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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/38838-8.txt b/38838-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e65ff9 --- /dev/null +++ b/38838-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7621 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig +Tieck, by Ludwig Tieck + +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: Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig Tieck + +Author: Ludwig Tieck + +Release Date: February 11, 2012 [EBook #38838] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE 'PHANTASUS' *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + SELECT WORKS OF LUDWIG TIECK. + + + Tales from the "Phantasus," Etc. + + + LONDON: + + PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, + + Great New Street, Fetter Lane. + + + [Illustration: Ludwig Tieck.] + + + Tales From the "Phantasus," etc. + + of Ludwig Tieck. + + + London James Burns + + mdcccxlv. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + I. PREFACE. + II. THE RECONCILIATION. + III. THE FRIENDS. + IV. THE ELVES. + V. THE WHITE EGBERT. + VI. THE FAITHFUL ECKART. + VII. THE TANNENHÄUSER. + VIII. THE RUNENBERG. + IX. THE MYSTERIOUS CUP. + X. THE LOVE-CHARM. + XI. THE BROTHERS. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Goethe says of himself, that the first sight of a work of genuine art +was always displeasing to him. There was no correspondence between his +own mind and the object he was contemplating. It would not fit--became +galling. He was made conscious of a deficiency in himself; and the +result was, a feeling of annoyance and irritation at the cause of it. +Yet if he could overcome this aversion, and set himself to work to +understand it, in faith that ultimately he would find himself repaid, +he never failed to make the most delightful discoveries; new powers +developed themselves in himself, and beauty after beauty came out in +the object. + +It is to this cause that we attribute the comparatively small success +which the works of Ludwig Tieck have hitherto met with in +England--just because they are genuine; and we venture to affirm, with +some confidence, that if people will take the same pains, they will +find their efforts attended with a similar result to that above +mentioned. There is nothing strange in all this: there is a deep +gloomy earnestness about Tieck, an unprepossessing sternness, which +makes people feel uncomfortable, without exactly knowing why. They +cannot make out his way of thought. They feel it is deep and strong; +but as they do not start with any confidence in him as a teacher, it +serves only to make them painfully conscious of their own dimensions, +and afraid of what the strong man may do with them. For all they know, +he may be a tyrant, using his powers only for destruction; breaking in +and wasting all their beautiful gardens, and leaving them nothing but +ashes, and torn-off leaves, and withering flowers. + +More or less, there is always something awful in a purely ethical +writer. Tieck's works do not profess to be religious writings. He is +concerned wholly with the nature of man as he finds him, and with the +working of the moral laws, the natural tendencies of virtue and vice +in the system of the universe; and in this way he contrasts strikingly +with writers like Fouqué, whose works have so much of a distinct +religious character. The wild preternatural spirit which breathes +through all his tales forms but a subservient part. It does but +represent the elements in which our moral nature hangs; and is, in +fact, nothing more than the very element in which we all live, only +held in a certain light that we may see it. Why he does not introduce +the real influences of the other world as revelation makes them known +to us, is a question which we need not ask ourselves; it is enough +that it was not his purpose. + +But perhaps we shall find the clue to the general tone of his mind in +the state of things in Germany, and the general condition of European +feeling at the time in which he was brought up. + +His mind broke into consciousness at the stormy close of the +eighteenth century, when Europe was rocking to her foundation, and all +faith in God was dead. The seven thousand who would not bow the knees +to the Deity of man were hanging off in fear and trembling, and +watching for the doom of the world. In France, old Voltaire worshipped +as a god. In Germany, the students at the universities caricaturing +the sacrifice of the mass at the doors of the beerhouses, and one +riding through the streets of Göttingen upon an ass, to try, as he +said, what must have been the feelings of the Saviour (Goethe, +_Wahrheit und Dichtung_). It was a time of which Jean Paul said, "Now +strikes the twelfth hour of the night; and the foul birds of night are +screaming, and spectres dance; the dead walk abroad, the living +dream." + +Tieck was born in the Roman Catholic Church; but he was brought up +without any religious teaching; and the Church herself in those dark +hours possessed but few or none of those outward marks of holiness +which could make him feel safe in trusting himself implicitly to her +guidance: the poison of infidelity was in her very heart; disgraced by +the grossest idolatry, her enemies battering furiously at her from +without, and she apparently helpless to resist them. It is not so now: +she too has felt the warm breath of spring that has since swept over +the face of the earth, and is waking her up to new life and energy; +yet, if even now such scenes as those of last summer at Treves can +shock the senses of the cultivated world, what must it have been then? +She was like a cracked bell that would not ring when it was struck. + +In a country, then, where there was no religion to which he could +trust,--no philosophy but an infidel one; in despair of external +guidance, Tieck was forced to the bold step of trying for himself what +all these systems were made of; of going down himself, and searching +the foundations on which they rested; what this nature of his really +was. He dared stand boldly up before the world, and look it in the +face, and ask it what it was. And the still more awful questions he +asked of his own heart: What am I? How came I here? What is my +business here? It is a fiery trial; and woe to him who fails! Better +he had never been born! It is a sphinx he has to answer: if he find +not the solution of the riddle, the monster will devour him. And few +hearts but will quail, and few cheeks but will blanch, and few heads +but will reel, with those bottomless abysses of scepticism yawning +round. But it is like the Catholic legend of the purgatory of St. +Patrick. Few of those who ventured in ever returned to tell the tale; +but those who did were safe for ever. A man knows too well the value +of the true, when he has been at such cost in the pursuit of it, to +risk the losing of it again. "Abdallah" and "William Lovell," the two +first books of any importance which Tieck published, shew him in the +centre of the fearful struggle, wrestling with those two first +unanswerable questions. And so at last he was content to leave them. +To the last question he wrung out an answer from the depths of his own +being; he comes now to offer it to us--a true teacher, if a stern one: +and we shall do well to listen to his words; for the solemn +earnestness which breathes through every line he has written shews how +deeply he has read the mystery of life. The tales in the present +volume were written in the first period after he emerged into a calmer +and clearer light; and to these for the rest of this Preface we shall +confine ourselves. We have said enough to account for their peculiar +character externally; and the consideration of his later writings had +better be left to another opportunity: to speak of them now would be +but criticism without an object; before long some of them will be +produced before the public, and what is to be said will be said then. +Great things have happened in Germany since that time: a literature +has sprung up almost without parallel for depth, and richness, and +originality; and schools of poetry and philosophy various as those of +Athens. Tieck has led one school, Goethe another; and if officious +followers attempted to push them into rivalry, each knew his own place +too well for such unnatural feud to endure. + +The first startling feature, then, in all the characters in these +tales is their terrible reality. In all the circumstances of the wild +and wonderful, the supernatural working visibly, and interfering in +the direction and control for good and evil of the affairs of the +world; instead of finding the persons of the same fantastic character, +such as we might naturally expect, as harmonising better with the +elements in which they work; instead of saints with power of working +miracles, or the ideal heroes of the age of chivalry,--we have the +very men and women which we ourselves are, and such as we see every +day around us. Excepting, perhaps, Goethe, no one knew his own age +better than Tieck: he is a modern poet in every sense of the word; and +that is why we claim so high a place for him. + +The true poet of any time is he who can make that time +transparent--who can let his readers in behind the curtain of their +own souls and that of the society in which they live, and shew them +what they are all doing, hoping, fearing--clear up their cloudy +perceptions, and say for them what they would say for themselves if +they could. This is exactly what Tieck does. His Emilius's, Egberts, +Ludwigs,--what are they all, but the very men of whom every day he +walked into the street he saw thousands? No matter what the conditions +be under which he pictures them working, his men are real men, not +fantastic; and that is all we have any right to require. + +Yet I may say something about these marvellous conditions in which +they appear; for perhaps even they are not so unreal as they seem. + +It is only because we are used to them that this world and the beings +that inhabit it do not seem wonderful. There is nothing in the +phenomena which surround us abstractedly more reasonable than any +other set might be which worked by fixed rules. As a matter of fact we +experience one class, but that is all. It is not that one is wonderful +and the other simple, as people seem to assume. This world we live in +is, indeed, teeming with wonders. The poet has but to hold a +magnifying-glass before it, and forthwith a thousand new forms of +beauty start out before our eyes; and what before seemed most +beautiful has become a monster. There are, indeed, poets who can +produce the highest effect without any such magnifying; and the world +as mirrored in their minds appears transfigured, its form and +proportions continuing all the same. Yet the number of such spirits +as have appeared on this planet of ours we may count upon our fingers, +and of those who are fit to read and understand them the ratio is the +same. Even Shakspere does not at times disdain the aid of the +supernatural; and the idea of nature, as Tieck offers it, even its +wildest and most fantastic form, is far deeper and nearer the truth +than is the dull, common-place, lifeless thing which most men seem to +regard it as. The question, however, is one which he will best qualify +people to answer for themselves. + +Most of the tales in the present volume belong to the "Phantasus." A +party of persons meet together for conversation on various subjects of +art and literature, and these stories, with sundry other dramas, are +read aloud by different members of the society. They are introduced +with the following prefatory dialogue:-- + +"It is not at every moment, nor every time we choose to turn to her," +said Antony, "that Nature will unfold her secrets to us; or rather, it +is not always that we are in the mood to feel her sacredness. There +must first be a harmony in ourselves, if we are to find what surrounds +us harmonious; otherwise we do but cheat ourselves with empty phrases, +without ever rising to a true enjoyment of beauty. It may be, perhaps, +that there are times when unexpectedly some blessed influence descends +out of Heaven upon our hearts, and unlocks the door of inspiration; +but towards this we can add nothing. We have no right, no means of +looking for it; it is a revelation within us we know not how. So much +is certain, that it is not above twice, or at most three times, in a +man's life that he has the fortune, in any true sense, to see a +sunrise. When we do see it, it does not pass away like a summer cloud +before our minds; rather it forms one of the great epochs in our +lives. From such ecstatic feelings as we receive then it is long and +long ere we recover; by the side of these exalted moments years +dwindle into nothingness. But it is only in the calmness of solitude +that these high gifts can descend upon us. A party collecting itself +to see it as a sight on the top of a mountain, is only standing as it +were before an exhibition at a theatre, and can bring from it nothing +but the same kind of empty pleasure and foolish criticisms." + +"Still stranger is it," said Ernest, "that the great majority of men +are so dead to that awe and wonder, that fearful amazement with which +Nature often fills some minds. If they can feel it, it is only as an +obscure bewildered sensation of they know not what." + +"It is not only on the dreary peaks of the St. Gothard that we can +feel the terribleness of Nature. There are times when the most +beautiful scene is full of spectres that fly shrieking and screaming +across our hearts. Such strange shadowy forms, such wild forebodings, +go often hunting up and down our fancy, that we are fain to fly from +them in terror, and rid ourselves of our phantom rider, by plunging +into the dissipations of the world. While under such influences wild +poems and stories often rise up in us to people the dreary chaos of +desolation, and adorn it with creations of art; and these forms and +figures will be unconscious betrayers of the tone and temper of the +mind in which they spring. In these kind of stories the beautiful +mingles itself with the terrible, the sublime with the childish, +goading our fancy into a kind of poetic madness, and then turning it +to roam at will through the entire fabric of our souls." + +"Are the stories you are going to read to us of this kind?" asked +Clara. + +"Perhaps," replied Ernest. + +"And not allegorical?" + +"As you please to call them. There is not, and there cannot be any +creation of art which has not some kind of allegory at the bottom of +it, however little it may let itself be seen. The two forms of good +and evil appear in every poem; they meet us at every turn, in every +thing man produces, as the one eternal riddle in an endless +multiplicity of forms, which he is for ever struggling to resolve. As +there are particular aspects in which the most every-day life appears +like a myth, so it is possible to feel oneself in as close connexion +with, as much at home in the middle of the wildest wonders as the +ordinary incidents of life. One may go so far as to say, that the +commonest, simplest, pleasantest things, as well as the most +marvellous, can only be said to be true, can only exert an influence +on our minds, in so far as they contain some allegory as their +groundwork, as the link which connects them with the system of the +universe. This is why Dante's allegories come so home to us, because +they pierce through and through to the very heart and centre of +reality. Novalis says, there is no real history, except what might be +fable. Of course, there are many weak and sickly poems of this kind, +which merely drag wearily on to the moral, without taking the +imagination along with them; and these of all the different sorts of +instruction or entertainment are the most tiresome. But it is time to +proceed to our tales." + + * * * * * + +And here we would gladly leave this matter, and let the tales tell +their own story. What their idea is as a whole, they speak plainly +enough; and it would be to destroy their effect, as well as to +misunderstand the whole theory of this kind of fiction, to translate +them into a series of moral reflections, and append a didactic +sentiment to them as to one of Æsop's fables. And yet English readers +will not be content with a suggestion of allegory; they will be asking +for meanings, and requiring to have the whole matter laid out before +them in fair, plain characters of black and white; so that +notwithstanding my full consciousness of the general undesirableness +and the unphilosophical nature of such a proceeding, I will offer a +few general remarks, in the way of elucidation, for three or four of +these stories, which shall put people on the scent to find the real +meaning, not only of these stories in particular, but in general of +any such as may be brought before them. Consoling myself, therefore, +with the reflection that a preface is always read, as it is written, +the last thing in a book, and that in that case my explanation can +hurt no one, and may be of some profit to those who have failed to see +any thing for themselves, I proceed. + +"Egbert," "Eckhart," and the "Runenberg," naturally form into a group +together. They are different exhibitions of very similar ideas, and it +will be enough to explain one. I should advise people, however, to +read the three together straightforward, and then try to analyse for +themselves the impression left upon their minds. Perhaps it may be +something of this sort: that a single sin unrepented of and unatoned +for becomes a destiny; a seed from which, however diminutive and +trifling it may look, a whole life of crime and wickedness shoots up +as a matter of course, perhaps inevitably. Cause and effect, effect +and cause, going on producing and reproducing each other, each +successive step leading further and deeper into the mire, return +becoming more and more difficult, and at last impossible. + +Look at Christian in the "Runenberg." He is born to a calm and serene +life of tranquillity and peace; affectionate parents--a simple routine +of the gentlest and most beautiful of all nature's choicest +occupations--far away from all temptation--secure from every danger--a +home that ought to have given him all, and more than all, of enjoyment +and content,--whose life could promise more happily than his? Yet he +has no love, no heart, no feeling for it. His sense of duty is not +strong enough to set him to work; he finds it dull and uninteresting; +he craves for excitement, for something new. The _plain_ life is not +grand enough to suit his exalted aspirations: he must go to the +mountains, to the ups and downs, and rough and rugged ways of the +world, where he may climb, and hunt, and seek a broader range for +activity and enjoyment; he does not think of asking leave--he goes; he +never regrets leaving home; and at first finds all bright, and gay, +and delightful sunshine. The happy, happy hunting-time; and who so +happy in it as Christian? But it soon palls--it does not satisfy. The +cup is poisoned, there is a gall and wormwood in the taste the sweet +leaves behind; and again he thinks of home. He sings his old song; but +the words come wearily and listlessly--he has no heart for hunting any +more. He wishes to be at home again; but he makes no effort. The +mysterious mandrake in sympathy with his old life wakes up and speaks +to him. It is the warning-voice of conscience; but he dreams on. The +tempter comes, and he is lost irretrievably. The moment of return is +offered--now or never! and he refuses. He does not stay among the +mountains; he flies away to the plains beyond; he flings off, as he +fondly believes, the dark mysterious incidents of that night, as a +wild and impious dream; he thinks he is what he was; away he goes +again to the plains to his old employment, and he is happy, +industrious, contented in it. Every thing again looks smooth, and +bright, and beautiful; but he has not _gone back_, and now he may not. +What should have been for his peace, now is but a further snare to +make him fancy all is right with him. He does indeed set out to seek +his father, but wearily and unwillingly. His way would have led him +back over the mountains; but there he is not permitted to go. The +object of his journey comes to meet him; they go back together; he +becomes more and more prosperous, and sinks deeper and deeper into his +fatal delusion. Yet the fatal tablet is in his heart, the bond by +which he is bound to evil; even on his wedding-night he cannot forget +the giver. At length the long-smothered poison burst out with all its +fury, and flowers touch his heart no more. He curses them and nature; +the warning mandrake, instead of the voice of conscience, is but a +revelation of the power of evil. It has but taught him to despair, and +seek his friends elsewhere; and he is lost for ever. + +Of the more awful person in this fearful story I will not speak; but +for the outline of the fate of Christian, who can look round him into +the most ordinary life, and not see innumerable instances of it? The +burden of the other two stories is very similar: the way to understand +them is to try and analyse the feelings left on our mind by the whole, +and not distract ourselves by assuming a fancied meaning, and +speculating with the particulars to make each fragment fit our theory. +Do not let us perplex ourselves to find out what the little dog is, +what is the meaning of the bird, and the old woman. They may have many +meanings; but we shall never find them by beginning at that end. It is +only by the light of the whole that the parts become intelligible. + +"The Love-charm" is a work of a different nature; it is one of the +most remarkable of all Tieck's writings, and, as far as we know, +stands alone among the productions of modern art. With the help of a +popular German superstition, he has woven a tragedy out of the +ordinary events of every-day life, the spirit of which approaches as +near as modern thought can be made to approach to the fatalism of the +Greek drama. A destiny of some kind, either moral or external, is +essential to tragedy. What we mean by "the terrible" as applied to +human action, is, that the free will of man is laid under the +influence of some external power, which he has little or no ability to +resist, which hurries him on through a series of action and incident, +from which, if in full possession of his self-control, he would shrink +in horror. Thus, in common life the crimes men commit under the +influence of any of the loftier passions, such as love or revenge, or +when goaded on by famine or despair, or which men do in ignorance, +when the ignorance may partially, but not entirely, be their own +fault, are terrible, and therefore tragic. The individual seems to be +sacrificed, not to deserve all that has fallen on him; his fate +becomes one of the startling mysteries of life. The meaner or more +selfish the passion under which the crime is committed, or the cooler +and more deliberate the action, the more what he does loses the +character of tragic, and becomes merely disgusting. Pity goes with +terror, and in such cases there can be no pity. The destiny in +Shakspere's tragedies is a moral one; not an external power +constraining, but an internal power impelling; working not against, +but in and through the will. Such was the influence of his father's +spirit on Hamlet, Hecate and the Witches on Macbeth, Iago's intellect +on Othello, and so on with the rest. The Greek destiny, though in our +way of thinking less human, is more terrible even than that of +Shakspere. The sins of the fathers visited on the children, curses +continuing to work generation after generation, and the helpless +struggle of the victim only precipitating him into a darker +doom--there is a stern grandeur about this form of thought; it is a +feature of a broader philosophy than ours to bear to see the +individual sacrificed, and believe that in some mysterious way the +well-being of the whole is furthered by it, "with calm self-surrender +to hear the murderer's hand upon a brother's throat, yet stand with +upturned unquailing eyes before the everlasting Providence." It is a +scheme of thought so unlike ours that we can hardly realise it, it is +so like a monster to us. Yet this Love-charm is an attempt to do it; +and although the spell is but over a single person, and forms no +portion of a broad scheme of Providence; although for the stately +forms of kings and heroes stalking across the stage, we have but the +ball-going ladies and gentlemen of the eighteenth century, and but an +old witch for the Delphic oracle, or the gods appearing in visible +form; few people can rise from reading it without having been made to +feel that this life, after all, is a stranger thing than they have +been in the habit of imagining. + +Emilius's character is eminently tragic. He has every feature which +can interest us, without that moral or religious force in him which +would make us feel shocked at his fate. The Greeks felt that good and +holy men were no fitter subjects of tragedy than very wicked ones. +There is something revolting ([Greek: miarhon]) in the idea that a +good man can be allowed even in ignorance to fall into crime. Whatever +be the mysterious ways of Providence; whatever fearful power there may +be abroad, working on and influencing the destinies of mankind; what +indeed is the meaning of the prince of the power of the air, or +whether there be really such an element as chance; this, at least, we +must believe, that the good man is in the hands of the Highest, and +that the laws of nature would sooner be reversed than he be let fall +from His hands. But Emilius is a dreamer, whose power exhausts itself +in speculation, and never acts at all except on impulse: without +firmness, without will to give oneness of design and consistency to +his actions, this character--which is _no law_ to itself, which will +not command itself, no matter how pure may be in general its purposes, +or how lofty its aspirations--is exactly the one most open to be laid +under the spell of some other force. Every man's life, taken from +beginning to end, looked back upon presents an exhibition of some one +law or principle; whatever it be, in the end it is found to be +tolerably uniform and consistent: its principle may be an internal one +of will and conscience; if it is not this, if it grows not out of +self-command, it is pretty sure to be some more fatally perilous one. + +Emilius is admirably worked throughout. Contrast his feelings towards +man and nature, and life and love, as they appear in the first short +poem, and what they have become a few hours later, merely from the +excitement and irritation produced by the ball. The scene of the +village-marriage, the young man's warmth and nobleness, and exquisite +susceptibility, are introduced to heighten our pity for his fate; +while the way in which he is led to it, in a dreamy mood, listlessly +yielding to the caprice of a wayward companion, and not from any real +wish to find out want and relieve suffering, reduces the value of the +action to a mere gratification of a passion, and thus, while it +deepens our sympathy, adds nothing to our respect. The concluding +scene is so magnificent, that we cannot run the risk of injuring its +effect by offering any criticism on it; and with these few words we +leave the "Love-charm." + +In "Eckhart" and the "Runenberg" we have seen some of the moral trials +which meet men on first starting into life. In the "Friends" we have +the lighter kind of speculative. A very little philosophy serves to +teach us how very unreal every thing is that passes before our eyes; +how it all takes a colouring from our spirits; how the very same thing +appears almost contradictory to different people, or to the same +person in different moods; that we do not so much see things +themselves, as our own image thrown into them. Accordingly, men begin +to crave for a truer insight; they try to clear their intellect of the +gauzy film of feeling, and see things as they are. Ludwig, a young +indolent dreamer, full of all this kind of sentimental longing to be +rid of sentimentality, is on his way to visit a sick friend. He sits +down in the heat of the day under a tree to indulge in the pleasure of +a little disconsolate reflection on his friend's melancholy letter, +and insensibly falls off into a sleep, and dreams. At once he finds +all the difficulties of the world solved for him, all his highest +aspirations satisfied. The chasm that divides the worlds of sense and +spirit is bridged over; his mind meets its true objects. The earth he +despised he is now relieved from; the deceptions of nature all vanish; +he sees things as they are; he is in the real world of truth and +beauty; nothing is subjective any longer; he breathes a real genuine +objectivity; all mortal weaknesses, and with them love, may not enter +here; the phantoms of his childhood flit before him again, but no +longer as they were; they are transfigured into the cold sublimity of +Grecian goddesses. Alas! he is far from satisfied; after the first few +days of rapture, he would gladly be on earth again. He wished to be as +the gods; his wish is granted, and among the gods he cannot live. This +cold world may be a very grand place, but it is not for such as him. +Like Lessing's Phoenix, at first sight the dwellers here seem +beautiful beyond all conception; the second glance shews that if a man +will be like them he must be content to be the only one of his race, +with none to love him and none that he can love. "He is like the +spirits he can comprehend, not like them." The truth he sought, he +finds he has left behind; the old earth is his true home; and men, be +they what they will, are his brothers. His friend comes to meet him; +but he does not know him again, because here for the first time he +sees him as he is, while before he had only seen in him the image of +himself. If this be truth, he is sick of it; he sighs for the +deception again, if deception it was that had been so delightful; he +wakes to find his vision but a dream, in the sweet reality of his +friend's embrace. + +The "Elves," the last story which we shall notice, is of a far more +solemn character; with all its beauty, it has a sad dirge-like tone. +Written fourteen years later than the others, it is now the true +poet's lament over the hard insensibility of the world to its true +good. The world of spirit lies stretched out under the eyes of the +children of earth; the invisible visible; but from earth and to +earthly perceptions, dull, gloomy, unattractive. To the busy practical +man of business, to the prudential economist, the man of +understanding, the workers in it seem but idle, worthless vagabonds; +these lazy good-for-nothings, that scarcely till the ground, are never +seen at church, and shew no symptom of respectability; why do they +cumber the earth? the talk is of cage and pillory for them; no child +of theirs may approach the unhallowed precincts. Accident leads a +young girl beyond the boundary, and then how changed is every thing! +The dull scene has become more brilliant than the gardens of Aladdin; +scales fall from her eyes; now it is the old world that is dark and +gloomy. Down among the mysteries of the fountains of Nature, she sees +her now no longer yielding reluctantly an unwilling pittance to the +sweat of the labour of man, but _uncursed_. At the word of the +dwellers in that enchanted land, her choicest fruits and flowers she +pours out in lavish abundance. The spirits of the elements work +visibly there, and the mortal sees them, and knows now who are the +true benefactors of mankind. Time and space exist not for these pure +beings. Seven years are gone in one night, and the narrow fir-clump +contains the garden of Eden. + +The mortal goes back to earth: what she has seen she may not tell. +These esoteric secrets of the poet are not for the crawling animal who +cannot hold himself upright, nor turn his eyes to heaven, and who only +knows the sun by the sight of his own shadow: but one of them she +weds; and the child of these two--oh, what may we not hope from that +child! Alas, in vain! In vain, from the secret labours of these +beautiful beings, the brooks run fresh and full, and the fields +overflow with plenty. Men will not see; in the midst of their +abundance they curse the author of it. In an evil hour of weakness the +initiated betrays the secret, and then all is gone. The gloom of the +fir-clump vanishes; it becomes like any other. The gipsy rabble are +gone; what all men hated, they are relieved of; but with this comes +the loss, too, of all they prized--their corn, their wine, and +fruitful trees. Famine comes, and drought and pestilence; the elfin +child dies, and all is ruin and disaster. They see not their tokens. +There is not one prophet more. What a deep philosophy runs through all +this! + +Have we heard our prophets? At the end of the last century one said:-- + +"Yes, another era is already dawning upon earth, when it shall be +light, when man shall wake from high and lofty dreams; and these +dreams he shall find realised, and that he has lost nothing but sleep. + +"The rocks and stones which two veiled figures, Sin and Destiny, like +Deucalion and Pyrrha, fling behind them at their true prophet, shall +rise and be new men. + +"And at the sunset gate of this age stands written, 'Here lies the way +to wisdom and to virtue;' as at the west gate of the Chersonese the +proud writing, 'Here lies the way to Byzantium.' + +"O eternal Providence, thou wilt that it shall be light!" + +Whether this prophecy be fulfilled or fulfilling, and whether Germany +has yet done any thing to the accomplishment of it, is for time to +shew. So much is clear, that not here in England only, but all Europe +over, there is a move forward--a cry of hunger and thirst for +something deeper and truer; and to this move no living man has more +contributed than Ludwig Tieck. He is the last, the only survivor of +the noble band of German poets; and Europe has not a man of whom she +is more justly proud. + +The morning of his life broke in storm and tempest. Like some infant +river just starting from its snowy cradle in its native mountains, +foaming and dashing down its narrow bed, bounding from rock to rock, +and powdering the air with vapour, which catches the sun's rays as it +rises, and shivers them into a thousand brilliant hues,--his strong +mind broke fiercely and impetuously from the clouds of error, and +unbelief, and freezing scepticism, in which it was nurtured; at first, +with loud questionings of fate, troubled and dark, yet, with all its +fallings, flinging round itself in the wildest profusion rays and +flashes of exquisite beauty. It rolls on down from its mountains; it +has swept now over every rock and shoal, and flows on calm, serene, +and deep, and clear through smiling fields, and woods, and villages, +and happy men and women, bearing on its broad bosom all who trust +themselves on it for profit or enjoyment, from the tiny pleasure-boat +of the young lover to the tall ship sweeping proudly forward, laden +with the choicest fruits and produce of every clime. As the heavens +draw up the water from the ocean, and, lading their clouds with it, +bear it off into the centre of huge continents, and with it start new +fountains into life, which again, winding as veins through all lands, +and scattering blessings as they go, flow back at last into their +parent sea,--so in all ages pure wisdom, entering into lofty spirits, +sends them down through their generation, scoring out deep channels on +it as they pass: the stream of life and light makes its way again to +the source from which it came; but with this mortal life it ceases not +to flow: its recipients become the veins of the world, and while the +world lasts they endure--as the channels of truth where men drink and +live. And one of them is TIECK. + + J. A. F. + + + + +THE RECONCILIATION. + + +Twilight was already gathering, when a young knight, mounted on his +charger, trotted through a lonely vale: the clouds grew gradually +darker, and the glow of evening paler: a little brook murmured softly +along, concealed by the mountain bushes that overhung it. + +The knight sighed, and surrendered himself to thought; the bridle hung +loose on the horse's neck; the steed itself no longer felt the rider's +spur, and now paced slowly along the narrow path that wound round the +precipitous rock. + +The noise of the little brook waxed louder; the clang of the hoof rung +through the solitude; the shades of evening grew deeper, and the ruins +of an old castle lay wondrously poised on the precipice of the +opposite mountain. The knight became more and more absorbed in +thought; he gazed fixedly and vacantly on the darkness, scarcely +noticing the objects that environed him. + +Now the moon rose behind him: her splendour tipped tree and shrub with +gold: the valley narrowed apace, and the shadow of the knight reached +to the opposite hill: the streamlet went foaming, all silver, over the +broken rocks, and a nightingale began her ravishing song, till it soon +sounded clearer from the forest. The knight now saw a crooked-grown +willow before him, that fell over the brook, while the water flowed +through its weeping branches. On a nearer approach, its dark outline +assumed a more decided form, and he now distinctly descried the figure +of a monk, bending low over the stream. He let the faint ripple flow +through the hollow of his hand, while a low and plaintive voice +exclaimed, "She comes not, she comes not! ah, in an eternity she'll +not float by!" + +The steed shied: a sudden dread took possession of the rider: he +struck both spurs into his charger's flanks, and loudly neighing, it +galloped away with him. + +The narrow path now grew wider, and led into a thick wood of oak, +through whose densely woven branches the moon could but sparely shoot +her beams. The knight soon stood before a cave, from which a small +fire shone invitation towards him: he alighted, tied his horse to a +tree, and entered the hollow. + +Before a wooden crucifix kneeled an aged hermit in deep devotion; he +was not aware of the knight's entrance, but still continued in fervent +prayer. A long white beard flowed down over his breast: years had +ploughed deep furrows in his brow: his eyes were dim: he had the +seeming of a saint. The knight took his stand at some distance from +him, folded his hands across his breast, and repeated some Ave-Marias. +Then the old man arose, dried a tear in his eye, and observed the +stranger in his dwelling. + +"Welcome to thee!" cried he, and offered the stranger a hand trembling +with age. + +The knight pressed it warmly; he felt his soul yearn towards him, and +his reverence was transmuted into love. + +"You did right to turn in here," continued the hermit, "for you will +not find a village or a hostelry for many a league. But why so silent? +Draw near to the fire and rest, and I will serve up such a little meal +as this cave of mine can best supply." + +The knight took the helmet from his head: his brown locks fell adown +his neck: the old man gazed on him with a searching glance. + +"Why does your eye wander so shily and unfixedly about?" he resumed, +in a friendly tone. + +The knight seemed to be collecting his thoughts. "A strange feeling of +awe," replied he, "has seized on me since riding through that valley. +Explain to me, if you can, the singular phenomenon which I there +beheld: or perhaps it is not a spirit, but an inhabitant of these +parts: and yet that is impossible; I saw him wave to and fro like the +misty vapour in the gleam of the rising moon; and a cold thrill of +fear drove me this way. Explain to me the riddle and the words which I +heard through the whispering of the bushes." + +"You saw the apparition?" said the hermit inquiringly, in a tone which +betrayed a warm interest in the event; "well, be seated at the fire, +and I will tell you the unhappy tale." + +Both took their places. The old man appeared lost in thought. The +knight was all attention; and after a short silence the hermit began: + +"It is now thirty years since I roamed the land in quest of adventures +and strife, just as you do now; since my locks flowed, just as yours +do, over my shoulders, and my glance with equal boldness confronted +danger. Grief has made me a decrepit old man before my time; not a +trace can you now discover of the lusty warrior, who at that time won +the respect of knighthood and the hearts of lovely girls. All is as a +dream to me now, and my joys and sorrows are shrouded in the twilight +distance. Farewell, ye happy days! scarce a faint glimmer from you now +can reach my cold worn heart. + +"I had a brother, who was only two years older than myself. We were +like each other in form and feeling, except that he was more impetuous +and stormy, and more especially inclined to be passionate. We loved +each other fondly; we shared no pleasure apart; in every conflict he +fought at my side; we seemed to live but for one another. + +"He became acquainted with a lady, whose love soon formed him to an +accomplished man. Her tenderness tempered his boisterous spirit; she +taught him that gentleness which is essential to every man who will +appear amiable in the eye of his friend. Clara became his wife; and +after the lapse of a year, the mother of a boy. Nothing now seemed +wanting to his happiness. + +"About this time the signal of the cross was again raised against the +infidels. Fired with holy zeal he girt on the sword, took the sign of +the Redeemer on his cloak, and marched forth with the enthusiast +throng to peril and to fame. My entreaties and his wife's tears were +too weak to detain him; the fervour of his enthusiasm tore him from +our arms. Ah, heavens! I still hoped at that time that we should have +the delight of seeing him once more: I foreboded dangers for him, but +not those sad events which have beguiled my life of every joy. + +"We now looked in vain for news: our anxious impatience suggested to +us a thousand mishaps, and fed us again with increased hope. Week +after week, and month after month passed away without our expectation +being in the smallest degree satisfied. To be sure, we heard that on +their march to the Holy Land discomforts of a thousand kinds had +befallen the crusaders; that they had been attacked by savage hordes, +and given up to misery and want; that the greater part of them had +been scattered in the woods, there to become a prey to hunger or the +wild beasts. But we had no special news of my brother, and we were +obliged to accustom ourselves to the thought that he too belonged to +the greater number of those unfortunates. His desolate widow wept for +him daily, and gave little ear to the weak grounds of consolation that +issued from the dejected heart of a suffering brother. + +"Five long sorrowful years were thus passed in lamentation and tears, +when I beheld at a tournament the daughter of William of Orlaburg. Oh, +sir knight, let me dwell for a moment on this brilliant epoch of my +life, and refresh my soul on the beautiful past. Ah, a rapturous +spring rose upon me, but winter returned all the colder to my heart: +not a flower remains to me of all those sunny days; a spiteful +hurricane has snapt them all away. Ida of Orlaburg was the most +charming creature of her sex: graceful and full of majesty, her lofty +figure claimed respect of every one, and her charitable temper won +every heart. She united the loveliness of woman with the nobility of +manly strength. + +"At a tournament given by her father, she saw Clara; her soul was +interested by the deep sorrow which spoke in the features of the +desolate wife. In misfortune, friendships are the most quickly and the +most lastingly formed. They saw each other very often; they loved each +other like two sisters, that had grown up together and shared each +other's every thought; and on the death of Ida's father, Clara had her +friend a constant guest at her castle. Ida it was who at last dried +the tears from eyes that were dim with weeping; who taught her to +smile again at the rising of the sun, and who, as I saw her so often, +at last robbed me of my heart and of my peace. + +"I experienced all the torments and all the ecstacies of love; my +nights were sleepless, my days without repose; the world lay extended +more beautifully before me; a charm and a loveliness sprang up every +where beneath my footsteps; an impetuous longing hurried me to her; +and yet in her presence my heart beat still more madly. + +"Am I not a child to speak to you so diffusely of my folly? In a few +months I disclosed to her my love; with an angel voice she assured me +of her attachment; we were betrothed, and--oh, who could participate +in my sense of happiness!--in two months we were to be married. How +did I reckon up every day and every hour! The tide of time flowed past +me in vexatious dilatoriness; I wanted to see it roll along in a +foaming torrent at my feet. + +"At last a messenger reached us with news of my brother. It was a +knight from Spain who had seen him in Africa. Corsairs had taken the +vessel in which he sailed, and sold him as a slave in Tunis. A very +high price was set on his liberty. + +"We were more pleased than saddened by this news, because we had +already taken his death for certain. Clara now dried her tears, and +surrendered herself to her joy. She got together the required sum as +quickly as possible, and made preparations to travel to her husband. + +"The stranger knight was in fact returning to Spain, and Clara +proposed setting out in his company; while Ida, who found it +impossible to part from her friend, resolved to accompany her in +knightly costume. + +"My most urgent expostulations were in vain, and I was at last obliged +to yield to their united entreaties. My brother's infant son was +consigned to the protection of a convent. They took their departure, +and, full of foreboding, my weeping eye followed them. + +"How I burned with desire to accompany them! but I was entangled in a +feud, in which I had promised a friend my succour, and my pledged word +bound me to Germany. Ah! in an ill-fated hour they departed; I never +beheld them more. + +"From that moment begins the dark period of my life. I was successful +in the feud. Oh, that I had fallen beneath the sword of an enemy, to +have escaped long years of torture, and the frightful hours in which +I first--oh, forgive me these tears! they still often flow at the +remembrance of Ida and my brother: age cannot so blunt our sympathies +that pain may not sometimes return with new force to our bosoms. + +"On their journey Ida was seized with the unhappy fancy of not +discovering herself to my brother till they all should have reached +their native country again, in order that she might then surprise him +the more joyfully as my bride. They arrived in Spain, and sent the +required sum to Tunis. The prisoner was liberated; on the wings of +affection he hastened over the sea, and forgot on Clara's bosom, in +one moment of rapture, the sufferings which he had endured for years. + +"Ida was soon presented to him as a friend; he received her kindly, +and enjoyed for some days in the society of his spouse that happiness +which he had so long been deprived of. But his eyes were soon rivetted +on Ida: he observed the tender connexion subsisting between her and +his wife, and suspicion kindled in his soul. 'She is untrue to me,' +cried he when alone; 'she divides her heart between me and this +hateful stranger!' + +"He now watched them both more closely than before, and soon thought +his suspicions justified; he thought he could discover a tenderness +which neither of them even took pains to conceal. By degrees he became +colder towards his wife, hiding the wound she had inflicted; whilst +she on her part, unconstrainedly and without the shadow of fear, +shared her affections with her consort and her friend. + +"Jealousy raged in my brother's bosom; he began to hate Clara and her +companion; he imputed a significancy to every look and every gesture; +the rancour within him robbed him of his sleep, or suspicion appalled +him in hideous dreams. + +"'For this, then, I came across the sea,' said he to himself; 'these +are the joys of meeting; these, then, are the delights of my love. I +am come to be the prey of racking torture. I find my home again at +the side of a faithless wife, and she herself meets me only that she +may the earlier proclaim to me her effrontery and her broken vows.' + +"He made an old squire the confidant of his chagrin: both now watched +the two friends with an indefatigable vigilance; they beheld a +thousand proofs of the supposed infidelity, without in the least +conjecturing the true posture of affairs; my brother's fury rose more +and more, and a dark resolve at last began to ripen in his breast. + +"It happened that he was with them and a faithful servant in a small +boat. The moon was up, and the shallop drifted slowly down the gentle +stream; he sat in cold unconsciousness by Clara, who had laid her hand +in his. He caught her eye with a searching glance; her husband seemed +strange to her, and abashed she sunk her head. Ida had seized her +other hand. + +"'Traitress!' cried he of a sudden; 'impostor! who sport with the +peace of a man, with truth, and truth's best vows!' Ah! at that moment +his good genius forsook him!--gnashing his teeth, he plunged his +dagger into Clara's bosom: Ida sank lifeless at the side of her +friend; he grasped the bloody poniard, raised the reeking blade, and +smote my Ida to the heart. + +"The dying Clara discovered to him his error. Her blood floated down +the stream. The film gathered in her eye. For a long time he stood +like one entranced; then sprang into the river, swam unconsciously to +land, and, deaf and dumb, without sensation or words of woe, he set +out on his return to Germany. + +"Thus, then, an ill-starred jest was the wreck of my every hope and +joy. In the mean time, I stood at a window of the castle, anxiously +awaiting the return of those I loved. Often was I aroused from my +musing mood by the hoof-tramp of horses: my eye wandered vacantly over +field and hill, while a joyful thrill passed through me at the sight +of a female figure. + +"At length came a knight dashing up on a black charger: it was my +brother. But ah, my joy was vain; his countenance was haggard, his +eyes rolled wildly, his heart beat impetuously. + +"'Where are Ida and Clara?' cried I. + +"A tear was the answer; he hung speechless on my neck. + +"'In the grave,' said he at length, violently sobbing. + +"O heavens! those were fearful hours that I then went through! My fist +trembled, my heart throbbed convulsively; a low voice whispered murder +and vengeance in my ears: but I saw my brother's wretchedness--I +forgave him; and well it is for me that I did so. + +"Oh, that he could have forgiven himself! But his misery and his crime +were present day and night to his soul. Clara came back to him in his +dreams, and shewed him the dagger reeking with her heart's warm blood. +From that hour he never smiled again. + +"'I am condemned to the most ghastly misery,' cried he, as he grasped +me by the hand; 'nor on the other side of the grave shall I be at +rest; my spirit will wander still in quest of Clara, and still never +find her: a fearful future drags its slow length in review before me. +Ah, my brother! even in death there is no more hope for me.' + +"My heart was broken; but my life seemed now granted that I might +console him. We left the castle, and laid aside our knightly garb; we +shrouded ourselves in holy weeds, and thus we went wayfaring through +the dark woods and over the desert plains, till this cavern at last +received us. + +"Often would my brother stand for long, long days by that rivulet, +gazing vacantly on the waters; even in the night he was sometimes +there; and then he would sit on a sundered fragment of the rock, while +his tears trickled down into the stream. My efforts to console him +were all in vain. + +"At last he revealed to me that Clara had appeared to him in a dream; +but she never could be reconciled, she said, till her blood should +float down that little brook; and for this reason he sat on the bank, +counting and watching the waves, in the eager hope of again finding +the drops that had gushed from her heart in that fatal hour. + +"I wept at the sight of my brother's madness; I tried to rid him of +the thought, but it was impossible. 'Ah!' cried he, 'and in distant +Spain her blood was shed; it flowed down the stream into the sea: how +long will it be before it returns hitherward to the springs?' + +"Now he scarcely ever left the brook--his sorrow and his delusion +increased with every day: at last he died of a broken heart. I buried +him by my cave. + +"Since then I have often seen his ghost sitting beside the stream: it +was always watching the passing ripple, and softly sighing, 'She comes +not--she comes not.' A thrill of horror runs through me every time, +and I pray till midnight for the peace of his soul." + + * * * * * + +The hermit ended; he cast down his eyes and silently counted his +beads. The knight had listened to the tale with anxious interest, and +after a few moments he inquired-- + +"And where was your brother's son left?" + +"We sought him in the convent," replied the old man, "but he had +clandestinely made his escape from the monks." + +"Your name?" + +"Why do you so fix your gaze upon me?--Ulfo of Waldburg." + +"O my uncle!" cried the knight, and threw himself on the bosom of the +astonished hermit. "Doubt not," cried he; "ah! that unhappy shade by +the rivulet is the spirit of my father." + +"Your father! his name was"-- + +"Charles of Waldburg. I ran away from the monks because their lonely +cloisters appeared a prison to me. I took service with a knight; and +now for some years I have been seeking you and my father." + +"O my son!" cried the old man, and locked him more fervently in his +arms; "yes, you are he: I know you by that sparkling eye; those are +your father's features and his chestnut locks." + +"O my unhappy father!" sighed the youth; "would that I could procure +his wandering spirit peace! would that my prayers could conciliate +Heaven and my mother's shade!" + +He stood in a musing mood, with his hands folded: "Uncle," cried he, +"what, if I have read aright the import of the dream? what, if my +mother's spirit had wished to direct the wretched man to me? Oh, come +now!" + +They left the cave. Clouds shrouded the moon; a hallowed stillness +spread its mantle over the world; they went into the lonely forest as +into a temple. Charles kneeled down on his father's grave. + +"Spirit of my father," said he in fervent prayer, "oh, hear thy son! +hearken to thy son, O my mother! and, gracious Heaven, let me not +implore thee in vain! Give rest to the unhappy one, and let the dread +pilgrim find a lodging in the grave. Oh, let me hear from thee, spirit +of my father, whether I conceived aright the sense of the prophecy! +Oh, grant me some sign that thou art reconciled with my mother's +ghost!" + +Like the soft echo of a flute came a breathing through the tree-tops: +two bright apparitions floated downwards in closely-wound embrace. +They came nearer. "We are reconciled," whispered a more than earthly +voice. Two hands were stretched forth over the kneeling one; and like +a light zephyr the words passed over him, "Be true to knighthood!" + +A cloud glided away from before the moon; and the phantoms dissolved +in her silver radiance. In glad amazement the two mortals gazed long +and lingeringly after them. + + + + +THE FRIENDS. + + +It was a beautiful spring morning, when Lewis Wandel went out to visit +a sick friend, in a village some miles distant from his dwelling. This +friend had written to him to say that he was lying dangerously ill, +and would gladly see him and speak to him once more. + +The cheerful sunshine now sparkled in the bright green bushes; the +birds twittered and leapt to and fro on the branches; the larks sang +merrily above the thin fleeting clouds; sweet scents rose from the +fresh meadows, and the fruit-trees of the garden were white and gay in +blossom. + +Lewis's eye roamed intoxicate around him; his soul seemed to expand; +but he thought of his invalid friend, and he bent forward in silent +dejection. Nature had decked herself all in vain, so serenely and so +brightly; his fancy could only picture to him the sick bed and his +suffering brother. + +"How song is sounding from every bough!" cried he; "the notes of the +birds mingle in sweet unison with the whisper of the leaves; and yet +in the distance, through all the charm of the concert, come the sighs +of the sick one." + +Whilst he thus communed, a troop of gaily-clad peasant girls issued +from the village; they all gave him a friendly salutation, and told +him that they were on their merry way to a wedding; that work was over +for that day, and had to give place to festivity. He listened to their +tale, and still their merriment rang in the distance on his ear; still +he caught the sound of their songs, and became more and more +sorrowful. In the wood he took his seat on a dismantled tree, drew the +oft-read letter from his pocket, and ran through it once more:-- + +"My very dear friend,--I cannot tell why you have so utterly forgotten +me, that I receive no news from you. I am not surprised that men +forsake me; but it heartily pains me to think that you too care +nothing about me. I am dangerously ill; a fever saps my strength: if +you delay visiting me any longer, I cannot promise you that you will +see me again. All nature revives, and feels fresh and strong; I alone +sink lower in languor; the returning warmth cannot animate me; I see +not the green fields, nothing but the tree that rustles before my +window, and sings death-songs to my thoughts; my bosom is pent, my +breathing is hard; and often I think the walls of my room will press +closer together and crush me. The rest of you in the world are holding +the most beautiful festival of life, whilst I must languish in the +dwelling of sickness. Gladly would I dispense with spring, if I could +but see your dear face once more: but you that are in health never +earnestly think what it really is to be ill, and how dear to us then, +in our helplessness, the visit of a friend is: you do not know how to +prize those precious minutes of consolation, because the whole world +receives you in the warmth and the fervour of its friendship. Ah! if +you did but know, as I do, how terrible is death, and how still more +terrible it is to be ill,--O Lewis, how would you hasten then to +behold once more this frail form, that you have hitherto called your +friend, and that by and by will be so ruthlessly dismembered! If I +were well, I would haste to meet you, or fancy that you may perhaps be +ill at this moment. If I never see you again--farewell." + +What a painful impression did the suffering depicted in this letter +make upon Lewis's heart, amid the liveliness of Nature, as she lay in +brilliancy before him! He melted into tears, and rested his head on +his hand.--"Carol now, ye foresters," thought he; "for ye know no +lamentation; ye lead a buoyant poetic existence, and for this are +those swift pinions granted you; oh, how happy are ye, that ye need +not mourn: warm summer calls you, and ye wish for nothing more; ye +dance forth to meet it, and when winter is advancing, ye are gone! O +light-winged merry forest-life, how do I envy thee! Why are so many +heavy cares burdened upon poor man's heart? Why may he not love +without purchasing his love by wailing--his happiness by misery? Life +purls on like a fleeting rivulet beneath his feet, and quenches not +his thirst, his fervid longing." + +He became more and more absorbed in thought, and at last he rose and +pursued his way through the thick forest. "If I could but help him," +cried he; "if Nature could but supply me with a means of saving him; +but as it is, I feel nothing but my own impotency, and the pain of +losing my friend. In my childhood I used to believe in enchantment and +its supernatural aids; would I now could hope in them as happily as +then!" + +He quickened his steps; and involuntarily all the remembrances of the +earliest years of his childhood crowded back upon him: he followed +those forms of loveliness, and was soon entangled in such a labyrinth +as not to notice the objects that surrounded him. He had forgotten +that it was spring--that his friend was ill: he hearkened to the +wondrous melodies, which came borne, as if from distant shores, upon +his ear: all that was most strange united itself to what was most +ordinary: his whole soul was transmuted. From the far vista of memory, +from the abyss of the past, all those forms were summoned forth that +ever had enraptured or tormented him; all those dubious phantoms were +aroused, that flutter formlessly about us, and gather in dizzy hum +around our heads. Puppets, the toys of childhood, and spectres, danced +along before him, and so mantled over the green turf, that he could +not see a single flower at his feet. First love encircled him with its +twilight morning gleam, and let down its sparkling rainbow over the +mead: his earliest sorrows glided past him in review, and threatened +to greet him in the same guise at the end of his pilgrimage. Lewis +sought to arrest all these changeful feelings, and to retain a +consciousness of self amid the magic of enjoyment,--but in vain. Like +enigmatic books, with figures grotesquely gay, that open for a moment +and in a moment are closed, so unstably and fleetingly all floated +before his soul. + +The wood opened, and in the open country on one side lay some old +ruins, encompassed with watch-towers and ramparts. Lewis was +astonished at having advanced so quickly amid his dreams. He emerged +from his melancholy, as he did from the shades of the wood; for often +the pictures within us are but the reflection of outward objects. Now +rose on him, like the morning sun, the memory of his first poetical +enjoyments, of his earliest appreciations of that luscious harmony +which many a human ear never inhales. + +"How incomprehensibly," said he, "did those things commingle then, +which seemed to me eternally parted by such vast chasms; my most +undefined presentiments assumed a form and outline, and gleamed on me +in the shape of a thousand subordinate phantoms, which till then I had +never descried! So names were found me for things that I had long +wished to speak of: I became recipient of earth's fairest treasures, +which my yearning heart had so long sought for in vain: and how much +have I to thank thee for since then, divine power of fancy and of +poetry! How hast thou smoothed for me the path of life, that erst +appeared so rough and perplexed! Ever hast thou revealed to me new +sources of enjoyment and happiness, so that no arid desert presents +itself to me now: every stream of sweet voluptuous inspiration hath +wound its way through my earth-born heart: I have become intoxicate +with bliss, and have communed with beings of heaven." + +The sun sank below the horizon, and Lewis was astonished that it was +already evening. He was insensible of fatigue, and was still far from +the point which he had wished to reach before night: he stood still, +without being able to understand how the crimson of evening could be +so early mantling the clouds; how the shadows of every thing were so +long, while the nightingale warbled her song of wail in the thicket. +He looked around him: the old ruins lay far in the background, clad in +blushing splendour; and he doubted whether he had not strayed from the +direct and well-known road. + +Now he remembered a phantasy of his early childhood, that till that +moment had never recurred to him: it was a female form of awe, that +glided before him over the lonely fields: she never looked round, yet +he was compelled, against his will, to follow her, and to be drawn on +into unknown scenes, without in the least being able to extricate +himself from her power. A slight thrill of fear came over him, and yet +he found it impossible to obtain a more distinct recollection of that +figure, or to usher back his mind into the frame, in which this image +had first appeared to him. He sought to individualise all these +singular sensations, when, looking round by chance, he really found +himself on a spot which, often as he had been that way, he had never +seen before. + +"Am I spell-bound?" cried he; "or have my dreams and fancies crazed +me? Is it the wonderful effect of solitude that makes me +irrecognisable to myself; or do spirits and genii hover round me and +hold my senses in thrall? Sooth, if I cannot enfranchise myself from +myself, I will await that woman-phantom that floated before me in +every lonely place in my childhood." + +He endeavoured to rid himself of every kind of phantasy, in order to +get into the right road again; but his recollections became more and +more perplexed; the flowers at his feet grew larger, the red glow of +evening more brilliant, and wondrously shaped clouds hung drooping on +the earth, like the curtains of some mystic scene that was soon to +unfold itself. A ringing murmur arose from the high grass, and the +blades bowed to one another, as if in friendly converse; while a light +warm spring rain dropped pattering amongst them, as if to wake every +slumbering harmony in wood, and bush, and flower. Now all was rife +with song and sound; a thousand sweet voices held promiscuous parley; +song entwined itself in song, and tone in tone; while in the waning +crimson of eve lay countless blue butterflies rocking, with its +radiance sparkling from their wavy wings. Lewis fancied himself in a +dream, when the heavy dark-red clouds suddenly rose again, and a vast +prospect opened on him in unfathomable distance. In the sunshine lay a +gorgeous plain, sparkling with verdant forests and dewy underwood. In +its centre glittered a palace of a myriad hues, as if composed all of +undulating rainbows and gold and jewels: a passing stream reflected +its various brilliancy, and a soft crimson æther environed this hall +of enchantment: strange birds, he had never seen before, flew about, +sportively flapping each other with their red and green wings: larger +nightingales warbled their clear notes to the echoing landscape: +lambent flames shot through the green grass, flickering here and +there, and then darting in coils round the mansion. Lewis drew nearer, +and heard ravishing voices sing the following words:-- + + Traveller from earth below, + Wend thee not farther, + In our hall's magic glow + Bide with us rather. + Hast thou with longing scann'd + Joy's distant morrow, + Cast away sorrow, + And enter the wish'd-for land. + +Without further scruple, Lewis stepped to the shining threshold, and +lingering but a moment ere he set his foot on the polished stone, he +entered. The gates closed after him. + +"Hitherward! hitherward!" cried invisible lips, as from the inmost +recesses of the palace; and with loudly throbbing heart he followed +the voices. All his cares, all his olden remembrances were cast away: +his inmost bosom rang with the songs that outwardly encompassed him: +his every regret was stilled: his every conscious and unconscious wish +was satisfied. The summoning voices grew so loud, that the whole +building re-echoed them, and still he could not find their origin, +though he long seemed to have been standing in the central hall of the +palace. + +At length a ruddy-cheeked boy stepped up to him, and saluted the +stranger guest: he led him through magnificent chambers, full of +splendour and melody, and at last entered the garden, where Lewis, as +he said, was expected. Entranced he followed his guide, and the most +delicious fragrance from a thousand flowers floated forth to meet him. +Broad shady walks received them. Lewis's dizzy gaze could scarcely +gain the tops of the high immemorial trees: bright-coloured birds sat +perched upon the branches: children were playing on guitars in the +shade, and they and the birds sang to the music. Fountains shot up, +with the clear red of morning sparkling upon them: the flowers were as +high as shrubs, and parted spontaneously as the wanderer pressed +through them. He had never before felt the hallowed sensations that +then enkindled in him; never had such pure heavenly enjoyment been +revealed to him: he was over-happy. + +But bells of silver sound rang through the trees, and their tops were +bowed: the birds and children with the guitars were hushed: the +rose-buds unfolded: and the boy now conducted the stranger into the +midst of a brilliant assembly. + +Lovely dames of lofty form were seated on beautiful hanks of turf, in +earnest conference. They were above the usual height of the human +race, and their more than earthly beauty had at the same time +something of awe in it, from which the heart shrunk back in alarm. +Lewis dared not interrupt their conversation: it seemed as if he were +among the god-like forms of Homer's song, where every thought must be +excluded that formed the converse of mortals. Odd little spirits stood +round, as ready ministers, waiting attentively for the wink of the +moment that should summon them from their posture of quietude: they +fixed their glances on the stranger, and then looked jeeringly and +significantly at each other. At last the beautiful women ceased +speaking, and beckoned Lewis to approach; he was still standing with +an embarrassed air, and drew near to them with trembling. + +"Be not alarmed," said the fairest of them all; "you are welcome to us +here, and we have long been expecting you: long have you wished to be +in our abode,--are you satisfied now?" + +"Oh, how unspeakably happy I am!" exclaimed Lewis; "all my dearest +dreams have met with their fulfillment, all my most daring wishes are +gratified now: yes, I am, I live among them. How it has happened so, I +cannot comprehend: sufficient for me, that it is so. Why should I +raise a new wail over this enigma, ere my olden lamentations are +scarcely at an end?" + +"Is this life," asked the lady, "very different from your former one?" + +"My former life," said Lewis, "I can scarcely remember. But has, then, +this golden state of existence fallen to my lot? this beautiful state, +after which my every sense and prescience so ardently aspired; to +which every wish wandered, that I could conceive in fancy, or realise +in my inmost thought; though its image, veiled in mist, seemed ever +strange in me--and is it, then, mine at last? have I, then, achieved +this new existence, and does it hold me in its embrace? Oh, pardon me, +I know not what I say in my delirium of ecstacy, and might well weigh +my words more carefully in such an assemblage." + +The lady signed; and in a moment every minister was in motion: there +was a stirring among the trees, every where a running to and fro, and +speedily a banquet was placed before Lewis of fair fruits and fragrant +wines. He sat down again, and music rose anew on the air. Rows of +beautiful boys and girls sped round him, intertwined in the dance, +while uncouth little cobolds lent life to the scene, and excited loud +laughter by their ludicrous gambols. Lewis noted every sound and every +gesture: he seemed newly-born since his initiation into this joyous +existence. "Why," thought he, "are those hopes and reveries of ours so +often laughed at, that pass into fulfilment sooner than ever had been +expected? Where, then, is that border-mark between truth and error +which mortals are ever ready with such temerity to set up? Oh, I ought +in my former life to have wandered oftener from the way, and then +perhaps I should have ripened all the earlier for this happy +transmutation." + +The dance died away; the sun sank to rest; the august dames arose; +Lewis too left his seat, and accompanied them on their walk through +the quiet garden. The nightingales were complaining in a softened +tone, and a wondrous moon rose above the horizon. The blossoms opened +to its silver radiance, and every leaf kindled in its gleam; the wide +avenues became of a glow, casting shadows of a singular green; red +clouds slumbered on the green grass of the fields; the fountains +turned to gold, and played high in the clear air of heaven. + +"Now you will wish to sleep," said the loveliest of the ladies, and +shewed the enraptured wanderer a shadowy bower, strewed with soft turf +and yielding cushions. Then they left him, and he was alone. + +He sat down and watched the magic twilight glimmering through the +thickly-woven foliage. "How strange is this!" said he to himself: +"perhaps I am now only asleep, and I may dream that I am sleeping a +second time, and may have a dream in my dream; and so it may go on for +ever, and no human power ever be able to awake me. No! unbeliever that +I am! it is beautiful reality that animates me now, and my former +state perhaps was but the dream of gloom." He lay down, and light +breezes played round him. Perfume was wafted on the air, and little +birds sang lulling songs. In his dreams he fancied the garden all +around him changed: the tall trees withered away; the golden moon +fallen from the sky, leaving a dismal gap behind her; instead of the +watery jet from the fountains, little genii gushed out, caracoling +over each in the air, and assuming the strangest attitudes. Notes of +woe supplanted the sweetness of song, and every trace of that happy +abode had vanished. Lewis awoke amid impressions of fear, and chid +himself for still feeding his fancy in the perverse manner of the +habitants of earth, who mingle all received images in rude disorder, +and present them again in this garb in a dream. A lovely morning broke +over the scene, and the ladies saluted him again. He spoke to them +more intrepidly, and was to-day more inclined to cheerfulness, as the +surrounding world had less power to astonish him. He contemplated the +garden and the palace, and fed upon the magnificence and the wonders +that he met there. Thus he lived many days happily, in the belief +that his felicity was incapable of increase. + +But sometimes the crowing of a cock seemed to sound in the vicinity; +and then the whole edifice would tremble, and his companions turn +pale: this generally happened of an evening, and soon afterwards they +retired to rest. Then often there would come a thought of earth into +Lewis's soul; then he would often lean out of the windows of the +glittering palace to arrest and fix these fleeting remembrances, and +to get a glimpse of the high road again, which, as he thought, must +pass that way. In this sort of mood, he was one afternoon alone, +musing within himself why it was just as impossible for him then to +recall a distinct remembrance of the world, as formerly it had been to +feel a presage of this poetic place of sojourn,--when all at once a +post-horn seemed to sound in the distance, and the rattle of +carriage-wheels to make themselves heard. "How strangely," said he to +himself, "does a faint gleam, a slight reminiscence of earth, break +upon my delight--rendering me melancholy and dejected! Then, do I lack +anything here? Is my happiness still incomplete?" + +The beautiful women returned. "What do you wish for?" said they, in a +tone of concern; "you seem sad." + +"You will laugh," replied Lewis; "yet grant me one favour more. In +that other life I had a friend, whom I now but faintly remember: he is +ill, I think; restore him by your skill." + +"Your wish is already gratified," said they. + +"But," said Lewis, "vouchsafe me two questions." + +"Speak!" + +"Does no gleam of love fall on this wondrous world? Does no friendship +perambulate these bowers? I thought the morning blush of spring-love +would be eternal here, which in that other life is too prone to be +extinguished, and which men afterwards speak of as of a fable. To +confess to you the truth, I feel an unspeakable yearning after those +sensations." + +"Then you long for earth again?" + +"Oh, never!" cried Lewis; "for in that cold earth I used to sigh for +friendship and for love, and they came not near me. The longing for +those feelings had to supply the place of those feelings themselves; +and for that reason I turned my aspirations hitherward, and hoped here +to find every thing in the most beautiful harmony." + +"Fool!" said the venerable woman: "so on earth you sighed for earth, +and knew not what you did in wishing to be here; you have overshot +your desires, and substituted phantasies for the sensations of +mortals." + +"Then who are ye?" cried Lewis, astounded. + +"We are the old fairies," said she, "of whom you surely must have +heard long ago. If you ardently long for earth, you will return +thither again. Our kingdom flourishes when mortals are shrouded in +night; but their day is _our_ night. Our sway is of ancient date, and +will long endure. It abides invisibly among men--to your eye alone has +it been revealed." + +She turned away, and Lewis remembered that it was the same form which +had resistlessly dragged him after it in his youth, and of which he +felt a secret dread. He followed now also, crying, "No, I will not go +back to earth! I will stay here!" "So, then," said he to himself, "I +devined this lofty being even in my childhood! And so the solution of +many a riddle, which we are too idle to investigate, may be within +ourselves." + +He went on much further than usual, till the fairy garden was soon +left far behind him. He stood on a romantic mountain-range, where the +ivy clambered in wild tresses up the rocks; cliff was piled on cliff, +and awe and grandeur seemed to hold universal sway. Then there came a +wandering stranger to him, who accosted him kindly, and addressed him +thus:--"Glad I am, after all, to see you again." + +"I know you not," said Lewis. + +"That may well be," replied the other; "but once you thought you knew +me well. I am your late sick friend." + +"Impossible! you are quite a stranger to me!" + +"Only," said the stranger, "because to-day you see me for the first +time in my true form: till now you only found in me a reflection of +yourself. You are right too in remaining here; for there is no love, +no friendship--not here, I mean, where all illusion vanishes." + +Lewis sat down and wept. + +"What ails you?" said the stranger. + +"That it is you--you who were the friend of my youth: is not that +mournful enough? Oh, come back with me to our dear, dear earth, where +we shall know each other once more under illusive forms--where there +exists the superstition of friendship! What am I doing here?" + +"What will that avail?" answered the stranger. "You will want to be +back again; earth is not bright enough for you: the flowers are too +small for you, the song too suppressed. Colour there, cannot emerge so +brilliantly from the shade; flowers there are of small comfort, and so +prone to fade; the little birds think of their death, and sing in +modest constraint: but here every thing is on a scale of grandeur." + +"Oh, I will be contented!" cried Lewis, as the tears gushed profusely +from his eyes. "Do but come back with me, and be my friend once more; +let us leave this desert, this glittering misery!" + +Thus saying, he opened his eyes, for some one was shaking him roughly. +Over him leant the friendly but pale face of his once sick friend. +"But are you dead?" cried Lewis. + +"Recovered am I, wicked sleeper," he replied. "Is it thus you visit +your sick friend? Come along with me; my carriage is waiting there, +and a thunder-storm is rising." + +Lewis rose: in his sleep he had glided off the trunk of the tree; his +friend's letter lay open beside him. "So am I really on the earth +again?" he exclaimed with joy; "really? and is this no new dream?" + +"You will not escape from earth," answered his friend with a smile; +and both were locked in heart-felt embraces. + +"How happy I am," said Lewis, "that I have you once more, that I feel +as I used to do, and that you are well again!" + +"Suddenly," replied his friend, "I felt ill; and as suddenly I was +well again. So I wished to go to you, and do away with the alarm that +my letter must have caused you; and here, half-way, I find you +asleep." + +"I do not deserve your love at all," said Lewis. + +"Why?" + +"Because I just now doubted of your friendship." + +"But only in sleep." + +"It would be strange enough though," said Lewis, "if there really were +such things as fairies." + +"There are such, of a certainty," replied the other; "but it is all a +fable, that their whole pleasure is to make men happy. They plant +those wishes in our bosoms which we ourselves do not know of; those +over-wrought pretensions--that super-human covetousness of super-human +gifts; so that in our desponding delirium we afterwards despise the +beautiful earth with all its glorious stores." + +Lewis answered with a pressure of the hand. + + + + +THE ELVES. + + +"Where is Maria, our child?" asked the father. + +"She is playing on the green," replied the mother, "with our +neighbour's son." + +"Do not let them run away," said the father anxiously; "they are so +thoughtless." + +The mother attended to the wants of the little ones, and gave them +their supper. + +"The weather is hot, mother," said the boy; and the little maiden +longed exceedingly to have some red cherries. + +"Be careful, child," said the mother; "do not run too far from the +house, or into the wood; your father and I are going into the field." + +"Oh, do not be anxious on that account," was the prompt reply of +young Andrew, "for we are all afraid of the wood; we will remain here +sitting at home, where we are near to the men." + +The mother went in, and soon returned with the father. They closed +their cottage, and turned towards the fields to look after the +peasants, and to see the hay-harvest in the meadows. + +Their dwelling was situated on a little green eminence, fenced round +by an ornamental hedge, which enclosed a fruit and flower garden; the +town lay a little lower down; and still further there rose in the +distance the towers of the baronial castle. Martin rented a large farm +of the lord, the proprietor, and lived in a happy state of contentment +with his wife and only child, as he was enabled, year by year, to lay +by something in reserve for the future, with the prospect of becoming +one day himself a man of property; for through his toil and industry +the land was fruitful, and the Count did not oppress him with undue +exactions. + +As he was walking towards the fields with his wife, he gazed joyously +around, and said, "How is it, Bridget, that the country about here is +so different from that in which we formerly lived? Here it is so green +and verdant; the whole town is beautified with thickly planted +fruit-trees; the soil teems with rich vegetation and shrubs; all the +houses are gay and cleanly--the inhabitants prosperous; indeed, it +would appear to me that the woods here are more majestic, and the sky +more blue; and as far as the eye can scan, we have pleasure in +beholding the bountiful earth." + +"But," said Brigitta, "to pass over to the other side of the river is +to migrate into quite another region, every thing there wears so +gloomy and withered an aspect; but as for our own hamlet, every +traveller confesses it to be the prettiest in the whole district." + +"Come, then, to the fir-plantation," answered her husband; "look back +and see how dark and dreary that spot seems in the distance, in the +midst of such a gay and animated landscape; the dusky huts behind the +dark firs; those detached buildings fallen into ruinous heaps; and +even the very stream flowing onwards so sadly and sluggishly." + +"That is true," said she, as they both stood still to gaze upon the +scene. "As often as one approaches the spot, one becomes sad and +sorrowful, one knows not why." + +"Who can the people really be? and why should they keep themselves at +such a distance from all the neighbourhood, avoiding any intercourse +with us, as though they were inwardly conscious of deeds of darkness?" + +"They are poor folk," said the young farmer; "seemingly of a +gipsy-tribe, who rob and pilfer at a distance off, and make this spot +perhaps their head-quarters: I wonder only that the baron allows them +to remain." + +"Possibly," said the woman kindly and compassionately, "they are poor +people, ashamed of their poverty; for, to speak the truth, we cannot +lay any crime, or even any trivial injury, to their charge; still it +is remarkable that they never go to church; and how they contrive to +subsist is strange enough, for their little garden, in itself a +perfect wilderness, cannot support them, and they have no +pasture-land." + +"God only knows," continued Martin, as they proceeded on their +way--"God only knows what they do; this at least is certain, that they +hold no intercourse; no stranger ever comes from, or goes to them; for +the spot where they dwell is bewitched and under ban, so that the +boldest young townsmen would hardly venture into it." + +This conversation continued through their walk to the fields. + +That dark district of which they spoke lay beyond the town in a hollow +that was surrounded on all sides by firs; there appeared to be a hut, +and several domestic buildings fast falling to decay. Smoke was seldom +seen to curl from it, still less frequently were any human beings +visible; at times some persons, led on by curiosity to venture +somewhat nearer, had seen on the rising ground in front of the hut +frightful old women, clad in uncouth rags, dandling equally frightful +and dirty children on their laps; black dogs prowled about continually +before the stream; and in the evening a monster of a man, whom no one +knew, passed over the bridge, and disappeared into the hut; then +several figures, like dim shadows, flitted along in the darkness, and +danced round about a fire which was heaped up on the earth: this +gloomy sport, the dark firs, and the ruinous huts, formed a most +singular contrast to the gay green landscape, the clear white houses +of the town, and the splendid new castle. + +The two children had eaten up all their fruit, and then began to run +races; and the little buoyant Maria outran, on each occasion, the +tardy Andrew. + +"That's no proof of your skill," he cried; "come, let us try a longer +distance, and then we'll see who shall be the conqueror." + +"As you please," said the little Maria; "only we must not run towards +the stream." + +"No," said Andrew; "but at the summit of that hill stands a large +pear-tree, about a quarter of a mile off. I will run to the left past +the fir-plantation, and you can go to the right through the fields; +and we shall not know, till we meet, which of us is the fastest +runner." + +"Good," said Maria, immediately starting off; "we shall not hinder +each other by going the same way, and our father says it is just the +same distance to the top of the hill, whether we go on this side, or +by the gipsy-huts." + +Andrew had already started off, and Maria, who ran towards the right, +saw him no more. + +"How very stupid he is!" said she to herself; "for if I could only +summon up courage enough to run over the bridge by the hut, and then +again out across the yard, I should certainly get there much sooner +than he will." She was already standing facing the stream and the +fir-hill. "Shall I?