens us; the wild tones which, amid the softest music, +chide us. So travelling on, I reached the Mountain, one night when the +moon was shining faintly from behind dim clouds. I proceeded with my +Song; and a giant form stood by me, and beckoned me back with his staff. +I went nearer: 'I am the Trusty Eckart,' said the superhuman figure; 'by +God's goodness, I am placed here as watchman, to warn men back from +their sinful rashness.'--I pressed through. + +"My path was now as in a subterraneous mine. The passage was so narrow, +that I had to press myself along; I caught the gurgling of hidden +waters; I heard spirits forming ore, and gold and silver, to entice the +soul of man; I found here concealed and separate the deep sounds and +tones from which earthly music springs: the farther I went, the more did +there fall, as it were, a veil from my sight. + +"I rested, and saw other forms of men come gliding towards me; my friend +Rudolf was among the number. I could not understand how they were to +pass me, so narrow was the way; but they went along, through the middle +of the rock, without perceiving me. + +"Anon I heard the sound of music; but music altogether different from +any that had ever struck my ear before. My thoughts within me strove +towards the notes: I came into an open space; and strange radiant +colours glittered on me from every side. This it was that I had always +been in search of. Close to my heart I felt the presence of the +long-sought, now-discovered glory; and its ravishments thrilled into me +with all their power. And then the whole crowd of jocund Pagan gods came +forth to meet me, Lady Venus at their head, and all saluted me. They +have been banished thither by the power of the Almighty; their worship +is abolished from the Earth; and now they work upon us from their +concealment. + +"All pleasures that Earth affords I here possessed and partook of in +their fullest bloom; insatiable was my heart, and endless my enjoyment. +The famed Beauties of the ancient world were present; what my thought +coveted was mine; one delirium of rapture was followed by another; and +day after day, the world appeared to burn round me in more glorious +hues. Streams of the richest wine allayed my fierce thirst; and +beauteous forms sported in the air, and soft eyes invited me; vapours +rose enchanting around my head: as if from the inmost heart of blissful +Nature, came a music and cooled with its fresh waves the wild tumult of +desire; and a horror, that glided faint and secret over the rose-fields, +heightened the delicious revel. How many years passed over me in this +abode I know not: for here there was no time and no distinctions; the +flowers here glowed with the charms of women; and in the forms of the +women bloomed the magic of flowers; colours here had another language; +the whole world of sense was bound together into one blossom, and the +spirits within it forever held their rejoicing. + +"Now, how it happened, I can neither say nor comprehend; but so it was, +that in all this pomp of sin, a love of rest, a longing for the old +innocent Earth, with her scanty joys, took hold of me here, as keenly as +of old the impulse which had driven me hither. I was again drawn on to +live that life which men, in their unconsciousness, go on leading: I was +sated with this splendour, and gladly sought my former home once more. +An unspeakable grace of the Almighty permitted my return; I found myself +suddenly again in the world; and now it is my intention to pour out my +guilty breast before the chair of our Holy Father in Rome; that so he +may forgive me, and I may again be reckoned among men." + +The Tannenhaeuser ceased; and Friedrich long viewed him with an +investigating look, then took his hand, and said: "I cannot yet recover +from my wonder, nor can I understand thy narrative; for it is impossible +that all thou hast told me can be aught but an imagination. Emma still +lives, she is my wife; thou and I never quarrelled, or hated one +another, as thou thinkest: yet before our marriage, thou wert gone on a +sudden from the neighbourhood; nor didst thou ever tell me, by a single +hint, that Emma was dear to thee." + +Hereupon he took the bewildered Tannenhaeuser by the hand, and led him +into another room to his wife, who had just then returned from a visit +to her sister, which had kept her for the last few days from home. The +Tannenhaeuser spoke not, and seemed immersed in thought; he viewed in +silence the form and face of the lady, then shook his head, and said: +"By Heaven, that is the strangest incident of all!" + +Friedrich, with precision and connectedness, related all that had +befallen him since that time; and tried to make his friend perceive that +it had been some singular madness which had, in the mean while, harassed +him. "I know very well how it stands," exclaimed the Tannenhaeuser. "It +is now that I am crazy; and Hell has cast this juggling show before me, +that I may not go to Rome, and seek the pardon of my sins." + +Emma tried to bring his childhood to his recollection; but the +Tannenhaeuser would not be persuaded. He speedily set out on his journey; +that he might the sooner get his absolution from the Pope. + +Friedrich and Emma often spoke of the mysterious pilgrim. Some months +had gone by, when the Tannenhaeuser, pale and wasted, in a tattered +pilgrim's dress, and barefoot, one morning entered Friedrich's chamber, +while the latter was in bed asleep. He kissed his lips, and then said, +in breathless haste: "The Holy Father cannot, and will not, forgive me; +I must back to my old dwelling." And with this he went hurriedly away. + +Friedrich roused himself; but the ill-fated pilgrim was already gone. He +went to his lady's room; and her maids rushed out to meet him, crying +that the Tannenhaeuser had pressed into the apartment early in the +morning, with the words: "She shall not obstruct me in my course!"--Emma +was lying murdered. + +Friedrich had not yet recalled his thoughts, when a horror came over +him: he could not rest; he ran into the open air. They wished to keep +him back; but he told them that the pilgrim had kissed his lips, and +that the kiss was burning him till he found the man again. And so, with +inconceivable rapidity, he ran away to seek the Tannenhaeuser, and the +mysterious Hill; and, since that day, he was never seen any more. People +say, that whoever gets a kiss from any emissary of the Hill, is +thenceforth unable to withstand the lure that draws him with magic force +into the subterraneous chasm. + + + + +THE RUNENBERG. + + +A young hunter was sitting in the heart of the Mountains, in a +thoughtful mood, beside his fowling-floor, while the noise of the waters +and the woods was sounding through the solitude. He was musing on his +destiny; how he was so young, and had forsaken his father and mother, +and accustomed home, and all his comrades in his native village, to seek +out new acquaintances, to escape from the circle of returning habitude; +and he looked up with a sort of surprise that he was here, that he found +himself in this valley, in this employment. Great clouds were passing +over him, and sinking behind the mountains; birds were singing from the +bushes, and an echo was replying to them. He slowly descended the hill; +and seated himself on the margin of a brook, that was gushing down among +the rocks with foamy murmur. He listened to the fitful melody of the +water; and it seemed to him as if the waves were saying to him, in +unintelligible words, a thousand things that concerned him nearly; and +he felt an inward trouble that he could not understand their speeches. +Then again he looked aloft, and thought that he was glad and happy; so +he took new heart, and sang aloud this hunting-song: + + Blithe and cheery through the mountains + Goes the huntsman to the chase, + By the lonesome shady fountains, + Till he finds the red-deer's trace. + + Hark! his trusty dogs are baying + Through the bright-green solitude; + Through the groves the horns are playing: + O, thou merry gay green wood! + + In some dell, when luck hath blest him, + And his shot hath stretch'd the deer, + Lies he down, content, to rest him, + While the brooks are murmuring clear. + + Leave the husbandman his sowing, + Let the shipman sail the sea; + None, when bright the morn is glowing, + Sees its red so fair as he, + + Wood and wold and game that prizes, + While Diana loves his art; + And, at last, some bright face rises: + Happy huntsman that thou art! + +Whilst he sung, the sun had sunk deeper, and broad shadows fell across +the narrow glen. A cooling twilight glided over the ground; and now only +the tops of the trees, and the round summits of the mountains, were +gilded by the glow of evening. Christian's heart grew sadder and sadder: +he could not think of going back to his birdfold, and yet he could not +stay; he felt himself alone, and longed to meet with men. He now +remembered with regret those old books, which he used to see at home, +and would never read, often as his father had advised him to it: the +habitation of his childhood came before him, his sports with the youth +of the village, his acquaintances among the children, the school that +had afflicted him so much; and he wished he were again amid these +scenes, which he had wilfully forsaken, to seek his fortune in unknown +regions, in the mountains, among strange people, in a new employment. +Meanwhile it grew darker; and the brook rushed louder; and the birds of +night began to shoot, with fitful wing, along their mazy courses. +Christian still sat disconsolate, and immersed in sad reflection; he was +like to weep, and altogether undecided what to do or purpose. +Unthinkingly, he pulled a straggling root from the earth; and on the +instant, heard, with affright, a stifled moan underground, which winded +downwards in doleful tones, and died plaintively away in the deep +distance. The sound went through his inmost heart; it seized him as if +he had unwittingly touched the wound, of which the dying frame of Nature +was expiring in its agony. He started up to fly; for he had already +heard of the mysterious mandrake-root, which, when torn, yields such +heart-rending moans, that the person who has hurt it runs distracted by +its wailing. As he turned to go, a stranger man was standing at his +back, who looked at him with a friendly countenance, and asked him +whither he was going. Christian had been longing for society, and yet he +started in alarm at this friendly presence. + +"Whither so fast?" said the stranger again. + +The young hunter made an effort to collect himself, and told how all at +once the solitude had seemed so frightful to him, he had meant to get +away; the evening was so dark, the green shades of the wood so dreary, +the brook seemed uttering lamentations, and his longing drew him over to +the other side of the hills. + +"You are but young," said the stranger, "and cannot yet endure the +rigour of solitude: I will accompany you, for you will find no house or +hamlet within a league of this; and in the way we may talk, and tell +each other tales, and so your sad thoughts will leave you: in an hour +the moon will rise behind the hills; its light also will help to chase +away the darkness of your mind." + +They went along, and the stranger soon appeared to Christian as if he +had been an old acquaintance. "Who are you?" said the man; "by your +speech I hear that you belong not to this part." + +"Ah!" replied the other, "upon this I could say much, and yet it is not +worth the telling you, or talking of. There was something dragged me, +with a foreign force, from the circle of my parents and relations; my +spirit was not master of itself: like a bird which is taken in a net, +and struggles to no purpose, so my soul was meshed in strange +imaginations and desires. We dwelt far hence, in a plain, where all +round you could see no hill, scarce even a height: few trees adorned the +green level; but meadows, fertile corn-fields, gardens stretched away as +far as the eye could reach; and a broad river glittered like a potent +spirit through the midst of them. My father was gardener to a nobleman, +and meant to breed me to the same employment. He delighted in plants and +flowers beyond aught else, and could unweariedly pass day by day in +watching them and tending them. Nay he went so far as to maintain, that +he could almost speak with them; that he got knowledge from their growth +and spreading, as well as from the varied form and colour of their +leaves. To me, however, gardening was a tiresome occupation; and the +more so as my father kept persuading me to take it up, or even attempted +to compel me to it with threats. I wished to be a fisherman, and tried +that business for a time; but a life on the waters would not suit me: I +was then apprenticed to a tradesman in the town; but soon came home from +this employment also. My father happened to be talking of the Mountains, +which he had travelled over in his youth; of the subterranean mines and +their workmen; of hunters and their occupation; and that instant there +arose in me the most decided wish, the feeling that at last I had found +out the way of life which would entirely fit me. Day and night I +meditated on the matter; representing to myself high mountains, chasms +and pine-forests; my imagination shaped wild rocks; I heard the tumult +of the chase, the horns, the cry of the hounds and the game; all my +dreams were filled with these things, and they left me neither peace nor +rest any more. The plain, our patron's castle, and my father's little +hampered garden, with its trimmed flower-beds; our narrow dwelling; the +wide sky which stretched above us in its dreary vastness, embracing no +hill, no lofty mountain, all became more dull and odious to me. It +seemed as if the people about me were living in most lamentable +ignorance; that every one of them would think and long as I did, should +the feeling of their wretchedness but once arise within their souls. +Thus did I bait my heart with restless fancies; till one morning I +resolved on leaving my father's house directly and forever. In a book I +had found some notice of the nearest mountains, some charts of the +neighbouring districts, and by them I shaped my course. It was early in +spring, and I felt myself cheerful, and altogether light of heart. I +hastened on, to get away the faster from the level country; and one +evening, in the distance, I descried the dim outline of the Mountains, +lying on the sky before me. I could scarcely sleep in my inn, so +impatient did I feel to have my foot upon the region which I regarded as +my home: with the earliest dawn I was awake, and again in motion. By the +afternoon, I had got among my beloved hills; and here, as if +intoxicated, I went on, then stopped a while, looked back; and drank, as +in inspiring draughts, the aspect of these foreign yet well-known +objects. Ere long, the plain was out of sight; the forest-streams were +rushing down to meet me; the oaks and beeches sounded to me from their +steep precipices with wavering boughs; my path led me by the edge of +dizzy abysses; blue hills were standing vast and solemn in the distance. +A new world was opened to me; I was never weary. Thus, after some days, +having roamed over great part of the Mountains, I reached the dwelling +of an old forester, who consented, at my urgent request, to take me in, +and instruct me in the business of the chase. It is now three months +since I entered his service. I took possession of the district where I +was to live, as of my kingdom. I got acquainted with every cliff and +dell among the mountains; in my occupation, when at dawn of day we moved +to the forest, when felling trees in the wood, when practising my +fowling-piece, or training my trusty attendants, our dogs, to do their +feats, I felt completely happy. But for the last eight days I have +stayed up here at the fowling-floor, in the loneliest quarter of the +hills; and tonight I grew so sad as I never was in my life before; I +seemed so lost, so utterly unhappy; and even yet I cannot shake aside +that melancholy humour." + +The stranger had listened with attention, while they both wandered on +through a dark alley of the wood. They now came out into the open +country, and the light of the moon, which was standing with its horns +over the summit of the hill, saluted them like a friend. In +undistinguishable forms, and many separated masses, which the pale gleam +again perplexingly combined, lay the cleft mountain-range before them; +in the background a steep hill, on the top of which an antique weathered +ruin rose ghastly in the white light. "Our roads part here," said the +stranger; "I am going down into this hollow; there, by that old +mine-shaft, is my dwelling: the metal ores are my neighbours; the +mine-streams tell me wonders in the night; thither thou canst not follow +me. But look, there stands the Runenberg, with its wild ragged walls; +how beautiful and alluring the grim old rock looks down on us! Wert thou +never there?" + +"Never," said the hunter. "Once I heard my old forester relating strange +stories of that hill, which I, like a fool, have forgotten; only I +remember that my mind that night was full of dread and unearthly +notions. I could like to mount the hill some time; for the colours there +are of the fairest, the grass must be very green, the world around one +very strange; who knows, too, but one might chance to find some curious +relic of the ancient time up there?" + +"You could scarcely fail," replied the stranger; "whoever knows how to +seek, whoever feels his heart drawn towards it with a right inward +longing, will find friends of former ages there, and glorious things, +and all that he wishes most." With these words the stranger rapidly +descended to a side, without bidding his companion farewell; he soon +vanished in the tangles of the thicket, and after some few instants, the +sound of his footsteps also died away. The young hunter did not feel +surprised, he but went on with quicker speed towards the Runenberg: +thither all things seemed to beckon him; the stars were shining towards +it; the moon pointed out as it were a bright road to the ruins; light +clouds rose up to them; and from the depths, the waters and sounding +woods spoke new courage into him. His steps were as if winged; his heart +throbbed; he felt so great a joy within him, that it rose to pain. He +came into places he had never seen before; the rocks grew steeper; the +green disappeared; the bald cliffs called to him, as with angry voices, +and a lone moaning wind drove him on before it. Thus he hurried forward +without pause; and late after midnight he came upon a narrow footpath, +which ran along by the brink of an abyss. He heeded not the depth which +yawned beneath, and threatened to swallow him forever; so keenly was he +driven along by wild imaginations and vague wishes. At last his perilous +track led him close by a high wall, which seemed to lose itself in the +clouds; the path grew narrower every step; and Christian had to cling by +projecting stones to keep himself from rushing down into the gulf. Ere +long, he could get no farther; his path ended underneath a window: he +was obliged to pause, and knew not whether he should turn or stay. +Suddenly he saw a light, which seemed to move within the ruined edifice. +He looked towards the gleam; and found that he could see into an ancient +spacious hall, strangely decorated, and glittering in manifold +splendour, with multitudes of precious stones and crystals, the hues of +which played through each other in mysterious changes, as the light +moved to and fro; and this was in the hand of a stately female, who kept +walking with a thoughtful aspect up and down the apartment. She seemed +of a different race from mortals; so large, so strong was her form, so +earnest her look; yet the enraptured huntsman thought he had never seen +or fancied such surpassing beauty. He trembled, yet secretly wished she +might come near the window and observe him. At last she stopped, set +down the light on a crystal table, looked aloft, and sang with a +piercing voice: + + What can the Ancient keep + That they come not at my call? + The crystal pillars weep, + From the diamonds on the wall + The trickling tear-drops fall; + And within is heard a moan, + A chiding fitful tone: + In these waves of brightness, + Lovely changeful lightness, + Has the Shape been form'd, + By which the soul is charm'd, + And the longing heart is warm'd. + Come, ye Spirits, at my call, + Haste ye to the Golden Hall; + Raise, from your abysses gloomy, + Heads that sparkle; faster + Come, ye Ancient Ones, come to me! + Let your power be master + Of the longing hearts and souls, + Where the flood of passion rolls, + Let your power be master! + +On finishing the song, she began undressing; laying her apparel in a +costly press. First, she took a golden veil from her head; and her long +black hair streamed down in curling fulness over her loins: then she +loosed her bosom-dress; and the youth forgot himself and all the world +in gazing at that more than earthly beauty. He scarcely dared to +breathe, as by degrees she laid aside her other garments: at last she +walked about the chamber naked; and her heavy waving locks formed round +her, as it were, a dark billowy sea, out of which, like marble, the +glancing limbs of her form beamed forth, in alternating splendour. After +a while, she went forward to another golden press; and took from it a +tablet, glittering with many inlaid stones, rubies, diamonds and all +kinds of jewels; and viewed it long with an investigating look. The +tablet seemed to form a strange inexplicable figure, from its individual +lines and colours; sometimes, when the glance of it came towards the +hunter, he was painfully dazzled by it; then, again, soft green and blue +playing over it, refreshed his eye: he stood, however, devouring the +objects with his looks, and at the same time sunk in deep thought. +Within his soul, an abyss of forms and harmony, of longing and +voluptuousness, was opened: hosts of winged tones, and sad and joyful +melodies flew through his spirit, which was moved to its foundations: he +saw a world of Pain and Hope arise within him; strong towering crags of +Trust and defiant Confidence, and deep rivers of Sadness flowing by. He +no longer knew himself: and he started as the fair woman opened the +window; handed him the magic tablet of stones, and spoke these words: +"Take this in memory of me!" He caught the tablet; and felt the figure, +which, unseen, at once went through his inmost heart; and the light, and +the fair woman, and the wondrous hall, had disappeared. As it were, a +dark night, with curtains of cloud, fell down over his soul: he searched +for his former feelings, for that inspiration and unutterable love; he +looked at the precious tablet, and the sinking moon was imaged in it +faint and bluish. + +He had still the tablet firmly grasped in his hands when the morning +dawned; and he, exhausted, giddy and half-asleep, fell headlong down the +precipice.-- + +The sun shone bright on the face of the stupefied sleeper; and, +awakening, he found himself upon a pleasant hill. He looked round, and +saw far behind him, and scarce discernible at the extreme horizon, the +ruins of the Runenberg; he searched for his tablet, and could find it +nowhere. Astonished and perplexed, he tried to gather his thoughts, and +connect together his remembrances; but his memory was as if filled with +a waste haze, in which vague irrecognisable shapes were wildly jostling +to and fro. His whole previous life lay behind him, as in a far +distance; the strangest and the commonest were so mingled, that all his +efforts could not separate them. After long struggling with himself, he +at last concluded that a dream, or sudden madness, had come over him +that night; only he could never understand how he had strayed so far +into a strange and remote quarter. + +Still scarcely waking, he went down the hill; and came upon a beaten +way, which led him out from the mountains into the plain country. All +was strange to him: he at first thought that he would find his old home; +but the country which he saw was quite unknown to him; and at length he +concluded that he must be upon the south side of the Mountains, which, +in spring, he had entered from the north. Towards noon, he perceived a +little town below him: from its cottages a peaceful smoke was mounting +up; children, dressed as for a holiday, were sporting on the green; and +from a small church came the sound of the organ, and the singing of the +congregation. All this laid hold of him with a sweet, inexpressible +sadness; it so moved him, that he was forced to weep. The narrow +gardens, the little huts with their smoking chimneys, the +accurately-parted corn-fields, reminded him of the necessities of poor +human nature; of man's dependence on the friendly Earth, to whose +benignity he must commit himself; while the singing, and the music of +the organ, filled the stranger's heart with a devoutness it had never +felt before. The desires and emotions of the bygone night seemed +reckless and wicked; he wished once more, in childlike meekness, +helplessly and humbly to unite himself to men as to his brethren, and +fly from his ungodly purposes and feelings. The plain, with its little +river, which, in manifold windings, clasped itself about the gardens and +meadows, seemed to him inviting and delightful: he thought with fear of +his abode among the lonely mountains amid waste rocks; he wished that +he could be allowed to live in this peaceful village; and so feeling, he +went into its crowded church. + +The psalm was just over, and the preacher had begun his sermon. It was +on the kindness of God in regard to Harvest; how His goodness feeds and +satisfies all things that live; how marvellously He has, in the fruits +of the Earth, provided support for men; how the love of God incessantly +displays itself in the bread He sends us; and how the humble Christian +may therefore, with a thankful spirit, perpetually celebrate a Holy +Supper. The congregation were affected; the eyes of the hunter rested on +the pious priest, and observed, close by the pulpit, a young maiden, who +appeared beyond all others reverent and attentive. She was slim and +fair; her blue eye gleamed with the most piercing softness; her face was +as if transparent, and blooming in the tenderest colours. The stranger +youth had never been as he now was; so full of charity, so calm, so +abandoned to the stillest, most refreshing feelings. He bowed himself in +tears, when the clergyman pronounced his blessing; he felt these holy +words thrill through him like an unseen power; and the vision of the +night drew back before them to the deepest distance, as a spectre at the +dawn. He issued from the church; stopped beneath a large lime-tree; and +thanked God, in a heartfelt prayer, that He had saved him, sinful and +undeserving, from the nets of the Wicked Spirit. + +The people were engaged in holding harvest-home that day, and every one +was in a cheerful mood; the children, with their gay dresses, were +rejoicing in the prospect of the sweetmeats and the dance; in the +village square, a space encircled with young trees, the youths were +arranging the preparations for their harvest sport; the players were +seated, and essaying their instruments. Christian went into the fields +again, to collect his thoughts and pursue his meditations; and on his +returning to the village, all had joined in mirth, and actual +celebration of their festival. The fair-haired Elizabeth was there, too, +with her parents; and the stranger mingled in the jocund throng. +Elizabeth was dancing; and Christian, in the mean time, had entered into +conversation with her father, a farmer, and one of the richest people in +the village. The man seemed pleased with his youth and way of speech; +so, in a short time, both of them agreed that Christian should remain +with him as gardener. This office Christian could engage with; for he +hoped that now the knowledge and employments, which he had so much +despised at home, would stand him in good stead. + +From this period a new life began for him. He went to live with the +farmer, and was numbered among his family. With his trade, he likewise +changed his garb. He was so good, so helpful and kindly; he stood to his +task so honestly, that ere long every member of the house, especially +the daughter, had a friendly feeling to him. Every Sunday, when he saw +her going to church, he was standing with a fair nosegay ready for +Elizabeth; and then she used to thank him with blushing kindliness: he +felt her absence, on days when he did not chance to see her; and at +night, she would tell him tales and pleasant histories. Day by day they +grew more necessary to each other; and the parents, who observed it, did +not seem to think it wrong; for Christian was the most industrious and +handsomest youth in the village. They themselves had, at first sight, +felt a touch of love and friendship for him. After half a year, +Elizabeth became his wife. Spring was come back; the swallows and the +singing-birds had revisited the land; the garden was standing in its +fairest trim; the marriage was celebrated with abundant mirth; bride and +bridegroom seemed intoxicated with their happiness. Late at night, when +they retired to their chamber, the husband whispered to his wife: "No, +thou art not that form which once charmed me in a dream, and which I +never can entirely forget; but I am happy beside thee, and blessed that +thou art mine." + +How delighted was the family, when, within a year, it became augmented +by a little daughter, who was baptised Leonora. Christian's looks, +indeed, would sometimes take a rather grave expression as he gazed on +the child; but his youthful cheeriness continually returned. He scarcely +ever thought of his former way of life, for he felt himself entirely +domesticated and contented. Yet, some months afterwards, his parents +came into his mind; and he thought how much his father, in particular, +would be rejoiced to see his peaceful happiness, his station as +husbandman and gardener; it grieved him that he should have utterly +forgotten his father and mother for so long a time; his own only child +made known to him the joy which children afford to parents; so at last +he took the resolution to set out, and again revisit home. + +Unwillingly he left his wife; all wished him speed; and the season being +fine, he went off on foot. Already at the distance of a few miles, he +felt how much the parting grieved him; for the first time in his life, +he experienced the pains of separation; the foreign objects seemed to +him almost savage; he felt as if he had been lost in some unfriendly +solitude. Then the thought came on him, that his youth was over; that he +had found a home to which he now belonged, in which his heart had taken +root; he was almost ready to lament the lost levity of younger years; +and his mind was in the saddest mood, when he turned aside into a +village inn to pass the night. He could not understand how he had come +to leave his kind wife, and the parents she had given him; and he felt +dispirited and discontented, when he rose next morning to pursue his +journey. + +His pain increased as he approached the hills: the distant ruins were +already visible, and by degrees grew more distinguishable; many summits +rose defined and clear amid the blue vapour. His step grew timid; +frequently he paused, astonished at his fear; at the horror which, with +every step, fell closer on him. "Madness!" cried he, "I know thee well, +and thy perilous seductions; but I will withstand thee manfully. +Elizabeth is no vain dream; I know that even now she thinks of me, that +she waits for me, and fondly counts the hours of my absence. Do I not +already see forests like black hair before me? Do not the glancing eyes +look to me from the brook? Does not the stately form step towards me +from the mountains?" So saying, he was about to lay himself beneath a +tree, and take some rest; when he perceived an old man seated in the +shade of it, examining a flower with extreme attention; now holding it +to the sun, now shading it with his hands, now counting its leaves; as +if striving in every way to stamp it accurately in his memory. On +approaching nearer, he thought he knew the form; and soon no doubt +remained that the old man with the flower was his father. With an +exclamation of the liveliest joy, he rushed into his arms; the old man +seemed delighted, but not much surprised, at meeting him so suddenly. + +"Art thou with me already, my son?" said he: "I knew that I should find +thee soon, but I did not think such joy had been in store for me this +very day." + +"How did you know, father, that you would meet me?" + +"By this flower," replied the old gardener; "all my days I have had a +wish to see it; but never had I the fortune; for it is very scarce, and +grows only among the mountains. I set out to seek thee, for thy mother +is dead, and the loneliness at home made me sad and heavy. I knew not +whither I should turn my steps; at last I came among the mountains, +dreary as the journey through them had appeared to me. By the road, I +sought for this flower, but could find it nowhere; and now, quite +unexpectedly, I see it here, where the fair plain is lying stretched +before me. From this I knew that I should meet thee soon; and, lo, how +true the fair flower's prophecy has proved!" + +They embraced again, and Christian wept for his mother; but the old man +grasped his hand, and said: "Let us go, that the shadows of the +mountains may be soon out of view; it always makes me sorrowful in the +heart to see these wild steep shapes, these horrid chasms, these +torrents gurgling down into their caverns. Let us get upon the good, +kind, guileless level ground again." + +They went back, and Christian recovered his cheerfulness. He told his +father of his new fortune, of his child and home: his speech made +himself as if intoxicated; and he now, in talking of it, for the first +time truly felt that nothing more was wanting to his happiness. Thus, +amid narrations sad and cheerful, they returned into the village. All +were delighted at the speedy ending of the journey; most of all, +Elizabeth. The old father stayed with them, and joined his little +fortune to their stock; they formed the most contented and united circle +in the world. Their crops were good, their cattle throve; and in a few +years Christian's house was among the wealthiest in the quarter. +Elizabeth had also given him several other children. + +Five years had passed away in this manner, when a stranger halted from +his journey in their village; and took up his lodging in Christian's +house, as being the most respectable the place contained. He was a +friendly, talking man; he told them many stories of his travels; sported +with the children, and made presents to them: in a short time, all were +growing fond of him. He liked the neighbourhood so well, that he +proposed remaining in it for a day or two; but the days grew weeks, and +the weeks months. No one seemed to wonder at his loitering; for all of +them had grown accustomed to regard him as a member of the family. +Christian alone would often sit in a thoughtful mood; for it seemed to +him as if he knew this traveller of old, and yet he could not think of +any time when he had met with him. Three months had passed away, when +the stranger at last took his leave, and said: "My dear friends, a +wondrous destiny, and singular anticipations, drive me to the +neighbouring mountains; a magic image, not to be withstood, allures me: +I leave you now, and I know not whether I shall ever see you any more. I +have a sum of money by me, which in your hands will be safer than in +mine; so I ask you to take charge of it; and if within a year I come not +back, then keep it, and accept my thanks along with it for the kindness +you have shown me." + +So the traveller went his way, and Christian took the money in charge. +He locked it carefully up; and now and then, in the excess of his +anxiety, looked over it; he counted it to see that none was missing, and +in all respects took no little pains with it. "This sum might make us +very happy," said he once to his father; "should the stranger not +return, both we and our children were well provided for." + +"Heed not the gold," said the old man; "not in it can happiness be +found: hitherto, thank God, we have never wanted aught; and do thou put +away such thoughts far from thee." + +Christian often rose in the night to set his servants to their labour, +and look after everything himself: his father was afraid lest this +excessive diligence might harm his youth and health; so one night he +rose to speak with him about remitting such unreasonable efforts; when, +to his astonishment, he found him sitting with a little lamp at his +table, and counting, with the greatest eagerness, the stranger's gold. +"My son," said the old man, full of sadness, "must it come to this with +thee? Was this accursed metal brought beneath our roof to make us +wretched? Bethink thee, my son, or the Evil One will consume thy blood +and life out of thee." + +"Yes," replied he; "it is true, I know myself no more; neither day nor +night does it give me any rest: see how it looks on me even now, till +the red glance of it goes into my very heart! Hark how it clinks, this +golden stuff! It calls me when I sleep; I hear it when music sounds, +when the wind blows, when people speak together on the street; if the +sun shines, I see nothing but these yellow eyes, with which it beckons +to me, as it were, to whisper words of love into my ear: and therefore I +am forced to rise in the night-time, though it were but to satisfy its +eagerness; and then I feel it triumphing and inwardly rejoicing when I +touch it with my fingers; in its joy it grows still redder and lordlier. +Do but look yourself at the glow of its rapture!" The old man, +shuddering and weeping, took his son in his arms; he said a prayer, and +then spoke: "Christel, thou must turn again to the Word of God; thou +must go more zealously and reverently to church, or else, alas! my poor +child, thou wilt droop and die away in the most mournful wretchedness." + +The money was again locked up; Christian promised to take thought and +change his conduct, and the old man was composed. A year and more had +passed, and no tidings had been heard of the stranger: the old man at +last gave in to the entreaties of his son; and the money was laid out in +land, and other property. The young farmer's riches soon became the talk +of the village; and Christian seemed contented and comfortable, and his +father felt delighted at beholding him so well and cheerful; all fear +had now vanished from his mind. What then must have been his +consternation, when Elizabeth one evening took him aside; and told him, +with tears, that she could no longer understand her husband; how he +spoke so wildly, especially at night; how he dreamed strange dreams, and +would often in his sleep walk long about the room, not knowing it; how +he spoke strange things to her, at which she often shuddered. But what +terrified her most, she said, was his pleasantry by day; for his laugh +was wild and hollow, his look wandering and strange. The father stood +amazed, and the sorrowing wife proceeded: "He is always talking of the +traveller, and maintaining that he knew him formerly, and that the +stranger man was in truth a woman of unearthly beauty; nor will he go +any more into the fields or the garden to work, for he says he hears +underneath the ground a fearful moaning when he but pulls out a root; he +starts and seems to feel a horror at all plants and herbs." + +"Good God!" exclaimed the father, "is the frightful hunger in him grown +so rooted and strong, that it is come to this? Then is his spell-bound +heart no longer human, but of cold metal; he who does not love a flower, +has lost all love and fear of God." + +Next day the old man went to walk with his son, and told him much of +what Elizabeth had said; calling on him to be pious, and devote his soul +to holy contemplations. "Willingly, my father," answered Christian; "and +I often do so with success, and all is well with me: for long periods of +time, for years, I can forget the true form of my inward man, and lead a +life that is foreign to me, as it were, with cheerfulness: but then on a +sudden, like a new moon, the ruling star, which I myself am, arises +again in my heart, and conquers this other influence. I might be +altogether happy; but once, in a mysterious night, a secret sign was +imprinted through my hand deep on my soul; frequently the magic figure +sleeps and is at rest; I imagine it has passed away; but in a moment, +like a poison, it darts up and lives over all its lineaments. And then I +can think or feel nothing else but it; and all around me is transformed, +or rather swallowed up, by this subduing shape. As the rabid man recoils +at the sight of water, and the poison in him grows more fell; so too it +is with me at the sight of any cornered figure, any line, any gleam of +brightness; anything will then rouse the form that dwells in me, and +make it start into being; and my soul and body feel the throes of birth; +for as my mind received it by a feeling from without, she strives in +agony and bitter labour to work it forth again into an outward feeling, +that she may be rid of it, and at rest." + +"It was an evil star that took thee from us to the Mountains," said the +old man; "thou wert born for calm life, thy mind inclined to peace and +the love of plants; then thy impatience hurried thee away to the company +of savage stones: the crags, the torn cliffs, with their jagged shapes, +have overturned thy soul, and planted in thee the wasting hunger for +metals. Thou shouldst still have been on thy guard, and kept thyself +away from the view of mountains; so I meant to bring thee up, but it has +not so been to be. Thy humility, thy peace, thy childlike feeling, have +been thrust away by scorn, boisterousness and caprice." + +"No," said the son; "I remember well that it was a plant which first +made known to me the misery of the Earth; never, till then, did I +understand the sighs and lamentations one may hear on every side, +throughout the whole of Nature, if one but give ear to them. In plants +and herbs, in trees and flowers, it is the painful writhing of one +universal wound that moves and works; they are the corpse of foregone +glorious worlds of rock, they offer to our eye a horrid universe of +putrefaction. I now see clearly it was this, which the root with its +deep-drawn sigh was saying to me; in its sorrow it forgot itself, and +told me all. It is because of this that all green shrubs are so enraged +at me, and lie in wait for my life; they wish to obliterate that lovely +figure in my heart; and every spring, with their distorted deathlike +looks, they try to win my soul. Truly it is piteous to consider how they +have betrayed and cozened thee, old man; for they have gained complete +possession of thy spirit. Do but question the rocks, and thou wilt be +amazed when thou shalt hear them speak." + +The father looked at him a long while, and could answer nothing. They +went home again in silence, and the old man was as frightened as +Elizabeth at Christian's mirth; for it seemed a thing quite foreign; and +as if another being from within were working out of him, awkwardly and +ineffectually, as out of some machine. + +The harvest-home was once more to be held; the people went to church, +and Elizabeth, with her little ones, set out to join the service; her +husband also seemed intending to accompany them, but at the threshold of +the church he turned aside; and with an air of deep thought, walked out +of the village. He set himself on the height, and again looked over upon +the smoking cottages; he heard the music of the psalm and organ coming +from the little church; children, in holiday dresses, were dancing and +sporting on the green. "How have I lost my life as in a dream!" said he +to himself: "years have passed away since I went down this hill to the +merry children; they who were then sportful on the green, are now +serious in the church; I also once went into it, but Elizabeth is now no +more a blooming childlike maiden; her youth is gone; I cannot seek for +the glance of her eyes with the longing of those days; I have wilfully +neglected a high eternal happiness, to win one which is finite and +transitory." + +With a heart full of wild desire, he walked to the neighbouring wood, +and immersed himself in its thickest shades. A ghastly silence +encompassed him; no breath of air was stirring in the leaves. Meanwhile +he saw a man approaching him from a distance, whom he recognised for the +stranger; he started in affright, and his first thought was, that the +man would ask him for his money. But as the form came nearer, he +perceived how greatly he had been mistaken; for the features, which he +had imagined known to him, melted into one another; an old woman of the +utmost hideousness approached; she was clad in dirty rags; a tattered +clout bound up her few gray hairs; she was limping on a crutch. With a +dreadful voice she spoke to him, and asked his name and situation; he +replied to both inquiries, and then said, "But who art thou?" + +"I am called the Woodwoman," answered she; "and every child can tell of +me. Didst thou never see me before?" With the last words she whirled +about, and Christian thought he recognised among the trees the golden +veil, the lofty gait, the large stately form which he had once beheld +of old. He turned to hasten after her, but nowhere was she to be seen. + +Meanwhile something glittered in the grass, and drew his eye to it. He +picked it up; it was the magic tablet with the coloured jewels, and the +wondrous figure, which he had lost so many years before. The shape and +the changeful gleams struck over all his senses with an instantaneous +power. He grasped it firmly, to convince himself that it was really once +more in his hands, and then hastened back with it to the village. His +father met him. "See," cried Christian, "the thing which I was telling +you about so often, which I thought must have been shown to me only in a +dream, is now sure and true." + +The old man looked a long while at the tablet, and then said: "My son, I +am struck with horror in my heart when I view these stones, and dimly +guess the meaning of the words on them. Look here, how cold they +glitter, what cruel looks they cast from them, bloodthirsty, like the +red eye of the tiger! Cast this writing from thee, which makes thee cold +and cruel, which will turn thy heart to stone: + + See the flowers, when morn is beaming, + Waken in their dewy place; + And, like children roused from dreaming, + Smiling look thee in the face. + + By degrees, that way and this, + To the golden Sun they're turning, + Till they meet his glowing kiss, + And their hearts with love are burning: + + For, with fond and sad desire, + In their lover's looks to languish, + On his melting kisses to expire, + And to die of love's sweet anguish: + + This is what they joy in most; + To depart in fondest weakness; + In their lover's being lost, + Faded stand in silent meekness. + + Then they pour away the treasure + Of their perfumes, their soft souls, + And the air grows drunk with pleasure, + As in wanton floods it rolls. + + Love comes to us here below, + Discord harsh away removing; + And the heart cries: Now I know + Sadness, Fondness, Pain of Loving." + +"What wonderful incalculable treasures," said the other, "must there +still be in the depths of the Earth! Could one but sound into their +secret beds and raise them up, and snatch them to one's-self! Could one +but clasp this Earth like a beloved bride to one's bosom, so that in +pain and love she would willingly grant one her costliest riches! The +Woodwoman has called me; I go to seek for her. Near by is an old ruined +shaft, which some miner has hollowed out many centuries ago; perhaps I +shall find her there!" + +He hastened off. In vain did the old man strive to detain him; in a few +moments Christian had vanished from his sight. Some hours afterwards, +the father, with a strong effort, reached the ruined shaft: he saw +footprints in the sand at the entrance, and returned in tears; persuaded +that his son, in a state of madness, had gone in and been drowned in the +old collected waters and horrid caves of the mine. + +From that day his heart seemed broken, and he was incessantly in tears. +The whole neighbourhood deplored the fortune of the young farmer. +Elizabeth was inconsolable, the children lamented aloud. In half a year +the aged gardener died; the parents of Elizabeth soon followed him; and +she was forced herself to take charge of everything. Her multiplied +engagements helped a little to withdraw her from her sorrow; the +education of her children, and the management of so much property, left +little time for mourning. After two years, she determined on a new +marriage; she bestowed her hand on a young light-hearted man, who had +loved her from his youth. But, ere long, everything in their +establishment assumed another form. The cattle died; men and maid +servants proved dishonest; barns full of grain were burnt; people in the +town who owed them sums of money, fled and made no payment. In a little +while, the landlord found himself obliged to sell some fields and +meadows; but a mildew, and a year of scarcity, brought new +embarrassments. It seemed as if the gold, so strangely acquired, were +taking speedy flight in all directions. Meanwhile the family was on the +increase; and Elizabeth, as well as her husband, grew reckless and +sluggish in this scene of despair: he fled for consolation to the +bottle, he was often drunk, and therefore quarrelsome and sullen; so +that frequently Elizabeth bewailed her state with bitter tears. As their +fortune declined, their friends in the village stood aloof from them +more and more; so that after some few years they saw themselves +entirely forsaken, and were forced to struggle on, in penury and +straits, from week to week. + +They had nothing but a cow and a few sheep left them; these Elizabeth +herself, with her children, often tended at their grass. She was sitting +one day with her work in the field, Leonora at her side, and a sucking +child on her breast, when they saw from afar a strange-looking shape +approaching towards them. It was a man with a garment all in tatters, +barefoot, sunburnt to a black-brown colour in the face, deformed still +farther by a long matted beard: he wore no covering on his head; but had +twisted a garland of green branches through his hair, which made his +wild appearance still more strange and haggard. On his back he bore some +heavy burden in a sack, very carefully tied, and as he walked he leaned +upon a young fir. + +On coming nearer, he put down his load, and drew deep draughts of +breath. He bade Elizabeth good-day; she shuddered at the sight of him, +the girl crouched close to her mother. Having rested for a little while, +he said: "I am getting back from a very hard journey among the wildest +mountains of the Earth; but to pay me for it, I have brought along with +me the richest treasures which imagination can conceive, or heart +desire. Look here, and wonder!" Thereupon he loosed his sack, and shook +it empty: it was full of gravel, among which were to be seen large bits +of chuck-stone, and other pebbles. "These jewels," he continued, "are +not ground and polished yet, so they want the glance and the eye; the +outward fire, with its glitter, is too deeply buried in their inmost +heart; yet you have but to strike it out and frighten them, and show +that no deceit will serve, and then you see what sort of stuff they +are." So saying, he took a piece of flinty stone, and struck it hard +against another, till they gave red sparks between them. "Did you see +the glance?" cried he. "Ay, they are all fire and light; they illuminate +the darkness with their laugh, though as yet it is against their will." +With this he carefully repacked his pebbles in the bag, and tied it hard +and fast. "I know thee very well," said he then, with a saddened tone; +"thou art Elizabeth." The woman started. + +"How comest thou to know my name?" cried she, with a forecasting +shudder. + +"Ah, good God!" said the unhappy creature, "I am Christian, he that was +a hunter: dost thou not know me, then?" + +She knew not, in her horror and deepest compassion, what to say. He +fell upon her neck and kissed her. Elizabeth exclaimed: "O Heaven! my +husband is coming!" + +"Be at thy ease," said he; "I am as good as dead to thee: in the forest, +there, my fair one waits for me; she that is tall and stately, with the +black hair and the golden veil. This is my dearest child, Leonora. Come +hither, darling: come, my pretty child; and give me a kiss, too; one +kiss, that I may feel thy mouth upon my lips once again, and then I +leave you." + +Leonora wept; she clasped close to her mother, who, in sobs and tears, +half held her towards the wanderer, while he half drew her towards him, +took her in his arms, and pressed her to his breast. Then he went away +in silence, and in the wood they saw him speaking with the hideous +Woodwoman. + +"What ails you?" said the husband, as he found mother and daughter pale +and melting in tears. Neither of them answered. + +The ill-fated creature was never seen again from that day. + + + + +THE ELVES. + + +"Where is our little Mary?" said the father. + +"She is playing out upon the green there with our neighbour's boy," +replied the mother. + +"I wish they may not run away and lose themselves," said he; "they are +so thoughtless." + +The mother looked for the little ones, and brought them their evening +luncheon. "It is warm," said the boy; "and Mary had a longing for the +red cherries." + +"Have a care, children," said the mother, "and do not run too far from +home, and not into the wood; Father and I are going to the fields." + +Little Andres answered: "Never fear, the wood frightens us; we shall sit +here by the house, where there are people near us." + +The mother went in, and soon came out again with her husband. They +locked the door, and turned towards the fields to look after their +labourers, and see their hay-harvest in the meadow. Their house lay upon +a little green height, encircled by a pretty ring of paling, which +likewise enclosed their fruit and flower garden. The hamlet stretched +somewhat deeper down, and on the other side lay the castle of the Count. +Martin rented the large farm from this nobleman; and was living in +contentment with his wife and only child; for he yearly saved some +money, and had the prospect of becoming a man of substance by his +industry, for the ground was productive, and the Count not illiberal. + +As he walked with his wife to the fields, he gazed cheerfully round, +and said: "What a different look this quarter has, Brigitta, from the +place we lived in formerly! Here it is all so green; the whole village +is bedecked with thick-spreading fruit-trees; the ground is full of +beautiful herbs and flowers; all the houses are cheerful and cleanly, +the inhabitants are at their ease: nay I could almost fancy that the +woods are greener here than elsewhere, and the sky bluer; and, so far as +the eye can reach, you have pleasure and delight in beholding the +bountiful Earth." + +"And whenever you cross the stream," said Brigitta, "you are, as it +were, in another world, all is so dreary and withered; but every +traveller declares that our village is the fairest in the country far +and near." + +"All but that fir-ground," said her husband; "do but look back to it, +how dark and dismal that solitary spot is lying in the gay scene: the +dingy fir-trees with the smoky huts behind them, the ruined stalls, the +brook flowing past with a sluggish melancholy." + +"It is true," replied Brigitta; "if you but approach that spot, you grow +disconsolate and sad, you know not why. What sort of people can they be +that live there, and keep themselves so separate from the rest of us, as +if they had an evil conscience?" + +"A miserable crew," replied the young Farmer: "gipsies, seemingly, that +steal and cheat in other quarters, and have their hoard and hiding-place +here. I wonder only that his Lordship suffers them." + +"Who knows," said the wife, with an accent of pity, "but perhaps they +may be poor people, wishing, out of shame, to conceal their poverty; +for, after all, no one can say aught ill of them; the only thing is, +that they do not go to church, and none knows how they live; for the +little garden, which indeed seems altogether waste, cannot possibly +support them; and fields they have none." + +"God knows," said Martin, as they went along, "what trade they follow; +no mortal comes to them; for the place they live in is as if bewitched +and excommunicated, so that even our wildest fellows will not venture +into it." + +Such conversation they pursued, while walking to the fields. That gloomy +spot they spoke of lay aside from the hamlet. In a dell, begirt with +firs, you might behold a hut, and various ruined office-houses; rarely +was smoke seen to mount from it, still more rarely did men appear +there; though at times curious people, venturing somewhat nearer, had +perceived upon the bench before the hut, some hideous women, in ragged +clothes, dandling in their arms some children equally dirty and +ill-favoured; black dogs were running up and down upon the boundary; +and, of an evening, a man of monstrous size was seen to cross the +footbridge of the brook, and disappear in the hut; and, in the darkness, +various shapes were observed, moving like shadows round a fire in the +open air. This piece of ground, the firs and the ruined huts, formed in +truth a strange contrast with the bright green landscape, the white +houses of the hamlet, and the stately new-built castle. + +The two little ones had now eaten their fruit; it came into their heads +to run races; and the little nimble Mary always got the start of the +less active Andres. "It is not fair," cried Andres at last: "let us try +it for some length, then we shall see who wins." + +"As thou wilt," said Mary; "only to the brook we must not run." + +"No," said Andres; "but there, on the hill, stands the large pear-tree, +a quarter of a mile from this. I shall run by the left, round past the +fir-ground; thou canst try it by the right over the fields; so we do not +meet till we get up, and then we shall see which of us is swifter." + +"Done," cried Mary, and began to run; "for we shall not mar one another +by the way, and my father says it is as far to the hill by that side of +the Gipsies' house as by this." + +Andres had already started, and Mary, turning to the right, could no +longer see him. "It is very silly," said she to herself: "I have only to +take heart, and run along the bridge, past the hut, and through the +yard, and I shall certainly be first." She was already standing by the +brook and the clump of firs. "Shall I? No; it is too frightful," said +she. A little white dog was standing on the farther side, and barking +with might and main. In her terror, Mary thought the dog some monster, +and sprang back. "Fy! fy!" said she: "the dolt is gone half way by this +time, while I stand here considering." The little dog kept barking, and, +as she looked at it more narrowly, it seemed no longer frightful, but, +on the contrary, quite pretty: it had a red collar round its neck, with +a glittering bell; and as it raised its head, and shook itself in +barking, the little bell sounded with the finest tinkle. "Well, I must +risk it!" cried she: "I will run for life; quick, quick, I am through; +certainly to Heaven, they cannot eat me up alive in half a minute!" And +with this, the gay, courageous little Mary sprang along the footbridge; +passed the dog, which ceased its barking and began to fawn on her; and +in a moment she was standing on the other bank, and the black firs all +round concealed from view her father's house, and the rest of the +landscape. + +But what was her astonishment when here! The loveliest, most variegated +flower-garden, lay round her; tulips, roses and lilies were glittering +in the fairest colours; blue and gold-red butterflies were wavering in +the blossoms; cages of shining wire were hung on the espaliers, with +many-coloured birds in them, singing beautiful songs; and children, in +short white frocks, with flowing yellow hair and brilliant eyes, were +frolicking about; some playing with lambkins, some feeding the birds, or +gathering flowers, and giving them to one another; some, again, were +eating cherries, grapes and ruddy apricots. No hut was to be seen; but +instead of it, a large fair house, with a brazen door and lofty statues, +stood glancing in the middle of the space. Mary was confounded with +surprise, and knew not what to think; but, not being bashful, she went +right up to the first of the children, held out her hand, and wished the +little creature good-even. + +"Art thou come to visit us, then?" said the glittering child; "I saw +thee running, playing on the other side, but thou wert frightened at our +little dog." + +"So you are not gipsies and rogues," said Mary, "as Andres always told +me? He is a stupid thing, and talks of much he does not understand." + +"Stay with us," said the strange little girl; "thou wilt like it well." + +"But we are running a race." + +"Thou wilt find thy comrade soon enough. There, take and eat." + +Mary ate, and found the fruit more sweet than any she had ever tasted in +her life before; and Andres, and the race, and the prohibition of her +parents, were entirely forgotten. + +A stately woman, in a shining robe, came towards them, and asked about +the stranger child. "Fairest lady," said Mary, "I came running hither by +chance, and now they wish to keep me." + +"Thou art aware, Zerina," said the lady, "that she can be here but for +a little while; besides, thou shouldst have asked my leave." + +"I thought," said Zerina, "when I saw her admitted across the bridge, +that I might do it; we have often seen her running in the fields, and +thou thyself hast taken pleasure in her lively temper. She will have to +leave us soon enough." + +"No, I will stay here," said the little stranger; "for here it is so +beautiful, and here I shall find the prettiest playthings, and store of +berries and cherries to boot. On the other side it is not half so +grand." + +The gold-robed lady went away with a smile; and many of the children now +came bounding round the happy Mary in their mirth, and twitched her, and +incited her to dance; others brought her lambs, or curious playthings; +others made music on instruments, and sang to it. + +She kept, however, by the playmate who had first met her; for Zerina was +the kindest and loveliest of them all. Little Mary cried and cried +again: "I will stay with you forever; I will stay with you, and you +shall be my sisters;" at which the children all laughed, and embraced +her. "Now we shall have a royal sport," said Zerina. She ran into the +Palace, and returned with a little golden box, in which lay a quantity +of seeds, like glittering dust. She lifted of it with her little hand, +and scattered some grains on the green earth. Instantly the grass began +to move, as in waves; and, after a few moments, bright rose-bushes +started from the ground, shot rapidly up, and budded all at once, while +the sweetest perfume filled the place. Mary also took a little of the +dust, and, having scattered it, she saw white lilies, and the most +variegated pinks, pushing up. At a signal from Zerina, the flowers +disappeared, and others rose in their room. "Now," said Zerina, "look +for something greater." She laid two pine-seeds in the ground, and +stamped them in sharply with her foot. Two green bushes stood before +them. "Grasp me fast," said she; and Mary threw her arms about the +slender form. She felt herself borne upwards; for the trees were +springing under them with the greatest speed; the tall pines waved to +and fro, and the two children held each other fast embraced, swinging +this way and that in the red clouds of the twilight, and kissed each +other; while the rest were climbing up and down the trunks with quick +dexterity, pushing and teasing one another with loud laughter when they +met; if any one fell down in the press, it flew through the air, and +sank slowly and surely to the ground. At length Mary was beginning to +be frightened; and the other little child sang a few loud tones, and the +trees again sank down, and set them on the ground as gradually as they +had lifted them before to the clouds. + +They next went through the brazen door of the palace. Here many fair +women, elderly and young, were sitting in the round hall, partaking of +the fairest fruits, and listening to glorious invisible music. In the +vaulting of the ceiling, palms, flowers and groves stood painted, among +which little figures of children were sporting and winding in every +graceful posture; and with the tones of the music, the images altered +and glowed with the most burning colours; now the blue and green were +sparkling like radiant light, now these tints faded back in paleness, +the purple flamed up, and the gold took fire; and then the naked +children seemed to be alive among the flower-garlands, and to draw +breath, and emit it through their ruby-coloured lips; so that by fits +you could see the glance of their little white teeth, and the lighting +up of their azure eyes. + +From the hall, a stair of brass led down to a subterranean chamber. Here +lay much gold and silver, and precious stones of every hue shone out +between them. Strange vessels stood along the walls, and all seemed +filled with costly things. The gold was worked into many forms, and +glittered with the friendliest red. Many little dwarfs were busied +sorting the pieces from the heap, and putting them in the vessels; +others, hunchbacked and bandy-legged, with long red noses, were +tottering slowly along, half-bent to the ground, under full sacks, which +they bore as millers do their grain; and, with much panting, shaking out +the gold-dust on the ground. Then they darted awkwardly to the right and +left, and caught the rolling balls that were like to run away; and it +happened now and then that one in his eagerness overset the other, so +that both fell heavily and clumsily to the ground. They made angry +faces, and looked askance, as Mary laughed at their gestures and their +ugliness. Behind them sat an old crumpled little man, whom Zerina +reverently greeted; he thanked her with a grave inclination of his head. +He held a sceptre in his hand, and wore a crown upon his brow, and all +the other dwarfs appeared to regard him as their master, and obey his +nod. + +"What more wanted?" asked he, with a surly voice, as the children came a +little nearer. Mary was afraid, and did not speak; but her companion +answered; they were only come to look about them in the chambers. +"Still your old child's tricks!" replied the dwarf: "Will there never be +an end to idleness?" With this, he turned again to his employment, kept +his people weighing and sorting the ingots; some he sent away on +errands, some he chid with angry tones. + +"Who is the gentleman?" said Mary. + +"Our Metal-Prince," replied Zerina, as they walked along. + +They seemed once more to reach the open air, for they were standing by a +lake, yet no sun appeared, and they saw no sky above their heads. A +little boat received them, and Zerina steered it diligently forwards. It +shot rapidly along. On gaining the middle of the lake, the stranger saw +that multitudes of pipes, channels and brooks, were spreading from the +little sea in every direction. "These waters to the right," said Zerina, +"flow beneath your garden, and this is why it blooms so freshly; by the +other side we get down into the great stream." On a sudden, out of all +the channels, and from every quarter of the lake, came a crowd of little +children swimming up; some wore garlands of sedge and water-lily; some +had red stems of coral, others were blowing on crooked shells; a +tumultuous noise echoed merrily from the dark shores; among the children +might be seen the fairest women sporting in the waters, and often +several of the children sprang about some one of them, and with kisses +hung upon her neck and shoulders. All saluted the strangers; and these +steered onwards through the revelry out of the lake, into a little +river, which grew narrower and narrower. At last the boat came aground. +The strangers took their leave, and Zerina knocked against the cliff. +This opened like a door, and a female form, all red, assisted them to +mount. "Are you all brisk here?" inquired Zerina. "They are just at +work," replied the other, "and happy as they could wish; indeed, the +heat is very pleasant." + +They went up a winding stair, and on a sudden Mary found herself in a +most resplendent hall, so that as she entered, her eyes were dazzled by +the radiance. Flame-coloured tapestry covered the walls with a purple +glow; and when her eye had grown a little used to it, the stranger saw, +to her astonishment, that, in the tapestry, there were figures moving up +and down in dancing joyfulness; in form so beautiful, and of so fair +proportions, that nothing could be seen more graceful; their bodies were +as of red crystal, so that it appeared as if the blood were visible +within them, flowing and playing in its courses. They smiled on the +stranger, and saluted her with various bows; but as Mary was about +approaching nearer them, Zerina plucked her sharply back, crying: "Thou +wilt burn thyself, my little Mary, for the whole of it is fire." + +Mary felt the heat. "Why do the pretty creatures not come out," said +she, "and play with us?" + +"As thou livest in the Air," replied the other, "so are they obliged to +stay continually in Fire, and would faint and languish if they left it. +Look now, how glad they are, how they laugh and shout; those down below +spread out the fire-floods everywhere beneath the earth, and thereby the +flowers, and fruits, and wine, are made to flourish; these red streams +again, are to run beside the brooks of water; and thus the fiery +creatures are kept ever busy and glad. But for thee it is too hot here; +let us return to the garden." + +In the garden, the scene had changed since they left it. The moonshine +was lying on every flower; the birds were silent, and the children were +asleep in complicated groups, among the green groves. Mary and her +friend, however, did not feel fatigue, but walked about in the warm +summer night, in abundant talk, till morning. + +When the day dawned, they refreshed themselves on fruit and milk, and +Mary said: "Suppose we go, by way of change, to the firs, and see how +things look there?" + +"With all my heart," replied Zerina; "thou wilt see our watchmen too, +and they will surely please thee; they are standing up among the trees +on the mound." The two proceeded through the flower-garden by pleasant +groves, full of nightingales; then they ascended a vine-hill; and at +last, after long following the windings of a clear brook, arrived at the +firs, and the height which bounded the domain. "How does it come," said +Mary, "that we have to walk so far here, when without, the circuit is so +narrow?" + +"I know not," said her friend; "but so it is." + +They mounted to the dark firs, and a chill wind blew from without in +their faces; a haze seemed lying far and wide over the landscape. On the +top were many strange forms standing; with mealy, dusty faces; their +misshapen heads not unlike those of white owls; they were clad in folded +cloaks of shaggy wool; they held umbrellas of curious skins stretched +out above them; and they waved and fanned themselves incessantly with +large bat's wings, which flared out curiously beside the woollen +roquelaures. "I could laugh, yet I am frightened," cried Mary. + +"These are our good trusty watchmen," said her playmate; "they stand +here and wave their fans, that cold anxiety and inexplicable fear may +fall on every one that attempts to approach us. They are covered so, +because without it is now cold and rainy, which they cannot bear. But +snow, or wind, or cold air, never reaches down to us; here is an +everlasting spring and summer: yet if these poor people on the top were +not frequently relieved, they would certainly perish." + +"But who are you, then?" said Mary, while again descending to the +flowery fragrance; "or have you no name at all?" + +"We are called the Elves," replied the friendly child; "people talk +about us in the Earth, as I have heard." + +They now perceived a mighty bustle on the green. "The fair Bird is +come!" cried the children to them: all hastened to the hall. Here, as +they approached, young and old were crowding over the threshold, all +shouting for joy; and from within resounded a triumphant peal of music. +Having entered, they perceived the vast circuit filled with the most +varied forms, and all were looking upwards to a large Bird with glancing +plumage, that was sweeping slowly round in the dome, and in its stately +flight describing many a circle. The music sounded more gaily than +before; the colours and lights alternated more rapidly. At last the +music ceased; and the Bird, with a rustling noise, floated down upon a +glittering crown that hung hovering in air under the high window, by +which the hall was lighted from above. His plumage was purple and green, +and shining golden streaks played through it; on his head there waved a +diadem of feathers, so resplendent that they glanced like jewels. His +bill was red, and his legs of a glancing blue. As he moved, the tints +gleamed through each other, and the eye was charmed with their radiance. +His size was as that of an eagle. But now he opened his glittering beak; +and sweetest melodies came pouring from his moved breast, in finer tones +than the lovesick nightingale gives forth; still stronger rose the song, +and streamed like floods of Light, so that all, the very children +themselves, were moved by it to tears of joy and rapture. When he +ceased, all bowed before him; he again flew round the dome in circles, +then darted through the door, and soared into the light heaven, where he +shone far up like a red point, and then soon vanished from their eyes. + +"Why are ye all so glad?" inquired Mary, bending to her fair playmate, +who seemed smaller than yesterday. + +"The King is coming!" said the little one; "many of us have never seen +him, and whithersoever he turns his face, there is happiness and mirth; +we have long looked for him, more anxiously than you look for spring +when winter lingers with you; and now he has announced, by his fair +herald, that he is at hand. This wise and glorious Bird, that has been +sent to us by the King, is called Phoenix; he dwells far off in +Arabia, on a tree, which there is no other that resembles on Earth, as +in like manner there is no second Phoenix. When he feels himself grown +old, he builds a pile of balm and incense, kindles it, and dies singing; +and then from the fragrant ashes, soars up the renewed Phoenix with +unlessened beauty. It is seldom he so wings his course that men behold +him; and when once in centuries this does occur, they note it in their +annals, and expect remarkable events. But now, my friend, thou and I +must part; for the sight of the King is not permitted thee." + +Then the lady with the golden robe came through the throng, and +beckoning Mary to her, led her into a sequestered walk. "Thou must leave +us, my dear child," said she; "the King is to hold his court here for +twenty years, perhaps longer; and fruitfulness and blessings will spread +far over the land, but chiefly here beside us; all the brooks and +rivulets will become more bountiful, all the fields and gardens richer, +the wine more generous, the meadows more fertile, and the woods more +fresh and green; a milder air will blow, no hail shall hurt, no flood +shall threaten. Take this ring, and think of us: but beware of telling +any one of our existence; or we must fly this land, and thou and all +around will lose the happiness and blessing of our neighbourhood. Once +more, kiss thy playmate, and farewell." They issued from the walk; +Zerina wept, Mary stooped to embrace her, and they parted. Already she +was on the narrow bridge; the cold air was blowing on her back from the +firs; the little dog barked with all its might, and rang its little +bell; she looked round, then hastened over, for the darkness of the +firs, the bleakness of the ruined huts, the shadows of the twilight, +were filling her with terror. + +"What a night my parents must have had on my account!" said she within +herself, as she stept on the green; "and I dare not tell them where I +have been, or what wonders I have witnessed, nor indeed would they +believe me." Two men passing by saluted her; and as they went along, she +heard them say: "What a pretty girl! Where can she come from?" With +quickened steps she approached the house: but the trees which were +hanging last night loaded with fruit, were now standing dry and +leafless; the house was differently painted, and a new barn had been +built beside it. Mary was amazed, and thought she must be dreaming. In +this perplexity she opened the door; and behind the table sat her +father, between an unknown woman and a stranger youth. "Good God! +Father," cried she, "where is my mother?" + +"Thy mother!" said the woman, with a forecasting tone, and sprang +towards her: "Ha, thou surely canst not--Yes, indeed, indeed thou art my +lost, long-lost dear, only Mary!" She had recognised her by a little +brown mole beneath the chin, as well as by her eyes and shape. All +embraced her, all were moved with joy, and the parents wept. Mary was +astonished that she almost reached to her father's stature; and she +could not understand how her mother had become so changed and faded; she +asked the name of the stranger youth. "It is our neighbour's Andres," +said Martin. "How comest thou to us again, so unexpectedly, after seven +long years? Where hast thou been? Why didst thou never send us tidings +of thee?" + +"Seven years!" said Mary, and could not order her ideas and +recollections. "Seven whole years?" + +"Yes, yes," said Andres, laughing, and shaking her trustfully by the +hand; "I have won the race, good Mary; I was at the pear-tree and back +again seven years ago, and thou, sluggish creature, art but just +returned!" + +They again asked, they pressed her; but remembering her instruction, she +could answer nothing. It was they themselves chiefly that, by degrees, +shaped a story for her: How, having lost her way, she had been taken up +by a coach, and carried to a strange remote part, where she could not +give the people any notion of her parents' residence; how she was +conducted to a distant town, where certain worthy persons brought her up +and loved her; how they had lately died, and at length she had +recollected her birthplace, and so returned. "No matter how it is!" +exclaimed her mother; "enough, that we have thee again, my little +daughter, my own, my all!" + +Andres waited supper, and Mary could not be at home in anything she saw. +The house seemed small and dark; she felt astonished at her dress, +which was clean and simple, but appeared quite foreign; she looked at +the ring on her finger, and the gold of it glittered strangely, +enclosing a stone of burning red. To her father's question, she replied +that the ring also was a present from her benefactors. + +She was glad when the hour of sleep arrived, and she hastened to her +bed. Next morning she felt much more collected; she had now arranged her +thoughts a little, and could better stand the questions of the people in +the village, all of whom came in to bid her welcome. Andres was there +too with the earliest, active, glad, and serviceable beyond all others. +The blooming maiden of fifteen had made a deep impression on him; he had +passed a sleepless night. The people of the castle likewise sent for +Mary, and she had once more to tell her story to them, which was now +grown quite familiar to her. The old Count and his Lady were surprised +at her good-breeding; she was modest, but not embarrassed; she made +answer courteously in good phrases to all their questions; all fear of +noble persons and their equipage had passed away from her; for when she +measured these halls and forms by the wonders and the high beauty she +had seen with the Elves in their hidden abode, this earthly splendour +seemed but dim to her, the presence of men was almost mean. The young +lords were charmed with her beauty. + +It was now February. The trees were budding earlier than usual; the +nightingale had never come so soon; the spring rose fairer in the land +than the oldest men could recollect it. In every quarter, little brooks +gushed out to irrigate the pastures and meadows; the hills seemed +heaving, the vines rose higher and higher, the fruit-trees blossomed as +they had never done; and a swelling fragrant blessedness hung suspended +heavily in rosy clouds over the scene. All prospered beyond expectation: +no rude day, no tempest injured the fruits; the wine flowed blushing in +immense grapes; and the inhabitants of the place felt astonished, and +were captivated as in a sweet dream. The next year was like its +forerunner; but men had now become accustomed to the marvellous. In +autumn, Mary yielded to the pressing entreaties of Andres and her +parents; she was betrothed to him, and in winter they were married. + +She often thought with inward longing of her residence behind the +fir-trees; she continued serious and still. Beautiful as all that lay +around her was, she knew of something yet more beautiful; and from the +remembrance of this, a faint regret attuned her nature to soft +melancholy. It smote her painfully when her father and mother talked +about the gipsies and vagabonds, that dwelt in the dark spot of ground. +Often she was on the point of speaking out in defence of those good +beings, whom she knew to be the benefactors of the land; especially to +Andres, who appeared to take delight in zealously abusing them: yet +still she repressed the word that was struggling to escape her bosom. So +passed this year; in the next, she was solaced by a little daughter, +whom she named Elfrida, thinking of the designation of her friendly +Elves. + +The young people lived with Martin and Brigitta, the house being large +enough for all; and helped their parents in conducting their now +extended husbandry. The little Elfrida soon displayed peculiar faculties +and gifts; for she could walk at a very early age, and could speak +perfectly before she was a twelvemonth old; and after some few years, +she had become so wise and clever, and of such wondrous beauty, that all +people regarded her with astonishment; and her mother could not keep +away the thought that her child resembled one of those shining little +ones in the space behind the Firs. Elfrida cared not to be with other +children; but seemed to avoid, with a sort of horror, their tumultuous +amusements; and liked best to be alone. She would then retire into a +corner of the garden, and read, or work diligently with her needle; +often also you might see her sitting, as if deep sunk in thought; or +violently walking up and down the alleys, speaking to herself. Her +parents readily allowed her to have her will in these things, for she +was healthy, and waxed apace; only her strange sagacious answers and +observations often made them anxious. "Such wise children do not grow to +age," her grandmother, Brigitta, many times observed; "they are too good +for this world; the child, besides, is beautiful beyond nature, and will +never find its proper place on Earth." + +The little girl had this peculiarity, that she was very loath to let +herself be served by any one, but endeavoured to do everything herself. +She was almost the earliest riser in the house; she washed herself +carefully, and dressed without assistance: at night she was equally +careful; she took special heed to pack up her clothes and washes with +her own hands, allowing no one, not even her mother, to meddle with her +articles. The mother humoured her in this caprice, not thinking it of +any consequence. But what was her astonishment, when, happening one +holiday to insist, regardless of Elfrida's tears and screams, on +dressing her out for a visit to the castle, she found upon her breast, +suspended by a string, a piece of gold of a strange form, which she +directly recognised as one of that sort she had seen in such abundance +in the subterranean vault! The little thing was greatly frightened; and +at last confessed that she had found it in the garden, and as she liked +it much, had kept it carefully: she at the same time prayed so earnestly +and pressingly to have it back, that Mary fastened it again on its +former place, and, full of thoughts, went out with her in silence to the +castle. + +Sidewards from the farmhouse lay some offices for the storing of produce +and implements; and behind these there was a little green, with an old +grove, now visited by no one, as, from the new arrangement of the +buildings, it lay too far from the garden. In this solitude Elfrida +delighted most; and it occurred to nobody to interrupt her here, so that +frequently her parents did not see her for half a day. One afternoon her +mother chanced to be in these buildings, seeking for some lost article +among the lumber; and she noticed that a beam of light was coming in, +through a chink in the wall. She took a thought of looking through this +aperture, and seeing what her child was busied with; and it happened +that a stone was lying loose, and could be pushed aside, so that she +obtained a view right into the grove. Elfrida was sitting there on a +little bench, and beside her the well-known Zerina; and the children +were playing, and amusing one another, in the kindliest unity. The Elf +embraced her beautiful companion, and said mournfully: "Ah! dear little +creature, as I sport with thee, so have I sported with thy mother, when +she was a child; but you mortals so soon grow tall and thoughtful! It is +very hard: wert thou but to be a child as long as I!" + +"Willingly would I do it," said Elfrida; "but they all say, I shall come +to sense, and give over playing altogether; for I have great gifts, as +they think, for growing wise. Ah! and then I shall see thee no more, +thou dear Zerina! Yet it is with us as with the fruit-tree flowers: how +glorious the blossoming apple-tree, with its red bursting buds! It looks +so stately and broad; and every one, that passes under it, thinks surely +something great will come of it; then the sun grows hot, and the buds +come joyfully forth; but the wicked kernel is already there, which +pushes off and casts away the fair flower's dress; and now, in pain and +waxing, it can do nothing more, but must grow to fruit in harvest. An +apple, to be sure, is pretty and refreshing; yet nothing to the blossom +of spring. So is it also with us mortals: I am not glad in the least at +growing to be a tall girl. Ah! could I but once visit you!" + +"Since the King is with us," said Zerina, "it is quite impossible; but I +will come to thee, my darling, often, often; and none shall see me +either here or there. I will pass invisible through the air, or fly over +to thee like a bird. O! we will be much, much together, while thou art +still little. What can I do to please thee?" + +"Thou must like me very dearly," said Elfrida, "as I like thee in my +heart. But come, let us make another rose." + +Zerina took the well-known box from her bosom, threw two grains from it +on the ground; and instantly a green bush stood before them, with two +deep-red roses, bending their heads, as if to kiss each other. The +children plucked them smiling, and the bush disappeared. "O that it +would not die so soon!" said Elfrida; "this red child, this wonder of +the Earth!" + +"Give it me here," said the little Elf; then breathed thrice upon the +budding rose, and kissed it thrice. "Now," said she, giving back the +rose, "it will continue fresh and blooming till winter." + +"I will keep it," said Elfrida, "as an image of thee; I will guard it in +my little room, and kiss it night and morning, as if it were thyself." + +"The sun is setting," said the other; "I must home." They embraced +again, and Zerina vanished. + +In the evening, Mary clasped her child to her breast, with a feeling of +alarm and veneration. She henceforth allowed the good little girl more +liberty than formerly; and often calmed her husband, when he came to +search for the child; which for some time he was wont to do, as her +retiredness did not please him; and he feared that, in the end, it might +make her silly, or even pervert her understanding. The mother often +glided to the chink; and almost always found the bright Elf beside her +child, employed in sport, or in earnest conversation. + +"Wouldst thou like to fly?" inquired Zerina once. + +"O well! How well!" replied Elfrida; and the fairy clasped her mortal +playmate in her arms, and mounted with her from the ground, till they +hovered above the grove. The mother, in alarm, forgot herself, and +pushed out her head in terror to look after them; when Zerina, from the +air, held up her finger, and threatened yet smiled; then descended with +the child, embraced her, and disappeared. After this, it happened more +than once that Mary was observed by her; and every time, the shining +little creature shook her head, or threatened, yet with friendly looks. + +Often, in disputing with her husband, Mary had said in her zeal: "Thou +dost injustice to the poor people in the hut!" But when Andres pressed +her to explain why she differed in opinion from the whole village, nay +from his Lordship himself; and how she could understand it better than +the whole of them, she still broke off embarrassed, and became silent. +One day, after dinner, Andres grew more violent than ever; and +maintained that, by one means or another, the crew must be packed away, +as a nuisance to the country; when his wife, in anger, said to him: +"Hush! for they are benefactors to thee and to everyone of us." + +"Benefactors!" cried the other, in astonishment: "These rogues and +vagabonds?" + +In her indignation, she was now at last tempted to relate to him, under +promise of the strictest secrecy, the history of her youth: and as +Andres at every word grew more incredulous, and shook his head in +mockery, she took him by the hand, and led him to the chink; where, to +his amazement, he beheld the glittering Elf sporting with his child, and +caressing her in the grove. He knew not what to say; an exclamation of +astonishment escaped him, and Zerina raised her eyes. On the instant she +grew pale, and trembled violently; not with friendly, but with indignant +looks, she made the sign of threatening, and then said to Elfrida: "Thou +canst not help it, dearest heart; but they will never learn sense, wise +as they believe themselves." She embraced the little one with stormy +haste; and then, in the shape of a raven, flew with hoarse cries over +the garden, towards the Firs. + +In the evening, the little one was very still; she kissed her rose with +tears; Mary felt depressed and frightened, Andres scarcely spoke. It +grew dark. Suddenly there went a rustling through the trees; birds flew +to and fro with wild screaming, thunder was heard to roll, the Earth +shook, and tones of lamentation moaned in the air. Andres and his wife +had not courage to rise; they shrouded themselves within the curtains, +and with fear and trembling awaited the day. Towards morning, it grew +calmer; and all was silent when the Sun, with his cheerful light, rose +over the wood. + +Andres dressed himself; and Mary now observed that the stone of the ring +upon her finger had become quite pale. On opening the door, the sun +shone clear on their faces, but the scene around them they could +scarcely recognise. The freshness of the wood was gone; the hills were +shrunk, the brooks were flowing languidly with scanty streams, the sky +seemed gray; and when you turned to the Firs, they were standing there +no darker or more dreary than the other trees. The huts behind them were +no longer frightful; and several inhabitants of the village came and +told about the fearful night, and how they had been across the spot +where the gipsies had lived; how these people must have left the place +at last, for their huts were standing empty, and within had quite a +common look, just like the dwellings of other poor people: some of their +household gear was left behind. + +Elfrida in secret said to her mother: "I could not sleep last night; and +in my fright at the noise, I was praying from the bottom of my heart, +when the door suddenly opened, and my playmate entered to take leave of +me. She had a travelling-pouch slung round her, a hat on her head, and a +large staff in her hand. She was very angry at thee; since on thy +account she had now to suffer the severest and most painful punishments, +as she had always been so fond of thee; for all of them, she said, were +very loath to leave this quarter." + +Mary forbade her to speak of this; and now the ferryman came across the +river, and told them new wonders. As it was growing dark, a stranger man +of large size had come to him, and hired his boat till sunrise; and with +this condition, that the boatman should remain quiet in his house, at +least should not cross the threshold of his door. "I was frightened," +continued the old man, "and the strange bargain would not let me sleep. +I slipped softly to the window, and looked towards the river. Great +clouds were driving restlessly through the sky, and the distant woods +were rustling fearfully; it was as if my cottage shook, and moans and +lamentations glided round it. On a sudden, I perceived a white streaming +light, that grew broader and broader, like many thousands of falling +stars; sparkling and waving, it proceeded forward from the dark +Fir-ground, moved over the fields, and spread itself along towards the +river. Then I heard a trampling, a jingling, a bustling, and rushing, +nearer and nearer; it went forwards to my boat, and all stept into it, +men and women, as it seemed, and children; and the tall stranger ferried +them over. In the river were by the boat swimming many thousands of +glittering forms; in the air white clouds and lights were wavering; and +all lamented and bewailed that they must travel forth so far, far away, +and leave their beloved dwelling. The noise of the rudder and the water +creaked and gurgled between whiles, and then suddenly there would be +silence. Many a time the boat landed, and went back, and was again +laden; many heavy casks, too, they took along with them, which +multitudes of horrid-looking little fellows carried and rolled; whether +they were devils or goblins, Heaven only knows. Then came, in waving +brightness, a stately freight; it seemed an old man, mounted on a small +white horse, and all were crowding round him. I saw nothing of the horse +but its head; for the rest of it was covered with costly glittering +cloths and trappings: on his brow the old man had a crown, so bright +that, as he came across, I thought the sun was rising there, and the +redness of the dawn glimmering in my eyes. Thus it went on all night; I +at last fell asleep in the tumult, half in joy, half in terror. In the +morning all was still; but the river is, as it were, run off, and I know +not how I am to steer my boat in it now." + +The same year there came a blight; the woods died away, the springs ran +dry; and the scene, which had once been the joy of every traveller, was +in autumn standing waste, naked and bald; scarcely showing here and +there, in the sea of sand, a spot or two where grass, with a dingy +greenness, still grew up. The fruit-trees all withered, the vines faded +away, and the aspect of the place became so melancholy, that the Count, +with his people, next year left the castle, which in time decayed and +fell to ruins. + +Elfrida gazed on her rose day and night with deep longing, and thought +of her kind playmate; and as it drooped and withered, so did she also +hang her head; and before the spring, the little maiden had herself +faded away. Mary often stood upon the spot before the hut, and wept for +the happiness that had departed. She wasted herself away like her child, +and in a few years she too was gone. Old Martin, with his son-in-law, +returned to the quarter where he had lived before. + + + + +THE GOBLET. + + +The forenoon bells were sounding from the high cathedral. Over the wide +square in front of it were men and women walking to and fro, carriages +rolling along, and priests proceeding to their various churches. +Ferdinand was standing on the broad stair, with his eyes over the +multitude, looking at them as they came up to attend the service. The +sunshine glittered on the white stones, all were seeking shelter from +the heat. He alone had stood for a long time leaning on a pillar, amid +the burning beams, without regarding them; for he was lost in the +remembrances which mounted up within his mind. He was calling back his +bygone life; and inspiring his soul with the feeling which had +penetrated all his being, and swallowed up every other wish in itself. +At the same hour, in the past year, had he been standing here, looking +at the women and the maidens coming to mass; with indifferent heart, and +smiling face, he had viewed the variegated procession; many a kind look +had roguishly met his, and many a virgin cheek had blushed; his busy eye +had observed the pretty feet, how they mounted the steps, and how the +wavering robe fell more or less aside, to let the dainty little ankles +come to sight. Then a youthful form had crossed the square: clad in +black; slender, and of noble mien, her eyes modestly cast down before +her, carelessly she hovered up the steps with lovely grace; the silken +robe lay round that fairest of forms, and rocked itself as in music +about the moving limbs; she was mounting the highest step, when by +chance she raised her head, and struck his eye with a ray of the purest +azure. He was pierced as if by lightning. Her foot caught the robe; and +quickly as he darted towards her, he could not prevent her having, for +a moment, in the most charming posture, lain kneeling at his feet. He +raised her; she did not look at him, she was all one blush; nor did she +answer his inquiry whether she was hurt. He followed her into the +church: his soul saw nothing but the image of that form kneeling before +him, and that loveliest of bosoms bent towards him. Next day he visited +the threshold of the church again; for him that spot was consecrated +ground. He had been intending to pursue his travels, his friends were +expecting him impatiently at home; but from henceforth his native +country was here, his heart and its wishes were inverted. He saw her +often, she did not shun him; yet it was but for a few separate and +stolen moments; for her wealthy family observed her strictly, and still +more a powerful and jealous bridegroom. They mutually confessed their +love, but knew not what to do; for he was a stranger, and could offer +his beloved no such splendid fortune as she was entitled to expect. He +now felt his poverty; yet when he reflected on his former way of life, +it seemed to him that he was passing rich; for his existence was +rendered holy, his heart floated forever in the fairest emotion; Nature +was now become his friend, and her beauty lay revealed to him; he felt +himself no longer alien from worship and religion; and he now crossed +this threshold, and the mysterious dimness of the temple, with far other +feelings than in former days of levity. He withdrew from his +acquaintances, and lived only to love. When he walked through her +street, and saw her at the window, he was happy for the day. He had +often spoken to her in the dusk of the evening; her garden was adjacent +to a friend's, who, however, did not know his secret. Thus a year had +passed away. + +All these scenes of his new existence again moved through his +remembrance. He raised his eyes; that noble form was even then gliding +over the square; she shone out of the confused multitude like a sun. A +lovely music sounded in his longing heart; and as she approached, he +retired into the church. He offered her the holy water; her white +fingers trembled as they touched his, she bowed with grateful kindness. +He followed her, and knelt down near her. His whole heart was melting in +sadness and love; it seemed to him as if, from the wounds of longing, +his being were bleeding away in fervent prayers; every word of the +priest went through him, every tone of the music poured new devotion +into his bosom; his lips quivered, as the fair maiden pressed the +crucifix of her rosary to her ruby mouth. How dim had been his +apprehension of this Faith and this Love before! The priest elevated the +Host, and the bell sounded; she bowed more humbly, and crossed her +breast; and, like a flash, it struck through all his powers and +feelings, and the image on the altar seemed alive, and the coloured +dimness of the windows as a light of paradise; tears flowed fast from +his eyes, and allayed the swelling fervour of his heart. + +The service was concluded. He again offered her the consecrated font; +they spoke some words, and she withdrew. He stayed behind, in order to +excite no notice; he looked after her till the hem of her garment +vanished round the corner; and he felt like the wanderer, weary and +astray, from whom, in the thick forest, the last gleam of the setting +sun departs. He awoke from his dream, as an old withered hand slapped +him on the shoulder, and some one called him by name. + +He started back, and recognised his friend, the testy old Albert, who +lived apart from men, and whose solitary house was open to Ferdinand +alone: "Do you remember our engagement?" said the hoarse husky voice. "O +yes," said Ferdinand: "and will you perform your promise today?" + +"This very hour," replied the other, "if you like to follow me." + +They walked through the city to a remote street, and there entered a +large edifice. "Today," said the old man, "you must push through with me +into my most solitary chamber, that we may not be disturbed." They +passed through many rooms, then along some stairs; they wound their way +through passages: and Ferdinand, who had thought himself familiar with +the house, was now astonished at the multitude of apartments, and the +singular arrangement of the spacious building; but still more that the +old man, a bachelor, and without family, should inhabit it by himself, +with a few servants, and never let out any part of the superfluous room +to strangers. Albert at length unbolted the door, and said: "Now, here +is the place." They entered a large high chamber, hung round with red +damask, which was trimmed with golden listings; the chairs were of the +same stuff; and, through heavy red silk curtains covering the windows, +came a purple light. "Wait a little," said the old man, and went into +another room. Ferdinand took up some books: he found them to contain +strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, with many curious +plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to be works on +alchemy; he was aware already that the old man had the reputation of a +gold-maker. A lute was lying on the table, singularly overlaid with +mother-of-pearl, and coloured wood; and representing birds and flowers +in very splendid forms. The star in the middle was a large piece of +mother-of-pearl, worked in the most skilful manner into many +intersecting circular figures, almost like the centre of a window in a +Gothic church. "You are looking at my instrument," said Albert, coming +back; "it is two hundred years old: I brought it with me as a memorial +of my journey into Spain. But let us leave all that, and do you take a +seat." + +They sat down beside the table, which was likewise covered with a red +cloth; and the old man placed upon it something which was carefully +wrapped up. "From pity to your youth," he began, "I promised lately to +predict to you whether you could ever become happy or not; and this +promise I will in the present hour perform, though you hold the matter +only as a jest. You need not be alarmed; for what I purpose will take +place without danger; no dread invocations shall be made by me, nor +shall any horrid apparition terrify your senses. The business I am on +may fail in two ways: either if you do not love so truly as you have +been willing to persuade me; for then my labour is in vain, and nothing +will disclose itself; or, if you shall disturb the oracle and destroy it +by a useless question, or a hasty movement, should you leave your seat +and dissipate the figure; you must therefore promise me to keep yourself +quite still." + +Ferdinand gave his word, and the old man unfolded from its cloths the +packet he had placed on the table. It was a golden goblet, of very +skilful and beautiful workmanship. Round its broad foot ran a garland of +flowers, intertwined with myrtles, and various other leaves and fruits, +worked out in high chasing with dim and with brilliant gold. A +corresponding ring, but still richer, with figures of children, and wild +little animals playing with them, or flying from them, wound itself +about the middle of the cup. The bowl was beautifully turned; it bent +itself back at the top as if to meet the lips; and within, the gold +sparkled with a red glow. Old Albert placed the cup between him and the +youth, whom he then beckoned to come nearer. "Do you not feel +something," said he, "when your eye loses itself in this splendour?" + +"Yes," answered Ferdinand, "this brightness glances into my inmost +heart; I might almost say I felt it like a kiss in my longing bosom." + +"It is right, then!" said the old man. "Now let not your eyes wander any +more, but fix them steadfastly on the glittering of this gold, and think +as intensely as you can of the woman whom you love." + +Both sat quiet for a while, looking earnestly upon the gleaming cup. Ere +long, however, Albert, with mute gestures, began, at first slowly, then +faster, and at last in rapid movements, to whirl his outstretched finger +in a constant circle round the glitter of the bowl. Then he paused, and +recommenced his circles in the opposite direction. After this had lasted +for a little, Ferdinand began to think he heard the sound of music; it +came as from without, in some distant street, but soon the tones +approached, they quivered more distinctly through the air; and at last +no doubt remained with him that they were flowing from the hollow of the +cup. The music became stronger, and of such piercing power, that the +young man's heart was throbbing to the notes, and tears were flowing +from his eyes. Busily old Albert's hand now moved in various lines +across the mouth of the goblet; and it seemed as if sparks were issuing +from his fingers, and darting in forked courses to the gold, and +tinkling as they met it. The glittering points increased; and followed, +as if strung on threads, the movements of his finger to and fro; they +shone with various hues, and crowded more and more together till they +joined in unbroken lines. And now it seemed as if the old man, in the +red dusk, were stretching a wondrous net over the gleaming gold; for he +drew the beams this way and that at pleasure, and wove up with them the +opening of the bowl; they obeyed him, and remained there like a cover, +wavering to and fro, and playing into one another. Having so fixed them, +he again described the circle round the rim; the music then moved off, +grew fainter and fainter, and at last died away. While the tones +departed, the sparkling net quivered to and fro as in pain. In its +increasing agitation it broke in pieces; and the beaming threads rained +down in drops into the cup; but as the drops fell, there arose from them +a ruddy cloud, which moved within itself in manifold eddies, and mounted +over the brim like foam. A bright point darted with exceeding swiftness +through the cloudy circle, and began to form the Image in the midst of +it. On a sudden there looked out from the vapour as it were an eye; +over this came a playing and curling as of golden locks; and soon there +went a soft blush up and down the shadow, and Ferdinand beheld the +smiling face of his beloved, the blue eyes, the tender cheeks, the fair +red mouth. The head waved to and fro; rose clearer and more visible upon +the slim white neck, and nodded towards the enraptured youth. Old Albert +still kept casting circles round the cup; and out of it emerged the +glancing shoulders; and as the fair form mounted more and more from its +golden couch, and bent in lovely kindness this way and that, the soft +curved parted breasts appeared, and on their summits two loveliest +rose-buds glancing with sweet secret red. Ferdinand fancied he felt the +breath, as the beloved form bent waving towards him, and almost touched +him with its glowing lips; in his rapture he forgot his promise and +himself; he started up and clasped that ruby mouth to him with a kiss, +and meant to seize those lovely arms, and lift the enrapturing form from +its golden prison. Instantly a violent trembling quivered through the +lovely shape; the head and body broke away as in a thousand lines; and a +rose was lying at the bottom of the goblet, in whose redness that sweet +smile still seemed to play. The longing young man caught it and pressed +it to his lips; and in his burning ardour it withered and melted into +air. + +"Thou hast kept thy promise badly," said the old man, with an angry +tone; "thou hast none but thyself to blame." He again wrapped up the +goblet, drew aside the curtains, and opened a window: the clear daylight +broke in; and Ferdinand, in sadness, and with many fruitless excuses, +left old Albert still in anger. + +In an agitated mood, he hastened through the streets of the city. +Without the gate, he sat down beneath the trees. She had told him in the +morning that she was to go that night, with some relations, to the +country. Intoxicated with love, he rose, he sat, he wandered in the +wood: that fair kind form was still before him, as it flowed and mounted +from the glowing gold; he looked that she would now step forth to meet +him in the splendour of her beauty, and again that loveliest image broke +away in pieces from his eyes; and he was indignant at himself that, by +his restless passion and the tumult of his senses, he should have +destroyed the shape, and perhaps his hopes, forever. + +As the walk, in the afternoon, became crowded, he withdrew deeper into +the thickets; but he still kept the distant highway in his eye; and +every coach that issued from the gate was carefully examined by him. + +The night approached. The setting sun was throwing forth its red +splendour, when from the gate rushed out the richly gilded coach, +gleaming with a fiery brightness in the glow of evening. He hastened +towards it. Her eye had already seized him. Kindly and smilingly she +leaned her glittering bosom from the window; he caught her soft +salutation and signal; he was standing by the coach, her full look fell +on his, and as she drew back to move away, the rose which had adorned +her bosom flew out, and lay at his feet. He lifted it, and kissed it; +and he felt as if it presaged to him that he should not see his loved +one any more, that now his happiness had faded away from him forever. + + * * * * * + +Hurried steps were passing up stairs and down; the whole house was in +commotion; all was bustle and tumult, preparing for the great +festivities of the morrow. The mother was the gladdest and most active; +the bride heeded nothing, but retired into her chamber to meditate upon +her changing destiny. The family were still looking for their elder son, +the captain, with his wife; and for two elder daughters, with their +husbands: Leopold, the younger, was maliciously busied in increasing the +disorder, and deepening the tumult; perplexing all, while he pretended +to be furthering it. Agatha, his still unmarried sister, was in vain +endeavouring to make him reasonable, and persuade him simply to do +nothing, and to let the rest have peace; but her mother said: "Never +mind him and his folly; for today a little more or less of it amounts to +nothing; only this I beg of one and all of you, that as I have so much +to think about already, you would trouble me with no fresh tidings, +unless it be of something that especially concerns us. I care not +whether any one have let some china fall, whether one spoon or two +spoons are wanting, whether any of the stranger servants have been +breaking windows; with all such freaks as these, I beg you would not vex +me by recounting them. Were these days of tumult over, we will reckon +matters; not till then." + +"Bravely spoken, mother!" cried her son; "these sentiments are worthy of +a governor. And if it chance that any of the maids should break her +neck; the cook get tipsy, or set the chimney on fire; the butler, for +joy, let all the malmsey run upon the floor, or down his throat, you +shall not hear a word of such small tricks. If, indeed, an earthquake +were to overset the house! that, my dear mother, could not be kept +secret." + +"When will he leave his folly!" said the mother: "What must thy sisters +think, when they find thee every jot as riotous as when they left thee +two years ago?" + +"They must do justice to my force of character," said Leopold, "and +grant that I am not so changeable as they or their husbands, who have +altered so much within these few years, and so little to their +advantage." + +The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was +sent to call her. "Has Leopold made my request to you, my dear mother?" +said he. + +"I did, forsooth!" said Leopold. "There is such confusion here among us, +not one of them can think a reasonable thought." + +The bride entered, and the young pair joyfully saluted one another. "The +request I meant," continued the bridegroom, "is this: That you would not +take it ill, if I should bring another guest into your house, which, in +truth, is full enough already." + +"You are aware yourself," replied the mother, "that extensive as it is, +I could scarcely find another chamber." + +"Notwithstanding, I have partly managed it already," cried Leopold; "I +have had the large apartment furbished up." + +"Why, that is quite a miserable place," replied the mother; "for many +years it has been nothing but a lumber-room." + +"But it is splendidly repaired," said Leopold; "and our friend, for whom +it is intended, does not mind such matters, he desires nothing but our +love. Besides, he has no wife, and likes to be alone; it is the very +place for him. We have had enough of trouble in persuading him to come, +and show himself again among his fellow-creatures." + +"Not your dismal conjuror and gold-maker, certainly?" cried Agatha. + +"No other," said the bridegroom, "if you will still call him so." + +"Then do not let him, mother," said the sister. "What should a man like +that do here? I have seen him on the street with Leopold, and I was +positively frightened at his face. The old sinner, too, almost never +goes to church; he loves neither God nor man; and it cannot come to good +to bring such infidels under the roof, on a solemnity like this. Who +knows what may be the consequence!" + +"To hear her talk!" said Leopold, in anger. "Thou condemnest without +knowing him; and because the cut of his nose does not please thee, and +he is no longer young and handsome, thou concludest him a wizard, and a +servant of the Devil." + +"Grant a place in your house, dear mother," said the bridegroom, "to our +old friend, and let him take a part in our general joy. He seems, my +dear Agatha, to have endured much suffering, which has rendered him +distrustful and misanthropic; he avoids all society, his only exceptions +are Leopold and myself. I owe him much; it was he that first gave my +mind a good direction; nay, I may say, it is he alone that has rendered +me perhaps worthy of my Julia's love." + +"He lends me all his books," continued Leopold; "and, what is more, his +old manuscripts; and what is more still, his money, on my bare word. He +is a man of the most christian turn, my little sister. And who knows, +when thou hast seen him better, whether thou wilt not throw off thy +coyness, and take a fancy to him, ugly as he now appears to thee?" + +"Well, bring him to us," said the mother; "I have had to hear so much of +him from Leopold already, that I have a curiosity to be acquainted with +him. Only you must answer for it, that I cannot lodge him better." + +Meantime strangers were announced. They were members of the family, the +married daughters, and the officer; they had brought their children with +them. The good old lady was delighted to behold her grandsons; all was +welcoming, and joyful talk; and Leopold and the bridegroom, having also +given and received their greeting, went away to seek their ancient +melancholic friend. + +The latter lived most part of the year in the country, about a league +from town; but he also kept a little dwelling for himself in a garden +near the gate. Here, by chance, the young men had become acquainted with +him. They now found him in a coffee-house, where they had previously +agreed to meet. As the evening had come on, they brought him, after some +little conversation, directly to the house. + +The stranger met a kindly welcome from the mother; the daughters stood a +little more aloof from him. Agatha especially was shy, and carefully +avoided his looks. But the first general compliments were scarcely +over, when the old man's eye appeared to settle on the bride, who had +entered the apartment later; he seemed as if transported, and it was +observed that he was struggling to conceal a tear. The bridegroom +rejoiced in his joy, and happening sometime after to be standing with +him by a side at the window, he took his hand, and asked him: "Now, what +think you of my lovely Julia? Is she not an angel?" + +"O my friend!" replied the old man, with emotion, "such grace and beauty +I have never seen; or rather, I should say (for that expression was not +just), she is so fair, so ravishing, so heavenly, that I feel as if I +had long known her; as if she were to me, utter stranger though she is, +the most familiar form of my imagination, some shape which had always +been an inmate of my heart." + +"I understand you," said the young man: "yes, the truly beautiful, the +great and sublime, when it overpowers us with astonishment and +admiration, still does not surprise us as a thing foreign, never heard +of, never seen; but, on the other hand, our own inmost nature in such +moments becomes clear to us, our deepest remembrances are awakened, our +dearest feelings made alive." + +The stranger, during supper, mixed but little in the conversation; his +looks were fixed on the bride, so earnestly and constantly, that she at +last became embarrassed and alarmed. The captain told of a campaign +which he had served in; the rich merchant of his speculations and the +bad times; the country gentleman of the improvements which he meant to +make in his estate. + +Supper being done, the bridegroom took his leave, returning for the last +time to his lonely chamber; for in future it was settled that the +married pair were to live in the mother's house, their chambers were +already furnished. The company dispersed, and Leopold conducted the +stranger to his room. "You will excuse us," said he, as they went along, +"for having been obliged to lodge you rather far away, and not so +comfortably as our mother wished; but you see, yourself, how numerous +our family is, and more relations are to come tomorrow. For one thing, +you will not run away from us; there is no finding of your course +through this enormous house." + +They went through several passages, and Leopold at last took leave, and +bade his guest good-night. The servant placed two wax-lights on the +table; then asked the stranger whether he should help him to undress, +and as the latter waived his help in that particular, he also went away, +and the stranger found himself alone. + +"How does it chance, then," said he, walking up and down, "that this +Image springs so vividly from my heart today? I forgot the long past, +and thought I saw herself. I was again young, and her voice sounded as +of old; I thought I was awakening from a heavy dream; but no, I am now +awake, and those fair moments were but a sweet delusion." + +He was too restless to sleep; he looked at some pictures on the walls, +and then round on the chamber. "Today," cried he, "all is so familiar to +me, I could almost fancy I had known this house and this apartment of +old." He tried to settle his remembrances, and lifted some large books +which were standing in a corner. As he turned their leaves, he shook his +head. A lute-case was leaning on the wall; he opened it, and found a +strange old instrument, time-worn, and without the strings. "No, I am +not mistaken!" cried he, in astonishment; "this lute is too remarkable; +it is the Spanish lute of my long-departed friend, old Albert! Here are +his magic books; this is the chamber where he raised for me that +blissful vision; the red of the tapestry is faded, its golden hem is +become dim; but strangely vivid in my heart is all pertaining to those +hours. It was for this the fear went over me as I was coming hither, +through these long complicated passages where Leopold conducted me. O +Heaven! On this very table did the Shape rise budding forth, and grow up +as if watered and refreshed by the redness of the gold. The same image +smiled upon me here, which has almost driven me crazy in the hall +tonight; in that hall where I have walked so often in trustful speech +with Albert!" + +He undressed, but slept very little. Early in the morning he was up, and +looking at the room again; he opened the window, and the same gardens +and buildings were lying before him as of old, only many other houses +had been built since then. "Forty years have vanished," sighed he, +"since that afternoon; and every day of those bright times has a longer +life than all the intervening space." + +He was called to the company. The morning passed in varied talk: at last +the bride entered in her marriage-dress. As the old man noticed her, he +fell into a state of agitation, such that every one observed it. They +proceeded to the church, and the marriage-ceremony was performed. The +party was again at home, when Leopold inquired: "Now, mother, how do you +like our friend, the good morose old gentleman?" + +"I had figured him, by your description," said she, "much more +frightful; he is mild and sympathetic, and might gain from one an honest +trust in him." + +"Trust?" cried Agatha; "in these burning frightful eyes, these +thousandfold wrinkles, that pale sunk mouth, that strange laugh of his, +which looks and sounds so mockingly? No; God keep me from such friends! +If evil spirits ever take the shape of men, they must assume some shape +like this." + +"Perhaps a younger and more handsome one," replied the mother; "but I +cannot recognise the good old man in thy description. One easily +observes that he is of a violent temperament, and has inured himself to +lock up his feelings in his own bosom; perhaps, too, as Leopold was +saying, he may have encountered many miseries; so he is grown +mistrustful, and has lost that simple openness, which is especially the +portion of the happy." + +The rest of the party entered, and broke off their conversation. Dinner +was served up; and the stranger sat between Agatha and the rich +merchant. When the toasts were beginning, Leopold cried out: "Now, stop +a little, worthy friends; we must have the golden goblet down for this, +then let it travel round." + +He was rising, but his mother beckoned him to keep his seat: "Thou wilt +not find it," said she, "for the plate is all stowed elsewhere." She +walked out rapidly to seek it herself. + +"How brisk and busy is our good old lady still!" observed the merchant. +"See how nimbly she can move, with all her breadth and weight, and +reckoning sixty by this time of day. Her face is always bright and +joyful, and today she is particularly happy, for she sees herself made +young again in Julia." + +The stranger gave assent, and the lady entered with the goblet. It was +filled with wine, and began to circulate, each toasting what was dearest +and most precious to him. Julia gave the welfare of her husband, he the +love of his fair Julia; and thus did every one as it became his turn. +The mother lingered, as the goblet came to her. + +"Come, quick with it," said the captain, somewhat hastily and rudely; +"we know, you reckon all men faithless, and not one among them worthy of +a woman's love. What, then, is dearest to you?" + +His mother looked at him, while the mildness of her brow was on a sudden +overspread with angry seriousness. "Since my son," said she, "knows me +so well, and can judge my mind so rigorously, let me be permitted _not_ +to speak what I was thinking of, and let him endeavour, by a life of +constant love, to falsify what he gives out as my opinion." She pushed +the goblet on, without drinking, and the company was for a while +embarrassed and disturbed. + +"It is reported," said the merchant, in a whisper, turning to the +stranger, "that she did not love her husband; but another, who proved +faithless to her. She was then, it seems, the finest woman in the city." + +When the cup reached Ferdinand, he gazed upon it with astonishment; for +it was the very goblet out of which old Albert had called forth to him +the lovely shadow. He looked in upon the gold, and the waving of the +wine; his hand shook; it would not have surprised him, if from the magic +bowl that glowing Form had again mounted up, and brought with it his +vanished youth. "No!" said he, after some time, half-aloud, "it is wine +that is gleaming here!" + +"Ay, what else?" cried the merchant, laughing: "Drink and be merry." + +A thrill of terror passed over the old man; he pronounced the name +"Francesca" in a vehement tone, and set the goblet to his lips. The +mother cast upon him an inquiring and astonished look. + +"Whence is this bright goblet?" said Ferdinand, who also felt ashamed of +his embarrassment. + +"Many years ago, long ere I was born," said Leopold, "my father bought +it, with this house and all its furniture, from an old solitary +bachelor; a silent man, whom the neighbours thought a dealer in the +Black Art." + +The stranger did not say that he had known this old man; for his whole +being was too much perplexed, too like an enigmatic dream, to let the +rest look into it, even from afar. + +The cloth being withdrawn, he was left alone with the mother, as the +young ones had retired to make ready for the ball. "Sit down by me," +said the mother; "we will rest, for our dancing years are past; and if +it is not rude, allow me to inquire whether you have seen our goblet +elsewhere, or what it was that moved you so intensely?" + +"O my lady," said the old man, "pardon my foolish violence and emotion; +but ever since I crossed your threshold, I feel as if I were no longer +myself; every moment I forget that my head is gray, that the hearts +which loved me are dead. Your beautiful daughter, who is now celebrating +the gladdest day of her existence, is so like a maiden whom I knew and +adored in my youth, that I could reckon it a miracle. Like, did I say? +No, she is not like; it is she herself! In this house, too, I have often +been; and once I became acquainted with this cup in a manner I shall not +forget." Here he told her his adventure. "On the evening of that day," +concluded he, "in the park, I saw my loved one for the last time, as she +was passing in her coach. A rose fell from her bosom; this I gathered; +she herself was lost to me, for she proved faithless, and soon after +married." + +"God in Heaven!" cried the lady, violently moved, and starting up, "thou +art not Ferdinand?" + +"It is my name," replied he. + +"I am Francesca," said the lady. + +They sprang forward to embrace, then started suddenly back. Each viewed +the other with investigating looks: both strove again to evolve from the +ruins of Time those lineaments which of old they had known and loved in +one another; and as, in dark tempestuous nights, amid the flight of +black clouds, there are moments when solitary stars ambiguously twinkle +forth, to disappear next instant, so to these two was there shown now +and then from the eyes, from the brow and lips, the transitory gleam of +some well-known feature; and it seemed as if their Youth stood in the +distance, weeping smiles. He bowed down, and kissed her hand, while two +big drops rolled from his eyes. They then embraced each other cordially. + +"Is thy wife dead?" inquired she. + +"I was never married," sobbed the other. + +"Heavens!" cried she, wringing her hands, "then it is I who have been +faithless! But no, not faithless. On returning from the country, where I +stayed two months, I heard from every one, thy friends as well as mine, +that thou wert long ago gone home, and married in thy own country. They +showed me the most convincing letters, they pressed me vehemently, they +profited by my despondency, my indignation; and so it was that I gave my +hand to another, a deserving husband; but my heart and my thoughts were +always thine." + +"I never left this town," said Ferdinand; "but after a while I heard +that thou wert married. They wished to part us, and they have succeeded. +Thou art a happy mother; I live in the past, and all thy children I will +love as if they were my own. But how strange that we should never once +have met!" + +"I seldom went abroad," said she; "and as my husband took another name, +soon after we were married, from a property which he inherited, thou +couldst have no suspicion that we were so near together." + +"I avoided men," said Ferdinand, "and lived for solitude. Leopold is +almost the only one that has attracted me, and led me out amongst my +fellows. O my beloved friend, it is like a frightful spectre-story, to +think how we lost, and have again found each other!" + +As the young people entered, the two were dissolved in tears, and in the +deepest emotion. Neither of them told what had occurred, the secret +seemed too holy. But ever after, the old man was the friend of the +house; and Death alone parted these two beings, who had found each other +so strangely, to reunite them in a short time, beyond the power of +separation. + + + + +JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. + + + + +ARMY-CHAPLAIN SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLAETZ; + +WITH + +A RUNNING COMMENTARY OF NOTES BY JEAN PAUL.