--No, it's too terrible." A little white dog stood +on the other side, keeping up a loud and continued bark at her. In her +fright the little animal appeared a perfect monster, and she sprang +back trembling. "Oh dear," said she, "Andrew has by this time got such +a long distance before me, while I'm stopping here to consider." The +little dog still barked on; and as she looked at it more attentively, +it no longer struck her as being so terrible, but, on the contrary, +she was quite charmed with it. It had a red collar, to which was +affixed a tiny glittering bell; and as often as it raised its head and +shook it, while barking, the tinkling noise it produced was to her +ears most musical. "Oh, I'll venture," cried little Maria; "I'll run +as fast as I can, and I shall soon be on the other side; they surely +can't eat me entirely." With this the young courageous child sprang on +the bridge, and quickly passed the little dog, who immediately ceased +his barking to fawn upon her. And now she was standing on the dread +spot; and the black firs, that were thickly grouped together, shut out +from her view the home of her fathers, and the rest of the pretty +landscape. But how amazed was she at the spectacle before her! + +Around her was a most brilliant expanse of flower-garden, in which +roses, lilies, and tulips, intertwining with one another, shone in all +those gorgeous colours in which Nature loves to garb her bright +creations; blue and golden butterflies fluttered about from blossom to +blossom, glittering as the sunbeams danced upon their fairy livery; +birds, whose plumage borrowed the tints of the rainbow, and whose tiny +throats quivered again as each note swelled forth more delicious than +the last, hung on cages and on glittering perches; children in short +white garments, with golden hair hanging in luxuriant curls, and clear +blue eyes, sported about, some leading little pet-lambs, others +feeding the birds; some culled the fragrant flowers, and wove garlands +for one another; others were tasting the delicious fruits--pears, +large clusters of grapes, and red apricots: no hut was visible, but a +large handsome mansion, with gates of brass and wood of exquisite +workmanship, towered on high in the middle of this paradise. Maria was +rivetted to the spot; indeed, the beauty of the garden and the +magnificence of the mansion had taken so firm a hold on her fancy, +that some moments elapsed ere she recovered her surprise even +partially. But, as it had ever been the study of her parents to enable +her to appear composed, whatever novelty might offer itself to her, +she approached fearlessly the nearest child, and with extended hand +wished it good day. + +"So you have come to see us then at last," said the little girl; "I +have often seen you dancing and sporting without there, but you were +afraid of our little dog." + +"Then you are not gipsies and strollers, as Andrew says you are. Ah, +truly, he's very stupid, and talks a great deal too much." + +"Only stop with us here," said her new friend; "you shall be so +happy." + +"But we are running for a wager, and--" + +"Oh, you'll get back to him very soon; take some of our fruit." Maria +tasted it, and it proved so delicious to her palate, that she declared +she had never before eaten any like it; and from this moment Andrew, +the race, and the prohibition of her parents, were altogether +forgotten. Then a more elderly female, whose dress was still more +beautiful than any thing Maria had hitherto seen, stepped forward, and +made inquiry about the stranger-child. + +"Most beautiful lady," said Maria, "I ran in here by accident, and now +they wish to keep me here." + +"You know, Zerina," said the beautiful lady, "that there is a short +time only allowed her; besides, you should first of all have asked my +permission." + +"I thought," said the child, "as she had been allowed to cross the +bridge, that I might keep her; we have often seen her running about in +the fields, and you have yourself been pleased with her gay and +spirited air; and she will be obliged to leave us soon enough." + +"No, I will stay here," said Maria, "it is so charming here; and I +find the best things to play with here are strawberries and pears; it +is not half so fine outside." + +The golden-dressed lady now retired, smiling; and many of the children +playfully sported about Maria--laughing, and inviting her to join +their dance. Some brought her a pet-lamb or wonderful toys, others +brought novel instruments and played and sang to her; but she +preferred the little playfellow, her first friend, for she was the +most gentle and good-natured of all. The little Maria constantly cried +out, "I will always stop here, and you shall be my sisters;" at which +all the children smiled and embraced her. + +"Now then," said Zerina, "we shall have a fine game;" and running +hastily into the palace, she returned with a little golden basket, in +which were very fine glittering seeds. She took some in her delicate +little fingers, and strewed the grains upon the green turf; and +immediately they saw the grass heave and float about, as it were in +waves; and after a few moments, beautiful rose-trees sprang from the +ground, grew rapidly up, and suddenly burst themselves into their full +beauty, exhaling the sweetest odours that floated round them in the +air. Maria herself took some of the seed, and scattered it; and +immediately there sprang up at her feet white lilies and cloves of +every hue. At a motion of Zerina's, these flowers all disappeared, and +others still more beautiful sprang up in their place. + +"Now," said Zerina to the astonished child, "prepare yourself for +something still greater." She then placed two pine-cones in the +ground, and stamped on them violently with her feet: instantly two +green shrubs stood before them. "Grasp me firmly," said she; and Maria +threw her arms around her delicate waist, and felt herself rising up +into the air; for the trees grew beneath them with surprising +quickness. The tall pines swayed to and fro at the will of the +breeze, and the two children, locked in each other's arms, kissed each +other, while floating backwards in the red clouds of evening. The +other little ones clambered up and down the stems of the trees with +elastic step, and if by chance one impeded the progress of another, +the whole number raised a loud shout of laughter. Maria at length grew +terrified; and at some mystic words uttered by the little one, the +trees sank again gently into the earth, setting them down in the spot +from which they had raised them up. They then went through the brazen +gate of the palace; here many women, some younger, some older, all of +that degree of beauty that no pencil could portray, were seated round +a circular hall, feasting on the most delicious fruits, and listening +to a concert of most delightful and invisible harmony. + +Round the ceiling of the hall, which was studded with gold and gems, +representing the starry sphere, were palm-trees, plants, and shrubs, +between which children clambered and sported in most graceful groups. +The figures varied and glowed in more burning colours, according to +the tones of the music. At one time, green and blue, sparkling like +clear rays of light, prevailed. Then the colours paled away, and +purple and gold burst forth: then the naked children, amid the +fanciful clusters that the different flowers wove, seemed to be full +of life, and to inhale and exhale breath with their ruby-red lips, so +that their beautiful white teeth were visible, and the bright glances +of their clear blue eyes were seen from beneath their dark fringe. +From the hall, some steps of marble and jasper led into a large +subterraneous chamber. The floor of this room was covered with vast +heaps of gold and silver; diamonds, pearls, and gems of all colours +dazzled the eyes; large deep vessels stood around the walls, all +filled with precious stones, and gold wrought into curious devices, +and mystic characters, with such ingenuity as no artisan, however +skilful, could form. Many little dwarfs were occupied in sorting the +precious heaps, and in filling vessels with the riches; others, with +crooked legs and long red noses, dragged in heavy sacks, as millers +carry their corn, and bending forward, poured out the grains on the +earth: then they jumped to the right and left, and seized the +treasures as they rolled away; and it often happened, that through +their zeal and eagerness to recover them, they rolled one against the +other and fell heavily on the ground. They made frightful faces +whenever Maria laughed at their grotesque manner and hideous +deformity. Behind sat a little old man, wrinkled by age, whom Maria +saluted very respectfully, but he merely bent his head in answer to +her deferential salutation: he had a sceptre in his right hand, and a +crown encircled his brow; all the other dwarfs seemed to look up to +him as their chief and superior; his fiat was instantly obeyed, though +his commands were given by signs and motions. + +"What is the matter now?" said he in a surly tone, as the children +approached nearer to him. The timid Maria kept silence, but her little +playfellow answered, that they had only come to see the chamber. + +"What," said the old man peevishly, "will there always be these +childish freaks? is there never to be an end to this idling?" He then +turned his attention again to his work, and ordered the pieces of gold +to be weighed and collected together. Some of the dwarfs he despatched +in different directions; many, too, he scolded right heartily. + +At length Maria's curiosity got the better of her fear, and in an +eager manner she said to her little friend, "Who is that old man?" + +"Our metal-prince," said the little one, as they left the chamber. + +They soon found themselves in the open air, by the side of a large +lake; still no sun had appeared hitherto, nor could they see any sky +above them. Here a little boat received them, and Zerina took the helm +and steered their course very skilfully. They floated rapidly down the +lake, and when they had arrived at about the middle, Maria saw that a +thousand canals, streams, and rivulets, branched off in every +direction from this miniature sea. + +"These waters," said the bright-beaming child, "flow exactly under +your garden, irrigating the soil around; and hence it is that your +flowers bloom more beautifully and more fragrantly than others, and +that your fruits are so superior in flavour; from this stream we +launch into the great canal." On a sudden there rose to the surface +from every branch of these blue waters a countless number of beautiful +children, swimming and plunging up and down among the mimic waves; +many wore graceful coronets of flags and water-lilies, glittering as +though with gems from the drops of spray; others waved branches of red +and white coral; others again carried curious horns, tastefully +decorated with blue ribbons; then several beautiful women rose to the +surface, swimming about among the group of younger naiads, and at +times the children might be seen hanging on the necks of the women, +covering them with kisses. They all saluted the stranger party; and +through the midst of this grouped assemblage the little barque floated +on from the main stream into a smaller rivulet, which became gradually +narrower and narrower, and at the same time the depth of water +diminished till the little boat grounded on the shore. Here the group +of naiads, who had accompanied their tiny vessel, took leave of them; +and Zerina knocked against the rock, which immediately opened like a +magnificent doorway to admit them, and a female figure, of a glowing +red colour, assisted them to disembark. + +"Is all going on merrily?" inquired Zerina. + +"Ay, merrily indeed," replied the other; "you are ever on the wing; no +cloud of sorrow ever darkens your brow, but the sunshine of happiness +always lights up those features of yours, curling that lip with a +smile of joy." + +They mounted a winding staircase, and Maria suddenly found herself in +a most glittering hall, so that on entering, her eyes were dazzled +with the brilliant lights that burst in their full splendour upon +her. Deep-red tapestry covered the walls with a brilliant glow; and as +soon as her eye was familiar with the unusual halo that invested the +whole chamber, she perceived figures moving gracefully up and down in +the tapestry, of such exquisite beauty and delicate symmetry of form, +that her imagination could not paint any thing more lovely. Their +bodies appeared to be formed of crystal of a reddish tint, and so +transparent, that one might see the life-blood circulating in their +veins. They smiled at the stranger-child, and bowed courteously: but +when the little Maria wished to approach nearer, Zerina held her back +forcibly, exclaiming, "You will burn yourself, little Maria; what you +are gazing upon is all fire." + +Maria perceived the heat, and said to Zerina, "Why don't these +charming creatures come out and play with us?" + +"It is impossible," answered Zerina; "as you live in air, so they live +in fire; if you were to be taken out of your peculiar element, you +would languish and droop; in the same manner, if you were to transport +them into your element, they would perish." + +"Only look," said Maria, "how happy and joyous they seem; listen how +they shout and sing." + +"Below," said her little friend, "the fire-streams spread in every +direction throughout the whole earth, imparting heat to the +vegetation, and ripening the seed, till it shoots upward into a +fruitful plant: hence you have your flowers and fruits. These +fire-streams go side by side with the water-streams; and to their +mutual agency you owe all the herbage of your pasture-land, all the +beauties of your flower-garden, all the luscious produce of your +orchards: they are your great benefactors: without them your present +fruitful land would be a desolate wilderness; your flower-gardens +overrun with noxious weeds, and your orchard-trees blighted and dying +away. In consequence of such benefits resulting from them, they are +ever active, ever happy. But this heat is too great for a child of +air; come, let us return to the garden." + +There had been a great change in the atmosphere; the moonshine lay on +all the flowers, the birds were hushed, and the children were +slumbering on the greensward. + +"Happy, holy calmness," thought Maria; "Peace has certainly chosen her +retreat in these lovely regions; Contentment is linked with her; and +wherever they roam hand in hand, all is joy, all is tranquillity." + +But did Maria slumber? No; she and her little friend felt no +weariness; they roamed through the live-long summer night amid the +groves and sylvan avenues, prattling in youthful eloquence on the +wondrous spectacles that were before them. At day-break they refreshed +themselves with fruits and milk; and Maria said to her little +companion, "Let us go out to the fir-trees yonder; it will be a change +for us." + +"With all my heart," said Zerina; "then you can see our sentries at +the same time, and they will be sure to please you. They take their +stand upon the rampart between the trees." + +They walked on through the flower-garden, through beautiful thickets +peopled with nightingales; then they mounted the vine-hills, and +following the course of a clear crystal stream in its winding channel, +they arrived at the firs, and the high ground that formed the boundary +of the district. + +"How is it," said Maria, "that we have had such a long walk to reach +the firs here within, when the circuit on the outside is so small?" + +"I cannot say how it is," said the other; "but so it is." + +They ascended the hill to the dark firs, and the cold breeze blew upon +them from without. A dark cloud, extending far across the horizon, +seemed to hang over the whole district; and above them stood wondrous +forms with whitened faces, not unlike the hideous heads of the white +owl, and clad in folding mantles of coarse and shaggy wool, fanning +themselves from time to time with bats' wings. + +"How I long to laugh!" said Maria; "but yet I'm afraid." + +"Those," said Zerina, "are our careful watchmen; they stand here in +order to strike awe and consternation into any that may venture to +approach, and to deter any curious folks from getting an insight into +our regions. You see they are wrapped up closely, and protected from +the weather; that is because it is raining and freezing without; but +neither snow, nor wind, nor hail, can penetrate here within: here is +eternal spring--here the bright garb of summer never fades. Our +sentinels are very devoted to us; so that, although they are seldom +relieved, yet they willingly keep watch at their posts." + +"But who are you?" at length asked Maria; "have you any names by which +we may call you?" + +"We are called Elves," said her little friend; "they speak well of us +too in the world, as I understand." + +On retracing their way into the flower-garden they heard a great shout +in the meadows, which grew louder as they approached nearer to the +spot. + +"A large beautiful bird has arrived," shouted the children, as they +followed the flight of the majestic creature, as it sailed through the +air: all pushed on hastily in its track, and Maria and her young +friend could see young and old all pressing forward to the spot with +hasty steps: songs of rejoicing were heard on every side, and a sweet +strain of triumphal music from within came floating through the air to +them. They entered the hall, and saw the whole circuit filled with the +elfin-tribe, all gazing up at a vast bird of beautiful plumage, which +was describing slowly many revolutions around the dome of the +building. The music burst forth more gaily than ever, and the colours +and lights in the ceiling revolved more rapidly, and shot forth again +in brighter colours and more fantastic groups. At length the music +died away softly, and the majestic bird fluttered down upon a +splendid throne, suspended mid-way from the ceiling, beneath the +window which lighted the apartment from above. His plumage was a +mixture of purple and green, through which the most brilliant golden +streaks were to be seen; on his head was a clear, shining coronet of +feathers, glittering as though it were studded with precious stones; +his beak was of a deep red tint, and his legs of bright blue. When he +rose again into the air, all the colours blended together so uniquely +that the eye was perfectly enraptured with the gorgeous galaxy of +magnificence which it presented. But soon he opened his brilliant +beak, and warbled sweet melody more delicious than that of the +nightingale: his song swelled forth and grew more powerful, gushing +out like lovely rays of light, till the whole assembly shed tears of +delight. + +When he had ceased his song, all present bowed low before him; again +he flew around the cupola in circles, and sailing swiftly through the +entrance, soared again up to the blue sky, where he was soon lost to +the eye, appearing for a time a mere bright speck upon the horizon. + +"Why are you all so glad?" asked Maria, bending down to the beautiful +child, who appeared to her smaller than the day before. + +"The king is coming," answered the child; "many of us have never yet +seen him; and wherever he goes, thither happiness and prosperity +follow him. We have been eagerly longing for his presence for some +time past, and looking forward to his coming as anxiously as you +children of air look forward to spring and spring-flowers after a +tedious winter. And now he has announced to us his approach through +that beautiful and intelligent messenger, the Phoenix. He dwells +afar off in Arabia, and there only appears one of the species at the +same time in the world: when he grows old, he builds himself a nest of +balm and incense, and, setting it on fire, burns to death, singing at +the same time as beautifully as you have heard him to-day; then from +the odoriferous ashes he rises again into a new existence, and soars +aloft with fresh vigour and beauty. But now, dear little Maria, you +must go; the period of your stay with us has expired: when the king +comes, no stranger must dwell with us, nor even see him once." + +"But he will soon leave you again," said Maria fondly, "and then I +will return to you, and never quit you." + +"It cannot be," answered her friend; "the king will stay here twenty +years, or even longer; but he will make every thing change for you for +the better: there will be no storms to harm your crops, no hail to +destroy the early blossoms of your fruit-trees, no floods to overflow +your pasture-land." + +Here the golden-dressed lady stepped up to Maria. + +"You must indeed go," she said; "though we must all be sorry that the +time for your visit has elapsed. Take this ring, and wear it always in +remembrance of your elfin friends; but remember, when you quit this +spot, never to mention to any living soul the place where you have +been staying--never to reveal aught of the wonders you have been +permitted to see here. Should you ever be tempted to disclose this +great secret, beware of the evil results that must ensue--they will +fall heavily upon you, as well as upon us: we shall be obliged to quit +the spot for ever, and your fruitful fields will be transformed to a +desolate wilderness. Come, kiss your little playfellow once more, and +then farewell. Remember my last caution." + +Maria bade them a sad farewell, and retraced her steps to her own +home. As she was crossing the bridge, the little white dog barked at +her again, as he had done when she first approached, and shook his +little bell. She crossed over, and began for the first time to think +of her parents, and the happy home she had deserted through her +disobedience. She pictured to herself the anguish of a loving mother, +the silent though deep sorrow of her father, the alarm of the whole +hamlet, as soon as the news of her disappearance was noised abroad. +She then thought of Andrew's glee when he reached the winning-post, +and how his eager eye was turned in the direction that she had agreed +to come by, expecting to see her downcast look. She then called to +mind the caution she had received not to make the communication known, +for fear of the evil results: "however," said she, "if I were to tell +them, and insist upon the truth of my statement, I should find no one +to credit my story." As she was indulging in her reveries, two men +passed her and saluted her. + +"What a pretty girl!" said they, "where can such a beautiful creature +have come from?" + +She quickened her pace; but on looking round her she was struck with +amazement: the flowers that she had left yesterday so lovely and +fragrant were dead, and their sweet odour was gone; the trees, +yesterday so verdant, were now leafless and withered; new buildings +had sprung up around her--indeed it would seem that some mystic agency +had been at work on the spot--that the spirit of enchantment had +passed over the district, and wrought a change indeed. + +"Then it must all be a dream," said Maria, rubbing her eyes as though +wakening up from a deep slumber; "it must all be a dream; and the +strange and wonderful sights I have seen must be the effects of +fancy.--No, it certainly is reality, and I am standing near the bridge +where our house stood yesterday." + +She proceeded on to her home, perfectly bewildered by the change that +a day had wrought; and, with a feeling of embarrassment that can be +more naturally conceived than portrayed, she opened the door, and saw +her father sitting behind a table, at which were seated a lady and a +youth, both of whom Maria fancied she had never seen before. + +"Father, dear father," cried Maria, gazing round her with a look of +deep amazement, "say, where is my mother?" + +The lady immediately rose from her seat, and, rushing towards her, +looked at her with an earnestness of feeling that itself would have +told the grand secret, that it was no other than her mother, and +exclaimed, "Yes, you are,--no;" and then she seemed for a minute to +distrust her powers of recollection,--"yes, you are our dear, lost +Maria;" and the mother and daughter were instantly clasped in each +other's arms. + +Still Maria scarcely seemed to credit her senses.--"How," said she to +herself, "can one single day have produced this change?--not only are +the buildings altered, and the general appearance of the country, but +my mother also wears a more aged appearance: can this be the effect of +one little day?" + +"Who, then, is that young man?" she inquired of her mother, who was by +this time fully satisfied of her daughter's identity. + +"That," replied Martin, "is your old playfellow Andrew; you surely +have not entirely forgotten him; though certainly a lapse of seven +years must have made some little change in all of us. Seven years have +now passed away since you disappeared so suddenly; and so many +continued years of sorrow and anxiety rarely, I trust, fall to the lot +of any mortals. Where have you been this long time? Why did we not +hear of you?--for, although we all rejoice exceedingly to receive you +again, still you must satisfy us with the cause of your disappearance, +and with an account of what has befallen you in your separation from +us." + +"Seven years!" exclaimed Maria; "seven years do you say have passed?" + +"Yes," said Andrew, "it is so indeed. I arrived first at the +pear-tree, and that was seven years ago; and as you have only this +moment returned, I think I can claim the prize as victor." + +"You remember," said her father, "our leaving you with Andrew, while +we went into the harvest-field: on our return you were missing. Andrew +told us the story of the race, and that he saw no more of you after +the start. We searched diligently for you, and everybody through the +hamlet offered their assistance to endeavour to discover you. But our +attempts were fruitless, and we returned to our home broken-hearted, +having lost all we prized on earth, our only child. But tell us, how +did you contrive to lose yourself?--we thought you were so well +acquainted with the whole district as to render it a matter of +impossibility. Where have you been? how have you been living?" + +These questions embarrassed the poor Maria in no slight degree: for +how could she tell of the wondrous elves--of her dear little +playfellow Zerina--of the gold and precious stones, the lovely fruits, +the variegated flower-beds, the streams of gentle water, the children +sporting in the rivulets? How could she describe the crystal +fire-beings--the beautifully-feathered phoenix, the palace of the +elf-king, with its brazen-wrought gates, and its highly decorated +ceilings? How could she trace to their imaginations the hideous form +of the metal-prince, and the strange figures of the sentinels on the +rampart? But even if she had been able to depict all the spectacles +she had witnessed in their proper colours, would such a strange story +have appeared credible, or even plausible? But she had not forgotten +the last parting admonition of the golden lady--no, it was still +ringing in her ears--"tell not aught of the things you have seen or +heard; evil results will happen to you and us:" and then the smiling +features of her little elfin friend were visible to her mind's +eye,--and could she harm so dear a head? No, it was not in her +disposition to injure any one, even should it not be likely to draw +down danger upon herself. + +"Where have you been?" again asked Martin. + +"As soon as I started off in the race," said Maria, "I was snatched +up, and carried off to a distance. I did not know the country," she +continued, "and could not get any communication to you: I seized the +first opportunity to make my escape, and have once more reached you." + +However strange and incredible this may have appeared, as it certainly +did, to her parents, still they were so happy to receive their lost +child, and to heap blessings on her head for cherishing such feelings +of love and affection towards them during her long absence, that they +forgot the mystery that seemed to invest her statement, in the joy +they experienced in having her again beneath the roof of her fathers. +He who can appreciate the joy with which a parent clasps to her bosom +a long-lost child, can readily pardon the seeming indifference as to +the cause of her separation. Andrew remained the whole evening, and +shared their frugal supper. But how great was the change to poor +Maria! Where were the chambers glittering with gold and gems? where +the costly tapestries? where the sweet odours floating about in the +air? where the strains of divine harmony that were wafted to her ears +but yesterday by every breeze? They were no longer--they lived but in +her memory. And she gazed with a dissatisfied air at the meanness of +her father's dwelling; and thought how gloomy it was after the +brightness of the palace; and, indulging her fancy, she dreamt of +Zerina and the little elves, and gladly availed herself of an +opportunity to seek her chamber for the night, where she might dwell +upon the strange events of one day apparently--of seven years in +reality. + +Andrew returned on the following morning, seemingly anxious to spend +as much time as possible in the society of his first playfellow, +Maria. The news of her return spread rapidly through the hamlet, and +many were the hearty congratulations poured forth, mingled with +blessings, on her youthful head. It at length reached the ears of the +noble proprietor of the castle, who sent for her, and listened to her +statement with no little surprise and wonder: they were struck with +her vivacity of spirit, tempered with unassuming modesty, and with her +plain unvarnished tale;--so well hitherto had she concealed in her own +bosom any feeling that might have thrown a shade of suspicion on her +story, and brought to light the awful secret of which she was +possessed. It was now the month of February; but the whole country +wore that rich appearance which a more matured season of the year +induces: the trees were clad in their brilliant green livery; the +nightingale's notes were already to be heard in the woods; and never +had such an early or so lovely a spring gladdened the earth before in +the recollection of the most aged villager. The hills seemed to +increase in size; the vines planted on them shot forth more numerous +tendrils, and the thick clusters, that promised an abundant vintage, +were already peeping forth among the leaves; the fruit-trees were +covered with blossoms, and there had been no hail to crush the produce +in the bud, no blight to destroy the hopes of the farmer at a more +advanced season. The following year wore the same happy appearance; +the harvest was still more abundant than before, and at the conclusion +of their toil Maria assented to the wishes of her parents and crowned +their joy by becoming Andrew's bride. Still she would often dwell upon +the happy days that were passed behind the fir-trees, till she grew +silent and serious, but more beautiful each succeeding day. It pained +her too, as often as Andrew talked of the gipsies and vagabonds, and +prayed that the Baron might some day purge his estate of such +worthless characters, as he styled them. On such occasions the +temptation of defending her benefactors was great indeed; but whenever +Andrew mentioned the subject she was more silent than before, in +consequence of her knowledge of the result of such a communication. +Thus matters went on steadily for a year, at the end of which time +they were blessed with a daughter, whom Maria named Elfrida--the name +doubtless having reference to those kind beings whose home she had +once shared, and who were at that time the secret agents in working +the grand changes that had taken place. + +Elfrida was a very intelligent child from her birth, and ran about +alone and prattled ere a twelvemonth had passed over her head. As she +grew older, her singular beauty was the remark of every one, and her +quick perception astonished them: she did not associate with other +children, but seemed to shun their sports, and avoid their company, +retiring frequently into an arbour or some secret spot, and passing +the hours in reading or working, and indulging her love of solitude. +Old Martin rejoiced to see the bloom of health on the cheek of his +grandchild, and to trace the rapid development of her intellect; but +Brigitta was constantly saying, "That child will not see many +years--she is too good, too beautiful for earth; she will smile on us +here for a time, but she will soon be carried off to a happier home +than we can give her." The child was never in need of any +assistance--she rose with the lark, and was off immediately to her +chosen retreat: but on one occasion, when they were going to the +castle, Maria insisted on dressing her child, who resisted her with +prayers and tears, begging and entreating that her mother would leave +her. Maria persevered, and on stripping her discovered a singular +piece of gold, corresponding exactly to the treasures which she had +seen in the elves' chambers, fastened to her bosom by a silken thread. +The child, terrified at the discovery, declared that she knew not how +she had come by it, but at the same time prayed that her mother would +not remove it, but allow her still to keep the treasure. At the +child's earnest entreaty Maria replaced it by its thread, and took her +to the castle; but it made a deep impression on her heart, and she was +from that moment full of thought. + +By the side of old Martin's house were some detached buildings, +erected as storehouses for fruits and corn; behind them was a +grass-plat, where stood an old arbour, which no one was in the habit +of visiting, in consequence of its distance from the new +dwelling-house. This was the favourite retreat of Elfrida, and no one +disturbed her, even though she were to spend the greater part of the +day there in solitude. One afternoon Maria went to the arbour to find +an article she had mislaid, and observed a bright stream of light +issuing through a chink in the wall: she hastily removed a few loose +stones, and, peeping in, saw Elfrida seated on a little rustic bench, +and by her side Zerina, sporting with her. The elf embraced the child, +and said, "Ah, my dear little thing, I played with your mother once as +I do with you, when she visited us: you are growing so fast, and +becoming so rational--'tis a sad pity." + +"How I wish," said Elfrida, "how I wish I could remain a child all my +life, to please you!" + +"Ah," said Zerina, "it is with you as with the blossoms of the trees: +how beautiful the bloom is! but ere you have had time to admire the +bud, the warm sun shoots down on it, the blossom bursts and comes to +its full maturity." + +"How I wish I could see you in your home, if it were only once!" said +the child. + +"That is impossible," said Zerina; "since our king has come, no child +of earth can visit us: but I can come often to you--no one knows it, +either here or there; I fly to and fro like a bird; so that we can be +happy with one another as long as we live." + +"What can I do to please you, dear Zerina?" said the child. + +"Let us make a crown again," answered Zerina, taking a golden box from +her bosom. She shook two grains upon the earth, and there arose a +greenish bush with two red roses, which bent towards each other, and +seemed to kiss. They plucked the two roses, and the bush sank again +into the earth. + +"I wish my rose would not die so soon," said the child. + +"Give it to me," said the elf; and breathing on it she kissed it three +times, and gave it back to the child, and said, "now it will live till +the winter." + +"How sweet!" said Elfrida; "I'll set it up in my room like a picture, +and kiss it morning and evening." + +"Now, dear Elfrida, I must leave you," said Zerina; "the sun is going +down, and my time has passed;" and she disappeared from the arbour, +and soon regained her fairy home. + +From this moment Maria looked with a certain degree of awe and +reverence upon her child, and let her roam at her will even more than +she had done before--soothing and quieting her husband whenever he +wished to go in search of the little fugitive. Maria frequently crept +to the hole, and always discovered the elf there playing or chattering +with the child. + +"Should you like to be able to fly?" asked the elf one day of her +little friend. + +"Willingly," replied Elfrida. + +Zerina embraced her, and they floated up together from the earth to +the top of the arbour. The mother, in her anxiety for her darling +child, leant forward from her hiding-place to look for them, when +Zerina perceived her, and, holding up her finger in a threatening +manner, she smiled sweetly on her, and brought down the child to earth +again, and disappeared. + +Maria was in the habit of shaking her head kindly at her husband in +their disputes concerning the occupants of the district behind the +fir-plantations: on one occasion she said, "You are unjust in your +ideas of them;" but when pressed by her husband for an explanation, +she was silent. Scarce a day passed without a serious conversation +between them on the same subject; and on another occasion Andrew was +more than usually enraged against them, and said, "The Baron ought to +expel them; they are injurious to the hamlet." + +"Silence!" cried Maria, "they are benefactors, and no vagabonds!" and, +binding him by a promise never to divulge aught of what she was about +to mention, she related to him the story of her youth, with all the +particulars of the elfin regions. As he continued incredulous, she led +him to the arbour, where he saw the elf caressing his child. On his +approach Zerina grew pale, and trembled exceedingly, and lifted her +finger in a threatening manner at Maria, no longer smiling as before. +"It is not your fault," said she to the child, "but I must leave you +for ever;" and embracing Elfrida, she flew in the form of a raven, +with most discordant shrieks, towards the fir-plantation. + +The little child silently kissed her rose, and wept incessantly; +Andrew spoke little. At length night came on: the trees moaned as the +blast swept by, the owls whooped mournfully, the thunder boomed along +the sky, and the earth rocked violently. Maria and Andrew lay +trembling with fear, and endeavouring to shut out all the fury of the +storm, and the roar of the thunder from their thoughts. How eagerly +did they long for the morning! At length day dawned, and the sun shone +forth again. Andrew dressed himself hastily, and, opening his door, +looked forth on the scene around him. What a change was there!--the +prospect could not even be recognised; the verdant freshness of the +wood was gone, the hill had sunk into the ground, the stream wound +slowly on, with scarce a sufficient depth of water to cover its +channel; the sky wore a grey gloomy hue, and the fir-trees, that had +ever been so unusually dark, wore the same appearance as the rest of +the vegetation. Maria looked at her ring, the gift of the elf, and saw +that the stone was of a strange palish colour, having lost all its +fire and brilliancy. + +The villagers, in different groups, were discussing the events of the +singular night; some had passed over the heath by the gipsy-huts early +in the morning, and found no trace of living creature. The huts were +certainly still standing, but they were tenantless; and the whole spot +was so entirely changed that there was no feature in it to distinguish +it from the hamlet in which they themselves dwelt. In the course of +the day Elfrida sought a conference with her mother, and said, "I was +so restless last night, dear mother, I could not close my eyes; and, +being terrified by the storm, I prayed fervently for safety during the +many dark hours that still remained before morning dawned; and in the +midst of my prayers the door opened suddenly, and my little playfellow +entered to take leave of me. She was equipped as though for a long +journey, and had a pilgrim's staff. She was angry, dear mother, very +angry with you; for she has undergone severe and painful punishments +on your account, and that too when she was so fond of you: and even +amid all this trouble, resulting from your want of prudence, she says +she is sorry to leave the district on your account." Maria begged her +to conceal the whole matter from her father, and to mention it to none +of the villagers. + +Meantime the ferry-man, who plied on the stream near which their +gardens were situated, came, with terror depicted on his face, to tell +the strange things he had seen and heard. "At twilight," said he, "a +man of gigantic stature called to hire the ferry till sunrise this +morning, on one condition, that I would promise to keep myself within +doors, and not venture to peep forth to see what was being done. I was +afraid that some trick was to be played off; and although I retired to +rest, I could not sleep for thinking on the strange bargain. I crept +silently to the window, and looked forth; the dark dusky clouds chased +one another restlessly through the expanse of sky; the distant woods +moaned heavily, strange noises floated in the air, and the cottage +shook from its very foundations. Suddenly I saw a white stream of +light, brightening ever and anon, like many thousand twinkling stars; +it floated on from the direction of the firs, waving to and fro over +the fields, and spreading towards the stream. I heard a tramping of +footsteps, and a buzzing, rustling noise, which grew by degrees more +and more distinct: then I saw many thousand glittering figures--men, +women, and children--pass on to the ferry-boat and embark, and the +gigantic man ferried them across; many beautiful creatures swam over +by the boat, and lively clouds of white and blue floated over their +heads; melancholy music was wafted by the breeze around me, and the +sounds of lamentation, as though of colonies parting for a distant +country from their father-land: the stroke of the oar fell heavily on +my ear, and then all again was silence for a while. Then the boat +returned, and was laden anew: many hideous dwarfs rolled along heavy +vessels; but whether they were demons of earth or not, I cannot say. +Then there came a brilliant and stately procession, in the midst of +which appeared an aged man, on a small white horse, the head of which +was adorned by precious stones of every colour. The old man's head was +surrounded by a coronet, which shone so vividly, that, as he passed, +methought the sun was rising, and that the beams of early day were +piercing through the mists of midnight. This procession lasted during +the whole night, till at length, worn out with fatigue, I fell into a +deep slumber. In the morning all seemed quiet; but when I rose to look +after my ferry-boat, I observed that the stream was almost dry, and +the water so low, that I must altogether remove my ferry." + +This was the strange recital on the part of the ferry-man, who had +been an eye-witness of the wondrous spectacle. In the same year a +dreadful famine prevailed through the whole district; the corn was +blighted; the fruit-trees withered away; the foliage of the woods +became of a sickly yellow colour; the springs dried up; and soon that +pretty hamlet, which had been for years the delight of the traveller, +was nothing more than a barren desert, naked and sterile; a vast +expanse of sand, with here and there a tuft of grass, and even that +discoloured and dying. The vines, that were formerly the pride of the +district, afforded no more rich clusters; and the whole spot wore so +melancholy and gloomy an aspect, that in the following year the Count +and his family removed from the once magnificent castle, which soon +afterwards fell to ruins. + +Elfrida gazed fondly at the rose day and night, and kissed it, +dreaming of her dear little playfellow; and as the flower drooped and +faded, so did her little head droop; and ere the balmy breezes of +spring returned with their freshness, she was gone. Maria would often +stand before the door of the cottage, weeping for her lost child, and +dreaming of that happiness once her own, never again to return. On her +fell all the misery that was predicted by the golden lady, if she +should ever divulge aught of the elves or their fairy regions: she +bowed her head to the stroke, and like her child faded slowly away, +and followed her to the grave. The broken-hearted parents could no +longer dwell in the spot, embittered as it was by the recollection of +former days of happiness, and the prospect of heaviness and gloom for +the future; and since the link that bound them to all that was dear +had been rudely snapt asunder, old Martin, Brigitta, and Andrew, +quitted the spot, and retired to a district where the old man had +passed his first happy days. + + + + +THE WHITE EGBERT. + + +High up in the Hartz Mountains there lived in a castle a knight who +was known by the name of the White Egbert. He was about forty years +old, rather below the middle height; and he obtained his name from the +quantity of short, smooth, white hair which covered his pale haggard +cheeks. He lived a peaceable retired life, never involved in feuds +with his neighbours; indeed, he was seldom seen beyond the walls of +his small castle. His wife loved quiet as much as he; they were +passionately attached to each other; and their only cause of sorrow +was that Heaven had not blessed their union with children. + +It was seldom that a guest was seen at the castle; and if ever +such an event did happen, it never was allowed to interfere with +their ordinary way of going on. No advance was made upon the +frugality--almost meanness--with which the establishment was +conducted; the only difference being that at such times Egbert assumed +an air of lightness and gaiety, whereas when alone he was observed to +be reserved and melancholy. + +His most frequent visitor was Philip Walters; a man to whom Egbert had +attached himself, because he observed in him, on the whole, a general +resemblance to himself in his ways of thinking. This person was a +native of France, and spent the greater part of his time there; but he +was often for more than six months together in the mountains in the +neighbourhood of Egbert's castle, looking for grasses and minerals, of +which he was a collector. He had a small property of his own, and was +independent of every one. Egbert often accompanied him on these +expeditions, and every year a closer attachment formed itself between +them. + +There are hours in every man's life in which, if he has a secret from +his friend, he becomes suddenly in labour with it, and what before he +may have taken the greatest pains to conceal, he now feels an +irresistible impulse to throw out of himself--to lay bare the whole +burden of his heart, that it may form a new link to bind his friend to +him. Friendship ebbs and flows, and is subject to singular influences. +There are moments of violent repulsion; there are others when every +barrier is dissolved, and spirits flow together and mingle into one. + +On a dark cloudy evening, one day late in autumn, Egbert was sitting +with his friend and his wife Bertha round the fire in the castle-hall. +The flame flung a bright ruddy glow along the walls, and played and +flickered in the deep oak roof. The night looked in gloomily through +the windows, and the trees outside shook with the wet and the cold. +Walters complained of the distance he had to go to his house, and +Egbert pressed him to stay and spend half the night talking over the +fire, and then accept a room in the castle till next morning. Walters +agreed to do so; wine and supper were brought in; fresh logs of wood +were thrown upon the fire; and the friends' conversation became more +and more easy and confidential. + +When the things were taken away, and the servants had retired, Egbert +took Walters' hand, and said, "My dear friend, you must let my wife +Bertha tell you the history of her younger days; it is a very strange +one, and well worth your hearing." + +"With the greatest pleasure," said Walters; and they again drew their +chairs round the fire-place. + +It was toward midnight; dark masses of cloud were sweeping across the +sky, and the moon looking fitfully out between. "Do not think I am +forcing myself on you," Bertha said. "My husband tells me you are so +noble-hearted a person, it is a shame to conceal any thing from you. +Singular as it may sound, the story I am about to tell you is true. + +"I was born in a village in the plains. My father was a poor herdsman. +Our housekeeping was none of the best, and my parents often did not +know where they were to get a mouthful of bread. What was to me most +distressing of all was, that they often quarrelled because they were +poor, and each brought the bitterest complaints against the other for +being the cause of it. Of me, they and every one else said I was a +stupid, silly little creature; that I could not do the commonest thing +properly; and, indeed, I was a good-for-nothing helpless child. +Whatever I took up, I was sure to let fall and break. I could neither +sew, nor spin, nor knit, nor could I learn. I could not help in +managing the house; all I knew was that we were poor and miserable. I +used often to sit in a corner and think how I would help my parents if +I was all of a sudden to get rich; how I would shower gold and silver +on them, and what fun it would be to see how surprised they would +look; and I used to fancy all sorts of spirits sweeping round me, and +shewing me treasures buried under ground; or giving me little pebbles, +which suddenly turned to precious stones. In short, the strangest +notions got hold of me; and when I had to get up and help at any thing +in the house, I was all the stupider about it, because my brain was +running upon these sort of ideas. + +"My father was often very angry with me for being such an idle, +useless burden upon him. He sometimes spoke to me very harshly, and it +was seldom that I ever got a kind word from him. So it went on till I +was about eight years old; and now matters got serious--I must learn +to do something. My father thought it was wilfulness and obstinacy in +me, and all I wanted was to spend my time in amusement. Enough: one +day, after a number of threats which all proved fruitless, he gave me +a dreadful beating, and declared I should have the same every day till +I had learned to turn myself to some purpose or other. + +"All that night I lay on my bed crying; I felt so wretched and +miserable that I wished to die. I was afraid of the daylight, because +I did not know what to begin about. I wished and wished for every +possible accomplishment, and I could not conceive why I was stupider +than other children that I knew. I was almost in despair. When morning +began to break, I got up; and hardly knowing what I did, I opened the +door of our little cottage. I ran out into the open fields, and +presently into a wood close by, which was so thick that daylight could +hardly find its way into it. I ran on and on without ever looking +behind me. I did not feel the least tired; all I was afraid of was +that my father would catch me, and beat me again worse than before for +running away. + +"When I had got to the other side of the wood, the sun was by this +time high in the air, and I saw a dark heavy mass beyond me, covered +with a thick mist. Presently I had to scramble up some hills, and then +to follow a winding rocky path; and now I felt sure I must have found +my way into the neighbouring mountains, and I began to be afraid; +living as I did down in the plains, I had never seen them before; and +the name of mountains, when I heard people speaking of them, had a +somewhat fearful and ominous sound about it. Still, I could not find +courage to return; worse fears drove me forward; I often started and +looked round as the wind moaned among the fir-trees, or a distant +woodman's axe echoed among the hills; and at last when some of the +coalmen and miners met me, and I heard them speaking a language I did +not understand, I was almost frightened out of my senses. Soon, +however, I got used to them, and begged my way on through a number of +villages. People gave me enough to eat and drink, and I had always an +answer ready for any questions that might be asked me. I had gone on +this way for four days, when I fell into a narrow footpath; I followed +it, and it led further and further away from the main road, through a +wholly different sort of country, where the aspect of the mountains +was entirely altered, and became wilder and stranger,--among rocks and +cliff's tumbled rudely one upon another, and looking as if the first +gust of wind would bring them all crashing down. I did not know +whether I should go on or not. It was the middle of summer, so that +hitherto I had spent the night either in the woods or in some one or +other of the shepherds' huts; but here I saw no signs whatever of any +thing like a human habitation, nor in so wild a spot could I hope to +find any. The cliffs grew steeper and more precipitous; often I had to +pass along the edge of abysses that made me giddy even to look at; at +last the very path came to an abrupt conclusion. Now I gave myself up +for lost; I cried and screamed, and all the answer was the echoing of +my voice along the rocky valley; darkness came on, and I looked for a +bank of moss to lie down upon. I could not sleep, for all night long I +heard strange wild noises round me, which sometimes sounded like the +howling of wild beasts; at others, like the screaming of the +mountain-birds, or the moaning of the wind among the rocks and cliffs. +I prayed to God to protect me; and towards morning I fell asleep. + +"Day had broken when I awoke. There was a steep hill immediately +before me, which I climbed up, in the hope of finding some way out of +the wilderness; when I had got at the top, however, all around me, as +far as my eye could reach, every thing was buried in fog; in the dull +grey light I could find nothing but rock, rock, rock, not a tree, not +a blade of grass, not a shrub to be seen, only here and there a branch +of heather projecting, with a sad lonely look, from a cleft or chasm +in the mountain's side. I cannot tell you how I craved for the sight +of a human being, if it was only to be afraid of him. I was hungry and +exhausted, and I flung myself down, and determined to lie there and +die. In a little while, however, the desire of life got the better of +this feeling; I raised myself up and walked on, crying and sobbing all +that day through. At last I hardly knew what or where I was; I was so +tired that I had almost lost all consciousness; I scarcely wished to +live, and yet I was afraid to die. + +"Towards evening I approached a part where the country resumed a +softer and milder look; and my heart began to beat again, and the +desire of life tingled in all my veins. I fancied I caught the sound +of a mill-wheel in the distance; I redoubled my speed; and oh! how +light and happy I felt when at last I found myself at the end of the +rocks and mountains, and saw once more the woods, and meadows, and +soft swelling pleasant hills, spread smiling out before me! It seemed +as if I had broke at once from hell into Paradise, and I cared no more +for being alone and helpless. Instead of the mill I hoped to find, I +came upon a waterfall, which a good deal diminished my exultation. I +was stooping down, however, to drink some water out of my hands, when +on a sudden I fancied I heard some one cough at a short distance from +me. Never had I a more agreeable surprise than at that moment. I went +towards the place the sound seemed to come from, and on turning the +corner of a wood, I saw an old woman sitting down, apparently resting +herself. She was dressed all in black, a black cap covering her head +and half her face; in her hand she had a crooked stick. + +"I went up to her, and asked her to help me. She bade me sit down at +her side, and gave me some bread and a little wine. While I was eating +she chanted a sort of hymn in a harsh, rough voice; and as soon as I +had done, she rose and told me to follow her. Strange and odd as the +old woman's voice and appearance was, I was delighted at this +invitation; she limped away before me, helping herself along with her +stick; and I followed, at first hardly able to keep from laughing at +the strange faces she made at every step. We soon left the mountains +behind us; we walked on over soft grassy meadows, and then along a +forest glade; as we came out again into the open country the sun was +just setting, and the splendour of that evening, and the feeling it +produced in me, I never shall forget. The sky was steeped in gold and +crimson; the trees stood with their tops flushed in the evening glow; +a gleam of enchanting beauty lay upon the fields; every leaf was +hushed and still; and the pure heaven looked down as if the +sky-curtain was withdrawn, and Paradise lay open to our eyes; the +brook bubbled along the valley; and from time to time, as a soft air +swept over the forest, the rustling leaves appeared to gasp for joy. +Visions of the world, and all its strange and wondrous incidents, rose +up before my chilled soul. I forgot myself and my conductress, and +eyes and heart were lost in ecstacy in gazing on those golden clouds. + +"We went up a gentle hill which was planted with chestnut-trees; from +the top of which we saw down into a green valley, in the middle of +which, surrounded by a clump of chestnuts, lay a little cottage. +Presently a burst of merry barking greeted us, and a bright beautiful +little dog came bounding and jumping up against the old woman, and +frisking round us with every sign of the greatest satisfaction. Then +he turned to me, and, after looking me all over, seemed tolerably +satisfied, and ran back again to his mistress. As we descended the +hill, I heard a strange kind of song, which seemed to come from the +cottage, and to be sung by a bird: + + 'In my forest-bower + I sing all day, + Hour after hour, + To eternity. + Oh, happy am I + In my forest-bower!' + +These few words were repeated over and over again: the nearest +description I can give of the sound is, that it was like the effect of +a bugle and a cornet answering each other at a great distance over +water. + +"My curiosity was at the greatest possible stretch of excitement; and +without waiting for the old woman's permission, I ran into the +cottage. The twilight was beginning to fall; and, by the sinking +light, I found a neat, well-arranged little room, a few cups and +glasses on a sideboard, and some singular-looking boxes on a table. In +a very beautiful cage in the window hung a bird; and it was indeed +from it that the song came which I had heard. The old woman was +coughing and panting, hardly able to recover her breath. She took +scarcely any notice of me--did not even seem to know I was +present--but patted her little dog, and then turned and talked to the +bird, which only answered with singing the same song. All this time I +stood watching her movements; and it almost frightened me to see how +eternally her face kept working and twitching; her head, too, shook as +if age had loosened its hold on her shoulders; and altogether she +looked so odd and strange, that, do what I would, I could not make out +what her features were like. + +"When she had got her breath again, she lit a candle, threw a cloth +over a little table, and put out some supper. At last she turned round +to me, and told me to take one of the twisted-cane chairs, and sit +down. I did so, and seated myself exactly opposite to her, with the +light between us. Then she folded her lanky withered fingers together, +and said a long prayer, making all the time such strange contortions +with her face, that again it was all I could do to help bursting out +laughing. But I was afraid of making her angry, and checked myself. +After supper, she said another long grace, and then shewed me a bed in +a little narrow chamber adjoining, she herself sleeping in the room in +which we supped. I was tired and half stupified, and so soon fell +asleep. I awoke several times, however, in the night, and heard the +old woman coughing and talking to her dog, and the bird now and +then--which seemed to be in a dream--bringing out single words and +lines of its song. The chestnuts rustled outside the window; far away +a nightingale was singing; and all these sounds together made so odd a +mixture, that I could hardly persuade myself I was awake, and that I +had not fallen into another still stranger dream. + +"In the morning the old woman woke me up, and presently set me to +work. I had to spin, and I soon learnt how to do it; and besides this, +I had to take care of the dog and the bird. I very quickly got into +the way of managing the household matters, and of knowing the uses of +the different articles. One can get used to any condition, and I was +no exception: I soon ceased to think there was any thing odd about the +old woman, that the cottage was remarkably situated, and that one +never saw any other human being there, or that the bird was so very +extraordinary a creature. I was delighted with its beauty; all its +feathers glittered with every conceivable colour, the brightest +sky-blue alternating with deep scarlet over its head and body; and +when it sang, it swelled itself out so proudly, that the colours +shewed more brilliantly than ever. + +"The old woman often went out in the morning, and did not return till +evening, when I used to go out with the little dog to meet her; and +she would call me her child, her little daughter. In one's childhood +one soon takes to people, and I became exceedingly attached to her. In +the evenings she would teach me to read, and I was quick and ready in +learning; and this afterwards, when I was much alone, became a source +of infinite amusement to me; for she had a number of old manuscript +books in the cottage, full of fairy-tales, and all sorts of queer old +stories. + +"There is something very odd about my recollections of the way I went +on then. Not a human creature ever came near us; our home +family-circle certainly was not an extensive one; and the dog and the +bird make the same impression on me now that the recollection of long +and well-known old friends produces; yet, often and often as I must +have repeated it, do what I will, I cannot call back again the +singular name of the little dog. + +"So things went on for some four years or more; and I must have been +about twelve years old, when the old woman took me at last deeper into +her confidence, and revealed to me a secret. Every day the bird laid +an egg; and in each egg was a pearl, or some other precious stone. I +had often observed before that she had some mysterious doings with the +cage; but I had never troubled myself much about it. Now, however, she +gave me a charge while she was absent to take these eggs, and put them +by carefully in the odd-looking boxes. Leaving me sufficient food in +her absence, she would now be away sometimes weeks and months at a +time; and my wheel went round, and the little dog barked, and the bird +sang, and all was so still in the country round, that while I was +there I do not remember a single storm. No foot of man ever strayed +there; no wild beast ever came near our dwelling; I worked on there +day after day, and I was happy. Oh, fortunate indeed would men be, if +they could but go on through life in such peace and quiet to their +graves! + +"From the little that I read, I made myself a set of notions of what +the world was, and what men were; and very queer ones they were; for +they were all taken from myself and the society in which I lived. If +we talked of gay, bright, happy people, I could only fancy them like +the little dog; beautiful stately ladies must look like the bird, and +ancient dames like my old woman. My stories contained something about +love, and I made myself the heroine of many wonderful adventures: I +pictured for myself the most beautiful knight the world had ever seen; +I adorned him with every grace and every perfection; and though, after +all my trouble, I could not tell exactly what he was like, I could +feel the most passionate despair if he did not return my affection; +and I had all sorts of eloquent speeches to make--which I would often +repeat aloud--to win his love. You smile! Ah, well, we are none of us +young now! + +"I was much the happiest when I was by myself; for then I was absolute +mistress in the cottage. The dog was very fond of me, and did all that +I wished; the bird replied with his song to all my questions; my wheel +went round merrily; and I never for a moment felt a wish for any +change. When the old woman came back from her long expeditions, she +would praise me for being so good and attentive. Her household, she +said, was much better attended to since I had been there; she was +pleased with my growth, and the general healthiness of my appearance; +in short, she spoke to me and treated me exactly as if I had been her +daughter. 