[29] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This, I conceive, may be managed in two words. + +The _first_ word must relate to the Circular Letter of Army-chaplain +Schmelzle, wherein he describes to his friends his Journey to the +metropolitan city of Flaetz; after having, in an Introduction, premised +some proofs and assurances of his valour. Properly speaking, the +_Journey_ itself has been written purely with a view that his +courageousness, impugned by rumour, may be fully evinced and +demonstrated by the plain facts which he therein records. Whether, in +the mean-time, there shall not be found certain quick-scented readers, +who may infer, directly contrariwise, that his breast is not everywhere +bomb-proof, especially in the left side: on this point I keep my +judgment suspended. + + [29] Prefatory Introduction to Richter, _supra_, at p. 354, Vol. + VI. of _Works_ (Vol. I. of _Miscellanies_). + +For the rest, I beg the judges of literature, as well as their +satellites, the critics of literature, to regard this _Journey_, for +whose literary contents I, as Editor, am answerable, solely in the light +of a Portrait (in the French sense), a little Sketch of Character. It is +a voluntary or involuntary comedy-piece, at which I have laughed so +often, that I purpose in time coming to paint some similar Pictures of +Character myself. And, for the present, when could such a little comic +toy be more fitly imparted and set forth to the world, than in these +very days, when the sound both of heavy money and of light laughter has +died away from among us; when, like the Turks, we count and pay merely +with sealed _purses_, and the coin within them has vanished? + +Despicable would it seem to me, if any clownish squire of the +goose-quill should publicly and censoriously demand of me, in what way +this self-cabinet-piece of Schmelzle's has come into my hands? I know it +well, and do not disclose it. This comedy-piece, for which I, at all +events, as my Bookseller will testify, draw the profit myself, I got +hold of so unblamably, that I await, with unspeakable composure, what +the Army-chaplain shall please to say against the publication of it, in +case he say anything at all. My conscience bears me witness, that I +acquired this article, at least by more honourable methods than are +those of the learned persons who steal with their ears, who, in the +character of spiritual auditory-thieves, and classroom cutpurses and +pirates, are in the habit of disloading their plundered Lectures, and +vending them up and down the country as productions of their own. +Hitherto, in my whole life, I have stolen little, except now and then in +youth some--glances. + +The _second_ word must explain or apologise for the singular form of +this little Work, standing as it does on a substratum of Notes. I +myself am not contented with it. Let the World open, and look, and +determine, in like manner. But the truth is, this line of demarcation, +stretching through the whole book, originated in the following accident: +certain thoughts (or digressions) of my own, with which it was not +permitted me to disturb those of the Army-chaplain, and which could only +he allowed to fight behind the lines, in the shape of Notes, I, with a +view to conveniency and order, had written down in a separate paper; at +the same time, as will he observed, regularly providing every Note with +its Number, and thus referring it to the proper page of the main +Manuscript. But, in the copying of the latter, I had forgotten to insert +the corresponding numbers in the Text itself. Therefore, let no man, any +more than I do, cast a stone at my worthy Printer, inasmuch as he +(perhaps in the thought that it was my way, that I had some purpose in +it) took these Notes, just as they stood, pell-mell, without arrangement +of Numbers, and clapped them under the Text; at the same time, by a +praiseworthy artful computation, taking care at least, that, at the +bottom of every page in the Text, there should some portion of this +glittering Note-precipitate make its appearance. Well, the thing at any +rate is done, nay perpetuated, namely printed. After all, I might almost +partly rejoice at it. For, in good truth, had I meditated for years (as +I have done for the last twenty) how to provide for my digression-comets +new orbits, if not focal suns, for my episodes new epopees,--I could +scarce possibly have hit upon a better or more spacious Limbo for such +Vanities than Chance and Printer here accidentally offer me ready-made. +I have only to regret, that the thing has been printed, before I could +turn it to account. Heavens! what remotest allusions (had I known it +before printing) might not have been privily introduced in every +Text-page and Note-number; and what apparent incongruity in the real +congruity between this upper and under side of the cards! How vehemently +and devilishly might one not have cut aloft, and to the right and left, +from these impregnable casemates and covered ways; and what _laesio ultra +dimidium_ (injury beyond the half of the Text) might not, with these +satirical injuries, have been effected and completed! + +But Fate meant not so kindly with me: of this golden harvest-field of +satire I was not to be informed till three days before the Preface. + +Perhaps, however, the writing world, by the little blue flame of this +accident, may be guided to a weightier acquisition, to a larger +subterranean treasure, than I, alas, have dug up! For, to the writer, +there is now a way pointed out of producing in one marbled volume a +group of altogether different works; of writing in one leaf, for both +sexes at the same time, without confounding them, nay, for the five +faculties all at once, without disturbing their limitations; since now, +instead of boiling up a vile fermenting shove-together, fit for nobody, +he has nothing to do but draw his note-lines or partition-lines; and so +on his five-story leaf give board and lodging to the most discordant +heads. Perhaps one might then read many a book for the fourth time, +simply because every time one had read but a fourth part of it. + +On the whole, this Work has at least the property of being a short one; +so that the reader, I hope, may almost run through it, and read it at +the bookseller's counter, without, as in the case of thicker volumes, +first needing to buy it. And why, indeed, in this world of Matter should +anything whatever be great, except only what belongs not to it, the +world of Spirit? + + JEAN PAUL FR. RICHTER. + +_Bayreuth, in the Hay and Peace Month_, 1807. + + + + +SCHMELZLE'S JOURNEY TO FLAETZ. + + + _Circular Letter of the proposed Catechetical Professor_ ATTILA + SCHMELZLE _to his Friends; containing some Account of a Holidays' + Journey to Flaetz, with an Introduction, touching his Plight and his + Courage as former Army-chaplain._ + +Nothing can be more ludicrous, my esteemed Friends, than to hear people +stigmatising a man as cowardly and hare-hearted, who perhaps is +struggling all the while with precisely the opposite faults, those of a +lion; though indeed the African lion himself, since the time of +Sparrmann's Travels, passes among us for a poltroon. Yet this case is +mine, worthy Friends; and I purpose to say a few words thereupon, before +describing my Journey. + +You in truth are all aware that, directly in the teeth of this calumny, +it is courage, it is desperadoes (provided they be not braggarts and +tumultuous persons), whom I chiefly venerate; for example, my +brother-in-law, the Dragoon, who never in his life bastinadoed one man, +but always a whole social circle at the same time. How truculent was my +fancy, even in childhood, when I, as the parson was toning away to the +silent congregation, used to take it into my head: "How now, if thou +shouldst start up from the pew, and shout aloud: I am here too, Mr. +Parson!" and to paint out this thought in such glowing colours, that for +very dread, I have often been obliged to leave the church! Anything like +Rugenda's battle-pieces; horrid murder-tumults, sea-fights or Stormings +of Toulon, exploding fleets; and, in my childhood, Battles of Prague on +the harpsichord; nay, in short, every map of any remarkable scene of +war: these are perhaps too much my favourite objects; and I read--and +purchase nothing sooner; and doubtless, they might lead me into many +errors, were it not that, my circumstances restrain me. Now, if it be +objected that true courage is something higher than mere thinking and +willing, then you, my worthy Friends, will be the first to recognise +mine, when it shall break forth into, not barren and empty, but active +and effective words, while I strengthen my future Catechetical Pupils, +as well as can be done in a course of College Lectures, and steel them +into Christian heroes. + +[Note 103: Good princes easily obtain good subjects; not so easily +good subjects good princes: thus Adam, in the state of innocence, ruled +over animals all tame and gentle, till simply through his means they +fell and grew savage.] + +[Note 5: For a good Physician saves, if not always from the +disease, at least from a bad Physician.] + +It is well known that, out of care for the preservation of my life, I +never walk within at least ten fields of any shore full of bathers or +swimmers; merely because I foresee to a certainty, that in case one of +them were drowning, I should that moment (for the heart overbalances the +head) plunge after the fool to save him, into some bottomless depth or +other, where we should both perish. And if dreaming is the reflex of +waking, let me ask you, true Hearts, if you have forgotten my relating +to you dreams of mine, which no Caesar, no Alexander or Luther, need have +felt ashamed of? Have I not, to mention a few instances, taken Rome by +storm; and done battle with the Pope, and the whole elephantine body of +the Cardinal College, at one and the same time? Did I not once on +horseback, while simply looking at a review of military, dash headlong +into a _bataillon quarre_; and then capture, in Aix-la-Chapelle, the +Peruke of Charlemagne, for which the town pays yearly ten reichsthalers +of barber-money; and carrying it off to Halberstadt and Herr Gleim's, +there in like manner seize the Great Frederick's Hat; put both Peruke +and Hat on my head, and yet return home, after I had stormed their +batteries, and turned the cannon against the cannoneers themselves? Did +I not once submit to be made a Jew of, and then be regaled with hams; +though they were ape-hams on the Orinocco (see Humboldt)? And a thousand +such things; for I have thrown the Consistorial President of Flaetz; out +of the Palace window; those alarm-fulminators, sold by Heinrich Backofen +in Gotha, at six groschen the dozen, and each going off like a cannon, I +have listened to so calmly that the fulminators did not even awaken me; +and more of the like sort. + +But enough! It is now time briefly to touch that farther slander of my +chaplainship, which unhappily has likewise gained some circulation in +Flaetz, but which, as Caesar did Alexander, I shall now by my touch +dissipate into dust. Be what truth in it there can, it is still little +or nothing. Your great Minister and General in Flaetz (perhaps the very +greatest in the world, for there are not many Schabackers) may indeed, +like any other great man, be turned against me, but not with the +Artillery of Truth; for this Artillery I here set before you, my good +Hearts, and do you but fire it off for my advantage! The matter is this: +Certain foolish rumours are afloat in the Flaetz country, that I, on +occasion of some important battles, took leg-bail (such is their +plebeian phrase), and that afterwards, on the chaplain's being +called-for to preach a Thanksgiving sermon for the victory, no chaplain +whatever was to be found. The ridiculousness of this story will best +appear, when I tell you that I never was in any action; but have always +been accustomed, several hours prior to such an event, to withdraw so +many miles to the rear, that our men, so soon as they were beaten, would +be sure to find me. A good retreat is reckoned the masterpiece in the +art of war; and at no time can a retreat be executed with such order, +force and security, as just before the battle, when you are not yet +beaten. + +[Note 100: In books lie the Phoenix-ashes of a past Millennium +and Paradise; but War blows, and much ashes are scattered away.] + +[Note 102: Dear Political or Religious Inquisitor! art thou aware +that Turin tapers never rightly begin shining, till thou breakest them, +and then they take fire?] + +It is true, I might perhaps, as expectant Professor of Catechetics, sit +still and smile at such nugatory speculations on my courage; for if by +Socratic questioning I can hammer my future Catechist Pupils into the +habit of asking questions in their turn, I shall thereby have tempered +_them_ into heroes, seeing they have nothing to fight with but +children--(Catechists at all events, though dreading fire, have no +reason to dread light, since in our days, as in London illuminations, it +is only the _unlighted_ windows that are battered in; whereas, in other +ages, it was with nations and light, as it is with dogs and water; if +you give them none for a long time, they at last get a horror at +it);--and on the whole, for Catechists, any park looks kindlier, and +smiles more sweetly, than a sulphurous park of artillery; and the +Warlike Foot, which the age is placed on, is to them the true Devil's +cloven-foot of human nature. + +But for my part I think not so: almost as if the party-spirit influence +of my christian name, Attila, had passed into me more strongly than was +proper, I feel myself impelled still farther to prove my courageousness; +which, dearest Friends! I shall here in a few lines again do. This +proof I could manage by mere inferences and learned citations. For +example, if Galen remarks that animals with large hind-quarters are +timid, I have nothing to do but turn round, and show the enemy my back, +and what is under it, in order to convince him that I am not deficient +in valour, but in flesh. Again, if by well-known experiences it has been +found that flesh-eating produces courage, I can evince, that in this +particular I yield to no officer of the service; though it is the habit +of these gentlemen not only to run up long scores of roast-meat with +their landlords, but also to leave them unpaid, that so at every hour +they may have an open document in the hands of the enemy himself (the +landlord), testifying that they have eaten their own share (with some of +other people's too), and so put common butcher's-meat on a War-footing, +living not like others _by_ bravery, but _for_ bravery. As little have I +ever, in my character of chaplain, shrunk from comparison with any +officer in the regiment, who may be a true lion, and so snatch every +sort of plunder, but yet, like this King of the Beasts, is afraid of +_fire_; or who,--like King James of England, that scampered off at sight +of drawn swords, yet so much the more gallantly, before all Europe, went +out against the storming Luther with book and pen,[2]--does, from a +similar idiosyncrasy, attack all warlike armaments, both by word and +writing. And here I recollect with satisfaction a brave sub-lieutenant, +whose confessor I was (he still owes me the confession-money), and who, +in respect of stout-heartedness, had in him perhaps something of that +Indian dog which Alexander had presented to him, as a sort of +Dog-Alexander. By way of trying this crack dog, the Macedonian made +various heroic or heraldic beasts be let loose against him: first a +stag; but the dog lay still: then a sow; he lay still: then a bear; he +lay still. Alexander was on the point of condemning him; when a lion was +let forth: the dog rose, and tore the lion in pieces. So likewise the +sub-lieutenant. A challenger, a foreign enemy, a Frenchman, are to him +only stag, and sow, and bear, and he lies still in his place; but let +his oldest enemy, his creditor, come and knock at his gate, and demand +of him actual smart-money for long bygone pleasures, thus presuming to +rob him both of past and present; the sub-lieutenant rises, and throws +his creditor down stairs. I, alas, am still standing by the sow; and +thus, naturally enough, misunderstood. + +[Note 86: Very true! In youth we love and enjoy the most +ill-assorted friends, perhaps more than, in old age, the best-assorted.] + +[Note 128: In Love there are Summer Holidays; but in Marriage also +there are Winter Holidays, I hope.] + +[Note 143: Women have weekly at least one active and passive day of +glory, the holy day, the Sunday. The higher ranks alone have more +Sundays than workdays; as in great towns, you can celebrate your Sunday +on Friday with the Turks, on Saturday with the Jews, and on Sunday with +yourself.] + +[Note 2: The good Professor of Catechetics is out here. _Indignor +quandoque bonus dormitat Schmelzlaeus!_--ED.] + +_Quo_, says Livy, xii. 5, and with great justice, _quo timoris minus +est, eo minus ferme periculi est_, The less fear you have, the less +danger you are likely to be in. With equal justice I invert the maxim, +and say: The less the danger, the smaller the fear; nay, there may be +situations, in which one has absolutely no knowledge of fear; and, among +these, mine is to be reckoned. The more hateful, therefore, must that +calumny about hare-heartedness appear to me. + +To my Holidays' Journey I shall prefix a few facts, which prove how +easily foresight--that is to say, when a person would not resemble the +stupid marmot, that will even attack a man on horseback--may pass for +cowardice. For the rest, I wish only that I could with equal ease wipe +away a quite different reproach, that of being a foolhardy desperado; +though I trust, in the sequel, I shall be able to advance some facts +which invalidate it. + +What boots the heroic arm, without a hero's eye? The former readily +grows stronger and more nervous; but the latter is not so soon ground +sharper, like glasses. Nevertheless, the merits of foresight obtain from +the mass of men less admiration (nay, I should say, more ridicule) than +those of courage. Whoso, for instance, shall see me walking under quite +cloudless skies, with a wax-cloth umbrella over me, to him I shall +probably appear ridiculous, so long as he is not aware that I carry this +umbrella as a thunder-screen, to keep off any bolt out of the blue +heaven (whereof there are several examples in the history of the Middle +Ages) from striking me to death. My thunder-screen, in fact, is exactly +that of Reimarus: on a long walking-stick, I carry the wax-cloth roof; +from the peak of which depends a string of gold-lace as a conductor; and +this, by means of a key fastened to it, which it trails along the +ground, will lead off every possible bolt, and easily distribute it over +the whole superficies of the Earth. With this _Paratonnerre Portatif_ +in my hand, I can walk about for weeks, under the clear sky, without the +smallest danger. This Diving-bell, moreover, protects me against +something else; against shot. For who, in the latter end of Harvest, +will give me black on white that no lurking ninny of a sportsman +somewhere, when I am out enjoying Nature, shall so fire off his piece, +at an angle of 45 deg., that in falling down again, the shot needs only +light directly on my crown, and so come to the same as if I had been +shot through the brain from a side? + +[Note 21: Schiller and Klopstock are Poetic Mirrors held up to the +Sun-god: the Mirrors reflect the Sun with such dazzling brightness, that +you cannot find the Picture of the World imaged forth in them.] + +It is bad enough, at any rate, that we have nothing to guard us from the +Moon; which at present is bombarding us with stones like a very Turk: +for this paltry little Earth's trainbearer and errand-maid thinks, in +these rebellious times, that she too must begin, forsooth, to sling +somewhat against her Mother! In good truth, as matters stand, any young +Catechist of feeling may go out o' nights, with whole limbs, into the +moonshine, a-meditating; and ere long (in the midst of his meditation +the villanous Satellite hits him) come home a pounded jelly. By heaven! +new proofs of courage are required of us on every hand! No sooner have +we, with great effort, got thunder-rods manufactured, and comet-tails +explained away, than the enemy opens new batteries in the Moon, or +somewhere else in the Blue! + +Suffice one other story to manifest how ludicrous the most serious +foresight, with all imaginable inward courage, often externally appears +in the eyes of the many. Equestrians are well acquainted with the +dangers of a horse that runs away. My evil star would have it, that I +should once in Vienna get upon a hack-horse; a pretty enough +honey-coloured nag, but old and hard-mouthed as Satan; so that the +beast, in the next street, went off with me; and this in truth--only at +a _walk_. No pulling, no tugging, took effect; I, at last, on the back +of this Self-riding-horse, made signals of distress, and cried: "Stop +him, good people, for God's sake stop him, my horse is off!" But these +simple persons seeing the beast move along as slowly as a Reichshofrath +law-suit, or the Daily Postwagen, could not in the least understand the +matter, till I cried as if possessed: "Stop him then, ye blockheads and +joltheads; don't you see that I cannot hold the nag?" But now, to these +noodles, the sight of a hard-mouthed horse going off with its rider step +by step, seemed ridiculous rather than otherwise; half Vienna gathered +itself like a comet-tail behind my beast and me. Prince Kaunitz, the +best horseman of the century (the last), pulled up to follow me. I +myself sat and swam like a perpendicular piece of drift-ice on my +honey-coloured nag, which stalked on, on, step by step: a many-cornered, +red-coated letter-carrier, was delivering his letters, to the right and +left, in the various stories, and he still crossed over before me again, +with satirical features, because the nag went along too slowly. The +Schwanzschleuderer, or Train-dasher (the person, as you know, who drives +along the streets with a huge barrel of water, and besplashes them with +a leathern pipe of three ells long from an iron trough), came across the +haunches of my horse, and, in the course of his duty, wetted both these +and myself in a very cooling manner, though, for my part, I had too much +cold sweat on me already, to need any fresh refrigeration. On my +infernal Trojan Horse (only I myself was Troy, not beridden but riding +to destruction), I arrived at Malzlein (a suburb of Vienna), or perhaps, +so confused were my senses, it might be quite another range of streets. +At last, late in the dusk, I had to turn into the Prater; and here, long +after the Evening Gun, to my horror, and quite against the police-rules, +keep riding to and fro on my honey-coloured nag; and possibly I might +even have passed the night on him, had not my brother-in-law, the +Dragoon, observed my plight, and so found me still sitting firm as a +rock on my runaway steed. He made no ceremonies; caught the brute; and +put the pleasant question: Why I had not vaulted, and come off by +ground-and-lofty tumbling? though he knew full well, that for this a +wooden-horse, which stands still, is requisite. However, he took me +down; and so, after all this riding, horse and man got home with whole +skins and unbroken bones. + +But now at last to my Journey! + +[Note 34: Women are like precious carved works of ivory; nothing is +whiter and smoother, and nothing sooner grows _yellow_.] + +[Note 72: The Half-learned is adored by the Quarter-learned; the +latter by the Sixteenth-part-learned; and so on; but not the +Whole-learned by the Half-learned.] + + +_Journey to Flaetz_. + +You are aware, my friends, that this Journey to Flaetz was necessarily to +take place in Vacation time; not only because the Cattle-market, and +consequently the Minister and General von Schabacker, was there then; +but more especially, because the latter (as I had it positively from a +private hand) did annually, on the 23d of July, the market-eve, about +five o'clock, become so full of gaudium and graciousness, that in many +cases he did not so much snarl on people, as listen to them, and grant +their prayers. The cause of this gaudium I had rather not trust to +paper. In short, my Petition, praying that he would be pleased to +indemnify and reward me, as an unjustly deposed Army-chaplain, by a +Catechetical Professorship, could plainly be presented to him at no +better season, than exactly about five o'clock in the evening of the +first dog-day. In less than a week, I had finished writing my Petition. +As I spared neither summaries nor copies of it, I had soon got so far as +to see the relatively best lying completed before me; when, to my +terror, I observed, that, in this paper, I had introduced above thirty +_dashes_, or breaks, in the middle of my sentences! Nowadays, alas, +these stings shoot forth involuntarily from learned pens, as from the +tails of wasps. I debated long within myself whether a private scholar +could justly be entitled to approach a minister with dashes,--greatly as +this level interlineation of thoughts, these horizontal note-marks of +poetical _music_-pieces, and these rope-ladders or Achilles' tendons of +philosophical _see_-pieces, are at present fashionable and +indispensable: but, at last, I was obliged (as erasures may offend +people of quality) to write my best proof-petition over again; and then +to afflict myself for another quarter of an hour over the name Attila +Schmelzle, seeing it is always my principle that this and the address of +the letter, the two cardinal points of the whole, can never be written +legibly enough. + +[Note 35: _Bien ecouter c'est presque repondre_, says Marivaux +justly of social circles: but I extend it to round Councillor-tables and +Cabinet-tables, where reports are made, and the Prince listens.] + + +_First Stage; from Neusattel to Vierstaedten._ + +The 22d of July, or Wednesday, about five in the afternoon, was now, by +the way-bill of the regular Post-coach, irrevocably fixed for my +departure. I had still half a day to order my house; from which, for two +nights and two days and a half, my breast, its breastwork and palisado, +was now, along with my Self, to be withdrawn. Besides this, my good wife +Bergelchen, as I call my Teutoberga, was immediately to travel after me, +on Friday the 24th, in order to see and to make purchases at the yearly +Fair; nay, she was ready to have gone along with me, the faithful +spouse. I therefore assembled my little knot of domestics, and +promulgated to them the Household Law and Valedictory Rescript, which, +after my departure, in the first place _before_ the outset of my wife, +and in the second place _after_ this outset, they had rigorously to +obey; explaining to them especially whatever, in case of conflagrations, +house-breakings, thunder-storms, or transits of troops, it would behove +them to do. To my wife I delivered an inventory of the best goods in our +little Registership; which goods she, in case the house took fire, had, +in the first place, to secure. I ordered her, in stormy nights (the +peculiar thief-weather), to put our Eolian harp in the window, that so +any villanous prowler might imagine I was fantasying on my instrument, +and therefore awake: for like reasons, also, to take the house-dog +within doors by day, that he might sleep then, and so be livelier at +night. I farther counselled her to have an eye on the focus of every +knot in the panes of the stable-window, nay, on every glass of water she +might set down in the house; as I had already often recounted to her +examples of such accidental burning-glasses having set whole buildings +in flames. I then appointed her the hour when she was to set out on +Friday morning to follow me; and recapitulated more emphatically the +household precepts, which, prior to her departure, she must afresh +inculcate on her domestics. My dear, heart-sound, blooming Berga +answered her faithful lord, as it seemed very seriously: "Go thy ways, +little old one; it shall all be done as smooth as velvet. Wert thou but +away! There is no end of thee!" Her brother, my brother-in-law the +Dragoon, for whom, out of complaisance, I had paid the coach-fare, in +order to have in the vehicle along with me a stout swordsman and hector, +as spiritual relative and bully-rock, so to speak; the Dragoon, I say, +on hearing these my regulations, puckered up (which I easily forgave the +wild soldier and bachelor) his sunburnt face considerably into ridicule, +and said: "Were I in thy place, sister, I should do what I liked, and +then afterwards take a peep into these regulation-papers of his." + +[Note 17: The Bed of Honour, since so frequently whole regiments +lie on it, and receive their last unction, and last honour but one, +really ought from time to time to be new-filled, beaten and sunned.] + +[Note 120: Many a one becomes a free-spoken Diogenes, not when he +dwells in the Cask, but when the Cask dwells in him.] + +[Note 3: Culture makes whole lands, for instance Germany, Gaul, and +others, physically warmer, but spiritually colder.] + +"O!" answered I, "misfortune may conceal itself like a scorpion in any +corner: I might say, we are like children, who, looking at their gaily +painted toy-box, soon pull off the lid, and, pop! out springs a mouse +who has young ones." + +"Mouse, mouse!" said he, stepping up and down. "But, good brother, it is +five o'clock; and you will find, when you return, that all looks exactly +as it does today; the dog like the dog, and my sister like a pretty +woman: _allons donc!_" It was purely his blame that I, fearing his +misconceptions, had not previously made a sort of testament. + +I now packed-in two different sorts of medicines, heating as well as +cooling, against two different possibilities; also my old splints for +arm or leg breakages, in case the coach overset; and (out of foresight) +two times the money I was likely to need. Only here I could have wished, +so uncertain is the stowage of such things, that I had been an Ape with +cheek-pouches, or some sort of Opossum with a natural bag, that so I +might have reposited these necessaries of existence in pockets which +were sensitive. Shaving is a task I always go through before setting out +on journeys; having a rational mistrust against stranger bloodthirsty +barbers: but, on this occasion, I retained my beard; since, however +close shaved, it would have grown again by the road to such a length +that I could have fronted no Minister and General with it. + +With a vehement emotion, I threw myself on the pith-heart of my Berga, +and, with a still more vehement one, tore myself away: in her, however, +this our first marriage-separation seemed to produce less lamentation +than triumph, less consternation than rejoicing; simply because she +turned her eye not half so much on the parting, as on the meeting, and +the journey after me, and the wonders of the Fair. Yet she threw and +hung herself on my somewhat long and thin neck and body, almost +painfully, being indeed a too fleshy and weighty load, and said to me: +"Whisk thee off quick, my charming Attel (Attila), and trouble thy head +with no cares by the way, thou singular man! A whiff or two of ill luck +we can stand, by God's help, so long as my father is no beggar. And for +thee, Franz," continued she, turning with some heat to her brother, "I +leave my Attel on thy soul: thou well knowest, thou wild fly, what I +will do, if thou play the fool, and leave him anywhere in the lurch." +Her meaning here was good, and I could not take it ill: to you also, my +Friends, her wealth and her open-heartedness are nothing new. + +[Note 1: The more Weakness the more Lying: Force goes straight; any +cannonball with holes or cavities in it goes crooked.] + +Melted into sensibility, I said: "Now, Berga, if there be a reunion +appointed for us, surely it is either in Heaven or in Flaetz; and I hope +in God, the latter." With these words, we whirled stoutly away. I looked +round through the back-window of the coach at my good little village of +Neusattel, and it seemed to me, in my melting mood, as if its steeples +were rising aloft like an epitaphium over my life, or over my body, +perhaps to return a lifeless corpse. "How will it all be," thought I, +"when thou at last, after two or three days, comest back?" And now I +noticed my Bergelchen looking after us from the garret-window. I leaned +far out from the coach-door, and her falcon eye instantly distinguished +my head; kiss on kiss she threw with both hands after the carriage, as +it rolled down into the valley. "Thou true-hearted wife," thought I, +"how is thy lowly birth, by thy spiritual new-birth, made forgettable, +nay remarkable!" + +I must confess, the assemblage and conversational picnic of the +stage-coach was much less to my taste: the whole of them suspicious, +unknown rabble, whom (as markets usually do) the Flaetz cattle-market was +alluring by its scent. I dislike becoming acquainted with strangers: not +so my brother-in-law, the Dragoon; who now, as he always does, had in a +few minutes elbowed himself into close quarters with the whole +ragamuffin posse of them. Beside me sat a person who, in all human +probability, was a Harlot; on her breast, a Dwarf intending to exhibit +himself at the Fair; on the other side was a Ratcatcher gazing at me; +and a Blind Passenger,[3] in a red mantle, had joined us down in the +valley. No one of them, except my brother-in-law, pleased me. That +rascals among these people would not study me and my properties and +accidents, to entangle me in their snares, no man could be my surety. +In strange places, I even, out of prudence, avoid looking long up at any +jail-window; because some losel, sitting behind the bars, may in a +moment call down out of mere malice: "How goes it, comrade Schmelzle?" +or farther, because any lurking catchpole may fancy I am planning a +rescue for some confederate above. From another sort of prudence, little +different from this, I also make a point of never turning round when any +booby calls, Thief! behind me. + +[Note 38: Epictetus advises us to travel, because our old +acquaintances, by the influence of shame, impede our transition to +higher virtues; as a bashful man will rather lay aside his provincial +accent in some foreign quarter, and then return wholly purified to his +own countrymen: in our days, people of rank and virtue follow this +advice, but inversely; and travel because their old acquaintances, by +the influence of shame, would too much deter them from new sins.] + +[Note 3: 'Live Passenger,' 'Nip;' a passenger taken up only by +Jarvie's authority, and for Jarvie's profit.--ED.] + +As to the Dwarf himself, I had no objection to his travelling with me +whithersoever he pleased; but he thought to raise a particular +delectation in our minds, by promising that his Pollux and Brother in +Trade, an extraordinary Giant, who was also making for the Fair to +exhibit himself, would by midnight, with his elephantine pace, +infallibly overtake the coach, and plant himself among us, or behind on +the outside. Both these noodles, it appeared, are in the habit of going +in company to fairs, as reciprocal exaggerators of opposite magnitudes: +the Dwarf is the convex magnifying-glass of the Giant, the Giant the +concave diminishing-glass of the Dwarf. Nobody expressed much joy at the +prospective arrival of this Anti-dwarf, except my brother-in-law, who +(if I may venture on a play of words) seems made, like a clock, solely +for the purpose of _striking_, and once actually said to me: "That if in +the Upper world he could not get a soul to curry and towzle by a time, +he would rather go to the Under, where most probably there would be +plenty of cuffing and to spare." The Ratcatcher, besides the +circumstance that no man can prepossess us much in his favour, who lives +solely by poisoning, like this Destroying Angel of rats, this +mouse-Atropos; and also, which is still worse, that such a fellow bids +fair to become an increaser of the vermin kingdom, the moment he may +cease to be a lessener of it; besides all this, I say, the present +Ratcatcher had many baneful features about him: first, his stabbing +look, piercing you like a stiletto; then the lean sharp bony visage, +conjoined with his enumeration of his considerable stock of poisons; +then (for I hated him more and more) his sly stillness, his sly smile, +as if in some corner he noticed a mouse, as he would notice a man! To +me, I declare, though usually I take not the slightest exception against +people's looks, it seemed at last as if his throat were a Dog-grotto, a +_Grotta del cane_, his cheek-bones cliffs and breakers, his hot breath +the wind of a calcining furnace, and his black hairy breast a kiln for +parching and roasting. + +[Note 32: Our Age (by some called the Paper Age, as if it were made +from the rags of some better-dressed one) is improving in so far, as it +now tears its rags rather into Bandages than into Papers; although, or +because, the Rag-hacker (the Devil as they call it) will not altogether +be at rest. Meanwhile, if Learned Heads transform themselves into Books, +Crowned Heads transform and coin themselves into Government-paper: in +Norway, according to the _Universal Indicator_, the people have even +paper-houses; and in many good German States, the Exchequer Collegium +(to say nothing of the Justice Collegium) keeps its own paper-mills, to +furnish wrappage enough for the meal of its wind-mills. I could wish, +however, that our Collegiums would take pattern from that Glass +Manufactory at Madrid, in which (according to Baumgartner) there were +indeed nineteen clerks stationed, but also eleven workmen.] + +Nor was I far wrong, I believe; for soon after this, he began quite +coolly to inform the company, in which were a dwarf and a female, that, +in his time, he had, not without enjoyment, run ten men through the +body; had with great convenience hewed off a dozen men's arms; slowly +split four heads, torn out two hearts, and more of the like sort; while +none of them, otherwise persons of spirit, had in the least resisted: +"but why?" added he, with a poisonous smile, and taking the hat from his +odious bald pate: "I am invulnerable. Let any one of the company that +chooses lay as much fire on my bare crown as he likes, I shall not mind +it." + +My brother-in-law, the Dragoon, directly kindled his tinder-box, and put +a heap of the burning matter on the Ratcatcher's pole; but the fellow +stood it, as if it had been a mere picture of fire, and the two looked +expectingly at one another; and the former smiled very foolishly, +saying: "It was simply pleasant to him, like a good warming-plaster; for +this was always the wintry region of his body." + +Here the Dragoon groped a little on the naked scull, and cried with +amazement, that "it was as cold as a knee-pan." + +But now the fellow, to our horror, after some preparations, actually +lifted off the quarter-scull and held it out to us, saying: "He had +sawed it off a murderer, his own having accidentally been broken;" and +withal explained, that the stabbing and arm-cutting he had talked of was +to be understood as a jest, seeing he had merely done it in the +character of Famulus at an Anatomical Theatre. However, the jester +seemed to rise little in favour with any of us; and for my part, as he +put his brain-lid and sham-scull on again, I thought to myself; "This +dungbed-bell has changed its place indeed, but not the hemlock it was +made to cover." + +Farther, I could not but reckon it a suspicious circumstance, that he as +well as all the company (the Blind Passenger too) were making for this +very Flaetz, to which I myself was bound: much good I could not expect of +this; and, in truth, turning home again would have been as pleasant to +me as going on, had I not rather felt a pleasure in defying the future. + +I come now to the red-mantled Blind Passenger; most probably an _Emigre_ +or _Refugie_; for he speaks German not worse than he does French; and +his name, I think, was _Jean Pierre_ or _Jean Paul_, or some such thing, +if indeed he had any name. His red cloak, notwithstanding this his +identity of colour with the Hangman, would in itself have remained +heartily indifferent to me, had it not been for this singular +circumstance, that he had already five times, contrary to all +expectation, come upon me in five different towns (in great Berlin, in +little Hof, in Coburg, Meiningen and Bayreuth), and each of these times +had looked at me significantly enough, and then gone his ways. Whether +this _Jean Pierre_ is dogging me with hostile intent or not, I cannot +say; but to our fancy, at any rate, no object can be gratifying that +thus, with corps of observation, or out of loopholes, holds and aims at +us with muskets, which for year after year it shall move to this side +and that, without our knowing on whom it is to fire. Still more +offensive did Redcloak become to me, when he began to talk about his +soft mildness of soul; a thing which seemed either to betoken pumping +you or undermining you. + +I replied: "Sir, I am just come, with my brother-in-law here, from the +field of battle (the last affair was at Pimpelstadt), and so perhaps am +too much of a humour for fire, pluck and war-fury; and to many a one, +who happens to have a roaring waterspout of a heart, it may be well if +his clerical character (which is mine) rather enjoins on him mildness +than wildness. However, all mildness has its iron limit. If any +thoughtless dog chance to anger me, in the first heat of rage I kick my +foot through him; and after me, my good brother here will perhaps drive +matters twice as far, for he is the man to do it. Perhaps it may be +singular; but I confess I regret to this day, that once when a boy I +received three blows from another, without tightly returning them; and +I often feel as if I must still pay them to his descendants. In sooth, +if I but chance to see a child running off like a dastard from the weak +attack of a child like himself, I cannot for my life understand his +running, and can scarcely keep from interfering to save him by a +decisive knock." + +[Note 2: In his Prince, a soldier reverences and obeys at once his +Prince and his Generalissimo; a Citizen only his Prince.] + +The Passenger meanwhile was smiling, not in the best fashion. He gave +himself out for a Legations-Rath, and seemed fox enough for such a post; +but a mad fox will, in the long-run, bite me as rabidly as a mad wolf +will. For the rest, I calmly went on with my eulogy on courage; only +that, instead of ludicrous gasconading, which directly betrays the +coward, I purposely expressed myself in words at once cool, clear and +firm. + +"I am altogether for Montaigne's advice," said I: "Fear nothing but +fear." + +"I again," replied the Legations-man, with useless wire-drawing, "I +should fear again that I did not sufficiently fear fear, but continued +too dastardly." + +"To this fear also," replied I coldly, "I set limits. A man, for +instance, may not in the least believe in, or be afraid of ghosts; and +yet by night may bathe himself in cold sweat, and this purely out of +terror at the dreadful fright he should be in (especially with what +whiffs of apoplexies, falling-sicknesses and so forth, he might be +visited), in case simply his own too vivid fancy should create any wild +fever-image, and hang it up in the air before him." + +"One should not, therefore," added my brother-in-law the Dragoon, +contrary to his custom, moralising a little, "one should not bamboozle +the poor sheep, man, with any ghost-tricks; the hen-heart may die on the +spot." + +A loud storm of thunder, overtaking the stage-coach, altered the +discourse. You, my Friends, knowing me as a man not quite destitute of +some tincture of Natural Philosophy, will easily guess my precautions +against thunder. I place myself on a chair in the middle of the room +(often, when suspicious clouds are out, I stay whole nights on it), and +by careful removal of all conductors, rings, buckles, and so forth, I +here sit thunder-proof, and listen with a cool spirit to this elemental +music of the cloud-kettledrum. These precautions have never harmed me, +for I am still alive at this date; and to the present hour I +congratulate myself on once hurrying out of church, though I had +confessed but the day previous; and running, without more ceremony, and +before I had received the sacrament, into the charnel-house, because a +heavy thunder-cloud (which did, in fact, strike the churchyard +linden-tree) was hovering over it. So soon as the cloud had disloaded +itself, I returned from the charnel-house into the church, and was happy +enough to come in after the Hangman (usually the last), and so still +participate in the Feast of Love. + +[Note 45: Our present writers shrug their shoulders most at those +on whose shoulders they stand; and exalt those most who crawl up along +them.] + +Such, for my own part, is my manner of proceeding: but in the full +stage-coach I met with men to whom Natural Philosophy was no philosophy +at all. For when the clouds gathered dreadfully together over our +coach-canopy, and sparkling, began to play through the air like so many +fire-flies, and I at last could not but request that the sweating +coach-conclave would at least bring out their watches, rings, money and +suchlike, and put them all into one of the carriage-pockets, that none +of us might have a conductor on his body; not only would no one of them +do it, but my own brother-in-law the Dragoon even sprang out, with naked +drawn sword, to the coach-box, and swore that he would conduct the +thunder all away himself. Nor do I know whether this desperate mortal +was not acting prudently; for our position within was frightful, and any +one of us might every moment be a dead man. At last, to crown all, I got +into a half altercation with two of the rude members of our leathern +household, the Poisoner and the Harlot; seeing, by their questions, they +almost gave me to understand that, in our conversational picnic, +especially with the Blind Passenger, I had not always come off with the +best share. Such an imputation wounds your honour to the quick; and in +my breast there was a thunder louder than that above us: however, I was +obliged to carry on the needful exchange of sharp words as quietly and +slowly as possible; and I quarrelled softly, and in a low tone, lest in +the end a whole coachful of people, set in arms against each other, +might get into heat and perspiration; and so, by vapour steaming through +the coach-roof, conduct the too-near thunderbolt down into the midst of +us. At last, I laid before the company the whole theory of Electricity, +in clear words, but low and slow (striving to avoid all emission of +vapour); and especially endeavoured to frighten them away from fear. For +indeed, through fear, the stroke--nay two strokes, the electric or the +apoplectic--might hit any one of us; since in Erxleben and Reimarus, it +is sufficiently proved, that violent fear, by the transpiration it +causes, may attract the lightning. I accordingly, in some fear of my own +and other people's fear, represented to the passengers that now, in a +coach so hot and crowded, with a drawn sword on the coach-box piercing +the very lightning, with the thunder-cloud hanging over us, and even +with so many transpirations from incipient fear; in short, with such +visible danger on every hand, they must absolutely fear nothing, if they +would not, all and sundry, be smitten to death in a few minutes. + +[Note 103: The Great perhaps take as good charge of their posterity +as the Ants: the eggs once laid, the male and female Ants fly about +their business, and confide them to the trusty _working-Ants_.] + +[Note 10: And does Life offer us, in regard to our ideal hopes and +purposes, anything but a prosaic, unrhymed, unmetrical Translation?] + +"O Heaven!" cried I, "Courage! only courage! No fear, not even fear of +fear! Would you have Providence to shoot you here sitting, like so many +hares hunted into a pinfold? Fear, if you like, when you are out of the +coach; fear to your heart's content in other places, where there is less +to be afraid of; only not here, not here!" + +I shall not determine--since among millions scarcely one man dies by +thunder-clouds, but millions perhaps by snow-clouds, and rain-clouds, +and thin mist--whether my Coach-sermon could have made any claim to a +prize for man-saving; however, at last, all uninjured, and driving +towards a rainbow, we entered the town of Vierstaedten, where dwelt a +Postmaster, in the only street which the place had. + + +_Second Stage; from Vierstaedten to Niederschoena._ + +The Postmaster was a churl and a striker; a class of mortals whom I +inexpressibly detest, as my fancy always whispers to me, in their +presence, that by accident or dislike I might happen to put on a +scornful or impertinent look, and hound these mastiffs on my own throat; +and so, from the very first, I must incessantly watch them. Happily, in +this case (supposing I even had made a wrong face), I could have +shielded myself with the Dragoon; for whose giant force such matter are +a tidbit. This brother-in-law of mine, for example, cannot pass any +tavern where he hears a sound of battle, without entering, and, as he +crosses the threshold, shouting: "Peace, dogs!"--and therewith, under +show of a peace-deputation, he directly snatches up the first chair-leg +in his hand, as if it were an American peace-calumet, and cuts to the +right and left among the belligerent powers, or he gnashes the hard +heads of the parties together (he himself takes no side), catching each +by the hind-lock; in such cases the rogue is in Heaven! + +[Note 78: Our German frame of Government, cased in its harness, had +much difficulty in moving, for the same reason why Beetles cannot fly, +when their _wings_ have _wing-shells_, of very sufficient strength, +and--grown together.] + +[Note 8: Constitutions of Government are like highways: on a new +and quite untrodden one, where every carriage helps in the process of +bruising and smoothing, you are as much jolted and pitched as on an old +worn-out one, full of holes? What is to be done then? Travel on.] + +I, for my part, rather avoid discrepant circles than seek them; as I +likewise avoid all dead or killed people: the prudent man easily +foresees what is to be got by them; either vexatious and injurious +witnessing, or often even (when circumstances conspire) painful +investigation, and suspicions of your being an accomplice. + +In Vierstaedten, nothing of importance presented itself, except--to my +horror--a dog without tail, which came running along the town or street. +In the first fire of passion at this sight, I pointed it out to the +passengers, and then put the question, Whether they could reckon a +system of Medical Police well arranged, which, like this of Vierstaedten, +allowed dogs openly to scour about, when their tails were wanting? "What +am I to do," said I, "when this member is cut away, and any such beast +comes running towards me, and I cannot, either by the tail being cocked +up or being drawn in, since the whole is snipt off, come to any +conclusion whether the vermin is mad or not? In this way, the most +prudent man may be bit, and become rabid, and so make shipwreck purely +for want of a tail-compass." + +The Blind Passenger (he now got himself inscribed as a Seeing one, God +knows for what objects) had heard my observation; which he now spun out +in my presence almost into ridicule, and at last awakened in me the +suspicion, that by an overdone flattery in imitating my style of speech, +he meant to banter me. "The Dog-tail," said he, "is, in truth, an +alarm-beacon, and finger-post for us, that we come not even into the +outmost precincts of madness: cut away from Comets their tails, from +Bashaws theirs, from Crabs theirs (outstretched it denotes that they are +burst); and in the most dangerous predicaments of life we are left +without clew, without indicator, without hand _in margine_; and we +perish, not so much as knowing how." + +[Note 3: In Criminal Courts, murdered children are often +represented as still-born; in Anticritiques, still-born as murdered.] + +[Note 101: Not only were the Rhodians, from their Colossus, called +Colossians; but also innumerable Germans are, from their Luther, called +Lutherans.] + +For the rest, this stage passed over without quarrelling or peril. About +ten o'clock, the whole party, including even the Postillion, myself +excepted, fell asleep. I indeed pretended to be sleeping, that I might +observe whether some one, for his own good reasons, might not also be +pretending it; but all continued snoring; the moon threw its brightening +beams on nothing but down-pressed eyelids. + +I had now a glorious opportunity of following Lavater's counsel, to +apply the physiognomical ellwand specially to sleepers, since sleep, +like death, expresses the genuine form in coarser lines. Other sleepers +not in stage-coaches I think it less advisable to mete with this +ellwand; having always an apprehension lest some fellow, but pretending +to be asleep, may, the instant I am near enough, start up as in a dream, +and deceitfully plant such a knock on the physiognomical mensurator's +own facial structure, as to exclude it forever from appearing in any +Physiognomical Fragments (itself being reduced to one), either in the +stippled or line style. Nay, might not the most honest sleeper in the +world, just while you are in hand with his physiognomical dissection, +lay about him, spurred on by honour in some cudgelling-scene he may be +dreaming; and in a few instants of clapper-clawing, and kicking, and +trampling, lull you into a much more lasting sleep than that out of +which he was awakened? + +In my _Adumbrating Magic-lantern_, as I have named the Work, the whole +physiognomical contents of this same sleeping stage-coach will be given +to the world: there I shall explain to you at large how the Poisoner, +with the murder-cupola, appeared to me devil-like; the Dwarf +old-childlike; the Harlot languidly shameless; my Brother-in-law +peacefully satisfied, with revenge or food; and the Legations-Rath, +_Jean Pierre_, Heaven only knows why, like a half angel,--though, +perhaps, it might be because only the fair body, not the other half, the +soul, which had passed away in sleep, was affecting me. + +[Note 88: Hitherto I have always regarded the Polemical writings of +our present philosophic and aesthetic Idealist Logic-buffers,--in which, +certainly, a few contumelies, and misconceptions, and misconclusions do +make their appearance,--rather on the fair side; observing in it merely +an imitation of classical Antiquity, in particular of the ancient +Athletes, who (according to Schottgen) besmeared their bodies with +_mud_, that they might not be laid hold of; and filled their hands with +_sand_, that they might lay hold of their antagonists.] + +I had almost forgotten to mention, that in a little village, while my +Brother-in-law and the Postillion were sitting at their liquor, I +happily fronted a small terror, Destiny having twice been on my side. +Not far from a Hunting Box, beside a pretty clump of trees, I noticed a +white tablet, with a black inscription on it. This gave me hopes that +perhaps some little monumental piece, some pillar of honour, some battle +memento, might here be awaiting me. Over an untrodden flowery tangle, I +reach the black on white; and to my horror and amazement, I decipher in +the moonshine: _Beware of Spring-guns_! Thus was I standing perhaps half +a nail's breadth from the trigger, with which, if I but stirred my heel, +I should shoot myself off like a forgotten ramrod, into the other world, +beyond the verge of Time! The first thing I did was to cramp-down my +toe-nails, to bite, and, as it were, eat myself into the ground with +them; since I might at least continue in warm life so long as I pegged +my body firmly in beside the Atropos-scissors and hangman's block, which +lay beside me; then I endeavoured to recollect by what steps the fiend +had let me hither unshot, but in my agony I had perspired the whole of +it, and could remember nothing. In the Devil's village close at hand, +there was no dog to be seen and called to, who might have plucked me +from the water; and my Brother-in-law and the Postillion were both +carousing with full can. However, I summoned my courage and +determination; wrote down on a leaf of my pocket-book my last will, the +accidental manner of my death, and my dying remembrance of Berga; and +then, with full sails, flew helterskelter through the midst of it the +shortest way; expecting at every step to awaken the murderous engine, +and thus to clap over my still long candle of life the _bonsoir_, or +extinguisher, with my own hand. However, I got off without shot. In the +tavern, indeed, there was more than one fool to laugh at me; because, +forsooth, what none but a fool could know, this Notice had stood there +for the last ten years, without any gun, as guns often do without any +notice. But so it is, my Friends, with our game-police, which warns +against all things, only not against warnings. + +[Note 103: Or are all Mosques, Episcopal-churches, Pagodas, +Chapels-of-Ease, Tabernacles and Pantheons, anything else than the +Ethnic Forecourt of the Invisible Temple and its Holy of Holies?] + +[Note 40: The common man is copious only in narration, not in +reasoning; the cultivated man is brief only in the former, not in the +latter: because the common man's reasons are a sort of sensations, +which, as well as things visible, he merely _looks at_; by the +cultivated man, again, both reasons and things visible are rather +_thought_ than looked at.] + +For the rest, throughout the whole stage, I had a constant source of +altercation with the coachman, because he grudged stopping perhaps once +in the quarter of an hour, when I chose to come out for a natural +purpose. Unhappily, in truth, one has little reason to expect +water-doctors among the postillion class, since Physicians themselves +have so seldom learned from Haller's large _Physiology_, that a +postponement of the above operation will precipitate devilish stoneware, +and at last precipitate the proprietor himself; this stone-manufactory +being generally concluded, not by the Lithotomist, but by Death. Had +postillions read that Tycho Brahe died like a bombshell by bursting, +they would rather pull up for a moment; with such unlooked-for +knowledge, they would see it to be reasonable that a man, though +expecting some time to carry his death-stone _on_ him, should not +incline, for the time being, to carry it _in_ him. Nay, have I not +often, at Weimar, in the longest concluding scenes of Schiller, run out +with tears in my eyes; purely that, while his Minerva was melting me on +the whole, I might not by the Gorgon's head on her breast be partially +turned to stone? And did I not return to the weeping playhouse, and fall +into the general emotion so much the more briskly, as now I had nothing +to give vent to but my heart? + +Deep in the dark we arrived at Niederschoena. + + +_Third Stage; from Niederschoena to Flaetz._ + +While I am standing at the Posthouse musing, with my eye fixed on my +portmanteau, comes a beast of a watchman, and bellows and brays in his +night-tube so close by my ear, that I start back in trepidation, I whom +even a too hasty accosting will vex. Is there no medical police, then, +against such efflated hour fulminators and alarm-cannon, by which +notwithstanding no gunpowder cannon are saved? In my opinion, nobody +should be invested with the watchman-horn but some reasonable man, who +had already blown himself into an asthma, and who would consequently be +in case to sing out his hour-verse so low, that you could not hear it. + +[Note 9: In any national calamity, the ancient Egyptians took +revenge on the god Typhon, whom they blamed for it, by hurling his +favourites, the Asses, down over rocks. In similar wise have countries +of a different religion now and then taken their revenge.] + +What I had long expected, and the Dwarf predicted, now took place: +deeply stooping, through the high Posthouse door, issued the Giant, and +raised, in the open air, a most unreasonably high figure, heightened by +the ell-long bonnet and feather on his huge jobber-nowl. My +Brother-in-law, beside him, looked but like his son of fourteen years; +the Dwarf like his lap-dog waiting for him on its two hind legs. "Good +friend," said my bantering Brother-in-law, leading him towards me and +the stage-coach, "just step softly in, we shall all be happy to make +room for you. Fold yourself neatly together, lay your head on your knee, +and it will do." The unseasonable banterer would willingly have seen the +almost stupid Giant (of whom he had soon observed that his brain was no +active substance, but in the inverse ratio of his trunk) squeezed in +among us in the post-chest, and lying kneaded together like a sand-bag +before him. "Won't do! Won't do!" said the Giant, looking in. "The +gentleman perhaps does not know," said the Dwarf, "how big the Giant is; +and so he thinks that because _I_ go in--But that is another story; _I_ +will creep into any hole, do but tell me where." + +In short, there was no resource for the Postmaster and the Giant, but +that the latter should plant himself behind, in the character of +luggage, and there lie bending down like a weeping willow over the whole +vehicle. To me such a back-wall and rear-guard could not be particularly +gratifying: and I may refer it, I hope, to any one of you, ye Friends, +if with such ware at your back, you would not, as clearly and earnestly +as I, have considered what manifold murderous projects a knave of a +Giant behind you, a _pursuer_ in all senses, might not maliciously +attempt; say, that he broke in and assailed you by the back-window, or +with Titanian strength laid hold of the coach-roof and demolished the +whole party in a lump. However, this Elephant (who indeed seemed to owe +the similarity more to his overpowering mass than to his quick light of +inward faculty), crossing his arms over the top of the vehicle, soon +began to sleep and snore above us; an Elephant, of whom, as I more and +more joyfully observed, my Brother-in-law the Dragoon could easily be +the tamer and bridle-holder, nay had already been so. + +[Note 70: Let Poetry veil itself in Philosophy, but only as the +latter does in the former. Philosophy in poetised Prose resembles those +tavern drinking-glasses, encircled with parti-coloured wreaths of +figures, which disturb your enjoyment both of the drink, and (often +awkwardly eclipsing and covering each other) of the carving also.] + +As more than one person now felt inclined to sleep, but I, on the +contrary, as was proper, to wake, I freely offered my seat of honour, +the front place in the coach (meaning thereby to abolish many little +flaws of envy in my fellow-passengers), to such persons as wished to +take a nap thereon. The Legations-man accepted the offer with eagerness, +and soon fell asleep there sitting, under the Titan.[4] To me this sort +of coach-sleeping of a diplomatic _charge d'affaires_ remained a thing +incomprehensible. A man that, in the middle of a stranger and often +barbarously-minded company, permits himself to slumber, may easily, +supposing him to talk in his sleep and coach (think of the Saxon +minister[5] before the Seven-Years War!), blab out a thousand secrets, +and crimes, some of which, perhaps, he has not committed. Should not +every minister, ambassador, or other man of honour and rank, really +shudder at the thought of insanity or violent fevers; seeing no mortal +can be his surety that he shall not in such cases publish the greatest +scandals, of which, it may be, the half are lies? + +[Note 4: _Titan_ is also the title of this Legations-Rath Jean +Pierre or Jean Paul (Friedrich Richter)'s chief novel.--ED.] + +[Note 5: Bruehl, I suppose; but the historical edition of the matter +is, that Bruehl's treasonable secrets were come at by the more ordinary +means of wax impressions of his keys.--ED.] + +At last, after the long July night, we passengers, together with Aurora, +arrived in the precincts of Flaetz, I looked with a sharp yet moistened +eye at the steeples: I believe, every man who has anything decisive to +seek in a town, and to whom it is either to be a judgment-seat of his +hopes, or their anchoring-station, either a battle-field or a +sugar-field, first and longest directs his eye on the steeples of the +town, as upon the indexes and balance-tongues of his future destiny; +these artificial peaks, which, like natural ones, are the thrones of our +Future. As I happened to express myself on this point perhaps too +poetically to _Jean Pierre_, he answered, with sufficient want of taste: +"The steeples of such towns are indeed the Swiss Alpine peaks, on which +we milk and manufacture the Swiss cheese of our Future." Did the +Legations-Peter mean with this style to make me ridiculous, or only +himself? Determine! + +"Here is the place, the town," said I in secret, "where today much and +for many years is to be determined; where thou, this evening, about five +o'clock, art to present thy petition and thyself: May it prosper! May it +be successful! Let Flaetz, this arena of thy little efforts among the +rest, become a building-space for fair castles and air-castles to two +hearts, thy own and thy Berga's!" + +At the Tiger Inn I alighted. + + +_First Day in Flaetz._ + +No mortal, in my situation at this Tiger-hotel, would have triumphed +much in his more immediate prospects. I, as the only man known to me, +especially in the way of love (of the runaway Dragoon anon!), looked out +from the windows of the overflowing Inn, and down on the rushing sea of +marketers, and very soon began to reflect, that except Heaven and the +rascals and murderers, none knew how many of the latter two classes were +floating among the tide; purposing perhaps to lay hold of the most +innocent strangers, and in part cut their purses, in part their throats. +My situation had a special circumstance against it. My Brother-in-law, +who still comes plump out with everything, had mentioned that I was to +put up at the Tiger: O Heaven, when will such people learn to be secret, +and to cover even the meanest pettinesses of life under mantles and +veils, were it only that a silly mouse may as often give birth to a +mountain, as a mountain to a mouse! The whole rabble of the stage-coach +stopped at the Tiger; the Harlot, the Ratcatcher, _Jean Pierre_, the +Giant, who had dismounted at the Gate of the town, and carrying the huge +block-head of the Dwarf on his shoulders as his own (cloaking over the +deception by his cloak), had thus, like a ninny, exhibited himself +gratis by half a dwarf more gigantic than he could be seen for money. + +[Note 158: Governments should not too often change the penny-trumps +and child's-drums of the Poets for the regimental trumpet and fire-drum: +on the other hand, good subjects should regard many a princely +drum-tendency simply as a disease, in which the patient, by air +insinuating under the skin, has got dreadfully swoln.] + +[Note 89: In great towns, a stranger, for the first day or two +after his arrival, lives purely at his own expense in an inn; +afterwards, in the houses of his friends, without expense: on the other +hand, if you arrive at the Earth, as, for instance, I have done, you are +courteously maintained, precisely for the first few years, free of +charges; but in the next and longer series--for you often stay +sixty--you are actually obliged (I have the documents in my hands) to +pay for every drop and morsel, as if you were in the great Earth Inn, +which indeed you are.] + +And now for each of the Passengers, the question was, how he could make +the Tiger, the heraldic emblem of the Inn, his prototype; and so, what +lamb he might suck the blood of, and tear in pieces, and devour. My +Brother-in-law too left me, having gone in quest of some horse-dealer; +but he retained the chamber next mine for his sister: this, it appeared, +was to denote attention on his part. I remained solitary, left to my own +intrepidity and force of purpose. + +Yet among so many villains, encompassing if not even beleaguering me, I +thought warmly of one far distant, faithful soul, of my Berga in +Neusattel; a true heart of pith, which perhaps with many a weak +marriage-partner might have given protection rather than sought it. + +"Appear, then, quickly tomorrow at noon, Berga," said my heart; "and if +possible before noon, that I may lengthen thy market paradise so many +hours as thou arrivest earlier!" + +A clergyman, amid the tempests of the world, readily makes for a free +harbour, for the church: the church-wall is his casemate-wall and +fortification; and behind are to be found more peaceful and more +accordant souls than on the market-place: in short, I went into the High +Church. However, in the course of the psalm, I was somewhat disturbed by +a Heiduc, who came up to a well-dressed young gentleman sitting opposite +me, and tore the double opera-glass from his nose, it being against rule +in Flaetz, as it is in Dresden, to look at the Court with glasses which +diminish and approximate. I myself had on a pair of spectacles, but they +were magnifiers. It was impossible for me to resolve on taking them off; +and here again, I am afraid, I shall pass for a foolhardy person and a +desperado; so much only I reckoned fit, to look invariably into my +psalm-book; not once lifting my eyes while the Court was rustling and +entering, thereby to denote that my glasses were ground convex. For the +rest, the sermon was good, if not always finely conceived for a +Court-church; it admonished the hearers against innumerable vices, to +whose counterparts, the virtues, another preacher might so readily have +exhorted us. During the whole service, I made it my business to exhibit +true deep reverence, not only towards God, but also towards my +illustrious Prince. For the latter reverence I had my private reason: I +wished to stamp this sentiment strongly and openly as with raised +letters on my countenance, and so give the lie to any malicious imp +about Court, by whom my contravention of the _Panegyric on Nero_, and my +free German satire on this real tyrant himself, which I had inserted in +the _Flaetz Weekly Journal_, might have been perverted into a secret +characteristic portrait of my own Sovereign. We live in such times at +present, that scarcely can we compose a pasquinade on the Devil in Hell, +but some human Devil on Earth will apply it to an angel. + +[Note 107: Germany is a long lofty mountain--under the sea.] + +[Note 144: The Reviewer does not in reality employ his pen for +writing; but he burns it, to awaken weak people from their swoons, with +the smell; he tickles with it the throat of the plagiary, to make him +render back; and he picks with it his own teeth. He is the only +individual in the whole learned lexicon that can never exhaust himself, +never write himself out, let him sit before the ink-glass for centuries +or tens of centuries. For while the Scholar, the Philosopher, and the +Poet, produce their new book solely from new materials and growth, the +Reviewer merely lays his old gage of taste and knowledge on a thousand +new works; and his light, in the ever-passing, ever-differently-cut +glass-world which he _elucidates_, is still refracted into new colours.] + +When the Court at last issued from church, and were getting into their +carriages, I kept at such a distance that my face could not possibly be +noticed, in case I had happened to assume no reverent look, but an +indifferent or even proud one. God knows, who has kneaded into me those +mad desperate fancies and crotchets, which perhaps would sit better on a +Hero Schabacker than on an Army-chaplain under him. I cannot here +forbear recording to you, my Friends, one of the maddest among them, +though at first it may throw too glaring a light on me. It was at my +ordination to be Army-chaplain, while about to participate in the +Sacrament, on the first day of Easter. Now, here while I was standing, +moved into softness, before the balustrade of the altar, in the middle +of the whole male congregation,--nay, I perhaps more deeply moved than +any among them, since, as a person going to war, I might consider myself +a half-dead man, that was now partaking in the last Feast of Souls, as +it were like a person to be hanged on the morrow,--here then, amid the +pathetic effects of the organ and singing, there rose something--were it +the first Easter-day which awoke in me what primitive Christians called +their Easter-laughter, or merely the contrast between the most devilish +predicaments and the most holy,--in short there rose something in me +(for which reason, I have ever since taken the part of every simple +person, who might ascribe such things to the Devil), and this something +started the question: "Now, could there be aught more diabolical than if +thou, just in receiving the Holy Supper, wert madly and blasphemously to +begin laughing?" Instantly I took to wrestling with this hell-dog of a +thought; neglected the most precious feelings, merely to keep the dog in +my eye, and scare him away; yet was forced to draw back from him, +exhausted and unsuccessful, and arrived at the step of the altar with +the mournful certainty that in a little while I should, without more +ado, begin laughing, let me weep and moan inwardly as I liked. +Accordingly, while I and a very worthy old Buergermeister were bowing +down together before the long parson, and the latter (perhaps kneeling +on the low cushion, I fancied him too long) put the wafer in my clenched +mouth, I felt all the muscles of laughter already beginning sardonically +to contract; and these had not long acted on the guiltless integument, +till an actual smile appeared there; and as we bowed the second time, I +was grinning like an ape. My companion the Buergermeister justly +expostulated with me, in a low voice, as we walked round behind the +altar: "In Heaven's name, are you an ordained Preacher of the Gospel, or +a Merry-Andrew? Is it Satan that is laughing out of you?" + +[Note 71: The Youth is singular from caprice, and takes pleasure in +it; the Man is so from constraint, unintentionally, and feels pain in +it.] + +[Note 198: The Populace and Cattle grow giddy on the edge of no +abyss; with the Man it is otherwise.] + +"Ah, Heaven! who else?" said I; and this being over, I finished my +devotions in a more becoming fashion. + +From the church (I now return to the Flaetz one), I proceeded to the +Tiger Inn, and dined at the _table-d'hote_, being at no time shy of +encountering men. Previous to the second course, a waiter handed me an +empty plate, on which, to my astonishment, I noticed a French verse +scratched-in with a fork, containing nothing less than a lampoon on the +Commandant of