'You are going on well indeed, my child,' she said one day, +with a roughish coarse voice: 'if you continue in this way, you will +never come to any mischief. But, you may depend upon it, it never +fails, if once one gets out of the right road, but sooner or later we +shall be punished for it.' I took little notice of this at the time +she said it; for in all I did and said I was a lively, thoughtless +child; but by and by, in the night, her words recurred to me, and I +could not conceive what she meant. I thought them all over and over +again. I had often read about riches and wealth, and so on; and at +last it occurred to me that those pearls and precious stones must be +of great value. This soon became more plain to me; but what could she +have meant by the right road? I could not make any thing of it, do +what I would. + +"I was now fourteen years old; and it is unfortunate for people that +generally they only get their understanding to lose their innocence by +the light of it. I now came clearly enough to comprehend that it would +be easy for me, while the old woman was away, to take the bird and the +jewels, and go with them into the world that I had read about; and +then very likely I might find my beautiful knight, who still continued +in my thoughts. + +"At first this idea was no more than any other, just flashing across +my mind and then gone again; but when I sat by myself at my wheel, in +spite of myself it kept coming back to me, till at last it completely +took possession of my mind; and I already saw myself dressed with the +greatest magnificence, with knights and princes standing round me; and +so I would let myself dream on, and then when I started up and found +myself in a little narrow room, I felt vexed and disappointed. For the +rest, so that I did what I was told, the old woman did not trouble +herself about what was passing in my mind. + +"One day she went away again, telling me that this time she would be +absent longer than usual; I was to see that every thing was kept +right, and do what I could to prevent the time hanging heavy on my +hands. I took leave of her with some distress, as I felt a misgiving +that I should never see her again; I stood watching her a long time as +she hobbled away, almost without knowing myself why I was so unhappy. +It seemed as if my purpose was already before my mind, and yet I was +not actually conscious of it. + +"Never did I take so much care of the dog and the bird as now; they +seemed closer to my heart than they had been before. The old woman had +been gone some days, when one morning I got up with the fixed purpose +to leave the cottage with the bird, and go and look for what was +called the world. Still I felt unhappy and miserable. I wished to stay +where I was, and yet this thought had got too strong a hold on me; +there was a singular struggle going on in my soul, as if two opposite +spirits were fighting in me. One moment came the sweetness of that +sequestered spot before me, looking so beautiful; and then the next, +the ravishing idea of a new world, and all the wonderful things in it. +I hardly knew what to make of myself. The little dog kept jumping up +upon me incessantly. The sunshine lay spread out brilliantly over the +green fields, and the chestnut-leaves glistened as it fell on them. +Suddenly I felt a strong impulse seize me; I caught the little dog and +tied it up in the cottage, and then took the cage and the bird under +my arm. The dog whined and struggled at this unusual treatment; he +looked up at me with imploring eyes, but I could not venture to take +him with me. One of the boxes of precious stones I took and made fast +to my girdle, the rest I left in their places. The bird stretched and +strained with his head in an odd wild way as I went out with him +through the door; the dog sprung at his chain to follow me; but he was +bound fast, and he was obliged to stay. I avoided the road that led to +the mountains, and went down the valley the opposite way. The little +dog kept whining and barking incessantly, and I felt for him in my +heart; the bird made one or two attempts to sing, but it seemed he did +not like being carried, and would not go on. + +"For a long time I heard the barking of the dog, getting weaker and +fainter, however, as I got further away; at last it ceased altogether. +I cried, and had almost turned about and gone back again, but the +craving for something new urged me forward. I was soon over the hill, +and I walked on through wood and meadow till towards evening, when I +found myself near a village. I felt rather frightened at first in +going into an inn among strange people; but they shewed me into a +chamber with a bed, and I slept there very comfortably, only that I +dreamed of the old woman, who seemed to threaten me. + +"My journey had very little variety; but the further I went, the more +I was haunted by the recollection of the old woman and the little dog. +The poor little thing, I thought, would be sure to die of hunger, +without me to help it; and at every turn in the forest I expected to +see the figure of the old woman coming to meet me. Sighing and +weeping, I travelled on: whenever I stopped to rest myself, and set +the cage down upon the ground, the bird would sing his strange song, +and then bitter feelings of regret would come upon me for the dear old +cottage. So forgetful is our nature, I thought my first journey had +not been half so miserable as that, and I craved to be again once more +as I was then. + +"I had parted with some of the jewels, and at last, after a long round +of walking, one day I came to a village. I felt a strange emotion on +entering it; I was overcome by something, and could not tell why. Very +soon, however, I recollected myself, and found I was in the village +where I was born. How surprised I was! a thousand reminiscences came +pouring back upon me, and the tears ran down my cheeks. It was very +much altered. New houses had sprung up; others, which were new when I +went away, were crumbling to the ground; I found traces of burning +also; and every thing looked much smaller and more confined than I had +fancied. I was infinitely delighted, however, at the thought of seeing +my father and mother again after so long an absence. I found the +little cottage; the well-known doorway; the handle of the door was +exactly as it used to be; it seemed like yesterday that I had had it +in my hand. My heart beat and throbbed; I opened the door hastily; but +all the faces in the room were strange to me; they stared at me as I +entered. I asked for old Martin the shepherd; but they told me he and +his wife had been dead for three years past. I drew back as quickly as +I could, and went crying out of the village. + +"I had been thinking how delightful it would be to surprise them with +all my riches; the strangest accident had realised the dreams of my +childhood--I could make them happy--and now all was vain. They could +not share with me; and what all my life long had been the dearest +object of my hope was lost to me for ever. + +"I went to a pleasant-looking town, where I rented a small house with +a garden, and took a servant to live with me. I did not find the world +quite the wonderful place I expected; but I soon learnt to think less +and less of the old woman and the cottage I had lived in with her; and +so altogether I lived on pleasantly enough. + +"For a long time the bird had left off singing, so that I was not a +little frightened when one night he began again with a different song. + + 'My forest-bower, + Thou'rt far from me; + Oh, hour by hour + I grieve for thee: + Ah, when shall I see + My forest-bower?' + +I could not sleep all night. The whole thing came back again into my +thoughts, and I felt more clearly than ever that I had done what I +ought not. When I got up, the bird's head was turned towards me; he +kept watching me with a strange expression, and seemed to be +reproaching me. Now he never stopped singing; and his song came louder +and deeper I thought than it had ever been before. The more I looked +at him, the more uncomfortable he made me. At last I opened the cage, +thrust in my hand and caught him by the neck. I pressed my fingers +violently together; he looked imploringly in my face; I let him go; +but he was already dead: I buried him in the garden. + +"After this I was haunted by a fear of my servant; my conscience told +me what I had done, and I was afraid that some day or other she would +be robbing, or perhaps murdering me. Shortly, however, I became +acquainted with a young knight, who pleased me exceedingly. I gave him +my hand; and here, Herr Walters, is my story ended." + +"Ah, you should have seen her then," Egbert broke in hastily; "her +youthful freshness and beauty; and what an indescribable charm she had +received from her retired education! She came before me as a kind of +miraculous being, and I set no bounds to my affection for her. I was +poor myself; indeed I had nothing; but through her love I was placed +in the position in which you find me. We withdrew hither, and neither +of us has ever, for a single moment, regretted our union." + +"But see, with our talking and chatting," interrupted Bertha, "it is +already past midnight; we had better go to bed." + +She rose to retire to her chamber; as they parted Walters kissed her +hand, and wished her good night. "Thanks, noble lady," he said, "for +your story. I think I can see you with your strange bird, and feeding +the little Strohmian." + +Walters, too, retired to sleep; but Egbert continued restlessly pacing +up and down the hall. "What fools we men are!" he said to himself. +"Was it not I that prevailed on my wife to tell her story? and now I +am sorry it should have been told! Will he not make use of it for some +evil purpose? Will he not blab, and let our secret out to others? Is +he not very likely (it is just what a man would naturally do) to feel +some accursed hankering after one's jewels, and lay some plan or other +to get hold of them?" + +It struck him Walters had not taken leave of him with, as much +heartiness as he naturally would have done after being admitted into +such a piece of confidence. When once a man has admitted a feeling of +suspicion into his breast, every trifle becomes a confirmation of it. +Then for a moment he would feel ashamed of so ungenerous a distrust +of his noble-hearted friend; and yet he could not fling it off; all +night long these feelings kept swaying to and fro through his breast. +He slept but little. + +The next morning Bertha was unwell, and could not appear at breakfast. +Walters did not seem much to distress himself about it, and of the +knight also he took leave with apparent unconcern. Egbert could not +well make it out; he went to his wife's room, she was in a violent +fever; she said she supposed telling her story the preceding night +must have over-excited her. + +After that evening Walters came seldom to his friend's castle; and +when he did he never stayed, but went away again almost immediately +with a few unmeaning words. Egbert was excessively distressed at this +behaviour: he never said any thing about it, either to his wife or to +Walters; but they must both have seen that there was something which +made him uneasy. Bertha's illness too was another subject of distress +to him. The physician became alarmed; the colour faded from her +cheeks, and her eyes grew of an unnatural brightness. One morning she +called her husband to her bedside, and sent the servants out of the +room. + +"My dear husband," she began, seriously, "I have something to tell +you, which, however unmeaning and trifling it may seem to you, has +been the cause of all my illness, and has almost driven me out of my +senses. You know that whenever I have spoken of the events of my +childhood, in spite of all the trouble I have taken, I have never been +able to think of the name of the little dog that was so long with me. +The other evening as Walters took leave of me, he said, suddenly, 'I +fancy I see you feeding the little Strohmian.' Can it be accident that +he hit upon the name? or does he know the dog, and said what he did on +purpose? In what mysterious way is this man bound up with my destiny? +At times I try to persuade myself that it is all fancy; but no, it is +certainly true, too true. I cannot tell you how it has terrified me +to be so helped out with my recollection by a perfect stranger: what +do you say, Egbert?" + +Egbert regarded his suffering wife with the deepest emotion. For some +time he could not speak, but stood lost in his own reflections. At +last he muttered a few words of consolation, and left her. He retired +to a remote apartment, and paced up and down in indescribable +uneasiness. Walters had for many years been his only companion; and +now was this man the only one in the world whose existence was a pain +and grief to him. Could this one being be removed out of his path, +all, he thought, would then be well with him. To dissipate his +unpleasant reflections, he took his cross-bow and went out into the +mountains to hunt. + +It was a rough stormy winter's day; the snow lay deep upon the +hill-side, and the heavy branches of the pine-trees bent under their +burden. He scrambled rapidly on; the sweat stood upon his brow; but he +could not light on any game, and that increased his ill-humour. +Suddenly he saw a figure moving at some distance from him: it was +Walters, who was gathering moss from the trunks of the trees. Hardly +knowing what he did, he levelled his cross-bow at him; Walters looked +round, and raised his hand with a menacing gesture; but the bolt was +sped to its mark, and he fell to the earth. + +Egbert now felt relieved from a heavy burden. Yet a feeling of terror +drove him hastily back to his castle. He had a long way to go; for he +had wandered far away into the forests. When he reached it, Bertha was +already dead: on her deathbed she had spoken incessantly of Walters +and the old woman. + +Egbert now lived for a long time entirely alone. He had always been +dark and gloomy enough; for his wife's strange history troubled him, +and he was continually afraid some terrible misfortune would befall +them. His own conscience made him uneasy also. His friend's murder +was for ever before his eyes, and his life was an eternal +self-upbraiding. + +As some relief to his feelings, he went from time to time to the next +great town, where he could find society and forget himself in feasting +and dissipation. He longed to find a friend to fill up the dreary +chasm in his soul; and then again when he thought of Walters, he +shrunk in terror from it, as he felt convinced that any friend must +only be a source of new misery to him. So many years he had lived with +Bertha in their sweet seclusion, Walters' friendship had so long been +his greatest delight; and now both were suddenly snatched away from +him. There were many moments when it all seemed to him like a strange, +wild romance, and that he only dreamt that he was alive. + +A young knight, Hugo, attached himself to the silent, gloomy Egbert, +and seemed to be inspired with a real deep affection for him. Egbert +was very much surprised, and came forward to meet this new offer of +friendship the more readily because it was so entirely unexpected. The +two were now continually together. The stranger shewed Egbert every +possible attention. Neither ever rode out without the other; in short, +wherever they were, they appeared inseparable. + +Yet it was only for a very brief interval that Egbert allowed himself +to feel happy; for he was too sure that Hugo only loved him because he +did not know his history. His friend was in an error respecting him; +and he felt the same impulse as he had done before to unbosom himself +to him, that he might be assured whether he was indeed his friend or +not. Then, again, caution kept him back, and the fear of becoming an +object of abhorrence to Hugo; there were times when he was so terribly +oppressed with a sense of his unworthiness that he could not believe +any one who was not an utter stranger to him could entertain the +slightest regard for him. For all that, however, he could not contain +himself; and one day as they were walking by themselves, he told his +whole history, and then asked whether he could still love a murderer. +Hugo was touched, and tried to comfort him; and Egbert returned with a +lighter heart to the town. + +Yet it seemed to be his curse that a feeling of suspicion must arise +even in the hour of confidence; for hardly were they returned to their +room, and the glare of the candle was thrown upon his friend's face, +than he found something there which displeased him. He fancied he +could trace a malicious laugh. It struck him too that Hugo did not +seem so ready to talk to him as usual, and that his attention was +almost entirely given to the other persons present. There was an old +knight in the party who had never been a friend of Egbert, and used to +ask unpleasant questions about his wife, and where he got his money +from.... To this person Hugo attached himself, and the two held a long +mysterious conversation together, while their looks were from time to +time directed towards himself. Here he saw all his suspicions at once +confirmed. He believed he was betrayed, and his fierce and gloomy +temper now got complete mastery over him. As he stood with his eyes +fixed on them as they talked, suddenly he saw Walters' face, his air, +his gesture--the whole figure so familiar to him. He looked again; and +now he was convinced that it was no one but Walters that was speaking +with the old knight.... In unutterable terror, almost beside himself, +he rushed out of the room, and that night left the city, and returned +as fast as possible to his castle. + +He wandered restlessly from chamber to chamber; not a thought could he +find to soothe him; sleep fled from his eyes, and from one terrible +imagination he could only fall into another yet more terrible. He +thought he must be mad, and that what he had seen was but a crazed +dream; but Walters' features had been too vivid, and all was again a +riddle. He resolved to leave the castle, and set out upon his travels, +to bring his mind again into order: every thought of friendship, every +wish for society, he had now given up for ever. + +He set out without having made up his mind which way he would go; +indeed he thought little of the country through which he passed. One +day he had been riding for some time at a rapid pace among the +mountains, when he found himself suddenly involved in a labyrinth of +rocks, from which he could not discover any way of escape. At last he +fell in with an old countryman, who shewed him a path leading past a +waterfall. He offered the old man some money as a reward, but he +declined to accept it. + +"What is the matter with me?" said Egbert to himself; "I could have +fancied this was Walters again." He looked round, and Walters it +certainly was. Egbert spurred his horse on at its utmost speed; he +flew away over rocks and through woods and meadows, until at length it +sunk exhausted under him to the earth. He did not pause to think of +this, but continued to hurry on on foot. + +In a kind of half-dream, he climbed a little hill; he fancied he heard +the lively barking of a dog somewhere near him. Tall chestnuts rustled +in the wind, and he caught the strange wild strains of a song: + + "In my forest-home + Again sing I, + Where pain hath no life; + No envy and strife. + Oh, am I not happy + In my forest home?" + +Egbert was completely stupified, his senses reeled; all seemed a dark +painful riddle to him. He could not tell whether he was dreaming now, +or whether he had not dreamt of a Bertha as his wife. The common and +the wonderful were so strangely mingled together; the world round him +was enchanted.... His thoughts and recollections swam confusedly +before his mind. + +A crooked hump-backed old woman came panting up the hill with a +crutch. + +"Are you come to bring me my bird? my pearls? my dog?" she screamed +to him; "see how wickedness is its own punisher! I was your friend +Walters--I was Hugo." + +"God in heaven," muttered Egbert to himself, "to what dreadful place +have I wandered? Where am I?" + +"And Bertha was your sister." + +Egbert fell to the ground. + +"What made her run away from me in that way? the time of trial was +almost over, and thus all had ended well. She was the daughter of a +knight; he sent her to the herdsman to be brought up. She was your +father's daughter." + +"Oh, why, why have I ever had this dreadful foreboding?" cried Egbert. + +"Because when you were young you once heard your father speak of it. +He could not let her stay with him, for he was afraid of his wife; she +was the child of an earlier marriage." + +Egbert's heartstrings burst; he lay gasping out his life upon the +ground; faintly and more faintly he heard the old woman speak, the dog +bark, and the bird chant on his unwearying song. + + + + +THE FAITHFUL ECKART. + + + That noble duke, the great + Of Burgundy's proud land, + Felt all his foemen's hate, + And, vanquish'd, bit the sand. + + He spoke: "I'm struck! I bleed! + Where is my valour fled? + Friends fail me at my need, + My knights are flown or dead; + + I cannot hold the field-- + I faint! My strength, my pride, + Has left me here to yield-- + True Eckart's from my side. + + It was not thus of old, + When war raged fierce and strong-- + The last to have it told, + He loved his home too long. + + Now, see they trooping come-- + Not long my sword is mine: + Flight's made for the base groom-- + I'll die as died my line." + + With that he raised his sword, + And would have smote his breast; + When, truer than his word, + Good Eckart forward prest. + + Back spurn'd the vaunting foe, + And dashed into the throng; + Nor was his bold son slow + To bring his knights along. + + The bold duke saw the sign, + And cried, "Now, God be praised! + Now tremble, foemen mine, + My drooping hopes be raised!" + + Again he charged and cheer'd, + True Eckart wins the fight; + "But where's his boy?" he heard; + "No more he sees the light." + + When now the foe was fled, + Out spoke the duke aloud; + "Well hath it with me sped, + Yet Eckart's head is bow'd. + + Though many thou hast slain, + For country and for life; + Thy son lies on the plain, + No more to join the strife." + + Then Eckart's tears flow'd fast, + Low stoop'd the warrior down; + Embraced and kiss'd his last, + And sadly made his moan. + + "Sweet Heins, how died'st so young, + Ere yet thou wert a man? + What boots it that I'm strong, + And thou so still and wan? + + Yet thou hast saved thy prince + From his dread foeman's scorn! + Thou art his--accept him, since + He never will return!" + + Bold Burgundy then mourn'd + To see a father's grief; + His heart within him burn'd, + But could not bring relief. + + He mingles tears with tears; + He clasps him to his breast; + The hero he reveres, + And speaks his deep distress:-- + + "Most faithful hast thou been, + When fail'd me all beside; + Henceforth we will be seen + Like brothers, side by side. + + Throughout all Burgundy, + Be lord of me and mine; + And could more honour be, + I'd freely make it thine." + + He journey'd through the land, + Each liege-man hail'd him home; + To each he gave command, + True Eckart to welcome. + + * * * * * + +It was the voice of an old mountaineer that sung this song, resounding +far among the rocks, where the faithful Eckart was sitting upon a +declivity, weeping aloud. His youngest boy stood near his father, and +said, "Why do you cry so bitterly, my dear father? Why are you so much +better and stronger than other men, if you are afraid--can you be +afraid of them?" + +Meanwhile the duke, at the head of a hunting-party, was leisurely +proceeding homewards; Burgundy himself was mounted upon a stately, +richly caparisoned steed. His princely gold and silver trappings +sparkled in the evening sun; insomuch that the young Conrad could not +sufficiently admire the fine procession as it passed. Faithful Eckart +raised his eyes, and looked darkly and sorrowfully towards the place; +while his tender Conrad began to sing, as he lost sight of the +princely cavalcade in the distance:-- + + "If you'd wield + Sword and shield, + And have good steed + With spear at need + And harquebuss,--what must you do? + You must feel + Your nerves like steel, + Strong in heart and spirit;-- + Manhood good + In your blood + To bear you stoutly through with merit." + +The old warrior pressed his son to his heart, and looked earnestly at +his large clear blue eyes. He then said, "Did you hear the song of +the good mountaineer, my boy?" + +"Did I?" repeated the boy: "surely he sang loud enough. And are you, +then, still that faithful Eckart whom I was glad to hear so praised?" + +"That same duke is now my enemy: he holds my second son in +durance,--yea, hath already laid him low, if I must believe all that +the people of the country say." + +"Then take your great sword, father, and bear it no longer," exclaimed +his brave boy: "they will tremble when they see you; the good people +will uphold you all the country round, for they say you are their +greatest hero." + +"No, I must not do that, my boy; for then I should prove my enemies' +worst words true. I must not be unfaithful to my native prince. I will +not break my fealty and the peace of the country, to keep which I have +sworn." + +"But what does he want to do with us?" inquired Conrad, impatiently. + +Eckart had risen, but he again seated himself, and said, "Dear boy, +the whole of that history would sound too harsh and strange in thy +young ears. Enough to know that great people always bear their worst +enemy in their own heart, and live in fear night and day. The duke now +thinks he has trusted me too much, and been all along only cherishing +a viper in his bosom. Yet in the country they call me the prince's +sword--the strong sword that restored him life and land;--all the +people call me Faithful Eckart, and the wretched and oppressed cry +unto me for help in the hearing of the court. This the duke cannot +bear. His envy hath turned to rage, and they who might help, set him +against me, and have turned his heart from love to hatred." + +The aged hero then related how the duke had spoken evil words, and +banished him from before his face for ever; and how they now became +quite strange, like enemies, because envious men had said that he was +going to deprive the duke of his dominions. More sadly did he proceed +to tell, as he passed his hand across his eyes, how the duke had +seized upon himself and his son, and accused them of wanting to take +his land and life; "Yea, 'tis said he hath even doomed my son to die." + +Young Conrad spoke not to his father, seeing he wept. At length he +said, "Father, let me go to the court, and I will talk to the duke, +that he may be brought to understand you, and treat you better. Should +he have hurt a hair of my brother's head, he is so bad a man that you +shall punish him; yet it can scarce be that he hath so soon forgotten +all your services." + +"Alas! don't you remember the old proverb, poor boy?-- + + 'When the mighty want your hand, + They'll promise you both gifts and land; + When the evil day hath pass'd, + Their friendship flieth too as fast.' + +Yes, and all my long and painful life has gone for nothing. Wherefore +did he raise me high above my peers, only to plunge me into the lowest +ignominy? The love of princes is like a fatal poison, which they ought +to reserve only for their enemies, and which finally often proves the +ruin of its heedless possessor: so it hath ever been." + +"I will hasten to him," said Conrad; "I will plainly remind him of all +you have done and suffered for him; and then he will treat you as well +as he did before." + +"You forget," replied Eckart, "that they have pronounced us traitors: +we had better seek refuge together quickly in some foreign land, where +we shall, perhaps, be more fortunate than here." + +"What, father, in your old age!--and will you turn your back upon our +sweet home? Let us rather try any way but this," said Conrad. "I will +see the Duke of Burgundy; I will appease and make him friendly to us; +for what harm can he do _me_, though he does hate and fear you?" + +"I do not like to let you go," replied Eckart; "for my mind misgives +me sadly; yet I should like to be reconciled to him, for he was once +my kind friend, and for the sake of your poor brother, who is +lingering in prison, or perhaps dead." + +The sun was now casting its last wild beams upon the green earth; and +Eckart sat down, absorbed in deep thought, leaning against the root of +a tree. He looked at Conrad earnestly a long while, and at length +said, "If you will go, my son, then go now, before the night gathers +in: the lights are already up, you see, in the windows of the duke's +castle. I can hear the trumpets sounding at a distance for the +festival;--perhaps his son's bride is arrived, and he may feel more +friendly disposed towards us." + +His son was instantly on his way; yet he parted with him unwillingly, +for he no longer put any faith in his own good fortune or the duke's +gratitude. Young Conrad was bold and hopeful; doubting nothing but +that he should touch the duke's heart, who had heretofore caressed him +on his knees. + +"Art thou sure thou wilt come back to me, my sweetest child?" cried +the old man; "for were I to lose thee, I have seen thee for the last +time--the last of thy race." His young son then kissed and comforted +him, promising that he would be with him very soon; and they +separated. + +Conrad knocked at the castle-gate, and was admitted. The aged Eckart +remained seated where he was, exposed to the night-winds, all alone. +"And I have lost him too; I am sure I have lost him." He cried +bitterly in his solitude, "These eyes will never rest upon his dear +face again." While thus lamenting, he saw an old wayfaring man leaning +upon his crutch, and trying, at great hazard, to make his way down the +mountain. A precipice yawned beneath him; and Eckart, aware of his +danger, went and took him by the hand. "Whither are you going?" he +inquired, as he assisted him down to the place where he had himself +sat. + +The old man sat down, and wept till the tears ran over his furrowed +cheeks. Eckart sought to comfort him with gentle advice; but the other +seemed too much afflicted to pay attention to him. + +"What terrible calamity can it be that thus overpowers you?" inquired +Eckart. "Only try to speak." + +"Alas, my children!" exclaimed the aged man. + +Then Eckart again thought of Conrad, of Heins, and Dietrich, and +became himself inconsolable. + +"I say nothing," he added, "if your children are all dead; for then +your grief is, indeed, great." + +"Oh, worse than dead!" exclaimed the other. "No, they are not dead," +he repeated in a still more bitter voice; "but they are lost to me for +ever! Yea, would to Heaven that they were only dead!" + +The good old hero almost shrieked at hearing these words, and besought +the unhappy father to explain so horrible a mystery: to which the +latter replied, "We live in a wonderful world; and these are strange +times. Surely the last dreaded day cannot be far from hand; for +alarming signs and omens are daily abroad, threatening the world more +and more. All evil things seem to have broken loose beyond their +ancient boundaries, and rage and destroy on every side. The fear of +God restrains us not--there is no foundation for any thing good; evil +spirits walk in the broad day, and boldly scare the good away from us, +or celebrate their nightly orgies in their unholy retreats. O my dear +sir, we are grown grey in the world, but not old enough for such +prodigious things. Doubtless you have seen the great comet--Heaven's +portentous lightning in the sky, which glares so prophetically down +upon us. Every one forebodes disasters; but none think of reforming +their lives in order to escape the threatened evil. As if this, too, +were not enough, the ancient earth discovers her trouble, and casts up +her mysterious secrets from the deep, while that portentous light +serves to reveal them from above. And, hark! have you never heard of +the strange mountain which the people round call Venus-berg?" + +"No, never," said Eckart, "though I have travelled far and wide here +around the hills." + +"At that I wonder much," replied the old man; "for the dreadful thing +is now become as well known as it is true: for that, good sir, is the +very mountain whither the devils fled for refuge in the centre of the +earth, when the holy Christian faith began to wax strong, and pressed +hard upon the heathen idols. There, they now say, that fatal goddess +Venus holds her unblest orgies; whither the infernal powers of worldly +lust and ambition, and all forbidden wishes, come trooping in myriads +for their prey; so that the whole mountain hath become forsaken and +accursed from time immemorial." + +"On what side lies the mountain?" inquired Eckart. + +"There is the mystery; it is a secret," whispered the old man, "which +those who know dare not tell, and none know but those who are in the +power of our great adversary; and indeed none but wicked persons will +ever venture the discovery. Once only a wandering musician by miracle +appeared again; but he came commissioned by the powers of darkness to +traverse the world; and he plays strange notes upon a pipe--sounds +which are heard to echo first in the distance, then more loud and +sweet. Those who approach too close within his sphere are seized with +a strange unaccountable delirium; and away they run in search of the +mountain, heedless of every obstacle, and never weary--never satisfied +until they gain the fatal summit, which opens for them, and whence +there is no return. Their supernatural strength forsakes them only in +the infernal abode; when they continue wandering round its unhallowed +precincts like unblest pilgrims, without the least hope of salvation. +I lost all hope of comfort in my two sons long ago: they grew wilful +and abandoned; they despised their parents, and our holy faith itself. +Then they began to hear the strange music; and they are now fled far +into the hills--the inhabited world is too narrow for them; and they +will never stop until they reach the boundless regions below." And the +old man wrung his hands. + +"And what do you think of doing in this matter?" + +"What should I do?--with this crutch, my only support, I have set out +in pursuit of them, being determined either to find them or to die." + +At these words he rose with a resolute effort, and hastened forward as +fast as his feeble steps could bear him, as if fearful of losing a +moment; while Eckart gazed after him with a look of pity, lamenting +his useless anxiety and sorrows yet to come. + +"To all his other evils," cried Eckart, "even madness itself does not +seem to have brought any relief." + +Night came, and passed away;--the morning broke, yet no signs of young +Conrad. The old warrior wandered among the hills, and cast his eyes +wistfully towards the castle; still no one appeared. Then he heard a +tumult, as if proceeding from the place; and, unable to restrain his +anxiety, he at last mounted his steed that was grazing near, and rode +hastily towards the castle. He no longer disguised himself, but +spurred boldly among the troops and pages surrounding the +castle-gates, not one of whom ventured to stop or lay a hand upon him. +All opened to him a path. + +"Where is my son Conrad?" inquired the old hero, as he advanced. + +"Inquire nothing," said one of the pages, casting down his eyes: "it +would only grieve you;--better turn back." + +"And Dietrich," added the old man,--"where is he?" + +"Mention his name no more," said an aged knight, "the duke's rage was +kindled, and he thought to punish you through him." + +Hot scorn flushed the face of the old hero when he heard these words; +grief and fury took possession of him, and he rode through the +castle-gates with speed. All opened a way for him with fear and +reverence; and he soon threw himself from his horse at the +palace-doors. With trembling step he mounted into the marble halls. + +"Am I here," he cried, "in the dwelling of the man who was once my +friend?" He tried to collect his thoughts; but dreadful visions seemed +to rise before him: and he staggered wildly into the duke's presence. + +Not aware of his arrival, Burgundy uttered a cry of alarm, as he found +himself confronted with the old man. "Art thou the Duke of Burgundy?" +asked the old hero. + +The duke replied, "I am." + +"And hast thou caused my son Dietrich to die?" + +The duke answered, "Yes." + +"And my youngest boy! my Conrad!--was not he too good and beautiful +for thy sword?--hast thou killed him too?" + +"I have," said the duke again. + +And Eckart replied, as he shed tears, "Oh, say not that! say not that, +Burgundy!--for I cannot bear those words: recall them. Say, at least, +that it repents you of all you have done; and I will yet try to take +comfort, though you have now done your worst to break my heart." + +The duke answered, "Away! thou faithless traitor! hence from my sight! +thou art the bitterest enemy I have on the face of the earth." + +Eckart stood firm, and said, "Heretofore thou didst call me thy best +friend; but good thoughts are now become strange to thee. Never did I +aught against thy honour: nay, I have revered and loved thee as my +true prince, so help me God! or here, with this hand upon my good +sword, I could take speedy and bitter vengeance for all my wrongs. But +no; I will for ever banish myself from your presence, and end my few +and evil days in solitude and woe." + +Having uttered these sad words, Eckart turned away; while Burgundy, +agitated with hateful passions, called aloud for his pages and his +lancers, who surrounded the old hero, and followed him with the points +of their spears out of the duke's palace; none venturing, though at +their lord's command, to put him to death. + + Away he spurred at speed, + Eckart that noblest knight; + And spoke, "No more I heed + The world, nor wrong, nor right. + + My sons are gone, and I + Am left to mourn alone; + My prince would have me die; + And friends I have not one." + + Then made he to the woods, + And with full heart did strive + To bear his dismal moods-- + To bear his woes and live. + + "I fly man's hated face! + Ye mountains, lakes, and trees, + Be now my resting-place, + And join your tears to these. + + No child beguiles my grief; + Their lives were sworn away; + Their days were all too brief-- + My last one they did slay!" + + Thus wild did Eckart weep, + Till mind and sense were gone; + Then madly down the steep + He spurr'd his true steed on. + + He bounded, leaped, and fell, + Yet Eckart took no heed; + But said it was right well, + Though sadly he did bleed. + + He next ungirt his horse, + And lay down on the ground; + And wish'd it had happ'd worse-- + That he his grave had found. + +None of the duke's peasantry could say whither the faithful Eckart had +fled; for he had taken to the wild mountain-woods, and been seen by no +human being. The duke dreaded his great courage and prudence, and he +repented that he had not secured him, blaming his pages that they had +suffered him to escape. Yet, to make his mind more easy, he proceeded +at the head of a large train, as if going to the chase; being +determined to ride through all the surrounding hills and woods until +he should find the spot where Eckart had concealed himself, and there +put him to death. + +His followers spread themselves abroad on all sides, and vied with +each other in the hope of pleasing the prince, and reaping the reward +of their evil deed; but the day passed, and the sun went down, without +their discovering any traces of him they sought. + +A storm was now gathering, and the great clouds came darkling over the +woods and hills; the thunder began to peal along the sky; the +lightning flashed athwart the heavens, smiting the largest oaks; while +torrents of rain fell upon their heads. The duke and his followers ran +for shelter among the rocks and caves; but the duke's steed burst his +reins, and ran headlong down the heights; while his master's voice was +lost in the uproar of the storm, and separated from all his followers, +he called out in vain for assistance. + +Wild as the animals of the forest, poor Eckart had wandered, +unconscious now of his sorrows or whither he went. Roots and berries, +with the water of the mountain-spring, formed his sole refreshment: he +would no longer have known any of his former acquaintance; the day of +his despair seemed at length to have gone by. Yet no! As the storm +increased, he suddenly seemed to recover some portion of his +intellect, and to become aware of objects around him. Then he uttered +a loud cry of horror, tore his hair, and beat his aged breast, as he +bethought himself of his children. "Dear as the life-blood of my +heart," he cried, "whither, my sweet boys, are ye all gone? Oh, foul +befell my coward spirit that hath not yet avenged ye! Why smote I not +your fell destroyer, who hath pierced my heart through and through, +worse than with a thousand daggers? Mad wretch that I am! I deserve it +all--all; for well may your tyrant murderer despise me, when I oppose +not the assassin of my own children. Ah, would that he might once come +within the reach of my arm!--for now I long, when it is all too late, +to taste the sweetness of revenge." + +Thus he spent the night, wandering, and weeping as he went. At last he +thought he heard a distant voice of some one crying for help. He +turned his steps towards the direction in which it came; and finally +he approached a man, whom the darkness hid from his sight, though he +heard his voice close to him. This voice beseeched him piteously to +guide a stranger into the right path. Eckart shrieked as it again fell +upon his ear--he knew it; and he seized his sword. He prepared to cut +down the assassin of his children--he felt new strength--and drew +nigh, in the hope of full vengeance; when suddenly his oath of fealty, +and all his former promises, when he was the duke's friend, came +across his mind. Instead of piercing him to the heart, he took the +duke's hand, and promised to lead him into the right path. They passed +along conversing together, although the duke trembled with fear and +cold. Soon they met some one. It was Wolfram, the duke's page, who +had been long in search of his master. It was still dark night--not a +star cast its feeble rays through the thick black clouds. The duke +felt very weak, and sighed to reach some habitation, to refresh +himself and repose; besides, he was in dread of encountering the +enraged Eckart, whose strange feigned voice he did not yet know. He +feared he should hardly survive till morning, and trembled at every +fresh blast of wind that shook the trees, or the thunder as it rolled +more awfully above their heads. "My good Wolfram," cried the duke, +"mount this lofty fir, and cast a keen glance around thee to discover +some light--whether from house or hut it boots not, so that we can but +live to reach it." + +The page obeyed at his life's risk, as the storm bent the strongest +branches of the huge tree as if it had been a tender reed. Its topmost +boughs sometimes nearly touched the ground; while the boy appeared +little more than an acorn growing on a branch of the tree. At length +he cried out, "In the plain below us there I perceive a glimmering--I +can see the way we ought to go." At the same time he carefully +descended, and took the lead. In a short while the friendly light +greeted the eyes of all three--the very sight of which greatly +restored the fallen spirits of the duke. + +Absorbed within himself, Eckart uttered not a word. He walked along, +striving with the bitter feelings that rose in his breast, leading the +duke by the hand. + +At length the page knocked at the cottage-door; and an infirm old +woman appeared. When they had entered, Eckart loosed the duke's hand, +whom he had led along; and the latter fell trembling upon his knees, +to return Heaven thanks for his deliverance from the perils of that +terrific night. + +Eckart retired into a dark corner; where he found, stretched in sleep, +the same old man who shortly before had been bewailing his unhappy +fate in regard to his sons, whom he was then in search of. + +The duke having finished his prayers, thus spoke:--"This has indeed +appeared a miraculous night to me. I feel the goodness and almighty +power of God more than ever I had before reason to do. Yet my heart +hath failed within me, and I feel that I must shortly die; only +wishing for time, before I depart, to entreat forgiveness for my +manifold sins and offences against the Most High; but I will take care +to reward you both, my faithful companions, before I go, and that as +handsomely as I can. To thee, my trusty page, I bequeath the two +castles which lie close to the next mountain here, on condition that, +in remembrance of this terrific night, thou dost in future call them +the Tannenhäuser, or Fir-houses.--And who art thou, good man, that +hast laid thy weary limbs in the corner? Come forth, that I may reward +thee quickly, according to thy great services and many kind offices +shewn me during this terrific night." + + Then up rose Eckart, like a thing + That starts from out the dim moonlight; + His furrowed cheek betrays the sting + Of many a woful day and night. + + The soul of Burgundy sighed sore + To witness thus that aged face; + The blood forsook his veins--he tore + His hair, and swooned for dire disgrace. + + They raise him from the low cold ground, + His limbs and temples warmly chafe: + "Then, O my God, at last he's found," + He cried; "true Eckart's here--he's safe. + + O whither shall I fly thy look? + Was't thou didst bring me from the wood? + And was it I thy dear babes struck-- + Thou that to me hast been so good?" + + And Burgundy, as thus he said, + He felt his heart was breaking fast; + On Eckart's breast he laid his head, + And thought he there would breathe his last. + + His senses fled! Then Eckart spoke: + "I reck not, master, of their fate-- + That so the world may see, though broke, + True Eckart's heart's yet true and great." + +Thus passed the night. In the morning the followers of the duke +arrived, and found him very sick. They placed him upon their mules, +and carried him back to his castle. Eckart stirred not from his side; +and often the duke took his hand, and, pressing it to his bosom, +looked up at him imploringly; when Eckart would embrace him, and speak +soft words of comfort till he was again still. The duke next called +together his council, and declared that such was his confidence in his +faithful Eckart, the bravest and noblest of all his land, that he +would leave him governor of his sons. Having said which, he died. + +Eckart then took the reins of government into his own hands, +fulfilling the trust reposed in him in such a humane and prudent way +as to excite the admiration of all the country. Shortly afterwards, +the report spread more and more on all sides, of the arrival of the +strange musician from Venus-berg, who seduced his victims with the +strange sweetness of his tones; so that they disappeared without +leaving a trace behind. Many gave credit to the report--others not; +while Eckart again bethought him of the unhappy old man whom he had +seen so forlorn and crazed upon the mountain. + +"I have now adopted you as my children," he said to the young princes, +as he one day sat with them on the bill before the castle; "your +happiness is now become my inheritance; I shall continue to survive, +after my departure, in your welfare and your good conduct." + +They all stretched themselves on the hill-side, whence they could look +far into the distant and lovely prospect beyond; and Eckart would then +strive to subdue the regrets he felt for his own children, though they +would appear as if passing over the mountain before him, while in the +distance he thought he heard the faint echo of delicious music +gradually growing louder. + + Hark! comes it not like dreams + Before the morning beams? + From some far greenwood bowers, + Such as the night-bird pours, + So sweet, and such its dying fall?-- + Those tones the magic song recall; + And Eckart sees each princely cheek + Flushed with the joys its victims seek; + Wild wishes seized each youthful breast + For some far unknown bourne of rest. + + "Away to the mountains!" they cried; "the deep woods + Where the trees, winds, and waters make music for gods: + Sweet, strange, secret voices are singing there now, + And invite us to seek their blest Eden below." + + In strange attire then came in view + The unblest sorcerer, and anew + Inspired the maddening youths, till bright + And brighter shone the sunny light. + Trees, streams, and flowers danced in the rays; + Through earth, air, heavens, were heard the lays; + The grass, fields, forests, trembling join'd + That magic tumult wild and blind. + Swift as a shadow fade the ties + That bind the soul to earth, and rise + Soft longings for unearthly scenes; + And strange confusion intervenes + Between the seen and unseen world, + Till reason from her seat is hurl'd, + + And madly bursts the soul away + To mingle in the infernal fray. + + 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 noble sons?-- + All that I was deploring-- + My lost beloved ones?" + + Yet soon his sense collected, + Brought doubts within his breast: + These magic arts detected, + A horror him possessed. + + His children fade in air-- + Mocks of infernal might; + His young friends vanished were-- + He could not check their flight. + + Yes, these his princely trust, + Late yielded to his power, + He now desert them must, + Or share their evil hour. + + Faith, duty to his prince, + Is still his watchword here; + He still thinks of him, since + His last sad look and tear. + + So boldly doth he now + Advance his foot and stand, + Arm'd proof to overthrow + The evil powers at hand. + + The wild musician comes; + Eckart his sword has ta'en; + But ah! those magic tunes + His mortal strength enchain! + + From out the mountain's side + Come thousand dwarfish shapes, + That threaten and deride, + And leap and grin like apes. + + The princes fair are gone, + And mingled with the swarm; + True Eckart is alone, + And faint his valiant arm. + + The rout of revellers grows, + Gathering from east to west, + And gives him no repose-- + Around--before--abreast. + + True Eckart's 'mid the din, + His might is lost and gone; + The hellish powers must win-- + He of their slaves be one. + + For now they reach the hill + Whence those wild notes are heard; + The dwarfish fiends stand still, + The hills their sides uprear'd, + + And made a mighty void, + Whence fiercer sprites glower'd grim. + "What now will us betide?" + He cried:--none answered him. + + Again he grasped his sword; + He said he must prove true: + Eckart has spoke the word, + And rushed amid the crew. + + He saved the princes dear; + They fled and reach'd the plain; + But see, the fiend is near-- + His imps their malice strain. + + Though Eckart's strength is gone, + He sees the children safe; + And cried, "I fight alone-- + Now let their malice chafe!" + + He fought--he fell--he died + Upon that well-fought field; + His old heroic pride + Both scorn'd to fly or yield. + + "True to the sire and son, + The bulwark of their throne, + Proud feats hath Eckart done; + There's not a knight, not one, + + Of all my court and land," + Cried the young duke full loud, + "Would make so bold a stand. + Our honour to uphold. + + For life, and land, and all, + To Eckart true we owe; + He snatch'd our souls from thrall, + For all it work'd him woe." + + And soon the story ran + Through Burgundy's broad land, + That who so venture can + To take his dangerous stand + + Upon that mountain-side, + Where in that contest hard + True Eckart fought and died, + Shall see his shade keep guard, + + To warn the wanderers back + Who seek th' infernal pit, + And spurn them from the track + That leads them down to it. + + + + +THE TANNENHÄUSER. + + +About four centuries had elapsed since the death of the Faithful +Eckart, when there lived a Lord of the Woods who stood in high +reputation as a counsellor at the imperial court. The same lord had a +son, one of the _handsomest_ knights in all the land, highly esteemed +and beloved by his friends and countrymen. Suddenly, however, he +disappeared under very peculiar circumstances, which occurred previous +to his departure; and no one could gather any tidings of him +whatsoever. But from the time of the Faithful Eckart, a tradition +respecting the Venus-berg had become very prevalent among the people, +and it was asserted by many that he must have wandered thither, and +there been devoted to eternal destruction. + +Among the whole of his friends and relatives who lamented the young +knight's loss, none grieved so much as Frederick of Wolfsburg. They +had been early companions, and their attachment had grown with their +years, insomuch that their subsequent attachment appeared rather the +result of necessity than of choice. Meanwhile the Lord of the Woods +died, having heard no account of his son; and in the course of a few +years his friend Frederick married. He had already a playful young +circle around him. Years passed away, and still no tidings arrived as +to the fate of his friend, whom he was at length reluctantly compelled +to number with the dead. + +One evening, as he was standing under the tower of his castle, he +observed a pilgrim approaching at some distance, in the direction of +the castle-gates. The stranger was very singularly dressed; his whole +appearance, and particularly his gait, striking the young knight as +something odd and unaccountable. As the pilgrim drew nigh, he went to +meet him; and, on examining his features, thought he could recognise +them. He looked again, and the whole truth burst upon him: it was +indeed no other than his long-lost friend--the young Lord of the +Fir-woods himself. Yet he shuddered, and uttered an exclamation of +surprise, when he contemplated the ravages which time had made in the +noblest face and form--the theme of his former admirers,--of which +only the ruins were to be traced;--no, he no longer appeared the same +being. + +The two friends embraced, while they still gazed at each other as upon +perfect strangers but newly introduced. Many were the confused +questions and answers which passed between them; and Frederick often +trembled at the strange wild glances of his friend: the fire seemed to +sparkle in his eyes. He agreed, however, to sojourn with him; but when +he had remained a few days, he informed Frederick that he was about to +go upon a pilgrimage to Rome. + +Their acquaintance in a short time grew more familiar, and resumed its +former happy and confidential tone. They recalled the mutual +adventures and plans of their early years, though the Lord of the +Woods seemed to avoid touching upon any incident which had occurred +since his late disappearance from home. This only raised Frederick's +curiosity the more; he entreated to be informed, and with yet more +earnestness as he found their former regard and confidence increase. +Still the stranger long sought, by the most friendly appeals and +warnings, to be excused; till at last, upon fresh solicitation, he +said, "Now, then, be it so! your wish shall be fully gratified; +only never in future reproach me, should my history excite +feelings--lasting feelings--of sorrow and dismay." + +Frederick took him in the most friendly manner by the arm, and led him +into the open air. They turned into a pleasant grove, and seated +themselves on a mossy bank; the stranger then giving his hand to his +friend, turned away his head among the soft leaves and grass, and, +amidst many bitter sighs and sobs, gave way to the sad emotions which +the recollection seemed to inspire. His friend, pressing his hand, +tried every means to console him; upon which the stranger, again +raising his head, began his story in a calmer voice, to the following +purport:-- + +"There goes an ancient tradition, that several hundred years ago there +lived a knight known by the name of the Faithful Eckart. It is farther +believed that there appeared a mysterious musician at that time from +one of the wonderful mountains, whose unearthly music awakened such +strange delight and wild wishes in the hearts of his audience, that +they would irresistibly follow him, and lose themselves in the +labyrinths of the same mountain. At that period, hell is supposed to +have kept its portals open there, in order to entrap, by such sweet +irresistible airs, unhappy mortals into its abyss. Often have I heard +the same account when I was a boy, and sometimes it used to make me +shudder. In a short time it seemed as if all nature, every tone and +every flower, reminded me, in spite of myself, of that same old +fearful saying. Oh, it is impossible for me to convey to you what kind +of mournful thought, what strange ineffable longing, one time suddenly +seized me, bound me, and led me, as it were, in chains; and +particularly when I gazed upon the floating clouds, and the streaks of +light ethereal blue seen between them; and what strange recollections +the woods and meadows conjured up in my soul. Often did I feel all the +love and tenderness of nature in my inmost spirit; often stretched +forth my arms, and longed for wings to fly into the embrace of +something yet more beautiful; to pour myself, like the spirit of +nature, over vale and mountain; to become all present with the grass, +the flowers, the trees; and to breathe in the fulness of the mighty +sea. When some lovely prospects had delighted me during the day, I was +sure to be haunted with dark and threatening images that same night, +all of which, seemed busy in closing against me the gates of life. One +dream, in particular, made an indelible impression upon my mind, +although I was unable to recall its individual features clearly to my +memory. + +"I thought I could see an immense concourse of people in the +streets,--I heard unintelligible words and languages, and I turned +away, and went in the dark night to the house of my parents, where I +found only my father, who was unwell. The next morning I threw my arms +round both my parents' necks--embracing them tenderly, as if I felt +that some evil power were about to separate us for ever. 'Oh, were I +to lose you,' I said to my dear father, 'how very lonely and unhappy +should I feel in this world without you!' They kissed and consoled me +tenderly, but they could not succeed in dispelling that dark +foreboding image from my imagination. + +"As I grew older, I did not mingle with other children of my own age +in their sports. I wandered lonely through the fields; and on one +occasion it happened that I missed my way, and got into a gloomy wood, +where I wandered about, calling for help. After searching my way back +for some time in vain, I all at once found myself standing before a +lattice, which opened into a garden. Here I remarked pleasant shady +walks, fruit-trees, and flowers, among which were numbers of roses, +which shone lovely in the sunbeams. An uncontrollable wish to approach +them more nearly seized me; and I eagerly forced my way through the +lattice-work, and found myself in that beautiful garden. I bent down +and embraced the plants and flowers, kissed the roses over and over, +and shed tears. While lost in this strange feeling, half sorrow, half +delight, two young maidens came towards me along the walk, one older, +and the other about my own years. I was roused from my trance, only +to yield myself up to fresh amazement. My eye reeled upon the younger, +and at that moment I felt as if I had been suddenly restored to +happiness after all my sufferings. They invited me into the house; the +parents of the young people inquired my name, and were kind enough to +send my father word that I was safe with them; and in the evening he +himself came to bring me home. + +"From this day forth the uncertain and idle tenour of my life acquired +some fixed aim;--my ideas recurred incessantly to the lovely maidens +and the garden; thither daily flew my hopes and all my wishes. I +abandoned my playmates, and all my usual pastimes, and could not +resist again visiting the garden, the castle, and its lovely young +inmate. Soon I appeared to become domesticated, and my absence no +longer created surprise; while my favourite Emma became hourly more +dear to me. My affection continued to increase in warmth and +tenderness, though I was myself unconscious of it. I was now happy! I +had not a wish to gratify, beyond that of returning, and looking +forward again to the hour of meeting. + +"About this time a young knight was introduced to the family; he was +acquainted likewise with my parents, and he appeared to attach himself +in the same manner as I had done to the fair young Emma. From the +moment I observed this, I began to hate him as my deadliest enemy. But +my feelings were indescribably more bitter when I fancied I saw that +Emma preferred his society to mine. I felt as if, from that instant, +the music which had hitherto accompanied me, suddenly died away in my +breast. My thoughts dwelt incessantly upon hatred and death; strange +feelings burned within my breast, in particular whenever I heard Emma +sing the well-known song to the lute. I did not even attempt to +disguise my enmity; and when my parents reproached me for my conduct, +I turned away from them with an obstinate and wilful air. I wandered +for hours together in the woods and among the rocks, indulging evil +thoughts, chiefly directed against myself;--I had already determined +upon my rival's death. + +"In the course of a few months the young knight declared his wishes to +Emma's parents, and they were received with pleasure. All that was +most sweet and wonderful in nature, all that had ever influenced and +delighted me, seemed to have united in my idea of Emma. I knew, I +acknowledged, and I wished for no other happiness--nothing +more--nothing but her. I had even wilfully predetermined that the loss +of her and my own destruction should take place on one and the same +day; neither should survive the other a moment. + +"My parents were much grieved at witnessing my wildness and rudeness +of manner; my mother became ill, but it touched me not; I inquired +little after her, and saw her only very seldom. The nuptial-day of my +rival ¦was drawing nigh, and my agony proportionably increased: it +hurried me through the woods and across the mountains, as if pursued +by a grizzly phantom by day and by night. I called down the most +frightful maledictions both upon Emma and myself. I had not a single +friend to advise with--no one wished to receive me--for all seemed to +have given me over for lost. Yes! for the detested fearful eve of the +bridal-day was at hand: I had taken refuge among the rocks and cliffs; +I was listening to the roaring cataract; I looked into the foaming +waters, and started back in horror at myself. On the approach of +morning, I saw my abhorred rival descending the hill at a little +distance; I drew nigh--provoked him with bitter and jeering words; and +when he drew his sword, I flew upon him like lightning, beat down his +guard with my hanger, and--he bit the dust. + +"I hastened from the spot--I never once looked back at him; but his +guide bore the body away. The same night I haunted the neighbourhood +of the castle where dwelt my Emma now. A few days afterwards, in +passing the convent near at hand, I heard the bells tolling, nuns +singing funeral-hymns, and saw death-lights burning in the sanctuary. +I inquired into the cause, and was informed that the young lady Emma +had died of the shock on hearing that her lover had been killed. + +"I was in doubt what to think, and where to remain; I doubted whether +I existed; whether all were true. I determined to see my parents; and +the night after reached the place where they lived. I found every +thing in commotion; the street was filled with horses and carriages; +pages and soldiers were all mingled together, and spoke in strange +broken words;--it was just as if the emperor were on the eve of +undertaking a campaign against his enemies. A single light was dimly +burning in my father's house; I felt a strange sensation, like +strangulation, within my breast. When I knocked, my father himself +came to the door, with slow soft steps; and just then I recollected a +strange dream I had in my childhood, and felt, with horrible truth, +that it was the same scene which I was then going through. Quite +dismayed, I inquired, 'Why are you up so late to-night, father?' He +led me in; saying, as he entered,--'I may well be up and watching, +when your mother has only this moment expired.' + +"These words shot like lightning through my soul. My father sat +himself thoughtfully down; I seated myself at his side; the corpse lay +upon a bed, and was appallingly covered over with white fillets and +napkins. My heart struggled, but could not burst. 'I myself keep +watch,' said the old man, 'for my poor wife always sits near me.' My +senses here failed me. I raised my eyes towards one corner, and there +I saw something rising up like a mist; it turned and motioned, and +soon took the well-known lineaments of my mother, who seemed to regard +me with a fixed and serious air. I attempted to escape, but I could +not; for the figure motioned to him, and my father held me fast in his +arms, while he softly whispered me, 'She died of grief, my son, for +you.' I embraced him with the most terrific, soul-cutting emotion. I +clung to him for protection like a feeble child,--burning tears ran +down my breast; but I uttered no sound. My father kissed me, and I +shuddered as I felt his lips, for they were deadly cold--cold as if I +had been kissed by the dead. 'How is it with you, dear father?' I +murmured in trembling agony; but he seemed to sink and gather into +himself, as it were, and replied not a word. I felt him in my arms, +growing colder and colder. I felt at his heart, but it was quite +still; yet, in the bitterness of my woe, I held the body fast clasped +in my embrace. + +"By a sudden glimmer, like the first break of morning, which shot +through the gloomy chamber, I there saw my father's spirit close to +that of my mother; and both gazed upon me with a compassionate +expression, as I stood with the dear deceased in my arms. From that +moment I saw and heard no more, I lay deprived of consciousness; and I +was found by the servants delirious, and yet powerless as a babe, on +the ensuing morning. + +"The memory of that hour is still as fearfully impressed upon my mind, +and I am at a loss to conjecture how I was so unfortunate as to +survive it. For it was now, indeed, that this once fair earth, with +life, and all that life had to afford, became worse than dead and +perished for me;--became a lone waste and wilderness, with all its +soft airs, sweet flowers, pure streams, and blue starry skies. I stood +like one, the last of a sudden overwhelming wreck, saved only to +regret that he had not perished with all that was dearest to him on +earth. How I lived on from day to day, I know not; till at last, +unable longer to contend with the fiends of remorse that grappled me, +I flew to society for relief. I joined a number of dissipated +characters, who sought, like me, to lose the sense of their follies +and enormities in the most dissolute pleasures. Yes, I sought to +propitiate the evil spirit within me by obedience to its worst +dictates. My former wildness and impatience revived, and I no longer +placed any restraint over my wishes. + +"I fell into the hands of an abandoned wretch of the name of Rudolf, +who only laughed at my lamentations and remorse. More than a year thus +elapsed; my anxiety and horror, in spite of all efforts to control +them, daily gaining ground upon me, until I was seized with utter +despair. Like all who experience that stage of such a malady, I took +to wandering without any object. I arrived at distant and unknown +places--spots unvisited by other feet; and often I could have thrown +myself from some airy height into the green sunny meads and vales +below, or rushed into the cool streams to quench my soul's fiery and +insatiable thirst; yet though I had no fear, something unaccountable +always restrained me. I made many attempts towards the close of the +day; for I longed to be annihilated: but when the morning returned, +with its golden beams, its fresh dews, and odorous flowers, I felt I +could destroy nothing; and hope and love of life revived within my +breast. A conviction then seized me, that all hell was conspired +together to work my utter perdition; that both my pleasures and my +pains arose from the same fiendish source; and that a malicious spirit +was gradually directing all the powers and influences of my mind to +that sole end. I yielded myself up to him, in order to dissipate these +alternating raptures and agonies. On one dark and stormy night I went +into the mountains; I mounted one of their highest and giddiest peaks, +where foot of man never before trod; and there, with my whole strength +of heart and soul, I invoked the foe of God and man to appear. I +called him in language that I felt he must obey. My words were +powerful--the fiend stood at my side, and I felt no alarm. While +conversing with him, I could feel my faith in each haunted and +wonder-working mountain growing stronger within me; and the base one +taught me a song sufficiently potent of itself to shew me the right +path into its labyrinths. It was thus I approached the strange +mountain: the night was dark and tempestuous; the moon glimmered +through a mass of dusky livid clouds; yet boldly and loudly did I +sing that song. A giant form arose, and motioned me back with its +staff. I drew nigher. 'I am the faithful Eckart,' exclaimed the +supernatural form; 'and, praise to the goodness of the blessed God, I +am permitted to hold watch here, to deter the unhappy from rushing +into the base fiend's power.' I pushed on. In passing, I found my way +led through subterraneous passages in the mountain. The path was so +narrow as to compel me to force my way: I heard the gushing of the +hidden waters, and the noise of the spirits engaged in forging steel, +gold, and silver in their caverns, for the temptation and perdition of +man. I heard, too, the deep clanging tones and notes in their simple +and secret powers, which supply all our earthly music; and the lower I +descended, the more there seemed to fall as it were a veil from before +my eyes. + +"Soon I heard other music, of quite an opposite character to the last; +and my spirit within me struggled, as if eager to fly nearer and catch +the notes. I came into more open space; and on all sides strange, +clear, glowing colours burst upon my eye. This I felt was what I had +all along sighed for;--deep in my heart I welcomed the presence of +something I had long looked for--the deep-seated master-passion, of +which I then felt the ravishing powers playing in their full strength +within my breast. A swarm of the mad heathen deities, with the goddess +Venus at their head, ran forward to greet me;--all demons, that +assumed those ancients' names, and were banished thither by the +Almighty, their career being fully run upon earth; though they still +continue to work in secret. + +"All the delights so familiar to the world I there found and enjoyed +in their fullest and keenest zest. My appetite was as insatiable as +the delight was lasting. The long-famed beauties of the ancient world +were all there--all that my most ardent wishes required was mine; and +each day that world grew brighter, and appeared arrayed in more +charming colours. The most costly wines slaked our thirst; the most +lovely and delicious forms played and wantoned in the air; a throng of +loves hovered invitingly around me, shedding perfumes over my head; +and tones of music burst forth from nature's inmost heart, and with +their undulating freshness restored the ardour of our desires, while +soft mists and dews stole over flowery fields, giving new essence to +their ravishing odours. + +"How many years thus passed, I am quite unable to state, for here was +no time and no divisions; the luscious charm of virgin beauty burned +in the flowers, and in the forms of girls bloomed the fragrant charm +of the flowers; their colours seemed to enjoy a peculiar language; +tones uttered new words; the world of sense was enclosed, as it were, +within the glowing bloom of those luxurious flowers--the resident +spirits within were ever engaged in celebrating their triumphant +delights. + +"How this was accomplished, I can neither explain nor comprehend; but +soon, amid all this pomp of sin and unlawful pleasure, I began to sigh +for repose, for the old innocent earth I had left, with all its +virtuous, social endearments; and my desire grew as violent as it had +formerly been to leave it for what I had there obtained. I wished to +lead the same life as other mortals, with its mixed pains and +pleasures. I was satiated with splendour and excess, and turned with +thoughts of pleasure towards my native land. Some unaccountable mercy +of the Almighty granted me the privilege of returning. I found myself +once more in this present world, and still within reach of repentance +and salvation; and I now think only of receiving absolution for my +sins at the footstool of the Almighty Father, for which purpose I am +on the way to Rome; that so I may again be numbered in the rank of +other living men." + +Here the sad pilgrim became silent; and Frederick fixed his eye upon +him, with a searching glance, for some time. At last he took his poor +friend's hand, and said: "Although I have not yet recovered from my +astonishment, and cannot, in any way, comprehend your narrative; yet +I conceive it impossible that all with which you have been thus +fearfully haunted can be other than a strong delusion of the mind. For +Emma herself is still alive, she is my own wife; we two have never +differed, much less engaged with our weapons, during the whole course +of our lives. No, we never hated each other, as you seem to think, +though you were missing just before my marriage from home. Besides, +you never, at the time, gave me a single hint that you loved my Emma." + +Then he again took his bewildered friend by the hand, and led him into +another apartment to his wife, who had just returned from a visit of +some days to one of her sisters. + +The pilgrim stood silent and thoughtful in her presence, while he +examined the form and features of the lady. Then, shaking his head +repeatedly, he said, in a low voice, "By Heavens! this is the most +wonderful incident of all!" + +Frederick now related to him every thing which had occurred to himself +since they parted, and attempted to explain how he must have been +labouring under a temporary delirium during many years past. + +"Oh! I know right well," answered the pilgrim, "how it is. It is now +that I am bewitched and insane; 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 withdraw his attention from the subject, by recurring to +scenes and incidents of his childhood; but the pilgrim was not to be +undeceived. One day he suddenly leaped up, declaring he must instantly +set out, and forth he went without even saying farewell. + +Frederick and his Emma often discoursed of the strange unhappy +pilgrim. A few months had elapsed, when, pale and worn, in tattered +attire and barefoot, his poor friend entered Frederick's apartment, +while he was yet asleep. He pressed his lips to his, and exclaimed +hastily, "The holy father cannot and will not forgive me. I must away +and seek my former abode." And with this he went hurriedly away. + +Frederick roused himself, and was going into his wife's chamber, when +he met her women, who were all running to find him, in an agony of +terror and alarm. The Tannenhäuser had been there: he had come early +in the morning, and uttering the words, "She shall not stop me in my +career!" had despatched her upon the spot. + +Frederick had not been able yet to recall his thoughts, when a strange +feeling of horror came over him. He could not rest; he ran into the +open air, and when they wished to bring him back, he exclaimed, "that +the pilgrim had kissed his lips, and that the kiss was burning him +until he should meet with him again." + +He then ran rapidly in a variety of directions in search of the +Tannenhäuser and the mysterious mountain; and he was never afterwards +heard of. It is reported by the people, that whoever receives a kiss +from one of the dwellers of that mountain is unable to resist the +enchantment; which draws him with magic force into its subterraneous +depths. + + + + +THE RUNENBERG. + + +A young hunter was sitting in the midst of the mountain-ranges, musing +beside his fowling-floor, whilst the rush of waters and of the woods +resounded through the solitude. He was thinking on his destiny; how he +was so young, and had forsaken father and mother, and his familiar +home, and all the acquaintances of his native village, to seek out for +himself a new country, to escape from the circle of recurring habits; +and he looked up with a kind of wonder that he now found himself in +this valley, and in this employment. Great clouds were passing over +the heavens and sinking behind the hills; birds were singing from the +bushes, and an echo answered them. He slowly descended to the foot of +the hill, and seated himself beside a stream that was rushing over +rugged stones with a foamy murmur. He listened to the changeful melody +of the water; and it seemed as if the waves were telling him, in +unintelligible words, a thousand things that nearly concerned him, and +he could not but feel inwardly troubled that he was not able to +understand their speech. Then again he looked around him, and thought +he was joyful and happy; so he took fresh courage, and sang with a +loud voice this hunting-song: + + Joyful and merry amid the height + The huntsman goes to the chase; + His booty must appear in sight + In the bright green thickets, though till night + Its path he vainly trace. + + And there his faithful dogs are yelling + Through the solitude sublime; + Through the wood the horns are telling, + And all hearts with courage swelling, + O thou happy hunting-time! + + His home is clefts and caves among, + The trees all greet him well: + Autumnal airs breathe round him strong; + And when he finds his prey, his song + Resounds from every dell. + + Leave the landsman to his labour, + And the sailor to the sea; + None so views Aurora's favour, + None so tastes the morning's savour, + When the dew lies heavily, + + As who follows wood and game, + While Diana's smile doth shew, + Till some beauteous form inflame + His heart, that he most loved can name, + Happy hunting man art thou! + +Whilst he thus sang, the sun had sunk deeper, and broad shadows fell +across the narrow valley. A cooling twilight stole over the earth; +while only the tops of the trees and the round summits of the +mountains were gilded by the evening glow. Christian's heart grew +still sadder: he liked not to return to his fowling-floor, and yet he +might not stay; he seemed to himself so lonely, and he longed for +society. Now he wished for those old books which once he had seen at +his father's house, and which he never would read, though his father +had often urged him thereto; the scenes of his childhood came before +him, his sports with the youth of the village, his acquaintances among +the children, the school that had so often distressed him; he wished +himself back again amid those scenes, which he had wilfully forsaken +to seek his fortune in unknown regions, on mountains, among strange +men, in a new occupation. As it grew darker, and the brook rushed +louder, and the birds of night with fitful wing began their devious +wanderings, he still sat dejected and disconsolate, and quite +unresolved what to do or purpose. Thoughtlessly he pulled out a +straggling root from the earth; when suddenly he heard a hollow +moaning under ground, which wound itself onward underneath, and only +died away plaintively in the distance. The sound penetrated his inmost +heart; it seized him as if he had unconsciously stirred the wound of +which the dying frame of nature was expiring in agony. He started up, +and would have fled away; for he had heard aforetime of the wondrous +mandrake-root, which, on being torn, sends forth such heart-rending +moans, that the person who has done it is fain to run away maddened by +its wailings. As he was about to depart, a stranger stood behind him, +and asked him, with a friendly air, whither he was going. Christian +had wished for society, and yet he was terrified anew at this friendly +presence. + +"Whither so hastily?" asked the stranger again. + +The young hunter tried to collect his thoughts, and related how the +solitude had suddenly become so frightful to him, that he wished to +escape from it; the evening so dark, the green shades of the wood so +dreary, the brook spoke in loud lamentations, the clouds traversing +the heavens, drew his longing over to the other side of the mountains. + +"You are yet young," said the stranger, "and cannot well endure the +rigour of solitude. I will accompany you; for you will meet with no +house or hamlet within a league of this. On our way we can talk +together, and tell tales to each other; so your troublous thoughts +will leave you. In an hour the moon will emerge from behind the +mountains; her light will also dispel the darkness from your mind." + +They went on, and the stranger seemed to the youth almost as an old +acquaintance. + +"How came you on these mountains?" asked the former; "by your speech I +perceive you are not at home here." + +"Ah!" replied the youth, "much might be said on that subject; and yet +it is not worth the talk, not worth relating. I was forced away by a +singular impulse from my parents and relations; my spirit was not +master of itself; like a bird which is taken in a net, and vainly +struggles, so was my soul ensnared in strange imaginations and wishes. +We dwelt far from hence, in a plain where all around, you see no hill, +scarcely a height: few trees adorned the green level; but meadows, +fruitful corn-fields, and gardens, extended far as the eye could +reach; and a broad river glided like a mighty spirit by them. My +father was gardener to the castle, and wished to bring me up to the +same employment. He loved plants and flowers beyond every thing, and +could devote himself the entire day long to the watching and tending +of them. Indeed he went so far as to maintain he could almost converse +with them; that he learnt from their growth and thriving, as well as +from the varied form and colour of their leaves. I, however, was +averse to the gardening occupation; and the more, as my father tried +to persuade me thereto, and even with threats to compel me. I wished +to be a fisherman, and made the attempt; but neither did a life upon +the waters suit me: I was then apprenticed to a tradesman in the town; +but soon came home from him also. Once on a time my father was telling +of the mountains, which, in his youth, he had travelled over; of the +subterranean mines and their workmen; of hunters and their occupation; +and suddenly there awoke in me the most decisive impulse, the feeling +that now I had found my destined way of life. Day and night I mused +thereon, and imagined high mountains, caves, and pine-forests, before +me: my fancy created for itself immense rocks; I heard, in thought, +the din of the chase, the horns, the cry of the hounds and of the +game; all my dreams were filled with these things, and therefore I had +no longer any rest or peace. The plains, the castle, my father's +little contracted garden with the prim flower-beds; the confined +dwelling; the wide heaven extended all around so dreary, and embracing +no heights, no lofty mountains,--all became more and more melancholy +and odious to me. It seemed to me as if all men about me were living +in deplorable ignorance, and that they would all feel and think as I +did, if once the feeling of their misery could arise within their +souls. Thus I harassed myself: till one morning I formed the +resolution to leave my parents' house for ever. I had found in a book +some descriptions of the nearest mountains, with pictures of the +neighbouring districts, and thereafter I directed my way. It was in +the early spring, and I felt myself quite light and joyful. I hastened +with all speed to leave the plain; and, one evening, I saw in the +distance the dim outline of the mountain-chains lying before me. I +could scarcely sleep in the inn, so impatient was I to tread the +region which I regarded as my home: with the earliest dawn I was +awake, and again upon my journey. In the afternoon, I found myself +already below my much-loved hills; and, as a drunkard, I went on, then +stopped awhile, looked backward, and felt as if intoxicated with the +strange and yet familiar objects. Soon the plain behind me was lost to +my sight; the forest-streams were rushing to meet me; beech-trees and +oaks sounded down to me from steep precipices, with waving boughs; my +path led me past giddy abysses; and blue hills were standing high and +solemn in the distance. A new world was unlocked to me. I was not +weary. So I came, after certain days, having traversed a great part of +the mountains, to an old forester, who, at my earnest request, took me +to instruct me in the arts of the chase. I have now been three months +in his service. I took possession of the district in which I was to +have my abode, as of a kingdom. I made myself acquainted with every +cliff and cleft of the mountains; in my occupation, when at early dawn +we went to the woods, or felled trees in the forest, or exercised my +eye and my fowling-piece, or trained our faithful companions, the +dogs, to their duty, I was completely happy. But now I have been +sitting here for eight days upon my fowling-floor, in the loneliest +part of the mountains; and this evening my mind grew so sad as never +in my life before; I seemed so lost, so utterly unhappy; and even now +I cannot rid myself of that melancholy humour." + +The stranger listened attentively, as they both wandered through a +dark alley of the wood. They now came into the open country; and the +light of the moon, which above them was standing with its horns over +the mountain top, greeted them friendly. In undistinguishable forms, +and many sundered masses, which the pale glimmer again deceptively +united, the cleft mountain-range lay before them; in the background +was a steep hill, on which an ancient weather-worn ruin shewed +ghastly in the white light. "Our way parts here," said the stranger; +"I am going down into this hollow; there, by that old mineshaft, is my +dwelling: the metal ores are my neighbours; the mountain-streams tell +me wonderful things in the night-season; thither, however, thou canst +not follow me. But see there, the Runenberg, with its rugged walls, +how beautiful and alluring the old stone-work looks down to us! Wert +thou never there?" + +"Never," replied young Christian. "I once heard my old forester relate +strange things of this mountain, which, foolishly enough, I have +forgotten; but I remember my mind was horror-struck that evening. I +should like at some time to ascend the height; for the lights are +there most beautiful; the grass must there be very green, the world +around very strange; and, perhaps, one might find up there many a +wonder of the ancient time." + +"You can scarcely fail," replied the other; "whoever only understands +how to seek, whose heart is right inwardly moved thereto, will find +there old friends, and all that he most ardently desires." With these +words the stranger rapidly descended the hill, without bidding his +companion farewell; he soon vanished in the thicket, and shortly after +the sound of his footsteps also died away. The young hunter was not +surprised, but only quickened his footsteps towards the Runenberg, +whereto every thing beckoned him: thither the stars seemed to shine, +the moon pointed out a bright path towards the ruins; light clouds +rose