Flaetz. Without ceremony, I held out the plate to the +company; saying, I had just, as they saw, got this lampooning cover +presented to me, and must request them to bear witness that I had +nothing to do with the matter. An officer directly changed plates with +me. During the fifth course, I could not but admire the chemico-medical +ignorance of the company; for a hare, out of which a gentleman extracted +and exhibited several grains of shot, that is to say, therefore, of lead +alloyed with arsenic, and then cleaned by hot vinegar, did, +nevertheless, by the spectators (I excepted) continue to be pleasantly +eaten. + +[Note 11: The Golden Calf of Self-love soon waxes to be a burning +Phalaris' Bull, which reduces its father and adorer to ashes.] + +[Note 103: The male Beau-crop which surrounds the female Roses and +Lilies, must (if I rightly comprehend its flatteries) most probably +presuppose in the fair the manners of the Spaniards and Italians, who +offer any valuable, by way of present, to the man who praises it +excessively.] + +In the course of our table-talk, one topic seized me keenly by my weak +side, I mean by my honour. The law custom of the city happened to be +mentioned, as it affects natural children; and I learned that here a +loose girl may convert any man she pleases to select into the father of +her brat, simply by her oath. "Horrible!" said I, and my hair stood on +end. "In this way may the worthiest head of a family, with a wife and +children, or a clergyman lodging in the Tiger, be stript of honour and +innocence, by any wicked chambermaid whom he may have seen, or who may +have seen him, in the course of her employment!" + +An elderly officer observed: "But will the girl swear herself to the +Devil so readily?" + +What logic! "Or suppose," continued I, without answer, "a man happened +to be travelling with that Vienna Locksmith, who afterwards became a +mother, and was brought to bed of a baby son; or with any disguised +Chevalier d'Eon, who often passes the night in his company, whereby the +Locksmith or the Chevalier can swear to their private interviews: no +delicate man of honour will in the end risk travelling with another; +seeing he knows not how soon the latter may pull off his boots, and pull +on his women's-pumps, and swear his companion into fatherhood, and +himself to the Devil!" + +Some of the company, however, misunderstood my oratorical fire so much, +that they, sheep-wise, gave some insinuations as if I myself were not +strict in this point, but lax. By Heaven! I no longer knew what I was +eating or speaking. Happily, on the opposite side of the table, some +lying story of a French defeat was started: now, as I had read on the +street-corners that French and German Proclamation, calling before the +Court Martial any one who had heard war-rumours (disadvantageous, +namely), without giving notice of them,--I, as a man not willing ever to +forget himself, had nothing more prudent to do in this case, than to +withdraw with empty ears, telling none but the landlord why. + +[Note 199: But not many existing Governments, I believe, do behead +under pretext of trepanning; or sew (in a more choice allegory) the +people's lips together, under pretence of sewing the harelips in them.] + +[Note 67: Hospitable Entertainer, wouldst thou search into thy +guest? Accompany him to another Entertainer, and listen to him. Just so: +Wouldst thou become better acquainted with Mistress in an hour, than by +living with her for a month? Accompany her among her female friends and +female enemies (if that is no pleonasm), and look at her!] + +It was no improper time; for I had previously determined to have my +beard shaven about half-past four, that so, towards five I might present +myself with a chin just polished by the razor smoothing-iron, and sleek +as wove-paper, without the smallest root-stump of a hair left on it. By +way of preparation, like Pitt before Parliamentary debates, I poured a +devilish deal of Pontac into my stomach, with true disgust, and contrary +to all sanitary rules; not so much for fronting the light stranger +Barber, as the Minister and General von Schabacker, with whom I had it +in view to exchange perhaps more than one fiery statement. + +The common Hotel Barber was ushered in to me; but at first view you +noticed in his polygonal zigzag visage, more of a man that would finally +go mad, than of one growing wiser. Now, madmen are a class of persons +whom I hate incredibly; and nothing can take me to see any madhouse, +simply because the first maniac among them may clutch me in his giant +fists if he like; and because, owing to infection, I cannot be sure that +I shall ever get out again with the sense which I brought in. In a +general way, I sit (when once I am lathered) in such a posture on my +chair as to keep both my hands (the eyes I fix intently on the barbering +countenance) lying clenched along my sides, and pointed directly at the +midriff of the barber; that so, on the smallest ambiguity of movement, I +may dash in upon him, and overset him in a twinkling. + +I scarce know rightly how it happened; but here, while I am anxiously +studying the foolish twisted visage of the shaver, and he just then +chanced to lay his long-whetted weapon a little too abruptly against my +bare throat, I gave him such a sudden bounce on the abdominal viscera, +that the silly varlet had well-nigh suicidally slit his own windpipe. +For me, truly, nothing remained but to indemnify the man; and then, +contrary to my usual principles, to tie round a broad stuffed cravat, by +way of cloak to what remained unshorn. + +[Note 80: In the summer of life, men keep digging and filling +ice-pits as well as circumstances will admit; that so, in their Winter, +they may have something in store to give them coolness.] + +[Note 28: It is impossible for me, amid the tendril-forest of +allusions (even this again is a tendril-twig), to state and declare on +the spot whether all the Courts or Heights, the (Bougouer) _Snowline_ of +Europe, have ever been mentioned in my Writings or not; but I could wish +for information on the subject, that if not, I may try to do it still.] + +And now at last I sallied forth to the General, drinking out the remnant +of the Pontac, as I crossed the threshold. I hope, there were plans +lying ready within me for answering rightly, nay for asking. The +Petition I carried in my pocket, and in my right hand. In the left I had +a duplicate of it. My fire of spirit easily helped over the living fence +of ministerial obstructions; and soon I unexpectedly found myself in the +ante-chamber, among his most distinguished lackeys; persons, so far as I +could see, not inclined to change flour for bran with any one. Selecting +the most respectable individual of the number, I delivered him my paper +request, accompanied with the verbal one that he would hand it in. He +took it, but ungraciously: I waited in vain till far in the sixth hour, +at which season alone the gay General can safely be applied to. At last +I pitch upon another lackey, and repeat my request: he runs about +seeking his runaway brother, or my Petition; to no purpose, neither of +them could be found. How happy was it that in the midst of my Pontac, +before shaving, I had written out the duplicate of this paper; and +therefore--simply on the principle that you should always keep a second +wooden leg packed into your knapsack when you have the first on your +body--and out of fear that if the original petition chanced to drop from +me in the way between the Tiger and Schabacker's, my whole journey and +hope would melt into water--and therefore, I say, having stuck the +repeating work of that original paper into my pocket, I had, in any +case, something to hand in, and that something truly a Ditto. I handed +it in. + +[Note 36: And so I should like, in all cases, to be the First, +especially in Begging. The first prisoner-of-war, the first cripple, the +first man ruined by burning (like him who brings the first fire-engine), +gains the head-subscription and the heart; the next-comer finds nothing +but Duty to address; and at last, in this melodious _mancando_ of +sympathy, matters sink so far, that the last (if the last but one may at +least have retired laden with a rich "God help you!") obtains from the +benignant hand nothing more than its fist. And as in Begging the first, +so in Giving I should like to be the last: one obliterates the other, +especially the last the first. So, however, is the world ordered.] + +Unhappily six o'clock was already past. The lackey, however, did not +keep me long waiting; but returned with--I may say, the text of this +whole Circular--the almost rude answer (which you, my Friends, out of +regard for me and Schabacker, will not divulge) that: "In case I were +the Attila Schmelzle of Schabacker's Regiment, I might lift my +pigeon-liver flag again, and fly to the Devil, as I did at Pimpelstadt." +Another man would have dropt dead on the spot: I, however, walked quite +stoutly off, answering the fellow: "With great pleasure indeed, I fly to +the Devil; and so Devil a fly I care." On the road home I examined +myself whether it had not been the Pontac that spoke out of me (though +the very examination contradicted this, for Pontac never examines); but +I found that nothing but I, my heart, my courage perhaps, had spoken: +and why, after all, any whimpering? Does not the patrimony of my good +wife endow me better than ten Catechetical Professorships? And has she +not furnished all the corners of my book of Life with so many golden +clasps, that I can open it forever without wearing it? Let henhearts +cackle and pip; I flapped my pinions, and said: "Dash boldly through it, +come what may!" I felt myself excited and exalted; I fancied Republics, +in which I, as a hero, might be at home; I longed to be in that noble +Grecian time, when one hero readily put up with bastinadoes from +another, and said: "Strike, but hear!" and out of this ignoble one, +where men will scarcely put up with hard words, to say nothing of more. +I painted out to my mind how I should feel, if, in happier +circumstances, I were uprooting hollow Thrones, and before whole nations +mounting on mighty deeds as on the Temple-steps of Immortality; and in +gigantic ages, finding quite other men to outman and outstrip, than the +mite-populace about me, or, at the best, here and there a Vulcanello. I +thought and thought, and grew wilder and wilder, and intoxicated myself +(no Pontac intoxication therefore, which, you know, increases more by +continuance than cessation of drinking), and gesticulated openly, as I +put the question to myself: "Wilt thou be a mere state-lapdog? A +dog's-dog, a _pium desiderium_ of an _impium desiderium_, an Ex-Ex, a +Nothing's-Nothing?--Fire and Fury!" With this, however, I dashed down my +hat into the mud of the market. On lifting and cleaning this old +servant, I could not but perceive how worn and faded it was; and I +therefore determined instantly to purchase a new one, and carry the same +home in my hand. + +[Note 136: If you mount too high above your time, your ears (on the +side of Fame) are little better off than if you sink too deep below it: +in truth, Charles up in his Balloon, and Halley down in his Diving-bell, +felt equally the same strange pain in their ears.] + +I accomplished this; I bought one of the finest cut. Strangely enough, +by this hat, as if it had been a graduation-hat, was my head tried and +examined, in the Ziegengasse or Goat-gate of Flaetz. For as General +Schabacker came driving along that street in his carriage, and I (it +need not be said) was determined to avenge myself, not by vulgar +clownishness, but by courtesy, I had here got one of the most ticklish +problems imaginable to solve on the spur of the instant. You observe, if +I swung only the fine hat which I carried in my hand, and kept the faded +one on my head,--I might have the appearance of a perfect clown, who +does not doff at all: if, on the other hand, I pulled the old hat from +my head, and therewith did my reverence, then two hats, both in play at +once (let me swing the other at the same time or not), brought my salute +within the verge of ridicule. Now do you, my Friends, before reading +farther, bethink you how a man was to extricate himself from such a +plight, without losing head! I think, perhaps, by this means: by merely +losing hat. In one word, then, I simply dropped the new hat from my hand +into the mud, to put myself in a condition for taking off the old hat by +itself, and swaying it in needful courtesy, without any shade of +ridicule. + +Arrived at the Tiger,--to avoid misconstructions, I first had the +glossy, fine and superfine hat cleaned, and some time afterwards the +mud-hat or rubbish-hat. + +And now, weighing my momentous Past in the adjusting balance within me, +I walked in fiery mood to and fro. The Pontac must--I know that there is +no unadulterated liquor here below--have been more than usually +adulterated; so keenly did it chase my fancy out of one fire into the +other. I now looked forth into a wide glittering life, in which I lived +without post, merely on money; and which I beheld, as it were, sowed +with the Delphic caves, and Zenonic walks, and Muse-hills of all the +Sciences, which I might now cultivate at my ease. In particular, I +should have it in my power to apply more diligently to writing +Prize-essays for Academies; of which (that is to say, of the +Prize-essays) no author need ever be ashamed, since, in all cases, there +is a whole crowning Academy to stand and blush for the crownee. And even +if the Prize-marksman does not hit the crown, he still continues more +unknown and more anonymous (his Device not being unsealed) than any +other author, who indeed can publish some nameless Long-ear of a book, +but not hinder it from being, by a Literary Ass-burial (_sepultura +asinina_), publicly interred, in a short time, before half the world. + +[Note 25: In youth, like a blind man just couched (and what is +birth but a couching of the sight?), you take the Distant for the Near, +the starry heaven for tangible room-furniture, pictures for objects; +and, to the young man, the whole world is sitting on his very nose, till +repeated bandaging and unbandaging have at last taught him, like the +blind patient, to estimate _Distance_ and _Appearance_.] + +Only one thing grieved me by anticipation; the sorrow of my Berga, for +whom, dear tired wayfarer, I on the morrow must overcloud her arrival, +and her shortened market-spectacle, by my negatory intelligence. She +would so gladly (and who can take it ill of a rich farmer's daughter?) +have made herself somebody in Neusattel, and overshone many a female +dignitary! Every mortal longs for his parade-place, and some earlier +living honour than the last honours. Especially so good a lowly-born +housewife as my Berga, conscious perhaps rather of her metallic than of +her spiritual treasure, would still wish at banquets to be mistress of +some seat or other, and so in place to overtop this or that plucked +goose of the neighbourhood. + +It is in this point of view that husbands are so indispensable. I +therefore resolved to purchase for myself, and consequently for her, one +of the best of those titles, which our Courts in Germany (as in a +Leipzig sale-room) stand offering to buyers, in all sizes and sorts, +from Noble and Half-noble down to Rath or Councillor; and once invested +therewith, to reflect from my own Quarter-nobility such an +Eighth-part-nobility on this true soul, that many a Neusattelitess (I +hope) shall half burst with envy, and say and cry: "Pooh, the stupid +farmer thing! See how it wabbles and bridles! It has forgot how matters +stood when it had no money-bag, and no Hofrath!" For to the Hofrathship +I shall before this have attained. + +But in the cold solitude of my room, and the fire of my remembrances, I +longed unspeakably for my Bergelchen: I and my heart were wearied with +the foreign busy day; no one here said a kind word to me, which he did +not hope to put in the bill. Friends! I languished for my friend, whose +heart would pour out its blood as a balsam for a second heart; I cursed +my over-prudent regulations, and wished that, to have the good Berga at +my side, I had given up the stupid houseware to all thieves and fires +whatsoever: as I walked to and fro, it seemed to me easier and easier to +become all things, an Exchequer-Rath, an Excise-Rath, any Rath in the +world, and whatever she required when she came. + +[Note 125: In the long-run, out of mere fear and necessity, we +shall become the warmest cosmopolites I know of; so rapidly do ships +shoot to and fro, and, like shuttles, weave Islands and Quarters of the +World together. For, let but the political weatherglass fall today in +South America, tomorrow we in Europe have storm and thunder.] + +"See thou take thy pleasure in the town!" had Bergelchen kept saying the +whole week through. But how, without her, can I take any? Our tears of +sorrow friends dry up, and accompany with their own: but our tears of +joy we find most readily repeated in the eyes of our wives. Pardon me, +good Friends, these libations of my sensibility; I am but showing you my +heart and my Berga. If I need an Absolution-merchant, the +Pontac-merchant is the man. + + +_First Night in Flaetz._ + +Yet the wine did not take from me the good sense to look under the bed, +before going into it, and examine whether any one was lurking there; for +example, the Dwarf, or the Ratcatcher, or the Legations-Rath; also to +shove the key under the latch (which I reckon the best bolting +arrangement of all), and then, by way of farther assurance, to bore my +night-screws into the door, and pile all the chairs in a heap behind it; +and, lastly, to keep on my breeches and shoes, wishing absolutely to +have no care upon my mind. + +But I had still other precautions to take in regard to sleepwalking. To +me it has always been incomprehensible how so many men can go to bed, +and lie down at their ease there, without reflecting that perhaps, in +the first sleep, they may get up again as Somnambulists, and crawl over +the tops of roofs and the like; awakening in some spot where they may +fall in a moment and break their necks. While at home, there is little +risk in my sleep: because, my right toe being fastened every night with +three ells of tape (I call it in jest our marriage-tie) to my wife's +left hand, I feel a certainty that, in case I should start up from this +bed-arrest, I must with the tether infallibly awaken her, and so by my +Berga, as by my living bridle, be again led back to bed. But here in the +Inn, I had nothing for it but to knot myself once or twice to the +bed-foot, that I might not wander; though in this way, an irruption of +villains would have brought double peril with it.--Alas! so dangerous is +sleep at all times, that every man, who is not lying on his back a +corpse, must be on his guard lest with the general system some limb or +other also fall asleep; in which case the sleeping limb (there are not +wanting examples of it in Medical History) may next morning be lying +ripe for amputation. For this reason, I have myself frequently awakened, +that no part of me fall asleep. + +[Note 19: It is easier, they say, to climb a hill when you ascend +back foremost. This, perhaps, might admit of application to political +eminences; if you still turned towards them that part of the body on +which you sit, and kept your face directed down to the people; all the +while, however, removing and mounting.] + +[Note 26: Few German writers are not original, if we may ascribe +originality (as is at least the conversational practice of all people) +to a man, who merely dishes out his own thoughts without foreign +admixture. For as, between their Memory, where their reading or foreign +matter dwells, and their Imagination or Productive Power, where their +writing or own peculiar matter originates, a sufficient space +intervenes, and the boundary-stones are fixed-in so conscientiously and +firmly that nothing foreign may pass over into their own, or inversely, +so that they may really read a hundred works without losing their own +primitive flavour, or even altering it,--their individuality may, I +believe, be considered as secured; and their spiritual nourishment, +their pancakes, loaves, fritters, caviare and meat-balls, are not +assimilated to their system, but given back pure and unaltered. Often in +my own mind I figure such writers as living but thousandfold more +artificial Ducklings from Vaucanson's Artificial Duck of Wood. For in +fact they are not less cunningly put together than this timber Duck, +which will gobble meat, and apparently void it again, under show of +having digested it, and derived from it blood and juices; though the +secret of the business is, the artist has merely introduced an ingenious +compound ejective matter behind, with which concoction and nourishment +have nothing to do, but which the Duck illusorily gives forth and +publishes to the world.] + +Having properly tied myself to the bed-posts, and at length got under +the coverlid, I now began to be dubious about my Pontac Fire-bath, and +apprehensive of the valorous and tumultuous dreams too likely to ensue; +which, alas, did actually prove to be nothing better than heroic and +monarchic feats, castle-stormings, rock-throwings, and the like. This +point also I am sorry to see so little attended to in medicine. Medical +gentlemen, as well as their customers, all stretch themselves quietly in +their beds, without one among them considering whether a furious rage +(supposing him also directly after to drink cold water in his dream), or +a heart-devouring grief, all which he may undergo in vision, does harm +to life or not. + +Shortly before midnight, I awoke from a heavy dream, to encounter a +ghost-trick much too ghostly for my fancy. My Brother-in-law, who +manufactured it, deserves for such vapid cookery to be named before you +without reserve, as the malt-master of this washy brewage. Had suspicion +been more compatible with intrepidity, I might perhaps, by his moral +maxim about this matter, on the road, as well as by his taking up the +side-room, at the middle door of which stood my couch, have easily +divined the whole. But now, on awakening, I felt myself blown upon by a +cold ghost-breath, which I could nowise deduce from the distant bolted +window; a point I had rightly decided, for the Dragoon was producing the +phenomenon, through the keyhole, by a pair of bellows. Every sort of +coldness, in the night-season, reminds you of clay-coldness and +spectre-coldness. I summoned my resolution, however, and abode the +issue: but now the very coverlid began to get in motion; I pulled it +towards me; it would not stay; sharply I sit upright in my bed, and cry: +"What is that?" No answer; everywhere silence in the Inn; the whole room +full of moonshine. And now my drawing-plaster, my coverlid, actually +rose up, and let in the air; at which I felt like a wounded man whose +cataplasm you suddenly pull off. In this crisis, I made a bold leap from +this Devil's-torus, and, leaping, snapped asunder my somnambulist +tether. "Where is the silly human fool," cried I, "that dares to ape the +unseen sublime world of Spirits, which may, in the instant, open before +him?" But on, above, under the bed, there was nothing to be heard or +seen. I looked out of the window: everywhere spectral moonlight and +street-stillness; nothing moving except (probably from the wind), on the +distant Gallows-hill, a person lately hanged. + +Any man would have taken it for self-deception as well as I: therefore I +again wrapped myself in my passive _lit de justice_ and air-bed, and +waited with calmness to see whether my fright would subside or not. + +[Note 15: After the manner of the fine polished English +folding-knives, there are now also folding-war-swords, or in other +words--Treaties of Peace.] + +[Note 13: _Omnibus una_ SALUS _Sanctis, sed_ GLORIA _dispar:_ that +is to say (as Divines once taught) according to Saint Paul, we have all +the same Beatitude in Heaven, but different degrees of Honour. Here, on +Earth, we find a shadow of this in the writing world; for the Beatitude +of authors once beatified by Criticism, whether they be genial, good, +mediocre, or poor, is the same throughout; they all obtain the same +pecuniary Felicity, the same slender profit. But, Heavens! in regard to +the degrees of Fame, again, how far (in spite of the same emolument and +sale) will a Dunce, even in his lifetime, be put below a Genius! Is not +a shallow writer frequently forgotten in a single Fair, while a deep +writer, or even a writer of genius, will blossom through fifty Fairs, +and so may celebrate his Twenty-five Years' Jubilee, before, late +forgotten, he is lowered into the German Temple of Fame; a Temple +imitating the peculiarity of the _Padri Luichesi_ churches in Naples, +which (according to Volkmann) permit _burials_ under their roofs, but no +_tombstone_.] + +In a few minutes, the coverlid, the infernal Faust's-mantle, again began +flying and towing; also, by way of change, the invisible bed-maker again +lifted me up. Accursed hour!--I should beg to know whether, in the whole +of cultivated Europe, there is one cultivated or uncultivated man, who, +in a case of this kind, would not have lighted on ghost-devilry? I +lighted on it, under my piece of (self) movable property, my coverlid: +and thought Berga had died suddenly, and was now, in spirit, laying hold +of my bed. However, I could not speak to her, nor as little to the +Devil, who might well be supposed to have a hand in the game; but I +turned myself solely to Heaven, and prayed aloud: "To thee I commit +myself; thou alone heretofore hast cared for thy weak servant; and I +swear that I will turn a new leaf,"--a promise which shall be kept +nevertheless, though the whole was but stupid treachery and trick. + +My prayer had no effect with the unchristian Dragoon, who now, once for +all, had got me prisoner in the dragnet of a coverlid; and heeded little +whether a guest's bed were, by his means, made a state-bed and death-bed +or not. He span out my nerves, like gold-wire through smaller and +smaller holes, to utter inanition and evanition; for the bed-clothes at +last literally marched off to the door of the room. + +Now was the moment to rise into the sublime; and to trouble myself no +longer about aught here below, but softly to devote myself to death. +"Snatch me away," cried I, and, without thinking, cut three crosses; +"quick, dispatch me, ye ghosts: I die more innocent than thousands of +tyrants and blasphemers, to whom ye yet appear not, but to unpolluted +me." Here I heard a sort of laugh, either on the street or in the +side-room: at this warm human tone, I suddenly bloomed up again, as at +the coming of a new Spring, in every twig and leaf. Wholly despising the +winged coverlid, which was not now to be picked from the door, I laid +myself down uncovered, but warm and perspiring from other causes, and +soon fell asleep. For the rest, I am not the least ashamed, in the face +of all refined capital cities,--though they were standing here at my +hand,--that by this Devil-belief and Devil-address I have attained some +likeness to our great German Lion, to Luther. + + +_Second Day in Flaetz._ + +Early in the morning, I felt myself awakened by the well-known coverlid; +it had laid itself on me like a nightmare: I gaped up; quiet, in a +corner of the room, sat a red, round, blooming, decorated girl, like a +full-blown tulip in the freshness of life, and gently rustling with gay +ribbons as with leaves. + +"Who's there--how came you in?" cried I, half-blind. + +"I covered thee softly, and thought to let thee sleep," said Bergelchen; +"I have walked all night to be here early; do but look!" + +She showed me her boots, the only remnant of her travelling-gear, which, +in the moulting process of the toilette, she had not stript at the gate +of Flaetz. + +"Is there," said I, alarmed at her coming six hours sooner, and the +more, as I had been alarmed all night and was still so, at her +mysterious entrance,--"is there some fresh woe come over us, fire, +murder, robbery?" + +She answered: "The old Rat thou hast chased so long died yesterday; +farther, there was nothing of importance." + +"And all has been managed rightly, and according to my Letter of +Instructions, at home?" inquired I. + +"Yes, truly," answered she; "only I did not see the Letter; it is lost; +thou hast packed it among thy clothes." + +Well, I could not but forgive the blooming brave pedestrian all +omissions. Her eye, then her heart was bringing fresh cool morning air +and morning red into my sultry hours. And yet, for this kind soul, +looking into life with such love and hope, I must in a little while +overcloud the merited Heaven of today, with tidings of my failure in the +Catechetical Professorship! I dallied and postponed to the utmost. I +asked how she had got in, as the whole _chevaux-de-frise_ barricado of +chairs was still standing fast at the door. She laughed heartily, +curtseying in village fashion, and said, she had planned it with her +brother the day before yesterday, knowing my precautions in locking, +that he should admit her into my room, that so she might cunningly +awaken me. And now bolted the Dragoon with loud laughter into the +apartment, and cried: "Slept well, brother?" + +[Note 79: Weak and wrong heads are the hardest to change; and their +inward man acquires a scanty covering: thus capons never moult.] + +[Note 89: In times of misfortune, the Ancients supported themselves +with Philosophy or Christianity; the moderns again (for example, in the +reign of Terror), take to Pleasure; as the wounded Buffalo, for bandage +and salve, rolls himself in the mire.] + +In this wise truly the whole ghost-story was now solved and expounded, +as if by the pen of a Biester or a Hennings; I instantly saw through the +entire ghost-scheme, which our Dragoon had executed. With some +bitterness I told him my conjecture, and his sister my story. But he +lied and laughed; nay, attempted shamelessly enough to palm +spectre-notions on me a second time, in open day. I answered coldly, +that in me he had found the wrong man, granting even that I had some +similarity with Luther, with Hobbes, with Brutus, all of whom had seen +and dreaded ghosts. He replied, tearing the facts away from their +originating causes: "All he could say was, that last night he had heard +some poor sinner creaking and lamenting dolefully enough; and from this +he had inferred, it must be an unhappy brother set upon by goblins." + +In the end, his sister's eyes also were opened to the low character +which he had tried to act with me: she sharply flew at him, pushed him +with both hands out of his and my door, and called after him: "Wait, +thou villain, I will mind it!" + +Then hastily turning round, she fell on my neck, and (at the wrong +place) into laughter, and said: "The wild fool! But I could not keep my +laugh another minute, and he was not to see it. Forgive the ninny, thou +a learned man, his ass pranks: what can one expect?" + +I inquired whether she, in her nocturnal travelling, had not met with +any spectral persons; though I knew that to her, a wild beast, a river, +a half abyss, are nothing. No, she had not; but the gay-dressed +town's-people, she said, had scared her in the morning. O! how I do +love these soft Harmonica-quiverings of female fright! + +[Note 181: God be thanked that we live nowhere forever except in +Hell or Heaven; on Earth otherwise we should grow to be the veriest +rascals, and the World a House of Incurables, for want of the dog-doctor +(the Hangman), and the issue-cord (on the Gallows), and the sulphur and +chalybeate medicines (on Battlefields). So that we too find our gigantic +moral force dependent on the _Debt of Nature_ which we have to pay, +exactly as your politicians (for example, the Author of the _New +Leviathan_) demonstrate that the English have their _National Debt_ to +thank for their superiority.] + +At last, however, I was forced to bite or cut the coloquinta-apple, and +give her the half of it; I mean the news of my rejected petition for the +Catechetical Professorship. Wishing to spare this joyful heart the +rudeness of the whole truth, and to subtract something from a heavy +burden, more fit for the shoulders of a man, I began: "Bergelchen, the +Professorship affair is taking another, though still a good enough +course: the General, whom may the Devil and his Grandmother teach sense, +will not be taken except by storm; and storm he shall have, as certainly +as I have on my nightcap." + +"Then, thou art nothing yet?" inquired she. + +"For the moment, indeed, not!" answered I. + +"But before Saturday night?" said she. + +"Not quite," said I. + +"Then am I sore stricken, and could leap out of the window," said she, +and turned away her rosy face, to hide its wet eyes, and was silent very +long. Then, with painfully quivering voice, she began: "Good Christ +stand by me at Neusattel on Sunday, when these high-prancing prideful +dames look at me in church, and I grow scarlet for shame!" + +Here in sympathetic woe I sprang out of bed to the dear soul, over whose +brightly blooming cheeks warm tears were rolling, and cried: "Thou true +heart, do not tear me in pieces so! May I die, if yet in these dog-days +I become not all and everything that thou wishest! Speak, wilt thou be +Mining-raethin, Build-raethin, Court-raethin, War-raethin, Chamber-raethin, +Commerce-raethin, Legations-raethin, or Devil and his Dam's raethin: I am +here, and will buy it, and be it. Tomorrow I send riding posts to Saxony +and Hessia, to Prussia and Russia, to Friesland and Katzenellenbogen, +and demand patents. Nay, I will carry matters farther than another, and +be all things at once, Flachsenfingen Court-rath, Scheerau Excise-rath, +Haarhaar Building-rath, Pestitz[6] Chamber-rath (for we have the cash); +and thus, alone and single-handed, represent with one _podex_ and +_corpus_ a whole Rath-session of select Raths; and stand, a complete +Legion of Honour, on one single pair of legs: the like no man ever did." + +[Note 63: To apprehend danger from the Education of the People, is +like fearing lest the thunderbolt strike into the house because it has +_windows_; whereas the lightning never comes through these, but through +their _lead_ framing, or down by the _smoke_ of the chimney.] + +[Note 6: Cities of Richter's romance kingdom. Flachsenfingen he +sometimes calls _Klein-Wien_, Little Vienna.--ED.] + +"O! now thou art angel-good!" said she, and gladder tears rolled down; +"thou shalt counsel me thyself which are the finest Raths, and these we +will be." + +"No," continued I, in the fire of the moment, "neither shall this serve +us: to me it is not enough that to Mrs. Chaplain thou canst announce +thyself as Building-raethin, to Mrs. Town-parson as Legations-raethin, to +Mrs. Buergermeister as Court-raethin, to Mrs. Road-and-toll-surveyor as +Commerce-raethin, or how and where thou pleasest----" + +"Ah! my own too good Attelchen!" said she. + +"--But," continued I, "I shall likewise become corresponding member of +the several Learned Societies in the several best capital cities (among +which I have only to choose); and truly no common actual member, but a +whole honorary member; then thee, as another honorary member, growing +out of my honorary membership, I uplift and exalt." + +Pardon me, my Friends, this warm cataplasm, or deception-balsam for a +wounded breast, whose blood is so pure and precious, that one may be +permitted to endeavour, with all possible stanching-lints and +spider-webs, to drive it back into the fair heart, its home. + +But now came bright and brightest hours. I had conquered Time, I had +conquered myself and Berga: seldom does a conqueror, as I did, bless +both the victorious and the vanquished party. Berga called back her +former Heaven, and pulled off her dusty boots, and on her flowery shoes. +Precious morning beverage, intoxicating to a heart that loves! I felt +(if the low figure may be permitted) a double-beer of courage in me, now +that I had one being more to protect. In general it is my nature--which +the honourable Premier seems not to be fully aware of--to grow bolder +not among the bold, but fastest among poltroons, the bad example acting +on me by the rule of contraries. Little touches may in this case shadow +forth man and wife, without casting them into the shade: When the trim +waiter with his green silk apron brought up cracknels for breakfast, +and I told him: "Johann, for two!" Berga said: "He would oblige her very +much," and called him Herr Johann. + +[Note 76: Your economical, preaching Poetry, apparently supposes +that a surgical Stone-cutter is an Artistical one; and a Pulpit or a +Sinai a Hill of the Muses.] + +Bergelchen, more familiar with rural burghs than capital cities, felt a +good deal amazed and alarmed at the coffee-trays, dressing-tables, +paper-hangings, sconces, alabaster inkholders, with Egyptian emblems, as +well as at the gilt bell-handle, lying ready for any one to pull out or +to push in. Accordingly, she had not courage to walk through the hall, +with its lustres, purely because a whistling, whiffling Cap-and-feather +was gesturing up and down in it. Nay, her poor heart was like to fail +when she peeped out of the window at so many gay promenading +town's-people (I was briskly whistling a Gascon air down over them); and +thought that in a little while, at my side, she must break into the +middle of this dazzling courtly throng. In a case like this, reasons are +of less avail than examples. I tried to elevate my Bergelchen, by +reciting some of my nocturnal dream-feats; for example, how, riding on a +whale's back, with a three-pronged fork, I had pierced and eaten three +eagles; and by more of the like sort: but I produced no effect; perhaps, +because to the timid female heart the battle-field was presented rather +than the conqueror, the abyss rather than the overleaper of it. + +At this time a sheaf of newspapers was brought me, full of gallant +decisive victories. And though these happen only on one side, and on the +other are just so many defeats, yet the former somehow assimilate more +with my blood than the latter, and inspire me (as Schiller's _Robbers_ +used to do) with a strange inclination to lay hold of some one, and +thrash and curry him on the spot. Unluckily for the waiter, he had +chanced, even now, like a military host, to stand a triple bell-order +for march, before he would leave his ground and come up. "Sir," began I, +my head full of battle-fields, and my arm of inclination to baste him; +and Berga feared the very worst, as I gave her the well-known anger and +alarm signal, namely, shoved up my cap to my hindhead--"Sir, is this +your way of treating guests? Why don't you come promptly? Don't come so +again; and now be going, friend!" Although his retreat was my victory, +I still kept briskly cannonading on the field of action, and fired the +louder (to let him hear it), the more steps he descended in his flight. +Bergelchen,--who felt quite horrorstruck at my fury, particularly in a +quite strange house, and at a quality waiter with silk apron,--mustered +all her soft words against the wild ones of a man-of-war, and spoke of +dangers that might follow. "Dangers," answered I, "are just what I seek; +but for a man there are none; in all cases he will either conquer or +evade them, either show them front or back." + +[Note 115: According to Smith, the universal measure of economical +value is _Labour_. This fact, at least in regard to spiritual and +poetical value, we Germans had discovered before Smith; and to my +knowledge we have always preferred the learned poet to the poet of +genius, and the heavy book full of labour to the light one full of +sport.] + +I could scarcely lay aside this indignant mood, so sweet was it to me, +and so much did I feel refreshed by the fire of rage, and quickened in +my breast as by a benignant stimulant. It belongs certainly to the class +of Unrecognised Mercies (on which, in ancient times, special sermons +were preached), that one is never more completely in his Heaven and +_Monplaisir_ (a pleasure-palace) than while in the midst of right hearty +storming and indignation. Heavens! what might not a man of weight +accomplish in this new walk of charity! The gall-bladder is for us the +chief swimming-bladder and Montgolfier; and the filling of it costs us +nothing but a contumelious word or two from some bystander. And does not +the whirlwind Luther, with whom I nowise compare myself, confess, in his +_Table-talk_, that he never preached, sung, or prayed so well, as while +in a rage? Truly, he was a man sufficient of himself to rouse many +others into rage. + +The whole morning till noon now passed in viewing sights, and +trafficking for wares; and indeed, for the greatest part, in the broad +street of our Hotel. Berga needed but to press along with me into the +market throng; needed but to look, and see that she was decorated more +according to the fashion than hundreds like her. But soon, in her care +for household gear, she forgot that of dress, and in the potter-market +the toilette-table faded from her thoughts. + +I, for my share, full of true tedium, while gliding after her through +her various marts, with their long cheapenings and chafferings, merely +acted the Philosopher hid within me: I weighed this empty Life, and the +heavy value which is put upon it, and the daily anxiety of man lest it, +this lightest down-feather of the Earth, fly off, and feather him, and +take him with it. These thoughts, perhaps, I owe to the street-fry of +boys, who were turning their market-freedom to account, by throwing +stones at one another all round me: for, in the midst of this tumult, I +vividly figured myself to be a man who had never seen war; and who, +therefore, never having experienced, that often of a thousand bullets +not one will hit, feels apprehensive of these few silly stones lest they +beat-in his nose and eyes. O! it is the battle-field alone that sows, +manures and nourishes true courage, courage even for daily, domestic and +smallest perils. For not till he comes from the battle-field can a man +both sing and cannonade; like the canary-bird, which, though so +melodious, so timid, so small, so tender, so solitary, so +soft-feathered, can yet be trained to fire off cannon, though cannon of +smaller calibre. + +[Note 4: The Hypocrite does not imitate the old practice, of +cutting fruit by a knife poisoned only on the one side, and giving the +poisoned side to the victim, the cutter eating the sound side himself; +on the contrary, he so disinterestedly inverts this practice, that to +others he shows and gives the sound moral half, or side, and retains for +himself the poisoned one. Heavens! compared with such a man, how wicked +does the Devil seem!] + +After dinner (in our room), we issued from the Purgatory of the +market-tumult,--where Berga, at every booth, had something to order, and +load her attendant maid with,--into Heaven, into the Dog Inn, as the +best Flaetz public and pleasure-house without the gates is named, where, +in market-time, hundreds turn in, and see thousands going by. On the way +thither, my little wife, my elbow-tendril, as it were, had extracted +from me such a measure of courage, that, while going through the Gate +(where I, aware of the military order that you must not pass _near_ the +sentry, threw myself over to the other side), she quietly glided on, +close by the very guns and fixed bayonets of the City Guard. Outside the +wall, I could direct her with my finger, to the bechained, begrated, +gigantic Schabacker-Palace, mounting up even externally on stairs, where +I last night had called and (it may be) stormed: "I had rather take a +peep at the Giant," said she, "and the Dwarf: why else are we under one +roof with them?" + +In the pleasure-house itself we found sufficient pleasure; encircled, as +we were, with blooming faces and meadows. In my secret heart, I all +along kept looking down, with success, on Schabacker's refusal; and till +midnight made myself a happy day of it: I had deserved it, Berga still +more. Nevertheless, about one in the morning, I was destined to find a +windmill to tilt with; a windmill, which truly lays about it with +somewhat longer, stronger and more numerous arms than a giant, for which +Don Quixote might readily enough have taken it. On the market-place, for +reasons more easily fancied than specified in words, I let Berga go +along some twenty paces before me; and I myself, for these foresaid +reasons, retire without malice behind a covered booth, the tent most +probably of some rude trader; and linger there a moment according to +circumstances: lo! steering hither with dart and spear, comes the +Booth-watcher, and coins and stamps me, on the spot, into a filcher and +housebreaker of his Booth-street; though the simpleton sees nothing but +that I am standing in the corner, and doing anything but--taking. A +sense of honour without callosity is never blunted for such attacks. But +how in the dead of night was a man of this kind, who had nothing in his +head--at the utmost beer, instead of brains--to be enlightened on the +truth of the matter? + +[Note 67: Individual Minds, nay Political Bodies, are like organic +bodies: extract the _interior_ air from them, the atmosphere crushes +them together; pump off under the bell the _exterior_ resisting air, the +interior inflates and bursts them. Therefore, let every State keep up +its internal and its external resistance both at once.] + +I shall not conceal my perilous resource: I seized the fox by the tail, +as we say; in other words, I made as if I had been muddled, and knew not +rightly, in my liquor, what I was about: I therefore mimicked everything +I was master of in this department; staggered hither and thither; +splayed out my feet like a dancing-master; got into zigzag in spite of +all efforts at the straight line; nay, I knocked my good head (perhaps +one of the clearest and emptiest of the night), like a full one, against +real posts. + +However, the Booth-bailiff, who probably had been oftener drunk than I, +and knew the symptoms better, or even felt them in himself at this +moment, looked upon the whole exhibition as mere craft, and shouted +dreadfully: "Stop, rascal; thou art no more drunk than I! I know thee of +old. Stand, I say, till I speak to thee! Wouldst have thy long finger in +the market, too? Stand, dog, or I'll make thee!" + +You see the whole _nodus_ of the matter: I whisked away zigzag among the +booths as fast as possible, from the claws of this rude Tosspot; yet he +still hobbled after me. But my Teutoberga, who had heard somewhat of it, +came running back; clutched the tipsy market-warder by the collar, and +said (shrieking, it is true, in village-wise): "Stupid sot, go sleep the +drink out of thy head, or I'll teach thee! Dost know, then, whom thou +art speaking to? My husband, Army-chaplain Schmelzle under General and +Minister von Schabacker at Pimpelstadt, thou blockhead!--Fye! Take +shame, fellow!" The watchman mumbled: "Meant no harm," and reeled about +his business. "O thou Lioness!" said I, in the transport of love, "why +hast thou never been in any deadly peril, that I might show thee the +Lion in thy husband?" + +[Note 8: In great Saloons, the real stove is masked into a pretty +ornamented sham stove; so likewise, it is fit and pretty that a virgin +_Love_ should always hide itself in an interesting virgin _Friendship_.] + +[Note 12: Nations--unlike rivers, which precipitate their +impurities in level places and when at rest--drop their baseness just +whilst in the most violent motion; and become the dirtier the farther +they flow along through lazy flats.] + +Thus lovingly we both reached home; and perhaps in the sequel of this +Fair day might still have enjoyed a glorious after-midnight, had not the +Devil led my eye to the ninth volume of Lichtenberg's Works, and the +206th page, where this passage occurs: "It is not impossible that at a +future period, our Chemists may light on some means of suddenly +decomposing the Atmosphere by a sort of Ferment. In this way the world +may be destroyed." Ah! true indeed! Since the Earth-ball is lapped up in +the larger Atmospheric ball, let but any chemical scoundrel, in the +remotest scoundrel-island, say in New Holland, devise some decomposing +substance for the Atmosphere, like what a spark of fire would be for a +powder-wagon: in a few seconds, the monstrous devouring world-storm +catches me and you in Flaetz by the throat; my breathing, and the like, +in this choke-air is over, and the whole game ended! The Earth becomes a +boundless gallows, where the very cattle are hanged: worm-powder, and +bug-liquor, Bradly ant-ploughs, and rat-poison, and wolf-traps are, in +this universal world-trap and world-poison, no longer specially needful; +and the Devil takes the whole, in the Bartholomew-night, when this +cursed "Ferment" is invented. + +From the true soul, however, I concealed these deadly Night Thoughts; +seeing she would either painfully have sympathised in them, or else +mirthfully laughed at them. I merely gave orders that next morning +(Saturday) she was to be standing booted and ready, at the outset of the +returning coach; if so were she would have me speedily fulfil her wishes +in regard to that stock of Rathships which lay so near her heart. She +rejoiced in my purpose, gladly surrendering the market for such +prospects. I too slept sound, my great toe tied to her finger, the whole +night through. + +[Note 28: When Nature takes the huge old Earth-round, the +Earth-loaf, and kneads it up again, for the purpose of introducing under +this pie-crust new stuffing and Dwarfs,--she then, for most part, as a +mother when baking will do to her daughters, gives in jest a little +fraction of the dough (two or three thousand square leagues of such +dough are enough for a child) to some Poetical or Philosophical, or +Legislative polisher, that so the little elf may have something to be +shaping and manufacturing beside its mother. And when the other young +ones get a taste of sisterkin's baking, they all clap hands, and cry: +"Aha, Mother! canst; bake, like _Suky_ here?"] + +The Dragoon, next morning, twitched me by the ear, and secretly +whispered into it that he had a pleasant fairing to give his sister; and +so would ride off somewhat early, on the nag he had yesterday purchased +of the horse-dealer. I thanked him beforehand. + +At the appointed hour, all gaily started from the Staple, I excepted; +for I still retained, even in the fairest daylight, that nocturnal +Devil's-Ferment and Decomposition (of my cerebral globe as well as of +the Earth-globe) fermenting in my head; a proof that the night had not +affected me, or exaggerated my fear. The Blind Passenger, whom I liked +so ill, also mounted along with us, and looked at me as usual, but +without effect; for on this occasion, when the destruction not of myself +only, but of worlds, was occupying my thoughts, the Passenger was +nothing to me but a joke and a show: as a man, while his leg is being +sawed off, does not feel the throbbing of his heart; or amid the humming +of cannon, does not guard himself from that of wasps; so to me any +Passenger, with all the fire-brands he might throw into my near or +distant Future, could appear but ludicrous, at a time when I was +reflecting that the "Ferment" might, even in my journey between Flaetz +and Neusattel, be, by some American or European man of science, quite +guiltlessly experimenting and decomposing, hit upon by accident and let +loose. The question, nay prize-question now, however, were this: "In how +far, since Lichtenberg's threatening, it may not appear world-murderous +and self-murderous, if enlightened Potentates of chemical nations do not +enjoin it on their chemical subjects, who in their decompositions and +separations may so easily separate the soul from their body, and unite +Heaven with Earth,--not in future to make any other chemical experiments +than those already made, which hitherto have profited the State rather +than harmed it?" + +Unfortunately, I continued sunk in this Domsday of the Ferment with all +my thoughts and meditations, without, in the whole course of our return +from Flaetz to Neusattel, suffering or observing anything, except that I +actually arrived there, and at the same time saw the Blind Passenger +once more go his ways. + +My Bergelchen alone had I constantly looked at by the road, partly that +I might still see her, so long as life and eyes endured; partly that, +even at the smallest danger to her, be it a great, or even +all-over-sweeping Deluge and World's-doom, I might die, if not _for_ +her, at least _by_ her, and so united with that stanch true heart, cast +away a plagued and plaguing life, in which, at any rate, not half of my +wishes for her have been fulfilled. + +So then were my Journey over,--crowned with some _Historiolae_; and in +time coming, perhaps, still more rewarded through you, ye Friends about +Flaetz, if in these pages you shall find any well-ground pruning-knives, +whereby you may more readily out-root the weedy tangle of Lies, which +for the present excludes me from the gallant Schabacker:--Only this +cursed Ferment still sits in my head. Farewell then, so long as there +are Atmospheres left us to breathe. I wish I had that Ferment out of my +head. + + Yours always, + + ATTILA SCHMELZLE. + +P.S.--My Brother-in-law has kept his promise well, and Berga is dancing. +Particulars in my next! + + + + +LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN, + +DOWN TO OUR OWN TIMES; + +EXTRACTED FROM + +FIFTEEN LETTER-BOXES BY JEAN PAUL. + + + + +LETTER TO MY FRIENDS, + +INSTEAD OF PREFACE. + + +Merchants, Authors, young Ladies and Quakers, call all persons, with +whom they have any business, Friends; and my readers accordingly are my +table and college Friends. Now, at this time, I am about presenting so +many hundred Friends with just as many hundred gratis copies; and my +Bookseller has orders to supply each on request, after the Fair, with +his copy--in return for a trifling consideration and _don gratuit_ to +printers, pressmen and other such persons. But as I could not, like the +French authors, send the whole Edition to the binder, the blank leaf in +front was necessarily wanting; and thus to write a complimentary word or +two upon it was out of my power. I have therefore caused a few white +leaves to be inserted directly after the title-page: on these we are now +printing. + +My Book contains the Life of a Schoolmaster, extracted and compiled from +various public and private documents. With this Biography, dear Friends, +it is the purpose of the Author not so much to procure you a pleasure, +as to teach you how to enjoy one. In truth, King Xerxes should have +offered his prize-medals not for the invention of new pleasures, but for +a good methodology and directory to use the old ones. + +Of ways for becoming happier (not happy) I could never inquire out more +than three. The first, rather an elevated road, is this: To soar away so +far above the clouds of life, that you see the whole external world, +with its wolf-dens, charnel-houses and thunder-rods, lying far down +beneath you, shrunk into a little child's garden. The second is: Simply +to sink down into this little garden; and there to nestle yourself so +snugly, so homewise, in some furrow, that in looking out from your warm +lark-nest, you likewise can discern no wolf-dens, charnel-houses or +thunder-rods, but only blades and ears, every one of which, for the +nest-bird, is a tree, and a sun-screen, and rain-screen. The third, +finally, which I look upon as the hardest and cunningest, is that of +alternating between the other two. + +This I shall now satisfactorily expound to men at large. + +The Hero, the Reformer, your Brutus, your Howard, your Republican, he +whom civic storm, or genius, poetic storm, impels; in short, every +mortal with a great Purpose, or even a perennial Passion (were it but +that of writing the largest folios), all these men fence themselves in +by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as +the madman in a worse sense does: every _fixed_ idea, such as rules +every genius, every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and +elevates a man above the bed and board of this Earth, above its +Dog's-grottoes, buckthorns and Devil's-walls; like the Bird of Paradise, +he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions, oversleeps +unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of Life, in his long +fair dream of his ideal Motherland,--Alas! to few is this dream granted; +and these few are so often awakened by Flying Dogs![30] + + [30] So are the Vampires called. + +This skyward track, however, is fit only for the winged portion of the +human species, for the smallest. What can it profit poor quill-driving +brethren, whose souls have not even wing-shells, to say nothing of +wings? Or these tethered persons with the best back, breast and neck +fins, who float motionless in the wicker Fish-box of the State, and are +not allowed to swim, because the Box or State, long ago tied to the +shore, itself swims in the name of the Fishes? To the whole standing and +writing host of heavy-laden State-domestics, Purveyors, Clerks of all +departments, and all the lobsters packed together heels over head into +the Lobster-basket of the Government office-rooms, and for refreshment, +sprinkled over with a few nettles; to these persons, what way of +becoming happy _here_, can I possibly point out? + +My _second_ merely; and that is as follows: To take a compound +microscope, and with it to discover, and convince themselves, that their +drop of Burgundy is properly a Red Sea, that butterfly-dust is +peacock-feathers, mouldiness a flowery-field, and sand a heap of jewels. +These microscopic recreations are more lasting than all costly +watering-place recreations.--But I must explain these metaphors by new +ones. The purpose, for which I have sent _Fixleins Life_ into the +Messrs. Luebeks' Warehouse, is simply that in this same +_Life_,--therefore in this Preface it is less needful,--I may show to +the whole Earth that we ought to value little joys more than great ones, +the nightgown more than the dresscoat; that Plutus' heaps are worth less +than his handfuls, the plum than the penny for a rainy day; and that not +great, but little good-haps can make us happy.--Can I accomplish this, I +shall, through means of my Book, bring up for Posterity, a race of men +finding refreshment in all things; in the warmth of their rooms and of +their nightcaps; in their pillows; in the three High Festivals; in mere +Apostles' days; in the Evening Moral Tales of their wives, when these +gentle persons have been forth as ambassadresses visiting some Dowager +Residence, whither the husband could not be persuaded; in the +bloodletting-day of these their news-bringers; in the day of +slaughtering, salting, potting against the rigour of grim winter; and in +all such days. You perceive, my drift is that man must become a little +Tailor-bird, which, not amid the crashing boughs of the storm-tost, +roaring, immeasurable tree of Life, but on one of its leaves, sews +itself a nest together, and there lies snug. The most essential sermon +one could preach to our century, were a sermon on the duty of staying at +home. + +The _third_ skyward road is the alternation between the other two. The +foregoing _second_ way is not good enough for man, who here on Earth +should take into his hand not the Sickle only, but also the Plough. The +_first_ is too good for him. He has not always the force, like Rugendas, +in the midst of the Battle to compose Battle-pieces; and, like +Backhuysen in the Shipwreck, to clutch at no board but the drawing-board +to paint it on. And then his _pains_ are not less lasting than his +_fatigues_. Still oftener is Strength denied its Arena: it is but the +smallest portion of life that, to a working soul, offers Alps, +Revolutions, Rhine-falls, Worms Diets, and Wars with Xerxes; and for the +whole it is better so: the longer portion of life is a field beaten flat +as a threshing-floor, without lofty Gothard Mountains; often it is a +tedious ice-field, without a single glacier tinged with dawn. + +But even by walking, a man rests and recovers himself for climbing; by +little joys and duties, for great. The victorious Dictator must contrive +to plough down his battle Mars-field into a flax and carrot field; to +transform his theatre of war into a parlour theatre, on which his +children may enact some good pieces from the _Children's Friend_. Can he +accomplish this, can he turn so softly from the path of poetical +happiness into that of household happiness,--then is he little different +from myself, who even now, though modesty might forbid me to disclose +it--who even now, I say, amid the creation of this Letter, have been +enabled to reflect, that when it is done, so also will the Roses and +Elder-berries of pastry be done, which a sure hand is seething in butter +for the Author of this Work. + +As I purpose appending to this Letter a Postscript (at the end of the +Book), I reserve somewhat which I had to say about the Third[31] +half-satirical half-philosophical part of the Work, till that +opportunity. + +Here, out of respect for the rights of a Letter, the Author drops his +half anonymity,[32] and for the first time subscribes himself with his +_whole_ true name, + + JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. + + _Hof in Voigtland, 29th June 1795._ + + [31] _Fixlein_ stands in the middle of the volume; preceded by + _Einer Mustheil fuer Madchen_ (A Jelly-course for Young Ladies); and + followed by _Some_ JUS DE TABLETTE _for Men_. A small portion of + the Preface relating to the first I have already omitted. Neither + of the two has the smallest relation to _Fixlein_.--ED. + + [32] _J. P. H., Jean Paul_ HASUS, _Jean Paul_, &c. have in + succession been Richter's signatures. At present even, his German + designation, either in writing or speech, is never _Richter_, but + _Jean Paul_.--ED. + + + + +LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN. + +FIRST LETTER-BOX. + +_Dog-days Vacation. Visits. An Indigent of Quality_. + + +Egidius Zebedaeus Fixlein had just for eight days been Quintus,[33] and +fairly commenced his teaching duties, when Fortune tabled out for him +four refreshing courses and collations, besprinkled with flowers and +sugar. These were the four canicular weeks. I could find in my heart, at +this hour, to pat the cranium of that good-man who invented the Dog-days +Vacation: I never go to walk in that season, without thinking how a +thousand down-pressed pedagogic persons are now erecting themselves in +the open air; and the stiff knapsack is lying unbuckled at their feet, +and they can seek whatsoever their soul desires; butterflies,--or roots +of numbers,--or roots of words,--or herbs,--or their native villages. + + [33] For understanding many little hints which occur in this _Life + of Fixlein_, it will be necessary to bear in mind the following + particulars: A German _Gymnasium_, in its complete state, appears + to include eight Masters; Rector, Conrector, Subrector, Quintus, + Quartus, Tertius, &c., to the _first_ or lowest. The _forms_, or + classes, again, are arranged in an inverse order; the _Primaner_ + (boys of the _Prima_, or first form) being the most advanced, and + taught by the Rector; the _Secundaner_, by the Conrector, &c., and + therefore the _Quartaner_ by the Quintus. In many cases, it would + seem, the number of Teachers is only six; but, in this + Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, we have express evidence that there was + no curtailment.--ED. + +The last did our Fixlein. He moved not, however, till Sunday,--for you +like to know how holidays taste in the city; and then, in company with +his Shock and a Quintaner, or Fifth-Form boy, who carried his Green +nightgown, he issued through the gate in the morning. The dew was still +lying; and as he reached the back of the gardens, the children of the +Orphan Hospital were uplifting with clear voices their morning hymn. The +city was Flachsenfingen, the village Hukelum, the dog Schil, and the +year of Grace 1791. + +"Manikin," said he to the Quintaner, for he liked to speak as Love, +children, and the people of Vienna do, in diminutives, "Manikin, give me +the bundle to the village: run about, and seek thee a little bird, as +thou art thyself, and so have something to pet too in vacation-time." +For the manikin was at once his page, lackey, room-comrade, train-bearer +and gentleman-in-waiting; and the Shock also was his manikin. + +He stept slowly along, through the crisped cole-beds, overlaid with +coloured beads of dew; and looked at the bushes, out of which, when the +morning wind bent them asunder, there seemed to start a flight of +jewel-colibri, so brightly did they glitter. From time to time he drew +the bell-rope of his--whistle, that the manikin might not skip away too +far; and he shortened his league and half of road, by measuring it not +in leagues, but in villages. It is more pleasant for pedestrians--for +geographers it is not--to count by wersts than by miles. In walking, our +Quintus farthermore got by heart the few fields, on which the grain was +already reaped. + +But now roam slower, Fixlein, through his Lordship's garden of Hukelum; +not, indeed, lest thy coat sweep away any tulip-stamina, but that thy +good mother may have time to lay her Cupid's-band of black taffeta about +her smooth brow. I am grieved to think my fair readers take it ill of +her, that she means first to iron this same band: they cannot know that +she has no maid; and that today the whole Preceptorial dinner--the money +purveyances the guest has made over to her three days before--is to be +arranged and prepared by herself, without the aid of any Mistress of the +Household whatever; for indeed she belongs to the _Tiers Etat_, being +neither more nor less than a gardener's widow. + +You can figure how this true, warm-hearted mother may have lain in wait +all morning for her Schoolman, whom she loved as the apple of her eye; +since, on the whole populous Earth, she had not (her first son, as well +as her husband, was dead) any other for her soul, which indeed +overflowed with love; not any other but her Zebedaeus. Could she ever +tell you aught about him, I mean aught joyful, without ten times wiping +her eyes? Nay, did she not once divide her solitary Kirmes (or +Churchale) cake between two mendicant students, because she thought +Heaven would punish her for so feasting, while her boy in Leipzig had +nothing to feast on, and must pass the cake-garden like other gardens, +merely smelling at it? + +"Dickens! Thou already, Zebedaeus!" said the mother, giving an +embarrassed smile, to keep from weeping, as the son, who, had ducked +past the window, and crossed the grassy threshold without knocking, +suddenly entered. For joy she forgot to put the heater into the +smoothing-iron, as her illustrious scholar, amid the loud boiling of the +soup, tenderly kissed her brow, and even said Mamma; a name which +lighted on her breast like downy silk. All the windows were open; and +the garden, with its flower-essences, and bird-music, and +butterfly-collections, was almost half within the room: but I suppose I +have not yet mentioned that the little garden-house, rather a chamber +than a house, was situated on the western cape of the Castle garden. The +owner had graciously allowed the widow to retain this dowager-mansion; +as indeed the mansion would otherwise have stood empty, for he now kept +no gardener. + +But Fixlein, in spite of his joy, could not stay long with her; being +bound for the Church, which, to his spiritual appetite, was at all times +a king's kitchen; a mother's. A sermon pleased him simply because it was +a sermon, and because he himself had once preached one. The mother was +contented he should go: these good women think they enjoy their guests, +if they can only give them aught to enjoy. + +In the choir, this Free-haven and Ethnic Forecourt of stranger +church-goers, he smiled on all parishioners; and, as in his childhood, +standing under the wooden wing of an archangel, he looked down on the +coifed _parterre_. His young years now enclosed him like children in +their smiling circle; and a long garland wound itself in rings among +them, and by fits they plucked flowers from it, and threw them in his +face: Was it not old Senior Astman that stood there on the pulpit +Parnassus, the man by whom he had been so often flogged, while acquiring +Greek with him from a grammar written in Latin, which he could not +explain, yet was forced to walk by the light of? Stood there not behind +the pulpit-stairs the sacristy-cabin, and in this was there not a +church-library of consequence--no schoolboy could have buckled it wholly +in his book-strap--lying under the minever cover of pastil dust? And did +it not consist of the Polyglott in folio, which he, spurred on by +Pfeiffer's _Critica Sacra_, had turned up leaf by leaf, in his early +years, excerpting therefrom the _literae inversae_, _majusculae_, +_minusculae_, and so forth, with an immensity of toil? And could he not +at present, the sooner the more readily, have wished to cast this +alphabetic soft-fodder into the Hebrew letter-trough, whereto your +Oriental Rhizophagi (Root-eaters) are tied, especially as here they get +so little vowel hard-fodder to keep them in heart?--Stood there not +close by him the organ-stool, the throne to which, every Apostle-day, +the Schoolmaster had by three nods elevated him, thence to fetch down +the sacred hyssop, the sprinkler of the Church? + +My readers themselves will gather spirits when they now hear that our +Quintus, during the outshaking of the poor-bag, was invited by the +Senior to come over in the afternoon; and to them, it will be little +less gratifying than if he had invited themselves. But what will they +say, when they get home with him to mother and dinner-table, both +already clad in their white Sunday dress; and behold the large cake +which Fraeulein Thiennette (Stephanie) has rolled from her peel? In the +first place, however, they will wish to know who _she_ is? + +She is,--for if (according to Lessing) in the very excellence of the +Iliad, we neglect the personalities of its author; the same thing will +apply to the fate of several authors, for instance to my own; but an +authoress of cakes must not be forgotten in the excellence of her +baking,--Thiennette is a poor, indigent, insolvent young lady; has not +much, except years, of which she counts five-and-twenty; no near +relations living now; no acquirements (for in literature she does not +even know _Werter_) except economical; reads no books, not even mine; +inhabits, that is, watches like a wardeness, quite alone, the thirteen +void disfurnished chambers of the Castle of Hukelum, which belongs to +the Dragoon Rittmeister Aufhammer, at present resident in his other +mansion of Schadeck: on occasion, she commands and feeds his soccagers +and handmaids; and can write herself By the grace of God,--which, in the +thirteenth century, the country nobles did as well as princes,--for she +lives by the grace of man, at least of woman, the Lady Rittmeisterinn +Aufhammer's grace, who, at all times, blesses those vassals whom her +husband curses. But, in the breast of the orphaned Thiennette lay a +sugared marchpane heart, which, for very love, you could have devoured: +her fate was hard, but her soul was soft; she was modest, courteous and +timid, but too much so;--cheerfully and coldly she received the most +cutting humiliations in Schadeck, and felt no pain, and not till some +days after did she see it all clearly, and then these cuts began sharply +to bleed, and she wept in her loneliness over her lot. + +It is hard for me to give a light tone, after this deep one, and to add, +that Fixlein had been almost brought up beside her, and that she, his +school-moiety over with the Senior, while the latter was training him +for the dignities of the Third Form, had learned the _Verba Anomala_ +along with him. + +The Achilles'-shield of the cake, jagged and embossed with carved work +of brown scales, was whirling round in the Quintus like a swing-wheel of +hungry and thankful ideas. Of that philosophy which despises eating, and +of that high breeding which wastes it, he had not so much about him as +belongs to the ungratefulness of such cultivated persons; but for his +platter of meat, for his dinner of herbs, he could never give thanks +enough. + +Innocent and contented, the quadruple dinner-party,--for the Shock with +his cover under the stove cannot be omitted,--now began their Feast of +Sweet Bread, their Feast of Honour for Thiennette, their Grove-feast in +the garden. It may truly be a subject of wonder how a man who has not, +like the King of France, four hundred and forty-eight persons (the +hundred and sixty-one _Garcons de la Maison-bouche_ I do not reckon) in +his kitchen, nor a _Fruiterie_ of thirty-one human bipeds, nor a +Pastry-cookery of three-and-twenty, nor a daily expenditure of 387 +livres 21 sous,--how such a man, I say, can eat with any satisfaction. +Nevertheless, to me, a cooking mother is as dear as a whole royal +cooking household, given rather to feed upon me than to feed me.--The +most precious fragments which the Biographer and the World can gather +from this meal, consist of here and there an edifying piece of +table-talk. The mother had much to tell. Thiennette is this night, she +mentions, for the first time, to put on her morning promenade-dress of +white muslin, as also a satin girdle and steel buckle: but, adds she, it +will not sit her; as the Rittmeisterinn (for this lady used to hang her +cast clothes on Thiennette, as Catholics do their cast crutches and +sores on their patron Saints) was much thicker. Good women grudge each +other nothing, save only clothes, husbands and flax. In the fancy of the +Quintus, by virtue of this apparel, a pair of angel pinions were +sprouting forth from the shoulder-blades of Thiennette: for him a +garment was a sort of hollow half-man, to whom only the nobler parts and +the first principles were wanting: he honoured these wrappages and hulls +of our interior, not as an Elegant, or a Critic of Beauty, but because +it was not possible for him to despise aught which he saw others +honouring. Farther, the good mother read to him, as it were, the +monumental inscription of his father, who had sunk into the arms of +Death in the thirty-second year of his age, from a cause which I explain +not here, but in a future Letter-box, having too much affection for the +reader. Our Quintus could not sate himself with hearing of his father. + +The fairest piece of news was, that Fraeulein Thiennette had sent word +today: "he might visit Her Ladyship tomorrow, as My Lord, his godfather, +was to be absent in town." This, however, I must explain. Old Aufhammer +was called _Egidius_, and was Fixlein's godfather: but he,--though the +Rittmeisterinn duly covered the cradle of the child with nightly +offerings, with flesh-tithes and grain-tithes,--had frugally made him no +christening present, except that of his name, which proved to be the +very balefulest. For, our _Egidius_ Fixlein, with his Shock, which, by +reason of the French convulsions, had, in company with other emigrants, +run off from Nantes, was but lately returned from college,--when he and +his dog, as ill luck would have it, went to walk in the Hukelum wood. +Now, as the Quintus was ever and anon crying out to his attendant: +"Coosh, Schil" (_Couche, Gilles_), it must apparently have been the +Devil that had just then planted the Lord of Aufhammer among the trees +and bushes in such a way, that this whole travestying and docking of his +name,--for Gilles means Egidius,--must fall directly into his ear. +Fixlein could neither speak French, nor any offence to mortal: he knew +not head or tail of what _couche_ signified; a word, which, in Paris, +even the plebeian dogs are now in the habit of saying to their _valets +de chiens_. But there were three things which Von Aufhammer never +recalled; his error, his anger and his word. The provokee, therefore, +determined that the plebeian provoker and honour-stealer should never +more speak to him, or--get a doit from him. + +I return. After dinner he gazed out of the little window into the +garden, and saw his path of life dividing into four branches, leading +towards just as many skyward Ascensions; towards the Ascension into the +Parsonage, and that into the Castle to Thiennette, for this day; and +towards the third into Schadeck for the morrow; and lastly, into every +house in Hukelum as the fourth. And now when the mother had long enough +kept cheerfully gliding about on tiptoe, "not to disturb him in studying +his Latin Bible" (the _Vulgata_), that is, in reading the +_Litteratur-zeitung_, he at last rose to his own feet; and the humble +joy of the mother ran long after the courageous son, who dared to go +forth and speak to a Senior, quite unappalled. Yet it was not without +reverence that he entered the dwelling of his old, rather gray than +bald-headed teacher, who was not only Virtue itself, but also Hunger, +eating frequently, and with the appetite of Pharaoh's lean kine. A +schoolman, that expects to become a professor, will scarcely deign to +cast an eye on a pastor; but one, who is himself looking up to a +parsonage as to his working-house and breeding-house, knows how to value +such a character. The new parsonage,--as if it had, like a _Casa Santa_, +come flying out of Erlangen, or the Berlin Friedrichs-strasse, and +alighted in Hukelum,--was for the Quintus a Temple of the Sun, and the +Senior a Priest of the Sun. To be Parson there himself, was a thought +overlaid with virgin honey; such a thought as occurs but one other time +in History, namely, in the head of Hannibal, when he projected stepping +over the Alps, that is to say, over the threshold of Rome. + +The landlord and his guest formed an excellent _bureau d'esprit_: people +of office, especially of the same office, have more to tell each other, +namely, their own history, than your idle May-chafers and +Court-celestials, who must speak only of other people's.--The Senior +made a soft transition from his iron-ware (in the stable furniture), to +the golden age of his Academic life, of which such people like as much +to think, as poets do of their childhood. So good as he was, he still +half joyfully recollected that he had once been less so: but joyful +remembrances of wrong actions are their half repetition, as repentant +remembrances of good ones are their half abolishment. + +Courteously and kindly did Zebedaeus (who could not even enter in his +Notebook the name of a person of quality without writing an H. for Herr +before it) listen to the Academic Saturnalia of the old gentleman, who +in Wittenberg had toped as well as written, and thirsted not more for +the Hippocrene than for Guk-guk.[34] + + [34] A university beer. + +Herr Jerusalem has observed, that the barbarism which often springs up, +close on the brightest efflorescence of the sciences, is a sort of +strengthening mudbath, good for averting the over-refinement, wherewith +such efflorescence always threatens us. I believe that a man who +considers how high the sciences have mounted with our upper +classes,--for instance with every Patrician's son in Nuernberg, to whom +the public must present 1000 florins for studying with,--I believe that +such a man will not grudge the Son of the Muses a certain barbarous +Middle-age (the Burschen or Student Life, as it is called), which may +again so case-harden him that his refinement shall not go beyond the +limits. The Senior, while in Wittenberg, had protected the one hundred +and eighty Academic Freedoms,--so many of them has Petrus Rebuffus +summed up,[35]--against prescription, and lost none except his moral +one, of which truly a man, even in a convent, can seldom make much. This +gave our Quintus courage to relate certain pleasant somersets of his +own, which at Leipzig, under the Incubus-pressure of poverty, he had +contrived to execute. Let us hear him: His landlord, who was at the same +time Professor and Miser, maintained in his enclosed court a whole +community of hens: Fixlein, in company with three room-mates, without +difficulty mastered the rent of a chamber, or closet: in general their +main equipments, like Phoenixes, existed but in the singular number; +one bed, in which always the one pair slept before midnight, the other +after midnight, like nocturnal watchmen; one coat, in which one after +the other they appeared in public, and which, like a watch-coat, was the +national uniform of the company; and several other _ones_, Unities both +of Interest and Place. Nowhere can you collect the stress-memorials and +siege-medals of Poverty more pleasantly and philosophically than at +College; the Academic burgher exhibits to us how many humorists and +Diogeneses Germany has in it. Our Unitarians had just one thing four +times, and that was hunger. The Quintus related, perhaps with a too +pleasurable enjoyment of the recollection, how one of this famishing +_coro_ invented means of appropriating the Professor's hens as just +tribute, or subsidies. He said (he was a Jurist), they must once for all +borrow a legal fiction from the Feudal code, and look on the Professor +as the soccage tenant, to whom the usufruct of the hen-yard and +hen-house belonged; but on themselves, as the feudal superiors of the +same, to whom accordingly the vassal was bound to pay his feudal dues. +And now, that the Fiction might follow Nature, continued he,--"_fictio +sequitur naturam_,"--it behoved them to lay hold of said Yule-hens, by +direct personal distraint. But into the court-yard there was no getting. +The feudalist, therefore, prepared a fishing-line; stuck a bread-pill on +the hook, and lowered his fishing-tackle, anglerwise, down into the +court. In a few seconds the barb stuck in a hen's throat, and the hen +now communicating with its feudal superior, could silently, like ships +by Archimedes, be heaved aloft to the hungry air-fishing society, where, +according to circumstances, the proper feudal name and title of +possession failed not to be awaiting her: for the updrawn fowls were now +denominated Christmas-fowls, now Forest-hens, Bailiff-hens, Pentecost +and Summer-hens. "I begin," said the angling lord of the manor, "with +taking _Rutcher-dues_, for so we call the triple and quintuple of the +original quit-rent, when the vassal, as is the case here, has long +neglected payment." The Professor, like any other prince, observed with +sorrow the decreasing population of his hen-yard, for his subjects, like +the Hebrews, were dying by enumeration. At last he had the happiness, +while reading his lecture,--he was just come to the subject of _Forest +Salt and Coin Regalities_,--to descry, through the window of his +auditorium, a quit-rent hen suspended, like Ignatius Loyola in prayer, +or Juno in her punishment, in middle air: he followed the +incomprehensible direct ascension of the aeronautic animal, and at last +descried at the upper window the attracting artist, and +animal-magnetiser, who had drawn his lot for dinner from the hen-yard +below. Contrary to all expectation, he terminated this fowling sport +sooner than his Lecture on Regalities. + + [35] From Peter I will copy one or two of these privileges; the + whole of which were once, at the origin of universities, in full + force. For instance, a student can compel a citizen to let him his + house and his horse; an injury, done even to his relations, must be + made good fourfold; he is not obliged to fulfil the written + commands of the Pope; the neighbourhood must indemnify him for what + is stolen from him; if he and a non-student are living at variance, + the latter only can be expelled from the boarding-house; a Doctor + is obliged to support a poor student; if he is killed, the next ten + houses are laid under interdict till the murderer is discovered; + his legacies are not abridged by _falcidia_, &c. &c. + +Fixlein walked home, amid the vesperal melodies of the steeple +sounding-holes; and by the road, courteously took off his hat before the +empty windows of the Castle: houses of quality were to him like persons +of quality, as in India the Pagoda at once represents the temple and the +god. To the mother he brought feigned compliments, which she repaid with +authentic ones; for this afternoon she had been over, with her +historical tongue and nature-interrogating eye, visiting the +white-muslin Thiennette. The mother was wont to show her every spare +penny which he dropped into her large empty purse, and so raise him in +the good graces of the Fraeulein; for women feel their hearts much more +attracted towards a son, who tenderly reserves for a mother some of his +benefits, than we do to a daughter anxiously caring for her father; +perhaps from a hundred causes, and this among the rest, that in their +experience of sons and husbands they are more used to find these persons +mere six-feet thunder-clouds, forked waterspouts, or even reposing +tornadoes. + +Blessed Quintus! on whose Life this other distinction like an order of +nobility does also shine, that thou canst tell it over to thy mother; +as, for example, this past afternoon in the parsonage. Thy joy flows +into another heart, and streams back from it, redoubled, into thy own. +There is a closer approximating of hearts, and also of sounds, than that +of the _Echo_; the highest approximation melts Tone and Echo into +_Resonance_ together. + +It is historically certain that both of them supped this evening; and +that instead of the whole dinner fragments which tomorrow might +themselves represent a dinner, nothing but the cake-offering or pudding +was laid upon the altar of the table. The mother, who for her own child +would willingly have neglected not herself only, but all other people, +now made a motion that to the Quintaner, who was sporting out of doors +and baiting a bird instead of himself, there should no crum of the +precious pastry be given, but only table-bread without the crust. But +the Schoolman had a Christian disposition, and said that it was Sunday, +and the young man liked something delicate to eat as well as he. +Fixlein,--the counterpart of great men and geniuses,--was inclined to +treat, to gift, to gratify a serving house-mate, rather than a man who +is for the first time passing through the gate, and at the next +post-stage will forget both his hospitable landlord and the last +postmaster. On the whole, our Quintus had a touch of honour in him, and +notwithstanding his thrift and sacred regard for money, he willingly +gave it away in cases of honour, and unwillingly in cases of +overpowering sympathy, which too painfully filled the cavities of his +heart, and emptied those of his purse. Whilst the Quintaner was +exercising the _jus compascui_ on the cake, and six arms were peacefully +resting on Thiennette's free-table, Fixlein read to himself and the +company the Flachsenfingen Address-calendar; any higher thing, except +Meusel's _Gelehrtes Deutschland_,[36] he could not figure: the +Kammerherrs and Raths of the Calendar went tickling over his tongue like +the raisins of the cake; and of the more rich church-livings he, by +reading, as it were levied a tithe. + + [36] _Literary Germany_; a work (I believe of no great merit) which + Richter often twitches in the same style.--ED. + +He purposely remained his own Edition in Sunday Wove-paper; I mean, he +did not lay away his Sunday coat, even when the Prayer-bell tolled; for +he had still much to do. + +After supper, he was just about visiting the Fraeulein, when he descried +her in person, like a lily dipt in the red twilight, in the +Castle-garden, whose western limit his house constituted, the southern +one being the Chinese wall of the Castle.... By the way, how I got to +the knowledge of all this, what Letter-boxes are, whether I myself was +ever there, &c. &c.,--the whole of this shall, upon my life, be soon and +faithfully communicated to the reader, and that too in the present Book. + +Fixlein hopped forth like a Will-o'-wisp into the garden, whose +flower-perfume was mingling with his supper-perfume. No one bowed lower +to a nobleman than he, not out of plebeian servility, nor of +self-interested cringing, but because he thought "a nobleman was a +nobleman." But in this case his bow, instead of falling forwards, fell +obliquely to the right, as it were after his hat: for he had not risked +taking a stick with him; and hat and stick were his proppage and +balance-wheel, in short, his bowing-gear, without which it was out of +his power to produce any courtly bow, had you offered him the High +Church of Hamburg for so doing. Thiennette's mirthfulness soon unfolded +his crumpled soul into straight form, and into the proper tone. He +delivered her a long neat Thanksgiving and Harvest sermon for the scaly +cake; which appeared to her at once kind and tedious. Young women +without the polish of high life reckon tedious pedantry, merely like +snuffing, one of the necessary ingredients of a man: they reverence us +infinitely; and as Lambert could never speak to the King of Prussia, by +reason of his sun-eyes, except in the dark, so they, I believe, often +like better,--also by reason of our sublime air,--if they can catch us +in the dark too. _Him_ Thiennette edified by the Imperial History of +Herr von Aufhammer and Her Ladyship his spouse, who meant to put him, +the Quintus, in her will: _her_ he edified by his Literary History, as +relating to himself and the Subrector; how, for instance, he was at +present vicariating in the Second Form, and ruling over scholars as long +in stature as himself. And thus did the two in happiness, among red +bean-blossoms, red may-chafers, before the red of the twilight burning +lower and lower on the horizon, walk to and fro in the garden; and turn +always with a smile as they approached the head of the ancient +gardeneress, standing like a window-bust through the little lattice, +which opened in the bottom of a larger one. + +To me it is incomprehensible he did not fall in love. I know his +reasons, indeed: in the first place, she had nothing; secondly, he had +nothing, and school-debts to boot; thirdly, her genealogical tree was a +boundary-tree and warning-post; fourthly, his hands were tied up by +another nobler thought, which, for good cause, is yet reserved from the +reader. Nevertheless--Fixlein! I durst not have been in thy place! I +should have looked at her, and remembered her virtues and our +school-years, and then have drawn forth my too fusible heart, and +presented it to her as a bill of exchange, or insinuated it as a +summons. For I should have considered that she resembled a nun in two +senses, in her good heart and in her good pastry; that, in spite of her +intercourse with male vassals, she was no Charles Genevieve Louise +Auguste Timothe Eon de Beaumont,[37] but a smooth, fair-haired, +white-capped dove; that she sought more to please her own sex than ours; +that she showed a melting heart, not previously borrowed from the +Circulating Library, in tears, for which in her innocence she rather +took shame than credit.--At the very first cheapening, I should, on +these grounds, have been out with my heart.--Had I fully reflected, +Quintus! that I knew her as myself; that her hands and mine (to wit, had +I been thou) had both been guided by the same Senior to Latin +penmanship; that we two, when little children, had kissed each other +before the glass, to see whether the two image-children would do it +likewise in the mirror; that often we had put hands of both sexes into +the same muff, and there played with them in secret; had I, lastly, +considered that we were here standing before the glass-house, now +splendent in the enamel of twilight, and that on the cold panes of this +glass-house we two (she within, I without) had often pressed our warm +cheeks together, parted only by the thickness of the glass,--then had I +taken this poor gentle soul, pressed asunder by Fate, and seeing, amid +her thunder-clouds, no higher elevation to part them and protect her +than the grave, and had drawn her to my own soul, and warmed her on my +heart, and encompassed her about with my eyes. + + [37] See _Schmelzle's Journey_, p. 284.--ED. + +In truth, the Quintus would have done so too, had not the +above-mentioned nobler thought, which I yet disclose not, kept him +back. Softened, without knowing the cause--(accordingly he gave his +mother a kiss)--and blessed without having had a literary conversation; +and dismissed with a freight of humble compliments, which he was to +disload on the morrow before the Dragoon Rittmeisterinn, he returned to +his little cottage, and looked yet a long while out of its dark windows, +at the light ones of the Castle. And then, when the first quarter of the +moon was setting, that is, about midnight, he again, in the cool sigh of +a mild, fanning, moist and directly heart-addressing night-breeze, +opened the eyelids of a sight already sunk in dreaming.... + +Sleep, for today thou hast done naught ill! I, whilst the drooping shut +flower-bell of thy spirit sinks on thy pillow, will look forth into the +breezy night over thy morning footpath, which, through the translucent +little wood, is to lead thee to Schadeck, to thy patroness. All +prosperity attend thee, thou foolish Quintus!-- + + + + +SECOND LETTER-BOX. + +_Frau von Aufhammer. Childhood-Resonance. Authorcraft._ + + +The early piping which the little thrush last night adopted by the +Quintaner from its nest, started for victual about two o'clock, soon +drove our Quintus into his clothes; whose calender-press and +parallel-ruler the hands of his careful mother had been, for she would +not send him to the Rittmeisterinn "like a runagate dog." The Shock was +incarcerated, the Quintaner taken with him, as likewise many wholesome +rules from Mother Fixlein, how to conduct himself towards the +Rittmeisterinn. But the son answered: "Mamma, when a man has been in +company, like me, with high people, with a Fraeulein Thiennette, he soon +knows whom he is speaking to, and what polished manners and Saver di +veaver (_Savoir vivre_) require." + +He arrived with the Quintaner, and green fingers (dyed with the leaves +he had plucked on the path), and with a half-nibbled rose between his +teeth, in presence of the sleek lackeys of Schadeck.--If women are +flowers,--though as often silk and Italian and gum-flowers as botanical +ones,--then was Frau von Aufhammer a ripe flower, with (adipose) +neck-bulb, and tuberosity (of lard). Already, in the half of her body, +cut away from life by the apoplexy, she lay upon her lard-pillow but as +on a softer grave: nevertheless, the portion of her that remained was +at once lively, pious and proud. Her heart was a flowing cornucopia to +all men, yet this not from philanthropy, but from rigid devotion: the +lower classes she assisted, cherished and despised, regarding nothing in +them, except it were their piety. She received the bowing Quintus with +the back-bowing air of a patroness; yet she brightened into a look of +kindliness at his disloading of the compliments from Thiennette. + +She began the conversation, and long continued it alone, and said,--yet +without losing the inflation of pride from her countenance: "She should +soon die; but the god-children of her husband she would remember in her +will." Farther, she told him directly in the face, which stood there all +over-written with the Fourth Commandment before her, that "he must not +build upon a settlement in Hukelum; but to the Flachsenfingen +Conrectorate (to which the Buergermeister and Council had the right of +nomination), she hoped to promote him, as it was from the then +Buergermeister that she bought her coffee, and from the Town-Syndic (he +drove a considerable wholesale and retail trade in Hamburg candles) that +she bought both her wax and tallow lights." + +And now by degrees he arrived at his humble petition, when she asked him +sick-news of Senior Astmann, who guided himself more by Luther's +Catechism than by the Catechism of Health. She was Astmann's patroness +in a stricter than ecclesiastical sense; and she even confessed that she +would soon follow this, true shepherd of souls, when she heard, here at +Shadeck, the sound of his funeral-bell. Such strange chemical affinities +exist between our dross and our silver veins; as, for example, here +between Pride and Love: and I could wish that we would pardon this +hypostatic union in all persons, as readily as we do it in the fair, +who, with all their faults, are nevertheless by us,--as, according to Du +Fay, iron, though mixed with any other metal, is, by the +magnet,--attracted and held fast. + +Supposing even that the Devil _had_, in some idle minute, sown a handful +or two of the seeds of Envy in our Quintus' soul, yet they had not +sprouted; and today especially they did not, when he heard the praises +of a man who had been his teacher, and who,--what he reckoned a Titulado +of the Earth, not from vanity but from piety,--was a clergyman. So much, +however, is, according to History, not to be denied: That he now +straight-way came forth with his petition to the noble lady, signifying +that "indeed he would cheerfully content himself for a few years in the +school; but yet in the end he longed to be in some small quiet priestly +office." To her question, "But was he orthodox?" he answered, that "he +hoped so; he had in Leipzig, not only attended all the public lectures +of Dr. Burscher, but also had taken private instructions from several +sound teachers of the faith, well knowing that the Consistorium, in its +examinations as to purity of doctrine, was now more strict than +formerly." + +The sick lady required him to make a proof-shot, namely, to administer +to her a sick-bed exhortation. By Heaven! he administered to her one of +the best. Her pride of birth now crouched before his pride of office and +priesthood; for though he could not, with the Dominican monk, Alanus de +Rupe, believe that a priest was greater than God, inasmuch as the latter +could only make a World, but the former a God (in the mass); yet he +could not but fall-in with Hostiensis, who shows that the priestly +dignity is seven thousand six hundred and forty-four times greater than +the kingly, the Sun being just so many times greater than the Moon.--But +a Rittmeisterinn--_she_ shrinks into absolute nothing before a parson. + +In the servants' hall he applied to the lackeys for the last annual +series of the _Hamburg Political Journal_; perceiving, that with these +historical documents of the time, they were scandalously papering the +buttons of travelling raiment. In gloomy harvest evenings, he could now +sit down and read for himself what good news were transpiring in the +political world--twelve months ago. + +On a Triumphal Car, full-laden with laurel, and to which Hopes alone +were yoked, he drove home at night, and by the road advised the +Quintaner not to be puffed up with any earthly honour, but silently to +thank God, as himself was now doing. + + * * * * * + +The thickset blooming grove of his four canicular weeks, and the flying +tumult of blossoms therein, are already painted on three of the sides. I +will now clutch blindfold into his days, and bring out one of them: one +smiles and sends forth its perfumes like another. + +Let us take, for instance, the Saint's day of his mother, _Clara_, the +twelfth of August. In the morning, he had perennial, fireproof joys, +that is to say, Employments. For he was writing, as I am doing. Truly, +if Xerxes proposed a prize for the invention of a new pleasure, any man +who had sat down to write his thoughts on the prize-question, had the +new pleasure already among his fingers. I know only one thing sweeter +than making a book, and that is, to project one. Fixlein used to write +little works, of the twelfth part of an alphabet in size, which in their +manuscript state he got bound by the bookbinder in gilt boards, and +betitled with printed letters, and then inserted them among the literary +ranks of his book-board. Every one thought they were novelties printed +in writing types. He had laboured,--I shall omit his less interesting +performances,--at a _Collection of Errors of the Press_, in German +writings: he compared _Errata_ with each other; showed which occurred +most frequently; observed that important results were to be drawn from +this, and advised the reader to draw them. + +Moreover, he took his place among the German _Masorites_. He observes +with great justice in his Preface: "The Jews had their _Masora_ to show, +which told them how often every letter was to be found in their Bible; +for example, the Aleph (the A) 42,377 times; how many verses there are +in which all the consonants appear (there are 26 verses), or only eighty +(there are 3); how many verses we have into which 42 words and 160 +consonants enter (there is just one, Jeremiah xxi. 7); which is the +middle letter in certain books (in the Pentateuch, it is in Leviticus +xi. 42, the noble V[38]), or in the whole Bible itself. But where have +we Christians any similar Masora for Luther's Bible to show? Has it been +accurately investigated which is the middle word, or the middle letter +here, which vowel appears seldomest, and how often each vowel? Thousands +of Bible-Christians go out of the world, without ever knowing that the +German A occurs 323,015 times (therefore above 7 times oftener than the +Hebrew one) in their Bible." + + [38] As in the State.--V. or Von, _de_, _of_, being the symbol of + the nobility, the middle order of the State.--ED. + +I could wish that inquirers into Biblical Literature among our Reviewers +would publicly let me know, if on a more accurate summation they find +this number incorrect.[39] + + [39] In Erlang, my petition has been granted. The _Bible + Institution_ of that town have found instead of the 116,301 A's, + which Fixlein at first pretended with such certainty to find in the + Bible-books (which false number was accordingly given in the first + Edition of this Work, p. 81), the above-mentioned 323,015; which + (uncommonly singular) is precisely the sum of all the letters in + the Koran put together. See _Luedeke's Beschr. des Tuerk. Reichs_ + (Luedeke's Description of the Turkish Empire. New edition, 1780). + +Much also did the Quintus _collect_: he had a fine _Almanac Collection_, +a _Catechism_ and _Pamphlet Collection_; also a _Collection of +Advertisements_, which he began, is not so incomplete as you most +frequently see such things. He puts high value on his _Alphabetical +Lexicon of German Subscribers for Books_, where my name also occurs +among the J's. + +But what he liked best to produce were Schemes of Books. Accordingly, he +sewed together a large work, wherein he merely advised the Learned of +things they ought to introduce in Literary History, which History he +rated some ells higher than Universal or Imperial History. In his +Prolegomena to this performance, he transiently submitted to the +Literary republic that Hommel had given a register of Jurists who were +sons of wh--, of others who had become Saints; that Baillet enumerates +the Learned who _meant_ to write something; and Ancillon those who wrote +nothing at all; and the Luebeck Superintendent Goetze, those who were +shoemakers, those who were drowned; and Bernhard those whose fortunes +and history before birth were interesting. This (he could now continue) +should, as it seems, have excited us to similar muster-rolls and +matriculations of other kinds of Learned; whereof he proposed a few: for +example, of the Learned, who were unlearned; of those who were entire +rascals; of such as wore their own hair,--of cue-preachers, +cue-psalmists, cue-annalists, and so forth; of the Learned who had worn +black leather breeches, of others who had worn rapiers; of the Learned +who had died in their eleventh year,--in their twentieth--twenty-first, +&c.,--in their hundred and fiftieth, of which he knew no instance, +unless the Beggar Thomas Parr might be adduced; of the Learned who wrote +a more abominable hand than the other Learned (whereof we know only +Rolfinken and his letters, which were as long as his hands[40]); or of +the Learned who had clipt nothing from each other but the beard (whereof +no instance is known, save that of Philelphus and Timotheus[41]). + + [40] _Paravicini Singularia de viris claris. Cent. I. 2._ + + [41] _Ejusd. Cent. II._ Philelphus quarrelled with the Greek about + the quantity of a syllable: the prize or bet was the beard of the + vanquished. Timotheus lost his. + +Such by-studies did he carry on along with his official labours: but I +think the State in viewing these matters is actually mad; it compares +the man who is great in Philosophy and Belles Lettres at the expense of +his jog-trot officialities, to _concert-clocks_, which, though striking +their hours in flute-melodies, are worse time-keepers than your gross +stupid _steeple-clocks_. + +To return to St. Clara's day. Fixlein, after such mental exertions, +bolted out under the music-bushes and rustling-trees; and returned not +again out of warm Nature, till plate and chair were already placed at +the table. In the course of the repast, something occurred which a +Biographer must not omit: for his mother had, by request, been wont to +map out for him, during the process of mastication, the chart of his +child's-world, relating all the traits which in any way prefigured what +he had now grown to. This perspective sketch of his early Past, he +committed to certain little leaves, which merit our undivided attention. +For such leaves exclusively, containing scenes, acts, plays of his +childhood, he used chronologically to file and arrange in separate +drawers in a little child's-desk of his; and thus to divide his +Biography, as Moser did his Publicistic Materials, into separate +_letter-boxes_. He had boxes or drawers for memorial-letters of his +twelfth, of his thirteenth, fourteenth, &c. of his twenty-first year, +and so on. Whenever he chose to conclude a day of pedagogic drudgery by +an evening of peculiar rest, he simply pulled out a letter-drawer, a +register-bar in his Life-hand-organ, and recollected the whole. + +And here must I in reference to those reviewing Mutes, who may be for +casting the noose of strangulation round my neck, most particularly beg, +that, before doing so on account of my Chapters being called +Letter-boxes, they would have the goodness to look whose blame it was, +and to think whether I could possibly help it, seeing the Quintus had +divided his Biography into such Boxes himself: they have Christian +bowels. + +But about his elder brother he put no saddening question to his mother: +this poor boy a peculiar Fate had laid hold of, and with all his genial +endowment, dashed to pieces on the iceberg of Death. For he chanced to +leap on an ice-board that had jammed itself among several others; but +these recoiled, and his shot forth with him; melted away as it floated +under his feet, and so sunk his heart of fire amid the ice and waves. It +grieved his mother that he was not found, that her heart had not been +harrowed by the look of the swoln corpse.--O good mother, rather thank +God for it!-- + + * * * * * + +After breakfast, to fortify himself with new vigour for his desk, he +for some time strolled idly over the house, and, like a Police +Fire-inspector, visited all the nooks of his cottage, to gather from +them here and there a live ember from the ash-covered rejoicing-fire of +his childhood. He mounted to the garret, to the empty bird-coops of his +father, who in winter had been a birder; and he transiently reviewed the +lumber of his old playthings, which were lying in the netted enclosure +of a large canary breeding-cage. In the minds of children, it is regular +_little_ forms, such as those of balls and dies, that impress and +express themselves most forcibly. From this may the reader explain to +himself Fixlein's delight in the red acorn-blockhouse, in the sparwork +glued together out of white chips and husks of potato-plums, in the +cheerful glass-house of a cube-shaped lantern, and other the like +products of his early architecture. The following, however, I explain +quite differently: he had ventured, without leave given from any lord of +the manor, to build a clay house; not for cottagers, but for flies; and +which, therefore, you could readily enough have put in your pocket. This +fly-hospital had its glass windows, and a red coat of colouring, and +very many alcoves, and three balconies: balconies, as a sort of house +within a house, he had loved from of old so much, that he could scarcely +have liked Jerusalem well, where (according to Lightfoot) no such thing +is permitted to be built. From the glistening eyes, with which the +architect had viewed his tenantry creeping about the windows or feeding +out of the sugar-trough,--for, like the Count St. Germain, they ate +nothing but sugar,--from this joy an adept in the art of education might +easily have prophesied his turn for household contraction; to his fancy, +in those times, even gardeners'-huts were like large waste Arks and +Halls, and nothing bigger than such a fly-Louvre seemed a true, snug, +citizen's-house. He now felt and handled his old high child's-stool, +which had, in former days, resembled the _Sedes Exploratoria_ of the +Pope; he gave his child's-coach a tug and made it run; but he could not +understand what balsam and holiness so much distinguished it from all +other child's-coaches. He wondered that the real sports of children +should not so delight him, as the emblems of these sports, when the +child that had carried them on was standing grown up to manhood in his +presence. + +Before one article in the house he stood heart-melted and sad; before a +little angular clothes-press, which was no higher than my table, and +which had belonged to his poor drowned brother. When the boy with the +key of it was swallowed by the waves, the excruciated mother had made a +vow that this toy-press of his should never be broken up by violence. +Most probably there is nothing in it, but the poor soul's playthings. +Let us look away from this bloody urn.---- + +Bacon reckons the remembrances of childhood among wholesome medicinal +things; naturally enough, therefore, they acted like a salutary +digestive on the Quintus. He could now again betake him with new heart +to his desk, and produce something quite peculiar--petitions for +church-livings. He took the Address-calendar, and for every country +parish that he found in it, got a petition in readiness; which he then +laid aside, till such time as the present incumbent should decease. For +Hukelum alone he did not solicit.--It is a pretty custom in +Flachsenfingen that for every office which is vacant, you are required, +if you want it, to sue. As the higher use of Prayer consists not in its +fulfilment, but in its accustoming you to pray; so likewise petitionary +papers ought to be given in, not indeed that you may get the +office,--this nothing but your money can do,--but that you may learn to +write petitions. In truth, if among the Calmucks, the turning of a +calabash[42] stands in the place of Prayer, a slight movement of the +purse may be as much as if you supplicated in words. + + [42] Their prayer-barrel, Kueruedu, is a hollowed shell, a calabash, + full of unrolled formulas of prayer; they sway it from side to + side, and then it works. More philosophically viewed, since in + prayer the feeling only is of consequence, it is much the same + whether this express itself by motion of the mouth or of the + calabash. + +Towards evening--it was Sunday--he went out roving over the village; he +pilgrimed to his old sporting-places, and to the common where he had so +often driven his snails to pasture; visited the peasant, who, from +school-times upwards, had been wont, to the amazement of the rest, to +_thou_[43] him; went, an Academic Tutor, to the Schoolmaster; then to +the Senior; then to the Episcopal-barn or church. This last no mortal +understands, till I explain it. The case was this: some three-and-forty +years ago, a fire had destroyed the church (not the steeple), the +parsonage, and--what was not to be replaced--the church-records. (For +this reason, it was only the smallest portion of the Hukelum people that +knew exactly how old they were; and the memory of our Quintus himself +vibrated between adopting the thirty-third year and the thirty-second.) +In consequence, the preaching had now to be carried on where formerly +there had been thrashing; and the seed of the divine word to be turned +over on the same threshing-floor with natural corn-seed. The Chanter and +the Schoolboys took up the threshing-floor; the female +mother-church-people stood on the one sheaves-loft, the Schadeck +womankind on the other; and their husbands clustered pyramidically, like +groschen and farthing-gallery men, about the barn-stairs; and far up on +the straw-loft, mixed souls stood listening. A little flute was their +organ, an upturned beer-cask their altar, round which they had to walk. +I confess, I myself could have preached in such a place, not without +humour. The Senior (at that time still a Junior), while the parsonage +was building, dwelt and taught in the Castle: it was here, accordingly, +that Fixlein had learned the _Irregular Verbs_ with Thiennette. + + [43] In German, as in some other languages, the common mode of + address is by the _third_ person: plural, it indicates respect; + singular, command: the _second_ person is also used; plural, it + generally denotes indifference; singular, great familiarity, and + sometimes its product, contempt. _Dutzenfreund, Thouing-friend_, is + the strictest term of intimacy; and among the wild _Burschen_ + (Students) many a duel (happily, however, often ending like the + _Polemo-Midinia_ in _one_ drop of blood) has been fought, in + consequence of saying _Du_ (thou) and _Sie_ (they) in the wrong + place.--ED. + +These voyages of discovery completed, our Hukelum voyager could still, +after evening prayers, pick leaf-insects, with Thiennette, from the +roses; worms from the beds, and a Heaven of joy from every minute. Every +dew-drop was coloured as with oil of cloves and oil of gladness; every +star was a sparkle from the sun of happiness; and in the closed heart of +the maiden, there lay near to him, behind a little wall of separation +(as near to the Righteous man behind the thin wall of Life), an +outstretched blooming Paradise.... I mean, she loved him a little. + +He might have known it, perhaps. But to his compressed delight he gave +freer vent, as he went to bed, by early recollections on the stair. For +in his childhood he had been accustomed, by way of evening-prayer, to go +over, under his coverlid, as it were, a rosary, including fourteen Bible +Proverbs, the first verse of the Psalm, "All people that on Earth," the +Tenth Commandment, and, lastly, a long blessing. To get the sooner done +with it, he had used to begin his devotion, not only on the stair, but +before leaving that place where Alexander studied men, and Semler stupid +books. Moored in the haven of the down-waves, he was already over with +his evening supplication; and could now, without farther exertion, shut +his eyes and plump into sleep.----Thus does there lurk, in the smallest +_homunculus_, the model of--the Catholic Church. + +So far the Dog-days of Quintus Zebedaeus Egidius Fixlein.--I, for the +second time, close a Chapter of this _Life_, as Life itself is closed, +with a sleep. + + + + +THIRD LETTER-BOX. + +_Christmas Recollections. New Occurrence._ + + +For all of us the passage to the grave is, alas! a string of empty +insipid days, as of glass pearls, only here and there divided by an +orient one of price. But you die murmuring, unless, like the Quintus, +you regard your existence as a drum: this has only one single _tone_, +but variety of _time_ gives the sound of it cheerfulness enough. Our +Quintus taught in the Fourth Class; vicariated in the Second; wrote at +his desk by night; and so lived on in the usual monotonous fashion--all +the time from the Holidays--till Christmas-eve, 1791; and nothing was +remarkable in his history except this same eve, which I am now about to +paint. + +But I shall still have time to paint it, after, in the first place, +explaining shortly how, like birds of passage, he had contrived to soar +away over the dim cloudy Harvest. The secret was, he set upon the +_Hamburg Political Journal_, with which the lackeys of Schadeck had been +for papering their buttons. He could now calmly, with his back at the +stove, accompany the winter campaigns of the foregoing year; and fly +after every battle, as the ravens did after that of Pharsalia. On the +printed paper he could still, with joy and admiration, walk round our +German triumphal arches and scaffoldings for fireworks: while to the +people in the town, who got only the newest newspapers, the very +fragments of these our trophies, maliciously torn down by the French, +were scarcely discernible; nay, with old plans he could drive back and +discomfit the enemy, while later readers in vain tried to resist them +with new ones. + +Moreover, not only did the facility of conquering the French prepossess +him in favour of this journal; but also the circumstance that it--cost +him nothing. His attachment to gratis reading was decided. And does not +this throw light on the fact, that he, as Morhof advised, was wont +sedulously to collect the separate leaves of waste-paper books as they +came from the grocer, and to rake among the same, as Virgil did in +Ennius? Nay, for him the grocer was a Fortius (the scholar), or a +Frederick (the king), both which persons were in the habit of simply +cutting from complete books such leaves as contained anything. It was +also this respect for all waste-paper that inspired him with such esteem +for the aprons of French cooks, which it is well known consist of +printed paper; and he often wished some German would translate these +aprons: indeed I am willing to believe that a good version of more than +one of such paper aprons might contribute to elevate our Literature +(this Muse _a belles fesses_), and serve her in place of drivel-bib.--On +many things a man puts a _pretium affectionis_, simply because he hopes +he may have half stolen them: on this principle, combined with the +former, our Quintus adopted into his belief anything he could snap away +from an open Lecture, or as a visitor in class-rooms; opinions only for +which the Professor must be paid, he rigorously examined.--I return to +the Christmas-eve. + +At the very first, Egidius was glad, because out of doors millers and +bakers were at fisty-cuffs (as we say of drifting snow in large flakes), +and the ice-flowers of the window were blossoming; for external frost, +with a snug warm room, was what he liked. He could now put fir-wood into +his stove, and Mocha coffee into his stomach; and shove his right foot +(not into the slipper, but) under the warm side of his Shock, and also +on the left keep swinging his pet Starling, which was pecking at the +snout of old Schil; and then with the right hand--with the left he was +holding his pipe--proceed, so undisturbed, so intrenched, so cloud-capt, +without the smallest breath of frost, to the highest enterprise which a +Quintus can attempt,--to writing the Class-prodromus of the +Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, namely, the eighth part thereof. I hold the +_first printing_ in the history of a literary man to be more important +than the _first printing_ in the history of Letters: Fixlein could not +sate himself with specifying what he purposed, God willing, in the +following year, to treat of; and accordingly, more for the sake of +printing than of use, he farther inserted three or four pedagogic +glances at the plan of operations to be followed by his schoolmaster +colleagues as a body. + +He lastly introduced a few dashes, by way of hooking his thoughts +together; and then laid aside the _Opus_, and would no longer look at +it, that so, when printed, he might stand astonished at his own +thoughts. And now he could take the Leipzig Fair Catalogue, which he +purchased yearly, instead of the books therein, and open it without a +sigh: he too was in print, as well as I am. + +The happy fool, while writing, had shaken his head, rubbed his hands, +hitched about on his chair, puckered his face, and sucked the end of his +cue.--He could now spring up about five o'clock in the evening, to +recreate himself; and across the magic vapour of his pipe, like a +new-caught bird, move up and down in his cage. On the warm smoke, the +long galaxy of street-lamps was gleaming; and red on his bed-curtains +lay the fitful reflection of the blazing windows, and illuminated trees +in the neighbourhood. And now he shook away the snow of Time from the +winter-green of Memory; and beheld the fair years of his childhood, +uncovered, fresh, green and balmy, standing afar off before him. From +his distance of twenty years, he looked into the quiet cottage of his +parents, where his father and his brother had not yet been reaped away +by the sickle of Death. He said to himself: "I will go through the whole +Christmas-eve from the very dawn, as I had it of old." + +At his very rising he finds spangles on the table; sacred spangles from +the gold-leaf and silver-leaf, with which the Christ-child[44] has been +emblazoning and coating his apples and nuts, the presents of the +night.--On the mint-balance of joy, this metallic foam pulls heavier +than the golden calves, and golden Pythagoras'-legs, and golden +Philistine-mice of wealthier capitalists.--Then came his mother, +bringing him both Christianity and clothes: for in drawing on his +trousers, she easily recapitulated the Ten Commandments, and, in tying +his garters, the Apostles' Creed. So soon as candle-light was over, and +day-light come, he clambers to the arm of the settle, and then measures +the nocturnal growth of the yellow wiry grove of Christmas-Birch; and +devotes far less attention than usual to the little white +winter-flowerage, which the seeds shaken from the bird-cage are sending +forth in the wet joints of the window-panes.--I nowise grudge J. J. +Rousseau his _Flora Petrinsularis_;[45] but let him also allow our +Quintus his _Window-flora_.--There was no such thing as school all day; +so he had time enough to seek his Butcher (his brother), and commence +(when could there be finer frost for it?) the slaughtering of their +winter-meat. Some days before, the brother, at the peril of his life and +of a cudgelling, had caught their stalled-beast--so they called the +sparrow--under a window-sill in the Castle. Their slaughtering wants not +an axe (of wood), nor puddings, nor potted meat.--About three o'clock +the old Gardener, whom neighbours have to call the Professor of +Gardening, takes his place on his large chair, with his Cologne +tobacco-pipe; and after this no mortal shall work a stroke. He tells +nothing but lies; of the aeronautic Christ-child, and the jingling +Ruprecht with his bells. In the dusk, our little Quintus takes an apple; +divides it into all the figures of stereometry, and spreads the +fragments in two heaps on the table: then as the lighted candle enters, +he starts up in amazement at the unexpected present, and says to his +brother: "Look what the good Christ-child has given thee and me; and I +saw one of his wings glittering." And for this same glittering he +himself lies in wait the whole evening. + + [44] These antique Christmas festivities Richter describes with + equal _gusto_ in another work (_Briefe und Zukuenftige Lebenslemf_); + where the Christ-child (falsely reported to the young ones, to have + been seen flying through the air, with gold wings); the Birch-bough + fixed in a corner of the room, and by him made to grow; the fruit, + of gilt sweetmeats, apples, nuts, which (for good boys) it suddenly + produces, &c. &c. are specified with the same fidelity as + here.--ED. + + [45] Which he purposed to make for his Island of St. Pierre in the + Bienne Lake. + +About eight o'clock,--here he walks chiefly by the chronicle of his +letter-drawer,--both of them, with necks almost excoriated with washing, +and in clean linen, and in universal anxiety lest the Holy Christ-child +find them up, are put to bed. What a magic night!--What tumult of +dreaming hopes!--The populous, motley, glittering cave of Fancy opens +itself, in the length of the night, and in the exhaustion of dreamy +effort, still darker and darker, fuller and more grotesque; but the +awakening gives back to the thirsty heart its hopes. All accidental +tones, the cries of animals, of watchmen, are, for the timidly devout +Fancy, sounds out of Heaven; singing voices of Angels in the air, +church-music of the morning worship. + +Ah! it was not the mere Lubberland of sweetmeats and playthings which +then, with its perspective, stormed like a river of joy against the +chambers of our hearts; and which yet, in the moonlight of memory, with +its dusky landscapes, melts our souls in sweetness. Ah! this was it, +that then for our boundless wishes there were still boundless hopes: but +now reality is round us, and the wishes are all that we have left! + +At last came rapid lights from the neighbourhood playing through the +window on the walls, and the Christmas trumpets, and the crowing from +the steeple, hurries both the boys from their bed. With their clothes in +their hands, without fear for the darkness, without feeling for the +morning-frost, rushing, intoxicated, shouting, they hurry down-stairs +into the dark room. Fancy riots in the pastry and fruit-perfume of the +still eclipsed treasures, and paints her air-castles by the glimmering +of the Hesperides-fruit with which the Birch-tree is loaded. While their +mother strikes a light, the falling sparks sportfully open and shroud +the dainties on the table, and the many-coloured grove on the wall; and +a single atom of that fire bears on it a hanging garden of Eden.---- + +--On a sudden all grew light; and the Quintus got--the Conrectorship, +and a table-clock. + + + + +FOURTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Office-brokage. Discovery of the promised Secret. Hans van Fuechslein._ + + +For while the Quintus, in his vapoury chamber, was thus running over the +sounding-board of his early years, the Rathsdiener, or City-officer, +entered with a lantern and the Presentation; and behind him the courier +of the Frau von Aufhammer with a note and a table-clock. The +Rittmeisterinn had transformed her payment for the Dog-days +sickbed-exhortation into a Christmas present; which consisted, _first_, +of a table-clock, with a wooden ape thereon, starting out when the hours +struck, and drumming along with every stroke; _secondly_, of the +Conrectorate, which she had procured for him. + +As in the public this appointment from the private Flachsenfingen +Council has not been judged of as it deserved, I consider it my duty to +offer a defence for the body corporate; and that rather here, than in +the _Reichsanzeiger_, or _Imperial Indicator_.--I have already +mentioned, in the Second Letter-Box, that the Town-Syndic drove a trade +in Hamburg candles; and the then Buergermeister in coffee-beans, which he +sold as well whole as ground. Their joint traffic, however, which they +carried on exclusively, was in the eight School-offices of +Flachsenfingen: the other members of the Council acting only as +bale-wrappers, shopmen and accountants in the Council wareroom. A +Council-house, indeed, is like an India-house, where not only +resolutions or appointments, but also shoes and cloth, are exposed to +sale. Properly speaking, the Councillor derives his freedom of +office-trading from that principle of the Roman law: _Cui jus est +donandi, eidem et vendendi jus est_, that is to say, He who has the +right of giving anything away, has also a right to dispose of it for +money, if he can. Now as the Council-members have palpably the right of +conferring offices gratis, the right of selling them must follow of +course. + + +_Short Extra-word on Appointment-brokers in general._ + +My chief anxiety is lest the Academy-product-sale-Commission[46] of the +State carry on its office-trade too slackly. And what but the commonweal +must suffer in the long-run, if important posts are distributed, not +according to the current cash, which is laid down for them, but +according to connexions, relationships, party recommendations, and +bowings and cringings? Is it not a contradiction, to charge titulary +offices dearer than real ones? Should not one rather expect that the +real Hofrath would pay higher by the _alterum tantum_ than the mere +titulary Hofrath?--Money, among European nations, is now the equivalent +and representative of value in all things, and consequently in +understanding; the rather as a _head_ is stamped on it: to pay down the +purchase-money of an office is therefore neither more nor less than to +stand an _examen rigorosum_, which is held by a good _schema +examinandi_. To invert this, to pretend exhibiting your qualifications, +in place of these their surrogates, and assignates and _monnoie de +confiance_, is simply to resemble the crazy philosophers in _Gulliver's +Travels_, who, for social converse, instead of names of things, brought +the things themselves tied up in a bag; it is, indeed, plainly as much +as trying to fall back into the barbarous times of trade by barter, when +the Romans, instead of the figured cattle on their leather money, drove +forth the beeves themselves. + + [46] Borrowed from the "Imperial Mine-product-sale-Commission," in + Vienna: in their very names these Vienna people show taste. + +From all such injudicious notions I myself am so far removed, that often +when I used to read that the King of France was devising new offices, to +stand and sell them under the booth of his Baldaquin, I have set myself +to do something of the like. This I shall now at least calmly propose; +not vexing my heart whether Governments choose to adopt it or not. As +our Sovereign will not allow us to multiply offices purely for sale, +nay, on the contrary, is day and night (like managers of strolling +companies) meditating how to give more parts to one State-actor; and +thus to the Three Stage Unities to add a Fourth, that of Players; as the +above French method, therefore, will not apply, could not we at least +contrive to invent some Virtues harmonising with the offices, along with +which they might be sold as titles? Might we not, for instance, with the +office of a Referendary, put off at the same time a titular +Incorruptibility, for a fair consideration; and so that this virtue, as +not belonging to the office, must be separately paid for by the +candidate? Such a market-title and patent of nobility could not but be +ornamental to a Referendary. We forget that in former times such high +titles were appended to all posts whatsoever: the scholastic Professor +then wrote himself (besides his official designation) "The Seraphic," +"The Incontrovertible," "The Penetrating;" the King wrote himself "The +Great," "The Bald," "The Bold," and so also did the Rabbins. Could it be +unpleasant to gentlemen in the higher stations of Justice, if the titles +of Impartiality, Rapidity, &c. might be conferred on them by sale, as +well as the posts themselves? Thus with the appointment of a Kammerrath, +or Councillor of Revenue, the virtue of Patriotism might fitly be +conjoined; and I believe, few Advocates would grudge purchasing the +title of Integrity (as well as their common one of Government-advocacy), +were it to be had in the market. If, however, any candidate chose to +take his post without the virtues, then it would stand with himself to +do so, and in the adoption of this reflex morality, Government should +not constrain him. + +It might be that, as, according to Tristram Shandy, clothes; according +to Walter Shandy and Lavater, proper names exert an influence on men, +appellatives would do so still more; since, on us, as on testaceous +animals, _the foam so often hardens into shell_: but such internal +morality is not a thing the State can have an eye to; for, as in the +fine arts, it is not this, but the _representation_ of it, which forms +her true aim. + +I have found it rather difficult to devise for our different offices +different verbal-virtues; but I should think there might many such +divisions of Virtue (at this moment, Love of Freedom, Public-spirit, +Sincerity and Uprightness occur to me) be hunted out; were but some +well-disposed minister of state to appoint a Virtue-board or Moral +Address Department, with some half dozen secretaries, who, for a small +salary, might devise various virtues for the various posts. Were I in +their place, I should hold a good prism before the white ray of Virtue, +and divide it completely. Pity that it were not crimes we wanted--their +subdivision I mean;--our country Judges might then be selected for this +purpose. For in their tribunals, where only inferior jurisdiction, and +no penalty above five florins Frankish, is admitted, they have a daily +training how out of every mischief to make several small ones, none of +which they ever punish to a greater amount than their five florins. This +is a precious moral _Rolfinkenism_, which our Jurists have learned from +the great Sin-cutters, St. Augustin and his Sorbonne, who together have +carved more sins on Adam's Sin-apple than ever Rolfinken did faces on a +cherry-stone. How different one of our Judges from a Papal Casuist, who, +by side-scrapings, will rasp you down the best deadly sin into a +venial!-- + +School-offices (to come to these) are a small branch of traffic +certainly; yet still they are monarchies,--school-monarchies, to +wit,--resembling the Polish crown, which, according to Pope's verse, is +twice exposed to sale in the century; a statement, I need hardly say, +arithmetically false, Newton having settled the average duration of a +reign at twenty-two years. For the rest, whether the city Council bring +the young of the community a Hameln _Rat_-and-Child-_catcher_; or a +Weisse's _Child's-friend_,--this to the Council can make no difference; +seeing the Schoolmaster is not a horse, for whose secret defects the +horse-dealer is to be responsible. It is enough if Town-Syndic and Co. +cannot reproach themselves with having picked out any fellow of genius; +for a genius, as he is useless to the State, except for recreation and +ornament, would at the very least exclude the duller, cooler head, who +properly forms the true care and profit of the State; as your costly +carat-pearl is good for show alone, but coarse grain-pearls for +medicine. On the whole, if a schoolmaster be adequate to flog his +scholars, it should suffice; and I cannot but blame our Commission of +Inspectors when they go examining schools, that they do not make the +schoolmaster go through the duty of firking one or two young persons of +his class in their presence, by way of trial, to see what is in him. + + +_End of the Extra-word on Appointment-brokers in general._ + +Now again to our history! The Councillor Heads of the Firm had conferred +the Conrectorate on my hero, not only with a view to the continued +consumpt of candles and beans, but also on the strength of a quite mad +notion: they believed, the Quintus would very soon die. + +--And here I have reached a most important circumstance in this History, +and one into which I have yet let no mortal look: now, however, it no +longer depends on my will whether I shall shove aside the folding-screen +from it or not; but I must positively lay it open, nay hang a +reverberating-lamp over it. + +In medical history, it is a well-known fact that in certain families the +people all die precisely at the same age, just as in these families they +are all born at the same age (of nine months); nay, from Voltaire, I +recollect one family, the members of which at the same age all killed +themselves. Now, in the Fixleinic lineage, it was the custom that the +male ascendants uniformly on Cantata-Sunday, in their thirty-second +year, took to bed and died: every one of my readers would do well to +insert in his copy of the _Thirty-Years War_, Schiller having entirely +omitted it, the fact, that in the course thereof, one Fixlein died of +the plague, another of hunger, another of a musket-bullet; all in their +thirty-second year. True Philosophy explains the matter thus: "The first +two or three times, it happened purely by accident; and the other times, +the people died of sheer fright: if not so, the whole fact is rather to +be questioned." + +But what did Fixlein make of the affair? Little or nothing: the only +thing he did was, that he took little or no pains to fall in love with +Thiennette; that so no other might have cause for fear on his account. +He himself, however, for five reasons, minded it so little, that he +hoped to be older than Senior Astmann before he died: First, because +three Gipsies, in three different places and at three different times, +had each shown him the same long vista of years in her magic mirror. +Secondly, because he had a sound constitution. Thirdly, because his own +brother had formed an exception, and perished before the thirties. +Fourthly, on this ground: When a boy he had fallen sick of sorrow, on +the very Cantata-Sunday when his father was lying in the winding-sheet, +and only been saved from death by his playthings; and with this +Cantata-sickness, he conceived that he had given the murderous Genius of +his race the slip. Fifthly, the church-books being destroyed, and with +them the certainty of his age, he could never fall into a right +definite deadly fear: "It may be," said he, "that I have got whisked +away over this whoreson year, and no one the wiser." I will not deny +that last year he had fancied he was two-and-thirty: "however," said he, +"if I am not to be so till, God willing, the next (1792), it may run +away as smoothly as the last; am I not always in _His_ keeping? And were +it unjust if the pretty years that were broken off from the life of my +brother should be added to mine?"