up in that direction; and out of the depths the waters and +rushing woods persuaded him, and spoke to him new courage. His steps +were as if winged; his heart beat; he felt within a joy so great, that +it almost rose to anguish. He came into places he had never seen +before, where the rocks became steeper, the foliage disappeared, and +the naked walls called out to him as with angry voices, while a +lonesome moaning wind drove him on. Thus he hastened on without +stopping, and came late after midnight upon a narrow footpath which +ran along by the side of an abyss. He heeded not the chasm which +yawned beneath, and which threatened to devour him, so impelled was he +by wild imaginings and unintelligible desires. Now his perilous way +drew nigh a high wall, which appeared to lose itself in the clouds; +the path grew narrower at every step, so that the youth was obliged to +hold fast by the projecting stones to avoid plunging into the gulf +below. + +At length he could proceed no further; the path ended under a window; +he was obliged to come to a stand, and knew not whether to turn or +stay. Suddenly he saw a light, which behind the ancient wall appeared +to be moving. He looked after the gleam, and discovered that he could +see into an antique spacious hall, strangely adorned with various +kinds of precious stones and crystals, that sparkled in manifold +splendour, and mysteriously reflected each other from the wandering +light, which was borne in the hand of a tall female form, who, in a +thoughtful mood, was pacing up and down the apartment. She seemed not +to belong to mortals, so large, so powerful were her limbs, so firm +her countenance; but the enraptured youth thought he had never before +seen or imagined such beauty. He trembled, and yet secretly wished +that she might come to the window and perceive him. At last she +stopped, set down the light upon a crystal table, and sang with a +thrilling voice: + + Where can the Ancients keep, + That they do not appear? + From diamond pillars weep + The crystals, many a tear, + In full fountain falling round; + And within sad tones resound. + In the waves so clear and bright, + And transparent as the light, + There is form'd the beauteous glance, + That doth the raptur'd soul entrance, + And moves the heart in glowing dance. + Come, ye spirits all, + To the golden hall; + Raise, from out the depths of gloom, + Heads that sparkle; quickly come, + Ye that are of wondrous power, + Be of hearts the masters now, + Where bright tears with passion glow; + Be the rulers of the hour. + +As soon as she had ended, she began to undress, laying aside her +garments in a splendid wardrobe. First, she took from her head a +golden veil, and her long black hair flowed in full ringlets down to +her waist; then she loosed her bosom-dress, and the youth forgot +himself and the world in gazing at the superterrestrial beauty. After +some time, she went to another golden cabinet, took thereout a tablet +that glittered with inlaid stones, rubies, diamonds, and all kinds of +jewels, and stood contemplating it with scrutinising look. The tablet +seemed to form a strange unintelligible figure, with its several lines +and colours; one while, as its brightness glanced towards him, he was +painfully dazzled; then, again, a soft green and blue playing over it, +refreshed his eye; but he stood devouring the objects with his looks, +and at the same time absorbed in deep thoughts. In his inmost heart +there was opened up an abyss of forms and harmony, of longing and +desire; troops of winged tones and sad and joyful melodies passed +through his spirit, that was moved to the very foundation: he saw a +world of pain and hope arise within himself, mighty wondrous rocks of +trust and daring confidence, deep torrents as of melancholy flowing +by. He no longer knew himself; and he was terrified as the fair one +opened the window, and reaching forth to him the magic tablet, spoke +to him these few words: "Take this in remembrance of me!" He grasped +the tablet, and felt the figure; the invisible within him immediately +passed away, and the light, and the potent beauty, and the strange +hall, had vanished. As it were, a dark night, with cloud-curtains, +fell within his inmost soul; he searched after his former feelings, +after that inspiration and incomprehensible love; he gazed at the +costly tablet, in which the sinking moon was mirrored faint and +bluish. + +He still held the tablet fast pressed within his hands, when the +morning dawned; and he, exhausted, giddy, and half-asleep, fell +headlong down the steep mountain-side. + +The sun shone on the face of the stupified sleeper; who, on awaking, +found himself again upon a pleasant hill. He looked around, and beheld +far behind him, and scarcely discernible at the extreme horizon, the +ruins of the Runenberg; he searched for the tablet, and could no where +find it. Astonished and perplexed, he tried to collect his thoughts +and unite his recollections; but his memory was as if filled with a +confused mist, in which shapeless and unknown forms were wildly +contending with one another. His entire former life lay behind him, as +in a far distance; the strangest and the most familiar were so mingled +together, that he found it impossible to sever them. After long +struggle with himself, he at last thought that a dream, or sudden +madness, must have befallen him that night; but still he could not +understand how he had wandered so far into a strange and remote +region. + +Still, almost overcome with sleep, he descended the hill, and came +upon a beaten path, which led him down from the mountains on to the +open country. All was strange to him; he at first thought that he +should find his native home, but he saw before him quite a different +region, and at length conjectured that he must be on the southern side +of the mountains, which in the spring he had trodden from the north. +Towards noon he stood over a village from whose cottages a peaceful +smoke was ascending; children clad in festal dress were playing on the +green, and from the little church came the sound of the organ and the +chant of the congregation. All seized him with a sweet, indescribable +melancholy; all so stirred his heart, that he was forced to weep. The +narrow gardens, the little cottages with their smoking chimneys, the +neatly parted cornfields, reminded him of the wants of poor human +nature, of its dependence on the friendly earth, in whose beneficence +it is obliged to trust; while the singing and the tones of the organ +filled his heart with a devoutness he had never felt before. His +feelings and wishes of the previous night appeared to him reckless and +wicked; he wished again, in a childlike, dependent, and humble spirit, +to unite himself to men as his brethren, and to withdraw from his +ungodly purposes and opinions. The plain, with its little river that +wound itself in manifold turnings about the gardens and meadows, +seemed charming and alluring to him; he thought with fear on his abode +in the solitary mountains amid the desolate rocks; he longed that he +might dwell in this peaceful village; and with these feelings he +entered the crowded church. + +The singing was just ended, and the priest had begun his sermon, which +was on the kindness of God in the harvest; how His goodness feeds all, +and satisfies every living thing; how wonderfully in the corn He has +provided for the support of the human race; how the love of God is +incessantly communicating itself in bread; and therefore the devout +Christian may, with thankfulness, perpetually celebrate a holy supper. +The congregation was edified. The young hunter's looks were fixed on +the pious preacher, and observed close by the pulpit a young maiden, +who seemed, beyond all others, resigned to devotion and attention. She +was slim and fair, her blue eye gleamed with the most piercing +softness, her countenance was as if transparent, and blooming with the +tenderest colours. The stranger youth had never felt himself and his +heart so before; so full of love and so calm, so resigned to the +stillest and the most enlivening feelings. He bowed himself in tears, +when the priest at last spoke the blessing; he felt penetrated by the +holy words, as by an invisible power; and the shadowy image of the +night sank down behind him, like a spectre, into the deepest +distance. He left the church, stopped a while under a tall lime-tree, +and thanked God in a fervent prayer, that, without his deserving, He +had freed him from the snares of the evil spirit. The village was that +day celebrating the harvest-feast, and all men were determined to be +joyful; the children gaily dressed were rejoicing in cakes and dances; +the young men on the village square, which was encircled with young +trees, were preparing all things for the festival, where also the +musicians were sitting and trying their instruments. Christian went +again into the fields, in order to collect his thoughts and fix his +contemplations, and then returned to the village, where now all were +united in joyfulness and celebration of the festival. The fair +Elizabeth was also there with her parents; and the stranger joined +himself to the joyful throng. Elizabeth was dancing; and he had, in +the mean time, entered into conversation with the father, who was a +farmer, and one of the richest men in the village. The youth and +speech of the stranger seemed to please him, and so in a short time it +was agreed that Christian should remain with him as gardener. This he +was able to undertake; for he hoped that now the knowledge and +occupations he had so much despised at home would stand him in good +stead. + +From this time a new life began for him. He went to live with the +farmer, and was reckoned with his family. With his station also he +changed his dress. He was so good, so serviceable, and ever kind; so +diligent at his labour, that soon all in the house, but especially the +daughter, became friendly to him. So often as on Sunday he saw her +going to church, he held for her in readiness a beautiful nosegay, +which she received from him with blushing thankfulness: he missed her +when the day passed without his seeing her; and then in the evening +she would relate to him legends and pleasant stories. They became ever +more needful to each other; and the old people, who observed it, +seemed not to have any thing against it; for Christian was the +handsomest and most industrious youth in the village. They themselves, +from the first moment, had felt a constraint of love and friendship +towards him. After half a year, Elizabeth was his wife. It was again +spring; the swallows and birds of song had come into the land; the +garden stood in its gayest attire; the marriage was celebrated with +all joyfulness; bride and bridegroom appeared as if intoxicated with +their happiness. Late in the evening, as they went to their chamber, +the young husband said to his beloved: "No, thou art not that form +which once charmed me in a dream, and which I never can quite forget; +yet am I happy in thy presence, and blest in thine embrace." + +How joyful was the family, when, after a year, it was increased by a +little daughter, that was named Leonora. It is true that Christian was +at times somewhat more serious as he contemplated the child; but yet +his youthful sprightliness always again returned to him. He scarcely +ever thought of his former way of life, for he felt himself quite at +home and contented. After some months, however, the thought of his +parents occurred to him, and especially how his father would rejoice +at his peaceful lot, at his condition as gardener and husbandman; it +pained him that he had been able for so long a time to forget father +and mother; his own child reminded him of what joy children are to +parents; and so he at length resolved to put himself on the journey, +and revisit his native home. + +Unwillingly he left his wife; all wished him happiness; and in the +fine season of the year, on foot he took his way. Already, after a few +miles, he felt how painful was the parting; for the first time in his +life he felt the smart of separation; the strange objects around +seemed almost savage to him; he felt as if he were lost in a hostile +solitude. Then the thought occurred to him that his youth was over; +that he had found a home to which he belonged, in which his heart had +taken root; he could almost lament the lost levity of former years; +and he felt the extremest dejection of spirit as at a village he +turned into the inn to pass the night. He could not comprehend why he +had left his affectionate wife and acquired parents; and peevish and +discontented, he next morning set forth to continue his journey. + +His anguish increased as he came near the chain of mountains; the +distant ruins were already visible, and gradually became more +distinguishable; while numerous hill-tops rose round and clear from +out the blue mist. He went timidly on; often stopping and wondering +with himself at the fear, at the horror, which more and more oppressed +him at every step. "Madness!" he exclaimed, "I know thee well, and thy +perilous allurement; but I will manfully withstand thee. Elizabeth is +no idle dream; I know that she now thinks on me, that she is expecting +me, and, full of love, counts the hours of my absence. Do I not +already see forests as black hair before me? Do not the lightening +eyes look towards me from the brook? The giant forms, are they not +advancing to me from the mountains?" + +With these words, he was about to lay himself down to rest beneath a +tree, when he saw an old man sitting under its shadow, who was, with +the greatest attention, contemplating a flower, now holding it towards +the sun, then again shading it with his hand, counting its leaves, and +striving in all ways to impress it strictly on his memory. As he +approached nearer, the form seemed known to him, and soon no doubt +remained that the old man with the flower was his father. He rushed +into his arms with an expression of the most vehement joy; the other +was delighted, but not astonished, at meeting him so suddenly. + +"Art thou come to meet me already, my son?" said the old man; "I knew +that I should soon find thee, but I did not think that to-day such joy +would happen to me." + +"How came you to know, father, that you would meet with me?" + +"By this flower," replied the old gardener; "all my life I have been +wishing to be able once to find it, but never had the fortune; for it +is very rare, and grows only on the mountains. I set out in quest of +thee, because thy mother is dead, and the solitude at home was too +oppressive and afflicting to me. I knew not whither to direct my way. +At last I wandered through the mountains, dreary as the journey seemed +to me. By the way, I sought for this flower, but could nowhere +discover it; and now, quite unexpected, I find it here, where the +beautiful plain lies stretched before me; thereby I knew that I should +find thee soon; and, see! how truly the dear flower has prophesied!" + +They embraced each other again, and Christian wept for his mother; but +the old man grasped his hand, and said: "Let us be going, that we may +soon lose sight of the mountain shadows. My heart is always sad at the +steep wild shapes, the horrid chasms, the gurgling waterfalls. Let us +again visit the kind, harmless level country." + +They wandered back; and Christian became more cheerful. He told his +father of his new fortune, of his child and of his home: his speech +made him as if intoxicated; and, in talking, he now for the first time +felt truly how nothing more was wanting to his happiness. Thus, amid +tales joyful and melancholy, they arrived at the village. All were +rejoiced at the speedy termination of the journey; most of all, +Elizabeth. The old man took up his abode with them, joined his little +fortune to their estate, and they formed, together, the most contented +and united circle among men. The field increased; the cattle throve; +Christian's house became in a few years one of the most considerable +in the village; and he soon saw himself the father of several +children. + +Five years had in this manner passed away, when a stranger, on his +journey, stopped, and took up his abode in Christian's house, as being +the most respectable in the village. He was a friendly, communicative +man, who related many things of his journey, played with and gave +presents to the children, and, in short, was kind to every one. He was +so pleased with the neighbourhood, that he was resolved to spend some +days there; but the days grew to weeks, and at length to months. His +sojourn surprised no one, for all had already been accustomed to +regard him as belonging to the family. Only Christian often sat +musing; for it occurred to him that he had already aforetime known the +traveller, and yet he could not recollect the occasion when he could +have seen him. + +At last, after three months, the stranger took his leave, and said, +"My dear friends, a wonderful destiny and strange expectations impel +me forward into the nearest mountains; a magical form, which I cannot +withstand, allures me. I now leave you, and know not whether I shall +return to you. I have a sum of money by me, which is safer in your +hands than in mine, and therefore I pray you to take charge of it: +should I not come back in a year's time, then keep it, and take it as +a thank-offering for your kindness shewn to me." + +So the stranger departed; and Christian took the money into his +keeping. He carefully locked it up; and at times, in the excess of +anxiety, looked over it, counted it to see that none was missing, and +made himself much ado with it. + +"This sum would make us right happy," he once said to his father, +"should the stranger not return; we and our children would then be for +ever provided for." + +"Let alone the gold," said the old man; "therein lies no blessing: +hitherto, praise God, we have wanted nothing, and by all means put +this thought away from thee." + +Christian often arose in the night to waken the servants to their +labour, and himself to look after every thing. The father was anxious +lest, through excessive diligence, he should injure his youth and +health; therefore, one night, he arose in order to admonish him on the +subject, when, to his astonishment, he saw him sitting at a table, and +with the greatest eagerness counting over the gold. + +"My son," said the old man, in sadness, "shall it come to this with +thee? has this cursed metal been brought under the roof only to our +unhappiness? Bethink thyself, my son, or the wicked fiend will consume +thy blood and life." + +"Yes," said Christian, "I no longer comprehend myself; neither by +night nor by day have I any rest; see now how it looks at me, till the +ruddy glow goes deep into my heart. Listen how it clinks, this golden +blood; it calls me when asleep; I hear it when music sounds, when the +wind blows, when people are talking in the street. If the sun shines, +I see only these yellow eyes, with which it blinks at me, and wishes +to whisper secretly a word of love into my ear: so I am obliged +nightly to get up, though only to satisfy its strong desire, and then +I feel it inwardly exulting and rejoicing; when I touch it with my +fingers, it grows ruddier and more glorious in its joy. Only look +yourself now at the glow of its rapture!" + +The grey-haired man, shuddering and weeping, took his son in his arms, +prayed, and then said, "Christel, thou must turn again to the word of +God; thou must more diligently and devoutly go to church: otherwise +thou wilt languish, and in the saddest misery pine thyself away." + +The money was again locked up. Christian promised to betake himself to +other subjects; and the old man was composed. A year and more had +already passed, and no tidings heard of the stranger: the old man at +last yielded to the entreaties of his son; and the relinquished money +was laid out in lands and other ways. The young farmer's wealth was +soon talked of in the village; and Christian seemed extremely +contented and joyful, so that his father thought himself happy at +seeing him so well and cheerful; all fear had now vanished from his +soul. What, then, must have been his astonishment when, one evening, +Elizabeth took him aside, and told him, with tears, that she could no +longer understand her husband; he spoke so wildly, especially at +night; he had perplexing dreams; would often in his sleep for a long +time walk about the room without knowing it, and tell of wondrous +things which oft made her shudder. But most frightful to her was his +merriment in the daytime; his laugh was wild and boisterous, his look +strange and wandering. The father stood terror-struck; and the +troubled wife continued: "He is always speaking of the stranger, and +maintains that otherwise he has long known him, for that this +stranger-man is really none other than a woman of wondrous beauty; he +also will no longer go out into the field, nor work in the garden, for +he says that he hears underground a fearful groaning when he only +pulls up a root; he starts and seems terrified at the plant and herbs, +as if they were spectres." + +"Merciful God!" exclaimed the father, "is the frightful hunger so fast +grown within him that it has come to this? Then is his enchanted heart +no longer human, but of cold metal; he who loves not flowers, has lost +all love and fear of God." + +The following day the father went for a walk with his son, and +repeated to him much of what he had heard from Elizabeth; he exhorted +him to piety, and to devote his spirit to holy contemplations. + +Christian replied, "Willingly, my father; and often I feel quite +happy, and every thing succeeds well with me: for a long time, for +years, I can forget the true form of my inward being, and lead, as it +were, a strange life with cheerfulness: but then suddenly, like a new +moon, the ruling star, which I myself am, arises on my heart, and +vanquishes the foreign influence. I could be quite happy, but that +once, on an extraordinary night, a mysterious sign was impressed +through my hand deeply within my soul; often the magic figure sleeps +and is at rest; I think it has passed away, when suddenly it springs +forth again as a poison, and makes its way in all directions. Then I +can think and feel nothing else; all around me is changed, or, rather, +is by this form swallowed up. As the madman shudders at the water, and +the infused poison within him becomes more venomous, so it happens to +me with every cornered figure, every line, every beam; all will then +unbind the form that dwells within me, and promote its birth; and my +body and soul feel the anguish; as my spirit received it by a feeling +from without, so into an outward feeling she desires, with agonising +throes, to work it forth again, that she may be free from it and at +rest." + +"It was an unlucky star," said the old man, "that drew thee away from +us. Thou wert born for a still life; thy mind tended to quietness and +plants; then thy impatience led thee away into the society of savage +stones; the rocks, the rent cliffs, with their rugged shapes, have +overset thy spirit, and planted within thee the desolating hunger +after metal. Thou oughtest ever to have been on thy guard, and kept +thy view from the mountains. So I thought to bring thee up; but it was +not so to be. Thy humility, thy calmness, thy childlike feelings, have +been all overturned by obstinacy, wildness, and overbearing." + +"No," said the son; "I remember quite distinctly that it was a plant +which first made known to me the misery of the whole earth; only then +I understood the sighs and lamentations which are every where +perceptible in all nature, if only one will listen. In plants, herbs, +flowers, and trees, there moves and stirs painfully only one general +wound; they are the corpse of former glorious worlds of rock, they +present to our eye the frightfullest corruption. Now I well understand +that it was this which that root with its deep-fetched moaning wished +to say to me; in its agony it forgot itself, and told me all. +Therefore are all green plants so angry with me, and wait for my life; +they desire to obliterate the loved figure in my heart; and every +spring, with their distorted deathly looks, to win my soul. With +unpermitted and malicious art have they deceived thee, old man; for +they have gained complete possession of thy soul. Only ask the rocks, +thou wilt be astonished when thou hearest them speak." + +The father looked at him a long while, but could answer him no more. +They went silently back to the house, and the old man was likewise +horrified at his son's mirth; for it seemed quite foreign to him, and +as if another being was, as from a machine, sporting and awkwardly +labouring within him. + +The harvest-feast was again to be celebrated; the people went to +church, and Elizabeth, with her children, set out to be present at the +service; her husband also prepared to accompany them; but at the +church-door he turned aside, and, deep in thought, went forth out of +the village. He seated himself on the height, and looked down on the +smoking cottages beneath him; heard the singing and organ-tones coming +from the church; and saw children gaily clad dancing and sporting upon +the village-green. "How have I lost my life in a dream!" said he to +himself: "years have passed away since I went down this hill among the +children; those who then were playing are to-day serious in the +church; I also went into the sacred building; but Elizabeth is now no +more a blooming child-like maiden; her youth is gone by; I cannot with +the longing of that time seek for the glance of her eyes: thus have I +wantonly neglected a high eternal happiness, to gain one that is only +passing and transitory." + +Full of strange desires, he walked to the neighbouring wood, and +buried himself in its thickest shades. A shuddering stillness +encompassed him; no breeze stirred amid the leaves. Meanwhile he saw a +man approaching him from the distance, whom he imagined to be the +stranger; he was struck with terror, and his first thought was, that +he would demand back his money. But as the form came nearer, he saw +how greatly he had been mistaken; for the features which he had +fancied, dissolved away as into one another, and an old woman of the +extremest ugliness came up to him. She was clad in dirty rags; a +tattered cloth bound together some grey hairs; and she hobbled on a +crutch. With frightful voice she spoke to Christian, and asked after +his name and station. He answered her minutely, and added, "But who +art thou?" + +"I am called the Woodwoman," said she; "and every child can tell of +me. Hast thou never known me?" With the last words she turned herself +about, and Christian thought he again recognised among the trees the +golden veil, the lofty gait, the majestic limbs. He wished to hasten +after her, but he had sight of her no more. + +Meanwhile something glittering drew his eye down to the grass. He took +it up, and saw again the magic tablet with its coloured precious +stones and remarkable figure, that he had lost so many years before. +The form and its varied light pressed all his senses with a sudden +power. He grasped it firmly, to assure himself that he had it once +more in his hands, and then hastened back with it to the village. His +father met him. + +"See," cried he to him, "that of which I have so often told you, and +which I thought only to have seen in a dream, is now truly and surely +mine." + +The old man contemplated the tablet a long while, and said: "My son, +my heart quite shudders as I view the aspect of these stones, and +foreboding guess the meaning of this inscription. See here, how cold +they sparkle, what cruel looks they cast up, bloodthirsty, like the +red eye of the tiger! Throw away this writing, which makes thee cold +and cruel, which will turn thy heart to stone. + + See the tender flowers beaming, + As from out themselves they waken; + Like as children from their dreaming, + In smiling loveliness are taken. + + Their various hues in playful bliss + All turn they to the golden sun; + And when they feel his burning kiss, + 'Tis then their happiness is won. + + And on his kisses so to languish, + To pine in love and melancholy; + Then smiling in their dearest anguish, + Soon fade in soft tranquillity. + + This is to them the highest joy, + The fond delight they love to cherish; + Themselves in death to glorify, + Beneath their lover's glance to perish. + + Then all around their perfum'd treasure + They profluent pour in raptur'd calm; + Until the air grows drunk with pleasure, + Enliven'd with the odorous balm. + + Love comes all human hearts approving, + Responsive touching every chord; + Well may the conscious soul record, + 'Now I know the due reward, + The gladness, sadness, pain of loving.'" + +"Wonderful incalculable treasures," answered the son, "must there +still be in the depths of the earth! Could some one but explore them, +raise them up, and snatch them to himself! Could he but so press to +his bosom the earth as a beloved bride, that in anguish and love she +would willingly grant to him what she had most precious! The Woodwoman +has called me; I go to seek her. Close by is an old ruined shaft, +which centuries ago some miner has dug open; perhaps there I shall +find her." + +He hastened forward. In vain the old man strove to detain him; he soon +vanished from his sight. Some hours afterwards, the father, with much +exertion, arrived at the old shaft: he saw footsteps impressed on the +sand at the entrance; and returned in tears, convinced that his son +had, in his madness, gone in, and been drowned in the depths of the +old collected waters. + +From that time he was always melancholy and in tears. The whole +village mourned for the young farmer. Elizabeth was inconsolable; the +children lamented aloud. Half a year after the old father died; +Elizabeth's parents soon followed him, and she was obliged to take the +sole management of the large estate. Her many avocations removed her +somewhat from her sorrow; the education of her children, the +superintendence of her property, left her no time for care and grief. +So after two years she resolved on a new marriage, and gave her hand +to a young sprightly man, who had loved her from his youth. But soon +all things in the house assumed another form. The cattle died; men and +maid-servants were unfaithful; the barns filled with grain were +consumed by fire; people in the town who owed them various sums fled +away with the money. The landlord soon found himself compelled to sell +some fields and meadows; but a failure in the crops, and a year of +scarcity, only brought him into new embarrassments. It seemed nought +else than as if the gold, so wondrously obtained, were in all ways +seeking a speedy flight. + +Meanwhile the family increased; and Elizabeth, as well as her husband, +became careless and dilatory from despair. He endeavoured to drown his +cares by drinking much of intoxicating wine, which made him irritable +and passionate, so that Elizabeth often bewailed her misery with +bitter tears. + +As soon as their fortune declined, their friends in the village kept +aloof; so that in a few years, they found themselves quite forsaken, +and with the greatest difficulty could struggle on from week to week. + +They had only a few sheep and one cow remaining; which Elizabeth +herself often tended with her children. She was once sitting thus with +her work on the grass, Leonora by her side, and a child at her breast, +when they saw from the distance a strange form coming towards them. It +was a man in a coat all in tatters, barefoot, his countenance sunburnt +to a dark-brown, and still more disfigured by a long rough beard; he +wore no covering on his head, but had a garland of green leaves +twisted through his hair, which made his wild appearance still more +strange and incomprehensible. On his back he carried in a fast-bound +sack a heavy burden; in walking he supported himself on a young +fir-tree. + +When he came nearer, he set down his load, and heavily fetched his +breath. He wished the lady good-day; she was terrified at his +presence, the child clung closely to her mother. When he had rested a +while, he said: "I have just come from a very fatiguing journey among +the roughest mountains upon earth; but have, at last, succeeded in +bringing with me the most precious treasures which imagination can +conceive or heart can wish. Look here and wonder!" Hereupon he opened +his sack, and emptied it; it was full of pebbles, mixed with large +pieces of flint and other stones. "It is only," he continued, "that +these jewels are not yet ground and polished, that they fail to take +the eye. The outward fire, with its brightness, is yet too deeply +buried in their inmost heart; but one has only to strike it out, and +make them feel that no dissimulation will any more serve them, then +you will see of what spirit they are the offspring." With these words, +he took one of the hard stones and struck it vehemently against +another, so that red sparks sprang forth between them, "Did you see +the glance?" he cried. "Thus are they all fire and light; they +illuminate the darkness with their laughter, but as yet they do it not +willingly." So saying, he again packed all up carefully in his sack, +which he tied fast together. "I know thee very well," he then said +sadly; "thou art Elizabeth." She started with terror. + +"How earnest thou to know my name?" she asked, with foreboding +shudder. + +"Ah, good God!" said the unhappy one; "I am indeed Christian, who once +came to thee as a hunter. Dost thou, then, know me no more?" + +She knew not, in her horror and deepest compassion, what to say. He +fell upon her neck and kissed her. Elizabeth exclaimed, "O God! my +husband is coming!" + +"Be tranquil," said he; "I am as good as dead to thee. There in the +forest my fair one awaits me; the powerful one, she that is adorned +with the golden veil. This is my dearest child Leonora. Come hither, +my dear, beloved heart; give me too a kiss,--one only,--that I may +once again feel thy mouth upon my lips, then I will leave you." + +Leonora wept; she clasped close to her mother, who, in sobs and tears, +half turned her towards the wanderer; he half drew her to himself, +took her in his arms, and pressed her to his bosom. Then he went +silently away, and in the wood they saw him speaking with the +frightful Woodwoman. + +"What is the matter?" asked the husband, as he found mother and +daughter pale and dissolved in tears. Neither would answer him. + +But the unhappy one was from that day never again seen. + + + + +THE MYSTERIOUS CUP. + + +The forenoon bells were sounding from the great cathedral. On the open +place, men and women were moving in various directions, carriages +passing along, and priests going to their churches. Ferdinand stood +upon the stairs regarding the multitude, and contemplating those who +went up to be present at high mass. The sunshine glistened on the +white stones; every one sought shelter against the heat; he only had +been long standing in meditation, leaning against a pillar, under the +burning beams, without feeling them; for he was lost amid the +recollections which had risen up in his thoughtfulness. He thought on +his former life, and inspired himself with the feeling which had +penetrated his being, and extinguished all other wishes. + +At the same hour he had stood here in the former year, to see the +women and maidens going to service; with listless heart and smiling +eye he had contemplated the various forms. Then there came across the +square a youthful form in black, tall and noble, her eyes modestly +cast before her on the ground; unembarrassed she ascended the stairs +with lovely grace; her silken dress lay around the most beautiful of +forms, and vibrated as in music about the moving limbs. She was going +to mount the highest step, when unconsciously she raised her eye, and +its azure beam met his glance. He was pierced as by lightning. She +stumbled, and quickly as he sprang forward, he could not hinder but +that for a moment she, in the most charming posture, lay kneeling at +his feet. He raised her; she looked not at him, but was all a blush, +nor answered his inquiry whether she was hurt. He followed her into +the church, and saw only the image as she had knelt before him, and +the loveliest of bosoms bent towards him. The following day he again +visited the threshold of the temple; for him the place was +consecrated. He had intended to take his departure, his friends were +impatiently expecting him at home; but now from henceforth this was +his father-land; his heart was inverted. + +He saw her often--she did not shun him--yet only for separate and +stolen moments; for her rich family sufficiently watched her, still +more a powerful and jealous bridegroom. They confessed to each other +their love, but knew not in their situation what to counsel; for he +was a stranger, and could offer his beloved no such great fortune as +she was entitled to expect. Now he felt his poverty; yet when he +thought on his former way of life, he seemed to himself surpassingly +rich, for his existence was hallowed, his heart floated for ever in +the fairest emotion. Nature was now friendly to him, and her beauty +revealed to his meditations, he felt himself no longer a stranger to +devotion and religion; and now he trod this threshold, the mysterious +dimness of the temple, with far other feelings than in those days of +levity. He withdrew from his former acquaintances, and lived only to +love. Whenever he passed through her street, and only saw her at the +window, that day was for him a happy one. He had often spoken to her +in the twilight of evening, as her garden adjoined to that of a +friend, who, however, did not know his secret. Thus a year had +elapsed. + +All these scenes of his new existence again passed through his +remembrance. He raised his eyes; that noble form was even then gliding +across the square--she lightened upon him from among the mixed +multitude as a sun. A lovely song sounded into his longing heart; and +as she approached, he stepped back into the church. He held towards +her the holy water; her white fingers trembled as they touched his; +she bowed graciously. He followed her, and knelt near her. His whole +heart melted away in melancholy and love; it seemed to him as if, from +the wounds of longing, his existence was bleeding away in ardent +prayers; every word of the priest thrilled through him, every tone of +the music gushed devotion into his bosom; his lips quivered as the +fair one pressed the crucifix of her rosary to her ruby mouth. How had +he not been able to comprehend this faith and this love before? + +The priest raised the host, and the bell sounded. She bowed herself +more humbly, and crossed her breast. Like lightning it struck through +all his powers and feelings; and the altar-picture seemed alive--the +coloured dimness of the windows as a light of Paradise. Tears streamed +profusely from his eyes, and allayed the inward burning of his heart. +Divine service was ended. He again offered her the holy font; they +spoke some words, and she withdrew. He remained behind, not to excite +notice; he looked after her till the hem of her garment vanished round +the corner. Then he felt as the weary bewildered traveller, who in the +thick forest beholds the last gleam of the descending sun. + +He awoke from his dream, as a dry, withered hand struck him on the +shoulder, and some one called him by name. He started back, and +recognised his friend the morose Albert, who lived apart from men, and +whose lonely house was open only to the young Ferdinand. "Are you +mindful of our engagement?" asked the hoarse voice. + +"O, yes," said Ferdinand; "and will you keep your promise to-day?" + +"This very hour," replied the other, "if you will follow me." + +They walked through the city to a distant street, and there into a +large building. + +"To-day," said the old man, "you must give yourself the trouble to go +with me to the back part of the house, into my most solitary chamber, +that we may not be at all disturbed." + +They passed through many rooms, then up some stairs, and along several +passages; and Ferdinand, who had thought that he knew the house well, +now could not but wonder at the number of the apartments, as well as +the singular arrangement of the spacious building; but more than all, +that the old man, who was not married and had no family, should occupy +it alone, with only a single servant, and would never let out any +portion of the superfluous room to strangers. At length Albert +unlocked a door, and said, "Now we are at the place." They entered a +large and lofty chamber, hung round with red damask, that was trimmed +with golden listings; the seats were of the same stuff; and through +heavy red silk curtains, which were let down, there glimmered a purple +light. + +"Wait a moment," said the old man, as he went into another room. + +Ferdinand, in the mean time, took up some books, in which he found +strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, together with +many curious plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to +him to be works on alchemy: he knew, also, that the old man had the +reputation of being a gold-maker. On the table lay a lute, singularly +overlaid with mother-of-pearl and coloured wood, and representing +birds and flowers in splendid forms. The star in the middle was a +large piece of mother-of-pearl, worked out in the most skilful manner +into many intersecting circles, almost like the centre of a window in +a Gothic church. + +"You are looking at my instrument," said Albert, who had now returned: +"it is two hundred years old; I brought it with me as a memorial of my +journey into Spain. But now leave all that, and take a seat." + +They sat down at the table, which likewise was covered with red cloth; +and the old man placed something on it which was carefully wrapped up. + +"From pity to your youth," he began, "I lately promised to foretell +you whether or not you could become happy; and this promise I am +willing to fulfil at the present hour, though you recently wished to +treat the matter as a jest. You need not alarm yourself, for what I +design can happen without danger. I shall make no dread incantations, +nor shall any horrible apparition terrify you. The thing which I shall +endeavour may fail in two ways; either if you do not love so truly as +you have wished to make me believe, for then my labour is in vain, and +nothing will shew itself; or if you should disturb the oracle, and +destroy it by a useless question, or by a hasty movement leaving your +seat, the figure would break in pieces. So you must keep yourself +quite still." + +Ferdinand gave his word; and the old man unfolded from the cloths that +which he had brought with him. It was a golden goblet, of very costly +and beautiful workmanship: around its broad foot ran a wreath of +flowers, twined with myrtles and various other leaves and fruit, +highly chased with dim and brilliant gold. A similar ring, only +richer, adorned with figures of children, and wild little animals +playing with them, or flying before them, wound itself around the +centre of the cup. The chalice was beautifully turned; above, it was +bent back toward the lips; and within, the gold sparkled with a ruddy +glow. The old man placed the goblet between himself and the youth, and +beckoned him nearer. + +"Do you not feel something," said he, "when your eye loses itself in +this splendour?" + +"Yes," said Ferdinand; "this brightness reflects into my very inmost +being,--I might say, I feel it as a kiss in my longing bosom." + +"It is right," said the old man. "Now let your eyes no more stray +around, but keep them fixed on the glance of this gold, and think as +earnestly as you can on your beloved." + +Both sat still awhile, and, absorbed in contemplation, beheld the +gleaming cup. But soon the old man, with mute gesture, first slowly, +then more quickly, and at last with rapid movement, proceeded with +extended finger to draw regular circles around the glow of the goblet. +Then he paused, and took the circles from the opposite direction. When +he had thus continued for some time, Ferdinand thought he heard music, +but it sounded as from without in a distant street. Soon, however, the +tones came nigher; they struck on his ear louder and louder, and +vibrated more distinctly through the air; so that, at last, he felt no +doubt but that they issued from the interior of the goblet. The music +became still stronger, and of such penetrating power, that the heart +of the young man trembled, and tears rose into his eyes. Busily moved +the old man's hand in various directions across the mouth of the cup; +and it appeared as if sparks from his fingers were convulsively +striking and sounding on the gold. Soon the shining points increased, +and followed, as on a thread, the motion of his finger; they +glittered of various colours, and crowded still more closely on one +another, till they rushed altogether in continuous lines. Now it +seemed as if the old man in the red twilight was laying a wondrous net +over the brightening gold, for at will he drew the beams hither and +thither, and wove up with them the opening of the goblet: they obeyed +him, and remained lying like a covering, waving to and fro, and +playing into one another. When they thus were fastened, he again +described the circles around the rim; the music subsided, and became +softer and softer, till it could no longer be perceived; and the +bright net-work quivered, as if in agony. It burst in increasing +agitation, and the beams rained down drops into the chalice; but out +of the fallen drops arose a reddish cloud, which formed itself in +manifold circles, and floated like foam over the mouth of the cup. A +bright point darted up with the greatest rapidity through the cloudy +circles. There stood the image; and suddenly, as it were, an eye +looked out from the mist; above, golden locks flowed in ringlets; +presently a soft blush went up and down the quivering shade; and +Ferdinand recognised the smiling countenance of his beloved--the blue +eyes, the delicate cheeks, the lovely red mouth. The head waved to and +fro, raised itself more distinctly and visibly on the slender white +neck, and bowed towards the enraptured youth. The old man kept on +describing his circles around the goblet, and thereout issued the +glancing shoulders; and at last the whole of the lovely image pressed +from out the golden bed, and gracefully waved to and fro. + +Ferdinand thought he felt the breath as the beloved form inclined +towards him, and almost touched him with burning lips. In his +ravishment he could no longer command himself, but impressed a kiss on +the mouth, and endeavoured to grasp the beautiful arm, and quite to +raise the lovely form out of its golden prison. Then a violent +trembling suddenly struck through the image, as in a thousand +fragments the head and body broke together; and a rose lay at the foot +of the goblet, in whose blush the sweet smile still appeared. +Ferdinand passionately seized it, and pressed it to his mouth. At his +ardent longing, it withered and dissolved away in the air. + +"Thou hast badly kept thy word," said the old man, angrily: "thou +canst only impute the fault to thyself." + +He again wrapped up his goblet, drew aside the curtains, and opened a +window. The clear daylight broke in; and Ferdinand, in a melancholy +mood, and with many apologies, took his leave of the murmuring old +man. He hastened with emotion through the streets of the city, and sat +down under the trees without the gate. She had told him in the morning +that she was to go that night with some relations into the country. + +Intoxicated with love, he now sat, now wandered into the wood. Still +he beheld the fair form as it ascended from the glowing gold: he +expected to see her step forth in the splendour of her beauty, when +the fairest of shapes broke in pieces before his eyes; and he was +angry with himself that, through his restless desire and the +bewilderment of his senses, he had destroyed the image, and perhaps +his own happiness. + +When, after the midday hour, the pathway began to be crowded, he +withdrew further into the thicket, but watchfully still kept his eye +upon the high-road, and curiously examined every carriage that issued +from the gate. Evening drew on, a red glimmer was thrown up by the +setting sun; when the richly gilded coach rushed out from the gate, +and shone brightly amid the evening glow. He hastened towards it. +Already her eye had sought his. Graciously smiling, she leaned her +fair bosom from the window. He caught her loving look and greeting. +Now he stood by the side of the carriage, her fall glance falling upon +him; and as she hastily drew back, the rose which had adorned her +bosom flew out, and lay at his feet. He hastily took it up and kissed +it; and it seemed to him as if it prophesied that he should no more +see his beloved one,--that now his happiness was destroyed for ever. + + * * * * * + +People were up and down stairs; the whole house was in commotion; all +were making a noise and bustle about the morrow's great festival. The +mother, as the most active, was also the most joyful. The bride heeded +nothing, but retired, meditating her destiny, into her own chamber. +They were still expecting the son, the captain and his wife, and two +elder daughters with their husbands. Meanwhile Leopold, a younger son, +was mischievously busy in increasing the noise and disorder, +perplexing every thing, while he pretended to further it. Agatha, his +still unmarried sister, endeavoured to make him reasonable, and to +persuade him to meddle with nothing, and to leave the others in peace. +But the mother said: "Do not disturb him in his folly; for to-day more +or less of it does not signify. Therefore I only beg you all that, as +I have already so much to think of, you will not trouble me about any +thing that is not absolutely necessary. If the china should be broken, +or some of the silver spoons be lost, or the strangers' servants break +the windows,--with such trifles do not vex me by recounting them. When +these days of disquiet are over, then we will have a reckoning." + +"You are right, mother," said Leopold; "these are sentiments worthy of +a governor. Also, if some of the maids should break their necks--or +the cook get drunk, and set the chimney on fire--the butler, for joy, +let the malmsey run or be drunk out,--you shall hear nothing of such +childish tricks. But if an earthquake should overturn the +house,--that, dearest mother, it would be impossible to keep secret." + +"When will he ever become wiser?" said the mother. "What will thy +sisters think, when they find thee again quite as foolish as they left +thee two years ago?" + +"They must do my character the justice," replied the lively youth, +"that I am not so changeable as they or their husbands, who, in a few +years, have so very much altered, and not to their advantage." + +The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was +sent to call her. + +"My dear mother," said he, "has Leopold made known to you my request?" + +"That I cannot tell," she replied; "for, amid the disorder now in the +house, one can scarcely retain a reasonable thought." + +The bride entered, and the young people saluted each other with joy. + +"The request I meant," continued the bridegroom, "is, that you would +not take it ill if I brought yet another guest into your house, which, +in truth, is, for these days, too full already." + +"You know yourself," said the mother, "that, spacious as the house is, +I could hardly find another chamber." + +"Nevertheless," exclaimed Leopold, "I have partly provided for that, +by having the large room in the back of the house put in order." + +"Why, that is not commodious enough," replied the mother; "for many +years it has been only used as a lumber-room." + +"It is splendidly restored," said Leopold; "and the friend for whom it +is designed does not regard such matters--he is only anxious for our +love. Besides, he has no wife, and prefers to be in solitude; so that +it will be quite the place for him. We have had trouble enough to +persuade him, and bring him again amongst his fellow-creatures." + +"Not, surely, your morose gold-maker and conjuror?" asked Agatha. + +"No other," replied the bridegroom, "if you please to call him so." + +"Then, dear mother, do not let him," continued the sister; "what +should such a man do in our house? I have sometimes seen him pass down +the street with Leopold; I have been frightened at his countenance. +The old sinner, too, almost never goes to church; he loves neither God +nor men; and it will bring no blessing on so solemn an occasion to +have such infidels under the roof. Who knows what may spring from it?" + +"How now thou speakest!" said Leopold, angrily: "because thou dost not +know him, therefore thou condemnest him; and because his nose does not +please thee, and he is no longer young and handsome, therefore, +according to thy notion, he must be familiar with spirits, and a +wicked man." + +"Grant, dear mother," said the bridegroom, "a little place in your +house to our old friend, and let him partake in our general joy. He +appears, dear sister Agatha, to have experienced much misfortune, +which has made him distrustful and misanthropic. He avoids all +society, with the exception of myself and Leopold. I have much to +thank him for: he first gave my mind a better direction; yea, I may +say, perhaps he alone has rendered me worthy of my Julia's love." + +"He lends me all his books," continued Leopold; "and, what is more, +his old manuscripts; and, what is still more, money upon my bare word. +He has the Christian disposition, my little sister; and who knows but +that, when thou comest to be better acquainted with him, thou mayest +not forego thy prudery, and fall in love with him, odious as he +appears to thee at present?" + +"Well, bring him to us," said the mother; "I have already been obliged +to hear so much about him from Leopold, that I am curious to make his +acquaintance. Only you must answer for it, that we cannot afford him a +better lodging." + +In the mean while travellers had arrived; they were members of the +family, the married daughters and the officer, and had brought their +children with them. The good old lady was delighted to see her +grandchildren; all was welcoming and joyful talk; and when Leopold +and the bridegroom had also received and returned their salutations, +they went away to look after their ancient melancholy friend. This +latter lived, for the greater part of the year, about three miles from +the city; but he also kept a little dwelling for himself in a garden +near the gate. Here, by chance, the two young men had become +acquainted with him: they now met him at a coffee-house, as they had +previously appointed. As it was already evening, they after a little +conversation returned back to the house. The mother received the +stranger very graciously; the daughters kept themselves somewhat +distant; Agatha especially was shy, and carefully avoided his glance. +After the first general conversation was over, the eye of the old man +turned fixedly on the bride, who had come into the company later; he +appeared enraptured, and it was observed that he endeavoured secretly +to dry off a tear. + +The bridegroom rejoiced in his joy; and when after some time, they +stood aside at the window, he took the hand of the old man, and asked +him, "What do you say of my beloved Julia? Is she not an angel?" + +"O my friend," replied the old man, with emotion, "such beauty and +grace I have never yet seen; or rather I should say (for that +expression is incorrect), she is so beautiful, so charming, so +heavenly, that it seems to me as if I had long known her; as if she +were to me, stranger as she is, the dearest picture of my imagination, +that which had ever been at home within my heart." + +"I understand you," said the young man. "Yes, the truly beautiful, +great, and sublime, when it sets us in astonishment and admiration, +still does not surprise us as something strange, unheard-of, never +seen; but our inmost existence in such moments becomes clear to us, +our deepest recollections are awakened, and our dearest feelings are +made alive." + +At the supper the stranger took but little part in the conversation; +his gaze was intensely fixed upon the bride, so that, at length, she +became embarrassed and alarmed. The officer told of a campaign, which +he had served in; the rich merchant, of his merchandise, and the bad +times; and the landowner, of the improvements he had begun on his +estate. After supper, the bridegroom took his leave, to return for the +last time to his lonely habitation; for in future he was to live with +his young wife in the mother's house, in chambers already furnished. +The company separated, and Leopold conducted the stranger to his +apartment. + +"You will excuse it," he began, as they went along, "that we are +obliged to lodge you somewhat far away from us, and not so +commodiously as my mother wished: but you see yourself how numerous +our family is, and other relations are coming to-morrow. You will, at +least, not be able to run away from us, for certainly you could not +find your way out of this spacious mansion." + +They went through several passages, and at last Leopold took leave of +his friend, and wished him good night. The servant placed two +wax-lights on the table, and having asked the stranger if he should +assist him to undress, which service being declined, he also withdrew; +and the stranger found himself alone. + +"How, then, does it happen," said he, as he walked up and down, "that +to-day that image springs so vividly from my heart? I forgot the long +past, and thought I saw herself; I was again young, and her voice +sounded as of old; it seemed to me as if I was awaking from a heavy +dream; but no, now I am awake, and the pleasing delusion was only a +sweet dream." + +He was too restless to sleep: he contemplated some pictures on the +walls, and then the chamber. "To-day," he exclaimed, "every thing is +so familiar, I could almost delude myself to imagine that this house +and this apartment are not strange to me." He tried to fix his +recollections, and took up some large books which were standing in a +corner. When he had turned over the leaves, he shook his head: a +lute-case was leaning against the wall; he opened it, and took out a +strange old instrument, which was damaged and wanted the strings. +"No, I am not mistaken," he cried, astonished; "this lute is too +remarkable--it is the Spanish lute of my long-deceased friend Albert; +there stand his magic-books; this is the room where he wished to +awaken for me the happy oracle: faded is the red of the tapestry, the +golden embroidery is become dim; but wonderfully vivid in my mind is +all pertaining to those hours. Therefore it was that I shuddered as I +came hither through those long, complicated passages where Leopold led +me. O heaven, on this very table rose the image, springing forth as if +watered and refreshed by the redness of the gold. The same image +smiled on me here, which this evening has almost made me frenzied in +the hall--that hall where I have so often walked in familiar speech +with Albert." + +He undressed, but slept only little. Early in the morning he arose, +and again surveyed the room; he opened the window and saw as formerly +the same gardens and buildings before him, only that in the mean time +many new houses had been built. "Forty years have since then +vanished," he sighed, "and each day of that time contains a longer +life than all the remaining period." + +He was again called to the company. The morning passed away in varied +conversation; at length the bride entered in her marriage-dress. As +the old man noticed her he fell into such agitation, that every one in +the company observed it. They proceeded to the church, and the nuptial +ceremony was performed. + +When they had returned to the house, Leopold asked his mother, "Now +how do you like our friend, the good morose old man?" + +"I had imagined him, from your description," she replied, "to be much +more frightful; he is indeed mild and sympathetic, and might gain from +one a real trust in him." + +"Trust!" exclaimed Agatha; "in those frightful burning eyes, those +thousandfold wrinkles, that pale contracted mouth, and that strange +laugh which looks and sounds so scornfully! No, God preserve me from +such a friend! If evil spirits wish to clothe themselves as men, they +must assume such a form as this." + +"Probably a younger and handsomer one," replied the mother; "but I +cannot recognise the good old man in thy description. One can see that +he is of a hasty temperament, and has been used to lock up his +feelings within himself; he may have experienced much misfortune, and +so is become mistrustful, and has lost that simple openness which +especially belongs to those who are happy." + +Their conversation was interrupted by the coming in of the rest of the +party. Dinner was served, and the stranger sat by Agatha and the rich +merchant. + +When the toasts were beginning, Leopold cried out, "Now stop a little, +my worthy friends; we must have the festal goblet for this, which +shall then go the round." + +He was about to rise, but his mother beckoned him to keep his seat. +"Thou wilt not be able to find it," she said; "for I have packed all +the plate away." She went out hastily to seek it herself. + +"How active and sprightly our old lady is to-day," observed the +merchant, "for all her breadth and weight! and though she reckons full +sixty, how nimbly she can move! Her countenance is always bright and +joyful, and to-day is she especially happy, for she makes herself +young again in the beauty of her daughter." + +The stranger applauded his saying, and the mother returned with the +goblet. They filled it full of wine, and from the head of the table +began to pass it round, each proposing the health that was dearest. +The bride drank the welfare of her husband; he, the love of his fair +Julia; likewise every one in his turn. The mother lingered as the +goblet came to her. + +"Now quickly," said the officer, somewhat roughly and hastily; "we +know well that you think all men faithless, and not one of them worthy +of a woman's love. What, then, is dearest to you?" + +The mother looked at him, as an angry seriousness suddenly overspread +the mildness of her countenance. "As my son," said she, "knows me so +well, and so severely blames my disposition, let me be permitted not +to express what I was thinking, and let him endeavour by his constant +love to falsify what he attributes to me as my conviction." She passed +on the cup without drinking, and the company was for some time in +silent embarrassment. + +"It is reported," said the merchant, in an under-tone, leaning over to +the stranger, "that she did not love her husband, but another who +proved faithless to her; they say she was once the handsomest maiden +in all the town." + +When the goblet came to Ferdinand, he looked at it with astonishment, +for it was the very same from which Albert had aforetime called up to +him the beautiful shadow. He looked down into it and on the waving of +the wine; his hand trembled; it would not have surprised him had that +form again bloomed forth from the magic bowl, and therewith his +evanished youth. "No," said he, after some time; "that which glows +here is wine." + +"What else should it be?" said the merchant, laughing. "Drink, and be +happy." + +A thrill of terror struck the old man, as he hastily pronounced the +name, "Francesca!" and placed the goblet to his burning lips. The +mother cast on him an inquiring and astonished look. + +"Whence is this beautiful goblet?" said Ferdinand, who was ashamed of +his embarrassment. + +"Many years ago," replied Leopold; "even before I was born, my father +bought it, with this house and all the furniture, from an old lonely +bachelor, a reserved man, whom all the neighbourhood considered a +magician." + +Ferdinand did not like to say that he had known that man; for his +whole soul was too much perplexed, as it were in a strange dream, to +let the rest look into it, even from a distance. + +After the cloth was removed, Ferdinand was left alone with the mother, +while the young people withdrew to make preparations for the ball. +"Sit down by me," said she; "we will rest, for our dancing years are +past; and, if the question is not too bold, pray tell me if you have +ever seen our goblet elsewhere, or what was it that so very much moved +you?" + +"O, gracious lady," cried the old man, "pardon me my foolish vehemence +and emotion, for since I have been in your house I feel as if I were +no longer myself; every moment I forget that my hair is grey, that my +loved ones are dead. Your beautiful daughter, who now celebrates the +happiest day of her life, is so like a maiden whom I knew and adored +in my youth, that I regard it as a miracle. But no, not like, that +expression is too weak, she is her very self. Here, also, in this +house have I often been, and once in the strangest manner became +acquainted with this goblet." Hereupon he related to her his +adventure. "On the evening of that day," he concluded, "I saw for the +last time my beloved one, in the park as she went into the country. A +rose fell from her, this I have preserved; but she herself was lost to +me, for she became faithless, and soon after married." + +"Merciful God!" cried the old lady, starting with emotion; "surely +thou art not Ferdinand!" + +"That is my name," said he. + +"And I am Francesca," replied the mother. + +They wished to embrace, but immediately started back. Each +contemplated the other with searching glance; both endeavoured to +develop again out of the ruins of time those features which erewhile +they had known and loved in one another. And as in dark tempestuous +nights, amid the flight of black clouds, for a few fleeting moments +solitary stars ambiguously glimmer, immediately again to +disappear,--so shone for the time to these two, lightening from the +eyes, the brow, and lips, a transient glimpse of some well-known +feature, and it seemed as if their youth wept smiling in the distance. + +He bowed himself low, and kissed her hand, as two big tears burst +from his eyes; then they embraced each other heartily. + +"Is thy wife dead?" asked the mother. + +"I was never married," sobbed Ferdinand. + +"Heavens!" cried the lady, wringing her hands; "then I have been the +faithless one! Yet no, not faithless. When I returned from the +country, where I stayed two months, I heard from every one, from thy +friends, not from mine only, that thou hadst long since gone away and +been married in thy fatherland. They shewed me the most credible +letters, and pressed me vehemently, availing themselves as well of my +despair as of my indignation; and so it happened that I gave my hand +to another, a deserving man; but my heart, my thoughts, were ever +devoted to thee." + +"I never removed from this place," said Ferdinand; "but after a time I +heard of thy marriage. 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 wonderful that we +should never since have met!" + +"I seldom went abroad," said she; "and as my husband soon after +assumed another name on account of an estate which he inherited, you +could have had no suspicion that we both were living in the same +city." + +"I avoided men," said Ferdinand, "and lived only to solitude. Leopold +is almost the only one that has again drawn me forth and led me +amongst men. O my beloved friend, it is like a horrible spectre-story, +how we lost and have again found each other!" + +The young people, on their return, found the old couple dissolved in +tears and in the deepest emotion. Neither told what had befallen them; +the secret seemed too holy. But from that time the old man was the +friend of the house; and death alone parted the two beings who in so +strange a manner had again found each other, in order shortly after to +be re-united. + + + + +THE LOVE-CHARM. + + +Emilius was sitting in deep thought by a table, waiting for his friend +Roderick. A light was burning before him; the winter evening was cold; +and, glad as he was at other times to dispense with his companion's +society, on this occasion he was particularly anxious for his +presence, as he wished to tell him a secret, and to ask his advice. +The shy, retiring Emilius, in the common business and the ups and +downs of life, found such difficulties and so many insuperable +obstacles, that Destiny seemed to have been in one of her ironical +moods when she connected him with Roderick, who was, in all respects, +the very opposite of his friend. Unstable and flighty, with the first +impression he was all on fire; there was nothing he would not +undertake; he had plans for every thing; no project could be too +difficult, no obstacle could deter him; while in carrying them out he +soon tired, and flagged as rapidly as he had been eager and elastic at +the outset; and difficulties, instead of being a spur to urge him to +increased activity, then only caused him to fling aside in disgust +what he had at first so enthusiastically undertaken. Hence he was for +ever full of schemes of some sort, but throwing them away and +forgetting them with as little reason as he had before thoughtlessly +adopted them. Between two such contradictory tempers not a day passed +without a quarrel, which threatened to be fatal to their friendship. +Yet perhaps, what seemed at first sight only to be a cause of +division, was, at bottom, one of the closest bonds that held them +together. In their hearts they were exceedingly fond of each other, +yet each found the greatest satisfaction in being able to complain of +the way the other treated him. + +Emilius was a young roan of property. His father and mother were dead, +so that he was his own master. He was of an imaginative though +somewhat melancholy turn of mind; and being now on his travels to +complete his education, he had been staying some time at a large town +to enjoy the pleasure of the carnival, about which he did not care a +straw, and to transact certain business with some of his relations +whom he had not yet taken the trouble to call upon. On his way there +he had stumbled upon the quicksilver Roderick, who was living not on +the best possible terms with his guardians, and, to rid himself of +them and their troublesome admonitions, had gladly availed himself of +his new friend's offer to take him with him as a companion on his +travels. Again and again they had been on the point of separating, but +their quarrels had only served to shew them how indispensable they +were to each other. When they came to any place of importance, they +were hardly out of their carriage before Roderick had seen every +thing there was there worth notice--the next day most likely to forget +all about it again. While Emilius, after first spending weeks in +preparing himself with books, that nothing might escape his +observation, out of indolence generally left the place having seen +hardly any thing. Roderick went to all the public places, made a +thousand acquaintances, and not unfrequently would bring them to the +solitary apartments of his friend, and as soon as he began to be tired +of them himself, leave them alone for Emilius to entertain. Emilius's +modesty too was often severely distressed by the way in which Roderick +would speak of his talent and knowledge to sensible, well-informed +people; for he never confined himself to strict truth; and although +for himself he said he could never find time to listen to what his +companion had to say on these matters, yet he gave them to understand +there was scarce a subject in literature, history, or art on which +they could not derive from him the most valuable information. If +Emilius was disposed to do any thing, Roderick was sure to have been +at a ball the night before, or to have caught cold at a sledging +party, and be obliged to keep his bed; so that in the society of the +most restless and excitable of sociable mortals, he lived almost +wholly by himself. + +This evening, however, Emilius counted on him with some certainty, as +he had promised faithfully to spend it at home, to learn what it was +that for some weeks past had been weighing on his friend's spirits. +Emilius spent the interval in composing the following verses: + + Spring-time, it is blithe and gay + When the nightingale sits on the hawthorn-spray, + And every leaf and every flower + Quivers with joy at the music's power. + + The play of the gentle evening air + In the golden moonlight is passing fair, + As over the tree-tops it whispering sweeps + And its wings in the linden's fragrance steeps. + + The glance of the new-blown rose is bright + As the gleaming of stars on a summer's night, + Like a bride for the altar the garden arraying, + And love in a thousand flowerets playing. + + Yet brighter, and fairer, and lovelier far + Is the pale little lamplet's trembling star + Which yonder my love in her chamber shews + As she lingers at night, to her couch ere she goes. + + Her delicate tresses I watch her unbind, + From around her fair temples the rose-wreath unwind; + Her exquisite form to my rapturous gaze + With each motion the tightening nightdress betrays. + + And oh, when the lute in her fingers she takes, + And stirr'd at her bidding sweet music awakes, + With a thrill at her exquisite touch, from the strings + The spirit of melody laughingly springs. + + She sends out a song to recall him again, + The wandering rogue--but she sends it in vain; + For he flies to my heart with a shout of loud laughter + For shelter; and there the pursuer flies after. + + Oh, out with thee, mischievous villains, away! + But together they bar themselves in as they say, + "Till this shall be broken we budge not from here, + And the Love-god we'll teach thee to know and to fear." + +Emilius stood up impatiently. It was now dark, and Roderick was not +come; he was craving to tell him of his love for an unknown beauty who +lived opposite to them, and kept him all day watching at the window, +and all night waking in his bed. A sound of footsteps on the stairs. +The door opened without any one knocking, and in came two gay-looking +figures with very ugly masks on their faces; one dressed as a Turk, in +a long gown of blue and red; the other as a Spaniard, in a doublet of +red and light yellow, and a plume of feathers in his cap. Emilius was +getting impatient, when the Turk took off his mask, and shewed the +well-known, broad, merry face of Roderick. + +"My dear fellow," he said, "what a dismal-looking face! that is not +the way to look at carnival-times. I and my young officer friend here +are come to carry you off. There is a great ball to-night at the +saloon. I know you have sworn never to go about in any other dress +than this dingy old every-day black; but come along as you are--it is +late." + +"As usual," replied Emilius very angrily. "You have forgotten our +agreement it seems.--I am exceedingly sorry," he added, turning to the +stranger, "that it is not in my power to accompany you. My friend is +too hasty in making engagements for me. I cannot possibly leave the +house, as I have subjects of importance to talk over with him." + +The stranger, who understood Emilius's manner, and felt his visit was +ill-timed, took his leave immediately. + +Roderick, however, who took it all with the greatest coolness, put on +his mask again and stood up before the mirror. "What an object it +makes of me!" he said; "it is a miserable, tasteless device after all: +don't you think so?" + +"What a question!" said Emilius in the greatest indignation. "To make +a caricature of yourself, and drown your senses in dissipation, is +just the sort of thing you most enjoy." + +"Because you do not like dancing," said the other, "and take it to be +a pernicious invention, no one else is to amuse himself. How +ridiculous it is when a man is made up of nothing but whims and +fancies!" + +"Yes, indeed," replied his irritated friend, "I am sure I have reason +enough to remark it too of you. I had hoped that, as you promised, you +would give this one evening to me, but----" + +"But it is the carnival," said Roderick, "and all my friends and a +number of ladies are expecting me at the great ball to-night. Really, +my dear friend, if you will but think of it, you will see it is mere +disease in you to feel such extreme dislike to these things." + +"Which of us two is most diseased," answered Emilius, "is a point I +will not attempt to decide. Your astonishing levity, your craving for +dissipation, your restless hunting after pleasures which do not reach +the heart, but only leave it sick and weary, does not seem to me to +indicate a very healthy frame of mind. Granted, however, if you will, +that my feeling is mere weakness, you would do better in some things +to let it take its way; and there is nothing in the whole world which +drives me more frantic than a ball with its fearful music. Some one +has said that to a deaf man, who cannot hear the music, a ball-room +must look like Bedlam let loose; but to me this terrible music itself, +these infernal tunes whirling and whizzing round with inconceivable +swiftness faster and faster, seizing all one's thoughts, saturating +one's body and soul, and haunting one like so many spectres,--is not +this the very jubilee of frenzy and madness itself? If dancing is ever +to be endurable to me, it must be to the tune of silence." + +"Well done, Mr. Paradox," said his friend; "you have got to this, have +you? to find the innocentest, naturalest, pleasantest thing in the +world a horrid, unnatural monster." + +"I cannot help my feelings," said he very seriously; "as long as I can +remember, these tunes have made me miserable, have often driven me to +despair. To me they are the fiends and furies of the world of sound; +they squeak and gibber round my head, and grin at me with hideous +laughter." + +"Mere nervousness," answered the other; "it is just like your +ridiculous horror of spiders, and a number of other innocent +creatures." + +"Innocent you call them," he said passionately, "because they do not +affect you; but some people feel, and I am one of them, at the sight +of these hideous creatures, such as toads and spiders, or that most +odious of all nature's abortions, the bat, their very souls shaken +with unutterable horror and loathing; to them they can be neither +indifferent nor unmeaning, because their very being is the +contradiction of their own. Truly one may laugh at unbelievers whose +imagination is too weak for ghosts and hobgoblins, and other children +of darkness that we see in fevers or in one of Dante's pictures, when +the commonest life gives us master-pieces of all that is most +horrible. No one can have a real love for the beautiful unless he +feels a hatred of these monsters." + +"Why feel hatred?" asked Roderick. "Look at the sea, the great +water-kingdom, full of the strangest, comicalest, most amusing +figures, the whole deep looking like a grotesque masquerade; why is +one to find nothing there but the horrible phantoms your mind makes +them seem to you? But these fancies of yours do not stop here; you +make an idol of the rose, while for other flowers you have as +passionate a hatred. What has the poor orange-lily done to offend you, +and the many other beautiful children of the summer? So there are +colours you cannot bear, and scents, and thoughts. And you never do +any thing to overcome these repugnances; you yield to the first +temptation; so that at last, instead of a person, you will be nothing +but a bundle of whims and caprices." + +Emilius was now angry to the bottom of his heart, and would not +answer. He had given up all present purpose of making his +communication; indeed, importantly as he had said he had a secret that +he wished to tell, his volatile friend seemed to have no curiosity to +hear it, but sat playing with his mask on the sofa in the greatest +indifference. At last he cried out suddenly, "Be so good, Emilius, as +to lend me your large cloak." + +"What for?" he asked. + +"I hear music in the church yonder," answered Roderick. "I have never +happened to be at home any evening at this hour before, and now it +comes in just at the very nick of time. I can put on your cloak over +my dress; and when the service is over, go on straight to the ball." + +Emilius muttered something, and fetched the cloak from his wardrobe, +which he flung to Roderick, who had just risen, with an ironical +laugh. + +"Take my Turkish dagger I bought yesterday, if you please," Roderick +said, as he wrapped the cloak round him. "It is rather too serious an +article to have about one as a plaything. Some trifle goes wrong, an +angry word or two, perhaps, with some one, and no one knows how one +might not use it. Adieu till to-morrow then. Peace be with you." He +did not wait for an answer, but ran down the stairs. + +As soon as Emilius was by himself, he tried to forget his indignation, +and take his friend's behaviour as absurd. He took up the white, +glittering, beautifully-wrought dagger in his hand, and looked at it. +"I wonder," he said to himself, "how a man feels that has run this +sharp steel into an enemy's breast? or suppose he was to hurt with it +the object of his love." He ran it into the sheath, and then carefully +turned back the shutters from his window, and looked across the narrow +street. The house opposite was all dark; there was no light stirring; +the dear form that dwelt in it, and at this hour was generally to be +seen engaged in some household matter, seemed to be away. "Perhaps she +is at the ball," thought Emilius; "and yet it is not like her retired +ways." Suddenly a light appeared, and a little girl, that his beloved +unknown had as a companion, and was usually with her a great part of +the day, carried a candle across the room, set it down, and closed the +window-shutters. A broken binge prevented them from completely +shutting, and an opening remained large enough for any one standing +where Emilius was, to see over a part of the little room; and here he +would sit in a trance of happiness till long after midnight, watching +every gesture, every movement of his beloved's hand. Delightedly he +would observe her teaching the child to read, or giving it lessons in +sewing and knitting. On inquiry he learnt that this child was a poor +orphan whom the beautiful maiden out of compassion had taken to live +with her, and was herself educating. It was a mystery to Emilius's +friends why he was living in this narrow, out-of-the-way street, in +such inconvenient lodgings, and what he could possibly be doing that +he was seen so little in society. By himself, and doing nothing, he +was most happy as he was; all that vexed him was, that he could not so +far overcome his shyness as to seek a nearer acquaintance with this +beautiful being, who had more than once encouraged him with a smile of +greeting or thanks for some trifling compliment he had ventured to +pay. He little knew that she would sit gazing over at him as +intoxicated as he; he never guessed what wishes were working in her +heart; of what an effort, what a sacrifice she was capable to gain +possession of his love. + +After walking uneasily up and down his room for some time, and the +light and the child had again disappeared, he suddenly came to the +resolution, contrary to his inclination and his nature, to go to the +ball; it had struck him that his unknown must have made an exception +to her usual retired way of living, and gone, for once in a way, to +take a taste of the world and its dissipation. + +The streets were brilliantly lighted; the snow crackled under his +feet. Carriages rolled by, and masques in all sorts of guises past +him, chattering and humming as they went along. In a number of houses +he heard the odious music; and he could not prevail on himself to take +the shortest road to the saloon, to which people were hurrying and +streaming from all directions. He walked round the old church, and +gazed at the tall spire as it rose up majestically across the sky; the +loneliness and silence of the place forming a striking contrast to the +thronging of the town. The deep porch of the church was covered with +all sorts of carved work, which he had several times examined with the +greatest pleasure, and had called back into his memory the days of +ancient art and times gone by; and he now stept aside into it for a +few moments to give himself up to his meditations. + +He had scarcely entered, when his attention was caught by a figure +moving restlessly backwards and forwards, and apparently waiting for +some one. By the light of a lamp, which was burning before an image of +the Virgin, he was able to make out the face as well as the strange +dress. It was an old woman with features of the extremest ugliness, +which struck the eye the more because they were set off, in a singular +manner, against a scarlet boddice covered with gold lace. She wore a +dark petticoat, and her cap also glittered with gold. He thought at +first it must be some tasteless masque that had missed his way and +strayed there by mistake. As she passed under the light, however, it +was plain that the old yellow withered face was no imitation, but a +real one. Presently two men appeared wrapped in long cloaks; they +seemed to approach the place with caution, stop, looking often from +side to side, to see if any one followed them. + +The old woman went up to them. "Have you got the candles?" she asked +hastily, in a gruff, hoarse voice. + +"Here they are," said one of the men. "You know the price; it is all +right." + +The old woman seemed to give some money, which the man counted under +his cloak. + +"I may rely on it," she said again, "that they are made exactly by the +prescription, and that there is no fear of their working?" + +"Small doubt about that," answered the man, and disappeared again with +hasty steps in the darkness. + +The other, who stayed behind, was a young man. He took the old woman's +hand, and said, "Is it possible, Alexia, that these rites and forms +and strange old words, which I never can have any faith in, have +power to fetter the free will of man, and force it to love and to +hate?" + +"Ay is it, young gentleman," said the old woman; "but one and one must +make two before that can be. It is not these candles alone that can do +the work, though they are steeped in human blood, and moulded at +midnight under the new moon; nor the magic rites, nor the invocation; +there are many other things wanted besides these, as the artists in +these matters know well." + +"Then I may depend on you?" said the stranger. + +"To-morrow, after midnight, I am at your service," replied the old +woman; "and you shall not be the first to have reason to complain of +my skill. To-night, as you may have heard, I have some one else on +hand, a fellow with sense and understanding, whom it may be my art +shall produce some effect upon." The last words she muttered with a +half laugh; and the two then separated and went off in different +directions. + +Emilius passed out shuddering under the dark arch, and raised his eyes +to the image of the Virgin and Child. "Before thy eyes, thou blessed +one," he said half aloud, "these children of darkness dare make their +schemes for their infernal deeds! Oh, as thou holdest thy Child in thy +embrace of love, so may the Invisible Love keep us continually in its +all-powerful arms, and our poor hearts beat ever in joy and sorrow in +the presence of One greater, who will never let us fall." + +Clouds swept by over the tower and the sharp edge of the roof of the +church. The everlasting stars looked down serene and calm; and Emilius +with a strong effort flung off these horrors of darkness, and thought +of the beauty of his unknown. He went back into the crowded streets, +and approached the brilliantly illuminated mansion which contained the +ball-room. A crowd was round the door, a confused din of voices and +carriages rattling backwards and forwards, and at intervals the swell +of the alarming music pealing upon his ears. + +He had no sooner got into the room than he was lost in the rolling +crowd. Dancers sweeping past him; masques running against him and +pushing him from side to side; kettle-drums and trumpets dinning in +his ear; life itself seemed on a sudden to be turned into a dream. He +passed up and down among the rows of people with his eye alert only to +find one pair of bright eyes and the brown tresses of one beautiful +head. Never had he more passionately longed to catch a sight of her; +yet, with the adoration he felt for her, he could not help being +provoked to think she could find any pleasure in losing herself in +such a stormy ocean of madness and dissipation. "No," he said to +himself, "she cannot love me; no heart that loves could seek such an +infernal scene, where human beings are turned to fiends, and wild +shrieks of laughter, and these trumpets clanging, drown every pure and +holy feeling in devilish scorn. The rustling trees, the bubbling +fountains, lute-music, and the voice of noble song streaming out from +the impassioned bosom,--these are the sounds amidst which is the home +of love; but this is the very jubilee and thunder-cry of hell in all +the madness of despair." + +He could not find the object of his search, however, though he had +three times gone up and down the saloon, and scrutinised carefully all +the unmasked ladies, either dancing or sitting; and the idea that that +beautiful face was concealed under one of the disgusting masks was too +intolerable to be admitted for a moment. + +"You are here after all, then?" said the Spaniard, who came up and +joined him. "You are looking for your friend, I suppose?" + +Emilius had really never thought of him. Somewhat ashamed, he replied, +"Indeed I am surprised not to see him here. His mask is remarkable +enough." + +"Only conceive what the strange fellow is about," said the young +officer. "He has not danced once since he has been in the saloon. +Directly he entered he fell in with his friend Anderson, who, it +seems, has just come back from his travels. Their conversation fell +upon literature; and as Anderson did not know the new poem which has +just come out, nothing would satisfy Mr. Roderick but that they must +shut themselves up in one of the back rooms; and there he is now with +a single candle reading the whole production aloud to him." + +"That is so like him," answered Emilius. "He is made up of whims and +fancies. I have done all I could--I have even risked one or two +friendly quarrels--to cure him of this way of living so altogether +extempore, gambling away his existence in impromptus; but these +follies are so grown into his heart, that he would sooner lose his +dearest friend than part with them. This book you speak of he +professes to be passionately fond of, and always has it about with +him. The other day I asked him to read it to me, and he began to do +so. We had scarcely got beyond the opening, and I had begun to enter +into the beauties of it, when suddenly he jumped up, ran out of the +room, and presently came back with the cook's apron on, made a +prodigious fuss to light a fire, and all to do me a beef-steak, for +which I had not the slightest inclination, and which, though he +fancies he does them better than any one in Europe, few people that +have tried once are very anxious to attempt a second time." + +The Spaniard laughed. "Has he never been in love?" he asked. + +"After his fashion," said Emilius bitterly; "as if he wanted to make a +fool of himself and turn love into ridicule; with a dozen women at +once, and, if you believe what he says, to desperation. In a week he +has forgotten them all." + +They were parted by the crowd, and Emilius went off to the room the +Spaniard had pointed out to him, where he heard his friend's voice +declaiming long before he reached it. + +"Ah! there you are, are you!" Roderick cried to him; "you are come in +the very nick of time; we are just at the place you and I left off at +the other day; so sit down and listen." + +"I am not in the mood at present," said Emilius; "neither do place and +time seem the best adapted for the purpose." + +"And why not, pray?" answered Roderick. "It is all in ourselves. Every +time is the right time to employ oneself in a proper way. Or perhaps +you want to dance? They want men; and at the expense of an hour or two +skipping about, and a pair of tired legs, you may make half a dozen +grateful young damsels fall in love with you." + +Emilius was already at the door: "Good night," he said; "I am going +home." + +"Stay one moment," called Roderick after him; "I am going away early +to-morrow morning into the country with this gentleman. I will look in +upon you before I go, to say good-by; but if you are asleep, don't +trouble yourself to wake, as I shall be back again in two or three +days.--That is the strangest fellow," he said, turning to his new +friend; "so solemn, so serious and soberminded, he is a regular +kill-joy; or rather, he does not know what joy means. Every thing must +be lofty, ideal, exalted, for him. His heart must take a part, even if +it be a puppetshow he is looking at; and when things do not come up to +his notions, as of course most things can't, then he gets upon stilts, +turns tragical, and the whole world is going to the devil. Under every +clown's and pantaloon's mask he looks for a heart overflowing with +longings and supernatural impulses; harlequins must philosophise on +the nothingness of human wishes: and if these expectations are not +exactly realised, tears start into his eyes, and he turns his back on +the pretty show in a fever of scorn and indignation." + +"Is he melancholy?" asked his hearer. + +"Not exactly that," said Roderick; "only his parents, I think, +indulged him too much, and he has taken no pains with himself. He has +let his feelings ebb and flow regularly, till it has grown into a +habit; and if ever the usual set of emotions are put out, he cries, 'A +miracle!' and offers premiums to doctors to come and clear up a +marvellous natural phenomenon. He is the best fellow in the world; but +all the pains I have taken to cure him of these absurdities are thrown +away: nothing does him any good. It is as much as I can do to keep in +his good graces at all, he is so angry when I speak to him." + +"A doctor would be the thing for him, I should think," said the other. + +"It is one of his peculiarities," answered Roderick, "to despise the +whole art of medicine from beginning to end. Disorders, he says, are +all different in different persons, and all general rules and theories +are mere absurdities. He would rather go to old women, and use their +sympathetic simples. Again, on other grounds, he despises all +prudential proceedings, and every thing like orderliness and +moderation. From his childhood he has had his ideal of what a great +man ought to be, and what his endeavour is to be to make of himself; +and one of the points of this ideal is to have an utter scorn of all +_things_, particularly of money; and so, that he may never be +suspected of being economical, or not liking to give away, or indeed +of thinking of money at all, he flings it away in the absurdest way in +the world. Consequently, with all his fine property, he is always poor +and in difficulties, and is made a fool of by every one who is not +great in the sense in which he understands greatness. To be his friend +is the most difficult of things; for he is so irritable, that if one +does but cough, it is a sign one is not spiritual, and to pick one's +teeth would throw him into convulsions." + +"Has he never been in love?" inquired Anderson. + +"Why, who is he to love?" answered Roderick: "he despises all the +daughters of earth. If his ideal were to shew a fancy for a bow or a +ribbon, much more to dance, it would break his heart. And if she did +but catch a cold, I don't know what would become of him." + +Emilius was again in the crowd; when on a sudden the shock and pain +which such scenes and concourses often produced came over him again, +and chased him away out of the room and the house, along the now empty +streets, to his house. It was not till he found himself alone in his +own room that he recovered his self-possession. His servant lit his +candle and placed it on the table; and Emilius told him to go to bed. +The other side of the street all was dark as the grave; and he sat +himself down to let the thoughts the ball had awakened in him flow off +into a poem. + + There was calm in the spirit's depths; + In chains the demons slept; + With purpose fell to work his ill + Uprose the wicked will. + "Fling wide," he cried, + "The prison-gate, + Come forth, ye demons all!" + With yell and shout + That hideous rout + Sprung out at the welcome call. + + Tralala! Tralala! + Whoop, whoop, whoop, hurrah, hurrah! + Trumpet crash and cymbal clash; + Flute, and fife, and violin, + Squeaking, shrieking, clattering; + Clarions ring with deafening din; + Now hell's chorus shall begin, + Now the fiends of madness reign; + Gentle child-like peace is slain. + + In and out, across, about, + Whither pass this tumbling rout? + Merry dance we, and the lights flash free, + Jubilee, jubilee, jubilee! + Kettle-drums bang and cymbals clang, + And the devil drown care in the pool of despair. + + With smiling lip and flashing eye + Yon fair one bids me to her side; + Yet silent soon those lips shall lie, + And wither'd be her beauty's pride. + Death's clammy hand is on her brow-- + Ha! 'tis a skull that's beckoning now! + She must die; yet what care I? + Well to-day and well to-morrow, + What have I to do with sorrow? + Ay, grin as thou wilt, thou pale spectre, at me; + I'll live and dance on, and I care not for thee. + + To-day that face is fresh and fair, + To-morrow 'tis bleach'd, and white, and bare: + Come then, dearest, while we may, + Let us drain love's sweets to-day. + Oh, seize the moment ere it flies! + Anguish and tears, + Sorrow and fears, + Have mark'd thee for their prize. + The angel of death + Swept by on the blast; + On thee fell his breath + Or ever he past. + Gnawing worms and rottenness, + Death, decay, and nothingness: + These are thy doom--how soon, how soon! + Thou must die, and so must I. + + One touch of thy robe, as the dance sweeps by, + One squeeze of the hand, one glance of the eye, + And the grim king has clutch'd thee--on! on! let us fly! + Thou art lost, thou art gone; and away stagger I. + So why should I care? + There is joy in despair: + More maids by dozens at my feet, + With tempting bait of proffer'd sweet. + Here's a fair dame would be my bride, + And she is fair as are the maids + That wander in Elysian glades: + Shall it be she, or shall it be another? + There's a bold beauty at her side, + That looks as if she'd like a lover, + Ready to take whate'er she can, + Provided only 'tis a man. + + Oh, these mad pleasures and these sirens smiling, + With cheating hopes and mocking shows beguiling-- + Hell's curse is on them! Is the blossom fair? + Hate, envies, murders, are the fruit they bear. + So fast we whirl along the stream, + Life is death, and love a dream; + Ebbing, flowing, wave on wave, + Soulless, lifeless to the grave. + Nature's beauty is a lie-- + She is all deformity; + Flower and tree the mocking guise + Which cheat our fond believing eyes. + On then, ye cymbals, with your din; + Scream clarionets, and bugles ring: + Crash, crash, crash! 'tis the fiend-world's knell, + Yoicks forward--forward--home to hell! + +He had finished, and was standing at the window. Then came she into +the room beyond him, beautiful as he had never seen her: her dark hair +was loose, and hung in long waving tresses on her ivory neck. She was +lightly dressed, and it seemed she had some household matter to +arrange before retiring to rest; for she placed two candles on stands +in front of the window, spread a cloth on the table, and again +disappeared. + +Emilius was sunk in his sweet dreamy visions, and the image of his +beloved was still playing before his fancy, when, to his horror, he +saw the fearful scarlet old woman stride across the room, her head and +bosom gleaming hideously as the gold caught the light from the +candles, and again vanished. Could he trust his eyes? The darkness had +deceived him; it was but a spectre his fancy had conjured up. But no; +she comes again, more hideous than before; her long grizzled hair in +loose and tangled masses floating down upon her breast and shoulders. +The beautiful maiden is behind her, with pale and rigid features, her +fair bosom all unveiled, her form like a marble statue. Between them +was the little lovely child, weeping and praying, and watching +imploringly the maiden's eyes, who looked not down. In agony it raised +its little hands and stroked the neck and cheeks of the marble beauty. +She caught it fast by the hair, and in the other hand she held a +silver basin. The old woman howled and drew a knife and cut across the +little thing's white neck. + +Then came there something forward from behind, which they did not seem +to see, or it must have filled them with the same horror as it did +Emilius. A hideous serpent-head drew out coil after coil from the +darkness, and inclining over the child, which now hung with relaxed +limbs in the arms of the old woman, licked up with its black tongue +the spouting blood. And a green sparkling eye shot across through the +open shutter into the brain and eye and heart of Emilius, who fell +fainting to the ground. Roderick found him senseless some hours after. + + * * * * * + +On a beautiful summer morning a party of friends were sitting round a +breakfast-table in a garden summer-house. They seemed very merry, +laughing and chattering, and drinking the health of the young bride +and bridegroom, and wishing them long life and happiness. The young +couple themselves were not present; the beauty herself being still +engaged at her toilet, while the bridegroom was wandering up and down +the walks at the other end of the garden, to enjoy in solitude the +sweetness of his own reflections. + +"What a shame it is," said Anderson, "that we are not to have any +music! All our young ladies are put out about it: they say they never +longed so much for a dance, and it is not to be: it is said he cannot +endure it." + +"We are to have a ball though, I can tell you, and a right mad and +merry one too," said a young officer; "every thing is arranged; the +musicians are come, and we have stowed them away where no one shall +know any thing about them. Roderick has taken the direction on +himself; he says we ought not to give way to him too much; and that +to-day, of all days in the world, his whims and fancies must not be +indulged." + +"He is so much more sociable and like his fellow-creatures than he +used to be," said another young man, "that I do not think he will be +displeased at the alteration. The whole affair of this marriage has +come on so suddenly, so little like what we expected of him, he must +be changed." + +"His whole life," said Anderson, "has been as remarkable as his +character is. You all know how he came last autumn to the city on a +tour he was making, and lived all the winter through there by himself, +shut up in his room as if he was melancholy mad. He never went near +the theatre, or any other of our places of diversion; and had very +nearly quarrelled with Roderick, who was his most intimate friend, for +trying to dissipate him a little, and prevent him from for ever +indulging his gloomy humours. All this excitableness and irritability +of temper was at the bottom nothing but disease, as the event proved; +for four months ago, I believe you know, he fell into a violent +nervous fever, and was so ill that every one gave him up. He recovered +at last, and got rid of some of his fancies; but the strange thing +was, that when he came to his senses again, his memory was entirely +gone: his memory, that is, of all that had happened immediately +previous to his sickness. He could remember his childhood, and all his +boyish adventures were fresh as ever; but the last year or two were +blanks. All his friends, even Roderick, he had to become acquainted +with over again; and it is only by slow degrees that here and there +faint glimmerings of the past are beginning to come back upon his +recollection. When he was taken ill, his uncle took him into his own +house, where he could be better attended to: he was just like a child +in their hands, and let them do any thing they pleased with him. The +first time he went out to enjoy the fresh spring-air in the park, he +saw by the road-side a young maiden sitting apparently in deep thought +on a bank. She looked up as he passed; their eyes met, and, as if +overcome by some indescribable feeling, he sprung out of the carriage, +sat down at her side, caught her hands in his, and dissolved into a +flood of tears. His friends were afraid that this outburst of feeling +was a relapse into fever; he was quite quiet, however, and seemed +happy and good-humoured. He paid a visit to the parents of the young +lady, and the first time he saw her again he asked her to marry him. +Her father and mother made no difficulty, and she consented. He was +now happy; a new life seemed to have sprung up in him; every day he +got better and stronger, and his mind easier: a fortnight ago he came +here on a visit to me, and the place delighted him so much that +nothing would satisfy him but what I must part with it to him. If I +had pleased, I might have turned his inclination to my advantage: any +thing I asked he was ready to give, so that the bargain be concluded +immediately. He made his arrangements, sent furniture down, and his +plan is to spend all the summer months here. And so it has come to +pass that here we are all of us to-day gathered together at my old +place for his wedding." + +The house was large, and most beautifully situated; on one side it +looked upon a river, with a garden sloping down to the water's edge +full of flowers, which filled the air with fragrance; and beyond, a +long range of hills skirting the bank of the river, and magnificently +wooded. Along the front was a broad open terrace, with rows of orange +and citron trees, and little doors leading to the various offices +underneath the house. The other side a lawn extended out to the park, +from which it was only divided by a light fence. This front of the +house had a very beautiful though very singular appearance. The two +projecting wings enclosed a spacious area, which was partly roofed +over, and divided into three stories, forming open galleries running +along the centre of the building, supported on tiers of pillars rising +one above another. From these galleries were doors opening into all +the different rooms in the house; and the various figures passing +along these spacious corridors, behind the columns above or below, and +disappearing into the different doors, in their various occupations, +produced a very singular effect. In one or other of them the party +used to collect itself at teatime, or for any games that might be +going on; so that from below the whole had the air of a theatre, when +it was the greatest pleasure to stand and watch the passing forms +above, as in a beautiful tableau. + +The young party were just rising, when the bride crossed the garden to +join them. She was richly dressed in violet velvet, with a necklace of +brilliants on her ivory throat, and her white swelling bosom gleaming +through the rich lace which covered it; a myrtle sprig and a wreath of +roses formed her simple though most tasteful head-dress. She greeted +them kindly, and the young men were overcome by her extraordinary +beauty. She had gathered some flowers in the garden, and was returning +to the house to see after the arrangements for the banquet. The tables +were set out in the lowest of the open galleries. Their white damask +coverings, and the glass and crystal vessels on them, were of the +greatest beauty. Multitudes of flowers of every hue and colour stood +in elegant vases; the pillars were wound with wreaths of green leaves +and roses; and how enchanting it was to see the bride moving up and +down among the flowers, so gracefully passing between the table and +the column, looking that all was right in the arrangement. Presently +she vanished, and then appeared again for a moment at the upper +gallery as she passed to her chamber. + +"She is the most charming, the most beautiful creature I ever saw," +Anderson cried; "my friend is a lucky man." + +"And her very paleness," put in the young officer, "enhances her +beauty; her dark eyes flash so above those marble cheeks; and those +lips, so glowingly red, make her whole appearance truly enchanting." + +"The air of silent melancholy," said Anderson, "which surrounds her, +adds to the majesty of her bearing." + +The bridegroom came up to them and asked for Roderick. The party had +already missed him for some time, and no one could guess what had +become of him; they now dispersed in search of him. At last a young +man they asked told them he was down below in the hall, playing off +tricks at cards, to the great amazement of a troop of grooms and +servants. They went down and disturbed the circle of gapers. Roderick, +however, did not let himself be put out, but went on for some time +with his conjuring. As soon as he had done, he went with the rest of +the party into the garden, saying, by way of accounting for his +employment, "I merely do it to strengthen those fellows' faith for +them. Their groomships are setting up to be free-thinkers, and it is +as well to give them a staggerer now and then--it helps to their +conversion." + +"I perceive," the bridegroom said, "that my friend, among his other +accomplishments, does not think charlatanism beneath his notice." + +"We live in strange times," he answered; "one must not despise any +thing now-a-days; nobody knows what he may not come to." + +When the two friends were alone, Emilius turned again into the retired +walk, and said, "Can you tell me why it is that to-day, which is or +ought to be the happiest of my life, I feel so deeply depressed? +Whatever you may think of me, I assure you I am not fit for the duties +that devolve on me; I have no skill to move up and down a crowd of +people with a civil speech for every one; entertain all these hosts of +her and my relations, with respects for fathers and mothers, and +compliments for ladies; receive visitors, and see that horses and +servants are taken care of--I cannot do it." + +"Oh, all that goes right of itself," said Roderick. "Your house is +capitally arranged for that sort of thing. There is your steward, a +famous fellow, with omnipotence and omnipresence in his hands and +legs; he is made on purpose to arrange these matters, and see large +parties taken care of, and put properly in their places: leave it all +to him and your pretty bride." + +"This morning," said Emilius, "I was walking before sunrise in the +plantation here: my thoughts had taken a very serious turn, for I +felt, to the bottom of my soul, that my life was now become fixed and +definite, and that this love had given me a home and a calling. As I +approached the summer-house yonder, I heard voices. It was my beloved +in earnest conversation. 'Has it not turned out as I predicted?' said +a strange voice; 'exactly as I knew it must be? you have your wishes, +so be content.' I could not prevail on myself to go in to them; and +afterwards, when I came to the summer-house again, they were both +gone. I can do nothing but think and think what these words could +mean." + +"Very likely she has long loved you," said Roderick, "and you have not +known any thing about it: all the better for you." + +At that moment a late nightingale began to sing, as if to wish all joy +and good fortune to the lovers. Emilius became more and more gloomy. + +"Come down with me into the village yonder," said Roderick; "I will +shew you something to amuse you. You are not to suppose you are the +only man that is to be made happy to-day. There is a second pretty +couple. A young scamp, it seems, what with opportunity and having +nothing else to do, got upon too intimate terms with a damsel that +might be his mother, and the fool thinks he is in duty bound to make +her an honest woman. They'll have dressed themselves out by this time. +The scene will be rich; I would not miss it for the world." + +The sad and gloomy Emilius let himself be dragged away by his +talkative friend, and they reached the cottage just at the moment the +cavalcade passed out on their road to the church. The young countryman +had on his every-day linen smock, and his only piece of smartness +consisted of a pair of leather gaiters, which he had polished up to +make look as bright as possible. He was a simple-looking fellow, and +seemed shy and awkward. The bride was tanned by the sun, and her face +shewed very few remaining traces of youthfulness. She was coarsely and +poorly dressed, but her clothes were clean, and a few red and blue +silk ribbons, rather faded, were pinned up in bows on her stomacher. +The worst part of her figure was her hair, which they had pasted up +with a daub of fat and meal, and done into a great cone with hair-pins +straight up from her head, on the top of which they had placed the +marriage-garland. She tried to laugh and seem in good spirits, but she +was ashamed and frightened. The old people followed. His father was in +the employ of the house; and the cottage, as well as the furniture and +clothes, all betrayed the extremest poverty. A dirty-looking +squint-eyed fiddler followed the troop, grinning and smirking, and +scraping away on a thing professing to be a violin, which was made up +half of wood and half of pasteboard, having three pieces of packthread +for strings. + +The cavalcade halted at the sight of the new landlord. Some +saucy-looking servants of the house, young boys and women, began to +laugh and cut jokes at the expense of the young couple, particularly +the ladies'-maids, who thought themselves a great deal prettier, and +saw that they had infinitely smarter clothes. A shudder passed over +Emilius. He looked round for Roderick, but he had run away again. An +impudent-looking boy, a servant of one of the visitors, who wanted to +be thought witty, pressed up to Emilius, and said, "What does your +worship say to this brilliant couple? neither of them know where they +are to get a piece of bread for to-morrow, and this afternoon they +are going to give a ball, and have engaged the services of that good +gentleman yonder." + +"Not know where they are to get bread?" cried Emilius; "can these +things be?" + +"Oh, yes," the other went on; "every one knows how miserably poor they +are; but the fellow says he will do his duty to the creature, though +she has not a farthing. Yes, indeed, love is all-powerful: the +ragamuffins haven't got so much as a bed; they have begged enough +small beer to get drunk upon, and they are to sleep to-night in the +straw." + +There was a loud laugh at this, and the two unlucky objects of it did +not dare to raise their eyes. + +Emilius pushed the chattering fool in bitter anger from him. "Here, +take this," he cried, and flung a hundred ducats, which he had +received that morning, into the hands of the astonished bridegroom: +the parents and the bridal pair wept aloud, threw themselves on their +knees, and kissed his hands and clothes. He struggled to free himself. +"Keep want from your bodies with that so long as it will last," he +said, half bewildered. + +"Oh, you have made us happy for our lives, best, kindest sir!" they +all cried. + +He scarcely knew how he broke from them. He found himself alone, and +ran with tottering steps into the wood, where, in the most secluded +spot that he could find, he flung himself down upon a bank and burst +into a flood of tears. + +"I am sick of life," he sobbed, in the deepest emotion. "I cannot +enjoy it, I cannot, will not be happy in it. Oh, take me quickly to +thyself, kind Earth, and hide me in thy cold arms from these wild +beasts that call themselves men. O God in heaven, what have I done, +that I sleep on down and wear silk apparel? that the grape spends her +choicest blood for me, and men crowd round and cringe to me with love, +and honour, and respect? This poor fellow is better, is nobler than I; +yet misery is his nurse, and scorn and bitter mockery wish him joy +upon his wedding-day. Every dainty morsel I enjoy, every draught from +my cut glasses, my soft couches, and all this gold and ornament, oh, +they are tainted with the poison of sin, so long as the world hunts to +and fro these thousands upon thousands of poor wretches that hunger +for the dry crumbs that fall from my table, and have never known what +comfort means. Oh, now I understand you, ye holy saints; though the +proud world turned from you with disdain and scorn when ye gave your +all, even the cloak upon your back, to poverty, and chose rather as +poor beggars to be trodden under foot, and bear the scoffs and sneers +with which pride and selfish gluttony drive misery from their tables, +rather to endure yourselves the last extreme of wretchedness, than +bear upon your consciences this vile sin of wealth." + +The world, and all its forms and customs, swam as a mist before his +eyes; he thought he would find now his only friends and companions +among the abject and the vile, and renounce for ever the society of +all the world's great ones. + +They had been waiting for him a long time in the saloon for the +ceremony to be concluded; the bride became anxious, and her father and +mother went out into the park to look for him. After some time, when +he was partially recovered from his emotion, and his feelings were +easier, he returned, and the solemn knot was tied. + +And now they all left the great saloon for the open gallery, where the +tables were set out, bride and bridegroom first, and the rest +following in order. Roderick offered his arm to a lively-looking, +chattering young lady. + +"Why do brides always cry and look so serious and solemn at a +wedding?" said she, as they entered the room. + +"Because they never felt before this moment the true mysteriousness of +life," answered Roderick. + +"But our bride here," said his companion, "exceeds every thing I have +ever seen; she looks perfectly miserable: I haven't seen her smile +once." + +"It is all the more honour to her heart," replied Roderick, who, +strange to say, seemed really affected. "You do not know, perhaps, +that some years ago she adopted a lone little orphan girl, and took +her to live with her and educate her. She devoted the whole of her +time to the child, and the love of the dear little thing was her +sweetest reward. She was just seven years old, when one day she had +gone out for a walk in the city, and never came home again; and +notwithstanding all the trouble that was taken to recover her, no one +has ever been able to tell what has become of her. This misfortune the +noble-minded woman took so much to heart, that a silent melancholy has +settled upon her ever since; and nothing has been able to distract her +from her regret for her little playfellow." + +"What an interesting story!" said the young lady. "Some time or other +we may have a most romantic conclusion, and a pretty poem written +about it." + +They seated themselves at the table, bride and bridegroom in the +centre, looking out upon the beautiful landscape. There was a great +deal of chattering and talking and drinking healths, and every one +seemed to be in the best possible spirits. The bride's parents enjoyed +themselves exceedingly; the bridegroom alone was gloomy and +abstracted; he did not seem to enter into any thing that was going on, +and took no part in the conversation. He started as he heard music +ringing down from above through the air; but he soon recovered +himself: it was but the soft note of a bugle which floated for a few +moments over the garden, then swept across the park and died away +among the distant hills. Roderick had placed the musicians in the +gallery immediately over the banquet, and this arrangement seemed to +satisfy Emilius. Towards the end of the feast he sent for his steward. +"My dearest," he said, turning to his bride, "shall not poverty have +a share of our abundance?" He desired that a number of bottles of +wine, some roast meat, and a large portion of various other dishes, +might be sent to the poor couple in the village, that they also might +have reason to remember the day as a day of joy and happiness. + +"Only see, my dear friend," cried Roderick, "how every thing hangs +together in this world. This chattering and running about after every +body else's business but my own you so often complain of in me, has +given you the opportunity of doing this piece of kindness." + +Many persons present began to say something complimentary about +benevolence and compassionate hearts, and the young lady talked of +generosity and nobleness of feeling. + +"Oh, speak not so!" cried Emilius indignantly. "It is no kind action, +no action at all; it is nothing. If the swallow and the linnet fill +themselves with the refuse fragments of our abundance, shall not I +think of a poor brother-mortal who has need of my assistance? If I +followed the impulse of my heart, I should soon find little from you +and the like of you but such scorn and laughter as ye gave the saints +of old when they went out and made their homes in the wilderness, to +hear no more of the world and its generosities." + +No one spoke; and Roderick saw by the flashing eyes of his friend that +he was violently displeased: he was afraid his excitement might lead +him still more to forget himself, and endeavoured as quick as possible +to give the conversation another direction. Emilius, however, had +become uneasy and restless. His eyes were continually turned towards +the upper gallery, where the servants, who occupied the highest floor +of the house, were busily engaged. + +"Who is that ugly old woman in a grey cloak, going backwards and +forwards, making herself so busy there?" he asked at last. + +"She is one of my servants," answered the bride; "she is to have the +overlooking of the ladies' maids and the younger girls." + +"How can you bear to have so hideous a creature about you?" said +Emilius. + +"Oh, let the poor thing be," replied the bride; "ugliness must live as +well as beauty, you know; she is a good honest soul, and can be of the +greatest use to us." + +They rose from table, and the party now pressed round the new +bridegroom to wish him all joy, and to beg to be allowed to have their +ball. The bride threw her arms round him affectionately as she said, +"My first request, dearest, you cannot refuse; it will make us all so +happy; it is so long since I have been at a ball, and you have never +seen me dance--are you not anxious to know how I shall look?" + +"I never saw you in such high spirits," said Emilius; "I will not +spoil your pleasure, do just as you please; only don't expect me to +jump and tumble about and make myself ridiculous." + +"If you are a bad dancer," said she, laughing, "you may be sure you +will be left in peace." She ran away to make the requisite alterations +in her dress for the ball. + +"She does not know," Emilius said to Roderick as they walked away +together, "that there is a secret door into her room from the one +adjoining; I will surprise her while she is dressing." + +When Emilius was gone, and the ladies had also disappeared to put on +their ball-dresses, Roderick took some of the young men aside and +brought them to his own room. "It is getting late," he said,--"it will +soon be dark; so now be quick all of you and get your masks on, and we +will make this night a right mad and merry one. Any device you can +think of, no matter what; the more hideous objects you can make +yourselves, the better I shall be pleased--not a monster in creation +but what I must have him--humpbacks, fat paunches, all of them. A +wedding is such a strange piece of business, married people find, all +of a sudden, such a wholly new fairy-tale set of circumstances round +their necks, that we cannot make it absurd and mad enough to start +them properly in their altered condition, and set them rolling along +their new road; so to-night shall be a right wild mad nightmare, and +never listen to any one that tells you to be reasonable." + +"Don't alarm yourself," said Anderson; "we brought a box of masks and +dresses from town with us that will astonish even you." + +"And only look here," said Roderick, "what a treasure I have got from +my tailor! the tasteless wretch was going to clip it to pieces for +lappets. He bought it, he said, from an old woman, who I fancy must +have worn it at Lucifer's gala on the Block's berg. This scarlet +bodice with its lace and fringe, and the cap here all over glittering +with gold, will look infinitely becoming; and then with this green +petticoat on, and saffron trimmings, and this hideous mask, I will go +as an old woman at the head of the whole troop of travesters to their +room, and we will lead off our young lady in triumph to the ball; +come, be quick with you." + +The bugles were still playing, and the company were either dispersed +in groups about the garden, or sitting in front of the house. The sun +was going down behind a mass of heavy clouds, and a greyish mist was +spreading over the landscape, when suddenly its last beams burst out +under the dark curtain, and all the landscape round, and the house +itself, with its galleries and columns, and wreaths of flowers, was +bathed in a blood-red glow. At that moment the bride's parents and the +rest of the spectators saw the wild troop of figures sweep along the +upper gallery, Roderick going first as the scarlet old woman; and +after him humpbacks, fat-paunched monsters with huge periwigs, +harlequins, clowns, pantaloons, spectral dwarfs, women with broad +hoop-petticoats and yard-high frisures, all like the phantoms of a +hideous nightmare. On they went, tumbling, twisting, staggering, +tripping, and strutting along the gallery, and disappeared into one of +the doors. + +Suddenly a wild shriek burst from the inner chambers, and out dashed +the pale bride into the crimson light; a short white petticoat was her +only dress; her fair bosom all open, and her hair floating in wild +disorder down her back. With quivering features, and eyes starting +from their sockets, she rushed madly along the corridors. Blinded with +terror, she could find neither door nor stairs; and fast behind her +flew Emilius, with the Turkish dagger gleaming in his uplifted hand: +she had reached the end of the gallery and could go no further; he +caught her. His masked friends, and the grey old woman, were close +behind; but ere they reached him the dagger was in her breast, he had +cut across her white neck; the red blood glittered in the evening +glow. The old woman flung her arms round him to drag him off; but with +one fierce effort, he hurled himself and her over the balcony, and +fell, dashed in pieces, at the feet of his relations, who, in silent +horror, had witnessed the bloody scene. Above and below, along the +stairs and corridors, were seen the hideous masks rushing wildly up +and down; like accursed demons come from hell. + +Roderick took the dying Emilius in his arms. He had found him in his +wife's room playing with the dagger; she was nearly dressed as he +entered. At the sight of the scarlet dress his memory had returned; +the terrible scene of that night rushed before his senses; gnashing +his teeth, he had sprung upon his trembling flying bride to avenge +that murder and those devilish arts. The old woman confessed the crime +that had been committed before she died; and the whole house was +turned suddenly to sorrow, and mourning, and woe. + + + + +THE BROTHERS. + + +There lived near Bagdad, Omar and Mahmoud, two sons of poor parents. +On their father's death they inherited only a small property; and each +resolved to try to raise his fortune with it. Omar set forth to seek a +place where to settle. Mahmoud repaired to Bagdad, began business in a +small way, and soon increased his property. He lived very thriftily +and retired, carefully adding each sequin to his capital, as the +ground-work for some new plan of making money. He thus got into credit +with several rich merchants, who sometimes assigned to him part of a +ship's freight, and entered into speculations in common with him. With +repeated good fortune Mahmoud grew bolder, ventured larger sums, and +every time they brought him in a high interest. By degrees he became +better known, his business extended, he had granted many heavy loans, +had the money of many others in his hands, and fortune seemed +constantly smiling. Omar, on the contrary, had been unfortunate, not +one of all his ventures had been successful; he came, quite poor, and +almost without clothes, to Bagdad, heard of his brother, and went to +him to seek his aid. Mahmoud was rejoiced to see his brother again, +though he deplored his poverty. Being very good-natured and sensitive, +he immediately gave him a large sum out of his business, and with this +money he at the same time established him in a shop. Omar began by +dealing in silk goods and women's apparel, and fortune seemed more +favourable to him in Bagdad: his brother had made him a present of the +money, and so he had no occasion to worry himself about repayment. In +all his undertakings he was less prudent than Mahmoud, and, for this +very reason, more fortunate. He soon gained the acquaintance of some +merchants, who till then had done business with Mahmoud, and he +succeeded in making them his friends. By this his brother lost many a +means of profit, which now fell to _his_ lot. And Mahmoud too had just +chosen a wife, who forced him into numerous expenses, which before +that he had not had to make: he had to borrow of his acquaintances to +pay debts; money which he was expecting failed to come in; his credit +sank; and he was on the verge of despair, when news arrived that one +of his ships had foundered, and nothing, not the least morsel of any +thing, had been saved; at this moment a creditor appeared, pressingly +demanding the payment of a debt. Mahmoud saw very clearly that his +last hope of fortune depended on this payment; and he therefore +resolved, in the greatest distress, to have recourse to his brother. +He hastened to him, and found him very much out of sorts on account +of a trifling loss which he had just undergone. + +"Brother," began Mahmoud, "I come, in the utmost perplexity, to ask a +favour of you." + +_Omar._ Of what nature? + +_Mahmoud._ My ship has gone to pieces; all my creditors are urgent, +and will not hear of delay; my whole happiness depends on this one +day; do just lend me ten thousand sequins for a time. + +_Omar._ Ten thousand sequins?--You're not talking nonsense, brother? + +_Mah._ No, Omar, I know what that sum is very well; and just so much, +and not one sequin less, can save me from the most disgraceful +poverty. + +_Omar._ Ten thousand sequins? + +_Mah._ Give them to me, brother; I will do my utmost to return them to +you in a short time. + +_Omar._ Where are they to come from? I have much due to me that is +still unpaid; I don't myself know what I am to do,--this very day I +have been cheated of a hundred sequins. + +_Mah._ Your credit will easily procure me this amount. + +_Omar._ But not a soul will lend money now. There's mistrust on all +sides; not that I am mistrustful, heaven knows, but every one would +guess that I want the money for you; and you know best on what frail +threads one's confidence in a merchant often hangs. + +_Mah._ Dear Omar, I must confess I didn't expect these demurs from +you. If we were to change sides, you would not find me so suspicious +and dilatory. + +_Omar._ So you say. I am not suspicious either; I wish I could help +you. I call God to witness, how glad I should be. + +_Mah._ You can, if you like. + +_Omar._ All I have would not make the sum you require. + +_Mah._ O heavens! I had reproached myself for not making my brother +the first of whom I asked assistance; and I am truly sorry that I have +burdened him with a single word. + +_Omar._ You are angry; you are wrong in being so. + +_Mah._ Wrong? which of us neglects his duty? Ah, brother, I don't know +you! + +_Omar._ I have just lost a hundred sequins to-day; another three +hundred are not at all safe, and I must make up my mind to the loss of +them. If you had but come to me last week,--oh, yes, then most +heartily. + +_Mah._ Must I then remind you of our former friendship? Ah! how low +can misfortune degrade us! + +_Omar._ You talk, brother, almost as if you wished to insult me. + +_Mah._ Insult you? + +_Omar._ When one does all one can,--when one is in distress oneself, +and in hourly fear of losing more,--can a man in such a case help +being vexed when he receives nothing but bitter mockery and abject +contempt for all his good-will? + +_Mah._ Shew me your good-will, and you shall receive my warmest +thanks. + +_Omar._ Doubt of it no longer, or you will enrage me; I can keep cool +a long time, and bear a good deal, but when I am irritated in such a +deliberate way---- + +_Mah._ I see how it is, Omar; you play the insulted man, only to have +a better excuse for breaking friends with me entirely. + +_Omar._ You would never have thought of such a thing, if you were not +caught in such paltry tricks yourself. We are most prone to suspect +others of those vices with which we are most familiar ourselves. + +_Mah._ No, Omar;--but since such language as yours encourages me to +boast,--I must say, I didn't act so towards you, when you came, a poor +stranger, to Bagdad. + +_Omar._ And so for the five hundred sequins which you then gave me, +you want ten thousand from me now. + +_Mah._ Had I been able, I would gladly have given you more. + +_Omar._ To be sure, if you wish it, I must return you the five hundred +sequins, though you can shew no claim to them by law. + +_Mah._ Ah, brother! + +_Omar._ I will send them to you:--are you expecting no letters from +Persia? + +_Mah._ I have nothing more to expect. + +_Omar._ To be frank with you, brother; you should have lived a little +more closely, and not have married either, just as I have kept from it +to this very hour; but from your childhood you were always somewhat +indiscreet, so let this serve as a warning to you. + +_Mah._ You had a right to refuse me the favour I requested of you, but +not to make me such bitter reproaches into the bargain. + +Mahmoud's heart was deeply touched, and he left his ungrateful +brother. "And is it then true," cried he, "that covetousness only is +the soul of men? Their own selves are their first and last thought! +For money they barter truth and love; do violence to the most +beautiful feelings, to gain possession of the sordid metal that +fetters us to the grovelling earth in its disgraceful chains! +Self-interest is the rock on which all friendship is shivered. Men are +an abandoned race. I have never known a friend nor a brother; and my +only intercourse has been with men of trade. Fool that I was to speak +to them of love and friendship! Money only it is that one must change +and exchange for them." + +Returning home, he took a circuitous path, in order to let his painful +emotions subside. He wept at the sight of the noisy market-throng; +every one was as busy as an ant in carrying stores into his dingy +dwelling; no one cared for the other, unless induced by a sense of +profit; all were hurrying this way and that, as insensible as ciphers. +He went home disconsolate. + +There his grief was heightened; he found the five hundred sequins, +which he had once given with the greatest good-will to his brother; +they were soon the prey of his creditors. All he possessed was +publicly sold; one of his ships came into port, but the cargo only +served to pay the remainder of his debts. Poor as a beggar, he left +the town without even passing by his hard-hearted brother's house. + +His wife accompanied him in his misery, comforting him, and seeking to +dissipate his grief, but she succeeded very poorly. The remembrance of +his misfortune was still too fresh in Mahmoud's mind; still he saw +before him the towers of the town where the brother dwelt who had +remained so cold and unmoved by his distress. + +Omar made no inquiries after his brother, that he might have no +occasion to compassionate him; he fancied, too, all might after all +have passed off well. In the mean time his credit had suffered in some +measure on his brother's account; people began to be mistrustful +towards him, and several merchants were less ready than formerly in +entrusting him with their money. In addition to this, Omar grew very +miserly, and proud of the fortune he had amassed; so that he made many +enemies, who took pleasure in any loss that he might suffer. + +It seemed as if destiny were determined to punish his ingratitude +towards his brother; for loss after loss followed in quick succession. +Omar, who was all anxiety to recover these losses, hazarded larger +sums, and these too were swallowed up. He ceased to pay the money +which he owed; mistrust of him became general; all his creditors +pressed him at the same time; Omar knew no one who could assist him in +this crisis of perplexity. He saw no other resource left him, than +clandestinely to quit the town by night, and to try if fortune would +be more favourable to him in another quarter. + +The small property which he had been enabled to take with him was soon +exhausted. His disquietude increased exactly as his money waned; he +saw before him the most abject poverty, and yet no means of escaping +it. + +Full of pensive thoughts and lamentations, he in this state reached +the Persian frontier. He had now spent all his money, except three +small coins, which just sufficed to pay for a supper in a +caravanserai; he felt hungry, and as the sun was already declining, he +hastened his steps, in order to reach some place of shelter, where for +that night, and perhaps for the last one, he might lodge once more. + +"How wretched I am!" said he to himself. "How does fate pursue me, and +claim me in my misery! What a frightful prospect lies open before me! +I shall be obliged to live on the alms of compassionate souls, to bear +contemptuous repulse, not dare to murmur when the profligate stalks +unabashed by, without deigning to give me a glance, and then squanders +a hundred gold pieces on some miserable toy. O poverty, how thou canst +debase mankind! How partially and unfairly does fortune dispense her +treasures! She pours the whole tide of her wealth on the vicious, and +lets the virtuous perish of hunger." + +The rocks that Omar surmounted made him tired; he sat down to rest +upon a bank of turf by the road-side. There a beggar on crutches came +hobbling past him, murmuring an unintelligible prayer. He was tattered +and famished, his burning eyes lay deep in his head, and his pale form +was enough to cut one to the heart, and compel one to pity. Omar's +attention was drawn, against his will, to this object of abhorrence, +that murmured still, and stretched forth his arid hand. He asked the +beggar's name, and then, for the first time, remarked that the unhappy +creature was both deaf and dumb. + +"Oh! how indescribably happy I am!" cried he; "and do I still lament? +Why can I not labour? why not satisfy my wants by the work of my +hands? How glad, how happy would this miserable object be to exchange +with me! I am ungrateful towards Heaven." + +Seized with a sudden impulse of compassion, he took his last pieces of +silver out of his pocket, and gave them to the beggar, who, after a +mute expression of thanks, pursued his way. + +Omar now felt extraordinarily light-hearted and cheerful; the Deity +had, for his instruction, held a picture as it were before him of the +misery to which man may sink. He now felt power enough within him to +bear with poverty, or by activity to cast it off. He made plans for +his sustenance, and only wished he could at once have an opportunity +of shewing how industrious he could be. Since his noble-minded +compassion for the beggar, and the generosity with which he had +sacrificed to him his whole remaining stock of money, he had had +sensations such as he had never known before. + +A steep rock abutted on the road, and Omar ascended it with a light +heart, to take a view of the country, made still more lovely by the +setting sun. Here he saw, lying at his feet, the beautiful world, with +its green plains and majestic hills, its dark forests, and +brightly-blushing rivers, and over all this the golden web-work of the +crimson evening; and he felt like a prince who ruled over the whole, +and put forth his power over hill, and wood, and stream. + +He continued sitting on the peak of the rock, absorbed in the +contemplation of the landscape. He resolved to await there the rising +of the moon, and then to continue his journey. + +The crimson of evening vanished, and twilight dropped from the clouds: +the dark night followed. The stars twinkled in the dark blue vault, +and earth silently reposed in solemn quiet. Omar gazed fixedly on the +night, till his eye wandered dizzily among the countless stars; he +supplicated the majesty of God, and felt a holy awe thrill through his +soul. + +Then it seemed that a beam of light arose in the distant horizon; it +ascended in blue coruscation, and passed as a shining flame to the +zenith of heaven. The stars retreated palely, and, like the light of +new-born morning, it flickered over the firmament, and rained down in +softly tinted beams of crimson. Omar was astonished by the wondrous +phenomenon, and feasted his eye on the beauteous and unusual gleam; +the forests and hills around him sparkled, the distant clouds floated +in pale purple, and the radiance of the whole converged into a vault +of gold over Omar. + +"Hail, noble, compassionate, virtuous one!" cried a sweet voice from +above; "thou takest pity on misery, and the Lord looks down on thee +with well-pleased approval." + +Like dying flute-tones, the night-winds whispered round Omar; his +bosom heaved happily and pantingly, his eye was drunk with splendour, +his ear with heavenly harmony; and from amid the effulgence stepped +forth a form of light, and stood before the enraptured one; it was +Asrael, the radiant angel of God. + +"Mount with me in these beams to the abodes of the blessed," cried the +same sweet voice, "for thou hast deserved by thy nobleness of soul to +view the blessedness of Paradise." + +"My Lord," said the trembling Omar, "how can I, a mortal, follow thee? +My earthly body is not taken from me yet." + +"Give me thy hand," said the form of light. Omar tendered him it with +trembling rapture, and they soared through the clouds on the crimson +beams. They traversed the stars, and sweet sounds waited on their +steps, and the blush of morning lay in ambush in their path, and the +fragrance of flowers filled the air with aroma. + +Of a sudden it was night. Omar shrieked aloud, and found himself lying +at the foot of the crag, with shattered arms. The dark red moon just +rose from behind a hill, casting its first doubtful gleams on the +rocky valley. + +"Oh, thrice-wretched me!" cried Omar lamentingly, on recovering his +senses. "Was Heaven so little satisfied with my misery that it must +dash me in a false dream from the peak of the rock, and shatter my +limbs, that I might become the prey of hunger? Is it thus that it +compensates my pity for the unfortunate? Oh, who was ever unhappier +than I?" + +A figure shuffled past him with pain, and Omar recognised him to be +the beggar to whom he that very day had given the remainder of his +money. Omar called out to him, and besought him in a pitiful strain to +share with him the benefaction which he himself had bestowed, but the +cripple went heedlessly gasping on his way; so that Omar did not know +whether he had heard him, or was only dissembling, that he might seem +to have a right to disregard him. + +"Am I not more wretched than this outcast?" said Omar, lamenting amid +the stillness of night. "Who will take pity on me, now that all is +taken from me that could comfort me?" + +He fetched a deep sigh, his arms pained him, a burning fire raged in +his bones, and every breath was drawn in torture. Now he took a review +of his fortune, and, for the first time, thought once more on his +brother. + +"Oh, where art thou, noble-minded one?" cried he; "perhaps the sword +of the angel of death has already smitten thee; misery perhaps has +consumed thee in the most wearing poverty, and thou hast cursed thy +poor brother in the last hour of anguish. Ah! I have deserved this at +thy hands; now do I suffer the penalty of my ingratitude, my +hard-heartedness! Heaven is just!--And I too could stalk along so +proudly, and call on God to witness my virtue! O Heaven, forgive the +sinner who, without a murmur, bows to thy chastisement." + +Omar buried himself in pensive thoughts; he remembered with what +brotherly love Mahmoud had received him when, for the first time, he +was destitute; he reproached himself for having neglected to save him, +and for not having repaid by that means his debt of gratitude: he +longed for death, as the term of his penalty and his sufferings. + +The moon shone brightly over the landscape, and a small caravan, +consisting of a few camels, wound slowly through the vale. The lust of +life again awoke in Omar; he cried out for aid to the passers-by, in a +voice of wailing. They laid him carefully on a camel, that they might +have his wounds bound up in the next town, which they reached by break +of day. The merchant attended the unfortunate man himself, and Omar +recognised in him--his brother. His sense of shame knew no bounds, as +neither did the compassion of Mahmoud. The one brother begged for +pardon, and the other had already forgiven; tears flowed down the +cheeks of each, and the most touching reconciliation was solemnised +between them. + +Mahmoud had repaired to Ispahan after his impoverishment, and had +there made the acquaintance of a rich old merchant, who soon grew fond +of him, and assisted him with money. Fortune was favourable to the +exile, and in a short period he recovered his lost wealth. At this +moment his old benefactor died, making him his heir. + +On his recovery, Omar travelled with his brother to Ispahan, where the +latter set him up anew in business. Omar married, and never forgot how +much he owed to his brother; and from that time forward both lived in +the strictest concord, and afforded the whole town a pattern of +brotherly love. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + +Archaic syntax and inconsistent spelling retained. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of +Ludwig Tieck, by Ludwig Tieck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE 'PHANTASUS' *** + +***** This file should be named 38838-8.txt or 38838-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/3/38838/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://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: Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig Tieck + +Author: Ludwig Tieck + +Release Date: February 11, 2012 [EBook #38838] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE 'PHANTASUS' *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="main"> + +<p class="h1">SELECT WORKS OF LUDWIG TIECK.</p> + +<h1 class="booktitle">Tales from the "Phantasus,"<br /> +<small>ETC.</small></h1> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5"> +LONDON:<br /> +PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN,<br /> +Great New Street, Fetter Lane.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="400" height="532" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">Ludwig Tieck.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="392" height="630" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h2">Tales From the "Phantasus," etc.<br /> +of<br /> +Ludwig Tieck.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p class="h3">London James Burns</p> + +<p class="h5">mdcccxlv.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">I.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">II.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_RECONCILIATION">THE RECONCILIATION.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">III.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_FRIENDS">THE FRIENDS.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">IV.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_ELVES">THE ELVES.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">V.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_WHITE_EGBERT">THE WHITE EGBERT.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">VI.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_FAITHFUL_ECKART">THE FAITHFUL ECKART.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">VII.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_TANNENHAUSER">THE TANNENHÄUSER.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">VIII.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_RUNENBERG">THE RUNENBERG.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">IX.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_MYSTERIOUS_CUP">THE MYSTERIOUS CUP.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">X.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_LOVE-CHARM">THE LOVE-CHARM.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">XI.</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_BROTHERS">THE BROTHERS.</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[i]</span></p> + +<h2 id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i009-0.jpg" width="480" height="299" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i009-2l.jpg" width="163" height="60" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i009-2r.jpg" width="60" height="302" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i009-3l.jpg" width="124" height="246" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">G</span>OETHE</b> says of himself, that the first +sight of a work of genuine art +was always displeasing to him. There was no correspondence between his +own mind and the object he was contemplating. It would not fit—became +galling. He was made conscious of a deficiency in himself; and the +result was, a feeling of annoyance and irritation at the cause of it. +Yet if he could overcome this aversion, and set himself to work to +understand it, in faith that ultimately he would find himself repaid, +he never failed to make the most delightful discoveries; new powers +developed themselves in himself, and beauty after beauty came out in +the object.</p> + +<p>It is to this cause that we attribute the comparatively small success +which the works of Ludwig Tieck have hitherto met with in +England—just because they are genuine; and we venture to affirm, with +some confidence, that if people will take the same pains, they will +find their efforts attended with a similar result to that above +mentioned. There is nothing strange in all this: there is a deep +gloomy earnestness about Tieck, an unprepossessing sternness, which +makes people<span class="pagenum">[ii]</span> feel uncomfortable, without exactly knowing why. They +cannot make out his way of thought. They feel it is deep and strong; +but as they do not start with any confidence in him as a teacher, it +serves only to make them painfully conscious of their own dimensions, +and afraid of what the strong man may do with them. For all they know, +he may be a tyrant, using his powers only for destruction; breaking in +and wasting all their beautiful gardens, and leaving them nothing but +ashes, and torn-off leaves, and withering flowers.</p> + +<p>More or less, there is always something awful in a purely ethical +writer. Tieck's works do not profess to be religious writings. He is +concerned wholly with the nature of man as he finds him, and with the +working of the moral laws, the natural tendencies of virtue and vice +in the system of the universe; and in this way he contrasts strikingly +with writers like Fouqué, whose works have so much of a distinct +religious character. The wild preternatural spirit which breathes +through all his tales forms but a subservient part. It does but +represent the elements in which our moral nature hangs; and is, in +fact, nothing more than the very element in which we all live, only +held in a certain light that we may see it. Why he does not introduce +the real influences of the other world as revelation makes them known +to us, is a question which we need not ask ourselves; it is enough +that it was not his purpose.</p> + +<p>But perhaps we shall find the clue to the general tone of his mind in +the state of things in Germany, and the general condition of European +feeling at the time in which he was brought up.</p> + +<p>His mind broke into consciousness at the stormy close of the +eighteenth century, when Europe was rocking to her foundation, and all +faith in God was dead. The seven thousand who would not bow the knees +to the Deity of man were hanging off in fear and trembling, and +watching for the doom of the world. In France, old Voltaire worshipped +as a god. In Germany, the students at the universities caricaturing +the sacrifice of the mass<span class="pagenum">[iii]</span> at the doors of the beerhouses, and one +riding through the streets of Göttingen upon an ass, to try, as he +said, what must have been the feelings of the Saviour (Goethe, +<i>Wahrheit und Dichtung</i>). It was a time of which Jean Paul said, "Now +strikes the twelfth hour of the night; and the foul birds of night are +screaming, and spectres dance; the dead walk abroad, the living +dream."</p> + +<p>Tieck was born in the Roman Catholic Church; but he was brought up +without any religious teaching; and the Church herself in those dark +hours possessed but few or none of those outward marks of holiness +which could make him feel safe in trusting himself implicitly to her +guidance: the poison of infidelity was in her very heart; disgraced by +the grossest idolatry, her enemies battering furiously at her from +without, and she apparently helpless to resist them. It is not so now: +she too has felt the warm breath of spring that has since swept over +the face of the earth, and is waking her up to new life and energy; +yet, if even now such scenes as those of last summer at Treves can +shock the senses of the cultivated world, what must it have been then? +She was like a cracked bell that would not ring when it was struck.</p> + +<p>In a country, then, where there was no religion to which he could +trust,—no philosophy but an infidel one; in despair of external +guidance, Tieck was forced to the bold step of trying for himself what +all these systems were made of; of going down himself, and searching +the foundations on which they rested; what this nature of his really +was. He dared stand boldly up before the world, and look it in the +face, and ask it what it was. And the still more awful questions he +asked of his own heart: What am I? How came I here? What is my +business here? It is a fiery trial; and woe to him who fails! Better +he had never been born! It is a sphinx he has to answer: if he find +not the solution of the riddle, the monster will devour him. And few +hearts but will quail, and few cheeks but will blanch, and few heads +but will reel, with those bottomless abysses of scepticism<span class="pagenum">[iv]</span> yawning +round. But it is like the Catholic legend of the purgatory of St. +Patrick. Few of those who ventured in ever returned to tell the tale; +but those who did were safe for ever. A man knows too well the value +of the true, when he has been at such cost in the pursuit of it, to +risk the losing of it again. "Abdallah" and "William Lovell," the two +first books of any importance which Tieck published, shew him in the +centre of the fearful struggle, wrestling with those two first +unanswerable questions. And so at last he was content to leave them. +To the last question he wrung out an answer from the depths of his own +being; he comes now to offer it to us—a true teacher, if a stern one: +and we shall do well to listen to his words; for the solemn +earnestness which breathes through every line he has written shews how +deeply he has read the mystery of life. The tales in the present +volume were written in the first period after he emerged into a calmer +and clearer light; and to these for the rest of this Preface we shall +confine ourselves. We have said enough to account for their peculiar +character externally; and the consideration of his later writings had +better be left to another opportunity: to speak of them now would be +but criticism without an object; before long some of them will be +produced before the public, and what is to be said will be said then. +Great things have happened in Germany since that time: a literature +has sprung up almost without parallel for depth, and richness, and +originality; and schools of poetry and philosophy various as those of +Athens. Tieck has led one school, Goethe another; and if officious +followers attempted to push them into rivalry, each knew his own place +too well for such unnatural feud to endure.</p> + +<p>The first startling feature, then, in all the characters in these +tales is their terrible reality. In all the circumstances of the wild +and wonderful, the supernatural working visibly, and interfering in +the direction and control for good and evil of the affairs of the +world; instead of finding the persons of the same fantastic character, +such as we might naturally expect, as harmonising better with<span class="pagenum">[v]</span> the +elements in which they work; instead of saints with power of working +miracles, or the ideal heroes of the age of chivalry,—we have the +very men and women which we ourselves are, and such as we see every +day around us. Excepting, perhaps, Goethe, no one knew his own age +better than Tieck: he is a modern poet in every sense of the word; and +that is why we claim so high a place for him.</p> + +<p>The true poet of any time is he who can make that time +transparent—who can let his readers in behind the curtain of their +own souls and that of the society in which they live, and shew them +what they are all doing, hoping, fearing—clear up their cloudy +perceptions, and say for them what they would say for themselves if +they could. This is exactly what Tieck does. His Emilius's, Egberts, +Ludwigs,—what are they all, but the very men of whom every day he +walked into the street he saw thousands? No matter what the conditions +be under which he pictures them working, his men are real men, not +fantastic; and that is all we have any right to require.</p> + +<p>Yet I may say something about these marvellous conditions in which +they appear; for perhaps even they are not so unreal as they seem.</p> + +<p>It is only because we are used to them that this world and the beings +that inhabit it do not seem wonderful. There is nothing in the +phenomena which surround us abstractedly more reasonable than any +other set might be which worked by fixed rules. As a matter of fact we +experience one class, but that is all. It is not that one is wonderful +and the other simple, as people seem to assume. This world we live in +is, indeed, teeming with wonders. The poet has but to hold a +magnifying-glass before it, and forthwith a thousand new forms of +beauty start out before our eyes; and what before seemed most +beautiful has become a monster. There are, indeed, poets who can +produce the highest effect without any such magnifying; and the world +as mirrored in their minds appears transfigured, its form and +proportions continuing all<span class="pagenum">[vi]</span> the same. Yet the number of such spirits +as have appeared on this planet of ours we may count upon our fingers, +and of those who are fit to read and understand them the ratio is the +same. Even Shakspere does not at times disdain the aid of the +supernatural; and the idea of nature, as Tieck offers it, even its +wildest and most fantastic form, is far deeper and nearer the truth +than is the dull, common-place, lifeless thing which most men seem to +regard it as. The question, however, is one which he will best qualify +people to answer for themselves.