--Thus, under the cold snow of the +Present, does poor man strive to warm himself, or to mould out of it a +fair snow-man. + +The Councillor Oligarchy, however, built upon the opposite opinion; and, +like a Divinity, elevated our Quintus all at once from the Quintusship +to the Conrectorate; swearing to themselves, that he would soon vacate +it again. Properly speaking, by school-seniority, this holy chair should +have belonged to the Subrector Hans von Fuechslein; but he wished it not; +being minded to become Hukelum Parson; especially, as Astmann's +Death-angel, according to sure intelligence, was opening more and more +widely the door of this spiritual sheepfold. "If the fellow weather +another year, 'tis more than I expect," said Hans. + +This Hans was such a churl, that it is pity he had not been a Hanoverian +Postboy; that so, by the Mandate of the Hanoverian Government, enjoining +on all its Post-officers an elegant style of manners, he might have +somewhat refined himself. To our poor Quintus, whom no mortal disliked, +and who again could hate no mortal, he alone bore a grudge; simply +because _Fixlein_ did not write himself _Fuechslein_, and had not chosen +along with him to purchase a Patent of Nobility. The Subrector, on this +his Patent triumphal chariot, drawn by a team of four specified +ancestors, was obliged to see the Quintus, who was related to him, +clutching by the lackey-straps behind the carriage; and to hear him, in +the most despicable raiment, saying to the train: "He that rides there +is my cousin, and a mortal, and I always remind him of it." The mild +compliant Quintus never noticed this large wasp-poisonbag in the +Subrector, but took it for a honeybag; nay, by his brotherly warmness, +which the nobleman regarded as mere show, he concreted these venomous +juices into still feller consistency. The Quintus, in his simplicity, +took Fuechslein's contempt for envy of his pedagogic talents. + +A Catherinenhof, an Annenhof, an Elizabethhof, Stralenhof and Petershof, +all these Russian pleasure palaces, a man can dispense with (if not +despise), who has a room, in which on Christmas-eve he walks about with +a Presentation in his hand. The new Conrector now longed for nothing +but--daylight: joys always (cares never) nibbled from him, like +sparrows, his sleep-grains; and tonight, moreover, the registrator of +his glad time, the clock-ape, drummed out every hour to him, which, +accordingly, he spent in gay dreaming, rather than in sound snoring. + +On Christmas-morn, he looked at his Class-prodromus, and thought but +little of it; he scarcely knew what to make of his last night's foolish +inflation about his Quintusship: "the Quintus-post," said he to himself, +"is not to be named in the same day with the Conrectorate; I wonder how +I could parade so last night before my promotion; at present, I had more +reason." Today he ate, as on all Sundays and holydays, with the +Master-Butcher Steinberger, his former Guardian. To this man, Fixlein +was, what common people are _always_, but polished philosophical and +sentimental people very _seldom_ are,--_thankful_: a man thanks you the +less for presents, the more inclined he is to give presents of his own; +and the beneficent is rarely a grateful person. Meister Steinberger, in +the character of store-master, had introduced into the wire-cage of a +garret, where Fixlein, while a Student at Leipzig, was suspended, many a +well-filled trough with good canary-meat, of hung-beef, of household +bread and _Sauerkraut_. Money indeed was never to be wrung from him: it +is well known that he often sent the best calfskins gratis to the +tanner, to be boots for our Quintus; but the tanning-charges the Ward +himself had to bear.--On Fixlein's entrance, as was at all times +customary, a smaller damask table-cloth was laid upon the large coarser +one; the armchair; silver implements, and a wine-stoup were handed him; +mere waste, which, as the Guardian used to say, suited well enough for a +Scholar; but for a Flesher not at all. Fixlein first took his victuals, +and then signified that he was made Conrector. "Ward," said Steinberger, +"if you are made that, it is well.--Seest thou, Eva, I cannot buy a tail +of thy cows now; I must have smelt it beforehand." He was hereby +informing his daughter that the cash set apart for the fatted cattle +must now be applied to the Conrectorate; for he was in the habit of +advancing all instalment-dues to his ward, at an interest of four and a +half per cent. Fifty gulden he had already lent the Quintus on his +advancement to the Quintusship: of these the interest had to be duly +paid; yet, on the day of payment, the Quintus always got some +abatement; being wont every Sunday after dinner to instruct his +guardian's daughter in arithmetic, writing and geography. Steinberger +with justice required of his own grown-up daughter that she should know +all the towns, where he in his wanderings as a journeyman had slain fat +oxen; and if she slipped, or wrote crookedly, or subtracted wrong, he +himself, as Academical Senate and Justiciary, was standing behind her +chair, ready, so to speak, with the forge-hammer of his fist to beat out +the dross from her brain, and at a few strokes hammer it into right +ductility. The soft Quintus, for his part, had never struck her. On this +account she had perhaps, with a few glances, appointed him executor and +assignee of her heart. The old Flesher--simply because his wife was +dead--had constantly been in the habit of searching with mine-lamps and +pokers into all the corners of Eva's heart; and had in consequence long +ago observed--what the Quintus never did--that she had a mind for the +said Quintus. Young women conceal their sorrows more easily than their +joys: today at the mention of this Conrectorate, Eva had become +unusually _red_. + +When she went after breakfast to bring in coffee, which the Ward had to +drink down to the grounds: "I beat Eva to death if she but look at him," +said he. Then addressing Fixlein: "Hear you, Ward, did you never cast an +eye on my Eva? She can suffer you, and if you want her, you get her; but +_we_ have done with one another: for a learned man needs quite another +sort of thing." + +"Herr Regiments-Quartermaster," said Fixlein (for this post Steinberger +filled in the provincial Militia), "such a match were far too rich, at +any rate, for a Schoolman." The Quartermaster nodded fifty times; and +then said to Eva, as she returned,--at the same time taking down from +the shelf a wooden crook, on which he used to rack out and suspend his +slain calves: "Stop!--Hark, dost wish the present Herr Conrector here +for thy husband?" + +"Ah, good Heaven!" said Eva. + +"Mayst wish him or not," continued the Flesher; "with this crook, thy +father knocks thy brains out, if thou but think of a learned man. Now +make his coffee." And so by the dissevering stroke of this wooden crook +was a love easily smitten asunder, which in a higher rank, by such +cutting through it with the sword, would only have foamed and hissed the +keenlier. + +Fixlein might now, at any hour he liked, lay hold of fifty florins +Frankish, and clutch the pedagogic sceptre, and become coadjutor of the +Rector, that is, Conrector. We may assert, that it is with debts, as +with proportions in Architecture; of which Wolf has shown that those are +the best, which can be expressed in the smallest numbers. Nevertheless, +the Quartermaster cheerfully took learned men under his arm: for the +notion that his debtor would decease in his thirty-second year, and that +so Death, as creditor in the first rank, must be paid his Debt of +Nature, before the other creditors could come forward with their +debts--this notion he named stuff and oldwifery; he was neither +superstitious nor fanatical, and he walked by firm principles of action, +such as the common man much oftener has than your vapouring man of +letters, or your empty dainty man of rank. + + * * * * * + +As it is but a few clear Ladydays, warm Mayday-nights, at the most a few +odorous Rose-weeks, which I am digging from this Fixleinic Life, +embedded in the dross of week-day cares; and as if they were so many +veins of silver, am separating, stamping, smelting and burnishing for +the reader,--I must now travel on with the stream of his history to +Cantata-Sunday, 1792, before I can gather a few handfuls of this +gold-dust, to carry in and wash in my biographical gold-hut. That +Sunday, on the contrary, is very metalliferous: do but consider that +Fixlein is yet uncertain (the ashes of the Church-books not being +legible) whether it is conducting him into his thirty-second or his +thirty-third year. + +From Christmas till then he did nothing, but simply became Conrector. +The new chair of office was a Sun-altar, on which, from his +Quintus-ashes, a young Phoenix combined itself together. Great +changes--in offices, marriages, travels--make us younger; we always date +our history from the last revolution, as the French have done from +theirs. A colonel, who first set foot on the ladder of seniority as +corporal, is five times younger than a king, who in his whole life has +never been aught else except a--crown-prince. + + + + +FIFTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Cantata-Sunday. Two Testaments. Pontac; Blood; Love._ + + +The Spring months clothe the earth in new variegated hues; but man they +usually dress in black. Just when our icy regions are becoming fruitful, +and the flower-waves of the meadows are rolling together over our +quarter of the globe, we on all hands meet with men in sables, the +beginning of whose Spring is full of tears. But, on the other hand, +this very upblooming of the renovated earth is itself the best balm for +sorrow over those who lie under it; and graves are better hid by +blossoms than by snow. + +In April, which is no less deadly than it is fickle, old Senior Astmann, +our Conrector's teacher, was overtaken by death. His departure it was +meant to hide from the Rittmeisterinn; but the unusual ringing of +funereal peals carried his swan-song to her heart; and gradually set the +curfew-bell of her life into similar movement. Age and sufferings had +already marked out the first incisions for Death, so that he required +but little effort to cut her down; for it is with men as with trees, +they are notched long before felling, that their life-sap may exude. The +second stroke of apoplexy was soon followed by the last: it is strange +that Death, like criminal courts, cites the apoplectic thrice. + +Men are apt to postpone their _last_ will as long as their _better_ one: +the Rittmeisterinn would perhaps have let all her hours, till the +speechless and deaf one, roll away without testament, had not +Thiennette, during the last night, before from sick-nurse she became +corpse-watcher, reminded the patient of the poor Conrector, and of his +meagre hunger-bitten existence, and of the scanty aliment and +board-wages which Fortune had thrown him, and of his empty Future, +where, like a drooping yellow plant in the parched deal-box of the +schoolroom between scholars and creditors, he must languish to the end. +Her own poverty offered her a model of his; and her inward tears were +the fluid tints with which she coloured her picture. As the +Rittmeisterinn's testament related solely to domestics and dependents, +and as she began with the male ones, Fixlein stood at the top; and +Death, who must have been a special friend of the Conrector's, did not +lift his scythe and give the last stroke till his protegee had been with +audible voice declared testamentary heir; then he cut all away, life, +testament and hopes. + +When the Conrector, in a wash-bill from his mother, received these two +Death's-posts and Job's-posts in his class, the first thing he did was +to dismiss his class-boys, and break into tears before reaching home. +Though the mother had informed him that he had been remembered in the +will (I could wish, however, that the Notary had blabbed how much it +was), yet almost with every O which he masoretically excerpted from his +German Bible, and entered in his Masoretic Work, great drops fell down +on his pen, and made his black ink pale. His sorrow was not the +gorgeous sorrow of the Poet, who veils the gaping wounds of the +departed in the winding-sheet, and breaks the cry of anguish in soft +tones of plaintiveness; nor the sorrow of the Philosopher, who, through +one open grave, must look into the whole catacomb-Necropolis of the +Past, and before whom the spectre of a friend expands into the spectral +Shadow of this whole Earth: but it was the woe of a child, of a mother, +whom this thought itself, without subsidiary reflections, bitterly cuts +asunder: "So I shall never more see thee; so must thou moulder away, and +I shall never see thee, thou good soul, never, never any more!"--And +even because he neither felt the philosophical nor the poetical sadness, +every trifle could make a division, a break in his mourning; and, like a +woman, he was that very evening capable of sketching some plans for the +future employment of his legacy. + +Four weeks after, to wit, on the 5th of May, the testament was unsealed; +but not till the 6th (Cantata-Sunday) did he go down to Hukelum. His +mother met his salutations with tears; which she shed, over the corpse +for grief, over the testament for joy.--To the now Conrector Egidius +Zebedaeus was left: _In the first place_, a large sumptuous bed, with a +mirror-tester, in which the giant Goliath might have rolled at his ease, +and to which I and my fair readers will by and by approach nearer, to +examine it; _secondly_, there was devised to him, as unpaid +Easter-godchild-money, for every year that he had lived, one ducat; +_thirdly_, all the admittance and instalment dues, which his elevation +to the Quintate and Conrectorate had cost him, were to be made good to +the utmost penny. "And dost thou know, then," proceeded the mother, +"what the poor Fraeulein has got? Ah Heaven! Nothing! Not one brass +farthing!" For Death had stiffened the hand which was just stretching +itself out to reach the poor Thiennette a little rain-screen against the +foul weather of life. The mother related this perverse trick of Fortune +with true condolence; which in women dissipates envy, and comes easier +to them than congratulation, a feeling belonging rather to men. In many +female hearts sympathy and envy are such near door-neighbours that they +could be virtuous nowhere except in Hell, where men have such frightful +times of it; and vicious nowhere except in Heaven, where people have +more happiness than they know what to do with. + +The Conrector was now enjoying on Earth that Heaven to which his +benefactress had ascended. First of all, he started off--without so much +as putting up his handkerchief, in which lay his emotion--up-stairs to +see the legacy-bed unshrouded; for he had a _female_ predilection for +furniture. I know not whether the reader ever looked at or mounted any +of these ancient chivalric beds, into which, by means of a little stair +without balustrades, you can easily ascend; and in which you, properly +speaking, sleep always at least one story above ground. Nazianzen +informs us (_Orat. XVI._) that the Jews, in old times, had high beds +with cock-ladders of this sort; but simply because of vermin. The legacy +bed-Ark was quite as large as one of these; and a flea would have +measured it not in Diameters of the Earth, but in Distances of Sirius. +When Fixlein beheld this colossal dormitory, with the curtains drawn +asunder, and its canopy of looking-glass, he could have longed to be in +it; and had it been in his power to cut from the opaque hemisphere of +Night, at that time in America, a small section, he would have +established himself there along with it, just to swim about, for one +half hour, with his thin lath figure, in this sea of down. The mother, +by longer chains of reasoning and chains of calculation than the bed +was, had not succeeded in persuading him to have the broad mirror on the +top cut in pieces, though his large dressing-table had nothing to see +itself in but a mere shaving-glass: he let the mirror lie where it was +for this reason: "Should I ever, God willing, get married," said he, "I +shall then, towards morning, be able to look at my sleeping wife, +without sitting up in bed." + +As to the second article of the testament, the godchild Easter-pence, +his mother had, last night, arranged it perfectly. The Lawyer took her +evidence on the years of the heir; and these she had stated at exactly +the teeth-number, two-and-thirty. She would willingly have lied, and +passed off her son, like an Inscription, for older than he was: but +against this _venia aetatis_, she saw too well, the authorities would +have taken exception, "that it was falsehood and cozenage; had the son +been two-and-thirty, he must have been dead some time ago, as it could +not but be presumed that he then was." + +And just as she was recounting this, a servant from Schadeck called, and +delivered to the Conrector, in return for a discharge and ratification +of the birth-certificate given out by his mother, a gold bar of +two-and-thirty ducat age-counters, like a helm-bar for the voyage of his +life: Herr von Aufhammer was too proud to engage in any pettifogging +discussion over a plebeian birth-certificate. + +And thus, by a proud open-handedness, was one of the best lawsuits +thrown to the dogs: seeing this gold bar might, in the wire-mill of the +judgment-bench, have been drawn out into the finest threads. From such a +tangled lock, which was not to be unravelled--for, in the first place, +there was no document to prove Fixlein's age; in the second place, so +long as he lived, the necessary conclusion was, that he was not yet +thirty-two[47]--from such a lock, might not only silk and hanging-cords, +but whole dragnets have been spun and twisted. Clients in general would +have less reason to complain of their causes, if these lasted longer: +Philosophers contend for thousands of years over philosophical +questions; and it seems an unaccountable thing, therefore, that +Advocates should attempt to end their juristical questions in a space of +eighty, or even sometimes of sixty years. But the professors of law are +not to blame for this: on the other hand, as Lessing asserts of Truth, +that not the _finding_ but the _seeking_ of it profits men, and that he +himself would willingly make over his claim to all truths in return for +the sweet labour of investigation, so is the professor of Law not +profited by the finding and deciding, but by the investigation of a +juridical truth,--which is called pleading and practising,--and he would +willingly consent to approximate to Truth forever, like an hyperbola to +its asymptote, without ever meeting it, seeing he can subsist as an +honourable man with wife and child, let such approximation be as tedious +as it likes. + + [47] As, by the evidence at present before us, we can found on no + other presumption, than that he must die in his thirty-second year; + it would follow, that, in case he died two-and-thirty years after + the death of the testatrix, no farthing could he claimed by him; + since, according to our notion, at the making of the testament he + was not even one year old. + +The Schadeck servant had, besides the gold legacy, a farther commission +from the Lawyer, whereby the testamentary heir was directed to sum up +the mint-dues which he had been obliged to pay while lying under the +coining-press of his superiors, as Quintus and Conrector; the which, +properly documented and authenticated, were forthwith to be made good to +him. + +Our Conrector, who now rated himself among the great capitalists of the +world, held his short gold-roll like a sceptre in his hand; like a +basket-net lifted from the sea of the Future, which was now to run on, +and bring him all manner of fed-fishes, well-washed, sound and in good +season. + +I cannot relate all things at once; else I should ere now have told the +reader, who must long have been waiting for it, that to the moneyed +Conrector his two-and-thirty godchild-pennies but too much prefigured +the two-and-thirty years of his age; besides which, today the +Cantata-Sunday, this Bartholomew-night and Second of September of his +family, came in as a farther aggravation. The mother, who should have +known the age of her child, said she had forgotten it; but durst wager +he was thirty-two a year ago; only the Lawyer was a man you could not +speak to. "I could swear it myself," said the capitalist; "I recollect +how stupid I felt on Cantata-Sunday last year." Fixlein beheld Death, +not as the poet does, in the up-towering, asunder-driving concave-mirror +of Imagination; but as the child, as the savage, as the peasant, as the +woman does, in the plane octavo-mirror on the board of a Prayer-book; +and Death looked to him like an old white-headed man, sunk down into +slumber in some latticed pew.-- + +And yet he thought oftener of him than last year: for joy readily melts +us into softness; and the lackered Wheel of Fortune is a cistern-wheel +that empties its water in our eyes.... But the friendly Genius of this +terrestrial, or rather aquatic Ball,--for, in the physical and in the +moral world, there are more tear-seas than firm land,--has provided for +the poor water-insects that float about in it, for us namely, a quite +special elixir against spasms in the soul: I declare this same Genius +must have studied the whole pathology of man with care; for to the poor +devil who is no Stoic, and can pay no Soul-doctor, that for the fissures +of his cranium and his breast might prepare costly prescriptions of +simples, he has stowed up cask-wise in all cellarages a precious +wound-water, which the patient has only to take and pour over his +slashes and bone-breakages--gin-twist, I mean, or beer, or a touch of +wine.... By Heaven! it is either stupid ingratitude towards this +medicinal Genius on the one hand, or theological confusion of permitted +tippling with prohibited drunkenness on the other, if men do not thank +God that they have something at hand, which, in the nervous vertigos of +life, will instantly supply the place of Philosophy, Christianity, +Judaism, Paganism and _Time_;--liquor, as I said. + +The Conrector had long before sunset given the village post three +groschens of post-money, and commissioned,--for he had a whole cabinet +of ducats in his pocket, which all day he was surveying in the dark with +his hand,--three thalers' worth of Pontac from the town. "I must have a +Cantata merrying-making," said he; "if it be my last day, let it be my +gayest too!" I could wish he had given a larger order; but he kept the +bit of moderation between his teeth at all times; even in a threatened +sham-death-night, and in the midst of jubilee. The question is, Whether +he would not have restricted himself to a single bottle, if he had not +wished to treat his mother and the Fraeulein. Had he lived in the tenth +century, when the Day of Judgment was thought to be at hand, or in other +centuries, when new Noah's Deluges were expected, and when, accordingly, +like sailors in a shipwreck, people bouzed up all,--he would not have +spent one kreutzer more on that account. His joy was, that with his +legacy he could now satisfy his head-creditor Steinberger, and leave the +world an honest man: just people, who make much of money, pay their +debts the most punctually. + +The purple Pontac arrived at a time when Fixlein could compare the +red-chalk-drawings and red-letter-titles of joy, which it would bring +out on the cheeks of its drinker and drinkeresses,--with the +Evening-carnation of the last clouds about the Sun.... + +I declare, among all the spectators of this History, no one can be +thinking more about poor Thiennette than I; nevertheless, it is not +permitted me to bring her out from her tiring-room to my historical +scene, before the time. Poor girl! The Conrector cannot wish more warmly +than his Biographer, that, in the Temple of Nature as in that of +Jerusalem, there were a special door--besides that of Death--standing +open, through which only the afflicted entered, that a Priest might give +them solace. But Thiennette's heart-sickness over all her vanished +prospects, over her entombed benefactress, over a whole life enwrapped +in the pall, had hitherto, in a grief which the stony Rittmeister rather +made to bleed than alleviated, swept all away from her, occupations +excepted; had fettered all her steps which led not to some task, and +granted to her eyes nothing to dry them or gladden them, save +down-falling eyelids full of dreams and sleep. + +All sorrow raises us above the civic Ceremonial-law, and makes the +Prosaist a Psalmist: in sorrow alone have women courage to front +opinion. Thiennette walked out only in the evening, and then only in the +garden. + +The Conrector could scarcely wait for the appearance of his fair friend, +to offer his thanks,--and tonight also--his Pontac. Three Pontac +decanters and three wine-glasses were placed outside on the projecting +window-sill of his cottage; and every time he returned from the dusky +covered-way amid the flower-forests, he drank a little from his +glass,--and the mother sipped now and then from within through the +opened window. + +I have already said, his Life-laboratory lay in the south-west corner of +the garden or park, over against the Castle-Escurial, which stretched +back into the village. In the north-west corner bloomed an acacia-grove, +like the floral crown of the garden. Fixlein turned his steps in that +direction also; to see if, perhaps, he might not cast a happy glance +through the wide-latticed grove over the intervening meads to +Thiennette. He recoiled a little before two stone steps leading down +into a pond before this grove, which were sprinkled with fresh blood. On +the flags, also, there was blood hanging. Man shudders at this oil of +our life's lamp where he finds it shed: to him it is the red +death-signature of the Destroying Angel. Fixlein hurried apprehensively +into the grove; and found here his paler benefactress leaning on the +flower-bushes; her hands with their knitting-ware sunk into her bosom, +her eyes lying under their lids as if in the bandage of slumber; her +left arm in the real bandage of blood-letting; and with cheeks to which +the twilight was lending as much red, as late woundings--this day's +included--had taken from them. Fixlein, after his first terror--not at +this flower's-sleep, but at his own abrupt entrance--began to unrol the +spiral butterfly's-sucker of his vision, and to lay it on the motionless +leaves of this same sleeping flower. At bottom, I may assert, that this +was the first time he had ever looked at her: he was now among the +thirties; and he still continued to believe, that, in a young lady, he +must look at the clothes only, not the person, and wait on her with his +ears, not with his eyes. + +I impute it to the elevating influences of the Pontac, that the +Conrector plucked up courage to--turn, to come back, and employ the +resuscitating means of coughing, sneezing, trampling and calling to his +Shock, in stronger and stronger doses on the fair sleeper. To take her +by the hand, and, with some medical apology, gently pull her out of +sleep, this was an audacity of which the Conrector, so long as he could +stand for Pontac, and had any grain of judgment left, could never dream. + +However, he did awake her, by those other means. + +Wearied, heavy-laden Thiennette! how slowly does thy eye open! The +warmest balsam of this earth, soft sleep has shifted aside, and the +night-air of memory is again blowing on thy naked wounds!--And yet was +the smiling friend of thy youth the fairest object which thy eye could +light on, when it sank from the hanging garden of Dreams into this lower +one round thee. + +She herself was little conscious,--and the Conrector not at all,--that +she was bending her flower-leaves imperceptibly towards a terrestrial +body, namely towards Fixlein: she resembled an Italian flower, that +contains cunningly concealed within it a newyear's gift, which the +receiver knows not at first how to extract. But now the golden chain of +her late kind deed attracted her as well towards him, as him towards +her.--She at once gave her eye and her voice a mask of joy; for she did +not put her tears, as Catholics do those of Christ, in relic-vials, upon +altars to be worshiped. He could very suitably preface his invitation to +the Pontac festival, with a long acknowledgment of thanks for the kind +intervention which had opened to him the sources for procuring it. She +rose slowly, and walked with him to the banquet of wine; but he was not +so discreet, as at first to attempt leading her, or rather not so +courageous; he could more easily have offered a young lady his hand +(that is, with marriage ring) than offered her his arm. One only time in +his life had he escorted a female, a Lombard Countess from the theatre; +a thing truly not to be believed, were not this the secret of it, that +he was obliged; for the lady, a foreigner, parted in the press from all +her people, in a bad night, had laid hold of him as a sable Abbe by the +arm, and requested him to take her to her inn. He, however, knew the +fashions of society, and attended her no farther than the porch of his +Quintus-mansion, and there directed her with his finger to her inn, +which, with thirty blazing windows, was looking down from another +street. + +These things he cannot help. But tonight he had scarcely, with his fair +faint companion, reached the bank of the pond, into which some +superstitious dread of water-sprites had lately poured the pure blood of +her left arm,--when, in his terror lest she fell in, with the rest of +her blood, over the brink, he quite valiantly laid hold of the sick arm. +Thus will much Pontac and a little courage at all times put a Conrector +in case to lay hold of a Fraeulein. I aver, that, at the banquet-board of +the wine, at the window-sill, he continued in the same conducting +position. What a soft group in the penumbra of the Earth, while Night, +with its dusky waters, was falling deeper and deeper, and the +silver-light of the Moon was already glancing back from the copper-ball +of the steeple! I call the group soft, because it consists of a maiden +that in two senses has been bleeding; of a mother again with tears +giving her thanks for the happiness of her child; and of a pious, modest +man, pouring wine, and drinking health to both, and who traces in his +veins a burning lava-stream, which is boiling through his heart, and +threatening piece by piece to melt it and bear it away.--A candle stood +without among the three bottles, like Reason among the Passions; on this +account the Conrector looked without intermission at the window-panes, +for on them (the darkness of the room served as mirror-foil) was +painted, among other faces which Fixlein liked, the face he liked best +of all, and which he dared to look at only in reflection, the face of +Thiennette. + +Every minute was a Federation-festival, and every second a +Preparation-Sabbath for it. The Moon was gleaming from the evening dew, +and the Pontac from their eyes, and the bean-stalks were casting a +shorter grating of shadow.--The quicksilver-drops of stars were hanging +more and more continuous in the sable of night.--The warm vapour of the +wine set our two friends (like steam-engines) again in motion. + +Nothing makes the heart fuller and bolder than walking to and fro in the +night. Fixlein now led the Fraeulein in his arm without scruple. By +reason of her lancet-wound, Thiennette could only put her hand, in a +clasping position, in his arm; and he, to save her the trouble of +holding fast, held fast himself, and pressed her fingers as well as +might be with his arm to his heart. It would betray a total want of +polished manners to censure his. At the same time, trifles are the +provender of Love; the fingers are electric dischargers of a fire +sparkling along every fibre; sighs are the guiding tones of two +approximating hearts; and the worst and most effectual thing of all in +such a case is some misfortune; for the fire of Love, like that of +naphtha, likes to swim on water. Two teardrops, one in another's, one in +your own eyes, compose, as with two convex lenses, a microscope which +enlarges everything, and changes all sorrows into charms. Good sex! I +too consider every sister in misfortune as fair; and perhaps thou +wouldst deserve the name of the Fair, even because thou art the +Suffering sex! + +And if Professor Hunczogsky in Vienna modelled all the wounds of the +human frame in wax, to teach his pupils how to cure them, I also, thou +good sex, am representing in little figures the cuts and scars of thy +spirit, though only to keep away rude hands from inflicting new ones.... + +Thiennette felt not the loss of the inheritance, but of her that should +have left it; and this more deeply for one little trait, which she had +already told his mother, as she now told him: In the last two nights of +the Rittmeisterinn, when the feverish watching was holding up to +Thiennette's imagination nothing but the winding-sheet and the +mourning-coaches of her protectress; while she was sitting at the foot +of the bed, looking on those fixed eyes, unconsciously quick drops often +trickled over her cheeks, while in thought she prefigured the heavy, +cumbrous dressing of her benefactress for the coffin. Once, after +midnight, the dying lady pointed with her finger to her own lips. +Thiennette understood her not; but rose and bent over her face. The +Enfeebled tried to lift her head, but could not,--and only rounded her +lips. At last, a thought glanced through Thiennette, that the Departing, +whose dead arms could now press no beloved heart to her own, wished that +she herself should embrace her. O then, that instant, keen and tearful +she pressed her warm lips on the colder,--and she was silent like her +that was to speak no more,--and she embraced alone and was not embraced. +About four o'clock, the finger waved again;--she sank down on the +stiffened lips--but this had been no signal, for the lips of her friend +under the long kiss had grown stiff and cold.... + +How deeply now, before the infinite Eternity's-countenance of Night, did +the cutting of this thought pass through Fixlein's warm soul: "O thou +forsaken one beside me! No happy accident, no twilight hast thou, like +that now glimmering in the heavens, to point to the prospect of a sunny +day: without parents art thou, without brother, without friend; here +alone on a disblossomed, emptied corner of the Earth; and thou, left +Harvest-flower, must wave lonely and frozen over the withered stubble of +the Past." That was the meaning of his thoughts, whose internal words +were: "Poor young lady! Not so much as a half-cousin left; no nobleman +will seek her, and she grows old so forgotten, and she is so good from +the very heart--Me she has made happy--Ah, had I the presentation to the +parish of Hukelum in my pocket, I should make a trial.".... Their mutual +lives, which a straitcutting bond of Destiny was binding so closely +together, now rose before him overhung with sable,--and he forthwith +conducted his friend (for a bashful man may in an hour and a half be +transformed into the boldest, and then continues so) back to the last +flask, that all these upsprouting thistles and passion-flowers of sorrow +might therewith be swept away. I remark, in passing, that this was +stupid: the torn vine is full of water-veins as well as grapes; and a +soft oppressed heart the beverage of joy can melt only into tears. + +If any man disagree with me, I shall desire him to look at the +Conrector, who demonstrates my experimental maxim like a very +syllogism.--One might arrive at some philosophic views, if one traced +out the causes, why liquors--that is to say, in the long-run, more +plentiful secretion of the nervous spirits--make men at once pious, soft +and poetical. The Poet, like Apollo his father, is _forever a youth_; +and is, what other men are only once, namely in love,--or only after +Pontac, namely intoxicated,--all his life long. Fixlein, who had been no +poet in the morning, now became one at night: wine made him pious and +soft; the Harmonica-bells in man, which sound to the tones of a higher +world, must, like the glass Harmonica-bells, if they are to act, be kept +_moist_. + +He was now standing with her again beside the wavering pond, in which +the second blue hemisphere of heaven, with dancing stars and amid +quivering trees, was playing; over the green hills ran the white crooked +footpaths dimly along; on the one mountain was the twilight sinking +together, on the other was the mist of night rising up; and over all +these vapours of life, hung motionless and flaming the thousand-armed +lustre of the starry heaven, and every arm held in it a burning +galaxy.... + +It now struck eleven.... Amid such scenes, an unknown hand stretches +itself out in man, and writes in foreign language on his heart, a dread +_Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin_. "Perhaps by twelve I am dead," thought our +friend, in whose soul the Cantata-Sunday, with all its black funeral +piles, was mounting up. + +The whole future Crucifixion-path of his friend lay prickly and +bethorned before him; and he saw every bloody trace from which she +lifted her foot,--she who had made his own way soft with flowers and +leaves. He could no longer restrain himself; trembling in his whole +frame, and with a trembling voice, he solemnly said to her: "If the Lord +this night call me away, let the half of my fortune be yours; for it is +your goodness I must thank that I am free of debts, as few Teachers +are." + +Thiennette, unacquainted with our sex, naturally mistook this speech +for a proposal of marriage; and the fingers of her wounded arm, tonight +for the first time, pressed suddenly against the arm in which they lay; +the only living mortal's arm, by which Joy, Love and the Earth, were +still united with her bosom. The Conrector, rapturously terrified at the +first pressure of a female hand, bent over his right to take hold of her +left; and Thiennette, observing his unsuccessful movement, lifted her +fingers, and laid her whole wounded arm in his, and her whole left hand +in his right. Two lovers dwell in the Whispering-gallery,[48] where the +faintest breath bodies itself forth into a sound. The good Conrector +received and returned this blissful love-pressure, wherewith our poor +powerless soul, stammering, hemmed in, longing, distracted, seeks for a +warmer language, which exists not: he was overpowered; he had not the +courage to look at her; but he looked into the gleam of the twilight, +and said (and here for unspeakable love the tears were running warm over +his cheeks): "Ah, I will give you all; fortune, life and all that I +have, my heart and my hand." + + [48] In St. Paul's Church at London, where the slightest whisper + sounds over across a space of 143 feet. + +She was about to answer, but casting a side-glance, she cried, with a +shriek: "Ah, Heaven!" He started round; and perceived the white muslin +sleeve all dyed with blood; for in putting her arm into his, she had +pushed away the bandage from the open vein. With the speed of lightning, +he hurried her into the acacia-grove; the blood was already running from +the muslin; he grew paler than she, for every drop of it was coming from +his heart. The blue-white arm was bared; the bandage was put on; he tore +a piece of gold from his pocket; clapped it, as one does, with open +arteries, on the spouting fountain, and bolted with this golden bar, and +with the bandage over it, the door out of which her afflicted life was +hurrying.-- + +When it was over, she looked up to him; pale, languid, but her eyes were +two glistening fountains of an unspeakable love, full of sorrow and full +of gratitude.--The exhausting loss of blood was spreading her soul +asunder in sighs. Thiennette was dissolved into inexpressible softness; +and the heart, lacerated by so many years, by so many arrows, was +plunging with all its wounds in warm streams of tears, to be healed; as +chapped flutes close together by lying in water, and get back their +tones.--Before such a magic form, before such a pure heavenly love, her +sympathising friend was melted between the flames of joy and grief; and +sank, with stifled voice, and bent down by love and rapture, on the pale +angelic face, the lips of which he timidly pressed, but did not kiss, +till all-powerful Love bound its girdles round them, and drew the two +closer and closer together, and their two souls, like two tears, melted +into one. O now, when it struck twelve, the hour of death, did not the +lover fancy that her lips were drawing his soul away, and all the fibres +and all the nerves of his life closed spasmodically round the last heart +in this world, round the last rapture of existence?... Yes, happy man, +thou didst express thy love; for in thy love thou thoughtest to die.... + +However, he did not die. After midnight, there floated a balmy morning +air through the shaken flowers, and the whole spring was breathing. The +blissful lover, setting bounds even to his sea of joy, reminded his +delicate beloved, who was now his bride, of the dangers from night-cold; +and himself of the longer night-cold of Death, which was now for long +years passed over.--Innocent and blessed, they rose from the grove of +their betrothment, from its dusk broken by white acacia-flowers and +straggling moonbeams. And without, they felt as if a whole wide Past had +sunk away in a convulsion of the world; all was new, light and young. +The sky stood full of glittering dewdrops from the everlasting Morning; +and the stars quivered joyfully asunder, and sank, resolved into beams, +down into the hearts of men.--The Moon, with her fountain of light, had +overspread and kindled all the garden; and was hanging above in a +starless Blue, as if she had consumed the nearest stars; and she seemed +like a smaller wandering Spring, like a Christ's-face smiling in love of +man.-- + +Under this light they looked at one another for the first time, after +the first words of love; and the sky gleamed magically down on the +disordered features with which the first rapture of love was still +standing written on their faces.... + +Dream, ye beloved, as ye wake, happy as in Paradise, innocent as in +Paradise! + + + + +SIXTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Office-impost. One of the most important of Petitions._ + + +The finest thing was his awakening in his European Settlement in the +giant Schadeck bed!--With the inflammatory, tickling, eating fever of +love in his breast; with the triumphant feeling, that he had now got the +introductory program of love put happily by; and with the sweet +resurrection from his living prophetic burial; and with the joy that +now, among his thirties, he could, for the first time, cherish hopes of +a longer life (and did not longer mean at least till seventy?) than he +could ten years ago;--with all this stirring life-balsam, in which the +living fire-wheel of his heart was rapidly revolving, he lay here, and +laughed at his glancing portrait in the bed-canopy; but he could not do +it long, he was obliged to move. For a less happy man, it would have +been gratifying to have measured,--as pilgrims measure the length of +their pilgrimage,--not so much by steps as by body-lengths, like +Earth-diameters, the superficial content of the bed. But Fixlein, for +his own part, had to launch from his bed into warm billowy Life, he had +now his dear good Earth again to look after, and a Conrectorship +thereon, and a bride to boot. Besides all this, his mother downstairs +now admitted that he had last night actually glided through beneath the +scythe of Death, like supple-grass, and that yesterday she had not told +him merely out of fear of his fear. Still a cold shudder went over +him,--especially as he was sober now,--when he looked round at the high +Tarpeian Rock, four hours' distance behind him, on the battlements of +which he had last night walked hand in hand with Death. + +The only thing that grieved him was, that it was Monday, and that he +must back to the Gymnasium. Such a freightage of joys he had never taken +with him on his road to town. After four he issued from his house, +satisfied with coffee (which he drank in Hukelum merely for his mother's +sake, who, for two days after, would still have portions of this +woman's-wine to draw from the lees of the pot-sediment) into the +_cooling_ dawning May-morning (for joy needs coolness, sorrow sun); his +Betrothed comes--not indeed to meet him, but still--into his hearing, by +her distant morning hymn; he makes but one momentary turn into the +blissful haven of the blooming acacia-grove, which still, like the +covenant sealed in it, has no thorns; he dips his warm hand in the +cold-bath of the dewy leaves; he wades with pleasure through the +beautifying-water of the dew, which, as it imparts colour to faces, eats +it away from boots ("but with thirty ducats, a Conrector may make shift +to keep two pairs of boots on the hook").--And now the Moon, as it were +the hanging seal of his last night's happiness, dips down into the +West, like an emptied bucket of light, and in the East the other +overrunning bucket, the Sun, mounts up, and the gushes of light flow +broader and broader.-- + +The city stood in the celestial flames of Morning. Here his divining-rod +(his gold-roll, which, excepting one sixteenth of an inch broken off +from it, he carried along with him) began to quiver over all the spots +where booty and silver-veins of enjoyment were concealed; and our +rod-diviner easily discovered that the city and the future were a true +entire Potosi of delights. + +In his Conrectorate closet he fell upon his knees, and thanked God--not +so much for his heritage and bride as--for his life: for he had gone +away on Sunday morning with doubts whether he should ever come back; and +it was purely out of love to the reader, and fear lest he might fret +himself too much with apprehension, that I cunningly imputed Fixlein's +journey more to his desire of knowing what was in the will, than of +making his own will in presence of his mother. Every recovery is a +bringing back and palingenesia of our youth: one loves the Earth and +those that are on it with a new love.--The Conrector could have found in +his heart to take all his class by the locks, and press them to his +breast; but he only did so to his adjutant, the Quartaner, who, in the +first Letter-box, was still sitting in the rank of a Quintaner.... + +His first expedition, after school-hours, was to the house of Meister +Steinberger, where, without speaking a word, he counted down fifty +florins cash, in ducats, on the table: "At last I repay you," said +Fixlein, "the moiety of my debt, and give you many thanks." + +"Ey, Herr Conrector," said the Quartermaster, and continued calmly +stuffing puddings as before, "in my bond it is said, _payable at three +months' mutual notice_. How could a man like me go on, else?--However, I +will change you the gold pieces." Thereupon he advised him that it might +be more judicious to take back a florin or two, and buy himself a better +hat, and whole shoes: "if you like," added he, "to get a calfskin and +half a dozen hareskins dressed, they are lying upstairs."--I should +think, for my own part, that to the reader it must be as little a matter +of indifference as it was to the Butcher, whether the hero of such a +History appear before him with an old tattered potlid of a hat, and a +pump-sucker and leg-harness pair of boots, or in suitable apparel.--In +short, before St. John's day, the man was dressed with taste and pomp. + +But now came two most peculiarly important papers--at bottom only one, +the Petition for the Hukelum parsonship--to be elaborated; in regard to +which I feel as if I myself must assist.... It were a simple turn, if +now at least the assembled public did not pay attention. + +In the first place, the Conrector searched out and sorted all the +Consistorial and Councillor quittances, or rather the toll-bills of the +road-money, which he had been obliged to pay, before the toll-gates at +the Quintusship and Conrectorship had been thrown open: for the executor +of the Schadeck testament had to reimburse him the whole, as his +discharge would express it, "to penny and farthing." Another would have +summed up this post-excise much more readily; by merely looking what +he--owed; as these debt-bills and those toll-bills, like parallel +passages, elucidate and confirm each other. But in Fixlein's case, there +was a small circumstance of peculiarity at work; which I cannot explain +till after what follows. + +It grieved him a little that for his two offices he had been obliged to +pay and to borrow no larger a sum than 135 florins, 41 kreutzers and one +halfpenny. The legacy, it is true, was to pass directly from the hands +of the testamentary executor into those of the Regiments-Quartermaster; +but yet he could have liked well, had he--for man is a fool from the +very foundation of him--had more to pay, and therefore to inherit. The +whole Conrectorate he had, by a slight deposit of 90 florins, plucked, +as it were, from the Wheel of Fortune; and so small a sum must surprise +my reader: but what will he say, when I tell him that there are +countries where the entry-money into schoolrooms is even more moderate? +In Scherau, a Conrector is charged only 88 florins, and perhaps he may +have an income triple of this sum. Not to speak of Saxony (what, in +truth, was to be expected from the cradle of the Reformation, in +Religion and Polite Literature), where a schoolmaster and a parson have +_nothing_ to pay,--even in Bayreuth, for example, in Hof, the progress +of improvement has been such, that a Quartus--a Quartus do I say,--a +Tertius--a Tertius do I say,--a Conrector, at entrance on his post, is +not required to pay down more than: + + Fl. rhen. Kr. rhen. + + 30 49 For taking the oaths at the Consistorium. + 4 0 To the Syndic for the Presentation. + 2 0 To the then Buergermeister. + 45 71/2 For the Government-sanction. + ------------- + Total 81 fl. 561/2 kr. + +If the printing-charges of a Rector do stand a little higher in some +points, yet, on the other hand, a Tertius, Quartus &c. come cheaper from +the press than even a Conrector. Now it is clear that in this case a +schoolmaster can subsist; since, in the course of the very first year, +he gets an overplus beyond this _dock-money_ of his office. A +schoolmaster must, like his scholars, have been advanced from class to +class, before these his loans to Government, together with the interest +for delay of payment, can jointly amount to so much as his yearly income +in the highest class. Another thing in his favour is, that our +institutions do not--as those of Athens did--prohibit people from +entering on office while in debt; but every man, with his debt-knapsack +on his shoulders, mounts up, step after step, without obstruction. The +Pope, in large benefices, appropriates the income of the first year +under the title of _Annates_, or First Fruits; and accordingly he, in +all cases, bestows any large benefice on the possessor of a smaller one, +thereby to augment both his own revenues and those of others; but it +shows, in my opinion, a bright distinction between Popery and +Lutheranism, that the Consistoriums of the latter abstract from their +school-ministers and church-ministers not perhaps above two-thirds of +their first yearly income; though they too, like the Pope, must +naturally have an eye to vacancies. + +It may be that I shall here come in collision with the Elector of Mentz, +when I confess, that in Schmausen's _Corp. Jur. Pub. Germ._ I have +turned up the Mentz-Imperial-Court-Chancery-tax-ordinance of the 6th +January 1659; and there investigated how much this same +Imperial-Court-Chancery demands, as contrasted with a Consistorium. For +example, any man that wishes to be baked or sodden into a _Poet +Laureate_, has 50 florins tax-dues, and 20 florins Chancery-dues to pay +down; whereas, for 20 florins more, he might have been made a Conrector, +who is a poet of this species, as it were by the by and _ex +officio_.--The institution of a Gymnasium is permitted for 1000 florins; +an extraordinary sum, with which the whole body of the teachers in the +instituted Gymnasium might with us clear off the entrymoneys of their +schoolrooms. Again, a Freiherr, who, at any rate, often enough grows old +without knowing how, must purchase the _venia aetatis_ with 200 hard +florins; while with the half sum he might have become a schoolmaster, +and here _age_ would have come of its own accord.--And a thousand such +things!--They prove, however, that matters can be at no bad pass in our +Governments and Circles, where promotions are sold dearer to Folly than +to Diligence, and where it costs more to institute a school than to +serve in one. + +The remarks I made on this subject to a Prince, as well as the remarks a +Town-Syndic made on it to myself, are too remarkable to be omitted for +mere dread of digressiveness. + +The Syndic--a man of enlarged views, and of fiery patriotism, the warmth +of which was the more beneficent that he collected all the beams of it +into one focus, and directed them to himself and his family--gave me (I +had perhaps been comparing the School-bench and the School-stair to the +_bench_ and the _ladder_, on which people are laid when about to be +tortured) the best reply: "If a schoolmaster consume nothing but 30 +reichsthalers;[49] if he annually purchase manufactured goods, according +as Political Economists have calculated for each individual, namely, to +the amount of 5 reichsthalers; and no more hundredweights of victual +than these assume, namely 10; in short, if he live like a substantial +wood-cutter,--then the Devil must be in it, if he cannot yearly lay by +so much net profit, as shall, in the long-run, pay the interest of his +entry-debts." + + [49] So much, according to Political Economists, a man yearly + requires in Germany. + +The Syndic must have failed to convince me at the time, since I +afterwards told the Flachsenfingen Prince:[50] "Illustrious Sir, you +know not, but I do--not a player in your Theatre would act the +Schoolmaster in Engel's _Prodigal Son_, three nights running, for such a +sum as every real Schoolmaster has to take for acting it all the days of +the year.--In Prussia, Invalids are made Schoolmasters; with us, +Schoolmasters are made Invalids."... + + [50] This singular tone of my address to a Prince can only be + excused by the equally singular relation, wherein the Biographer + stands to the Flachsenfingen Sovereign, and which I would willingly + unfold here, were it not that, in my Book, which, under the title + of _Dog-post-days_, I mean to give to the world at Easter-fair + 1795, I hoped to expound the matter to universal satisfaction. + + * * * * * + +But to our story! Fixlein wrote out the inventory of his Crown-debts; +but with quite a different purpose than the reader will guess, who has +still the Schadeck testament in his head. In one word, he wanted to be +Parson of Hukelum. To be a clergyman, and in the place where his cradle +stood, and all the little gardens of his childhood, his mother also, and +the grove of betrothment,--this was an open gate into a New Jerusalem, +supposing even that the living had been nothing but a meagre +penitentiary. The main point was, he might marry, if he were appointed. +For, in the capacity of lank Conrector, supported only by the +strengthening-girth of his waistcoat, and with emoluments whereby +scarcely the purchase-money of a--purse was to be come at; in this way +he was more like collecting wick and tallow for his burial-torch than +for his bridal one. + +For the Schoolmaster class are, in well-ordered States, as little +permitted to marry as the Soldiery. In _Conringius de Antiquitutibus +Academicis_, where in every leaf it is proved that all cloisters were +originally schools, I hit upon the reason. Our schools are now +cloisters, and consequently we endeavour to maintain in our teachers at +least an imitation of the Three Monastic Vows. The vow of Obedience +might perhaps be sufficiently enforced by School-Inspectors; but the +second vow, that of Celibacy, would be more hard of attainment, were it +not that, by one of the best political arrangements, the third vow, I +mean a beautiful equality in Poverty, is so admirably attended to, that +no man who has made it needs any farther _testimonium paupertatis_;--and +now _let_ this man, if he likes, lay hold of a matrimonial half, when of +the two halves each has a whole stomach, and nothing for it but +half-coins and half-beer!... + +I know well, millions of my readers would themselves compose this +Petition for the Conrector, and ride with it to Schadeck to his +Lordship, that so the poor rogue might get the sheepfold, with the +annexed wedding-mansion: for they see clearly enough, that directly +thereafter one of the best Letter-Boxes would be written that ever came +from such a repository. + +Fixlein's Petition was particularly good and striking: it submitted to +the Rittmeister four grounds of preference: 1. "He was a native of the +parish: his parents and ancestors had already done Hukelum service; +therefore he prayed," &c. + +2. "The here-documented official debts of 135 florins, 41 kreutzers and +one halfpenny, the cancelling of which a never-to-be-forgotten testament +secured him, he himself could clear, in case he obtained the living, +and so hereby give up his claim to the legacy," &c. + +_Voluntary Note by me._ It is plain he means to bribe his Godfather, +whom the lady's testament has put into a fume. But, gentle reader, blame +not without mercy a poor, oppressed, heavy-laden school-man and +school-horse for an indelicate insinuation, which truly was never mine. +Consider, Fixlein knew that the Rittmeister was a cormorant towards the +poor, as he was a squanderer towards the rich. It may be, too, the +Conrector might once or twice have heard, in the Law Courts, of patrons, +by whom not indeed the church and churchyard--though these things are +articles of commerce in England--so much as the true management of them +had been sold, or rather farmed to farming-candidates. I know from +Lange,[51] that the Church must support its patron, when he has nothing +to live upon: and might not a nobleman, before he actually began +begging, be justified in taking a little advance, a fore-payment of his +alimentary moneys, from the hands of his pulpit-farmer?-- + + [51] His _Clerical Law_, p. 551. + +3. "He had lately betrothed himself with Fraeulein von Thiennette, and +given her a piece of gold, as marriage-pledge; and could therefore wed +the said Fraeulein were he once provided for," &c. + +_Voluntary Note by me._ I hold this ground to be the strongest in the +whole Petition. In the eyes of Herr von Aufhammer, Thiennette's +genealogical tree was long since stubbed, disleaved, worm-eaten and full +of millepedes: she was his OEconoma, his Castle-Stewardess and +Legatess _a Latere_ for his domestics; and with her pretensions for an +alms-coffer, was threatening in the end to become a burden to him. His +indignant wish that she had been provided for with Fixlein's legacy +might now be fulfilled. In a word, if Fixlein become Parson, he will +have the third ground to thank for it; not at all the mad fourth.... + +4. "He had learned with sorrow, that the name of his Shock, which he had +purchased from an Emigrant at Leipzig, meant Egidius in German; and that +the dog had drawn upon him the displeasure of his Lordship. Far be it +from him so to designate the Shock in future; but he would take it as a +special grace, if for the dog, which he at present called without any +name, his Lordship would be pleased to appoint one himself." + +_My Voluntary Note._ The dog then, it seems, to which the nobleman has +hitherto been godfather, is to receive its name a _second_ time from +him!--But how can the famishing gardener's son, whose career never +mounted higher than from the school-bench to the school-chair, and who +never spoke with polished ladies, except singing, namely in the church, +how can he be expected, in fingering such a string, to educe from it any +finer tone than the pedantic one? And yet the source of it lies deeper: +not the contracted _situation_, but the contracted _eye_, not a +favourite science, but a narrow plebeian soul, makes us pedantic, a soul +that cannot _measure_ and _separate_ the _concentric_ circles of human +knowledge and activity, that confounds the focus of universal human +life, by reason of the focal distance, with every two or three +converging rays; and that cannot see all, and tolerate all----In short, +the true Pedant is the Intolerant. + + * * * * * + +The Conrector wrote out his petition splendidly in five propitious +evenings; employed a peculiar ink for the purpose; worked not indeed so +long over it as the stupid Manucius over a Latin letter, namely, some +months, if Scioppius' word is to be taken; still less so long as another +scholar at a Latin epistle, who--truly we have nothing but Morhof's word +for it--hatched it during four whole months; inserting his variations, +adjectives, feet, with the authorities for his phrases, accurately +marked between the lines. Fixlein possessed a more thorough-going +genius, and had completely mastered the whole enterprise in sixteen +days. While sealing, he thought, as we all do, how this cover was the +seed-husk of a great entire Future, the rind of many sweet or bitter +fruits, the swathing of his whole after-life. + +Heaven bless his cover; but I let you throw me from the Tower of Babel, +if he get the parsonage: can't you see, then, that Aufhammer's hands are +tied? In spite of all his other faults, or even because of them, he will +stand like iron by his word, which he has given so long ago to the +Subrector. It were another matter had he been resident at Court; for +there, where old German manners still are, no promise is kept; for as, +according to Moeser, the Ancient Germans kept only such promises as they +made in the _forenoon_ (in the afternoon they were all dead-drunk),--so +the Court Germans likewise keep no afternoon promise; forenoon ones they +would keep if they made any, which, however, cannot possibly happen, as +at those hours they are--sleeping. + + + + +SEVENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Sermon. School-Exhibition. Splendid Mistake._ + + +The Conrector received his 135 florins, 43 kreutzers, one halfpenny +Frankish; but no answer: the dog remained without name, his master +without parsonage. Meanwhile the summer passed away; and the Dragoon +Rittmeister had yet drawn out no pike from the Candidate +_breeding-pond_, and thrown him into the _feeding-pond_ of the Hukelum +parsonage. It gratified him to be behung with prayers like a Spanish +guardian Saint; and he postponed (though determined to prefer the +Subrector) granting any one petition, till he had seven-and-thirty +dyers', buttonmakers', tinsmiths' sons, whose petitions he could at the +same time refuse. Grudge not him of Aufhammer this outlengthening of his +electorial power! He knows the privileges of rank; feels that a nobleman +is like Timoleon, who gained his greatest victories on his birthday, and +had nothing more to do than name some squiress, countess, or the like, +as his mother. A man, however, who has been exalted to the Peerage, +while still a foetus, may with more propriety be likened to the +_spinner_, which, contrariwise to all other insects, passes from the +chrysalis state, and becomes a perfect insect in its mother's womb.-- + +But to proceed! Fixlein was at present not without cash. It will be the +same as if I made a present of it to the reader, when I reveal to him, +that of the legacy, which was clearing off old scores, he had still +thirty-five florins left to himself, as _allodium_ and pocket-money, +wherewith he might purchase whatsoever seemed good to him. And how came +he by so large a sum, by so considerable a competence? Simply by this +means: Every time he changed a piece of gold, and especially at every +payment he received, it had been his custom to throw in, blindly at +random, two, three, or four small coins, among the papers of his trunk. +His purpose was to astonish himself one day, when he summed up and took +possession of this sleeping capital. And, by Heaven! he reached it too, +when on mounting the throne of his Conrectorate, he drew out these funds +from among his papers, and applied them to the coronation charges. For +the present, he sowed them in again among his waste letters. Foolish +Fixlein! I mean, had he not luckily exposed his legacy to jeopardy, +having offered it as bounty-money, and luck-penny to the patron, this +false clutch of his at the knocker of the Hukelum church-door would +certainly have vexed him; but now if he had missed the knocker, he had +the luck-penny again, and could be merry. + +I now advance a little way in his History, and hit, in the rock of his +Life, upon so fine a vein of silver, I mean upon so fine a day, that I +must (I believe) content myself even in regard to the twenty-third of +Trinity-term, when he preached a vacation sermon in his dear native +village, with a brief transitory notice. + +In itself the sermon was good and glorious; and the day a rich day of +pleasure; but I should really need to have more hours at my disposal +than I can steal from May, in which I am at present living and writing; +and more strength than wandering through this fine weather has left me +for landscape pictures of the same, before I could attempt, with any +well-founded hope, to draw out a mathematical estimate of the length and +thickness, and the vibrations and accordant relations to each other, of +the various strings, which combined together to form for his heart a +Music of the Spheres, on this day of Trinity-term, though such a thing +would please myself as much as another.... Do not ask me! In my opinion, +when a man preaches on Sunday before all the peasants, who had carried +him in their arms when a gardener's boy; farther, before his mother, who +is leading off her tears through the conduit of her satin muff; farther, +before his Lordship, whom he can positively command to be blessed; and +finally, before his muslin bride, who is already blessed, and changing +almost into stone, to find that the same lips can both kiss and preach: +in my opinion, I say, when a man effects all this, he has some right to +require of any Biographer who would paint his situation, that he--hold +his jaw; and of the reader who would sympathise with it, that he open +his, and preach himself.