</p> + +<p>Most of the tales in the present volume belong to the "Phantasus." A +party of persons meet together for conversation on various subjects of +art and literature, and these stories, with sundry other dramas, are +read aloud by different members of the society. They are introduced +with the following prefatory dialogue:—</p> + +<p>"It is not at every moment, nor every time we choose to turn to her," +said Antony, "that Nature will unfold her secrets to us; or rather, it +is not always that we are in the mood to feel her sacredness. There +must first be a harmony in ourselves, if we are to find what surrounds +us harmonious; otherwise we do but cheat ourselves with empty phrases, +without ever rising to a true enjoyment of beauty. It may be, perhaps, +that there are times when unexpectedly some blessed influence descends +out of Heaven upon our hearts, and unlocks the door of inspiration; +but towards this we can add nothing. We have no right, no means of +looking for it; it is a revelation within us we know not how. So much +is certain, that it is not above twice, or at most three times, in a +man's life that he has the fortune, in any true sense, to see a +sunrise. When we do see it, it does not pass away like a summer cloud +before our minds; rather it forms one of the great epochs in our +lives. From such ecstatic feelings as we receive then it is long and +long ere we recover; by the side of these exalted moments years +dwindle into nothingness. But it is only in the calm<span class="pagenum">[vii]</span>ness of solitude +that these high gifts can descend upon us. A party collecting itself +to see it as a sight on the top of a mountain, is only standing as it +were before an exhibition at a theatre, and can bring from it nothing +but the same kind of empty pleasure and foolish criticisms."</p> + +<p>"Still stranger is it," said Ernest, "that the great majority of men +are so dead to that awe and wonder, that fearful amazement with which +Nature often fills some minds. If they can feel it, it is only as an +obscure bewildered sensation of they know not what."</p> + +<p>"It is not only on the dreary peaks of the St. Gothard that we can +feel the terribleness of Nature. There are times when the most +beautiful scene is full of spectres that fly shrieking and screaming +across our hearts. Such strange shadowy forms, such wild forebodings, +go often hunting up and down our fancy, that we are fain to fly from +them in terror, and rid ourselves of our phantom rider, by plunging +into the dissipations of the world. While under such influences wild +poems and stories often rise up in us to people the dreary chaos of +desolation, and adorn it with creations of art; and these forms and +figures will be unconscious betrayers of the tone and temper of the +mind in which they spring. In these kind of stories the beautiful +mingles itself with the terrible, the sublime with the childish, +goading our fancy into a kind of poetic madness, and then turning it +to roam at will through the entire fabric of our souls."</p> + +<p>"Are the stories you are going to read to us of this kind?" asked +Clara.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," replied Ernest.</p> + +<p>"And not allegorical?"</p> + +<p>"As you please to call them. There is not, and there cannot be any +creation of art which has not some kind of allegory at the bottom of +it, however little it may let itself be seen. The two forms of good +and evil appear in every poem; they meet us at every turn, in every +thing man produces, as the one eternal riddle<span class="pagenum">[viii]</span> in an endless +multiplicity of forms, which he is for ever struggling to resolve. As +there are particular aspects in which the most every-day life appears +like a myth, so it is possible to feel oneself in as close connexion +with, as much at home in the middle of the wildest wonders as the +ordinary incidents of life. One may go so far as to say, that the +commonest, simplest, pleasantest things, as well as the most +marvellous, can only be said to be true, can only exert an influence +on our minds, in so far as they contain some allegory as their +groundwork, as the link which connects them with the system of the +universe. This is why Dante's allegories come so home to us, because +they pierce through and through to the very heart and centre of +reality. Novalis says, there is no real history, except what might be +fable. Of course, there are many weak and sickly poems of this kind, +which merely drag wearily on to the moral, without taking the +imagination along with them; and these of all the different sorts of +instruction or entertainment are the most tiresome. But it is time to +proceed to our tales."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>And here we would gladly leave this matter, and let the tales tell +their own story. What their idea is as a whole, they speak plainly +enough; and it would be to destroy their effect, as well as to +misunderstand the whole theory of this kind of fiction, to translate +them into a series of moral reflections, and append a didactic +sentiment to them as to one of Æsop's fables. And yet English readers +will not be content with a suggestion of allegory; they will be asking +for meanings, and requiring to have the whole matter laid out before +them in fair, plain characters of black and white; so that +notwithstanding my full consciousness of the general undesirableness +and the unphilosophical nature of such a<span class="pagenum">[ix]</span> proceeding, I will offer a +few general remarks, in the way of elucidation, for three or four of +these stories, which shall put people on the scent to find the real +meaning, not only of these stories in particular, but in general of +any such as may be brought before them. Consoling myself, therefore, +with the reflection that a preface is always read, as it is written, +the last thing in a book, and that in that case my explanation can +hurt no one, and may be of some profit to those who have failed to see +any thing for themselves, I proceed.</p> + +<p>"Egbert," "Eckhart," and the "Runenberg," naturally form into a group +together. They are different exhibitions of very similar ideas, and it +will be enough to explain one. I should advise people, however, to +read the three together straightforward, and then try to analyse for +themselves the impression left upon their minds. Perhaps it may be +something of this sort: that a single sin unrepented of and unatoned +for becomes a destiny; a seed from which, however diminutive and +trifling it may look, a whole life of crime and wickedness shoots up +as a matter of course, perhaps inevitably. Cause and effect, effect +and cause, going on producing and reproducing each other, each +successive step leading further and deeper into the mire, return +becoming more and more difficult, and at last impossible.</p> + +<p>Look at Christian in the "Runenberg." He is born to a calm and serene +life of tranquillity and peace; affectionate parents—a simple routine +of the gentlest and most beautiful of all nature's choicest +occupations—far away from all temptation—secure from every danger—a +home that ought to have given him all, and more than all, of enjoyment +and content,—whose life could promise more happily than his? Yet he +has no love, no heart, no feeling for it. His sense of duty is not +strong enough to set him to work; he finds it dull and uninteresting; +he craves for excitement, for something new. The <i>plain</i> life is not +grand enough to suit his exalted aspirations: he must go to the +mountains, to the ups and downs, and rough and rugged ways of the +world, where he may<span class="pagenum">[x]</span> climb, and hunt, and seek a broader range for +activity and enjoyment; he does not think of asking leave—he goes; he +never regrets leaving home; and at first finds all bright, and gay, +and delightful sunshine. The happy, happy hunting-time; and who so +happy in it as Christian? But it soon palls—it does not satisfy. The +cup is poisoned, there is a gall and wormwood in the taste the sweet +leaves behind; and again he thinks of home. He sings his old song; but +the words come wearily and listlessly—he has no heart for hunting any +more. He wishes to be at home again; but he makes no effort. The +mysterious mandrake in sympathy with his old life wakes up and speaks +to him. It is the warning-voice of conscience; but he dreams on. The +tempter comes, and he is lost irretrievably. The moment of return is +offered—now or never! and he refuses. He does not stay among the +mountains; he flies away to the plains beyond; he flings off, as he +fondly believes, the dark mysterious incidents of that night, as a +wild and impious dream; he thinks he is what he was; away he goes +again to the plains to his old employment, and he is happy, +industrious, contented in it. Every thing again looks smooth, and +bright, and beautiful; but he has not <i>gone back</i>, and now he may not. +What should have been for his peace, now is but a further snare to +make him fancy all is right with him. He does indeed set out to seek +his father, but wearily and unwillingly. His way would have led him +back over the mountains; but there he is not permitted to go. The +object of his journey comes to meet him; they go back together; he +becomes more and more prosperous, and sinks deeper and deeper into his +fatal delusion. Yet the fatal tablet is in his heart, the bond by +which he is bound to evil; even on his wedding-night he cannot forget +the giver. At length the long-smothered poison burst out with all its +fury, and flowers touch his heart no more. He curses them and nature; +the warning mandrake, instead of the voice of conscience, is but a +revelation of the power of evil. It has but taught him to despair, and +seek his friends elsewhere; and he is lost for ever.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[xi]</span></p> + +<p>Of the more awful person in this fearful story I will not speak; but +for the outline of the fate of Christian, who can look round him into +the most ordinary life, and not see innumerable instances of it? The +burden of the other two stories is very similar: the way to understand +them is to try and analyse the feelings left on our mind by the whole, +and not distract ourselves by assuming a fancied meaning, and +speculating with the particulars to make each fragment fit our theory. +Do not let us perplex ourselves to find out what the little dog is, +what is the meaning of the bird, and the old woman. They may have many +meanings; but we shall never find them by beginning at that end. It is +only by the light of the whole that the parts become intelligible.</p> + +<p>"The Love-charm" is a work of a different nature; it is one of the +most remarkable of all Tieck's writings, and, as far as we know, +stands alone among the productions of modern art. With the help of a +popular German superstition, he has woven a tragedy out of the +ordinary events of every-day life, the spirit of which approaches as +near as modern thought can be made to approach to the fatalism of the +Greek drama. A destiny of some kind, either moral or external, is +essential to tragedy. What we mean by "the terrible" as applied to +human action, is, that the free will of man is laid under the +influence of some external power, which he has little or no ability to +resist, which hurries him on through a series of action and incident, +from which, if in full possession of his self-control, he would shrink +in horror. Thus, in common life the crimes men commit under the +influence of any of the loftier passions, such as love or revenge, or +when goaded on by famine or despair, or which men do in ignorance, +when the ignorance may partially, but not entirely, be their own +fault, are terrible, and therefore tragic. The individual seems to be +sacrificed, not to deserve all that has fallen on him; his fate +becomes one of the startling mysteries of life. The meaner or more +selfish the passion under which the crime is committed, or the cooler +and more deliberate<span class="pagenum">[xii]</span> the action, the more what he does loses the +character of tragic, and becomes merely disgusting. Pity goes with +terror, and in such cases there can be no pity. The destiny in +Shakspere's tragedies is a moral one; not an external power +constraining, but an internal power impelling; working not against, +but in and through the will. Such was the influence of his father's +spirit on Hamlet, Hecate and the Witches on Macbeth, Iago's intellect +on Othello, and so on with the rest. The Greek destiny, though in our +way of thinking less human, is more terrible even than that of +Shakspere. The sins of the fathers visited on the children, curses +continuing to work generation after generation, and the helpless +struggle of the victim only precipitating him into a darker +doom—there is a stern grandeur about this form of thought; it is a +feature of a broader philosophy than ours to bear to see the +individual sacrificed, and believe that in some mysterious way the +well-being of the whole is furthered by it, "with calm self-surrender +to hear the murderer's hand upon a brother's throat, yet stand with +upturned unquailing eyes before the everlasting Providence." It is a +scheme of thought so unlike ours that we can hardly realise it, it is +so like a monster to us. Yet this Love-charm is an attempt to do it; +and although the spell is but over a single person, and forms no +portion of a broad scheme of Providence; although for the stately +forms of kings and heroes stalking across the stage, we have but the +ball-going ladies and gentlemen of the eighteenth century, and but an +old witch for the Delphic oracle, or the gods appearing in visible +form; few people can rise from reading it without having been made to +feel that this life, after all, is a stranger thing than they have +been in the habit of imagining.</p> + +<p>Emilius's character is eminently tragic. He has every feature which +can interest us, without that moral or religious force in him which +would make us feel shocked at his fate. The Greeks felt that good and +holy men were no fitter subjects of tragedy than very wicked ones. +There is something revolting (μιαρόν) in the<span class="pagenum">[xiii]</span> idea that a +good man can be allowed even in ignorance to fall into crime. Whatever +be the mysterious ways of Providence; whatever fearful power there may +be abroad, working on and influencing the destinies of mankind; what +indeed is the meaning of the prince of the power of the air, or +whether there be really such an element as chance; this, at least, we +must believe, that the good man is in the hands of the Highest, and +that the laws of nature would sooner be reversed than he be let fall +from His hands. But Emilius is a dreamer, whose power exhausts itself +in speculation, and never acts at all except on impulse: without +firmness, without will to give oneness of design and consistency to +his actions, this character—which is <i>no law</i> to itself, which will +not command itself, no matter how pure may be in general its purposes, +or how lofty its aspirations—is exactly the one most open to be laid +under the spell of some other force. Every man's life, taken from +beginning to end, looked back upon presents an exhibition of some one +law or principle; whatever it be, in the end it is found to be +tolerably uniform and consistent: its principle may be an internal one +of will and conscience; if it is not this, if it grows not out of +self-command, it is pretty sure to be some more fatally perilous one.</p> + +<p>Emilius is admirably worked throughout. Contrast his feelings towards +man and nature, and life and love, as they appear in the first short +poem, and what they have become a few hours later, merely from the +excitement and irritation produced by the ball. The scene of the +village-marriage, the young man's warmth and nobleness, and exquisite +susceptibility, are introduced to heighten our pity for his fate; +while the way in which he is led to it, in a dreamy mood, listlessly +yielding to the caprice of a wayward companion, and not from any real +wish to find out want and relieve suffering, reduces the value of the +action to a mere gratification of a passion, and thus, while it +deepens our sympathy, adds nothing to our respect. The concluding +scene is so magnificent, that we cannot run the risk of injuring its +effect by offering any<span class="pagenum">[xiv]</span> criticism on it; and with these few words we +leave the "Love-charm."</p> + +<p>In "Eckhart" and the "Runenberg" we have seen some of the moral trials +which meet men on first starting into life. In the "Friends" we have +the lighter kind of speculative. A very little philosophy serves to +teach us how very unreal every thing is that passes before our eyes; +how it all takes a colouring from our spirits; how the very same thing +appears almost contradictory to different people, or to the same +person in different moods; that we do not so much see things +themselves, as our own image thrown into them. Accordingly, men begin +to crave for a truer insight; they try to clear their intellect of the +gauzy film of feeling, and see things as they are. Ludwig, a young +indolent dreamer, full of all this kind of sentimental longing to be +rid of sentimentality, is on his way to visit a sick friend. He sits +down in the heat of the day under a tree to indulge in the pleasure of +a little disconsolate reflection on his friend's melancholy letter, +and insensibly falls off into a sleep, and dreams. At once he finds +all the difficulties of the world solved for him, all his highest +aspirations satisfied. The chasm that divides the worlds of sense and +spirit is bridged over; his mind meets its true objects. The earth he +despised he is now relieved from; the deceptions of nature all vanish; +he sees things as they are; he is in the real world of truth and +beauty; nothing is subjective any longer; he breathes a real genuine +objectivity; all mortal weaknesses, and with them love, may not enter +here; the phantoms of his childhood flit before him again, but no +longer as they were; they are transfigured into the cold sublimity of +Grecian goddesses. Alas! he is far from satisfied; after the first few +days of rapture, he would gladly be on earth again. He wished to be as +the gods; his wish is granted, and among the gods he cannot live. This +cold world may be a very grand place, but it is not for such as him. +Like Lessing's Phœnix, at first sight the dwellers here seem +beautiful beyond all conception; the second glance shews that if a man +will be like<span class="pagenum">[xv]</span> them he must be content to be the only one of his race, +with none to love him and none that he can love. "He is like the +spirits he can comprehend, not like them." The truth he sought, he +finds he has left behind; the old earth is his true home; and men, be +they what they will, are his brothers. His friend comes to meet him; +but he does not know him again, because here for the first time he +sees him as he is, while before he had only seen in him the image of +himself. If this be truth, he is sick of it; he sighs for the +deception again, if deception it was that had been so delightful; he +wakes to find his vision but a dream, in the sweet reality of his +friend's embrace.</p> + +<p>The "Elves," the last story which we shall notice, is of a far more +solemn character; with all its beauty, it has a sad dirge-like tone. +Written fourteen years later than the others, it is now the true +poet's lament over the hard insensibility of the world to its true +good. The world of spirit lies stretched out under the eyes of the +children of earth; the invisible visible; but from earth and to +earthly perceptions, dull, gloomy, unattractive. To the busy practical +man of business, to the prudential economist, the man of +understanding, the workers in it seem but idle, worthless vagabonds; +these lazy good-for-nothings, that scarcely till the ground, are never +seen at church, and shew no symptom of respectability; why do they +cumber the earth? the talk is of cage and pillory for them; no child +of theirs may approach the unhallowed precincts. Accident leads a +young girl beyond the boundary, and then how changed is every thing! +The dull scene has become more brilliant than the gardens of Aladdin; +scales fall from her eyes; now it is the old world that is dark and +gloomy. Down among the mysteries of the fountains of Nature, she sees +her now no longer yielding reluctantly an unwilling pittance to the +sweat of the labour of man, but <i>uncursed</i>. At the word of the +dwellers in that enchanted land, her choicest fruits and flowers she +pours out in lavish abundance. The spirits of the elements work +visibly there, and the mortal sees them, and knows now who are the +true benefactors<span class="pagenum">[xvi]</span> of mankind. Time and space exist not for these pure +beings. Seven years are gone in one night, and the narrow fir-clump +contains the garden of Eden.</p> + +<p>The mortal goes back to earth: what she has seen she may not tell. +These esoteric secrets of the poet are not for the crawling animal who +cannot hold himself upright, nor turn his eyes to heaven, and who only +knows the sun by the sight of his own shadow: but one of them she +weds; and the child of these two—oh, what may we not hope from that +child! Alas, in vain! In vain, from the secret labours of these +beautiful beings, the brooks run fresh and full, and the fields +overflow with plenty. Men will not see; in the midst of their +abundance they curse the author of it. In an evil hour of weakness the +initiated betrays the secret, and then all is gone. The gloom of the +fir-clump vanishes; it becomes like any other. The gipsy rabble are +gone; what all men hated, they are relieved of; but with this comes +the loss, too, of all they prized—their corn, their wine, and +fruitful trees. Famine comes, and drought and pestilence; the elfin +child dies, and all is ruin and disaster. They see not their tokens. +There is not one prophet more. What a deep philosophy runs through all +this!</p> + +<p>Have we heard our prophets? At the end of the last century one said:—</p> + +<p>"Yes, another era is already dawning upon earth, when it shall be +light, when man shall wake from high and lofty dreams; and these +dreams he shall find realised, and that he has lost nothing but sleep.</p> + +<p>"The rocks and stones which two veiled figures, Sin and Destiny, like +Deucalion and Pyrrha, fling behind them at their true prophet, shall +rise and be new men.</p> + +<p>"And at the sunset gate of this age stands written, 'Here lies the way +to wisdom and to virtue;' as at the west gate of the Chersonese the +proud writing, 'Here lies the way to Byzantium.'</p><p><span class="pagenum">[xvii]</span></p> + +<p>"O eternal Providence, thou wilt that it shall be light!"</p> + +<p>Whether this prophecy be fulfilled or fulfilling, and whether Germany +has yet done any thing to the accomplishment of it, is for time to +shew. So much is clear, that not here in England only, but all Europe +over, there is a move forward—a cry of hunger and thirst for +something deeper and truer; and to this move no living man has more +contributed than Ludwig Tieck. He is the last, the only survivor of +the noble band of German poets; and Europe has not a man of whom she +is more justly proud.</p> + +<p>The morning of his life broke in storm and tempest. Like some infant +river just starting from its snowy cradle in its native mountains, +foaming and dashing down its narrow bed, bounding from rock to rock, +and powdering the air with vapour, which catches the sun's rays as it +rises, and shivers them into a thousand brilliant hues,—his strong +mind broke fiercely and impetuously from the clouds of error, and +unbelief, and freezing scepticism, in which it was nurtured; at first, +with loud questionings of fate, troubled and dark, yet, with all its +fallings, flinging round itself in the wildest profusion rays and +flashes of exquisite beauty. It rolls on down from its mountains; it +has swept now over every rock and shoal, and flows on calm, serene, +and deep, and clear through smiling fields, and woods, and villages, +and happy men and women, bearing on its broad bosom all who trust +themselves on it for profit or enjoyment, from the tiny pleasure-boat +of the young lover to the tall ship sweeping proudly forward, laden +with the choicest fruits and produce of every clime. As the heavens +draw up the water from the ocean, and, lading their clouds with it, +bear it off into the centre of huge continents, and with it start new +fountains into life, which again, winding as veins through all lands, +and scattering blessings as they go, flow back at last into their +parent sea,—so in all ages pure wisdom, entering into lofty spirits, +sends them down through their generation, scoring out deep channels on +it as they pass: the stream of life and light<span class="pagenum">[xviii]</span> makes its way again to +the source from which it came; but with this mortal life it ceases not +to flow: its recipients become the veins of the world, and while the +world lasts they endure—as the channels of truth where men drink and +live. And one of them is <span class="smcap">Tieck</span>.</p> + +<p class="author">J. A. F.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/viii.jpg" width="150" height="53" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_RECONCILIATION">THE RECONCILIATION.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i027-1.jpg" width="480" height="457" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i027-2r.jpg" width="48" height="268" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i027-2l.jpg" width="115" height="56" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i027-3l.jpg" width="69" height="212" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">T</span>WILIGHT</b> was already gathering, when a +young knight, mounted on his +charger, trotted through a lonely vale: the clouds grew gradually +darker, and the glow of evening paler: a little brook murmured softly +along, concealed by the mountain bushes that overhung it.</p> + +<p>The knight sighed, and surrendered himself to thought; the bridle hung +loose on the horse's neck; the steed itself no longer felt the rider's +spur, and now paced slowly along the narrow path that wound round the +precipitous rock.</p> + +<p>The noise of the little brook waxed louder; the clang of the hoof rung +through the solitude; the shades of evening grew deeper, and the ruins +of an old castle lay wondrously<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> poised on the precipice of the +opposite mountain. The knight became more and more absorbed in +thought; he gazed fixedly and vacantly on the darkness, scarcely +noticing the objects that environed him.</p> + +<p>Now the moon rose behind him: her splendour tipped tree and shrub with +gold: the valley narrowed apace, and the shadow of the knight reached +to the opposite hill: the streamlet went foaming, all silver, over the +broken rocks, and a nightingale began her ravishing song, till it soon +sounded clearer from the forest. The knight now saw a crooked-grown +willow before him, that fell over the brook, while the water flowed +through its weeping branches. On a nearer approach, its dark outline +assumed a more decided form, and he now distinctly descried the figure +of a monk, bending low over the stream. He let the faint ripple flow +through the hollow of his hand, while a low and plaintive voice +exclaimed, "She comes not, she comes not! ah, in an eternity she'll +not float by!"</p> + +<p>The steed shied: a sudden dread took possession of the rider: he +struck both spurs into his charger's flanks, and loudly neighing, it +galloped away with him.</p> + +<p>The narrow path now grew wider, and led into a thick wood of oak, +through whose densely woven branches the moon could but sparely shoot +her beams. The knight soon stood before a cave, from which a small +fire shone invitation towards him: he alighted, tied his horse to a +tree, and entered the hollow.</p> + +<p>Before a wooden crucifix kneeled an aged hermit in deep devotion; he +was not aware of the knight's entrance, but still continued in fervent +prayer. A long white beard flowed down over his breast: years had +ploughed deep furrows in his brow: his eyes were dim: he had the +seeming of a saint. The knight took his stand at some distance from +him, folded his hands across his breast, and repeated some Ave-Marias. +Then the old man arose, dried a tear in his eye, and observed the +stranger in his dwelling.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[3]</span></p> + +<p>"Welcome to thee!" cried he, and offered the stranger a hand trembling +with age.</p> + +<p>The knight pressed it warmly; he felt his soul yearn towards him, and +his reverence was transmuted into love.</p> + +<p>"You did right to turn in here," continued the hermit, "for you will +not find a village or a hostelry for many a league. But why so silent? +Draw near to the fire and rest, and I will serve up such a little meal +as this cave of mine can best supply."</p> + +<p>The knight took the helmet from his head: his brown locks fell adown +his neck: the old man gazed on him with a searching glance.</p> + +<p>"Why does your eye wander so shily and unfixedly about?" he resumed, +in a friendly tone.</p> + +<p>The knight seemed to be collecting his thoughts. "A strange feeling of +awe," replied he, "has seized on me since riding through that valley. +Explain to me, if you can, the singular phenomenon which I there +beheld: or perhaps it is not a spirit, but an inhabitant of these +parts: and yet that is impossible; I saw him wave to and fro like the +misty vapour in the gleam of the rising moon; and a cold thrill of +fear drove me this way. Explain to me the riddle and the words which I +heard through the whispering of the bushes."</p> + +<p>"You saw the apparition?" said the hermit inquiringly, in a tone which +betrayed a warm interest in the event; "well, be seated at the fire, +and I will tell you the unhappy tale."</p> + +<p>Both took their places. The old man appeared lost in thought. The +knight was all attention; and after a short silence the hermit began:</p> + +<p>"It is now thirty years since I roamed the land in quest of adventures +and strife, just as you do now; since my locks flowed, just as yours +do, over my shoulders, and my glance with equal boldness confronted +danger. Grief has made me a decrepit old man before my time; not a +trace can you now discover of the lusty warrior, who at<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> that time won +the respect of knighthood and the hearts of lovely girls. All is as a +dream to me now, and my joys and sorrows are shrouded in the twilight +distance. Farewell, ye happy days! scarce a faint glimmer from you now +can reach my cold worn heart.</p> + +<p>"I had a brother, who was only two years older than myself. We were +like each other in form and feeling, except that he was more impetuous +and stormy, and more especially inclined to be passionate. We loved +each other fondly; we shared no pleasure apart; in every conflict he +fought at my side; we seemed to live but for one another.</p> + +<p>"He became acquainted with a lady, whose love soon formed him to an +accomplished man. Her tenderness tempered his boisterous spirit; she +taught him that gentleness which is essential to every man who will +appear amiable in the eye of his friend. Clara became his wife; and +after the lapse of a year, the mother of a boy. Nothing now seemed +wanting to his happiness.</p> + +<p>"About this time the signal of the cross was again raised against the +infidels. Fired with holy zeal he girt on the sword, took the sign of +the Redeemer on his cloak, and marched forth with the enthusiast +throng to peril and to fame. My entreaties and his wife's tears were +too weak to detain him; the fervour of his enthusiasm tore him from +our arms. Ah, heavens! I still hoped at that time that we should have +the delight of seeing him once more: I foreboded dangers for him, but +not those sad events which have beguiled my life of every joy.</p> + +<p>"We now looked in vain for news: our anxious impatience suggested to +us a thousand mishaps, and fed us again with increased hope. Week +after week, and month after month passed away without our expectation +being in the smallest degree satisfied. To be sure, we heard that on +their march to the Holy Land discomforts of a thousand kinds had +befallen the crusaders; that they had been attacked by savage hordes, +and given up to misery and<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> want; that the greater part of them had +been scattered in the woods, there to become a prey to hunger or the +wild beasts. But we had no special news of my brother, and we were +obliged to accustom ourselves to the thought that he too belonged to +the greater number of those unfortunates. His desolate widow wept for +him daily, and gave little ear to the weak grounds of consolation that +issued from the dejected heart of a suffering brother.</p> + +<p>"Five long sorrowful years were thus passed in lamentation and tears, +when I beheld at a tournament the daughter of William of Orlaburg. Oh, +sir knight, let me dwell for a moment on this brilliant epoch of my +life, and refresh my soul on the beautiful past. Ah, a rapturous +spring rose upon me, but winter returned all the colder to my heart: +not a flower remains to me of all those sunny days; a spiteful +hurricane has snapt them all away. Ida of Orlaburg was the most +charming creature of her sex: graceful and full of majesty, her lofty +figure claimed respect of every one, and her charitable temper won +every heart. She united the loveliness of woman with the nobility of +manly strength.</p> + +<p>"At a tournament given by her father, she saw Clara; her soul was +interested by the deep sorrow which spoke in the features of the +desolate wife. In misfortune, friendships are the most quickly and the +most lastingly formed. They saw each other very often; they loved each +other like two sisters, that had grown up together and shared each +other's every thought; and on the death of Ida's father, Clara had her +friend a constant guest at her castle. Ida it was who at last dried +the tears from eyes that were dim with weeping; who taught her to +smile again at the rising of the sun, and who, as I saw her so often, +at last robbed me of my heart and of my peace.</p> + +<p>"I experienced all the torments and all the ecstacies of love; my +nights were sleepless, my days without repose; the world lay extended +more beautifully before me; a charm and a loveliness sprang up every +where beneath my<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> footsteps; an impetuous longing hurried me to her; +and yet in her presence my heart beat still more madly.</p> + +<p>"Am I not a child to speak to you so diffusely of my folly? In a few +months I disclosed to her my love; with an angel voice she assured me +of her attachment; we were betrothed, and—oh, who could participate +in my sense of happiness!—in two months we were to be married. How +did I reckon up every day and every hour! The tide of time flowed past +me in vexatious dilatoriness; I wanted to see it roll along in a +foaming torrent at my feet.</p> + +<p>"At last a messenger reached us with news of my brother. It was a +knight from Spain who had seen him in Africa. Corsairs had taken the +vessel in which he sailed, and sold him as a slave in Tunis. A very +high price was set on his liberty.</p> + +<p>"We were more pleased than saddened by this news, because we had +already taken his death for certain. Clara now dried her tears, and +surrendered herself to her joy. She got together the required sum as +quickly as possible, and made preparations to travel to her husband.</p> + +<p>"The stranger knight was in fact returning to Spain, and Clara +proposed setting out in his company; while Ida, who found it +impossible to part from her friend, resolved to accompany her in +knightly costume.</p> + +<p>"My most urgent expostulations were in vain, and I was at last obliged +to yield to their united entreaties. My brother's infant son was +consigned to the protection of a convent. They took their departure, +and, full of foreboding, my weeping eye followed them.</p> + +<p>"How I burned with desire to accompany them! but I was entangled in a +feud, in which I had promised a friend my succour, and my pledged word +bound me to Germany. Ah! in an ill-fated hour they departed; I never +beheld them more.</p> + +<p>"From that moment begins the dark period of my life. I was successful +in the feud. Oh, that I had fallen beneath the sword of an enemy, to +have escaped long<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> years of torture, and the frightful hours in which +I first—oh, forgive me these tears! they still often flow at the +remembrance of Ida and my brother: age cannot so blunt our sympathies +that pain may not sometimes return with new force to our bosoms.</p> + +<p>"On their journey Ida was seized with the unhappy fancy of not +discovering herself to my brother till they all should have reached +their native country again, in order that she might then surprise him +the more joyfully as my bride. They arrived in Spain, and sent the +required sum to Tunis. The prisoner was liberated; on the wings of +affection he hastened over the sea, and forgot on Clara's bosom, in +one moment of rapture, the sufferings which he had endured for years.</p> + +<p>"Ida was soon presented to him as a friend; he received her kindly, +and enjoyed for some days in the society of his spouse that happiness +which he had so long been deprived of. But his eyes were soon rivetted +on Ida: he observed the tender connexion subsisting between her and +his wife, and suspicion kindled in his soul. 'She is untrue to me,' +cried he when alone; 'she divides her heart between me and this +hateful stranger!'</p> + +<p>"He now watched them both more closely than before, and soon thought +his suspicions justified; he thought he could discover a tenderness +which neither of them even took pains to conceal. By degrees he became +colder towards his wife, hiding the wound she had inflicted; whilst +she on her part, unconstrainedly and without the shadow of fear, +shared her affections with her consort and her friend.</p> + +<p>"Jealousy raged in my brother's bosom; he began to hate Clara and her +companion; he imputed a significancy to every look and every gesture; +the rancour within him robbed him of his sleep, or suspicion appalled +him in hideous dreams.</p> + +<p>"'For this, then, I came across the sea,' said he to himself; 'these +are the joys of meeting; these, then, are the delights of my love. I +am come to be the prey of<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> racking torture. I find my home again at +the side of a faithless wife, and she herself meets me only that she +may the earlier proclaim to me her effrontery and her broken vows.'</p> + +<p>"He made an old squire the confidant of his chagrin: both now watched +the two friends with an indefatigable vigilance; they beheld a +thousand proofs of the supposed infidelity, without in the least +conjecturing the true posture of affairs; my brother's fury rose more +and more, and a dark resolve at last began to ripen in his breast.</p> + +<p>"It happened that he was with them and a faithful servant in a small +boat. The moon was up, and the shallop drifted slowly down the gentle +stream; he sat in cold unconsciousness by Clara, who had laid her hand +in his. He caught her eye with a searching glance; her husband seemed +strange to her, and abashed she sunk her head. Ida had seized her +other hand.</p> + +<p>"'Traitress!' cried he of a sudden; 'impostor! who sport with the +peace of a man, with truth, and truth's best vows!' Ah! at that moment +his good genius forsook him!—gnashing his teeth, he plunged his +dagger into Clara's bosom: Ida sank lifeless at the side of her +friend; he grasped the bloody poniard, raised the reeking blade, and +smote my Ida to the heart.</p> + +<p>"The dying Clara discovered to him his error. Her blood floated down +the stream. The film gathered in her eye. For a long time he stood +like one entranced; then sprang into the river, swam unconsciously to +land, and, deaf and dumb, without sensation or words of woe, he set +out on his return to Germany.</p> + +<p>"Thus, then, an ill-starred jest was the wreck of my every hope and +joy. In the mean time, I stood at a window of the castle, anxiously +awaiting the return of those I loved. Often was I aroused from my +musing mood by the hoof-tramp of horses: my eye wandered vacantly over +field and hill, while a joyful thrill passed through me at the sight +of a female figure.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[9]</span></p> + +<p>"At length came a knight dashing up on a black charger: it was my +brother. But ah, my joy was vain; his countenance was haggard, his +eyes rolled wildly, his heart beat impetuously.</p> + +<p>"'Where are Ida and Clara?' cried I.</p> + +<p>"A tear was the answer; he hung speechless on my neck.</p> + +<p>"'In the grave,' said he at length, violently sobbing.</p> + +<p>"O heavens! those were fearful hours that I then went through! My fist +trembled, my heart throbbed convulsively; a low voice whispered murder +and vengeance in my ears: but I saw my brother's wretchedness—I +forgave him; and well it is for me that I did so.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that he could have forgiven himself! But his misery and his crime +were present day and night to his soul. Clara came back to him in his +dreams, and shewed him the dagger reeking with her heart's warm blood. +From that hour he never smiled again.</p> + +<p>"'I am condemned to the most ghastly misery,' cried he, as he grasped +me by the hand; 'nor on the other side of the grave shall I be at +rest; my spirit will wander still in quest of Clara, and still never +find her: a fearful future drags its slow length in review before me. +Ah, my brother! even in death there is no more hope for me.'</p> + +<p>"My heart was broken; but my life seemed now granted that I might +console him. We left the castle, and laid aside our knightly garb; we +shrouded ourselves in holy weeds, and thus we went wayfaring through +the dark woods and over the desert plains, till this cavern at last +received us.</p> + +<p>"Often would my brother stand for long, long days by that rivulet, +gazing vacantly on the waters; even in the night he was sometimes +there; and then he would sit on a sundered fragment of the rock, while +his tears trickled down into the stream. My efforts to console him +were all in vain.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[10]</span></p> + +<p>"At last he revealed to me that Clara had appeared to him in a dream; +but she never could be reconciled, she said, till her blood should +float down that little brook; and for this reason he sat on the bank, +counting and watching the waves, in the eager hope of again finding +the drops that had gushed from her heart in that fatal hour.</p> + +<p>"I wept at the sight of my brother's madness; I tried to rid him of +the thought, but it was impossible. 'Ah!' cried he, 'and in distant +Spain her blood was shed; it flowed down the stream into the sea: how +long will it be before it returns hitherward to the springs?'</p> + +<p>"Now he scarcely ever left the brook—his sorrow and his delusion +increased with every day: at last he died of a broken heart. I buried +him by my cave.</p> + +<p>"Since then I have often seen his ghost sitting beside the stream: it +was always watching the passing ripple, and softly sighing, 'She comes +not—she comes not.' A thrill of horror runs through me every time, +and I pray till midnight for the peace of his soul."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The hermit ended; he cast down his eyes and silently counted his +beads. The knight had listened to the tale with anxious interest, and +after a few moments he inquired—</p> + +<p>"And where was your brother's son left?"</p> + +<p>"We sought him in the convent," replied the old man, "but he had +clandestinely made his escape from the monks."</p> + +<p>"Your name?"</p> + +<p>"Why do you so fix your gaze upon me?—Ulfo of Waldburg."</p> + +<p>"O my uncle!" cried the knight, and threw himself on the bosom of the +astonished hermit. "Doubt not," cried he; "ah! that unhappy shade by +the rivulet is the spirit of my father."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[11]</span></p> + +<p>"Your father! his name was"—</p> + +<p>"Charles of Waldburg. I ran away from the monks because their lonely +cloisters appeared a prison to me. I took service with a knight; and +now for some years I have been seeking you and my father."</p> + +<p>"O my son!" cried the old man, and locked him more fervently in his +arms; "yes, you are he: I know you by that sparkling eye; those are +your father's features and his chestnut locks."</p> + +<p>"O my unhappy father!" sighed the youth; "would that I could procure +his wandering spirit peace! would that my prayers could conciliate +Heaven and my mother's shade!"</p> + +<p>He stood in a musing mood, with his hands folded: "Uncle," cried he, +"what, if I have read aright the import of the dream? what, if my +mother's spirit had wished to direct the wretched man to me? Oh, come +now!"</p> + +<p>They left the cave. Clouds shrouded the moon; a hallowed stillness +spread its mantle over the world; they went into the lonely forest as +into a temple. Charles kneeled down on his father's grave.</p> + +<p>"Spirit of my father," said he in fervent prayer, "oh, hear thy son! +hearken to thy son, O my mother! and, gracious Heaven, let me not +implore thee in vain! Give rest to the unhappy one, and let the dread +pilgrim find a lodging in the grave. Oh, let me hear from thee, spirit +of my father, whether I conceived aright the sense of the prophecy! +Oh, grant me some sign that thou art reconciled with my mother's +ghost!"</p> + +<p>Like the soft echo of a flute came a breathing through the tree-tops: +two bright apparitions floated downwards in closely-wound embrace. +They came nearer. "We are reconciled," whispered a more than earthly +voice. Two hands were stretched forth over the kneeling one; and like +a light zephyr the words passed over him, "Be true to knighthood!"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[12]</span></p> + +<p>A cloud glided away from before the moon; and the phantoms dissolved +in her silver radiance. In glad amazement the two mortals gazed long +and lingeringly after them.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_FRIENDS">THE FRIENDS.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i039-1.jpg" width="480" height="426" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i039-2l.jpg" width="146" height="100" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i039-2r.jpg" width="105" height="343" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i039-3l.jpg" width="55" height="243" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">I</span>T</b> was a beautiful spring morning, +when Lewis Wandel went out to visit +a sick friend, in a village some miles distant from his dwelling. This +friend had written to him to say that he was lying dangerously ill, +and would gladly see him and speak to him once more.</p> + +<p>The cheerful sunshine now sparkled in the bright green bushes; the +birds twittered and leapt to and fro on the branches; the larks sang +merrily above the thin fleeting clouds; sweet scents rose from the +fresh meadows, and the fruit-trees of the garden were white and gay in +blossom.</p> + +<p>Lewis's eye roamed intoxicate around him; his soul seemed to expand; +but he thought of his<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> invalid friend, and he bent forward in silent +dejection. Nature had decked herself all in vain, so serenely and so +brightly; his fancy could only picture to him the sick bed and his +suffering brother.</p> + +<p>"How song is sounding from every bough!" cried he; "the notes of the +birds mingle in sweet unison with the whisper of the leaves; and yet +in the distance, through all the charm of the concert, come the sighs +of the sick one."</p> + +<p>Whilst he thus communed, a troop of gaily-clad peasant girls issued +from the village; they all gave him a friendly salutation, and told +him that they were on their merry way to a wedding; that work was over +for that day, and had to give place to festivity. He listened to their +tale, and still their merriment rang in the distance on his ear; still +he caught the sound of their songs, and became more and more +sorrowful. In the wood he took his seat on a dismantled tree, drew the +oft-read letter from his pocket, and ran through it once more:—</p> + +<p>"My very dear friend,—I cannot tell why you have so utterly forgotten +me, that I receive no news from you. I am not surprised that men +forsake me; but it heartily pains me to think that you too care +nothing about me. I am dangerously ill; a fever saps my strength: if +you delay visiting me any longer, I cannot promise you that you will +see me again. All nature revives, and feels fresh and strong; I alone +sink lower in languor; the returning warmth cannot animate me; I see +not the green fields, nothing but the tree that rustles before my +window, and sings death-songs to my thoughts; my bosom is pent, my +breathing is hard; and often I think the walls of my room will press +closer together and crush me. The rest of you in the world are holding +the most beautiful festival of life, whilst I must languish in the +dwelling of sickness. Gladly would I dispense with spring, if I could +but see your dear face once more: but you that are in health never +earnestly<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> think what it really is to be ill, and how dear to us then, +in our helplessness, the visit of a friend is: you do not know how to +prize those precious minutes of consolation, because the whole world +receives you in the warmth and the fervour of its friendship. Ah! if +you did but know, as I do, how terrible is death, and how still more +terrible it is to be ill,—O Lewis, how would you hasten then to +behold once more this frail form, that you have hitherto called your +friend, and that by and by will be so ruthlessly dismembered! If I +were well, I would haste to meet you, or fancy that you may perhaps be +ill at this moment. If I never see you again—farewell."</p> + +<p>What a painful impression did the suffering depicted in this letter +make upon Lewis's heart, amid the liveliness of Nature, as she lay in +brilliancy before him! He melted into tears, and rested his head on +his hand.—"Carol now, ye foresters," thought he; "for ye know no +lamentation; ye lead a buoyant poetic existence, and for this are +those swift pinions granted you; oh, how happy are ye, that ye need +not mourn: warm summer calls you, and ye wish for nothing more; ye +dance forth to meet it, and when winter is advancing, ye are gone! O +light-winged merry forest-life, how do I envy thee! Why are so many +heavy cares burdened upon poor man's heart? Why may he not love +without purchasing his love by wailing—his happiness by misery? Life +purls on like a fleeting rivulet beneath his feet, and quenches not +his thirst, his fervid longing."</p> + +<p>He became more and more absorbed in thought, and at last he rose and +pursued his way through the thick forest. "If I could but help him," +cried he; "if Nature could but supply me with a means of saving him; +but as it is, I feel nothing but my own impotency, and the pain of +losing my friend. In my childhood I used to believe in enchantment and +its supernatural aids; would I now could hope in them as happily as +then!"</p> + +<p>He quickened his steps; and involuntarily all the remembrances<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> of the +earliest years of his childhood crowded back upon him: he followed +those forms of loveliness, and was soon entangled in such a labyrinth +as not to notice the objects that surrounded him. He had forgotten +that it was spring—that his friend was ill: he hearkened to the +wondrous melodies, which came borne, as if from distant shores, upon +his ear: all that was most strange united itself to what was most +ordinary: his whole soul was transmuted. From the far vista of memory, +from the abyss of the past, all those forms were summoned forth that +ever had enraptured or tormented him; all those dubious phantoms were +aroused, that flutter formlessly about us, and gather in dizzy hum +around our heads. Puppets, the toys of childhood, and spectres, danced +along before him, and so mantled over the green turf, that he could +not see a single flower at his feet. First love encircled him with its +twilight morning gleam, and let down its sparkling rainbow over the +mead: his earliest sorrows glided past him in review, and threatened +to greet him in the same guise at the end of his pilgrimage. Lewis +sought to arrest all these changeful feelings, and to retain a +consciousness of self amid the magic of enjoyment,—but in vain. Like +enigmatic books, with figures grotesquely gay, that open for a moment +and in a moment are closed, so unstably and fleetingly all floated +before his soul.</p> + +<p>The wood opened, and in the open country on one side lay some old +ruins, encompassed with watch-towers and ramparts. Lewis was +astonished at having advanced so quickly amid his dreams. He emerged +from his melancholy, as he did from the shades of the wood; for often +the pictures within us are but the reflection of outward objects. Now +rose on him, like the morning sun, the memory of his first poetical +enjoyments, of his earliest appreciations of that luscious harmony +which many a human ear never inhales.</p> + +<p>"How incomprehensibly," said he, "did those things commingle then, +which seemed to me eternally parted by<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> such vast chasms; my most +undefined presentiments assumed a form and outline, and gleamed on me +in the shape of a thousand subordinate phantoms, which till then I had +never descried! So names were found me for things that I had long +wished to speak of: I became recipient of earth's fairest treasures, +which my yearning heart had so long sought for in vain: and how much +have I to thank thee for since then, divine power of fancy and of +poetry! How hast thou smoothed for me the path of life, that erst +appeared so rough and perplexed! Ever hast thou revealed to me new +sources of enjoyment and happiness, so that no arid desert presents +itself to me now: every stream of sweet voluptuous inspiration hath +wound its way through my earth-born heart: I have become intoxicate +with bliss, and have communed with beings of heaven."</p> + +<p>The sun sank below the horizon, and Lewis was astonished that it was +already evening. He was insensible of fatigue, and was still far from +the point which he had wished to reach before night: he stood still, +without being able to understand how the crimson of evening could be +so early mantling the clouds; how the shadows of every thing were so +long, while the nightingale warbled her song of wail in the thicket. +He looked around him: the old ruins lay far in the background, clad in +blushing splendour; and he doubted whether he had not strayed from the +direct and well-known road.</p> + +<p>Now he remembered a phantasy of his early childhood, that till that +moment had never recurred to him: it was a female form of awe, that +glided before him over the lonely fields: she never looked round, yet +he was compelled, against his will, to follow her, and to be drawn on +into unknown scenes, without in the least being able to extricate +himself from her power. A slight thrill of fear came over him, and yet +he found it impossible to obtain a more distinct recollection of that +figure, or to usher back his mind into the frame, in which this image +had first appeared to him. He sought to individualise all these +singular sensations,<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> when, looking round by chance, he really found +himself on a spot which, often as he had been that way, he had never +seen before.</p> + +<p>"Am I spell-bound?" cried he; "or have my dreams and fancies crazed +me? Is it the wonderful effect of solitude that makes me +irrecognisable to myself; or do spirits and genii hover round me and +hold my senses in thrall? Sooth, if I cannot enfranchise myself from +myself, I will await that woman-phantom that floated before me in +every lonely place in my childhood."</p> + +<p>He endeavoured to rid himself of every kind of phantasy, in order to +get into the right road again; but his recollections became more and +more perplexed; the flowers at his feet grew larger, the red glow of +evening more brilliant, and wondrously shaped clouds hung drooping on +the earth, like the curtains of some mystic scene that was soon to +unfold itself. A ringing murmur arose from the high grass, and the +blades bowed to one another, as if in friendly converse; while a light +warm spring rain dropped pattering amongst them, as if to wake every +slumbering harmony in wood, and bush, and flower. Now all was rife +with song and sound; a thousand sweet voices held promiscuous parley; +song entwined itself in song, and tone in tone; while in the waning +crimson of eve lay countless blue butterflies rocking, with its +radiance sparkling from their wavy wings. Lewis fancied himself in a +dream, when the heavy dark-red clouds suddenly rose again, and a vast +prospect opened on him in unfathomable distance. In the sunshine lay a +gorgeous plain, sparkling with verdant forests and dewy underwood. In +its centre glittered a palace of a myriad hues, as if composed all of +undulating rainbows and gold and jewels: a passing stream reflected +its various brilliancy, and a soft crimson æther environed this hall +of enchantment: strange birds, he had never seen before, flew about, +sportively flapping each other with their red and green wings: larger +nightingales warbled their clear notes to the echoing landscape:<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> +lambent flames shot through the green grass, flickering here and +there, and then darting in coils round the mansion. Lewis drew nearer, +and heard ravishing voices sing the following words:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Traveller from earth below,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wend thee not farther,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In our hall's magic glow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bide with us rather.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou with longing scann'd<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Joy's distant morrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cast away sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And enter the wish'd-for land.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Without further scruple, Lewis stepped to the shining threshold, and +lingering but a moment ere he set his foot on the polished stone, he +entered. The gates closed after him.</p> + +<p>"Hitherward! hitherward!" cried invisible lips, as from the inmost +recesses of the palace; and with loudly throbbing heart he followed +the voices. All his cares, all his olden remembrances were cast away: +his inmost bosom rang with the songs that outwardly encompassed him: +his every regret was stilled: his every conscious and unconscious wish +was satisfied. The summoning voices grew so loud, that the whole +building re-echoed them, and still he could not find their origin, +though he long seemed to have been standing in the central hall of the +palace.</p> + +<p>At length a ruddy-cheeked boy stepped up to him, and saluted the +stranger guest: he led him through magnificent chambers, full of +splendour and melody, and at last entered the garden, where Lewis, as +he said, was expected. Entranced he followed his guide, and the most +delicious fragrance from a thousand flowers floated forth to meet him. +Broad shady walks received them. Lewis's dizzy gaze could scarcely +gain the tops of the high immemorial trees: bright-coloured birds sat +perched upon the branches: children were playing on guitars in the<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> +shade, and they and the birds sang to the music. Fountains shot up, +with the clear red of morning sparkling upon them: the flowers were as +high as shrubs, and parted spontaneously as the wanderer pressed +through them. He had never before felt the hallowed sensations that +then enkindled in him; never had such pure heavenly enjoyment been +revealed to him: he was over-happy.</p> + +<p>But bells of silver sound rang through the trees, and their tops were +bowed: the birds and children with the guitars were hushed: the +rose-buds unfolded: and the boy now conducted the stranger into the +midst of a brilliant assembly.</p> + +<p>Lovely dames of lofty form were seated on beautiful hanks of turf, in +earnest conference. They were above the usual height of the human +race, and their more than earthly beauty had at the same time +something of awe in it, from which the heart shrunk back in alarm. +Lewis dared not interrupt their conversation: it seemed as if he were +among the god-like forms of Homer's song, where every thought must be +excluded that formed the converse of mortals. Odd little spirits stood +round, as ready ministers, waiting attentively for the wink of the +moment that should summon them from their posture of quietude: they +fixed their glances on the stranger, and then looked jeeringly and +significantly at each other. At last the beautiful women ceased +speaking, and beckoned Lewis to approach; he was still standing with +an embarrassed air, and drew near to them with trembling.</p> + +<p>"Be not alarmed," said the fairest of them all; "you are welcome to us +here, and we have long been expecting you: long have you wished to be +in our abode,—are you satisfied now?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, how unspeakably happy I am!" exclaimed Lewis; "all my dearest +dreams have met with their fulfillment, all my most daring wishes are +gratified now: yes, I am, I live among them. How it has happened so, I +cannot comprehend: sufficient for me, that it is so. Why should<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> I +raise a new wail over this enigma, ere my olden lamentations are +scarcely at an end?"</p> + +<p>"Is this life," asked the lady, "very different from your former one?"</p> + +<p>"My former life," said Lewis, "I can scarcely remember. But has, then, +this golden state of existence fallen to my lot? this beautiful state, +after which my every sense and prescience so ardently aspired; to +which every wish wandered, that I could conceive in fancy, or realise +in my inmost thought; though its image, veiled in mist, seemed ever +strange in me—and is it, then, mine at last? have I, then, achieved +this new existence, and does it hold me in its embrace? Oh, pardon me, +I know not what I say in my delirium of ecstacy, and might well weigh +my words more carefully in such an assemblage."</p> + +<p>The lady signed; and in a moment every minister was in motion: there +was a stirring among the trees, every where a running to and fro, and +speedily a banquet was placed before Lewis of fair fruits and fragrant +wines. He sat down again, and music rose anew on the air. Rows of +beautiful boys and girls sped round him, intertwined in the dance, +while uncouth little cobolds lent life to the scene, and excited loud +laughter by their ludicrous gambols. Lewis noted every sound and every +gesture: he seemed newly-born since his initiation into this joyous +existence. "Why," thought he, "are those hopes and reveries of ours so +often laughed at, that pass into fulfilment sooner than ever had been +expected? Where, then, is that border-mark between truth and error +which mortals are ever ready with such temerity to set up? Oh, I ought +in my former life to have wandered oftener from the way, and then +perhaps I should have ripened all the earlier for this happy +transmutation."</p> + +<p>The dance died away; the sun sank to rest; the august dames arose; +Lewis too left his seat, and accompanied them on their walk through +the quiet garden. The nightingales were complaining in a softened +tone, and a wondrous<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> moon rose above the horizon. The blossoms opened +to its silver radiance, and every leaf kindled in its gleam; the wide +avenues became of a glow, casting shadows of a singular green; red +clouds slumbered on the green grass of the fields; the fountains +turned to gold, and played high in the clear air of heaven.</p> + +<p>"Now you will wish to sleep," said the loveliest of the ladies, and +shewed the enraptured wanderer a shadowy bower, strewed with soft turf +and yielding cushions. Then they left him, and he was alone.</p> + +<p>He sat down and watched the magic twilight glimmering through the +thickly-woven foliage. "How strange is this!" said he to himself: +"perhaps I am now only asleep, and I may dream that I am sleeping a +second time, and may have a dream in my dream; and so it may go on for +ever, and no human power ever be able to awake me. No! unbeliever that +I am! it is beautiful reality that animates me now, and my former +state perhaps was but the dream of gloom." He lay down, and light +breezes played round him. Perfume was wafted on the air, and little +birds sang lulling songs. In his dreams he fancied the garden all +around him changed: the tall trees withered away; the golden moon +fallen from the sky, leaving a dismal gap behind her; instead of the +watery jet from the fountains, little genii gushed out, caracoling +over each in the air, and assuming the strangest attitudes. Notes of +woe supplanted the sweetness of song, and every trace of that happy +abode had vanished. Lewis awoke amid impressions of fear, and chid +himself for still feeding his fancy in the perverse manner of the +habitants of earth, who mingle all received images in rude disorder, +and present them again in this garb in a dream. A lovely morning broke +over the scene, and the ladies saluted him again. He spoke to them +more intrepidly, and was to-day more inclined to cheerfulness, as the +surrounding world had less power to astonish him. He contemplated the +garden and the palace, and fed upon the magnificence and the wonders +that he met there. Thus he<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> lived many days happily, in the belief +that his felicity was incapable of increase.</p> + +<p>But sometimes the crowing of a cock seemed to sound in the vicinity; +and then the whole edifice would tremble, and his companions turn +pale: this generally happened of an evening, and soon afterwards they +retired to rest. Then often there would come a thought of earth into +Lewis's soul; then he would often lean out of the windows of the +glittering palace to arrest and fix these fleeting remembrances, and +to get a glimpse of the high road again, which, as he thought, must +pass that way. In this sort of mood, he was one afternoon alone, +musing within himself why it was just as impossible for him then to +recall a distinct remembrance of the world, as formerly it had been to +feel a presage of this poetic place of sojourn,—when all at once a +post-horn seemed to sound in the distance, and the rattle of +carriage-wheels to make themselves heard. "How strangely," said he to +himself, "does a faint gleam, a slight reminiscence of earth, break +upon my delight—rendering me melancholy and dejected! Then, do I lack +anything here? Is my happiness still incomplete?"</p> + +<p>The beautiful women returned. "What do you wish for?" said they, in a +tone of concern; "you seem sad."</p> + +<p>"You will laugh," replied Lewis; "yet grant me one favour more. In +that other life I had a friend, whom I now but faintly remember: he is +ill, I think; restore him by your skill."</p> + +<p>"Your wish is already gratified," said they.</p> + +<p>"But," said Lewis, "vouchsafe me two questions."</p> + +<p>"Speak!"</p> + +<p>"Does no gleam of love fall on this wondrous world? Does no friendship +perambulate these bowers? I thought the morning blush of spring-love +would be eternal here, which in that other life is too prone to be +extinguished, and which men afterwards speak of as of a fable. To +confess to you the truth, I feel an unspeakable yearning after those +sensations."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[12]</span></p> + +<p>"Then you long for earth again?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never!" cried Lewis; "for in that cold earth I used to sigh for +friendship and for love, and they came not near me. The longing for +those feelings had to supply the place of those feelings themselves; +and for that reason I turned my aspirations hitherward, and hoped here +to find every thing in the most beautiful harmony."</p> + +<p>"Fool!" said the venerable woman: "so on earth you sighed for earth, +and knew not what you did in wishing to be here; you have overshot +your desires, and substituted phantasies for the sensations of +mortals."</p> + +<p>"Then who are ye?" cried Lewis, astounded.</p> + +<p>"We are the old fairies," said she, "of whom you surely must have +heard long ago. If you ardently long for earth, you will return +thither again. Our kingdom flourishes when mortals are shrouded in +night; but their day is <i>our</i> night. Our sway is of ancient date, and +will long endure. It abides invisibly among men—to your eye alone has +it been revealed."</p> + +<p>She turned away, and Lewis remembered that it was the same form which +had resistlessly dragged him after it in his youth, and of which he +felt a secret dread. He followed now also, crying, "No, I will not go +back to earth! I will stay here!" "So, then," said he to himself, "I +devined this lofty being even in my childhood! And so the solution of +many a riddle, which we are too idle to investigate, may be within +ourselves."</p> + +<p>He went on much further than usual, till the fairy garden was soon +left far behind him. He stood on a romantic mountain-range, where the +ivy clambered in wild tresses up the rocks; cliff was piled on cliff, +and awe and grandeur seemed to hold universal sway. Then there came a +wandering stranger to him, who accosted him kindly, and addressed him +thus:—"Glad I am, after all, to see you again."</p> + +<p>"I know you not," said Lewis.</p> + +<p>"That may well be," replied the other; "but once<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> you thought you knew +me well. I am your late sick friend."</p> + +<p>"Impossible! you are quite a stranger to me!"</p> + +<p>"Only," said the stranger, "because to-day you see me for the first +time in my true form: till now you only found in me a reflection of +yourself. You are right too in remaining here; for there is no love, +no friendship—not here, I mean, where all illusion vanishes."</p> + +<p>Lewis sat down and wept.</p> + +<p>"What ails you?" said the stranger.</p> + +<p>"That it is you—you who were the friend of my youth: is not that +mournful enough? Oh, come back with me to our dear, dear earth, where +we shall know each other once more under illusive forms—where there +exists the superstition of friendship! What am I doing here?"</p> + +<p>"What will that avail?" answered the stranger. "You will want to be +back again; earth is not bright enough for you: the flowers are too +small for you, the song too suppressed. Colour there, cannot emerge so +brilliantly from the shade; flowers there are of small comfort, and so +prone to fade; the little birds think of their death, and sing in +modest constraint: but here every thing is on a scale of grandeur."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I will be contented!" cried Lewis, as the tears gushed profusely +from his eyes. "Do but come back with me, and be my friend once more; +let us leave this desert, this glittering misery!"</p> + +<p>Thus saying, he opened his eyes, for some one was shaking him roughly. +Over him leant the friendly but pale face of his once sick friend. +"But are you dead?" cried Lewis.</p> + +<p>"Recovered am I, wicked sleeper," he replied. "Is it thus you visit +your sick friend? Come along with me; my carriage is waiting there, +and a thunder-storm is rising."</p> + +<p>Lewis rose: in his sleep he had glided off the trunk of the tree; his +friend's letter lay open beside him. "So<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> am I really on the earth +again?" he exclaimed with joy; "really? and is this no new dream?"</p> + +<p>"You will not escape from earth," answered his friend with a smile; +and both were locked in heart-felt embraces.</p> + +<p>"How happy I am," said Lewis, "that I have you once more, that I feel +as I used to do, and that you are well again!"</p> + +<p>"Suddenly," replied his friend, "I felt ill; and as suddenly I was +well again. So I wished to go to you, and do away with the alarm that +my letter must have caused you; and here, half-way, I find you +asleep."</p> + +<p>"I do not deserve your love at all," said Lewis.</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I just now doubted of your friendship."</p> + +<p>"But only in sleep."</p> + +<p>"It would be strange enough though," said Lewis, "if there really were +such things as fairies."</p> + +<p>"There are such, of a certainty," replied the other; "but it is all a +fable, that their whole pleasure is to make men happy. They plant +those wishes in our bosoms which we ourselves do not know of; those +over-wrought pretensions—that super-human covetousness of super-human +gifts; so that in our desponding delirium we afterwards despise the +beautiful earth with all its glorious stores."</p> + +<p>Lewis answered with a pressure of the hand.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_ELVES">THE ELVES.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i053-1.jpg" width="480" height="491" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i053-2l.jpg" width="155" height="50" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i053-2r.jpg" width="80" height="287" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i053-3l.jpg" width="71" height="237" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">W</span>HERE</b> is Maria, our child?" asked +the father.</p> + +<p>"She is playing on the green," replied the mother, "with our +neighbour's son."</p> + +<p>"Do not let them run away," said the father anxiously; "they are so +thoughtless."</p> + +<p>The mother attended to the wants of the little ones, and gave them +their supper.</p> + +<p>"The weather is hot, mother," said the boy; and the little maiden +longed exceedingly to have some red cherries.</p> + +<p>"Be careful, child," said the mother; "do not run too far from the +house, or into the wood; your father and I are going into the field."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do not be anxious on that account," was the<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> prompt reply of +young Andrew, "for we are all afraid of the wood; we will remain here +sitting at home, where we are near to the men."</p> + +<p>The mother went in, and soon returned with the father. They closed +their cottage, and turned towards the fields to look after the +peasants, and to see the hay-harvest in the meadows.</p> + +<p>Their dwelling was situated on a little green eminence, fenced round +by an ornamental hedge, which enclosed a fruit and flower garden; the +town lay a little lower down; and still further there rose in the +distance the towers of the baronial castle. Martin rented a large farm +of the lord, the proprietor, and lived in a happy state of contentment +with his wife and only child, as he was enabled, year by year, to lay +by something in reserve for the future, with the prospect of becoming +one day himself a man of property; for through his toil and industry +the land was fruitful, and the Count did not oppress him with undue +exactions.</p> + +<p>As he was walking towards the fields with his wife, he gazed joyously +around, and said, "How is it, Bridget, that the country about here is +so different from that in which we formerly lived? Here it is so green +and verdant; the whole town is beautified with thickly planted +fruit-trees; the soil teems with rich vegetation and shrubs; all the +houses are gay and cleanly—the inhabitants prosperous; indeed, it +would appear to me that the woods here are more majestic, and the sky +more blue; and as far as the eye can scan, we have pleasure in +beholding the bountiful earth."</p> + +<p>"But," said Brigitta, "to pass over to the other side of the river is +to migrate into quite another region, every thing there wears so +gloomy and withered an aspect; but as for our own hamlet, every +traveller confesses it to be the prettiest in the whole district."</p> + +<p>"Come, then, to the fir-plantation," answered her husband; "look back +and see how dark and dreary that spot seems in the distance, in the +midst of such a gay and<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> animated landscape; the dusky huts behind the +dark firs; those detached buildings fallen into ruinous heaps; and +even the very stream flowing onwards so sadly and sluggishly."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said she, as they both stood still to gaze upon the +scene. "As often as one approaches the spot, one becomes sad and +sorrowful, one knows not why."</p> + +<p>"Who can the people really be? and why should they keep themselves at +such a distance from all the neighbourhood, avoiding any intercourse +with us, as though they were inwardly conscious of deeds of darkness?"</p> + +<p>"They are poor folk," said the young farmer; "seemingly of a +gipsy-tribe, who rob and pilfer at a distance off, and make this spot +perhaps their head-quarters: I wonder only that the baron allows them +to remain."</p> + +<p>"Possibly," said the woman kindly and compassionately, "they are poor +people, ashamed of their poverty; for, to speak the truth, we cannot +lay any crime, or even any trivial injury, to their charge; still it +is remarkable that they never go to church; and how they contrive to +subsist is strange enough, for their little garden, in itself a +perfect wilderness, cannot support them, and they have no +pasture-land."</p> + +<p>"God only knows," continued Martin, as they proceeded on their +way—"God only knows what they do; this at least is certain, that they +hold no intercourse; no stranger ever comes from, or goes to them; for +the spot where they dwell is bewitched and under ban, so that the +boldest young townsmen would hardly venture into it."</p> + +<p>This conversation continued through their walk to the fields.</p> + +<p>That dark district of which they spoke lay beyond the town in a hollow +that was surrounded on all sides by firs; there appeared to be a hut, +and several domestic buildings fast falling to decay. Smoke was seldom +seen to curl from it, still less frequently were any human beings +visible; at times some persons, led on by curiosity to venture +somewhat<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> nearer, had seen on the rising ground in front of the hut +frightful old women, clad in uncouth rags, dandling equally frightful +and dirty children on their laps; black dogs prowled about continually +before the stream; and in the evening a monster of a man, whom no one +knew, passed over the bridge, and disappeared into the hut; then +several figures, like dim shadows, flitted along in the darkness, and +danced round about a fire which was heaped up on the earth: this +gloomy sport, the dark firs, and the ruinous huts, formed a most +singular contrast to the gay green landscape, the clear white houses +of the town, and the splendid new castle.