---- + +But what I must _ex officio_ depict, is the day to which this Sunday was +but the prelude, the vigil and the whet; I mean the prelude, the vigil +and the whet to the _Martini Actus_, or _Martinmas Exhibition_, of his +school. On Sunday was the Sermon, on Wednesday the Actus, on Tuesday the +Rehearsal. This Tuesday shall now be delineated to the universe. + +I count upon it that I shall not be read by mere people of the world +alone, to whom a School-Actus cannot truly appear much better, or more +interesting, than some Investiture of a Bishop, or the _opera seria_ of +a Frankfort Coronation; but that I likewise have people before me, who +have been at schools, and who know how the school-drama of an Actus, and +the stage-manager, and the playbill (the Program) thereof are to be +estimated, still without overrating their importance. + +Before proceeding to the Rehearsal of the _Martini Actus_, I impose upon +myself, as dramaturgist of the play, the duty, if not of extracting, at +least of recording the Conrector's Letter of Invitation. In this +composition he said many things; and (what an author likes so well) made +proposals rather than reproaches; interrogatively reminding the public, +Whether in regard to the well-known head-breakages of Priscian on the +part of the Magnates in Pest and Poland, our school-houses were not the +best quarantine and lazar-houses to protect us against infectious +_barbarisms_? Moreover, he defended in schools what could be defended +(and nothing in the world is sweeter or easier than a defence); and +said, Schoolmasters, who not quite justifiably, like certain Courts, +spoke nothing, and let nothing be spoken to them but Latin, might plead +the Romans in excuse, whose subjects, and whose kings, at least in their +epistles and public transactions, were obliged to make use of the Latin +tongue. He wondered why only our Greek, and not also our Latin Grammars, +were composed in Latin, and put the pregnant question: Whether the +Romans, when they taught their little children the Latin tongue, did it +in any other than in this same? Thereupon he went over to the Actus, and +said what follows, in his own words: + +"I am minded to prove, in a subsequent Invitation, that everything which +can be said or known about the great founder of the Reformation, the +subject of our present Martini Prolusions, has been long ago exhausted, +as well by Seckendorf as others. In fact, with regard to Luther's +personalities, his table-talk, incomes, journeys, clothes, and so forth, +there can now nothing new be brought forward, if at the same time it is +to be true. Nevertheless, the field of the Reformation history is, to +speak in a figure, by no means wholly cultivated; and it does appear to +me as if the inquirer even of the present day might in vain look about +for correct intelligence respecting the children, grandchildren and +children's children, down to our own times, of this great Reformer; all +of whom, however, appertain, in a more remote degree, to the Reformation +history, as he himself in a nearer. Thou shalt not perhaps be threshing, +said I to myself, altogether empty straw, if, according to thy small +ability, thou bring forward and cultivate this neglected branch of +History. And so have I ventured, with the last male descendant of +Luther, namely, with the Advocate Martin Gottlob Luther, who practised +in Dresden, and deceased there in 1759, to make a beginning of a more +special Reformation history. My feeble attempt, in regard to this +Reformationary Advocate, will be sufficiently rewarded, should it excite +to better works on the subject: however, the little which I have +succeeded in digging up and collecting with regard to him I here +submissively, obediently, and humbly request all friends and patrons of +the Flachsenfingen Gymnasium to listen to, on the 14th of November, from +the mouths of sis well-conditioned perorators. In the first place, shall + +"_Gottlieb Spiesglass_, a Flachsenfinger, endeavour to show, in a Latin +oration, that Martin Gottlob Luther was certainly descended of the +Luther family. After him strives + +"_Friedrich Christian Krabbler_, from Hukelum, in German prose, to +appreciate the influence which Martin Gottlob Luther exercised on the +then existing Reformation; whereupon, after him, will + +"_Daniel Lorenz Stenzinger_ deliver, in Latin verse, an account of +Martin Gottlob Luther's lawsuits; embracing the probable merits of +Advocates generally, in regard to the Reformation. Which then will give +opportunity to + +"_Nikol Tobias Pfizman_ to come forward in French, and recount the most +important circumstances of Martin Gottlob Luther's school-years, +university-life and riper age. And now, when + +"_Andreas Eintarm_ shall have endeavoured, in German verse, to apologise +for the possible failings of this representative of the great Luther, +will + +"_Justus Strobel_, in Latin verse according to ability, sing his +uprightness and integrity in the Advocate profession; whereafter I +myself shall mount the cathedra, and most humbly thank all the patrons +of the Flachsenfingen School, and then farther bring forward those +portions in the life of this remarkable man, of which we yet know +absolutely nothing, they being spared _Deo volente_ for the speakers of +the next _Martini Actus_." + + * * * * * + +The day before the Actus offered as it were the proof-shot and +sample-sheet of the Wednesday. Persons who on account of dress could not +be present at the great school-festival, especially ladies, made their +appearance on Tuesday, during the six proof-orations. No one can be +readier than I to subordinate the proof-Actus to the Wednesday-Actus; +and I do anything but need being stimulated suitably to estimate the +solemn feast of a School; but on the other hand I am equally convinced +that no one, who did not go to the real Actus of Wednesday, could +possibly figure anything more splendid than the proof-day preceding; +because he could have no object wherewith to compare the pomp in which +the Primate of the festival drove in with his triumphal chariot and +six--to call the six brethren-speakers coach-horses--next morning in +presence of ladies and Councillor gentlemen. Smile away, Fixlein, at +this astonishment over thy today's _Ovation_, which is leading on +tomorrow's _Triumph_: on thy dissolving countenance quivers happy Self, +feeding on these incense-fumes; but a vanity like thine, and that only, +which enjoys without comparing or despising, can one tolerate, will one +foster. But what flowed over all his heart, like a melting sunbeam over +wax, was his mother, who after much persuasion had ventured in her +Sunday clothes humbly to place herself quite low down, beside the door +of the Prima class-room. It were difficult to say who is happier, the +mother, beholding how he whom she has borne under her heart can direct +such noble young gentlemen, and hearing how he along with them can talk +of these really high things and understand them too;--or the son, who, +like some of the heroes of Antiquity, has the felicity of triumphing in +the lifetime of his mother. I have never in my writings or doings cast a +stone upon the late Burchardt Grossmann, who under the initial letters +of the stanzas in his song, "_Brich an, du liebe Morgenroethe_," inserted +the letters of his own name; and still less have I ever censured any +poor herbwoman for smoothing out her winding-sheet, while still living, +and making herself one-twelfth of a dozen of grave-shifts. Nor do I +regard the man as wise--though indeed as very clever and pedantic--who +can fret his gall-bladder full because every one of us leaf-miners views +the leaf whereon he is mining as a park-garden, as a fifth Quarter of +the World (so near and rich is it); the leaf-pores as so many Valleys of +Tempe, the leaf-skeleton as a Liberty-tree, a Bread-tree and Life-tree, +and the dew-drops as the Ocean. We poor day-moths, evening-moths and +night-moths, fall universally into the same error, only on different +leaves; and whosoever (as I do) laughs at the important airs with which +the schoolmaster issues his programs, the dramaturgist his playbills, +the classical variation-alms-gatherer his alphabetic letters,--does it, +if he is wise (as is the case here), with the consciousness of his own +_similar_ folly; and laughs in regard to his neighbour, at nothing but +mankind and himself. + +The mother was not to be detained; she must off, this very night, to +Hukelum, to give the Fraeulein Thiennette at least some tidings of this +glorious business.-- + +And now the World will bet a hundred to one, that I forthwith take +biographical wax, and emboss such a wax-figure cabinet of the Actus +itself as shall be single of its kind. + +But on Wednesday morning, while the hope-intoxicated Conrector was just +about putting on his fine raiment, something knocked.---- + +It was the well-known servant of the Rittmeister, carrying the Hukelum +Presentation for the Subrector _Fuechs_lein in his pocket. To the +last-named gentleman he had been sent with this call to the parsonage: +but he had distinguished ill betwixt _Sub_ and _Con_rector; and had +besides his own good reasons for directing his steps to the latter; for +he thought: "Who can it be that gets it, but the parson that preached +last Sunday, and that comes from the village, and is engaged to our +Fraeulein Thiennette, and to whom I brought a clock and a roll of ducats +already?" That his Lordship could pass over his own godson, never +entered the man's head. + +Fixlein read the address of the Appointment: "To the Reverend the Parson +_Fixlein_ of Hukelum." He naturally enough made the same mistake as the +lackey; and broke up the Presentation as his own: and finding moreover +in the body of the paper no special mention of persons, but only of a +_Schul-unter-befehlslaber_ or School-undergovernor (instead of +Subrector), he could not but persist in his error. Before I properly +explain why the Rittmeister's Lawyer, the framer of the Presentation, +had so designated a Subrector--we two, the reader and myself, will keep +an eye for a moment on Fixlein's joyful saltations--on his +gratefully-streaming eyes--on his full hands so laden with bounty--on +the present of two ducats, which he drops into the hands of the +mitre-bearer, as willingly as he will soon drop his own pedagogic +office. Could he tell what to think (of the Rittmeister), or to write +(to the same), or to table (for the lackey)? Did he not ask tidings of +the noble health of his benefactor over and over, though the servant +answered him with all distinctness at the very first? And was not this +same man, who belonged to the nose-upturning, shoulder-shrugging, +shoulder-knotted, toad-eating species of men, at last so moved by the +joy which he had imparted, that he determined on the spot, to bestow his +presence on the new clergyman's School-Actus, though no person of +quality whatever was to be there? Fixlein, in the first place, sealed +his letter of thanks; and courteously invited this messenger of good +news to visit him frequently in the Parsonage; and to call this evening +in passing at his mother's, and give her a lecture for not staying last +night, when she might have seen the Presentation from his Lordship +arrive today. + +The lackey being gone, Fixlein for joy began to grow sceptical--and +timorous (wherefore, to prevent filching, he stowed his Presentation +securely in his coffer, under keeping of two padlocks); and devout and +softened, since he thanked God without scruple for all good that +happened to him, and never wrote this Eternal Name but in pulpit +characters and with coloured ink, as the Jewish copyists never wrote it +except in ornamental letters and when newly washed;[52]--and deaf also +did the parson grow, so that he scarcely heard the soft wooing-hour of +the Actus--for a still softer one beside Thiennette, with its +rose-bushes and rose-honey, would not leave his thoughts. He who of old, +when Fortune made a wry face at him, was wont, like children in their +sport at one another, to laugh at her so long till she herself was +obliged to begin smiling,--he was now flying as on a huge seesaw higher +and higher, quicker and quicker aloft. + + [52] Eichhorn's _Einleit. ins A. T._ (Introduction to the Old + Testament), vol. ii. + +But before the Actus, let us examine the Schadeck Lawyer. _Fixlein_ +instead of _Fuechslein_[53] he had written from uncertainty about the +spelling of the name; the more naturally as in transcribing the +Rittmeisterinn's will, the former had occurred so often. _Von_, this +triumphal arch he durst not set up before Fuechslein's new name, because +Aufhammer forbade it, considering Hans Fuechslein as a mushroom who had +no right to _vons_ and titles of nobility, for all his patents. In fine, +the Presentation-writer was possessed with Campe's[54] whim of +Germanising everything, minding little though when Germanised it should +cease to be intelligible;--as if a word needed any better act of +naturalisation than that which universal intelligibility imparts to it. +In itself it is the same--the rather as all languages, like all men, are +cognate, intermarried and intermixed--whether a word was invented by a +savage or a foreigner; whether it grew up like moss amid the German +forests, or like street-grass, in the pavement of the Roman forum. The +Lawyer, on the other hand, contended that it was different; and +accordingly he hid not from any of his clients that _Tagefarth_ +(Day-turn) meant _Term_, and that _Appealing_ was _Berufen_ (Becalling). +On this principle he dressed the word _Subrector_ in the new livery of +_School-undergovernor_. And this version farther converted the +Schoolmaster into Parson: to such a degree does our _civic_ fortune--not +our _personal_ well-being, which supports itself on our own internal +soil and resources--grow merely on the _drift-mould_ of accidents, +connexions, acquaintances, and Heaven or the Devil knows what!-- + + [53] Both have the same sound. _Fuechslein_ means Foxling, + Foxwhelp.--ED. + + [54] Campe, a German philologist, who, along with several others of + that class, has really proposed, as represented in the Text, to + substitute for all Greek or Latin derivatives corresponding German + terms of the like import. _Geography_, which may be + _Erdbeschreibung_ (Earth-description), was thenceforth to be + nothing else; a _Geometer_ became an _Earthmeasurer_, &c. &c. + _School-undergovernor_, instead of _Subrector_, is by no means the + happiest example of the system, and seems due rather to the + Schadeck Lawyer than to Campe, whom our Author has elsewhere more + than once eulogised for his project in similar style.--ED. + +By the by, from a Lawyer, at the same time a Country Judge, I should +certainly have looked for more sense; I should (I may be mistaken) have +presumed he knew that the _Acts_ or Reports, which in former times (see +Hoffmann's _German or un-German Law-practice_) were written in Latin, as +before the times of Joseph the Hungarian,--are now, if we may say so +without offence, perhaps written fully more in the German dialect than +in the Latin; and in support of this opinion, I can point to whole lines +of German language, to be found in these Imperial-Court-Confessions. +However, I will not believe that the Jurist is endeavouring, because +Imhofer declares the Roman tongue to be the mother tongue in the other +world, to disengage himself from a language, by means of which, like the +Roman _Eagle_, or later, like the Roman _Fish-heron_ (Pope), he has +clutched such abundant booty in his talons.---- + +Toll, toll your bell for the Actus; stream in, in to the ceremony: who +cares for it? Neither I nor the Ex-Conrector. The six pigmy Ciceros will +in vain set forth before us in sumptuous dress their thoughts and +bodies. The draught-wind of Chance has blown away from the Actus its +powder-nimbus of glory; and the Conrector that was has discovered how +small a matter a cathedra is, and how great a one a pulpit: "I should +not have thought," thought he now, "when I became Conrector, that there +could he anything grander, I mean a Parson." Man, behind his everlasting +blind, which he only colours differently, and makes no thinner, carries +his pride with him from one step to another; and, on the higher step, +blames only the pride of the lower. + +The best of the Actus was, that the Regiments-Quartermaster, and Master +Butcher, Steinberg, attended there, embaled in a long woollen shag. +During the solemnity, the Subrector Hans von Fuechslein cast several +gratified and inquiring glances on the Schadeck servant, who did not +once look at him: Hans would have staked his head, that after the Actus, +the fellow would wait upon him. When at last the sextuple cockerel-brood +had on their dunghill done crowing, that is to say, had perorated, the +scholastic cocker, over whom a higher banner was now waving, himself +came upon the stage; and delivered to the School-Inspectorships, to the +Subrectorship, to the Guardianship and the Lackeyship, his most grateful +thanks for their attendance; shortly announcing to them at the same +time, "that Providence had now called him from his post to another; and +committed to him, unworthy as he was, the cure of souls in the Hukelum +parish, as well as in the Schadeck chapel of ease." + +This little address, to appearance, well-nigh blew up the then Subrector +Hans von Fuechslein from his chair; and his face looked of a mingled +colour, like red bole, green chalk, tinsel-yellow and _vomissement de la +reine_. + +The tall Quartermaster erected himself considerably in his shag, and +hummed loud enough in happy forgetfulness: "The Dickens!--Parson?"---- + +The Subrector dashed by like a comet before the lackey: ordered him to +call and take a letter for his master; strode home, and prepared for his +patron, who at Schadeck was waiting for a long thanksgiving psalm, a +short satirical epistle, as nervous as haste would permit, and mingled a +few nicknames and verbal injuries along with it. + +The courier handed in, to his master, Fixlein's song of gratitude, and +Fuechslein's invectives, with the same hand. The Dragoon Rittmeister, +incensed at the ill-mannered churl, and bound to his word, which Fixlein +had publicly announced in his Actus, forthwith wrote back to the new +Parson an acceptance and ratification; and Fixlein is and remains, to +the joy of us all, incontestable ordained parson of Hukelum. + +His disappointed rival has still this consolation, that he holds a seat +in the wasp-nest of the _Neue Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek_.[55] +Should the Parson ever chrysalise himself into an author, the watch-wasp +may then buzz out, and dart its sting into the chrysalis, and put its +own brood in the room of the murdered butterfly. As the Subrector +everywhere went about, and threatened in plain terms that he would +review his colleague, let not the public be surprised that Fixlein's +_Errata_, and his Masoretic _Exercitationes_, are to this hour withheld +from it. + + [55] _New Universal German Library_, a reviewing periodical; in + those days conducted by Nicolai, a sworn enemy to what has since + been called the New School. (See Tieck, _ante_)--ED. + +In spring, the widowed church receives her new husband; and how it will +be, when Fixlein, under a canopy of flower-trees, takes the _Sponsa +Christi_ in one hand, and his own _Sponsa_ in the other,--this, without +an Eighth Letter-Box, which, in the present case, may be a true +jewel-box and rainbow-key,[56] can no mortal figure, except the +_Sponsus_ himself. + + [56] Superstition declares, that on the spot where the rainbow + rises, a golden key is left. + + + + +EIGHTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Instalment in the Parsonage._ + + +On the 15th of April 1793, the reader may observe, far down in the +hollow, three baggage-wagons groaning along. These baggage-wagons are +transporting the house-gear of the new Parson to Hukelum: the proprietor +himself, with a little escort of his parishioners, is marching at their +side, that of his china sets and household furniture there may be +nothing broken in the eighteenth century, as the whole came down to him +unbroken from the seventeenth. Fixlein hears the School-bell ringing +behind him; but this chime now sings to him, like a curfew, the songs of +future rest: he is now escaped from the Death-valley of the Gymnasium, +and admitted into the abodes of the Blessed. Here dwells no envy, no +colleague, no Subrector; here in the heavenly country, no man works in +the _New Universal German Library_; here, in the heavenly Hukelumic +Jerusalem, they do nothing but sing praises in the church; and here the +Perfected requires no more increase of knowledge.... Here too one need +not sorrow that Sunday and Saint's day so often fall together into one. + +Truth to tell, the Parson goes too far: but it was his way from of old +never to paint out the whole and half shadows of a situation, till he +was got into a new one; the beauties of which he could then enhance by +contrast with the former. For it requires little reflection to discover +that the torments of a schoolmaster are nothing so extraordinary; but, +on the contrary, as in the Gymnasium, he mounts from one degree to +another, not very dissimilar to the common torments of Hell, which, in +spite of their eternity, grow weaker from century to century. Moreover, +since, according to the saying of a Frenchman, _deux afflictions mises +ensemble peuvent devenir une consolation_, a man gets afflictions enow +in a school to console him; seeing out of eight combined afflictions--I +reckon only one for every teacher--certainly more comfort is to be +extracted than out of two. The only pity is, that school-people will +never act towards each other as court-people do: none but polished men +and polished glasses will readily cohere. In addition to all this, in +schools--and in offices generally--one is always recompensed: for, as in +the second life, a greater virtue is the recompense of an earthly one, +so, in the Schoolmaster's case, his merits are always rewarded by more +opportunities for new merits; and often enough he is not dismissed from +his post at all.-- + +Eight Gymnasiasts are trotting about in the Parsonage, setting up, +nailing to, hauling in. I think, as a scholar of Plutarch, I am right to +introduce such seeming _minutiae_. A man whom grown-up people love, +children love still more. The whole school had smiled on the smiling +Fixlein, and liked him in their hearts, because he did not thunder, but +sport with them; because he said _Sie_ (They) to the Secundaners, and +the Subrector said _Ihr_ (Ye); because his uprearing forefinger was his +only sceptre and baculus; because in the Secunda he had interchanged +Latin epistles with his scholars; and in the Quinta, had taught not with +Napier's Rods (or rods of a sharper description), but with sticks of +barley-sugar. + +Today his churchyard appeared to him so solemn and festive, that he +wondered (though it was Monday) why his parishioners were not in their +holiday, but merely in their weekday drapery. Under the door of the +Parsonage stood a weeping woman; for she was too happy, and he was +her--son. Yet the mother, in the height of her emotion, contrives quite +readily to call upon the carriers, while disloading, not to twist off +the four corner globes from the old Frankish chest of drawers. Her son +now appeared to her as venerable, as if he had sat for one of the +copperplates in her pictured Bible; and that simply, because he had cast +off his pedagogue hair-cue, as the ripening tadpole does its tail; and +was now standing in a clerical periwig before her: he was now a Comet, +soaring away from the profane Earth, and had accordingly changed from a +_stella caudata_ into a _stella crinita_. + +His bride also had, on former days, given sedulous assistance in this +new improved edition of his house, and laboured faithfully among the +other furnishers and furbishers. But today she kept aloof; for she was +too good to forget the maiden in the bride. Love, like men, dies oftener +of excess than of hunger; it lives on love, but it resembles those +Alpine flowers, which feed themselves by _suction_ from the wet clouds, +and die if you _besprinkle_ them.-- + +At length the Parson is settled, and of course he must--for I know my +fair readers, who are bent on it as if they were bridemaids--without +delay get married. But he may not: before Ascension-day there can +nothing be done, and till then are full four weeks and a half. The +matter was this: He wished in the first place to have the murder-Sunday, +the Cantata, behind him; not indeed because he doubted of his earthly +continuance, but because he would not (even for the bride's sake) that +the slightest apprehension should mingle with these weeks of glory. + +The main reason was, He did not wish to marry till he were betrothed: +which latter ceremony was appointed, with the Introduction Sermon, to +take place next Sunday. It is the Cantata-Sunday. Let not the reader +afflict himself with fears. Indeed, I should not have molested an +enlightened century with this Sunday-_Wauwau_ at all, were it not that I +delineate with such extreme fidelity. Fixlein himself--especially as the +Quartermaster asked him if he was a baby--at last grew so sensible, that +he saw the folly of it; nay, he went so far, that he committed a greater +folly. For as dreaming that you die signifies, according to the exegetic +_rule of false_, nothing else than long life and welfare, so did Fixlein +easily infer that his death-imagination was just such a lucky dream; +the rather as it was precisely on this Cantata-Sunday that Fortune had +turned up her cornucopia over him, and at once showered down out of it a +bride, a presentation and a roll of ducats. Thus can Superstition imp +its wings, let Chance favour it or not. + +A Secretary of State, a Peace-treaty writer, a Notary, any such +incarcerated Slave of the Desk, feels excellently well how far he is +beneath a Parson composing his inaugural sermon. The latter (do but look +at my Fixlein) lays himself heartily over the paper--injects the venous +system of his sermon-preparation with coloured ink--has a +Text-Concordance on the right side, and a Song-Concordance on the left; +is there digging out a marrowy sentence, here clipping off a +song-blossom, with both to garnish his homiletic pastry;--sketches out +the finest plan of operations, not, like a man of the world, to subdue +the heart of one woman, but the hearts of all women that hear him, and +of their husbands to boot;--draws every peasant passing by his window +into some niche of his discourse, to cooeperate with the result;--and, +finally, scoops out the butter of the smooth soft hymn-book, and +therewith exquisitely fattens the black broth of his sermon, which is to +feed five thousand men.---- + +At last, in the evening, as the red sun is dazzling him at the desk, he +can rise with heart free from guilt; and, amid twittering sparrows and +finches, over the cherry-trees encircling the parsonage, look toward the +west, till there is nothing more in the sky but a faint gleam among the +clouds. And then when Fixlein, amid the tolling of the evening +prayer-bell, _slowly_ descends the stair to his cooking mother, there +must be some miracle in the case, if for him whatever has been done or +baked, or served up in the lower regions, is not right and good.... A +bound, after supper, into the Castle; a look into a pure loving eye; a +word without falseness to a bride without falseness; and then under the +coverlid, a soft-breathing breast, in which there is nothing but +Paradise, a sermon and evening prayer.... I swear, with this I will +satisfy a Mythic God, who has left his Heaven, and is seeking a new one +among us here below! + +Can a mortal, can a Me in the wet clay of Earth, which Death will soon +dry into dust, ask more in one week than Fixlein is gathering into his +heart? I see not how: At least I should suppose, if such a dust-framed +being, after such a twenty-thousand prize from the Lottery of Chance, +could require aught more, it would at most be the twenty-one-thousand +prize, namely, the inaugural discourse itself. + +And this prize our Zebedaeus actually drew on Sunday: he preached--he +preached with unction,----he did it before the crowding, rustling press +of people; before his Guardian, and before the Lord of Aufhammer, the +godfather of the priest and the dog;--a flock with whom in childhood he +had driven out the Castle herds about the pasture, he was now, himself a +spiritual sheep-smearer, leading out to pasture;--he was standing to the +ankles among Candidates and Schoolmasters, for today (what none of them +could) at the altar, with the nail of his finger, he might scratch a +large cross in the air, baptisms and marriages not once mentioned.... I +believe, I should feel less scrupulous than I do to chequer this +sunshiny esplanade with that thin shadow of the grave, which the +preacher threw over it, when, in the application, with wet heavy eyes, +he looked round over the mute attentive church, as if in some corner of +it he would seek the mouldering teacher of his youth and of this +congregation, who without, under the white tombstone, the wrong-side of +life, had laid away the garment of his pious spirit. And when he, +himself hurried on by the internal stream, inexpressibly softened by the +farther recollections of his own fear of death on this day, of his life +now overspread with flowers and benefits, of his entombed benefactress +resting here in her narrow bed--when he now--before the dissolving +countenance of her friend, his Thiennette--overpowered, motionless and +weeping, looked down from the pulpit to the door of the Schadeck vault, +and said: "Thanks, thou pious soul, for the good thou hast done to this +flock and to their new teacher; and, in the fulness of time, may the +dust of thy god-fearing and man-loving breast gather itself, +transfigured as gold-dust, round thy reawakened heavenly heart,"--was +there an eye in the audience dry? Her husband sobbed aloud; and +Thiennette, her beloved, bowed her head, sinking down with inconsolable +remembrances, over the front of the seat, like kindred mourners in a +funeral train. + +No fairer forenoon could prepare the way for an afternoon in which a man +was to betroth himself forever, and to unite the exchanged rings with +the Ring of Eternity. Except the bridal pair, there was none present but +an ancient pair; the mother and the long Guardian. The bridegroom wrote +out the marriage-contract or marriage-charter with his own hand; hereby +making over to his bride, from this day, his whole moveable property +(not, as you may suppose, his pocket-library, but his whole library; +whereas, in the Middle Ages, the daughter of a noble was glad to get one +or two books for marriage-portion);--in return for which, she liberally +enough contributed--a whole nuptial coach or car, laden as follows: with +nine pounds of feathers, not feathers for the cap such as we carry, but +of the lighter sort such as carry us;--with a sumptuous dozen of +godchild-plates and godchild-spoons (gifts from Schadeck), together with +a fish-knife;--of silk, not only stockings (though even King Henri II. +of France could dress no more than his legs in silk), but whole +gowns;--with jewels and other furnishings of smaller value. Good +Thiennette! in the chariot of thy spirit lies the true dowry; namely, +thy noble, soft, modest heart, the morning-gift of Nature! + +The Parson,--who, not from mistrust but from "the uncertainty of life," +could have wished for a notary's seal on everything; to whom no security +but a hypothecary one appeared sufficient, and who, in the depositing of +every barleycorn, required quittances and contracts,--had now, when the +marriage-charter was completed, a lighter heart; and through the whole +evening the good man ceased not to thank his bride for what she had +given him. To me, however, a marriage-contract were a thing as painful +and repulsive,--I confess it candidly, though you should in consequence +upbraid me with my great youth,--as if I had to take my love-letter to a +Notary Imperial, and make him docket and countersign it before it could +be sent. Heavens! to see the light flower of Love, whose perfume acts +not on the balance, so laid like tulip-bulbs on the hay-beam of Law; two +hearts on the cold councillor-and flesh-beam of relatives and advocates, +who are heaping on the scales nothing but houses, fields and tin--this, +to the interested party, may be as delightful as, to the intoxicated +suckling and nursling of the Muses and Philosophy, it is to carry the +evening and morning sacrifices he has offered up to his goddess into the +book-shop, and there to change his devotions into money, and sell them +by weight and measure.---- + +From Cantata-Sunday to Ascension, that is, to marriage-day, are one and +a half weeks--or one and a half blissful eternities. If it is pleasant +that nights or winter separate the days and seasons of joy to a +comfortable distance; if, for example, it is pleasant that birthday, +Saint's-day, betrothment, marriage and baptismal day, do not all occur +on the same day (for with very few do those festivities, like Holiday +and Apostle's day, commerge),--then is it still more pleasant to make +the interval, the flower-border, between betrothment and marriage, of an +extraordinary breadth. Before the marriage-day are the true honey-weeks; +then come the wax-weeks; then the honey-vinegar-weeks. + +In the Ninth Letter-Box, our Parson celebrates his wedding; and here, in +the Eighth, I shall just briefly skim over his way and manner of +existence till then; an existence, as might have been expected, +celestial enough. To few is it allotted, as it was to him, to have at +once such wings and such flowers (to fly over) before his nuptials; to +few is it allotted, I imagine, to purchase flour and poultry on the same +day, as Fixlein did;--to stuff the wedding-turkey with +hangman-meals;--to go every night into the stall, and see whether the +wedding-pig, which his Guardian has given him by way of +marriage-present, is still standing and eating;--to spy out for his +future wife the flax-magazines and clothes-press-niches in the +house;--to lay in new wood-stores in the prospect of winter;--to obtain +from the Consistorium directly, and for little smart-money, their Bull +of Dispensation, their remission of the threefold proclamation of +banns;--to live not in a city, where you must send to every fool +(because you are one yourself), and disclose to him that you are going +to be married; but in a little angular hamlet, where you have no one to +tell aught, but simply the Schoolmaster that he is to ring a little +later, and put a knee-cushion before the altar.---- + +O! if the Ritter Michaelis maintains that Paradise was little, because +otherwise the people would not have found each other,--a hamlet and its +joys are little and narrow, so that some shadow of Eden may still linger +on our Ball.---- + +I have not even hinted that, the day before the wedding, the +Regiments-Quartermaster came uncalled, and killed the pig, and made +puddings gratis, such as were never eaten at any Court. + +And besides, dear Fixlein, on this soft rich oil of joy there was also +floating gratis a vernal sun,--and red twilights,--and +flower-garlands,--and a bursting half world of buds!... + +How didst thou behave thee in these hot whirlpools of pleasure?--Thou +movedst thy Fishtail (Reason), and therewith describedst for thyself a +rectilineal course through the billows. For even half as much would have +hurried another Parson from his study; but the very crowning felicity of +ours was, that he stood as if rooted to the boundary-hill of Moderation, +and from thence looked down on what thousands flout away. Sitting +opposite the Castle-windows, he was still in a condition to reckon up +that _Amen_ occurs in the Bible one hundred and thirty times. Nay, to +his old learned laboratory he now appended a new chemical stove: he +purposed writing to Nuernberg and Bayreuth, and there offering his pen to +the Brothers Senft, not only for composing practical _Receipts_ at the +end of their _Almanacs_, but also for separate _Essays_ in front under +the copperplate title of each Month, because he had a thought of making +some reformatory cuts at the common people's mental habitudes.... And +now, when in the capacity of Parson he had less to do, and could add to +the holy resting-day of the congregation six literary creating-days, he +determined (even in these Carnival weeks) to strike his plough into the +hitherto quite fallow History of Hukelum, and soon to follow the plough +with his drill.... + +Thus roll his minutes, on golden wheels-of-fortune, over the twelve +days, which form the glancing star-paved road to the third-heaven of the +thirteenth, that is to the + + + + +NINTH LETTER-BOX, + +_Or to the Marriage._ + + +Rise, fair Ascension and Marriage day, and gladden readers also! Adorn +thyself with the fairest jewel, with the bride, whose soul is as pure +and glittering as its vesture; like pearl and pearl-muscle, the one as +the other, lustrous and ornamental! And so over the espalier, whose +fruit-hedge has hitherto divided our darling from his Eden, every reader +now presses after him!-- + +On the 9th of May 1793, about three in the morning, there came a sharp +peal of trumpets, like a light-beam, through the dim-red May-dawn: two +twisted horns, with a straight trumpet between them, like a note of +admiration between interrogation-points, were clanging from a house in +which only a parishioner (not the Parson) dwelt and blew: for this +parishioner had last night been celebrating the same ceremony which the +pastor had this day before him. The joyful tallyho raised our Parson +from his broad bed (and the Shock from beneath it, who some weeks ago +had been exiled from the white sleek coverlid), and this so early, that +in the portraying tester, where on every former morning he had observed +his ruddy visage and his white bedclothes, all was at present dim and +crayonned. + +I confess, the new-painted room, and a gleam of dawn on the wall, made +it so light, that he could see his knee-buckles glancing on the chair. +He then softly awakened his mother (the other guests were to lie for +hours in the sheets), and she had the city cookmaid to awaken, who, like +several other articles of wedding-furniture, had been borrowed for a day +or two from Flachsenfingen. At two doors he knocked in vain, and without +answer; for all were already down at the hearth, cooking, blowing and +arranging. + +How softly does the Spring day gradually fold back its nun-veil, and the +Earth grow bright, as if it were the morning of a Resurrection!--The +quicksilver-pillar of the barometer, the guiding Fire-pillar of the +weather-prophet, rests firmly on Fixlein's Ark of the Covenant. The Sun +raises himself, pure and cool, into the morning-blue, instead of into +the morning-red. Swallows, instead of clouds, shoot skimming through the +melodious air.... O, the good Genius of Fair Weather, who deserves many +temples and festivals (because without him no festival could be held), +lifted an ethereal azure Day, as it were, from the well-clear atmosphere +of the Moon, and sent it down, on blue butterfly-wings--as if it were a +_blue_ Monday--glittering below the Sun, in the zigzag of joyful +quivering descent, upon the narrow spot of Earth, which our heated +fancies are now viewing.... And on this balmy vernal spot, stand amid +flowers, over which the trees are shaking blossoms instead of leaves, a +bride and a bridegroom.... Happy Fixlein! how shall I paint thee without +deepening the sighs of longing in the fairest souls?-- + +But soft! we will not drink the magic cup of Fancy to the bottom at six +in the morning; but keep sober till towards night! + +At the sound of the morning prayer-bell, the bridegroom, for the din of +preparation was disturbing his quiet orison, went out into the +churchyard, which (as in many other places), together with the church, +lay round his mansion like a court. Here on the moist green, over whose +closed flowers the churchyard-wall was still spreading broad shadows, +did his spirit cool itself from the warm dreams of Earth: here, where +the white flat grave-stone of his Teacher lay before him like the +fallen-in door on the Janus'-temple of Life, or like the windward side +of the narrow house, turned towards the tempests of the world: here, +where the little shrunk metallic door on the grated cross of his father +uttered to him the inscriptions of death, and the year when his parent +departed, and all the admonitions and mementos, graven on the +lead;--there, I say, his mood grew softer and more solemn; and he now +lifted up by heart his morning prayer, which usually he read; and +entreated God to bless him in his office, and to spare his mother's +life; and to look with favour and acceptance on the purpose of +today.--Then over the graves he walked into his fenceless little angular +flower-garden; and here, composed and confident in the divine keeping, +he pressed the stalks of his tulips deeper into the mellow earth. + +But on returning to the house, he was met on all hands by the +bell-ringing and the janissary-music of wedding-gladness;--the +marriage-guests had all thrown off their nightcaps, and were drinking +diligently;--there was a clattering, a cooking, a +frizzling;--tea-services, coffee-services and warm-beer-services, were +advancing in succession; and plates full of bride-cakes were going round +like potter's frames or cistern-wheels.--The Schoolmaster, with three +young lads, was heard rehearsing from his own house an _Arioso_, with +which, so soon as they were perfect, he purposed to surprise his +clerical superior.--But now rushed all the arms of the foaming +joy-streams into one, when the sky-queen besprinkled with blossoms, the +bride, descended upon Earth in her timid joy, full of quivering humble +love;--when the bells began;--when the procession-column set forth with +the whole village round and before it;--when the organ, the +congregation, the officiating priest and the sparrows on the trees of +the church-window, struck louder and louder their rolling peals on the +drum of the jubilee-festival.... The heart of the singing bridegroom was +like to leap from its place for joy, "that on his bridal-day it was all +so respectable and grand."--Not till the marriage-benediction could he +pray a little. + +Still worse and louder grew the business during dinner, when pastry-work +and marchpane-devices were brought forward,--when glasses and slain +fishes (laid under the napkins to frighten the guests) went round;--and +when the guests rose, and themselves rent round, and at length danced +round: for they had instrumental music from the city there. + +One minute handed over to the other the sugar-bowl and bottle-case of +joy: the guests heard and saw less and less, and the villagers began to +see and hear more and more, and towards night they penetrated like a +wedge into the open door,--nay two youths ventured even in the middle +of the parsonage-court, to mount a plank over a beam, and commence +seesawing.--Out of doors, the gleaming vapour of the departed Sun was +encircling the Earth, the evening-star was glittering over parsonage and +churchyard; no one heeded it. + +However, about nine o'clock,--when the marriage-guests had well-nigh +forgotten the marriage-pair, and were drinking or dancing along for +their own behoof; when poor mortals, in this sunshine of Fate, like +fishes in the sunshine of the sky, were leaping up from their wet cold +element; and when the bridegroom under the star of happiness and love, +casting like a comet its long train of radiance over all his heaven, had +in secret pressed to his joy-filled breast his bride and his +mother,--then did he lock a slice of wedding-bread privily into a press, +in the old superstitious belief that this residue secured continuance of +bread for the whole marriage. As he returned, with greater love for the +sole partner of his life, she herself met him with his mother, to +deliver him in private the bridal-nightgown and bridal-shirt, as is the +ancient usage. Many a countenance grows pale in violent emotions, even +of joy: Thiennette's wax-face was bleaching still whiter under the +sunbeams of Happiness. O never fall, thou lily of Heaven, and may four +springs instead of four seasons open and shut thy flower-bells to the +sun!--All the arms of his soul, as he floated on the sea of joy, were +quivering to clasp the soft warm heart of his beloved, to encircle it +gently and fast, and draw it to his own.... + +He led her from the crowded dancing-room into the cool evening. Why does +the evening, does the night put warmer love in our hearts? Is it the +nightly pressure of helplessness; or is it the exalting separation from +the turmoil of life; that veiling of the world, in which for the soul +nothing more remains but souls;--is it therefore, that the letters in +which the loved name stands written on our spirit appear, like +phosphorus-writing, by night _in fire_, while by day in their _cloudy_ +traces they but smoke? + +He walked with his bride into the Castle-garden: she hastened quickly +through the Castle, and past its servants'-hall, where the fair flowers +of her young life had been crushed broad and dry, under a long dreary +pressure; and her soul expanded and breathed in the free open garden, on +whose flowery soil destiny had cast forth the first seeds of the +blossoms which today were gladdening her existence. Still Eden! green +flower-chequered _chiaroscuro_!--The moon is sleeping underground like +a dead one; but beyond the garden the sun's red evening-clouds have +fallen down like rose-leaves; and the evening-star, the brideman of the +sun, hovers, like a glancing butterfly, above the rosy red, and, modest +as a bride, deprives no single starlet of its light. + +The wandering pair arrived at the old gardener's hut; now standing +locked and dumb, with dark windows in the light garden, like a fragment +of the Past surviving in the Present. Bared twigs of trees were folding, +with clammy half-formed leaves, over the thick intertwisted tangles of +the bushes.--The Spring was standing, like a conqueror, with Winter at +his feet.--In the blue pond, now bloodless, a dusky evening-sky lay +hollowed out, and the gushing waters were moistening the +flower-beds.--The silver sparks of stars were rising on the altar of the +East, and falling down extinguished in the red sea of the West. + +The wind whirred, like a night-bird, louder through the trees; and gave +tones to the acacia-grove, and the tones called to the pair who had +first become happy within it: "Enter, new mortal pair, and think of what +is past, and of my withering and your own; and be holy as Eternity, and +weep not only for joy, but for gratitude also!"--And the wet-eyed +bridegroom led his wet-eyed bride under the blossoms, and laid his soul, +like a flower, on her heart, and said: "Best Thiennette, I am +unspeakably happy, and would say much, and cannot.--Ah, thou Dearest, we +will live like angels, like children together! Surely I will do all that +is good to thee; two years ago I had nothing, no nothing; ah, it is +through thee, best Love, that I am happy. I call thee Thou, now, thou +dear good soul!" She drew him closer to her, and said, though without +kissing him: "Call me Thou always, Dearest!" + +And as they stept forth again from the sacred grove into the magic-dusky +garden, he took off his hat; first, that he might internally thank God, +and secondly, because he wished to look into this fairest evening sky. + +They reached the blazing, rustling marriage-house, but their softened +hearts sought stillness; and a foreign touch, as in the blossoming vine, +would have disturbed the flower-nuptials of their souls. They turned +rather, and winded up into the churchyard to preserve their mood. +Majestic on the groves and mountains stood the Night before man's heart, +and made it also great. Over the _white_ steeple-obelisk the sky rested +_bluer_ and _darker_; and behind it wavered the withered summit of the +May-pole with faded flag. The son noticed his father's grave, on which +the wind was opening and shutting, with harsh noise, the little door of +the metal cross, to let the year of his death be read on the brass plate +within. An overpowering sadness seized his heart with violent streams of +tears, and drove him to the sunk hillock, and he led his bride to the +grave, and said: "Here sleeps he, my good father; in his thirty-second +year, he was carried hither to his long rest. O thou good, dear father, +couldst thou today but see the happiness of thy son, like my mother! But +thy eyes are empty, and thy breast is full of ashes, and thou seest us +not."--He was silent. The bride wept aloud; she saw the mouldering +coffins of her parents open, and the two dead arise and look round for +their daughter, who had stayed so long behind them, forsaken on the +Earth. She fell upon his heart, and faltered: "O beloved, I have neither +father nor mother, do not forsake me!" + +O thou who hast still a father and a mother, thank God for it, on the +day when thy soul is full of joyful tears, and needs a bosom wherein to +shed them.... + +And with this embracing at a father's grave, let this day of joy be +holily concluded.-- + + + + +TENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_St. Thomas's Day and Birthday._ + + +An Author is a sort of bee-keeper for his reader-swarm; in whose behalf +he separates the Flora kept for their use into different seasons, and +here accelerates, and there retards, the blossoming of many a flower, +that so in all chapters there be blooming. + +The goddess of Love and the angel of Peace conducted our married pair on +tracks running over full meadows, through the Spring; and on footpaths +hidden by high cornfields, through the Summer; and Autumn, as they +advanced towards Winter, spread her marbled leaves under their feet. And +thus they arrived before the low dark gate of Winter, full of life, full +of love, trustful, contented, sound and ruddy. + +On St. Thomas's day was Thiennette's birthday as well as Winter's. About +a quarter past nine, just when the singing ceases in the church, we +shall take a peep through the window into the interior of the parsonage. +There is nothing here but the old mother, who has all day (the son +having restricted her to rest, and not work) been gliding about, and +brushing, and burnishing, and scouring, and wiping: every carved +chair-leg, and every brass nail of the waxcloth-covered table, she has +polished into brightness;--everything hangs, as with all married people +who have no children, in its right place, brushes, fly-flaps and +almanacs;--the chairs are stationed by the room-police in their ancient +corners;--a flax-rock, encircled with a diadem, or scarf of azure +ribbon, is lying in the Schadeckbed, because, though it is a half +holiday, some spinning may go on;--the narrow slips of paper, whereon +heads of sermons are to be arranged, lie white beside the sermons +themselves, that is, beside the octavo paper-book which holds them, for +the Parson and his work-table, by reason of the cold, have migrated from +the study to the sitting-room;--his large furred doublet is hanging +beside his clean bridegroom nightgown: there is nothing wanting in the +room but He and She. For he had preached her with him tonight into the +empty Apostle's-day church, that so her mother, without +witnesses--except the two or three thousand readers who are peeping with +me through the window--might arrange the provender-baking, and whole +commissariat department of the birthday-festival, and spread out her +best table-gear and victual-stores without obstruction. + +The soul-curer reckoned it no sin to admonish, and exhort, and +encourage, and threaten his parishioners, till he felt pretty certain +that the soup must be smoking on the plates. Then he led his birthday +helpmate home, and suddenly placed her before the altar of +meat-offering, before a sweet title-page of bread-tart, on which her +name stood baked, in true _monastic characters_, in tooth-letters of +almonds. In the background of time and of the room, I yet conceal +two--bottles of Pontac. How quickly, under the sunshine of joy, do thy +cheeks grow ripe, Thiennette, when thy husband solemnly says: "This is +thy birthday; and may the Lord bless thee and watch over thee, and cause +his countenance to shine on thee, and send thee, to the joy of our +mother and thy husband especially, a happy glad _recovery_. Amen!"--And +when Thiennette perceived that it was the old mistress who had cooked +and served up all this herself, she fell upon her neck, as if it had +been not her husband's mother, but her own. + +Emotion conquers the appetite. But Fixlein's stomach was as strong as +his heart; and with him no species of movement could subdue the +peristaltic. Drink is the friction-oil of the tongue, as eating is its +drag. Yet, not till he had eaten and spoken much, did the pastor fill +the glasses. Then indeed he drew the cork-sluice from the bottle, and +set forth its streams. The sickly mother, of a being still hid beneath +her heart, turned her eyes, in embarrassed emotion, on the old woman +only; and could scarcely chide him for sending to the city wine-merchant +on her account. He took a glass in each hand, for each of the two whom +he loved, and handed them to his mother and his wife, and said: "To thy +long, long life, Thiennette!--And your health and happiness, Mamma!--And +a glad arrival to our little one, if God so bless us!"--"My son," said +the gardeneress, "it is to thy long life that we must drink; for it is +by thee we are supported. God grant thee length of days!" added she, +with stifled voice, and her eyes betrayed her tears. + +I nowhere find a livelier emblem of the female sex in all its boundless +levity, than in the case where a woman is carrying the angel of Death +beneath her heart, and yet in these nine months full of mortal tokens +thinks of nothing more important, than of who shall be the gossips, and +what shall be cooked at the christening. But thou, Thiennette, hadst +nobler thoughts, though these too along with them. The still-hidden +darling of thy heart was resting before thy eyes like a little angel +sculptured on a grave-stone, and pointing with its small finger to the +hour when thou shouldst die; and every morning and every evening, thou +thoughtest of death, with a certainty, of which I yet knew not the +reasons; and to thee it was as if the Earth were a dark mineral cave +where man's blood like stalactitic water drops down, and in dropping +raises shapes which gleam so transiently, and so quickly fade away! And +that was the cause why tears were continually trickling from thy soft +eyes, and betraying all thy anxious thoughts about thy child: but thou +repaidst these sad effusions of thy heart by the embrace in which, with +new-awakened love, thou fellest on thy husband's neck, and saidst: "Be +as it may, God's will be done, so thou and my child are left alive!--But +I know well that thou, Dearest, lovest me as I do thee.".... Lay thy +hand, good mother, full of blessings, on the two; and thou kind Fate, +never lift thine away from them!-- + +It is with emotion and good wishes that I witness the kiss of two fair +friends, or the embracing of two virtuous lovers; and from the fire of +their altar sparks fly over to me: but what is this to our sympathetic +exaltation, when we see two mortals, bending under the same burden, +bound to the same duties, animated by the same care for the same little +darlings--fall on one another's overflowing hearts, in some fair hour? +And if these, moreover, are two mortals who already wear the +mourning-weeds of life, I mean old age, whose hair and cheeks are now +grown colourless, and eyes grown dim, and whose faces a thousand thorns +have marred into images of Sorrow;--when these two clasp each other with +such wearied aged arms, and so near to the precipice of the grave, and +when they say or think: "All in us is dead, but not our love--O, we have +lived and suffered long together, and now we will hold out our hands to +Death together also, and let him carry us away together,"--does not all +within us cry: O Love, thy spark is superior to Time; it burns neither +in joy nor in the cheek of roses; it dies not, neither under a thousand +tears, nor under the snow of old age, nor under the ashes of +thy--beloved? It never dies: and Thou, All-good! if there were no +eternal love, there were no love at all.... + +To the Parson it was easier than it is to me to pave for himself a +transition from the heart to the digestive faculty. He now submitted to +Thiennette (whose voice at once grew cheerful, while her eyes time after +time began to sparkle) his purpose to take advantage of the frosty +weather, and have the winter meat slaughtered and salted: "the pig can +scarcely rise," said he; and forthwith he fixed the determination of the +women, farther the butcher, and the day, and all _et ceteras_; +appointing everything with a degree of punctuality, such as the +war-college (when it applies the cupping-glass, the battle-sword, to the +overfull system of mankind) exhibits on the previous day, in its +arrangements, before it drives a province into the baiting-ring and +slaughter-house. + +This settled, he began to talk and feel quite joyously about the course +of winter, which had commenced today at two-and-twenty minutes past +eight in the morning: "for," said he, "new-year is close at hand; and we +shall not need so much candle tomorrow night as tonight." His mother, it +is true, came athwart him with the weapons of her five senses: but he +fronted her with his Astronomical Tables, and proved that the +lengthening of the day was no less undeniable than imperceptible. In the +last place, like most official and married persons, heeding little +whether his women took him or not, he informed them in +juristico-theological phrase: "That he would put off no longer, but +write this very afternoon to the venerable Consistorium, in whose hands +lay the _jus circa sacra_, for a new Ball to the church-steeple; and +the rather, as he hoped before newyear's day to raise a bountiful +subscription from the parish for this purpose.--If God spare us till +Spring," added he with peculiar cheerfulness, "and thou wert happily +recovered, I might so arrange the whole that the Ball should be set up +at thy first church-going, dame!" + +Thereupon he shifted his chair from the dinner and dessert table to the +work-table; and spent the half of his afternoon over the petition for +the steeple-ball. As there still remained a little space till dusk, he +clapped his tackle to his new learned _Opus_, of which I must now afford +a little glimpse. Out of doors among the snow, there stood near Hukelum +an old Robber-Castle, which Fixlein, every day in Autumn, had hovered +round like a _revenant_, with a view to gauge it, ichnographically to +delineate it, to put every window-bar and every bridle-hook of it +correctly on paper. He believed he was not expecting too much, if +thereby--and by some drawings of the not so much vertical as horizontal +walls--he hoped to impart to his "_Architectural Correspondence of two +Friends concerning the Hukelum Robber-Castle_" that last polish and +_labor limae_ which contents Reviewers. For towards the critical +Starchamber of the Reviewers he entertained not that contempt which some +authors actually feel--or only affect, as for instance, I. From this +mouldered Robber-_Louvre_, there grew for him more flowers of joy, than +ever in all probability had grown from it of old for its owners.--To my +knowledge, it is an anecdote not hitherto made public, that for all this +no man but _Buesching_ has to answer. Fixlein had not long ago, among the +rubbish of the church letter-room, stumbled on a paper wherein the +Geographer had been requesting special information about the statistics +of the village. Buesching, it is true, had picked up +nothing--accordingly, indeed, Hukelum, in his _Geography_, is still +omitted altogether;--but this pestilential letter had infected Fixlein +with the spring-fever of Ambition, so that his palpitating heart was no +longer to be stilled or held in check, except by the +assafoetida-emulsion of a review. It is with authorcraft as with love: +both of them for decades long one may equally desire and forbear: but is +the first spark once thrown into the powder-magazine, it burns to the +end of the chapter. + +Simply because winter had commenced by the Almanac, the fire must be +larger than usual; for warm rooms, like large furs and bearskin-caps, +were things which he loved more than you would figure. The dusk, this +fair _chiaroscuro_ of the day, this coloured foreground of the night, he +lengthened out as far as possible, that he might study Christmas +discourses therein: and yet could his wife, without scruple, just as he +was pacing up and down the room, with the sowing-sheet full of divine +word-seeds hung round his shoulder,--hold up to him a spoonful of +alegar, that he might try the same in his palate, and decide whether she +should yet draw it off. Nay, did he not in all cases, though fonder of +roe-fishes himself, order a milter to be drawn from the herring-barrel, +because his good-wife liked it better?-- + +Here light was brought in; and as Winter was just now commencing his +glass-painting on the windows, his ice flower-pieces, and his +snow-foliage, our Parson felt that it was time to read something cold, +which he pleasantly named his cold collation; namely, the description of +some unutterably frosty land. On the present occasion, it was the winter +history of the four Russian sailors on Nova Zembla. I, for my share, do +often in summer, when the sultry zephyr is inflating the flower-bells, +append certain charts and sketches of Italy, or the East, as additional +landscapes to those among which I am sitting. And yet tonight he farther +took up the _Weekly Chronicle_ of Flachsenfingen; and amid the +bombshells, pestilences, famines, comets with long tails, and the +roaring of all the Hell-floods of another Thirty-Years War, he could +still listen with the one ear towards the kitchen, where the salad for +his roast-duck was just a-cutting. + +Good-night, old Fixlein! I am tired. May kind Heaven send thee with the +young year 1794, when the Earth shall again carry her people, like +precious night-moths, on leaves and flowers, the new steeple-ball, and a +thick handsome--boy to boot! + + + + +ELEVENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Spring; Investiture; and Childbirth._ + + +I have just risen from a singular dream; but the foregoing Box makes it +natural. I dreamed that all was verdant, all full of odours; and I was +looking up at a steeple-ball glittering in the sun, from my station in +the window of a little white garden-house, my eyelids full of +flower-pollen, my shoulders full of thin cherry-blossoms, and my ears +full of humming from the neighbouring bee-hives. Then, methought, +advancing slowly through the beds, came the Hukelum Parson, and stept +into the garden-house, and solemnly said to me: "Honoured Sir, my wife +has just brought me a little boy; and I make bold to solicit _your +Honour_ to do the holy office for the same, when it shall be received +into the bosom of the church." + +I naturally started up, and there was--Parson Fixlein standing bodily at +my bedside, and requesting me to be godfather: for Thiennette had given +him a son last night about one o'clock. The confinement had been as +light and happy as could be conceived; for this reason, that the father +had, some months before, been careful to provide one of those +_Klappersteins_, as we call them, which are found in the aerie of the +eagle, and therewith to alleviate the travail: for this stone performs, +in its way, all the service which the bonnet of that old Minorite monk +in Naples, of whom Gorani informs us, could accomplish for people in +such circumstances, who put it on.... + +--I might vex the reader still longer; but I willingly give up, and show +him how the matter stood. + +Such a May as the present (of 1794), Nature has not, in the memory of +man--begun: for this is but the fifteenth of it. People of reflection +have for centuries been vexed once every year, that our German singers +should indite May-songs, since several other months deserve such a +poetical night-music much better; and I myself have often gone so far as +to adopt the idiom of our market-women, and instead of May butter, to +say June butter, as also June, March, April songs.--But thou, kind May +of this year, thou deservest to thyself all the songs which were ever +made on thy rude namesakes! By Heaven! when I now issue from the +wavering chequered acacia-grove of the Castle-garden, in which I am +writing this Chapter, and come forth into the broad living day, and look +up to the warming Heaven, and over its Earth budding out beneath +it,--the Spring rises before me like a vast full cloud, with a splendour +of blue and green. I see the Sun standing amid roses in the western sky, +into which he has thrown his ray-brush, wherewith he has today been +painting the Earth;--and when I look round a little in our +picture-exhibition, his enamelling is still hot on the mountains; on the +moist chalk of the moist Earth, the flowers full of sap-colours are laid +out to dry, and the forget-me-not with miniature colours; under the +varnish of the streams, the skyey Painter has pencilled his own eye; and +the clouds, like a decoration-painter, he has touched off with wild +outlines and single tints: and so he stands at the border of the Earth, +and looks back upon his stately Spring, whose robe-folds are valleys, +whose breast-bouquet is gardens, and whose blush is a vernal evening, +and who, when she arises, shall be--Summer. + +But to proceed! Every spring--and especially in such a spring--I imitate +on foot our birds of passage; and travel off the hypochondriacal +sediment of winter: but I do not think I should have seen even the +steeple-ball of Hukelum, which is to be set up one of these days, to say +nothing of the Parson's family, had not I happened to be visiting the +Flachsenfingen Superintendent and Consistorialrath. From him I got +acquainted with Fixlein's history (every Candidatus must deliver an +account of his life to the Consistorium), and with his still madder +petition for a steeple-ball. I observed, with pleasure, how gaily the +cob was diving and swashing about in his duck-pool and milk-bath of +life; and forthwith determined on a journey to his shore. It is +singular, that is to say, manlike, that when we have for years kept +prizing and describing some original person or original book, yet the +moment we see such, they anger us: we would have them fit us and delight +us in all points, as if any originality could do this but our own. + +It was Saturday the third of May, when I, with the Superintendent, the +_Senior Capituli_, and some temporal Raths, mounted and rolled off, and +in two carriages were driven to the Parson's door. The matter was, he +was not yet--_invested_, and tomorrow this was to be done. I little +thought, while we whirled by the white espalier of the Castle-garden, +that there I was to write another book. + +I still see the Parson, in his peruke-minever and head-case, come +springing to the coach-door and lead us out; so smiling--so +courteous--so vain of the disloaded freight, and so attentive to it. He +looked as if in the journey of life he had never once put on the +_travelling-gauze_ of Sorrow: Thiennette again seemed never to have +thrown hers back. How neat was everything in the house, how dainty, +decorated and polished! And yet so quiet, without the cursed +alarm-ringing of servants' bells, and without the bass-drum tumult of +stair-pedaling. Whilst the gentlemen, my road-companions, were sitting +in state in the upper room, I flitted, as my way is, like a smell, over +the whole house, and my path led me through the sitting-room over the +kitchen, and at last into the churchyard beside the house. Good +Saturday! I will paint thy hours as I may, with the black asphaltos of +ink, on the tablets of other souls! In the sitting-room, I lifted from +the desk a volume gilt on the back and edges, and bearing this title: +"_Holy Sayings, by Fixlein. First Collection._" And as I looked to see +where it had been printed, the Holy Collection turned out to be in +writing. I handled the quills, and dipped into the negro-black of the +ink, and I found that all was right and good: with your fluttering +gentlemen of letters, who hold only a department of the foreign, and +none of the home affairs, nothing (except some other things about them) +can be worse than their ink and pens. I also found a little copperplate, +to which I shall in due time return. + +In the kitchen, a place not more essential for the writing of an English +novel, than for the acting of a German one, I could plant myself beside +Thiennette, and help her to blow the fire, and look at once into her +face and her burning coals. Though she was in wedlock, a state in which +white roses on the cheeks are changed for red ones, and young women are +similar to a similitude given in my Note;[57]--and although the blazing +wood threw a false rouge over her, I guessed how pale she must have +been; and my sympathy in her paleness rose still higher at the thought +of the burden which Fate had now not so much taken from her, as laid in +her arms and nearer to her heart. In truth, a man must never have +reflected on the Creation-moment, when the Universe first rose from the +bosom of an Eternity, if he does not view with philosophic reverence a +woman, whose thread of life a secret all-wondrous Hand is spinning to a +second thread, and who veils within her the transition from Nothingness +to Existence, from Eternity to Time;--but still less can a man have any +heart of flesh, if his soul, in presence of a woman, who, to an unknown +unseen being, is sacrificing more than we will sacrifice when it is seen +and known, namely, her nights, her joys, often her life, does not bow +lower, and with deeper emotion, than in presence of a whole +nun-orchestra on their Sahara-desert;--and worse than either is the man +for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable. + + [57] To the Spring, namely, which begins with snowdrops, and ends + with roses and pinks.