</p> + +<p>The two children had eaten up all their fruit, and then began to run +races; and the little buoyant Maria outran, on each occasion, the +tardy Andrew.</p> + +<p>"That's no proof of your skill," he cried; "come, let us try a longer +distance, and then we'll see who shall be the conqueror."</p> + +<p>"As you please," said the little Maria; "only we must not run towards +the stream."</p> + +<p>"No," said Andrew; "but at the summit of that hill stands a large +pear-tree, about a quarter of a mile off. I will run to the left past +the fir-plantation, and you can go to the right through the fields; +and we shall not know, till we meet, which of us is the fastest +runner."</p> + +<p>"Good," said Maria, immediately starting off; "we shall not hinder +each other by going the same way, and our father says it is just the +same distance to the top of the hill, whether we go on this side, or +by the gipsy-huts."</p> + +<p>Andrew had already started off, and Maria, who ran towards the right, +saw him no more.</p> + +<p>"How very stupid he is!" said she to herself; "for if I could only +summon up courage enough to run over the bridge by the hut, and then +again out across the yard, I should certainly get there much sooner +than he will." She was already standing facing the stream and the +fir-hill.<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> "Shall I?—No, it's too terrible." A little white dog stood +on the other side, keeping up a loud and continued bark at her. In her +fright the little animal appeared a perfect monster, and she sprang +back trembling. "Oh dear," said she, "Andrew has by this time got such +a long distance before me, while I'm stopping here to consider." The +little dog still barked on; and as she looked at it more attentively, +it no longer struck her as being so terrible, but, on the contrary, +she was quite charmed with it. It had a red collar, to which was +affixed a tiny glittering bell; and as often as it raised its head and +shook it, while barking, the tinkling noise it produced was to her +ears most musical. "Oh, I'll venture," cried little Maria; "I'll run +as fast as I can, and I shall soon be on the other side; they surely +can't eat me entirely." With this the young courageous child sprang on +the bridge, and quickly passed the little dog, who immediately ceased +his barking to fawn upon her. And now she was standing on the dread +spot; and the black firs, that were thickly grouped together, shut out +from her view the home of her fathers, and the rest of the pretty +landscape. But how amazed was she at the spectacle before her!</p> + +<p>Around her was a most brilliant expanse of flower-garden, in which +roses, lilies, and tulips, intertwining with one another, shone in all +those gorgeous colours in which Nature loves to garb her bright +creations; blue and golden butterflies fluttered about from blossom to +blossom, glittering as the sunbeams danced upon their fairy livery; +birds, whose plumage borrowed the tints of the rainbow, and whose tiny +throats quivered again as each note swelled forth more delicious than +the last, hung on cages and on glittering perches; children in short +white garments, with golden hair hanging in luxuriant curls, and clear +blue eyes, sported about, some leading little pet-lambs, others +feeding the birds; some culled the fragrant flowers, and wove garlands +for one another; others were tasting the delicious fruits—pears, +large clusters of grapes, and red apricots:<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> no hut was visible, but a +large handsome mansion, with gates of brass and wood of exquisite +workmanship, towered on high in the middle of this paradise. Maria was +rivetted to the spot; indeed, the beauty of the garden and the +magnificence of the mansion had taken so firm a hold on her fancy, +that some moments elapsed ere she recovered her surprise even +partially. But, as it had ever been the study of her parents to enable +her to appear composed, whatever novelty might offer itself to her, +she approached fearlessly the nearest child, and with extended hand +wished it good day.</p> + +<p>"So you have come to see us then at last," said the little girl; "I +have often seen you dancing and sporting without there, but you were +afraid of our little dog."</p> + +<p>"Then you are not gipsies and strollers, as Andrew says you are. Ah, +truly, he's very stupid, and talks a great deal too much."</p> + +<p>"Only stop with us here," said her new friend; "you shall be so +happy."</p> + +<p>"But we are running for a wager, and—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'll get back to him very soon; take some of our fruit." Maria +tasted it, and it proved so delicious to her palate, that she declared +she had never before eaten any like it; and from this moment Andrew, +the race, and the prohibition of her parents, were altogether +forgotten. Then a more elderly female, whose dress was still more +beautiful than any thing Maria had hitherto seen, stepped forward, and +made inquiry about the stranger-child.</p> + +<p>"Most beautiful lady," said Maria, "I ran in here by accident, and now +they wish to keep me here."</p> + +<p>"You know, Zerina," said the beautiful lady, "that there is a short +time only allowed her; besides, you should first of all have asked my +permission."</p> + +<p>"I thought," said the child, "as she had been allowed to cross the +bridge, that I might keep her; we have often seen her running about in +the fields, and you have yourself<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> been pleased with her gay and +spirited air; and she will be obliged to leave us soon enough."</p> + +<p>"No, I will stay here," said Maria, "it is so charming here; and I +find the best things to play with here are strawberries and pears; it +is not half so fine outside."</p> + +<p>The golden-dressed lady now retired, smiling; and many of the children +playfully sported about Maria—laughing, and inviting her to join +their dance. Some brought her a pet-lamb or wonderful toys, others +brought novel instruments and played and sang to her; but she +preferred the little playfellow, her first friend, for she was the +most gentle and good-natured of all. The little Maria constantly cried +out, "I will always stop here, and you shall be my sisters;" at which +all the children smiled and embraced her.</p> + +<p>"Now then," said Zerina, "we shall have a fine game;" and running +hastily into the palace, she returned with a little golden basket, in +which were very fine glittering seeds. She took some in her delicate +little fingers, and strewed the grains upon the green turf; and +immediately they saw the grass heave and float about, as it were in +waves; and after a few moments, beautiful rose-trees sprang from the +ground, grew rapidly up, and suddenly burst themselves into their full +beauty, exhaling the sweetest odours that floated round them in the +air. Maria herself took some of the seed, and scattered it; and +immediately there sprang up at her feet white lilies and cloves of +every hue. At a motion of Zerina's, these flowers all disappeared, and +others still more beautiful sprang up in their place.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Zerina to the astonished child, "prepare yourself for +something still greater." She then placed two pine-cones in the +ground, and stamped on them violently with her feet: instantly two +green shrubs stood before them. "Grasp me firmly," said she; and Maria +threw her arms around her delicate waist, and felt herself rising up +into the air; for the trees grew beneath them with surprising +quickness. The tall pines swayed to and fro at<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> the will of the +breeze, and the two children, locked in each other's arms, kissed each +other, while floating backwards in the red clouds of evening. The +other little ones clambered up and down the stems of the trees with +elastic step, and if by chance one impeded the progress of another, +the whole number raised a loud shout of laughter. Maria at length grew +terrified; and at some mystic words uttered by the little one, the +trees sank again gently into the earth, setting them down in the spot +from which they had raised them up. They then went through the brazen +gate of the palace; here many women, some younger, some older, all of +that degree of beauty that no pencil could portray, were seated round +a circular hall, feasting on the most delicious fruits, and listening +to a concert of most delightful and invisible harmony.</p> + +<p>Round the ceiling of the hall, which was studded with gold and gems, +representing the starry sphere, were palm-trees, plants, and shrubs, +between which children clambered and sported in most graceful groups. +The figures varied and glowed in more burning colours, according to +the tones of the music. At one time, green and blue, sparkling like +clear rays of light, prevailed. Then the colours paled away, and +purple and gold burst forth: then the naked children, amid the +fanciful clusters that the different flowers wove, seemed to be full +of life, and to inhale and exhale breath with their ruby-red lips, so +that their beautiful white teeth were visible, and the bright glances +of their clear blue eyes were seen from beneath their dark fringe. +From the hall, some steps of marble and jasper led into a large +subterraneous chamber. The floor of this room was covered with vast +heaps of gold and silver; diamonds, pearls, and gems of all colours +dazzled the eyes; large deep vessels stood around the walls, all +filled with precious stones, and gold wrought into curious devices, +and mystic characters, with such ingenuity as no artisan, however +skilful, could form. Many little dwarfs were occupied in sorting the +precious heaps, and in filling<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> vessels with the riches; others, with +crooked legs and long red noses, dragged in heavy sacks, as millers +carry their corn, and bending forward, poured out the grains on the +earth: then they jumped to the right and left, and seized the +treasures as they rolled away; and it often happened, that through +their zeal and eagerness to recover them, they rolled one against the +other and fell heavily on the ground. They made frightful faces +whenever Maria laughed at their grotesque manner and hideous +deformity. Behind sat a little old man, wrinkled by age, whom Maria +saluted very respectfully, but he merely bent his head in answer to +her deferential salutation: he had a sceptre in his right hand, and a +crown encircled his brow; all the other dwarfs seemed to look up to +him as their chief and superior; his fiat was instantly obeyed, though +his commands were given by signs and motions.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter now?" said he in a surly tone, as the children +approached nearer to him. The timid Maria kept silence, but her little +playfellow answered, that they had only come to see the chamber.</p> + +<p>"What," said the old man peevishly, "will there always be these +childish freaks? is there never to be an end to this idling?" He then +turned his attention again to his work, and ordered the pieces of gold +to be weighed and collected together. Some of the dwarfs he despatched +in different directions; many, too, he scolded right heartily.</p> + +<p>At length Maria's curiosity got the better of her fear, and in an +eager manner she said to her little friend, "Who is that old man?"</p> + +<p>"Our metal-prince," said the little one, as they left the chamber.</p> + +<p>They soon found themselves in the open air, by the side of a large +lake; still no sun had appeared hitherto, nor could they see any sky +above them. Here a little boat received them, and Zerina took the helm +and steered their course very skilfully. They floated rapidly down the +lake, and when they had arrived at about the middle, Maria saw<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> that a +thousand canals, streams, and rivulets, branched off in every +direction from this miniature sea.</p> + +<p>"These waters," said the bright-beaming child, "flow exactly under +your garden, irrigating the soil around; and hence it is that your +flowers bloom more beautifully and more fragrantly than others, and +that your fruits are so superior in flavour; from this stream we +launch into the great canal." On a sudden there rose to the surface +from every branch of these blue waters a countless number of beautiful +children, swimming and plunging up and down among the mimic waves; +many wore graceful coronets of flags and water-lilies, glittering as +though with gems from the drops of spray; others waved branches of red +and white coral; others again carried curious horns, tastefully +decorated with blue ribbons; then several beautiful women rose to the +surface, swimming about among the group of younger naiads, and at +times the children might be seen hanging on the necks of the women, +covering them with kisses. They all saluted the stranger party; and +through the midst of this grouped assemblage the little barque floated +on from the main stream into a smaller rivulet, which became gradually +narrower and narrower, and at the same time the depth of water +diminished till the little boat grounded on the shore. Here the group +of naiads, who had accompanied their tiny vessel, took leave of them; +and Zerina knocked against the rock, which immediately opened like a +magnificent doorway to admit them, and a female figure, of a glowing +red colour, assisted them to disembark.</p> + +<p>"Is all going on merrily?" inquired Zerina.</p> + +<p>"Ay, merrily indeed," replied the other; "you are ever on the wing; no +cloud of sorrow ever darkens your brow, but the sunshine of happiness +always lights up those features of yours, curling that lip with a +smile of joy."</p> + +<p>They mounted a winding staircase, and Maria suddenly found herself in +a most glittering hall, so that on entering, her eyes were dazzled +with the brilliant lights that burst<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> in their full splendour upon +her. Deep-red tapestry covered the walls with a brilliant glow; and as +soon as her eye was familiar with the unusual halo that invested the +whole chamber, she perceived figures moving gracefully up and down in +the tapestry, of such exquisite beauty and delicate symmetry of form, +that her imagination could not paint any thing more lovely. Their +bodies appeared to be formed of crystal of a reddish tint, and so +transparent, that one might see the life-blood circulating in their +veins. They smiled at the stranger-child, and bowed courteously: but +when the little Maria wished to approach nearer, Zerina held her back +forcibly, exclaiming, "You will burn yourself, little Maria; what you +are gazing upon is all fire."</p> + +<p>Maria perceived the heat, and said to Zerina, "Why don't these +charming creatures come out and play with us?"</p> + +<p>"It is impossible," answered Zerina; "as you live in air, so they live +in fire; if you were to be taken out of your peculiar element, you +would languish and droop; in the same manner, if you were to transport +them into your element, they would perish."</p> + +<p>"Only look," said Maria, "how happy and joyous they seem; listen how +they shout and sing."</p> + +<p>"Below," said her little friend, "the fire-streams spread in every +direction throughout the whole earth, imparting heat to the +vegetation, and ripening the seed, till it shoots upward into a +fruitful plant: hence you have your flowers and fruits. These +fire-streams go side by side with the water-streams; and to their +mutual agency you owe all the herbage of your pasture-land, all the +beauties of your flower-garden, all the luscious produce of your +orchards: they are your great benefactors: without them your present +fruitful land would be a desolate wilderness; your flower-gardens +overrun with noxious weeds, and your orchard-trees blighted and dying +away. In consequence of such benefits resulting from them, they are +ever active, ever<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> happy. But this heat is too great for a child of +air; come, let us return to the garden."</p> + +<p>There had been a great change in the atmosphere; the moonshine lay on +all the flowers, the birds were hushed, and the children were +slumbering on the greensward.</p> + +<p>"Happy, holy calmness," thought Maria; "Peace has certainly chosen her +retreat in these lovely regions; Contentment is linked with her; and +wherever they roam hand in hand, all is joy, all is tranquillity."</p> + +<p>But did Maria slumber? No; she and her little friend felt no +weariness; they roamed through the live-long summer night amid the +groves and sylvan avenues, prattling in youthful eloquence on the +wondrous spectacles that were before them. At day-break they refreshed +themselves with fruits and milk; and Maria said to her little +companion, "Let us go out to the fir-trees yonder; it will be a change +for us."</p> + +<p>"With all my heart," said Zerina; "then you can see our sentries at +the same time, and they will be sure to please you. They take their +stand upon the rampart between the trees."</p> + +<p>They walked on through the flower-garden, through beautiful thickets +peopled with nightingales; then they mounted the vine-hills, and +following the course of a clear crystal stream in its winding channel, +they arrived at the firs, and the high ground that formed the boundary +of the district.</p> + +<p>"How is it," said Maria, "that we have had such a long walk to reach +the firs here within, when the circuit on the outside is so small?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot say how it is," said the other; "but so it is."</p> + +<p>They ascended the hill to the dark firs, and the cold breeze blew upon +them from without. A dark cloud, extending far across the horizon, +seemed to hang over the whole district; and above them stood wondrous +forms with whitened faces, not unlike the hideous heads of the white<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +owl, and clad in folding mantles of coarse and shaggy wool, fanning +themselves from time to time with bats' wings.</p> + +<p>"How I long to laugh!" said Maria; "but yet I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"Those," said Zerina, "are our careful watchmen; they stand here in +order to strike awe and consternation into any that may venture to +approach, and to deter any curious folks from getting an insight into +our regions. You see they are wrapped up closely, and protected from +the weather; that is because it is raining and freezing without; but +neither snow, nor wind, nor hail, can penetrate here within: here is +eternal spring—here the bright garb of summer never fades. Our +sentinels are very devoted to us; so that, although they are seldom +relieved, yet they willingly keep watch at their posts."</p> + +<p>"But who are you?" at length asked Maria; "have you any names by which +we may call you?"</p> + +<p>"We are called Elves," said her little friend; "they speak well of us +too in the world, as I understand."</p> + +<p>On retracing their way into the flower-garden they heard a great shout +in the meadows, which grew louder as they approached nearer to the +spot.</p> + +<p>"A large beautiful bird has arrived," shouted the children, as they +followed the flight of the majestic creature, as it sailed through the +air: all pushed on hastily in its track, and Maria and her young +friend could see young and old all pressing forward to the spot with +hasty steps: songs of rejoicing were heard on every side, and a sweet +strain of triumphal music from within came floating through the air to +them. They entered the hall, and saw the whole circuit filled with the +elfin-tribe, all gazing up at a vast bird of beautiful plumage, which +was describing slowly many revolutions around the dome of the +building. The music burst forth more gaily than ever, and the colours +and lights in the ceiling revolved more rapidly, and shot forth again +in brighter colours and more fantastic groups. At length the music +died away softly, and the majestic bird<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> fluttered down upon a +splendid throne, suspended mid-way from the ceiling, beneath the +window which lighted the apartment from above. His plumage was a +mixture of purple and green, through which the most brilliant golden +streaks were to be seen; on his head was a clear, shining coronet of +feathers, glittering as though it were studded with precious stones; +his beak was of a deep red tint, and his legs of bright blue. When he +rose again into the air, all the colours blended together so uniquely +that the eye was perfectly enraptured with the gorgeous galaxy of +magnificence which it presented. But soon he opened his brilliant +beak, and warbled sweet melody more delicious than that of the +nightingale: his song swelled forth and grew more powerful, gushing +out like lovely rays of light, till the whole assembly shed tears of +delight.</p> + +<p>When he had ceased his song, all present bowed low before him; again +he flew around the cupola in circles, and sailing swiftly through the +entrance, soared again up to the blue sky, where he was soon lost to +the eye, appearing for a time a mere bright speck upon the horizon.</p> + +<p>"Why are you all so glad?" asked Maria, bending down to the beautiful +child, who appeared to her smaller than the day before.</p> + +<p>"The king is coming," answered the child; "many of us have never yet +seen him; and wherever he goes, thither happiness and prosperity +follow him. We have been eagerly longing for his presence for some +time past, and looking forward to his coming as anxiously as you +children of air look forward to spring and spring-flowers after a +tedious winter. And now he has announced to us his approach through +that beautiful and intelligent messenger, the Phœnix. He dwells +afar off in Arabia, and there only appears one of the species at the +same time in the world: when he grows old, he builds himself a nest of +balm and incense, and, setting it on fire, burns to death, singing at +the same time as beautifully as you have heard him to-day; then from +the odoriferous ashes he rises again into a new<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> existence, and soars +aloft with fresh vigour and beauty. But now, dear little Maria, you +must go; the period of your stay with us has expired: when the king +comes, no stranger must dwell with us, nor even see him once."</p> + +<p>"But he will soon leave you again," said Maria fondly, "and then I +will return to you, and never quit you."</p> + +<p>"It cannot be," answered her friend; "the king will stay here twenty +years, or even longer; but he will make every thing change for you for +the better: there will be no storms to harm your crops, no hail to +destroy the early blossoms of your fruit-trees, no floods to overflow +your pasture-land."</p> + +<p>Here the golden-dressed lady stepped up to Maria.</p> + +<p>"You must indeed go," she said; "though we must all be sorry that the +time for your visit has elapsed. Take this ring, and wear it always in +remembrance of your elfin friends; but remember, when you quit this +spot, never to mention to any living soul the place where you have +been staying—never to reveal aught of the wonders you have been +permitted to see here. Should you ever be tempted to disclose this +great secret, beware of the evil results that must ensue—they will +fall heavily upon you, as well as upon us: we shall be obliged to quit +the spot for ever, and your fruitful fields will be transformed to a +desolate wilderness. Come, kiss your little playfellow once more, and +then farewell. Remember my last caution."</p> + +<p>Maria bade them a sad farewell, and retraced her steps to her own +home. As she was crossing the bridge, the little white dog barked at +her again, as he had done when she first approached, and shook his +little bell. She crossed over, and began for the first time to think +of her parents, and the happy home she had deserted through her +disobedience. She pictured to herself the anguish of a loving mother, +the silent though deep sorrow of her father, the alarm of the whole +hamlet, as soon as the news of her disappearance was noised abroad. +She then thought of Andrew's glee when he reached the winning-post, +and how<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> his eager eye was turned in the direction that she had agreed +to come by, expecting to see her downcast look. She then called to +mind the caution she had received not to make the communication known, +for fear of the evil results: "however," said she, "if I were to tell +them, and insist upon the truth of my statement, I should find no one +to credit my story." As she was indulging in her reveries, two men +passed her and saluted her.</p> + +<p>"What a pretty girl!" said they, "where can such a beautiful creature +have come from?"</p> + +<p>She quickened her pace; but on looking round her she was struck with +amazement: the flowers that she had left yesterday so lovely and +fragrant were dead, and their sweet odour was gone; the trees, +yesterday so verdant, were now leafless and withered; new buildings +had sprung up around her—indeed it would seem that some mystic agency +had been at work on the spot—that the spirit of enchantment had +passed over the district, and wrought a change indeed.</p> + +<p>"Then it must all be a dream," said Maria, rubbing her eyes as though +wakening up from a deep slumber; "it must all be a dream; and the +strange and wonderful sights I have seen must be the effects of +fancy.—No, it certainly is reality, and I am standing near the bridge +where our house stood yesterday."</p> + +<p>She proceeded on to her home, perfectly bewildered by the change that +a day had wrought; and, with a feeling of embarrassment that can be +more naturally conceived than portrayed, she opened the door, and saw +her father sitting behind a table, at which were seated a lady and a +youth, both of whom Maria fancied she had never seen before.</p> + +<p>"Father, dear father," cried Maria, gazing round her with a look of +deep amazement, "say, where is my mother?"</p> + +<p>The lady immediately rose from her seat, and, rushing towards her, +looked at her with an earnestness of feeling that itself would have +told the grand secret, that it was no<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> other than her mother, and +exclaimed, "Yes, you are,—no;" and then she seemed for a minute to +distrust her powers of recollection,—"yes, you are our dear, lost +Maria;" and the mother and daughter were instantly clasped in each +other's arms.</p> + +<p>Still Maria scarcely seemed to credit her senses.—"How," said she to +herself, "can one single day have produced this change?—not only are +the buildings altered, and the general appearance of the country, but +my mother also wears a more aged appearance: can this be the effect of +one little day?"</p> + +<p>"Who, then, is that young man?" she inquired of her mother, who was by +this time fully satisfied of her daughter's identity.</p> + +<p>"That," replied Martin, "is your old playfellow Andrew; you surely +have not entirely forgotten him; though certainly a lapse of seven +years must have made some little change in all of us. Seven years have +now passed away since you disappeared so suddenly; and so many +continued years of sorrow and anxiety rarely, I trust, fall to the lot +of any mortals. Where have you been this long time? Why did we not +hear of you?—for, although we all rejoice exceedingly to receive you +again, still you must satisfy us with the cause of your disappearance, +and with an account of what has befallen you in your separation from +us."</p> + +<p>"Seven years!" exclaimed Maria; "seven years do you say have passed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Andrew, "it is so indeed. I arrived first at the +pear-tree, and that was seven years ago; and as you have only this +moment returned, I think I can claim the prize as victor."</p> + +<p>"You remember," said her father, "our leaving you with Andrew, while +we went into the harvest-field: on our return you were missing. Andrew +told us the story of the race, and that he saw no more of you after +the start. We searched diligently for you, and everybody through the +hamlet offered their assistance to endeavour to discover<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> you. But our +attempts were fruitless, and we returned to our home broken-hearted, +having lost all we prized on earth, our only child. But tell us, how +did you contrive to lose yourself?—we thought you were so well +acquainted with the whole district as to render it a matter of +impossibility. Where have you been? how have you been living?"</p> + +<p>These questions embarrassed the poor Maria in no slight degree: for +how could she tell of the wondrous elves—of her dear little +playfellow Zerina—of the gold and precious stones, the lovely fruits, +the variegated flower-beds, the streams of gentle water, the children +sporting in the rivulets? How could she describe the crystal +fire-beings—the beautifully-feathered phœnix, the palace of the +elf-king, with its brazen-wrought gates, and its highly decorated +ceilings? How could she trace to their imaginations the hideous form +of the metal-prince, and the strange figures of the sentinels on the +rampart? But even if she had been able to depict all the spectacles +she had witnessed in their proper colours, would such a strange story +have appeared credible, or even plausible? But she had not forgotten +the last parting admonition of the golden lady—no, it was still +ringing in her ears—"tell not aught of the things you have seen or +heard; evil results will happen to you and us:" and then the smiling +features of her little elfin friend were visible to her mind's +eye,—and could she harm so dear a head? No, it was not in her +disposition to injure any one, even should it not be likely to draw +down danger upon herself.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been?" again asked Martin.</p> + +<p>"As soon as I started off in the race," said Maria, "I was snatched +up, and carried off to a distance. I did not know the country," she +continued, "and could not get any communication to you: I seized the +first opportunity to make my escape, and have once more reached you."</p> + +<p>However strange and incredible this may have appeared, as it certainly +did, to her parents, still they were so happy to receive their lost +child, and to heap blessings<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> on her head for cherishing such feelings +of love and affection towards them during her long absence, that they +forgot the mystery that seemed to invest her statement, in the joy +they experienced in having her again beneath the roof of her fathers. +He who can appreciate the joy with which a parent clasps to her bosom +a long-lost child, can readily pardon the seeming indifference as to +the cause of her separation. Andrew remained the whole evening, and +shared their frugal supper. But how great was the change to poor +Maria! Where were the chambers glittering with gold and gems? where +the costly tapestries? where the sweet odours floating about in the +air? where the strains of divine harmony that were wafted to her ears +but yesterday by every breeze? They were no longer—they lived but in +her memory. And she gazed with a dissatisfied air at the meanness of +her father's dwelling; and thought how gloomy it was after the +brightness of the palace; and, indulging her fancy, she dreamt of +Zerina and the little elves, and gladly availed herself of an +opportunity to seek her chamber for the night, where she might dwell +upon the strange events of one day apparently—of seven years in +reality.</p> + +<p>Andrew returned on the following morning, seemingly anxious to spend +as much time as possible in the society of his first playfellow, +Maria. The news of her return spread rapidly through the hamlet, and +many were the hearty congratulations poured forth, mingled with +blessings, on her youthful head. It at length reached the ears of the +noble proprietor of the castle, who sent for her, and listened to her +statement with no little surprise and wonder: they were struck with +her vivacity of spirit, tempered with unassuming modesty, and with her +plain unvarnished tale;—so well hitherto had she concealed in her own +bosom any feeling that might have thrown a shade of suspicion on her +story, and brought to light the awful secret of which she was +possessed. It was now the month of February; but the whole country +wore that rich appearance<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> which a more matured season of the year +induces: the trees were clad in their brilliant green livery; the +nightingale's notes were already to be heard in the woods; and never +had such an early or so lovely a spring gladdened the earth before in +the recollection of the most aged villager. The hills seemed to +increase in size; the vines planted on them shot forth more numerous +tendrils, and the thick clusters, that promised an abundant vintage, +were already peeping forth among the leaves; the fruit-trees were +covered with blossoms, and there had been no hail to crush the produce +in the bud, no blight to destroy the hopes of the farmer at a more +advanced season. The following year wore the same happy appearance; +the harvest was still more abundant than before, and at the conclusion +of their toil Maria assented to the wishes of her parents and crowned +their joy by becoming Andrew's bride. Still she would often dwell upon +the happy days that were passed behind the fir-trees, till she grew +silent and serious, but more beautiful each succeeding day. It pained +her too, as often as Andrew talked of the gipsies and vagabonds, and +prayed that the Baron might some day purge his estate of such +worthless characters, as he styled them. On such occasions the +temptation of defending her benefactors was great indeed; but whenever +Andrew mentioned the subject she was more silent than before, in +consequence of her knowledge of the result of such a communication. +Thus matters went on steadily for a year, at the end of which time +they were blessed with a daughter, whom Maria named Elfrida—the name +doubtless having reference to those kind beings whose home she had +once shared, and who were at that time the secret agents in working +the grand changes that had taken place.</p> + +<p>Elfrida was a very intelligent child from her birth, and ran about +alone and prattled ere a twelvemonth had passed over her head. As she +grew older, her singular beauty was the remark of every one, and her +quick perception astonished them: she did not associate with other +children, but<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> seemed to shun their sports, and avoid their company, +retiring frequently into an arbour or some secret spot, and passing +the hours in reading or working, and indulging her love of solitude. +Old Martin rejoiced to see the bloom of health on the cheek of his +grandchild, and to trace the rapid development of her intellect; but +Brigitta was constantly saying, "That child will not see many +years—she is too good, too beautiful for earth; she will smile on us +here for a time, but she will soon be carried off to a happier home +than we can give her." The child was never in need of any +assistance—she rose with the lark, and was off immediately to her +chosen retreat: but on one occasion, when they were going to the +castle, Maria insisted on dressing her child, who resisted her with +prayers and tears, begging and entreating that her mother would leave +her. Maria persevered, and on stripping her discovered a singular +piece of gold, corresponding exactly to the treasures which she had +seen in the elves' chambers, fastened to her bosom by a silken thread. +The child, terrified at the discovery, declared that she knew not how +she had come by it, but at the same time prayed that her mother would +not remove it, but allow her still to keep the treasure. At the +child's earnest entreaty Maria replaced it by its thread, and took her +to the castle; but it made a deep impression on her heart, and she was +from that moment full of thought.</p> + +<p>By the side of old Martin's house were some detached buildings, +erected as storehouses for fruits and corn; behind them was a +grass-plat, where stood an old arbour, which no one was in the habit +of visiting, in consequence of its distance from the new +dwelling-house. This was the favourite retreat of Elfrida, and no one +disturbed her, even though she were to spend the greater part of the +day there in solitude. One afternoon Maria went to the arbour to find +an article she had mislaid, and observed a bright stream of light +issuing through a chink in the wall: she hastily removed a few loose +stones, and, peeping in, saw Elfrida<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> seated on a little rustic bench, +and by her side Zerina, sporting with her. The elf embraced the child, +and said, "Ah, my dear little thing, I played with your mother once as +I do with you, when she visited us: you are growing so fast, and +becoming so rational—'tis a sad pity."</p> + +<p>"How I wish," said Elfrida, "how I wish I could remain a child all my +life, to please you!"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Zerina, "it is with you as with the blossoms of the trees: +how beautiful the bloom is! but ere you have had time to admire the +bud, the warm sun shoots down on it, the blossom bursts and comes to +its full maturity."</p> + +<p>"How I wish I could see you in your home, if it were only once!" said +the child.</p> + +<p>"That is impossible," said Zerina; "since our king has come, no child +of earth can visit us: but I can come often to you—no one knows it, +either here or there; I fly to and fro like a bird; so that we can be +happy with one another as long as we live."</p> + +<p>"What can I do to please you, dear Zerina?" said the child.</p> + +<p>"Let us make a crown again," answered Zerina, taking a golden box from +her bosom. She shook two grains upon the earth, and there arose a +greenish bush with two red roses, which bent towards each other, and +seemed to kiss. They plucked the two roses, and the bush sank again +into the earth.</p> + +<p>"I wish my rose would not die so soon," said the child.</p> + +<p>"Give it to me," said the elf; and breathing on it she kissed it three +times, and gave it back to the child, and said, "now it will live till +the winter."</p> + +<p>"How sweet!" said Elfrida; "I'll set it up in my room like a picture, +and kiss it morning and evening."</p> + +<p>"Now, dear Elfrida, I must leave you," said Zerina; "the sun is going +down, and my time has passed;" and she disappeared from the arbour, +and soon regained her fairy home.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[23]</span></p> + +<p>From this moment Maria looked with a certain degree of awe and +reverence upon her child, and let her roam at her will even more than +she had done before—soothing and quieting her husband whenever he +wished to go in search of the little fugitive. Maria frequently crept +to the hole, and always discovered the elf there playing or chattering +with the child.</p> + +<p>"Should you like to be able to fly?" asked the elf one day of her +little friend.</p> + +<p>"Willingly," replied Elfrida.</p> + +<p>Zerina embraced her, and they floated up together from the earth to +the top of the arbour. The mother, in her anxiety for her darling +child, leant forward from her hiding-place to look for them, when +Zerina perceived her, and, holding up her finger in a threatening +manner, she smiled sweetly on her, and brought down the child to earth +again, and disappeared.</p> + +<p>Maria was in the habit of shaking her head kindly at her husband in +their disputes concerning the occupants of the district behind the +fir-plantations: on one occasion she said, "You are unjust in your +ideas of them;" but when pressed by her husband for an explanation, +she was silent. Scarce a day passed without a serious conversation +between them on the same subject; and on another occasion Andrew was +more than usually enraged against them, and said, "The Baron ought to +expel them; they are injurious to the hamlet."</p> + +<p>"Silence!" cried Maria, "they are benefactors, and no vagabonds!" and, +binding him by a promise never to divulge aught of what she was about +to mention, she related to him the story of her youth, with all the +particulars of the elfin regions. As he continued incredulous, she led +him to the arbour, where he saw the elf caressing his child. On his +approach Zerina grew pale, and trembled exceedingly, and lifted her +finger in a threatening manner at Maria, no longer smiling as before. +"It is not your fault," said she to the child, "but I must leave you +for ever;" and<span class="pagenum">[24]</span> embracing Elfrida, she flew in the form of a raven, +with most discordant shrieks, towards the fir-plantation.</p> + +<p>The little child silently kissed her rose, and wept incessantly; +Andrew spoke little. At length night came on: the trees moaned as the +blast swept by, the owls whooped mournfully, the thunder boomed along +the sky, and the earth rocked violently. Maria and Andrew lay +trembling with fear, and endeavouring to shut out all the fury of the +storm, and the roar of the thunder from their thoughts. How eagerly +did they long for the morning! At length day dawned, and the sun shone +forth again. Andrew dressed himself hastily, and, opening his door, +looked forth on the scene around him. What a change was there!—the +prospect could not even be recognised; the verdant freshness of the +wood was gone, the hill had sunk into the ground, the stream wound +slowly on, with scarce a sufficient depth of water to cover its +channel; the sky wore a grey gloomy hue, and the fir-trees, that had +ever been so unusually dark, wore the same appearance as the rest of +the vegetation. Maria looked at her ring, the gift of the elf, and saw +that the stone was of a strange palish colour, having lost all its +fire and brilliancy.</p> + +<p>The villagers, in different groups, were discussing the events of the +singular night; some had passed over the heath by the gipsy-huts early +in the morning, and found no trace of living creature. The huts were +certainly still standing, but they were tenantless; and the whole spot +was so entirely changed that there was no feature in it to distinguish +it from the hamlet in which they themselves dwelt. In the course of +the day Elfrida sought a conference with her mother, and said, "I was +so restless last night, dear mother, I could not close my eyes; and, +being terrified by the storm, I prayed fervently for safety during the +many dark hours that still remained before morning dawned; and in the +midst of my prayers the door opened suddenly, and my little playfellow +entered to take leave of me. She was equipped as though for a long +journey, and<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> had a pilgrim's staff. She was angry, dear mother, very +angry with you; for she has undergone severe and painful punishments +on your account, and that too when she was so fond of you: and even +amid all this trouble, resulting from your want of prudence, she says +she is sorry to leave the district on your account." Maria begged her +to conceal the whole matter from her father, and to mention it to none +of the villagers.</p> + +<p>Meantime the ferry-man, who plied on the stream near which their +gardens were situated, came, with terror depicted on his face, to tell +the strange things he had seen and heard. "At twilight," said he, "a +man of gigantic stature called to hire the ferry till sunrise this +morning, on one condition, that I would promise to keep myself within +doors, and not venture to peep forth to see what was being done. I was +afraid that some trick was to be played off; and although I retired to +rest, I could not sleep for thinking on the strange bargain. I crept +silently to the window, and looked forth; the dark dusky clouds chased +one another restlessly through the expanse of sky; the distant woods +moaned heavily, strange noises floated in the air, and the cottage +shook from its very foundations. Suddenly I saw a white stream of +light, brightening ever and anon, like many thousand twinkling stars; +it floated on from the direction of the firs, waving to and fro over +the fields, and spreading towards the stream. I heard a tramping of +footsteps, and a buzzing, rustling noise, which grew by degrees more +and more distinct: then I saw many thousand glittering figures—men, +women, and children—pass on to the ferry-boat and embark, and the +gigantic man ferried them across; many beautiful creatures swam over +by the boat, and lively clouds of white and blue floated over their +heads; melancholy music was wafted by the breeze around me, and the +sounds of lamentation, as though of colonies parting for a distant +country from their father-land: the stroke of the oar fell heavily on +my ear, and then all again was silence for a while. Then the boat<span class="pagenum">[26]</span> +returned, and was laden anew: many hideous dwarfs rolled along heavy +vessels; but whether they were demons of earth or not, I cannot say. +Then there came a brilliant and stately procession, in the midst of +which appeared an aged man, on a small white horse, the head of which +was adorned by precious stones of every colour. The old man's head was +surrounded by a coronet, which shone so vividly, that, as he passed, +methought the sun was rising, and that the beams of early day were +piercing through the mists of midnight. This procession lasted during +the whole night, till at length, worn out with fatigue, I fell into a +deep slumber. In the morning all seemed quiet; but when I rose to look +after my ferry-boat, I observed that the stream was almost dry, and +the water so low, that I must altogether remove my ferry."</p> + +<p>This was the strange recital on the part of the ferry-man, who had +been an eye-witness of the wondrous spectacle. In the same year a +dreadful famine prevailed through the whole district; the corn was +blighted; the fruit-trees withered away; the foliage of the woods +became of a sickly yellow colour; the springs dried up; and soon that +pretty hamlet, which had been for years the delight of the traveller, +was nothing more than a barren desert, naked and sterile; a vast +expanse of sand, with here and there a tuft of grass, and even that +discoloured and dying. The vines, that were formerly the pride of the +district, afforded no more rich clusters; and the whole spot wore so +melancholy and gloomy an aspect, that in the following year the Count +and his family removed from the once magnificent castle, which soon +afterwards fell to ruins.</p> + +<p>Elfrida gazed fondly at the rose day and night, and kissed it, +dreaming of her dear little playfellow; and as the flower drooped and +faded, so did her little head droop; and ere the balmy breezes of +spring returned with their freshness, she was gone. Maria would often +stand before the door of the cottage, weeping for her lost child, and<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> +dreaming of that happiness once her own, never again to return. On her +fell all the misery that was predicted by the golden lady, if she +should ever divulge aught of the elves or their fairy regions: she +bowed her head to the stroke, and like her child faded slowly away, +and followed her to the grave. The broken-hearted parents could no +longer dwell in the spot, embittered as it was by the recollection of +former days of happiness, and the prospect of heaviness and gloom for +the future; and since the link that bound them to all that was dear +had been rudely snapt asunder, old Martin, Brigitta, and Andrew, +quitted the spot, and retired to a district where the old man had +passed his first happy days.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i079.jpg" width="150" height="80" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_WHITE_EGBERT">THE WHITE EGBERT.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i081-1.jpg" width="480" height="389" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i081-2l.jpg" width="190" height="88" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i081-2r.jpg" width="61" height="281" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i081-3l.jpg" width="112" height="277" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">H</span>IGH</b> up in the Hartz Mountains there +lived in a castle a knight who +was known by the name of the White Egbert. He was about forty years +old, rather below the middle height; and he obtained his name from the +quantity of short, smooth, white hair which covered his pale haggard +cheeks. He lived a peaceable retired life, never involved in feuds +with his neighbours; indeed, he was seldom seen beyond the walls of +his small castle. His wife loved quiet as much as he; they were +passionately attached to each other; and their only cause of sorrow +was that Heaven had not blessed their union with children.</p> + +<p>It was seldom that a guest was seen at the castle; and if ever +such an event did happen, it never was allowed to interfere with +their ordinary way of going<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> on. No advance was made upon the +frugality—almost meanness—with which the establishment was +conducted; the only difference being that at such times Egbert assumed +an air of lightness and gaiety, whereas when alone he was observed to +be reserved and melancholy.</p> + +<p>His most frequent visitor was Philip Walters; a man to whom Egbert had +attached himself, because he observed in him, on the whole, a general +resemblance to himself in his ways of thinking. This person was a +native of France, and spent the greater part of his time there; but he +was often for more than six months together in the mountains in the +neighbourhood of Egbert's castle, looking for grasses and minerals, of +which he was a collector. He had a small property of his own, and was +independent of every one. Egbert often accompanied him on these +expeditions, and every year a closer attachment formed itself between +them.</p> + +<p>There are hours in every man's life in which, if he has a secret from +his friend, he becomes suddenly in labour with it, and what before he +may have taken the greatest pains to conceal, he now feels an +irresistible impulse to throw out of himself—to lay bare the whole +burden of his heart, that it may form a new link to bind his friend to +him. Friendship ebbs and flows, and is subject to singular influences. +There are moments of violent repulsion; there are others when every +barrier is dissolved, and spirits flow together and mingle into one.</p> + +<p>On a dark cloudy evening, one day late in autumn, Egbert was sitting +with his friend and his wife Bertha round the fire in the castle-hall. +The flame flung a bright ruddy glow along the walls, and played and +flickered in the deep oak roof. The night looked in gloomily through +the windows, and the trees outside shook with the wet and the cold. +Walters complained of the distance he had to go to his house, and +Egbert pressed him to stay and spend half the night talking over the +fire, and then accept a room in the castle till next morning. Walters +agreed to do so;<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> wine and supper were brought in; fresh logs of wood +were thrown upon the fire; and the friends' conversation became more +and more easy and confidential.</p> + +<p>When the things were taken away, and the servants had retired, Egbert +took Walters' hand, and said, "My dear friend, you must let my wife +Bertha tell you the history of her younger days; it is a very strange +one, and well worth your hearing."</p> + +<p>"With the greatest pleasure," said Walters; and they again drew their +chairs round the fire-place.</p> + +<p>It was toward midnight; dark masses of cloud were sweeping across the +sky, and the moon looking fitfully out between. "Do not think I am +forcing myself on you," Bertha said. "My husband tells me you are so +noble-hearted a person, it is a shame to conceal any thing from you. +Singular as it may sound, the story I am about to tell you is true.</p> + +<p>"I was born in a village in the plains. My father was a poor herdsman. +Our housekeeping was none of the best, and my parents often did not +know where they were to get a mouthful of bread. What was to me most +distressing of all was, that they often quarrelled because they were +poor, and each brought the bitterest complaints against the other for +being the cause of it. Of me, they and every one else said I was a +stupid, silly little creature; that I could not do the commonest thing +properly; and, indeed, I was a good-for-nothing helpless child. +Whatever I took up, I was sure to let fall and break. I could neither +sew, nor spin, nor knit, nor could I learn. I could not help in +managing the house; all I knew was that we were poor and miserable. I +used often to sit in a corner and think how I would help my parents if +I was all of a sudden to get rich; how I would shower gold and silver +on them, and what fun it would be to see how surprised they would +look; and I used to fancy all sorts of spirits sweeping round me, and +shewing me treasures buried under ground; or giving me little pebbles, +which suddenly turned to precious stones.<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> In short, the strangest +notions got hold of me; and when I had to get up and help at any thing +in the house, I was all the stupider about it, because my brain was +running upon these sort of ideas.</p> + +<p>"My father was often very angry with me for being such an idle, +useless burden upon him. He sometimes spoke to me very harshly, and it +was seldom that I ever got a kind word from him. So it went on till I +was about eight years old; and now matters got serious—I must learn +to do something. My father thought it was wilfulness and obstinacy in +me, and all I wanted was to spend my time in amusement. Enough: one +day, after a number of threats which all proved fruitless, he gave me +a dreadful beating, and declared I should have the same every day till +I had learned to turn myself to some purpose or other.</p> + +<p>"All that night I lay on my bed crying; I felt so wretched and +miserable that I wished to die. I was afraid of the daylight, because +I did not know what to begin about. I wished and wished for every +possible accomplishment, and I could not conceive why I was stupider +than other children that I knew. I was almost in despair. When morning +began to break, I got up; and hardly knowing what I did, I opened the +door of our little cottage. I ran out into the open fields, and +presently into a wood close by, which was so thick that daylight could +hardly find its way into it. I ran on and on without ever looking +behind me. I did not feel the least tired; all I was afraid of was +that my father would catch me, and beat me again worse than before for +running away.</p> + +<p>"When I had got to the other side of the wood, the sun was by this +time high in the air, and I saw a dark heavy mass beyond me, covered +with a thick mist. Presently I had to scramble up some hills, and then +to follow a winding rocky path; and now I felt sure I must have found +my way into the neighbouring mountains, and I began to be afraid; +living as I did down in the plains, I had never seen them before; and +the name of mountains,<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> when I heard people speaking of them, had a +somewhat fearful and ominous sound about it. Still, I could not find +courage to return; worse fears drove me forward; I often started and +looked round as the wind moaned among the fir-trees, or a distant +woodman's axe echoed among the hills; and at last when some of the +coalmen and miners met me, and I heard them speaking a language I did +not understand, I was almost frightened out of my senses. Soon, +however, I got used to them, and begged my way on through a number of +villages. People gave me enough to eat and drink, and I had always an +answer ready for any questions that might be asked me. I had gone on +this way for four days, when I fell into a narrow footpath; I followed +it, and it led further and further away from the main road, through a +wholly different sort of country, where the aspect of the mountains +was entirely altered, and became wilder and stranger,—among rocks and +cliff's tumbled rudely one upon another, and looking as if the first +gust of wind would bring them all crashing down. I did not know +whether I should go on or not. It was the middle of summer, so that +hitherto I had spent the night either in the woods or in some one or +other of the shepherds' huts; but here I saw no signs whatever of any +thing like a human habitation, nor in so wild a spot could I hope to +find any. The cliffs grew steeper and more precipitous; often I had to +pass along the edge of abysses that made me giddy even to look at; at +last the very path came to an abrupt conclusion. Now I gave myself up +for lost; I cried and screamed, and all the answer was the echoing of +my voice along the rocky valley; darkness came on, and I looked for a +bank of moss to lie down upon. I could not sleep, for all night long I +heard strange wild noises round me, which sometimes sounded like the +howling of wild beasts; at others, like the screaming of the +mountain-birds, or the moaning of the wind among the rocks and cliffs. +I prayed to God to protect me; and towards morning I fell asleep.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[6]</span></p> + +<p>"Day had broken when I awoke. There was a steep hill immediately +before me, which I climbed up, in the hope of finding some way out of +the wilderness; when I had got at the top, however, all around me, as +far as my eye could reach, every thing was buried in fog; in the dull +grey light I could find nothing but rock, rock, rock, not a tree, not +a blade of grass, not a shrub to be seen, only here and there a branch +of heather projecting, with a sad lonely look, from a cleft or chasm +in the mountain's side. I cannot tell you how I craved for the sight +of a human being, if it was only to be afraid of him. I was hungry and +exhausted, and I flung myself down, and determined to lie there and +die. In a little while, however, the desire of life got the better of +this feeling; I raised myself up and walked on, crying and sobbing all +that day through. At last I hardly knew what or where I was; I was so +tired that I had almost lost all consciousness; I scarcely wished to +live, and yet I was afraid to die.</p> + +<p>"Towards evening I approached a part where the country resumed a +softer and milder look; and my heart began to beat again, and the +desire of life tingled in all my veins. I fancied I caught the sound +of a mill-wheel in the distance; I redoubled my speed; and oh! how +light and happy I felt when at last I found myself at the end of the +rocks and mountains, and saw once more the woods, and meadows, and +soft swelling pleasant hills, spread smiling out before me! It seemed +as if I had broke at once from hell into Paradise, and I cared no more +for being alone and helpless. Instead of the mill I hoped to find, I +came upon a waterfall, which a good deal diminished my exultation. I +was stooping down, however, to drink some water out of my hands, when +on a sudden I fancied I heard some one cough at a short distance from +me. Never had I a more agreeable surprise than at that moment. I went +towards the place the sound seemed to come from, and on turning the +corner of a wood, I saw an old woman sitting down, apparently resting +herself. She was dressed all in<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> black, a black cap covering her head +and half her face; in her hand she had a crooked stick.</p> + +<p>"I went up to her, and asked her to help me. She bade me sit down at +her side, and gave me some bread and a little wine. While I was eating +she chanted a sort of hymn in a harsh, rough voice; and as soon as I +had done, she rose and told me to follow her. Strange and odd as the +old woman's voice and appearance was, I was delighted at this +invitation; she limped away before me, helping herself along with her +stick; and I followed, at first hardly able to keep from laughing at +the strange faces she made at every step. We soon left the mountains +behind us; we walked on over soft grassy meadows, and then along a +forest glade; as we came out again into the open country the sun was +just setting, and the splendour of that evening, and the feeling it +produced in me, I never shall forget. The sky was steeped in gold and +crimson; the trees stood with their tops flushed in the evening glow; +a gleam of enchanting beauty lay upon the fields; every leaf was +hushed and still; and the pure heaven looked down as if the +sky-curtain was withdrawn, and Paradise lay open to our eyes; the +brook bubbled along the valley; and from time to time, as a soft air +swept over the forest, the rustling leaves appeared to gasp for joy. +Visions of the world, and all its strange and wondrous incidents, rose +up before my chilled soul. I forgot myself and my conductress, and +eyes and heart were lost in ecstacy in gazing on those golden clouds.</p> + +<p>"We went up a gentle hill which was planted with chestnut-trees; from +the top of which we saw down into a green valley, in the middle of +which, surrounded by a clump of chestnuts, lay a little cottage. +Presently a burst of merry barking greeted us, and a bright beautiful +little dog came bounding and jumping up against the old woman, and +frisking round us with every sign of the greatest satisfaction. Then +he turned to me, and, after looking me all over, seemed tolerably +satisfied, and ran back again to his<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> mistress. As we descended the +hill, I heard a strange kind of song, which seemed to come from the +cottage, and to be sung by a bird:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'In my forest-bower<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I sing all day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hour after hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To eternity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, happy am I<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In my forest-bower!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These few words were repeated over and over again: the nearest +description I can give of the sound is, that it was like the effect of +a bugle and a cornet answering each other at a great distance over +water.</p> + +<p>"My curiosity was at the greatest possible stretch of excitement; and +without waiting for the old woman's permission, I ran into the +cottage. The twilight was beginning to fall; and, by the sinking +light, I found a neat, well-arranged little room, a few cups and +glasses on a sideboard, and some singular-looking boxes on a table. In +a very beautiful cage in the window hung a bird; and it was indeed +from it that the song came which I had heard. The old woman was +coughing and panting, hardly able to recover her breath. She took +scarcely any notice of me—did not even seem to know I was +present—but patted her little dog, and then turned and talked to the +bird, which only answered with singing the same song. All this time I +stood watching her movements; and it almost frightened me to see how +eternally her face kept working and twitching; her head, too, shook as +if age had loosened its hold on her shoulders; and altogether she +looked so odd and strange, that, do what I would, I could not make out +what her features were like.</p> + +<p>"When she had got her breath again, she lit a candle, threw a cloth +over a little table, and put out some supper. At last she turned round +to me, and told me to take one of the twisted-cane chairs, and sit +down. I did so, and seated<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> myself exactly opposite to her, with the +light between us. Then she folded her lanky withered fingers together, +and said a long prayer, making all the time such strange contortions +with her face, that again it was all I could do to help bursting out +laughing. But I was afraid of making her angry, and checked myself. +After supper, she said another long grace, and then shewed me a bed in +a little narrow chamber adjoining, she herself sleeping in the room in +which we supped. I was tired and half stupified, and so soon fell +asleep. I awoke several times, however, in the night, and heard the +old woman coughing and talking to her dog, and the bird now and +then—which seemed to be in a dream—bringing out single words and +lines of its song. The chestnuts rustled outside the window; far away +a nightingale was singing; and all these sounds together made so odd a +mixture, that I could hardly persuade myself I was awake, and that I +had not fallen into another still stranger dream.</p> + +<p>"In the morning the old woman woke me up, and presently set me to +work. I had to spin, and I soon learnt how to do it; and besides this, +I had to take care of the dog and the bird. I very quickly got into +the way of managing the household matters, and of knowing the uses of +the different articles. One can get used to any condition, and I was +no exception: I soon ceased to think there was any thing odd about the +old woman, that the cottage was remarkably situated, and that one +never saw any other human being there, or that the bird was so very +extraordinary a creature. I was delighted with its beauty; all its +feathers glittered with every conceivable colour, the brightest +sky-blue alternating with deep scarlet over its head and body; and +when it sang, it swelled itself out so proudly, that the colours +shewed more brilliantly than ever.</p> + +<p>"The old woman often went out in the morning, and did not return till +evening, when I used to go out with the little dog to meet her; and +she would call me her child,<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> her little daughter. In one's childhood +one soon takes to people, and I became exceedingly attached to her. In +the evenings she would teach me to read, and I was quick and ready in +learning; and this afterwards, when I was much alone, became a source +of infinite amusement to me; for she had a number of old manuscript +books in the cottage, full of fairy-tales, and all sorts of queer old +stories.</p> + +<p>"There is something very odd about my recollections of the way I went +on then. Not a human creature ever came near us; our home +family-circle certainly was not an extensive one; and the dog and the +bird make the same impression on me now that the recollection of long +and well-known old friends produces; yet, often and often as I must +have repeated it, do what I will, I cannot call back again the +singular name of the little dog.</p> + +<p>"So things went on for some four years or more; and I must have been +about twelve years old, when the old woman took me at last deeper into +her confidence, and revealed to me a secret. Every day the bird laid +an egg; and in each egg was a pearl, or some other precious stone. I +had often observed before that she had some mysterious doings with the +cage; but I had never troubled myself much about it. Now, however, she +gave me a charge while she was absent to take these eggs, and put them +by carefully in the odd-looking boxes. Leaving me sufficient food in +her absence, she would now be away sometimes weeks and months at a +time; and my wheel went round, and the little dog barked, and the bird +sang, and all was so still in the country round, that while I was +there I do not remember a single storm. No foot of man ever strayed +there; no wild beast ever came near our dwelling; I worked on there +day after day, and I was happy. Oh, fortunate indeed would men be, if +they could but go on through life in such peace and quiet to their +graves!</p> + +<p>"From the little that I read, I made myself a set of notions of what +the world was, and what men were; and<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> very queer ones they were; for +they were all taken from myself and the society in which I lived. If +we talked of gay, bright, happy people, I could only fancy them like +the little dog; beautiful stately ladies must look like the bird, and +ancient dames like my old woman. My stories contained something about +love, and I made myself the heroine of many wonderful adventures: I +pictured for myself the most beautiful knight the world had ever seen; +I adorned him with every grace and every perfection; and though, after +all my trouble, I could not tell exactly what he was like, I could +feel the most passionate despair if he did not return my affection; +and I had all sorts of eloquent speeches to make—which I would often +repeat aloud—to win his love. You smile! Ah, well, we are none of us +young now!</p> + +<p>"I was much the happiest when I was by myself; for then I was absolute +mistress in the cottage. The dog was very fond of me, and did all that +I wished; the bird replied with his song to all my questions; my wheel +went round merrily; and I never for a moment felt a wish for any +change. When the old woman came back from her long expeditions, she +would praise me for being so good and attentive. Her household, she +said, was much better attended to since I had been there; she was +pleased with my growth, and the general healthiness of my appearance; +in short, she spoke to me and treated me exactly as if I had been her +daughter. 'You are going on well indeed, my child,' she said one day, +with a roughish coarse voice: 'if you continue in this way, you will +never come to any mischief. But, you may depend upon it, it never +fails, if once one gets out of the right road, but sooner or later we +shall be punished for it.' I took little notice of this at the time +she said it; for in all I did and said I was a lively, thoughtless +child; but by and by, in the night, her words recurred to me, and I +could not conceive what she meant. I thought them all over and over +again. I had often read about riches and wealth, and so on; and at +last it occurred<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> to me that those pearls and precious stones must be +of great value. This soon became more plain to me; but what could she +have meant by the right road? I could not make any thing of it, do +what I would.</p> + +<p>"I was now fourteen years old; and it is unfortunate for people that +generally they only get their understanding to lose their innocence by +the light of it. I now came clearly enough to comprehend that it would +be easy for me, while the old woman was away, to take the bird and the +jewels, and go with them into the world that I had read about; and +then very likely I might find my beautiful knight, who still continued +in my thoughts.</p> + +<p>"At first this idea was no more than any other, just flashing across +my mind and then gone again; but when I sat by myself at my wheel, in +spite of myself it kept coming back to me, till at last it completely +took possession of my mind; and I already saw myself dressed with the +greatest magnificence, with knights and princes standing round me; and +so I would let myself dream on, and then when I started up and found +myself in a little narrow room, I felt vexed and disappointed. For the +rest, so that I did what I was told, the old woman did not trouble +herself about what was passing in my mind.</p> + +<p>"One day she went away again, telling me that this time she would be +absent longer than usual; I was to see that every thing was kept +right, and do what I could to prevent the time hanging heavy on my +hands. I took leave of her with some distress, as I felt a misgiving +that I should never see her again; I stood watching her a long time as +she hobbled away, almost without knowing myself why I was so unhappy. +It seemed as if my purpose was already before my mind, and yet I was +not actually conscious of it.</p> + +<p>"Never did I take so much care of the dog and the bird as now; they +seemed closer to my heart than they had been before. The old woman had +been gone some days, when one morning I got up with the fixed purpose<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +to leave the cottage with the bird, and go and look for what was +called the world. Still I felt unhappy and miserable. I wished to stay +where I was, and yet this thought had got too strong a hold on me; +there was a singular struggle going on in my soul, as if two opposite +spirits were fighting in me. One moment came the sweetness of that +sequestered spot before me, looking so beautiful; and then the next, +the ravishing idea of a new world, and all the wonderful things in it. +I hardly knew what to make of myself. The little dog kept jumping up +upon me incessantly. The sunshine lay spread out brilliantly over the +green fields, and the chestnut-leaves glistened as it fell on them. +Suddenly I felt a strong impulse seize me; I caught the little dog and +tied it up in the cottage, and then took the cage and the bird under +my arm. The dog whined and struggled at this unusual treatment; he +looked up at me with imploring eyes, but I could not venture to take +him with me. One of the boxes of precious stones I took and made fast +to my girdle, the rest I left in their places. The bird stretched and +strained with his head in an odd wild way as I went out with him +through the door; the dog sprung at his chain to follow me; but he was +bound fast, and he was obliged to stay. I avoided the road that led to +the mountains, and went down the valley the opposite way. The little +dog kept whining and barking incessantly, and I felt for him in my +heart; the bird made one or two attempts to sing, but it seemed he did +not like being carried, and would not go on.</p> + +<p>"For a long time I heard the barking of the dog, getting weaker and +fainter, however, as I got further away; at last it ceased altogether. +I cried, and had almost turned about and gone back again, but the +craving for something new urged me forward. I was soon over the hill, +and I walked on through wood and meadow till towards evening, when I +found myself near a village. I felt rather frightened at first in +going into an inn among strange people; but they shewed me into a +chamber with a bed, and I slept<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> there very comfortably, only that I +dreamed of the old woman, who seemed to threaten me.</p> + +<p>"My journey had very little variety; but the further I went, the more +I was haunted by the recollection of the old woman and the little dog. +The poor little thing, I thought, would be sure to die of hunger, +without me to help it; and at every turn in the forest I expected to +see the figure of the old woman coming to meet me. Sighing and +weeping, I travelled on: whenever I stopped to rest myself, and set +the cage down upon the ground, the bird would sing his strange song, +and then bitter feelings of regret would come upon me for the dear old +cottage. So forgetful is our nature, I thought my first journey had +not been half so miserable as that, and I craved to be again once more +as I was then.</p> + +<p>"I had parted with some of the jewels, and at last, after a long round +of walking, one day I came to a village. I felt a strange emotion on +entering it; I was overcome by something, and could not tell why. Very +soon, however, I recollected myself, and found I was in the village +where I was born. How surprised I was! a thousand reminiscences came +pouring back upon me, and the tears ran down my cheeks. It was very +much altered. New houses had sprung up; others, which were new when I +went away, were crumbling to the ground; I found traces of burning +also; and every thing looked much smaller and more confined than I had +fancied. I was infinitely delighted, however, at the thought of seeing +my father and mother again after so long an absence. I found the +little cottage; the well-known doorway; the handle of the door was +exactly as it used to be; it seemed like yesterday that I had had it +in my hand. My heart beat and throbbed; I opened the door hastily; but +all the faces in the room were strange to me; they stared at me as I +entered. I asked for old Martin the shepherd; but they told me he and +his wife had been dead for three years past. I drew back as quickly as +I could, and went crying out of the village.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[15]</span></p> + +<p>"I had been thinking how delightful it would be to surprise them with +all my riches; the strangest accident had realised the dreams of my +childhood—I could make them happy—and now all was vain. They could +not share with me; and what all my life long had been the dearest +object of my hope was lost to me for ever.</p> + +<p>"I went to a pleasant-looking town, where I rented a small house with +a garden, and took a servant to live with me. I did not find the world +quite the wonderful place I expected; but I soon learnt to think less +and less of the old woman and the cottage I had lived in with her; and +so altogether I lived on pleasantly enough.</p> + +<p>"For a long time the bird had left off singing, so that I was not a +little frightened when one night he began again with a different song.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'My forest-bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou'rt far from me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, hour by hour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I grieve for thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, when shall I see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My forest-bower?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I could not sleep all night. The whole thing came back again into my +thoughts, and I felt more clearly than ever that I had done what I +ought not. When I got up, the bird's head was turned towards me; he +kept watching me with a strange expression, and seemed to be +reproaching me. Now he never stopped singing; and his song came louder +and deeper I thought than it had ever been before. The more I looked +at him, the more uncomfortable he made me. At last I opened the cage, +thrust in my hand and caught him by the neck. I pressed my fingers +violently together; he looked imploringly in my face; I let him go; +but he was already dead: I buried him in the garden.</p> + +<p>"After this I was haunted by a fear of my servant; my conscience told +me what I had done, and I was afraid that<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> some day or other she would +be robbing, or perhaps murdering me. Shortly, however, I became +acquainted with a young knight, who pleased me exceedingly. I gave him +my hand; and here, Herr Walters, is my story ended."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you should have seen her then," Egbert broke in hastily; "her +youthful freshness and beauty; and what an indescribable charm she had +received from her retired education! She came before me as a kind of +miraculous being, and I set no bounds to my affection for her. I was +poor myself; indeed I had nothing; but through her love I was placed +in the position in which you find me. We withdrew hither, and neither +of us has ever, for a single moment, regretted our union."</p> + +<p>"But see, with our talking and chatting," interrupted Bertha, "it is +already past midnight; we had better go to bed."</p> + +<p>She rose to retire to her chamber; as they parted Walters kissed her +hand, and wished her good night. "Thanks, noble lady," he said, "for +your story. I think I can see you with your strange bird, and feeding +the little Strohmian."