-- + +"It is little serviceable to thee, poor Thiennette," thought I, "that +now, when thy bitter cup of sickness is made to run over, thou must +have loud festivities come crowding round thee." I meant the Investiture +and the Ball-raising. My rank, the diploma of which the reader will find +stitched in with the _Dog-post-days_, and which had formerly been hers, +brought about my ears a host of repelling, embarrassed, wavering titles +of address from her; which people, to whom they have once belonged, are +at all times apt to parade before superiors or inferiors, and which it +now cost me no little trouble to disperse. Through the whole Saturday +and Sunday, I could never get into the right track either with her or +him, till the other guests were gone. As for the mother, she acted, like +obscure ideas, powerfully and constantly, but out of view: this arose in +part from her idolatrous fear of us; and partly also from a slight shade +of care (probably springing from the state of her daughter), which had +spread over her like a little cloud. + +I cruised about, so long as the moon-crescent glimmered in the sky, over +the churchyard; and softened my fantasies, which are at any rate too +prone to paint with the brown of crumbling mummies, not only by the red +of twilight, but also by reflecting how easily our eyes and our hearts +can become reconciled even to the ruins of Death; a reflection which the +Schoolmaster, whistling as he arranged the charnel-house for the morrow, +and the Parson's maid singing, as she reaped away the grass from the +graves, readily enough suggested to me. And why should not this +habituation to all forms of Fate in the other world, also, be a gift +reserved for us in our nature by the bounty of our great Preserver?--I +perused the grave-stones; and I think even now that Superstition[58] is +right in connecting with the reading of such things a loss of _memory_; +at all events, one does _forget_ a thousand things belonging to this +world.... + + [58] This Christian superstition is not only a Rabbinical, but also + a Roman one. _Cicero de Senectute_. + +The Investiture on Sunday (whose Gospel, of the good shepherd, suited +well with the ceremony) I must dispatch in few words; because nothing +truly sublime can bear to be treated of in many. However, I shall impart +the most memorable circumstances, when I say that there was--drinking +(in the Parsonage),--music-making (in the Choir),--reading (of the +Presentation by the Senior, and of the Ratification-rescript by the lay +Rath),--and preaching, by the Consistorialrath, who took the soul-curer +by the hand, and presented, made over and guaranteed him to the +congregation, and them to him. Fixlein felt that he was departing as a +high-priest from the church, which he had entered as a country parson; +and all day he had not once the heart to ban. When a man is treated with +solemnity, he looks upon himself as a higher nature, and goes through +his solemn feasts devoutly. + +This indenturing, this monastic profession, our Head-Rabbis and +Lodge-masters (our Superintendents) have usually a taste for putting off +till once the pastor has been some years ministering among the people, +to whom they hereby present him; as the early Christians frequently +postponed their consecration and investiture to Christianity, their +baptism namely, till the day when they died: nay, I do not even think +this clerical Investiture would lose much of its usefulness, if it and +the declaring-vacant of the office were reserved for the same day; the +rather as this usefulness consists entirely in two items; what the +Superintendent and his Raths can eat, and what they can pocket. + +Not till towards evening did the Parson and I get acquainted. The +Investiture officials, and elevation pulley-men, had, throughout the +whole evening, been very violently--breathing. I mean thus: as these +gentlemen could not but be aware, by the most ancient theories and the +latest experiments, that air was nothing else than a sort of rarefied +and exploded water, it became easy for them to infer that, conversely, +water was nothing else than a denser sort of air. Wine-drinking, +therefore, is nothing else but the breathing of an air pressed together +into proper spissitude, and sprinkled over with a few perfumes. Now, in +our days, by clerical persons too much (fluid) breath can never be +inhaled through the mouth; seeing the dignity of their station excludes +them from that breathing through the _smaller_ pores, which Abernethy so +highly recommends under the name of _air-bath_: and can the Gullet in +their case be aught else than door-neighbour to the Windpipe, the +_consonant_ and fellow-shoot of the Windpipe?--I am running astray: I +meant to signify, that I this evening had adopted the same opinion; only +that I used this air or ether, not like the rest for loud laughter, but +for the more quiet contemplation of life in general. I even shot forth +at my gossip certain speeches, which betrayed devoutness: these he at +first took for jests, being aware that I was from Court, and of quality. +But the concave mirror of the wine-mist at length suspended the images +of my soul, enlarged and embodied like spiritual shapes, in the air +before me.--Life shaded itself off to my eyes like a hasty summer night, +which we little fire-flies shoot across with transient gleam;--I said to +him that man must turn himself like the leaves of the great mallow, at +the different day-seasons of his life, now to the rising sun, now to the +setting, now to the night, towards the Earth and its graves;--I said, +the omnipotence of Goodness was driving us and the centuries of the +world towards the gates of the City of God, as, according to Euler, the +resistance of the _Ether_ leads the circling Earth towards the Sun, &c. +&c. + + +On the strength of these entremets, he considered me the first +theologian of his age; and had he been obliged to go to war, would +previously have taken my advice on the matter, as belligerent powers +were wont of old from the theologians of the Reformation. I hide not +from myself, however, that what preachers call vanity of the world, is +something altogether different from what philosophy so calls. When I, +moreover, signified to him that I was not ashamed to be an Author; but +had a turn for working up this and the other biography; and that I had +got a sight of his _Life_ in the hands of the Superintendent; and might +be in case to prepare a printed one therefrom, if so were he would +assist me with here and there a tint of flesh-colour,--then was my silk, +which, alas! not only isolates one from electric fire, but also from a +kindlier sort of it, the only grate which rose between his arms and me; +for, like the most part of poor country parsons, it was not in his power +to forget the rank of any man, or to vivify his own on a higher one. He +said: "He would acknowledge it with veneration, if I should mention him +in print; but he was much afraid his life was too common and too poor +for a biography." Nevertheless, he opened me the drawer of his +Letter-boxes; and said, perhaps, he had hereby been paving the way for +me. + +The main point, however, was, he hoped that his _Errata_, his +_Exercitationes_, and his _Letters on the Robber-Castle_, if I should +previously send forth a Life of the Author, might be better received; +and that it would be much the same as if I accompanied them with a +Preface. + +In short, when on Monday the other dignitaries with their nimbus of +splendour had dissipated, I alone, like a precipitate, abode with him; +and am still abiding, that is, from the fifth of May (the Public should +take the Almanac of 1794, and keep it open beside them) to the +fifteenth: today is Thursday, tomorrow is the sixteenth and Friday, when +comes the Spinat-Kirmes, or Spinage-Wake, as they call it, and the +uplifting of the steeple-ball, which I just purposed to await before I +went. Now, however, I do not go so soon; for on Sunday I have to assist +at the baptismal ceremony, as baptismal agent for my little future +godson. Whoever pays attention to me, and keeps the Almanac open, may +readily guess why the christening is put off till Sunday: for it is that +memorable Cantata-Sunday, which once, for its mad narcotic +hemlock-virtues, was of importance in our History; but is now so only +for the fair betrothment, which after two years we mean to celebrate +with a baptism. + +Truly it is not in my power--for want of colours and presses--to paint +or print upon my paper the soft balmy flower-garland of a fortnight +which has here wound itself about my sickly life; but with a single day +I shall attempt it. Man, I know well, cannot prognosticate either his +joys or his sorrows, still less repeat them, either in living or +writing. + +The black hour of coffee has gold in its mouth for us and honey; here, +in the morning coolness, we are all gathered; we maintain popular +conversation, that so the parsoness and the gardeneress may be able to +take share in it. The morning-service in the church, where often the +whole people[59] are sitting and singing, divides us. While the bell is +sounding, I march with my writing-gear into the singing Castle-garden; +and seat myself in the fresh acacia-grove, at the dewy two-legged table. +Fixlein's Letter-boxes I keep by me in my pocket; and I have only to +look and abstract from his what can be of use in my own.--Strange +enough! so easily do we forget a thing in describing it, I really did +not recollect for a moment that I am now sitting at the very +grove-table, of which I speak, and writing all this.-- + + [59] For according to the Jurists, fifteen persons make a people. + +My gossip in the mean time is also labouring for the world. His study is +a sort of sacristy, and his printing-press a pulpit, wherefrom he +preaches to all men; for an Author is the Town-chaplain of the Universe. +A man, who is making a Book, will scarcely hang himself; all rich +Lords'-sons, therefore, should labour for the press; for, in that case, +when you awake too early in bed, you have always a _plan_, an aim, and +therefore a cause before you why you should get out of it. Better off +too is the author who collects rather than invents,--for the latter with +its eating fire calcines the heart: I praise the Antiquary, the +Heraldist, Notemaker, Compiler; I esteem the _Title-perch_ (a fish +called _Perca-Diagramma_, because of the letters on its scales), and the +_Printer_ (a chafer, called _Scarabaeus Typographus_, which eats letters +in the bark of fir),--neither of them needs any greater or fairer arena +in the world than a piece of rag-paper, or any other laying-apparatus +than a pointed pencil, wherewith to lay his four-and-twenty +letter-eggs.--In regard to the _catalogue raisonne_, which my gossip is +now drawing up of German _Errata_, I have several times suggested to +him, "that it were good if he extended his researches in one respect, +and revised the rule, by which it has been computed, that _e. g._ for a +hundredweight of pica black-letter, four hundred and fifty semicolons, +three hundred periods, &c. are required; and to recount, and see whether +in Political writings and Dedications the fifty notes of admiration for +a hundredweight of pica black-letter were not far too small an +allowance, and if so, what the real quantity was?" + +Several days he wrote nothing; but wrapped himself in the slough of his +parson's-cloak; and so in his canonicals, beside the Schoolmaster, put +the few A-b-c shooters, which were not, like forest-shooters, absent on +furlough by reason of the spring,--through their platoon firing in the +Hornbook. He never did more than his duty, but also never less. It +brought a soft benignant warmth over his heart, to think that he, who +had once ducked under a School-inspectorship, was now one himself. + +About ten o'clock, we meet from our different museums, and examine the +village, especially the Biographical furniture and holy places, which I +chance that morning to have had under my pen or pantagraph; because I +look at them with more interest _after_ my description than _before_ it. + +Next comes dinner.-- + +After the concluding grace, which is too long, we both of us set to +entering the charitable subsidies, and religious donations, which our +parishioners have remitted to the sinking or rather rising fund of the +church-box for the purchase of the new steeple-globe, into two ledgers: +the one of these, with the names of the subscribers, or (in case they +have subscribed for their children) with their children's names also, is +to be inurned in a leaden capsule, and preserved in the steeple-ball; +the other will remain below among the parish Registers. You cannot fancy +what contributions the ambition of getting into the Ball brings us in; +I declare, several peasants who had given and well once already, +contributed again when they had baptisms: must not little Hans be in the +Ball too? + +After this book-keeping by double-entry, my gossip took to engraving on +copper. He had been so happy as to elicit the discovery, that from a +certain stroke resembling an inverted Latin S, the capital letters of +our German Chancery-hand, beautiful and intertwisted as you see them +stand in Law-deeds and Letters-of-nobility, may every one of them be +composed and spun out. + +"Before you can count sixty," said he to me, "I take my +fundamental-stroke and make you any letter out of it." + +I merely inverted this fundamental-stroke, that is, gave him a German S, +and counted sixty till he had it done. This line of beauty, when once it +has been twisted and flourished into all the capitals, he purposes by +copperplates which he is himself engraving, to make more common for the +use of Chanceries; and I may take upon me to give the Russian, the +Prussian, and a few other smaller Courts, hopes of proof impressions +from his hand: to under-secretaries they are indispensable. + +Now comes evening; and it is time for us both, here forking about with +our fruit-hooks on the literary Tree of Knowledge, at the risk of our +necks, to clamber down again into the meadow-flowers and pasturages of +rural joy. We wait, however, till the busy Thiennette, whom we are now +to receive into our communion, has no more walks to take but the one +between us. Then slowly we stept along (the sick lady was weak) through +the office-houses; that is to say, through stalls and their population, +and past a horrid lake of ducks, and past a little milk-pond of carps, +to both of which colonies, I and the rest, like princes, gave bread, +seeing we had it in view on the Sunday after the christening, to--take +them for bread ourselves. + +The sky is still growing kindlier and redder, the swallows and the +blossom-trees louder, the house-shadows broader, and men more happy. The +clustering blossoms of the acacia-grove hang down over our cold +collation; and the ham is not stuck (which always vexes me) with +flowers, but beshaded with them from a distance.... + +And now the deeper evening and the nightingale conspire to soften me; +and I soften in my turn the mild beings round me; especially the pale +Thiennette, to whom, or to whose heart, after the apoplectic crushings +of a downpressed youth, the most violent pulses of joy are heavier than +the movements of pensive sadness. And thus beautifully runs our pure +transparent life along, under the blooming curtains of May; and in our +modest pleasures we look with timidity neither behind us nor before; as +people who are lifting treasure gaze not round at the road they came, or +the road they are going. + +So pass our days. Today, however, it was different: by this time, +usually, the evening meal is over; and the Shock has got the osseous +preparation of our supper between his jaws; but tonight I am still +sitting here alone in the garden, writing the Eleventh Letter-Box, and +peeping out every instant over the meadows, to see if my gossip is not +coming. + +For he is gone to town, to bring a whole magazine of spiceries: his +coat-pockets are wide. Nay, it is certain enough that oftentimes he +brings home with him, simply in his coat-pocket, considerable +flesh-tithes from his Guardian, at whose house he alights; though truly +intercourse with the polished world and city, and the refinement of +manners thence arising,--for he calls on the bookseller, on +school-colleagues, and several respectable shopkeepers,--does, much more +than flesh-fetching, form the object of these journeys to the city. This +morning he appointed me regent head of the house, and delivered me the +_fasces_ and _curule chair_. I sat the whole day beside the young pale +mother; and could not but think, simply because the husband had left me +there as his representative, that I liked the fair soul better. She had +to take dark colours, and paint out for me the winter landscape and ice +region of her sorrow-wasted youth; but often, contrary to my intention, +by some simple elegiac word, I made her still eye wet; for the too full +heart, which had been crushed with other than sentimental woes, +overflowed at the smallest pressure. A hundred times in the recital I +was on the point of saying: "O yes, it was with winter that your life +began, and the course of it has resembled winter!"--Windless, cloudless +day! Three more words about thee, the world will still not take amiss +from me! + +I advanced nearer and nearer to the heart-central-fire of the women; and +at last they mildly broke forth in censure of the Parson; the best wives +will complain of their husbands to a stranger, without in the smallest +liking them the less on that account. The mother and the wife, during +dinner, accused him of buying lots at every book-auction; and, in +truth, in such places, he does strive and bid not so much for good or +for bad books--or old ones--or new ones--or such as he likes to read--or +any sort of favourite books--but simply for books. The mother blamed +especially his squandering so much on copperplates; yet some hours +after, when the Schultheis, or Mayor, who wrote a beautiful hand, came +in to subscribe for the steeple-ball, she pointed out to him how finely +her son could engrave, and said that it was well worth while to spend a +groschen or two on such capitals as these. + +They then handed me,--for when once women are in the way of a full +open-hearted effusion, they like (only you must not turn the stop-cock +of inquiry) to pour out the whole,--a ring-case, in which he kept a +Chamberlain's key that he had found, and asked me if I knew who had lost +it. Who could know such a thing, when there are almost more Chamberlains +than picklocks among us?-- + +At last I took heart, and asked after the little toy-press of the +drowned son, which hitherto I had sought for in vain over all the house. +Fixlein himself had inquired for it, with as little success. Thiennette +gave the old mother a persuading look full of love; and the latter led +me up-stairs to an outstretched hoop-petticoat, covering the poor press +as with a dome. On the way thither the mother told me, she kept it hid +from her son, because the recollection of his brother would pain him. +When this deposit-chest of Time (the lock had fallen off) was laid open +to me, and I had looked into the little charnel-house, with its wrecks +of a childlike sportful Past, I, without saying a word, determined, some +time ere I went away, to unpack these playthings of the lost boy, before +his surviving brother: Can there be aught finer than to look at these +ash-buried, deep-sunk Herculanean ruins of childhood, now dug up and in +the open air? + +Thiennette sent twice to ask me whether he was come. He and she, +precisely because they do not give their love the weakening expression +of phrases, but the strengthening one of actions, have a boundless +feeling of it towards one another. Some wedded pairs eat each other's +lips and hearts and love away by kisses,--as in Rome, the statues of +Christ (by Angelo) have lost their feet by the same process of kissing, +and got leaden ones instead; in other couples, again, you may see, by +mere inspection, the number of their conflagrations and eruptions, as in +Vesuvius you can discover his, of which there are now forty-three: but +in these two beings rose the Greek fire of a moderate and everlasting +love, and gave warmth without casting forth sparks, and flamed straight +up without crackling. The evening-red is flowing back more magically +from the windows of the gardener's cottage into my grove; and I feel as +if I must say to Destiny: "Hast thou a sharp sorrow, then throw it +rather into my breast, and strike not with it three good souls, who are +too happy not to bleed by it, and too sequestered in their little dim +village not to shrink back at the thunderbolt which hurries a stricken +spirit from its earthly dwelling."---- + +Thou good Fixlein! Here comes he hurrying over the parsonage-green. What +languishing looks full of love already rest in the eye of thy +Thiennette!--What news wilt thou bring us tonight from the town!--How +will the ascending steeple-ball refresh thy soul tomorrow!-- + + + + +TWELFTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Steeple-ball-Ascension. The Toy-press._ + + +How, on this sixteenth of May, the old steeple-ball was twisted-off from +the Hukelum steeple, and a new one put on in its stead, will I now +describe to my best ability; but in that simple historical style of the +Ancients, which, for great events, is perhaps the most suitable. + +At a very early hour, a coach arrived containing Messrs. Court-Guilder +Zeddel and Locksmith Waechser, and the new Peter's-cupola of the steeple. +Towards eight o'clock the community, consisting of subscribers to the +Globe, was visibly collecting. A little later came the Lord Dragoon +Rittmeister von Aufhammer, as Patron of the church and steeple, attended +by Mr. Church-Inspector Streichert. Hereupon my Reverend Cousin Fixlein +and I repaired, with the other persons whom I have already named, into +the Church, and there celebrated before innumerable hearers a weekday +prayer-service. Directly afterwards, my Reverend Friend made his +appearance above in the pulpit, and endeavoured to deliver a speech +which might correspond to the solemn transaction;--and immediately +thereafter, he read aloud the names of the patrons and charitable souls, +by whose donations the Ball had been put together; and showed to the +congregation the leaden box in which they were specially recorded; +observing, that the book from which he had recited them was to be +reposited in the Parish Register-office. Next he held it necessary to +thank them and God, that he, above his deserts, had been chosen as the +instrument and undertaker of such a work. The whole he concluded with a +short prayer for Mr. Stechmann the Slater (who was already hanging on +the outside on the steeple, and loosening the old shaft); and entreated +that he might not break his neck, or any of his members. A short hymn +was then sung, which the most of those assembled without the +church-doors sang along with us, looking up at the same time to the +steeple. + +All of us now proceeded out likewise; and the discarded ball, as it were +the amputated cock's-comb of the church, was lowered down and untied. +Church-Inspector Streichert drew a leaden case from the crumbling ball, +which my Reverend Friend put into his pocket, purposing to read it at +his convenience; I, however, said to some peasants: "See, thus will your +names also be preserved in the new Ball, and when, after long years, it +shall be taken down, the box lies within it, and the then parson becomes +acquainted with you all."--And now was the new steeple-globe, with the +leaden cup in which lay the names of the bystanders, at length +full-laden so to speak, and saturated, and fixed to the +pulley-rope;--and so did this the whilom cupping-glass of the community +ascend aloft.... + +By heaven! the unadorned style is here a thing beyond my power: for when +the Ball moved, swung, mounted, there rose a drumming in the centre of +the steeple; and the Schoolmaster, who, till now, had looked down +through a sounding-hole directed towards the congregation, now stept out +with a trumpet at a side sounding-hole, which the mounting Ball was not +to cross.--But when the whole Church rung and pealed, the nearer the +capital approached its crown,--and when the Slater clutched it and +turned it round, and happily incorporated the spike of it, and delivered +down, between Heaven and Earth, and leaning on the Ball, a +Topstone-speech to this and all of us,--and when my gossip's eyes, in +his rapture at being Parson on this great day, were running over, and +the tears trickling down his priestly garment;--I believe I was the only +man,--as his mother was the only woman,--whose souls a common grief laid +hold of to press them even to bleeding; for I and the mother had +yesternight, as I shall tell more largely afterwards, discovered in the +little chest of the drowned boy, from a memorial in his father's hand, +that, on the day after the morrow, on Cantata-Sunday and his +baptismal-Sunday, he would be--two-and-thirty years of age. "O!" +thought I, while I looked at the blue heaven, the green graves, the +glittering ball, the weeping priest, "so, at all times, stands poor man +with bandaged eyes before thy sharp sword, incomprehensible Destiny! And +when thou drawest it and brandishest it aloft, he listens with pleasure +to the whizzing of the stroke before it falls!"-- + +Last night I was aware of it; but to the reader, whom I was preparing +for it afar off, I would tell nothing of the mournful news, that, in the +press of the dead brother, I had found an old Bible which the boys had +used at school, with a white blank leaf in it, on which the father had +written down the dates of his children's birth. And even this it was +that raised in thee, thou poor mother, the shade of sorrow which of late +we have been attributing to smaller causes; and thy heart was still +standing amid the rain, which seemed to us already past over and changed +into a rainbow!--Out of love to him, she had yearly told one falsehood, +and concealed his age. By extreme good luck, he had not been present +when the press was opened. I still purpose, after this fatal Sunday, to +surprise him with the parti-coloured reliques of his childhood, and so +of these old Christmas-presents to make him new ones. In the mean while, +if I and his mother can but follow him incessantly, like +fish-hook-floats and foot-clogs, through tomorrow and next day, that no +murderous accident lift aside the curtain from his +birth-certificate,--all may yet be well. For now, in truth, to his eyes, +this birthday, in the metamorphotic mirror of his superstitious +imagination, and behind the magnifying magic vapour of his present joys, +would burn forth like a red death-warrant.... But besides all this, the +leaf of the Bible is now sitting higher than any of us, namely, in the +new steeple-ball, into which I this morning prudently introduced it. +Properly speaking there is indeed no danger. + + + + +THIRTEENTH LETTER-BOX. + +_Christening._ + + +Today is that stupid Cantata-Sunday; but nothing now remains of it save +an hour.--By heaven! in right spirits were we all today. I believe I +have drunk as faithfully as another.--In truth, one should be moderate +in all things, in writing, in drinking, in rejoicing; and as we lay +straws into the honey for our bees that they may not drown in their +sugar, so ought one at all times to lay a few firm Principles, and twigs +from the tree of Knowledge, into the Syrup of life, instead of those +same bee-straws, that so one may cling thereto, and not drown like a +rat. But now I do purpose in earnest to--write (and also live) with +steadfastness; and therefore, that I may record the christening ceremony +with greater coolness,--to besprinkle my fire with the night-air, and to +roam out for an hour into the blossom-and-wave-embroidered night, where +a lukewarm breath of air, intoxicated with soft odours, is sinking down +from the blossom-peaks to the low-bent flowers, and roaming over the +meadows, and at last launching on a wave, and with it sailing down the +moonshiny brook. O, without, under the stars, under the tones of the +nightingale, which seem to reverberate, not from the echo, but from the +far-off down-glancing worlds; beside that moon, which the gushing brook +in its flickering watery band is carrying away, and which creeps under +the little shadows of the bank as under clouds,--O, amid such forms and +tones, the heart of man grows serious; and as of old an evening bell was +rung to direct the wanderer through the deep forests to his nightly +home, so in our Night are such voices within us and about us, which call +to us in our strayings, and make us calmer, and teach us to moderate our +own joys, and to conceive those of others. + + * * * * * + +I return, peaceful and cool enough, to my narrative. All yesternight I +left not the worthy Parson half an hour from my sight, to guard him from +poisoning the well of his life. Full of paternal joy, and with the +skeleton of the sermon (he was committing it to memory) in his hand, he +set before me all that he had; and pointed out to me the fruit-baskets +of pleasures which Cantata-Sunday always plucked and filled for him. He +recounted to me, as I did not go away, his baptisms, his accidents of +office; told me of his relatives; and removed my uncertainty with regard +to the public revenues--of his parish, to the number of his communicants +and expected catechumens. At this point, however, I am afraid that many +a reader will in vain endeavour to transport himself into my situation, +and still be unable to discover why I said to Fixlein: "Worthy gossip, +better no man could wish himself." I lied not, for so it is.... But +look in the Note.[60] + + [60] A long philosophical elucidation is indispensably requisite: + which will be found in this Book, under the title: _Natural Magic + of the Imagination_. [A part of the _Jus de Tablette_ appended to + this Biography, unconnected with it, and not given here.--ED.] + +At last rose the Sunday, the present; and on this holy day, simply +because my little godson was for going over to Christianity, there was a +vast racket made: every time a conversion happens, especially of +nations, there is an uproaring and a shooting; I refer to the two +Thirty-Years Wars, to the more recent one, and to the earlier, which +Charlemagne so long carried on with the heathen Saxons: thus, in the +_Palais Royal_, the Sun, at his transit over the meridian, fires off a +cannon.[61] But this morning the little Unchristian, my godson, was +precisely the person least attended to; for, in thinking of the +conversion, they had no time left to think of the convert. Therefore I +strolled about with him myself half the forenoon; and, in our walk, +hastily conferred on him a private-baptism; having named him _Jean Paul_ +before the priest did so. At midday, we sent the beef away as it had +come; the Sun of happiness having desiccated all our gastric juices. We +now began to look about us for pomp; I for scientific decorations of my +hair, my godson for his christening-shirt, and his mother for her +dress-cap. Yet before the child's-rattle of the christening-bell had +been jingled, I and the midwife, in front of the mother's bed, +instituted Physiognomical Travels[62] on the countenance of the small +Unchristian, and returned with the discovery, that some features had +been embossed by the pattern of the mother, and many firm portions +resembled me; a double similarity, in which my readers can take little +interest. _Jean Paul_ looks very sensible for his years, or rather for +his minutes, for it is the small one I am speaking of.---- + + [61] This pigmy piece of ordnance, with its cunningly devised + burning-glass, is still to be seen on the south side of the Paris + Vanity-Fair; and in fine weather, to be heard, on all sides + thereof, proclaiming the _conversion_ (so it seems to Richter) of + the Day from Forenoon to Afternoon.--ED. + + [62] See _Musaeus_, ante.--ED. + +But now I would ask, what German writer durst take it upon him to spread +out and paint a large historic sheet, representing the whole of us as we +went to church? Would he not require to draw the father, with swelling +canonicals, moving forward slowly, devoutly, and full of emotion? Would +he not have to sketch the godfather, minded this day to lend out his +names, which he derived from two Apostles (John and Paul), as Julius +Caesar lent out his names to two things still living even now (to a +month, and a throne)?--And must he not put the godson on his sheet, with +whom even the Emperor Joseph (in his need of nurse-milk) might become a +foster-brother, in his old days, if he were still in them?-- + +In my chamber, I have a hundred times determined to smile at +solemnities, in the midst of which I afterwards, while assisting at +them, involuntarily wore a petrified countenance, full of dignity and +seriousness. For, as the Schoolmaster, just before the baptism, began to +sound the organ,--an honour never paid to any other child in +Hukelum,--and when I saw the wooden christening-angel, like an alighted +Genius, with his painted timber arm spread out under the baptismal ewer, +and I myself came to stand close by him, under his gilt wing, I protest +the blood went slow and solemn, warm and close, through my pulsing head, +and my lungs full of sighs; and, to the silent darling lying in my arms, +whose unripe eyes Nature yet held closed from the full perspective of +the Earth, I wished, with more sadness than I do to myself, for his +Future also as soft a sleep as today; and as good an angel as today, but +a more living one, to guide him into a more living religion, and, with +invisible hand, conduct him unlost through the forest of Life, through +its falling trees, and Wild Hunters,[63] and all its storms and +perils.... Will the world not excuse me, if when, by a side-glance, I +saw on the paternal countenance prayers for the son, and tears of joy +trickling down into the prayer; and when I noticed on the countenance of +the grandmother far darker and fast-hidden drops, which she could not +restrain, while I, in answer to the ancient question, engaged to provide +for the child if its parents died,--am I not to be excused if I then +cast my eyes deep down on my little godson, merely to hide their running +over?--For I remembered that his father might perhaps this very day grow +pale and cold before a suddenly arising mask of Death; I thought how the +poor little one had only changed his bent posture in the womb with a +freer one, to bend and cramp himself ere long more harshly in the strait +arena of life; I thought of his inevitable follies and errors and sins; +of these soiled steps to the Grecian Temple of our Perfection; I thought +that one day his own fire of genius might reduce himself to ashes, as a +man that is electrified can kill himself with his own lightning.... All +the theological wishes, which, on the godson-billet printed over with +them, I placed in his young bosom, were glowing written in mine.... But +the white feathered-pink of my joy had then, as it always has, a bloody +point within it,--I again, as it always is, went to nest, like a +woodpecker, in a skull.... And as I am doing so even now, let the +describing of the baptism be over for today, and proceed again +tomorrow.... + + [63] The Wild Hunter, _Wilde Jaeger_, is a popular spectre of + Germany.--ED. + + + + +FOURTEENTH LETTER-BOX. + + +O, so is it ever! So does Fate set fire to the theatre of our little +plays, and our bright-painted curtain of Futurity! So does the Serpent +of Eternity wind round us and our joys, and crush, like the royal-snake, +what it does not poison! Thou good Fixlein!--Ah! last night, I little +thought that thou, mild soul, while I was writing beside thee, wert +already journeying into the poisonous Earth-shadow of Death. + +Last night, late as it was, he opened the lead box found in the old +steeple-ball; a catalogue of those who had subscribed to the last +repairing of the church was there; and he began to read it now; my +presence and his occupations having prevented him before. O, how shall I +tell that the record of his birth-year, which I had hidden in the new +Ball, was waiting for him in the old one? that in the register of +contributions he found his father's name, with the appendage, "given for +his new-born son Egidius"?-- + +This stroke sank deep into his bosom, even to the rending of it asunder: +in this warm hour, full of paternal joy, after such fair days, after +such fair employments, after dread of death so often survived, here, in +the bright smooth sea, which is rocking and bearing him along, starts +snorting, from the bottomless abyss, the sea-monster Death; and the +monster's throat yawns wide, and the silent sea rushes into it in +whirlpools, and hurries him along with it. + +But the patient man, quietly and slowly, and with a heart silent, though +deadly cold, laid the leaves together;--looked softly and firmly over +the churchyard, where, in the moonshine, the grave of his father was to +be distinguished;--gazed timidly up to the sky, full of stars, which a +white overarching laurel-tree half screened from his sight;--and though +he longed to be in bed, to settle there and sleep it off, yet he paused +at the window to pray for his wife and child, in case this night were +his last. + +At this moment the steeple-clock struck twelve; but from the breaking of +a pin, the weights kept rolling down, and the clock-hammer struck +without stopping,--and he heard with horror the chains and wheels +rattling along; and he felt as if Death were hurling forth in a heap all +the longer hours which he might yet have had to live,--and now to his +eyes, the churchyard began to quiver and heave, the moonlight flickered +on the church-windows, and in the church there were lights flitting to +and fro, and in the charnel-house there was a motion and a tumult. + +His heart fainted within him, and he threw himself into bed, and closed +his eyes that he might not see;--but Imagination in the gloom now blew +aloft the dust of the dead, and whirled it into giant shapes, and chased +these hollow fever-born masks alternately into lightning and shadow. +Then at last from transparent thoughts grew coloured visions, and he +dreamed this dream: He was standing at the window looking out into the +churchyard; and Death, in size as a scorpion, was creeping over it, and +seeking for his bones. Death found some arm-bones and thigh-bones on the +graves, and said: "They are my bones;" and he took a spine and the +bone-legs, and stood with them, and the two arm-bones and clutched with +them, and found on the grave of Fixlein's father a skull, and put it on. +Then he lifted a scythe beside the little flower-garden, and cried: +"Fixlein, where art thou? My finger is an icicle and no finger, and I +will tap on thy heart with it." The skeleton, thus piled together, now +looked for him who was standing at the window, and powerless to stir +from it; and carried in the one hand, instead of a sandglass, the +ever-striking steeple-clock, and held out the finger of ice, like a +dagger, far into the air.... + +Then he saw his victim above at the window, and raised himself as high +as the laurel-tree to stab straight into his bosom with the finger,--and +stalked towards him. But as he came nearer, his pale bones grew redder, +and vapours floated woolly round his haggard form. Flowers started up +from the ground; and he stood transfigured and without the clam of the +grave, hovering above them, and the balm-breath from the flower-cups +wafted him gently on;--and as he came nearer, the scythe and cloak were +gone, and in his bony breast he had a heart, and on his bony head red +lips;--and nearer still, there gathered on him soft, transparent, +rosebalm-dipt flesh, like the splendour of an Angel flying hither from +the starry blue;--and close at hand, he was an Angel with shut +snow-white eyelids.... + +The heart of my friend, quivering like a Harmonica-bell, now melted in +bliss in his clear bosom;--and when the Angel opened its eyes, his were +pressed together by the weight of celestial rapture, and his dream fled +away.---- + +But not his life: he opened his hot eyes, and--his good wife had hold of +his feverish hand, and was standing in room of the Angel. + +The fever abated towards morning: but the certainty of dying still +throbbed in every artery of the hapless man. He called for his fair +little infant into his sick-bed, and pressed it silently, though it +began to cry, too hard against his paternal heavy-laden breast. Then +towards noon his soul became cool, and the sultry thunder-clouds within +it drew back. And here he described to us the previous (as it were, +arsenical) fantasies of his usually quiet head. But it is even those +tense nerves, which have not quivered at the touch of a poetic hand +striking them to melody of sorrow, that start and fly asunder more +easily under the fierce hand of Fate, when with sweeping stroke it +smites into discord the firm-set strings. + +But towards night his ideas again began rushing in a torch-dance, like +fire-pillars round his soul: every artery became a burning-rod, and the +heart drove flaming naphtha-brooks into the brain. All within his soul +grew bloody: the blood of his drowned brother united itself with the +blood which had once flowed from Thiennette's arm, into a bloody +rain;--he still thought he was in the garden in the night of +betrothment, he still kept calling for bandages to stanch blood, and was +for hiding his head in the ball of the steeple. Nothing afflicts one +more than to see a reasonable moderate man, who has been so even in his +passions, raving in the poetic madness of fever. And yet if nothing save +this mouldering corruption can soothe the hot brain; and if, while the +reek and thick vapour of a boiling nervous-spirit, and the hissing +water-spouts of the veins are encircling and eclipsing the stifled soul, +a higher Finger presses through the cloud, and suddenly lifts the poor +bewildered spirit from amid the smoke to a sun--is it more just to +complain, than to reflect that Fate is like the oculist, who, when +about to open to a blind eye the world of light, first bandages and +darkens the other eye that sees? + +But the sorrow does affect me, which I read on Thiennette's pale lips, +though do not hear. It is not the distortion of an excruciating agony, +nor the burning of a dried-up eye, nor the loud lamenting or violent +movement of a tortured frame that I see in her; but what I am forced to +see in her, and what too keenly cuts the sympathising heart, is a pale, +still, unmoved, undistorted face, a pale bloodless head, which Sorrow is +as it were holding up after the stroke, like a head just severed by the +axe of the headsman; for, O! on this form the wounds, from which the +three-edged dagger had been drawn, are all fallen firmly together, and +the blood is flowing from them in secret into the choking heart. O +Thiennette, go away from the sick-bed, and hide that face which is +saying to us: "Now do I know that I shall not have any happiness on +Earth; now do I give over hoping--would this life were but soon done." + +You will not comprehend my sympathy, if you know not what, some hours +ago, the too loud lamenting mother told me. Thiennette, who of old had +always trembled for his thirty-second year, had encountered this +superstition with a nobler one: she had purposely stood farther back at +the marriage-altar, and in the bridal-night fallen sooner asleep than +he; thereby--as is the popular belief--so to order it that she might +also die sooner. Nay, she has determined if he die, to lay with his +corpse a piece of her apparel, that so she may descend the sooner to +keep him company in his narrow house. Thou good, thou faithful wife, but +thou unhappy one!-- + + + + +CHAPTER LAST. + + +I have left Hukelum, and my gossip his bed; and the one is as sound as +the other. The cure was as foolish as the malady. + +It first occurred to me, that as Boerhaave used to remedy convulsions by +convulsions, one fancy might in my gossip's case be remedied by another; +namely, by the fancy that he was yet no man of thirty-two, but only a +man of six or nine. Deliriums are dreams not encircled by sleep; and all +dreams transport us back into youth, why not deliriums too? I +accordingly directed every one to leave the patient: only his mother, +while the fiercest meteors were dancing and hissing before his fevered +soul, was to sit down by him alone, and speak to him as if he were a +child of eight years. The bed-mirror also I directed her to cover. She +did so; she spoke to him as if he had the small-pox fever; and when he +cried: "Death is standing with two-and-thirty pointed teeth before me, +to eat my heart," she said to him: "Little dear, I will give thee thy +roller-hat, and thy copybook, and thy case, and thy hussar-cloak again, +and more too, if thou wilt be good." A reasonable speech he would have +taken up and heeded much less than he did this foolish one. + +At last she said,--for to women in the depth of sorrow, dissimulation +becomes easy: "Well, I will try it this once, and give thee thy +playthings: but do the like again, thou rogue, and roll thyself about in +the bed so, with the small-pox on thee!" And with this, from her full +apron she shook out on the bed the whole stock of playthings and +dressing-ware, which I had found in the press of the drowned brother. +First of all his copybook, where Egidius in his eighth year had put down +his name, which he necessarily recognised as his own handwriting; then +the black velvet _fall-hat_ or roller-cap; then the red and white +leading-strings; his knife-case, with a little pamphlet of tin-leaves; +his green hussar-cloak, with its stiff facings; and a whole _orbis +pictus_ or _fictus_ of Nuernberg puppets.... + +The sick man recognised in a moment these projecting peaks of a +spring-world sunk in the stream of Time,--these half shadows, this dusk +of down-gone days,--this conflagration-place and Golgotha of a heavenly +time, which none of us forgets, which we love forever, and look back to +even from the grave.... And when he saw all this, he slowly turned round +his head, as if he were awakening from a long heavy dream; and his whole +heart flowed down in warm showers of tears, and he said, fixing his full +eyes on the eyes of his mother: "But are my father and brother still +living, then?"--"They are dead lately," said the wounded mother; but her +heart was overpowered, and she turned away her eyes, and bitter tears +fell unseen from her down-bent head. And now at once that evening, when +he lay confined to bed by the death of his father, and was cured by his +playthings, overflowed his soul with splendour and lights, and presence +of the past. + +And so Delirium dyed for itself rosy wings in the Aurora of life, and +fanned the panting soul,--and shook down golden butterfly-dust from its +plumage on the path, on the flowerage of the suffering man;--in the far +distance rose lovely tones, in the distance floated lovely clouds,--O, +his heart was like to fall in pieces, but only into fluttering +flower-stamina, into soft sentient nerves; his eyes were like to melt +away, but only into dewdrops for the cups of joy-blossoms, into +blooddrops for loving hearts; his soul was floating, palpitating, +drinking and swimming in the warm relaxing rose-perfume of the brightest +delusion.... + +The rapture bridled his feverish heart; and his mad pulse grew calm. +Next morning, his mother, when she saw that all was prospering, would +have had the church-bells rung, to make him think that the second Sunday +was already here. But his wife (perhaps out of shame in my presence) was +averse to the lying; and said it would be all the same if we moved the +month-hand of his clock (but otherwise than Hezekiah's Dial) eight days +forward; especially as he was wont rather to rise and look at his clock +for the day of the month, than to turn it up in the Almanac. I for my +own part simply went up to the bedside, and asked him: "If he was +cracked--what in the world he meant with his mad death-dreams, when he +had lain so long, and passed clean over the Cantata-Sunday, and yet, out +of sheer terror, was withering to a lath?" + +A glorious reinforcement joined me; the Flesher or Quartermaster. In his +anxiety, he rushed into the room, without saluting the women, and I +forthwith addressed him aloud: "My gossip here is giving me trouble +enough, Mr. Regiments-Quartermaster: last night, he let them persuade +him he was little older than his own son: here is the child's fall-hat +he was for putting on." The Guardian deuced and devilled, and said: +"Ward, are you a parson or a fool?--Have not I told you twenty times, +there was a maggot in your head about this?"-- + +At last he himself perceived that he was not rightly wise, and so grew +better; besides the guardian's invectives, my oaths contributed a good +deal; for I swore I would hold him as no right gossip, and edit no word +of his Biography, unless he rose directly and got better.... + +--In short, he showed so much politeness to me that he rose and got +better.--He was still sickly, it is true, on Saturday; and on Sunday +could not preach a sermon (something of the sort the Schoolmaster read, +instead); but yet he took Confessions on Saturday, and at the altar +next day he dispensed the Sacrament. Service ended, the feast of his +recovery was celebrated, my farewell-feast included; for I was to go in +the afternoon. + +This last afternoon I will chalk out with all possible breadth, and +then, with the pantagraph of free garrulity, fill up the outline and +draw on the great scale. + +During the Thanksgiving-repast, there arrived considerable personal +tribute from his catechumens, and fairings by way of bonfire for his +recovery; proving how much the people loved him, and how well he +deserved it: for one is oftener hated without reason by the many, than +without reason loved by them. But Fixlein was friendly to every child; +was none of those clergy, who never pardon their enemies except +in--God's stead; and he praised at once the whole world, his wife and +himself. + +I then attended at his afternoon's catechising; and looked down (as he +did in the first Letter-Box) from the choir, under the wing of the +wooden cherub. Behind this angel, I drew out my note-book, and shifted a +little under the cover of the Black Board, with its white +Psalm-ciphers,[64] and wrote down what I was there--thinking. I was well +aware, that when I today, on the twenty-fifth of May, retired from this +_Salernic_[65] spinning-school, where one is taught to spin out the +thread of life, in fairer wise, and without wetting it by foreign +mixtures,--I was well aware, I say, that I should carry off with me far +more elementary principles of the Science of Happiness, than the whole +Chamberlain piquet ever muster all their days. I noted down my first +impression, in the following Rules of Life for myself and the press: + + [64] Indicating to the congregation what Psalm is to be sung.--ED. + + [65] Salerno was once famous for its medical science; but here, as + in many other cases, we could desire the aid of Herr Reinhold with + his _Lexicon-Commentary_.--ED. + +"Little joys refresh us constantly like house-bread, and never bring +disgust; and great ones, like sugar-bread, briefly, and then bring +it.--Trifles we should let, not plague us only, but also gratify us; we +should seize not their poison-bags only, but their honey-bags also: and +if flies often buz about our room, we should, like Domitian, amuse +ourselves with flies, or, like a certain still living Elector,[66] feed +them.--For _civic_ life and its micrologies, for which the Parson has a +natural taste, we must acquire an artificial one; must learn to love +without esteeming it; learn, far as it ranks beneath _human_ life, to +enjoy it like another twig of this human life, as poetically as we do +the pictures of it in romances. The loftiest mortal loves and seeks the +_same sort_ of things with the meanest; only from higher grounds and by +higher paths. Be every minute, Man, a full life to thee!--Despise +anxiety and wishing, the Future and the Past!--If the _Second-pointer_ +can be no road-pointer into an Eden for thy soul, the _Month-pointer_ +will still less be so, for thou livest not from month to month, but from +second to second! Enjoy thy Existence more than thy Manner of Existence, +and let the dearest object of thy Consciousness be this Consciousness +itself!--Make not the Present a means of thy Future; for this Future is +nothing but a coming Present; and the Present, which thou despisest, was +once a Future which thou desiredst!--Stake in no lotteries,--keep at +home,--give and accept no pompous entertainments,--travel not abroad +every year!--Conceal not from thyself, by long plans, thy household +goods, thy chamber, thy acquaintance!--Despise Life, that thou mayst +enjoy it!--Inspect the neighbourhood of thy life; every shelf, every +nook of thy abode; and nestling in, quarter thyself in the farthest and +most domestic winding of thy snail-house!--Look upon a capital but as a +collection of villages, a village as some blind-alley of a capital; fame +as the talk of neighbours at the street-door; a library as a learned +conversation, joy as a second, sorrow as a minute, life as a day; and +three things as all in all: God, Creation, Virtue!"---- + + [66] This hospitable Potentate is as unknown to me as to any of my + readers.--ED. + +And if I would follow myself and these rules, it will behove me not to +make so much of this Biography; but once for all, like a moderate man, +to let it sound out. + +After the Catechising, I stept down to my wide-gowned and black-gowned +gossip. The congregation gone, we clambered up to all high places, +perused the plates on the pews,--I took a lesson on the altar on its +inscription incrusted with the _sediment of Time_ (I speak not +metaphorically); I organed, my gossip managing the bellows; I mounted +the pulpit, and was happy enough there to alight on one other +rose-shoot, which, in the farewell minute, I could still plant in the +rose-garden of my Fixlein. For I descried aloft, on the back of a wooden +Apostle, the name _Lavater_, which the Zurich Physiognomist had been +pleased to leave on this sacred Torso in the course of his wayfaring. +Fixlein did not know the hand, but I did, for I had seen it frequently +in Flachsenfingen, not only on the tapestry of a Court Lady there, but +also in his _Hand-Library_;[67] and met with it besides in many country +churches, forming, as it were, the Directory and Address-Calendar of +this wandering name, for Lavater likes to inscribe in pulpits, as a +shepherd does in trees, the name of his beloved. I could now advise my +gossip prudently to cut away the name, with the chip of wood containing +it, from the back of the Apostle, and to preserve it carefully among his +_curiosa_. + + [67] A little work printed in manuscript types; and seldom given by + him to any but Princes. This piece of print-writing he + intentionally passes off to the great as a piece of hand-writing; + these persons being both more habituated and inclined to the + reading of manuscript than of print. + +On returning to the parsonage, I made for my hat and stick; but the +design, as it were the projection and contour of a supper in the +acacia-grove, had already been sketched by Thiennette. I declared that I +would stay till evening, in case the young mother went out with us to +the proposed meal ... and truly the Biographer at length got his way, +all doctors' regulations notwithstanding. + +I then constrained the Parson to put on his Kraeutermuetze,[68] or +Herb-cap, which he had stitched together out of simples for the +strengthening of his memory; "Would to Heaven," said I, "that Princes +instead of their Princely Hats, Doctors and Cardinals instead of theirs, +and Saints instead of martyr-crowns, would clap such memory-bonnets on +their heads!"--Thereupon, till the roasting and cooking within doors +were over, we marched out alone over the parsonage meadows, and talked +of learned matters, we packed ourselves into the ruined Robber-Castle, +on which my gossip, as already mentioned, has a literary work in hand. I +deeply approved, the rather as this Kidnapper-tower had once belonged to +an Aufhammer, his intention of dedicating the description to the +Rittmeister: that nobleman, I think, will sooner give his name to the +Book than to the Shock. For the rest, I exhorted my fellow-craftsman to +pluck up literary heart, and said to him: "A fearless pen, good gossip! +Let Subrector Hans von Fuechslein be, if he like, the Dragon of the +Apocalypse, lying in wait for the delivery of the fugitive Woman, to +swallow the offspring; I am there too, and have my friend the Editor of +the _Litteraturzeitung_ at my side, who will gladly permit me to give an +_anticritique_, on paying the insertion-dues!"--I especially excited +him to new fillings and return-freights of his Letter-Boxes. I have not +taken oath that into this biographical chest-of-drawers, I will not in +the course of time introduce another Box. "Neither to my godson, worthy +gossip, will it do any harm that he is presented, poor child, even now +to the reading public, when he does not count more months than, as +Horace will have it, a literary child should count years, namely, +_nine_." + + [68] Thus defined by Adelung in his Lexicon: "_Kraeutermuetze_, in + Medicine, a cap with various dried herbs sewed into it, and which + is worn for all manner of troubles in the head."--ED. + +In walking homewards, I praised his wife. "If marriage," said I to him, +"is the madder, which in maids, as in cotton, makes the colours visible, +then I contend, that Thiennette, when a maid, could scarcely be so good +as she is now when a wife. By Heaven! in such a marriage, I should write +Books of quite another sort, divine ones; in a marriage, I mean, where +beside the writing-table (as beside the great voting-table at the +Regensburg Diets, there are little tables of confectionery); where in +like manner, I say, a little jar of marmalade were standing by me, +namely, a sweetened, dainty, lovely face, and out of measure fond of the +Letter-Box-writer, gossip! Your marriage will resemble the Acacia-grove +we are now going to, the leaves of which grow thicker with the heat of +summer, while other shrubs are yielding only shrunk and porous shade." + +As we entered through the upper garden-door into this same bower, the +supper and the good mistress were already there. Nothing is more pure +and tender than the respect with which a wife treats the benefactor or +comrade of her husband: and happily the Biographer himself was this +comrade, and the object of this respect. Our talk was cheerful, but my +spirit was oppressed. The fetters, which bind the mere reader to my +heroes, were in my case of triple force; as I was at once their guest +and their portrait-painter. I told the Parson that he would live to a +greater age than I, for that his temperate temperament was balanced as +if by a doctor so equally between the nervousness of refinement, and the +hot thick-bloodedness of the rustic. Fixlein said that if he lived but +as long as he had done, namely, two-and-thirty years, it would amount, +exclusive of the leap-year-days, to 280,320 seconds, which in itself was +something considerable; and that he often reckoned up with satisfaction +the many thousand persons of his own age that would have a life equally +long. + +At last I tried to get in motion; for the red lights of the falling sun +were mounting up over the grove, and dipping us still deeper in the +shadows of night: the young mother had grown chill in the evening dew. +In confused mood, I invited the Parson to visit me soon in the city, +where I would show him not only all the chambers of the Palace, but the +Prince himself. Gladder there was nothing this day on our old world than +the face to which I said so; and than the other one which was the mild +reflexion of the former.--For the Biographer it would have been too +hard, if now in that minute, when his fancy, like mirror-telescopes, was +representing every object in a _tremulous_ form, he had been obliged to +cut and run; if, I will say, it had not occurred to him that to the +young mother it could do little harm (but much good), were she to take a +short walk, and assist in escorting the Author and architect of the +present Letter-Box out of the garden to his road. + +In short, I took this couple one in each hand, instead of under each +arm, and moved with them through the garden to the Flachsenfingen +highway. I often abruptly turned round my head between them, as if I had +heard some one coming after us; but in reality I only meant once more, +though mournfully, to look back into the happy hamlet, whose houses were +all dwellings of contented still Sabbath-joy, and which is happy enough, +though over its wide-parted pavement-stones there passes every week but +one barber, every holiday but one dresser of hair, and every year but +one hawker of parasols. Then truly I had again to turn round my head, +and look at the happy pair beside me. My otherwise affectionate gossip +could not rightly suit himself to these tokens of sorrow: but in thy +heart, thou good, so oft afflicted sex, every mourning-bell soon finds +its unison; and Thiennette, ennobled with the thin trembling _resonance_ +of a reverberating soul, gave me back all my tones with the beauties of +an echo.----At last we reached the boundary, over which Thiennette +could not be allowed to walk; and now must I part from my gossip, with +whom I had talked so gaily every morning (each of us from his bed), and +from the still circuit of modest hope where he dwelt, and return once +more to the rioting, fermenting Court-sphere, where men in bull-beggar +tone demand from Fate a root of Life-Licorice, thick as the arm, like +the botanical one on the Wolga, not so much that they may chew the sweet +beam themselves, as fell others to earth with it. + +As I thought to myself that I would say, Farewell! to them, all the +coming plagues, all the corpses, and all the marred wishes of this good +pair, arose before my heart; and I remembered that little save the +falling asleep of joy-flowers would mark the current of their Life-day, +as it does of mine and of every one's.--And yet is it fairer, if they +measure their years not by the _Water-clock_ of falling tears, but by +the _Flower-clock_[69] of asleep-going flowers, whose bells in our +short-lived garden are sinking together before us from hour to hour.-- + + [69] Linne formed in Upsal a flower-clock, the flowers of which, by + their different times of falling asleep, indicated the hours of the + day. + +I would even now--for I still recollect how I hung with streaming eyes +over these two loved ones, as over their corpses--address myself, and +say: Far too soft, _Jean Paul_, whose chalk still sketches the models of +Nature on a ground of Melancholy; harden thy heart like thy frame, and +waste not thyself and others by such thoughts. Yet why should I do it, +why should I not confess directly what, in the softest emotion, I said +to these two beings? "May all go right with you, ye mild beings," I +said, for I no longer thought of courtesies, "may the arm of Providence +bear gently your lacerated hearts, and the good Father, above all these +suns which are now looking down on us, keep you ever united, and exalt +you still undivided to his bosom and his lips!"--"Be you too right happy +and glad!" said Thiennette.--"And to you, Thiennette," continued I, "Ah! +to your pale cheeks, to your oppressed heart, to your long cold +maltreated youth, I can never, never wish enough. No! But all that can +soothe a wounded soul, that can please a pure one, that can still the +hidden sigh--O, all that you deserve--may this be given you; and when +you see me again, then say to me, 'I am now much happier!'" + +We were all of us too deeply moved. We at last tore ourselves asunder +from repeated embraces; my friend retired with the soul whom he +loves;--I remained alone behind him with the Night. + +And I walked without aim through woods, through valleys, and over +brooks, and through sleeping villages, to enjoy the great Night like a +Day. I walked, and still looked like the magnet, to the region of +midnight, to strengthen my heart at the gleaming twilight, at this +upstretching Aurora of a morning beneath our feet. White +night-butterflies flitted, white blossoms fluttered, white stars fell, +and the white snow-powder hung silvery in the high Shadow of the Earth, +which reaches beyond the Moon, and which is our Night. Then began the +Eolian Harp of the Creation to tremble and to sound, blown on from +above, and my immortal soul was a string in this Harp.--The heart of a +brother everlasting Man swelled under the everlasting Heaven, as the +seas swell under the Sun and under the Moon.--The distant village-clocks +struck midnight, mingling, as it were, with the ever-pealing tone of +ancient Eternity.--The limbs of my buried ones touched cold on my soul, +and drove away its blots, as dead hands heal eruptions of the skin.--I +walked silently through little hamlets, and close by their outer +churchyards, where crumbled upcast coffin-boards were glimmering, while +the once bright eyes that had laid in them were mouldered into gray +ashes.--Cold thought! clutch not like a cold spectre at my heart: I look +up to the starry sky, and an everlasting chain stretches thither, and +over and below; and all is Life, and Warmth, and Light, and all is +godlike or God.... + +Towards morning I descried thy late lights, little city of my dwelling, +which I belong to on this side the grave; I returned to the Earth; and +in thy steeples, behind the by-advanced great Midnight, it struck +half-past two; about this hour, in 1794, Mars went down in the west, and +the Moon rose in the east; and my soul desired, in grief for the noble +warlike blood which is still streaming on the blossoms of Spring: "Ah +retire, bloody War, like red Mars; and thou, still Peace, come forth +like the mild divided Moon!"-- + +THE END. + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Footnotes in (Schmelzle's Journey to Flaetz) are numbered as in the original. +They are placed at the end of the paragraph, so as not to split the paragraph. +None of these footnotes seem to link directly to the text. This is explained +by the author in the introduction. + +The following hyphenated words are used interchangeably with its +non-hyphenated form: + +bed-chamber +bed-clothes +bed-room +bed-side +block-head +break-neck +class-room +corn-fields +day-light +dew-drops +down-pressed +down-stairs +good-will +hand-writing +hind-head +Litteratur-zeitung +love-sick +mid-day +re-awakened +Ring-dove +school-man +tear-drops +to-night +train-bearer +up-stairs +water-spouts +week-day +wood-cutter + + +Page 59 + +'the keeper had lost its tract,' may be 'the keeper had lost its +track,'. Unchanged. + +Page 208 + +'her blue eye gleamed' may be 'her blue eyes gleamed'. Unchanged. + +Page 376 + +'sheep-smearer' may be 'sheep-shearer'. Unchanged. + +Page 408 + +'without the clam of the grave,' may be 'without the calm of the grave,'. +Unchanged. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Translations from the German (Vol 3 of +3), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38779.txt or 38779.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/7/38779/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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