</p> + +<p>Walters, too, retired to sleep; but Egbert continued restlessly pacing +up and down the hall. "What fools we men are!" he said to himself. +"Was it not I that prevailed on my wife to tell her story? and now I +am sorry it should have been told! Will he not make use of it for some +evil purpose? Will he not blab, and let our secret out to others? Is +he not very likely (it is just what a man would naturally do) to feel +some accursed hankering after one's jewels, and lay some plan or other +to get hold of them?"</p> + +<p>It struck him Walters had not taken leave of him with, as much +heartiness as he naturally would have done after being admitted into +such a piece of confidence. When once a man has admitted a feeling of +suspicion into his breast, every trifle becomes a confirmation of it. +Then for<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> a moment he would feel ashamed of so ungenerous a distrust +of his noble-hearted friend; and yet he could not fling it off; all +night long these feelings kept swaying to and fro through his breast. +He slept but little.</p> + +<p>The next morning Bertha was unwell, and could not appear at breakfast. +Walters did not seem much to distress himself about it, and of the +knight also he took leave with apparent unconcern. Egbert could not +well make it out; he went to his wife's room, she was in a violent +fever; she said she supposed telling her story the preceding night +must have over-excited her.</p> + +<p>After that evening Walters came seldom to his friend's castle; and +when he did he never stayed, but went away again almost immediately +with a few unmeaning words. Egbert was excessively distressed at this +behaviour: he never said any thing about it, either to his wife or to +Walters; but they must both have seen that there was something which +made him uneasy. Bertha's illness too was another subject of distress +to him. The physician became alarmed; the colour faded from her +cheeks, and her eyes grew of an unnatural brightness. One morning she +called her husband to her bedside, and sent the servants out of the +room.</p> + +<p>"My dear husband," she began, seriously, "I have something to tell +you, which, however unmeaning and trifling it may seem to you, has +been the cause of all my illness, and has almost driven me out of my +senses. You know that whenever I have spoken of the events of my +childhood, in spite of all the trouble I have taken, I have never been +able to think of the name of the little dog that was so long with me. +The other evening as Walters took leave of me, he said, suddenly, 'I +fancy I see you feeding the little Strohmian.' Can it be accident that +he hit upon the name? or does he know the dog, and said what he did on +purpose? In what mysterious way is this man bound up with my destiny? +At times I try to persuade myself that it is all fancy; but no, it is +certainly true, too<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> true. I cannot tell you how it has terrified me +to be so helped out with my recollection by a perfect stranger: what +do you say, Egbert?"</p> + +<p>Egbert regarded his suffering wife with the deepest emotion. For some +time he could not speak, but stood lost in his own reflections. At +last he muttered a few words of consolation, and left her. He retired +to a remote apartment, and paced up and down in indescribable +uneasiness. Walters had for many years been his only companion; and +now was this man the only one in the world whose existence was a pain +and grief to him. Could this one being be removed out of his path, +all, he thought, would then be well with him. To dissipate his +unpleasant reflections, he took his cross-bow and went out into the +mountains to hunt.</p> + +<p>It was a rough stormy winter's day; the snow lay deep upon the +hill-side, and the heavy branches of the pine-trees bent under their +burden. He scrambled rapidly on; the sweat stood upon his brow; but he +could not light on any game, and that increased his ill-humour. +Suddenly he saw a figure moving at some distance from him: it was +Walters, who was gathering moss from the trunks of the trees. Hardly +knowing what he did, he levelled his cross-bow at him; Walters looked +round, and raised his hand with a menacing gesture; but the bolt was +sped to its mark, and he fell to the earth.</p> + +<p>Egbert now felt relieved from a heavy burden. Yet a feeling of terror +drove him hastily back to his castle. He had a long way to go; for he +had wandered far away into the forests. When he reached it, Bertha was +already dead: on her deathbed she had spoken incessantly of Walters +and the old woman.</p> + +<p>Egbert now lived for a long time entirely alone. He had always been +dark and gloomy enough; for his wife's strange history troubled him, +and he was continually afraid some terrible misfortune would befall +them. His own conscience made him uneasy also. His friend's murder +was<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> for ever before his eyes, and his life was an eternal +self-upbraiding.</p> + +<p>As some relief to his feelings, he went from time to time to the next +great town, where he could find society and forget himself in feasting +and dissipation. He longed to find a friend to fill up the dreary +chasm in his soul; and then again when he thought of Walters, he +shrunk in terror from it, as he felt convinced that any friend must +only be a source of new misery to him. So many years he had lived with +Bertha in their sweet seclusion, Walters' friendship had so long been +his greatest delight; and now both were suddenly snatched away from +him. There were many moments when it all seemed to him like a strange, +wild romance, and that he only dreamt that he was alive.</p> + +<p>A young knight, Hugo, attached himself to the silent, gloomy Egbert, +and seemed to be inspired with a real deep affection for him. Egbert +was very much surprised, and came forward to meet this new offer of +friendship the more readily because it was so entirely unexpected. The +two were now continually together. The stranger shewed Egbert every +possible attention. Neither ever rode out without the other; in short, +wherever they were, they appeared inseparable.</p> + +<p>Yet it was only for a very brief interval that Egbert allowed himself +to feel happy; for he was too sure that Hugo only loved him because he +did not know his history. His friend was in an error respecting him; +and he felt the same impulse as he had done before to unbosom himself +to him, that he might be assured whether he was indeed his friend or +not. Then, again, caution kept him back, and the fear of becoming an +object of abhorrence to Hugo; there were times when he was so terribly +oppressed with a sense of his unworthiness that he could not believe +any one who was not an utter stranger to him could entertain the +slightest regard for him. For all that, however, he could not contain +himself; and one day as they were walking by themselves, he told his +whole history, and<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> then asked whether he could still love a murderer. +Hugo was touched, and tried to comfort him; and Egbert returned with a +lighter heart to the town.</p> + +<p>Yet it seemed to be his curse that a feeling of suspicion must arise +even in the hour of confidence; for hardly were they returned to their +room, and the glare of the candle was thrown upon his friend's face, +than he found something there which displeased him. He fancied he +could trace a malicious laugh. It struck him too that Hugo did not +seem so ready to talk to him as usual, and that his attention was +almost entirely given to the other persons present. There was an old +knight in the party who had never been a friend of Egbert, and used to +ask unpleasant questions about his wife, and where he got his money +from.... To this person Hugo attached himself, and the two held a long +mysterious conversation together, while their looks were from time to +time directed towards himself. Here he saw all his suspicions at once +confirmed. He believed he was betrayed, and his fierce and gloomy +temper now got complete mastery over him. As he stood with his eyes +fixed on them as they talked, suddenly he saw Walters' face, his air, +his gesture—the whole figure so familiar to him. He looked again; and +now he was convinced that it was no one but Walters that was speaking +with the old knight.... In unutterable terror, almost beside himself, +he rushed out of the room, and that night left the city, and returned +as fast as possible to his castle.</p> + +<p>He wandered restlessly from chamber to chamber; not a thought could he +find to soothe him; sleep fled from his eyes, and from one terrible +imagination he could only fall into another yet more terrible. He +thought he must be mad, and that what he had seen was but a crazed +dream; but Walters' features had been too vivid, and all was again a +riddle. He resolved to leave the castle, and set out upon his travels, +to bring his mind again into order: every thought of friendship, every +wish for society, he had now given up for ever.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[21]</span></p> + +<p>He set out without having made up his mind which way he would go; +indeed he thought little of the country through which he passed. One +day he had been riding for some time at a rapid pace among the +mountains, when he found himself suddenly involved in a labyrinth of +rocks, from which he could not discover any way of escape. At last he +fell in with an old countryman, who shewed him a path leading past a +waterfall. He offered the old man some money as a reward, but he +declined to accept it.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with me?" said Egbert to himself; "I could have +fancied this was Walters again." He looked round, and Walters it +certainly was. Egbert spurred his horse on at its utmost speed; he +flew away over rocks and through woods and meadows, until at length it +sunk exhausted under him to the earth. He did not pause to think of +this, but continued to hurry on on foot.</p> + +<p>In a kind of half-dream, he climbed a little hill; he fancied he heard +the lively barking of a dog somewhere near him. Tall chestnuts rustled +in the wind, and he caught the strange wild strains of a song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In my forest-home<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Again sing I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where pain hath no life;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No envy and strife.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, am I not happy<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In my forest home?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Egbert was completely stupified, his senses reeled; all seemed a dark +painful riddle to him. He could not tell whether he was dreaming now, +or whether he had not dreamt of a Bertha as his wife. The common and +the wonderful were so strangely mingled together; the world round him +was enchanted.... His thoughts and recollections swam confusedly +before his mind.</p> + +<p>A crooked hump-backed old woman came panting up the hill with a +crutch.</p> + +<p>"Are you come to bring me my bird? my pearls?<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> my dog?" she screamed +to him; "see how wickedness is its own punisher! I was your friend +Walters—I was Hugo."</p> + +<p>"God in heaven," muttered Egbert to himself, "to what dreadful place +have I wandered? Where am I?"</p> + +<p>"And Bertha was your sister."</p> + +<p>Egbert fell to the ground.</p> + +<p>"What made her run away from me in that way? the time of trial was +almost over, and thus all had ended well. She was the daughter of a +knight; he sent her to the herdsman to be brought up. She was your +father's daughter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, why, why have I ever had this dreadful foreboding?" cried Egbert.</p> + +<p>"Because when you were young you once heard your father speak of it. +He could not let her stay with him, for he was afraid of his wife; she +was the child of an earlier marriage."</p> + +<p>Egbert's heartstrings burst; he lay gasping out his life upon the +ground; faintly and more faintly he heard the old woman speak, the dog +bark, and the bird chant on his unwearying song.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i102.jpg" width="150" height="66" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[3]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_FAITHFUL_ECKART">THE FAITHFUL ECKART.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i103-1.jpg" width="480" height="475" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i103-2l.jpg" width="144" height="248" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i103-2r.jpg" width="37" height="248" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i103-3.jpg" width="480" height="61" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">That</span> noble duke, the great<br /> + +<span class="in2">Of Burgundy's proud land,<br /></span> +Felt all his foemen's hate,<br /> +<span class="in2">And, vanquish'd, bit the sand.</span><br /> +<br /> +He spoke: "I'm struck! I bleed!<br /> +<span class="in2">Where is my valour fled?<br /></span> +Friends fail me at my need,<br /> +<span class="in2">My knights are flown or dead;</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[4]</span></p> + +<div class="poem clearboth"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">I cannot hold the field—<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">I faint! My strength, my pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Has left me here to yield—<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">True Eckart's from my side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">It was not thus of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">When war raged fierce and strong—<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">The last to have it told,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">He loved his home too long.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Now, see they trooping come—<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Not long my sword is mine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Flight's made for the base groom—<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">I'll die as died my line."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">With that he raised his sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">And would have smote his breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">When, truer than his word,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Good Eckart forward prest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Back spurn'd the vaunting foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">And dashed into the throng;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Nor was his bold son slow<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">To bring his knights along.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">The bold duke saw the sign,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">And cried, "Now, God be praised!<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Now tremble, foemen mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">My drooping hopes be raised!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Again he charged and cheer'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">True Eckart wins the fight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">"But where's his boy?" he heard;<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">"No more he sees the light."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">When now the foe was fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Out spoke the duke aloud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">"Well hath it with me sped,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Yet Eckart's head is bow'd.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[5]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Though many thou hast slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">For country and for life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Thy son lies on the plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">No more to join the strife."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Then Eckart's tears flow'd fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Low stoop'd the warrior down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Embraced and kiss'd his last,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">And sadly made his moan.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">"Sweet Heins, how died'st so young,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Ere yet thou wert a man?<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">What boots it that I'm strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">And thou so still and wan?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Yet thou hast saved thy prince<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">From his dread foeman's scorn!<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Thou art his—accept him, since<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">He never will return!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Bold Burgundy then mourn'd<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">To see a father's grief;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">His heart within him burn'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">But could not bring relief.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">He mingles tears with tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">He clasps him to his breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">The hero he reveres,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">And speaks his deep distress:—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">"Most faithful hast thou been,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">When fail'd me all beside;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">Henceforth we will be seen<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Like brothers, side by side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">Throughout all Burgundy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Be lord of me and mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">And could more honour be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">I'd freely make it thine."<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[6]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0x">He journey'd through the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">Each liege-man hail'd him home;<br /></span> +<span class="i0x">To each he gave command,<br /></span> +<span class="i2x">True Eckart to welcome.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was the voice of an old mountaineer that sung this song, resounding +far among the rocks, where the faithful Eckart was sitting upon a +declivity, weeping aloud. His youngest boy stood near his father, and +said, "Why do you cry so bitterly, my dear father? Why are you so much +better and stronger than other men, if you are afraid—can you be +afraid of them?"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the duke, at the head of a hunting-party, was leisurely +proceeding homewards; Burgundy himself was mounted upon a stately, +richly caparisoned steed. His princely gold and silver trappings +sparkled in the evening sun; insomuch that the young Conrad could not +sufficiently admire the fine procession as it passed. Faithful Eckart +raised his eyes, and looked darkly and sorrowfully towards the place; +while his tender Conrad began to sing, as he lost sight of the +princely cavalcade in the distance:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"If you'd wield<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Sword and shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And have good steed<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With spear at need<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And harquebuss,—what must you do?<br /></span> +<span class="i4">You must feel<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Your nerves like steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strong in heart and spirit;—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Manhood good<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In your blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear you stoutly through with merit."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The old warrior pressed his son to his heart, and looked earnestly at +his large clear blue eyes. He then said,<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> "Did you hear the song of +the good mountaineer, my boy?"</p> + +<p>"Did I?" repeated the boy: "surely he sang loud enough. And are you, +then, still that faithful Eckart whom I was glad to hear so praised?"</p> + +<p>"That same duke is now my enemy: he holds my second son in +durance,—yea, hath already laid him low, if I must believe all that +the people of the country say."</p> + +<p>"Then take your great sword, father, and bear it no longer," exclaimed +his brave boy: "they will tremble when they see you; the good people +will uphold you all the country round, for they say you are their +greatest hero."</p> + +<p>"No, I must not do that, my boy; for then I should prove my enemies' +worst words true. I must not be unfaithful to my native prince. I will +not break my fealty and the peace of the country, to keep which I have +sworn."</p> + +<p>"But what does he want to do with us?" inquired Conrad, impatiently.</p> + +<p>Eckart had risen, but he again seated himself, and said, "Dear boy, +the whole of that history would sound too harsh and strange in thy +young ears. Enough to know that great people always bear their worst +enemy in their own heart, and live in fear night and day. The duke now +thinks he has trusted me too much, and been all along only cherishing +a viper in his bosom. Yet in the country they call me the prince's +sword—the strong sword that restored him life and land;—all the +people call me Faithful Eckart, and the wretched and oppressed cry +unto me for help in the hearing of the court. This the duke cannot +bear. His envy hath turned to rage, and they who might help, set him +against me, and have turned his heart from love to hatred."</p> + +<p>The aged hero then related how the duke had spoken evil words, and +banished him from before his face for ever; and how they now became +quite strange, like enemies, because envious men had said that he was +going to deprive the duke of his dominions. More sadly did he proceed +to<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> tell, as he passed his hand across his eyes, how the duke had +seized upon himself and his son, and accused them of wanting to take +his land and life; "Yea, 'tis said he hath even doomed my son to die."</p> + +<p>Young Conrad spoke not to his father, seeing he wept. At length he +said, "Father, let me go to the court, and I will talk to the duke, +that he may be brought to understand you, and treat you better. Should +he have hurt a hair of my brother's head, he is so bad a man that you +shall punish him; yet it can scarce be that he hath so soon forgotten +all your services."</p> + +<p>"Alas! don't you remember the old proverb, poor boy?—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When the mighty want your hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They'll promise you both gifts and land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the evil day hath pass'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their friendship flieth too as fast.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Yes, and all my long and painful life has gone for nothing. Wherefore +did he raise me high above my peers, only to plunge me into the lowest +ignominy? The love of princes is like a fatal poison, which they ought +to reserve only for their enemies, and which finally often proves the +ruin of its heedless possessor: so it hath ever been."</p> + +<p>"I will hasten to him," said Conrad; "I will plainly remind him of all +you have done and suffered for him; and then he will treat you as well +as he did before."</p> + +<p>"You forget," replied Eckart, "that they have pronounced us traitors: +we had better seek refuge together quickly in some foreign land, where +we shall, perhaps, be more fortunate than here."</p> + +<p>"What, father, in your old age!—and will you turn your back upon our +sweet home? Let us rather try any way but this," said Conrad. "I will +see the Duke of Burgundy; I will appease and make him friendly to us; +for what harm can he do <i>me</i>, though he does hate and fear you?"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[9]</span></p> + +<p>"I do not like to let you go," replied Eckart; "for my mind misgives +me sadly; yet I should like to be reconciled to him, for he was once +my kind friend, and for the sake of your poor brother, who is +lingering in prison, or perhaps dead."</p> + +<p>The sun was now casting its last wild beams upon the green earth; and +Eckart sat down, absorbed in deep thought, leaning against the root of +a tree. He looked at Conrad earnestly a long while, and at length +said, "If you will go, my son, then go now, before the night gathers +in: the lights are already up, you see, in the windows of the duke's +castle. I can hear the trumpets sounding at a distance for the +festival;—perhaps his son's bride is arrived, and he may feel more +friendly disposed towards us."</p> + +<p>His son was instantly on his way; yet he parted with him unwillingly, +for he no longer put any faith in his own good fortune or the duke's +gratitude. Young Conrad was bold and hopeful; doubting nothing but +that he should touch the duke's heart, who had heretofore caressed him +on his knees.</p> + +<p>"Art thou sure thou wilt come back to me, my sweetest child?" cried +the old man; "for were I to lose thee, I have seen thee for the last +time—the last of thy race." His young son then kissed and comforted +him, promising that he would be with him very soon; and they +separated.</p> + +<p>Conrad knocked at the castle-gate, and was admitted. The aged Eckart +remained seated where he was, exposed to the night-winds, all alone. +"And I have lost him too; I am sure I have lost him." He cried +bitterly in his solitude, "These eyes will never rest upon his dear +face again." While thus lamenting, he saw an old wayfaring man leaning +upon his crutch, and trying, at great hazard, to make his way down the +mountain. A precipice yawned beneath him; and Eckart, aware of his +danger, went and took him by the hand. "Whither are you going?" he<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> +inquired, as he assisted him down to the place where he had himself +sat.</p> + +<p>The old man sat down, and wept till the tears ran over his furrowed +cheeks. Eckart sought to comfort him with gentle advice; but the other +seemed too much afflicted to pay attention to him.</p> + +<p>"What terrible calamity can it be that thus overpowers you?" inquired +Eckart. "Only try to speak."</p> + +<p>"Alas, my children!" exclaimed the aged man.</p> + +<p>Then Eckart again thought of Conrad, of Heins, and Dietrich, and +became himself inconsolable.</p> + +<p>"I say nothing," he added, "if your children are all dead; for then +your grief is, indeed, great."</p> + +<p>"Oh, worse than dead!" exclaimed the other. "No, they are not dead," +he repeated in a still more bitter voice; "but they are lost to me for +ever! Yea, would to Heaven that they were only dead!"</p> + +<p>The good old hero almost shrieked at hearing these words, and besought +the unhappy father to explain so horrible a mystery: to which the +latter replied, "We live in a wonderful world; and these are strange +times. Surely the last dreaded day cannot be far from hand; for +alarming signs and omens are daily abroad, threatening the world more +and more. All evil things seem to have broken loose beyond their +ancient boundaries, and rage and destroy on every side. The fear of +God restrains us not—there is no foundation for any thing good; evil +spirits walk in the broad day, and boldly scare the good away from us, +or celebrate their nightly orgies in their unholy retreats. O my dear +sir, we are grown grey in the world, but not old enough for such +prodigious things. Doubtless you have seen the great comet—Heaven's +portentous lightning in the sky, which glares so prophetically down +upon us. Every one forebodes disasters; but none think of reforming +their lives in order to escape the threatened evil. As if this, too, +were not enough, the ancient earth discovers her trouble, and casts up +her mysterious<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> secrets from the deep, while that portentous light +serves to reveal them from above. And, hark! have you never heard of +the strange mountain which the people round call Venus-berg?"</p> + +<p>"No, never," said Eckart, "though I have travelled far and wide here +around the hills."</p> + +<p>"At that I wonder much," replied the old man; "for the dreadful thing +is now become as well known as it is true: for that, good sir, is the +very mountain whither the devils fled for refuge in the centre of the +earth, when the holy Christian faith began to wax strong, and pressed +hard upon the heathen idols. There, they now say, that fatal goddess +Venus holds her unblest orgies; whither the infernal powers of worldly +lust and ambition, and all forbidden wishes, come trooping in myriads +for their prey; so that the whole mountain hath become forsaken and +accursed from time immemorial."</p> + +<p>"On what side lies the mountain?" inquired Eckart.</p> + +<p>"There is the mystery; it is a secret," whispered the old man, "which +those who know dare not tell, and none know but those who are in the +power of our great adversary; and indeed none but wicked persons will +ever venture the discovery. Once only a wandering musician by miracle +appeared again; but he came commissioned by the powers of darkness to +traverse the world; and he plays strange notes upon a pipe—sounds +which are heard to echo first in the distance, then more loud and +sweet. Those who approach too close within his sphere are seized with +a strange unaccountable delirium; and away they run in search of the +mountain, heedless of every obstacle, and never weary—never satisfied +until they gain the fatal summit, which opens for them, and whence +there is no return. Their supernatural strength forsakes them only in +the infernal abode; when they continue wandering round its unhallowed +precincts like unblest pilgrims, without the least hope of salvation. +I lost all hope of comfort<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> in my two sons long ago: they grew wilful +and abandoned; they despised their parents, and our holy faith itself. +Then they began to hear the strange music; and they are now fled far +into the hills—the inhabited world is too narrow for them; and they +will never stop until they reach the boundless regions below." And the +old man wrung his hands.</p> + +<p>"And what do you think of doing in this matter?"</p> + +<p>"What should I do?—with this crutch, my only support, I have set out +in pursuit of them, being determined either to find them or to die."</p> + +<p>At these words he rose with a resolute effort, and hastened forward as +fast as his feeble steps could bear him, as if fearful of losing a +moment; while Eckart gazed after him with a look of pity, lamenting +his useless anxiety and sorrows yet to come.</p> + +<p>"To all his other evils," cried Eckart, "even madness itself does not +seem to have brought any relief."</p> + +<p>Night came, and passed away;—the morning broke, yet no signs of young +Conrad. The old warrior wandered among the hills, and cast his eyes +wistfully towards the castle; still no one appeared. Then he heard a +tumult, as if proceeding from the place; and, unable to restrain his +anxiety, he at last mounted his steed that was grazing near, and rode +hastily towards the castle. He no longer disguised himself, but +spurred boldly among the troops and pages surrounding the +castle-gates, not one of whom ventured to stop or lay a hand upon him. +All opened to him a path.</p> + +<p>"Where is my son Conrad?" inquired the old hero, as he advanced.</p> + +<p>"Inquire nothing," said one of the pages, casting down his eyes: "it +would only grieve you;—better turn back."</p> + +<p>"And Dietrich," added the old man,—"where is he?"</p> + +<p>"Mention his name no more," said an aged knight,<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> "the duke's rage was +kindled, and he thought to punish you through him."</p> + +<p>Hot scorn flushed the face of the old hero when he heard these words; +grief and fury took possession of him, and he rode through the +castle-gates with speed. All opened a way for him with fear and +reverence; and he soon threw himself from his horse at the +palace-doors. With trembling step he mounted into the marble halls.</p> + +<p>"Am I here," he cried, "in the dwelling of the man who was once my +friend?" He tried to collect his thoughts; but dreadful visions seemed +to rise before him: and he staggered wildly into the duke's presence.</p> + +<p>Not aware of his arrival, Burgundy uttered a cry of alarm, as he found +himself confronted with the old man. "Art thou the Duke of Burgundy?" +asked the old hero.</p> + +<p>The duke replied, "I am."</p> + +<p>"And hast thou caused my son Dietrich to die?"</p> + +<p>The duke answered, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"And my youngest boy! my Conrad!—was not he too good and beautiful +for thy sword?—hast thou killed him too?"</p> + +<p>"I have," said the duke again.</p> + +<p>And Eckart replied, as he shed tears, "Oh, say not that! say not that, +Burgundy!—for I cannot bear those words: recall them. Say, at least, +that it repents you of all you have done; and I will yet try to take +comfort, though you have now done your worst to break my heart."</p> + +<p>The duke answered, "Away! thou faithless traitor! hence from my sight! +thou art the bitterest enemy I have on the face of the earth."</p> + +<p>Eckart stood firm, and said, "Heretofore thou didst call me thy best +friend; but good thoughts are now become strange to thee. Never did I +aught against thy honour: nay, I have revered and loved thee as my +true prince, so help me God! or here, with this hand upon my good +sword, I could take speedy and bitter vengeance for all my wrongs. But +no; I will for ever banish myself<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> from your presence, and end my few +and evil days in solitude and woe."</p> + +<p>Having uttered these sad words, Eckart turned away; while Burgundy, +agitated with hateful passions, called aloud for his pages and his +lancers, who surrounded the old hero, and followed him with the points +of their spears out of the duke's palace; none venturing, though at +their lord's command, to put him to death.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Away he spurred at speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Eckart that noblest knight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spoke, "No more I heed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The world, nor wrong, nor right.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My sons are gone, and I<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Am left to mourn alone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My prince would have me die;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And friends I have not one."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then made he to the woods,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with full heart did strive<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear his dismal moods—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bear his woes and live.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I fly man's hated face!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ye mountains, lakes, and trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be now my resting-place,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And join your tears to these.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No child beguiles my grief;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their lives were sworn away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their days were all too brief—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My last one they did slay!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus wild did Eckart weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till mind and sense were gone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then madly down the steep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He spurr'd his true steed on.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[15]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He bounded, leaped, and fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet Eckart took no heed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But said it was right well,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though sadly he did bleed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He next ungirt his horse,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lay down on the ground;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wish'd it had happ'd worse—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That he his grave had found.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>None of the duke's peasantry could say whither the faithful Eckart had +fled; for he had taken to the wild mountain-woods, and been seen by no +human being. The duke dreaded his great courage and prudence, and he +repented that he had not secured him, blaming his pages that they had +suffered him to escape. Yet, to make his mind more easy, he proceeded +at the head of a large train, as if going to the chase; being +determined to ride through all the surrounding hills and woods until +he should find the spot where Eckart had concealed himself, and there +put him to death.</p> + +<p>His followers spread themselves abroad on all sides, and vied with +each other in the hope of pleasing the prince, and reaping the reward +of their evil deed; but the day passed, and the sun went down, without +their discovering any traces of him they sought.</p> + +<p>A storm was now gathering, and the great clouds came darkling over the +woods and hills; the thunder began to peal along the sky; the +lightning flashed athwart the heavens, smiting the largest oaks; while +torrents of rain fell upon their heads. The duke and his followers ran +for shelter among the rocks and caves; but the duke's steed burst his +reins, and ran headlong down the heights; while his master's voice was +lost in the uproar of the storm, and separated from all his followers, +he called out in vain for assistance.</p> + +<p>Wild as the animals of the forest, poor Eckart had<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> wandered, +unconscious now of his sorrows or whither he went. Roots and berries, +with the water of the mountain-spring, formed his sole refreshment: he +would no longer have known any of his former acquaintance; the day of +his despair seemed at length to have gone by. Yet no! As the storm +increased, he suddenly seemed to recover some portion of his +intellect, and to become aware of objects around him. Then he uttered +a loud cry of horror, tore his hair, and beat his aged breast, as he +bethought himself of his children. "Dear as the life-blood of my +heart," he cried, "whither, my sweet boys, are ye all gone? Oh, foul +befell my coward spirit that hath not yet avenged ye! Why smote I not +your fell destroyer, who hath pierced my heart through and through, +worse than with a thousand daggers? Mad wretch that I am! I deserve it +all—all; for well may your tyrant murderer despise me, when I oppose +not the assassin of my own children. Ah, would that he might once come +within the reach of my arm!—for now I long, when it is all too late, +to taste the sweetness of revenge."</p> + +<p>Thus he spent the night, wandering, and weeping as he went. At last he +thought he heard a distant voice of some one crying for help. He +turned his steps towards the direction in which it came; and finally +he approached a man, whom the darkness hid from his sight, though he +heard his voice close to him. This voice beseeched him piteously to +guide a stranger into the right path. Eckart shrieked as it again fell +upon his ear—he knew it; and he seized his sword. He prepared to cut +down the assassin of his children—he felt new strength—and drew +nigh, in the hope of full vengeance; when suddenly his oath of fealty, +and all his former promises, when he was the duke's friend, came +across his mind. Instead of piercing him to the heart, he took the +duke's hand, and promised to lead him into the right path. They passed +along conversing together, although the duke trembled with fear and +cold. Soon they met some one. It was Wolfram,<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> the duke's page, who +had been long in search of his master. It was still dark night—not a +star cast its feeble rays through the thick black clouds. The duke +felt very weak, and sighed to reach some habitation, to refresh +himself and repose; besides, he was in dread of encountering the +enraged Eckart, whose strange feigned voice he did not yet know. He +feared he should hardly survive till morning, and trembled at every +fresh blast of wind that shook the trees, or the thunder as it rolled +more awfully above their heads. "My good Wolfram," cried the duke, +"mount this lofty fir, and cast a keen glance around thee to discover +some light—whether from house or hut it boots not, so that we can but +live to reach it."</p> + +<p>The page obeyed at his life's risk, as the storm bent the strongest +branches of the huge tree as if it had been a tender reed. Its topmost +boughs sometimes nearly touched the ground; while the boy appeared +little more than an acorn growing on a branch of the tree. At length +he cried out, "In the plain below us there I perceive a glimmering—I +can see the way we ought to go." At the same time he carefully +descended, and took the lead. In a short while the friendly light +greeted the eyes of all three—the very sight of which greatly +restored the fallen spirits of the duke.</p> + +<p>Absorbed within himself, Eckart uttered not a word. He walked along, +striving with the bitter feelings that rose in his breast, leading the +duke by the hand.</p> + +<p>At length the page knocked at the cottage-door; and an infirm old +woman appeared. When they had entered, Eckart loosed the duke's hand, +whom he had led along; and the latter fell trembling upon his knees, +to return Heaven thanks for his deliverance from the perils of that +terrific night.</p> + +<p>Eckart retired into a dark corner; where he found, stretched in sleep, +the same old man who shortly before had been bewailing his unhappy +fate in regard to his sons, whom he was then in search of.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[18]</span></p> + +<p>The duke having finished his prayers, thus spoke:—"This has indeed +appeared a miraculous night to me. I feel the goodness and almighty +power of God more than ever I had before reason to do. Yet my heart +hath failed within me, and I feel that I must shortly die; only +wishing for time, before I depart, to entreat forgiveness for my +manifold sins and offences against the Most High; but I will take care +to reward you both, my faithful companions, before I go, and that as +handsomely as I can. To thee, my trusty page, I bequeath the two +castles which lie close to the next mountain here, on condition that, +in remembrance of this terrific night, thou dost in future call them +the Tannenhäuser, or Fir-houses.—And who art thou, good man, that +hast laid thy weary limbs in the corner? Come forth, that I may reward +thee quickly, according to thy great services and many kind offices +shewn me during this terrific night."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then up rose Eckart, like a thing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That starts from out the dim moonlight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His furrowed cheek betrays the sting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of many a woful day and night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The soul of Burgundy sighed sore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To witness thus that aged face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood forsook his veins—he tore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His hair, and swooned for dire disgrace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They raise him from the low cold ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His limbs and temples warmly chafe:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Then, O my God, at last he's found,"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He cried; "true Eckart's here—he's safe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O whither shall I fly thy look?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was't thou didst bring me from the wood?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And was it I thy dear babes struck—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou that to me hast been so good?"<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[19]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Burgundy, as thus he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He felt his heart was breaking fast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Eckart's breast he laid his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thought he there would breathe his last.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His senses fled! Then Eckart spoke:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"I reck not, master, of their fate—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That so the world may see, though broke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">True Eckart's heart's yet true and great."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Thus passed the night. In the morning the followers of the duke +arrived, and found him very sick. They placed him upon their mules, +and carried him back to his castle. Eckart stirred not from his side; +and often the duke took his hand, and, pressing it to his bosom, +looked up at him imploringly; when Eckart would embrace him, and speak +soft words of comfort till he was again still. The duke next called +together his council, and declared that such was his confidence in his +faithful Eckart, the bravest and noblest of all his land, that he +would leave him governor of his sons. Having said which, he died.</p> + +<p>Eckart then took the reins of government into his own hands, +fulfilling the trust reposed in him in such a humane and prudent way +as to excite the admiration of all the country. Shortly afterwards, +the report spread more and more on all sides, of the arrival of the +strange musician from Venus-berg, who seduced his victims with the +strange sweetness of his tones; so that they disappeared without +leaving a trace behind. Many gave credit to the report—others not; +while Eckart again bethought him of the unhappy old man whom he had +seen so forlorn and crazed upon the mountain.</p> + +<p>"I have now adopted you as my children," he said to the young princes, +as he one day sat with them on the bill before the castle; "your +happiness is now become my inheritance; I shall continue to survive, +after my departure, in your welfare and your good conduct."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[20]</span></p> + +<p>They all stretched themselves on the hill-side, whence they could look +far into the distant and lovely prospect beyond; and Eckart would then +strive to subdue the regrets he felt for his own children, though they +would appear as if passing over the mountain before him, while in the +distance he thought he heard the faint echo of delicious music +gradually growing louder.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Hark! comes it not like dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before the morning beams?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From some far greenwood bowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such as the night-bird pours,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So sweet, and such its dying fall?—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Those tones the magic song recall;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Eckart sees each princely cheek<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Flushed with the joys its victims seek;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wild wishes seized each youthful breast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For some far unknown bourne of rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Away to the mountains!" they cried; "the deep woods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the trees, winds, and waters make music for gods:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, strange, secret voices are singing there now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And invite us to seek their blest Eden below."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">In strange attire then came in view<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The unblest sorcerer, and anew<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Inspired the maddening youths, till bright<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And brighter shone the sunny light.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Trees, streams, and flowers danced in the rays;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Through earth, air, heavens, were heard the lays;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The grass, fields, forests, trembling join'd<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That magic tumult wild and blind.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Swift as a shadow fade the ties<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That bind the soul to earth, and rise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Soft longings for unearthly scenes;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And strange confusion intervenes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Between the seen and unseen world,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till reason from her seat is hurl'd,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[21]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And madly bursts the soul away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mingle in the infernal fray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">The trusty Eckart felt it,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But wist not of the cause;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His heart the music melted,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He wondered what it was.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">The world seems new and fairer,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">All blooming like the rose;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can Eckart be a sharer<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In raptures such as those?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"Ha! are those tones restoring<br /></span> +<span class="i4">My wife and noble sons?—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All that I was deploring—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">My lost beloved ones?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yet soon his sense collected,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Brought doubts within his breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">These magic arts detected,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">A horror him possessed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">His children fade in air—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Mocks of infernal might;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His young friends vanished were—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He could not check their flight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yes, these his princely trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Late yielded to his power,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He now desert them must,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or share their evil hour.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Faith, duty to his prince,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Is still his watchword here;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He still thinks of him, since<br /></span> +<span class="i4">His last sad look and tear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">So boldly doth he now<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Advance his foot and stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Arm'd proof to overthrow<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The evil powers at hand.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[22]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">The wild musician comes;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Eckart his sword has ta'en;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But ah! those magic tunes<br /></span> +<span class="i4">His mortal strength enchain!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">From out the mountain's side<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Come thousand dwarfish shapes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That threaten and deride,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And leap and grin like apes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">The princes fair are gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And mingled with the swarm;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">True Eckart is alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And faint his valiant arm.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">The rout of revellers grows,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Gathering from east to west,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And gives him no repose—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Around—before—abreast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">True Eckart's 'mid the din,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">His might is lost and gone;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The hellish powers must win—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He of their slaves be one.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">For now they reach the hill<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whence those wild notes are heard;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dwarfish fiends stand still,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The hills their sides uprear'd,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">And made a mighty void,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whence fiercer sprites glower'd grim.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"What now will us betide?"<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He cried:—none answered him.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Again he grasped his sword;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He said he must prove true:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Eckart has spoke the word,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And rushed amid the crew.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[23]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">He saved the princes dear;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">They fled and reach'd the plain;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But see, the fiend is near—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">His imps their malice strain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Though Eckart's strength is gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He sees the children safe;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And cried, "I fight alone—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Now let their malice chafe!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">He fought—he fell—he died<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Upon that well-fought field;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His old heroic pride<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Both scorn'd to fly or yield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"True to the sire and son,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The bulwark of their throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Proud feats hath Eckart done;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">There's not a knight, not one,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Of all my court and land,"<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Cried the young duke full loud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"Would make so bold a stand.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our honour to uphold.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">For life, and land, and all,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To Eckart true we owe;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He snatch'd our souls from thrall,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For all it work'd him woe."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">And soon the story ran<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Through Burgundy's broad land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That who so venture can<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To take his dangerous stand<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Upon that mountain-side,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where in that contest hard<br /></span> +<span class="i2">True Eckart fought and died,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Shall see his shade keep guard,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[24]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">To warn the wanderers back<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Who seek th' infernal pit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And spurn them from the track<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That leads them down to it.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2 id="THE_TANNENHAUSER">THE TANNENHÄUSER.</h2> + +<p>About four centuries had elapsed since the death of the Faithful +Eckart, when there lived a Lord of the Woods who stood in high +reputation as a counsellor at the imperial court. The same lord had a +son, one of the <i>handsomest</i> knights in all the land, highly esteemed +and beloved by his friends and countrymen. Suddenly, however, he +disappeared under very peculiar circumstances, which occurred previous +to his departure; and no one could gather any tidings of him +whatsoever. But from the time of the Faithful Eckart, a tradition +respecting the Venus-berg had become very prevalent among the people, +and it was asserted by many that he must have wandered thither, and +there been devoted to eternal destruction.</p> + +<p>Among the whole of his friends and relatives who lamented the young +knight's loss, none grieved so much as Frederick of Wolfsburg. They +had been early companions, and their attachment had grown with their +years, insomuch that their subsequent attachment appeared rather the +result of necessity than of choice. Meanwhile the Lord of the Woods +died, having heard no account of his son; and in the course of a few +years his friend Frederick married. He had already a playful young +circle around him. Years passed away, and still no tidings arrived as +to the fate of his friend, whom he was at length reluctantly compelled +to number with the dead.</p> + +<p>One evening, as he was standing under the tower of<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> his castle, he +observed a pilgrim approaching at some distance, in the direction of +the castle-gates. The stranger was very singularly dressed; his whole +appearance, and particularly his gait, striking the young knight as +something odd and unaccountable. As the pilgrim drew nigh, he went to +meet him; and, on examining his features, thought he could recognise +them. He looked again, and the whole truth burst upon him: it was +indeed no other than his long-lost friend—the young Lord of the +Fir-woods himself. Yet he shuddered, and uttered an exclamation of +surprise, when he contemplated the ravages which time had made in the +noblest face and form—the theme of his former admirers,—of which +only the ruins were to be traced;—no, he no longer appeared the same +being.</p> + +<p>The two friends embraced, while they still gazed at each other as upon +perfect strangers but newly introduced. Many were the confused +questions and answers which passed between them; and Frederick often +trembled at the strange wild glances of his friend: the fire seemed to +sparkle in his eyes. He agreed, however, to sojourn with him; but when +he had remained a few days, he informed Frederick that he was about to +go upon a pilgrimage to Rome.</p> + +<p>Their acquaintance in a short time grew more familiar, and resumed its +former happy and confidential tone. They recalled the mutual +adventures and plans of their early years, though the Lord of the +Woods seemed to avoid touching upon any incident which had occurred +since his late disappearance from home. This only raised Frederick's +curiosity the more; he entreated to be informed, and with yet more +earnestness as he found their former regard and confidence increase. +Still the stranger long sought, by the most friendly appeals and +warnings, to be excused; till at last, upon fresh solicitation, he +said, "Now, then, be it so! your wish shall be fully gratified; +only never in future reproach me, should my history excite +feelings—lasting feelings—of sorrow and dismay."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[26]</span></p> + +<p>Frederick took him in the most friendly manner by the arm, and led him +into the open air. They turned into a pleasant grove, and seated +themselves on a mossy bank; the stranger then giving his hand to his +friend, turned away his head among the soft leaves and grass, and, +amidst many bitter sighs and sobs, gave way to the sad emotions which +the recollection seemed to inspire. His friend, pressing his hand, +tried every means to console him; upon which the stranger, again +raising his head, began his story in a calmer voice, to the following +purport:—</p> + +<p>"There goes an ancient tradition, that several hundred years ago there +lived a knight known by the name of the Faithful Eckart. It is farther +believed that there appeared a mysterious musician at that time from +one of the wonderful mountains, whose unearthly music awakened such +strange delight and wild wishes in the hearts of his audience, that +they would irresistibly follow him, and lose themselves in the +labyrinths of the same mountain. At that period, hell is supposed to +have kept its portals open there, in order to entrap, by such sweet +irresistible airs, unhappy mortals into its abyss. Often have I heard +the same account when I was a boy, and sometimes it used to make me +shudder. In a short time it seemed as if all nature, every tone and +every flower, reminded me, in spite of myself, of that same old +fearful saying. Oh, it is impossible for me to convey to you what kind +of mournful thought, what strange ineffable longing, one time suddenly +seized me, bound me, and led me, as it were, in chains; and +particularly when I gazed upon the floating clouds, and the streaks of +light ethereal blue seen between them; and what strange recollections +the woods and meadows conjured up in my soul. Often did I feel all the +love and tenderness of nature in my inmost spirit; often stretched +forth my arms, and longed for wings to fly into the embrace of +something yet more beautiful; to pour myself, like the spirit of +nature, over vale and mountain; to become all present with the<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> grass, +the flowers, the trees; and to breathe in the fulness of the mighty +sea. When some lovely prospects had delighted me during the day, I was +sure to be haunted with dark and threatening images that same night, +all of which, seemed busy in closing against me the gates of life. One +dream, in particular, made an indelible impression upon my mind, +although I was unable to recall its individual features clearly to my +memory.</p> + +<p>"I thought I could see an immense concourse of people in the +streets,—I heard unintelligible words and languages, and I turned +away, and went in the dark night to the house of my parents, where I +found only my father, who was unwell. The next morning I threw my arms +round both my parents' necks—embracing them tenderly, as if I felt +that some evil power were about to separate us for ever. 'Oh, were I +to lose you,' I said to my dear father, 'how very lonely and unhappy +should I feel in this world without you!' They kissed and consoled me +tenderly, but they could not succeed in dispelling that dark +foreboding image from my imagination.</p> + +<p>"As I grew older, I did not mingle with other children of my own age +in their sports. I wandered lonely through the fields; and on one +occasion it happened that I missed my way, and got into a gloomy wood, +where I wandered about, calling for help. After searching my way back +for some time in vain, I all at once found myself standing before a +lattice, which opened into a garden. Here I remarked pleasant shady +walks, fruit-trees, and flowers, among which were numbers of roses, +which shone lovely in the sunbeams. An uncontrollable wish to approach +them more nearly seized me; and I eagerly forced my way through the +lattice-work, and found myself in that beautiful garden. I bent down +and embraced the plants and flowers, kissed the roses over and over, +and shed tears. While lost in this strange feeling, half sorrow, half +delight, two young maidens came towards me along the walk, one older, +and the other about my own years. I was roused<span class="pagenum">[28]</span> from my trance, only +to yield myself up to fresh amazement. My eye reeled upon the younger, +and at that moment I felt as if I had been suddenly restored to +happiness after all my sufferings. They invited me into the house; the +parents of the young people inquired my name, and were kind enough to +send my father word that I was safe with them; and in the evening he +himself came to bring me home.</p> + +<p>"From this day forth the uncertain and idle tenour of my life acquired +some fixed aim;—my ideas recurred incessantly to the lovely maidens +and the garden; thither daily flew my hopes and all my wishes. I +abandoned my playmates, and all my usual pastimes, and could not +resist again visiting the garden, the castle, and its lovely young +inmate. Soon I appeared to become domesticated, and my absence no +longer created surprise; while my favourite Emma became hourly more +dear to me. My affection continued to increase in warmth and +tenderness, though I was myself unconscious of it. I was now happy! I +had not a wish to gratify, beyond that of returning, and looking +forward again to the hour of meeting.</p> + +<p>"About this time a young knight was introduced to the family; he was +acquainted likewise with my parents, and he appeared to attach himself +in the same manner as I had done to the fair young Emma. From the +moment I observed this, I began to hate him as my deadliest enemy. But +my feelings were indescribably more bitter when I fancied I saw that +Emma preferred his society to mine. I felt as if, from that instant, +the music which had hitherto accompanied me, suddenly died away in my +breast. My thoughts dwelt incessantly upon hatred and death; strange +feelings burned within my breast, in particular whenever I heard Emma +sing the well-known song to the lute. I did not even attempt to +disguise my enmity; and when my parents reproached me for my conduct, +I turned away from them with an obstinate and wilful air. I wandered +for hours together in the woods and among the rocks, in<span class="pagenum">[29]</span>dulging evil +thoughts, chiefly directed against myself;—I had already determined +upon my rival's death.</p> + +<p>"In the course of a few months the young knight declared his wishes to +Emma's parents, and they were received with pleasure. All that was +most sweet and wonderful in nature, all that had ever influenced and +delighted me, seemed to have united in my idea of Emma. I knew, I +acknowledged, and I wished for no other happiness—nothing +more—nothing but her. I had even wilfully predetermined that the loss +of her and my own destruction should take place on one and the same +day; neither should survive the other a moment.</p> + +<p>"My parents were much grieved at witnessing my wildness and rudeness +of manner; my mother became ill, but it touched me not; I inquired +little after her, and saw her only very seldom. The nuptial-day of my +rival ¦was drawing nigh, and my agony proportionably increased: it +hurried me through the woods and across the mountains, as if pursued +by a grizzly phantom by day and by night. I called down the most +frightful maledictions both upon Emma and myself. I had not a single +friend to advise with—no one wished to receive me—for all seemed to +have given me over for lost. Yes! for the detested fearful eve of the +bridal-day was at hand: I had taken refuge among the rocks and cliffs; +I was listening to the roaring cataract; I looked into the foaming +waters, and started back in horror at myself. On the approach of +morning, I saw my abhorred rival descending the hill at a little +distance; I drew nigh—provoked him with bitter and jeering words; and +when he drew his sword, I flew upon him like lightning, beat down his +guard with my hanger, and—he bit the dust.</p> + +<p>"I hastened from the spot—I never once looked back at him; but his +guide bore the body away. The same night I haunted the neighbourhood +of the castle where dwelt my Emma now. A few days afterwards, in +passing the convent near at hand, I heard the bells tolling, nuns<span class="pagenum">[30]</span> +singing funeral-hymns, and saw death-lights burning in the sanctuary. +I inquired into the cause, and was informed that the young lady Emma +had died of the shock on hearing that her lover had been killed.</p> + +<p>"I was in doubt what to think, and where to remain; I doubted whether +I existed; whether all were true. I determined to see my parents; and +the night after reached the place where they lived. I found every +thing in commotion; the street was filled with horses and carriages; +pages and soldiers were all mingled together, and spoke in strange +broken words;—it was just as if the emperor were on the eve of +undertaking a campaign against his enemies. A single light was dimly +burning in my father's house; I felt a strange sensation, like +strangulation, within my breast. When I knocked, my father himself +came to the door, with slow soft steps; and just then I recollected a +strange dream I had in my childhood, and felt, with horrible truth, +that it was the same scene which I was then going through. Quite +dismayed, I inquired, 'Why are you up so late to-night, father?' He +led me in; saying, as he entered,—'I may well be up and watching, +when your mother has only this moment expired.'</p> + +<p>"These words shot like lightning through my soul. My father sat +himself thoughtfully down; I seated myself at his side; the corpse lay +upon a bed, and was appallingly covered over with white fillets and +napkins. My heart struggled, but could not burst. 'I myself keep +watch,' said the old man, 'for my poor wife always sits near me.' My +senses here failed me. I raised my eyes towards one corner, and there +I saw something rising up like a mist; it turned and motioned, and +soon took the well-known lineaments of my mother, who seemed to regard +me with a fixed and serious air. I attempted to escape, but I could +not; for the figure motioned to him, and my father held me fast in his +arms, while he softly whispered me, 'She died of grief, my son, for +you.' I embraced him with the most terrific, soul-cutting emotion. I +clung to him for<span class="pagenum">[31]</span> protection like a feeble child,—burning tears ran +down my breast; but I uttered no sound. My father kissed me, and I +shuddered as I felt his lips, for they were deadly cold—cold as if I +had been kissed by the dead. 'How is it with you, dear father?' I +murmured in trembling agony; but he seemed to sink and gather into +himself, as it were, and replied not a word. I felt him in my arms, +growing colder and colder. I felt at his heart, but it was quite +still; yet, in the bitterness of my woe, I held the body fast clasped +in my embrace.</p> + +<p>"By a sudden glimmer, like the first break of morning, which shot +through the gloomy chamber, I there saw my father's spirit close to +that of my mother; and both gazed upon me with a compassionate +expression, as I stood with the dear deceased in my arms. From that +moment I saw and heard no more, I lay deprived of consciousness; and I +was found by the servants delirious, and yet powerless as a babe, on +the ensuing morning.</p> + +<p>"The memory of that hour is still as fearfully impressed upon my mind, +and I am at a loss to conjecture how I was so unfortunate as to +survive it. For it was now, indeed, that this once fair earth, with +life, and all that life had to afford, became worse than dead and +perished for me;—became a lone waste and wilderness, with all its +soft airs, sweet flowers, pure streams, and blue starry skies. I stood +like one, the last of a sudden overwhelming wreck, saved only to +regret that he had not perished with all that was dearest to him on +earth. How I lived on from day to day, I know not; till at last, +unable longer to contend with the fiends of remorse that grappled me, +I flew to society for relief. I joined a number of dissipated +characters, who sought, like me, to lose the sense of their follies +and enormities in the most dissolute pleasures. Yes, I sought to +propitiate the evil spirit within me by obedience to its worst +dictates. My former wildness and impatience revived, and I no longer +placed any restraint over my wishes.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[32]</span></p> + +<p>"I fell into the hands of an abandoned wretch of the name of Rudolf, +who only laughed at my lamentations and remorse. More than a year thus +elapsed; my anxiety and horror, in spite of all efforts to control +them, daily gaining ground upon me, until I was seized with utter +despair. Like all who experience that stage of such a malady, I took +to wandering without any object. I arrived at distant and unknown +places—spots unvisited by other feet; and often I could have thrown +myself from some airy height into the green sunny meads and vales +below, or rushed into the cool streams to quench my soul's fiery and +insatiable thirst; yet though I had no fear, something unaccountable +always restrained me. I made many attempts towards the close of the +day; for I longed to be annihilated: but when the morning returned, +with its golden beams, its fresh dews, and odorous flowers, I felt I +could destroy nothing; and hope and love of life revived within my +breast. A conviction then seized me, that all hell was conspired +together to work my utter perdition; that both my pleasures and my +pains arose from the same fiendish source; and that a malicious spirit +was gradually directing all the powers and influences of my mind to +that sole end. I yielded myself up to him, in order to dissipate these +alternating raptures and agonies. On one dark and stormy night I went +into the mountains; I mounted one of their highest and giddiest peaks, +where foot of man never before trod; and there, with my whole strength +of heart and soul, I invoked the foe of God and man to appear. I +called him in language that I felt he must obey. My words were +powerful—the fiend stood at my side, and I felt no alarm. While +conversing with him, I could feel my faith in each haunted and +wonder-working mountain growing stronger within me; and the base one +taught me a song sufficiently potent of itself to shew me the right +path into its labyrinths. It was thus I approached the strange +mountain: the night was dark and tempestuous; the moon glimmered +through a mass of dusky livid<span class="pagenum">[33]</span> clouds; yet boldly and loudly did I +sing that song. A giant form arose, and motioned me back with its +staff. I drew nigher. 'I am the faithful Eckart,' exclaimed the +supernatural form; 'and, praise to the goodness of the blessed God, I +am permitted to hold watch here, to deter the unhappy from rushing +into the base fiend's power.' I pushed on. In passing, I found my way +led through subterraneous passages in the mountain. The path was so +narrow as to compel me to force my way: I heard the gushing of the +hidden waters, and the noise of the spirits engaged in forging steel, +gold, and silver in their caverns, for the temptation and perdition of +man. I heard, too, the deep clanging tones and notes in their simple +and secret powers, which supply all our earthly music; and the lower I +descended, the more there seemed to fall as it were a veil from before +my eyes.</p> + +<p>"Soon I heard other music, of quite an opposite character to the last; +and my spirit within me struggled, as if eager to fly nearer and catch +the notes. I came into more open space; and on all sides strange, +clear, glowing colours burst upon my eye. This I felt was what I had +all along sighed for;—deep in my heart I welcomed the presence of +something I had long looked for—the deep-seated master-passion, of +which I then felt the ravishing powers playing in their full strength +within my breast. A swarm of the mad heathen deities, with the goddess +Venus at their head, ran forward to greet me;—all demons, that +assumed those ancients' names, and were banished thither by the +Almighty, their career being fully run upon earth; though they still +continue to work in secret.</p> + +<p>"All the delights so familiar to the world I there found and enjoyed +in their fullest and keenest zest. My appetite was as insatiable as +the delight was lasting. The long-famed beauties of the ancient world +were all there—all that my most ardent wishes required was mine; and +each day that world grew brighter, and appeared arrayed in more +charming colours. The most costly wines slaked<span class="pagenum">[34]</span> our thirst; the most +lovely and delicious forms played and wantoned in the air; a throng of +loves hovered invitingly around me, shedding perfumes over my head; +and tones of music burst forth from nature's inmost heart, and with +their undulating freshness restored the ardour of our desires, while +soft mists and dews stole over flowery fields, giving new essence to +their ravishing odours.</p> + +<p>"How many years thus passed, I am quite unable to state, for here was +no time and no divisions; the luscious charm of virgin beauty burned +in the flowers, and in the forms of girls bloomed the fragrant charm +of the flowers; their colours seemed to enjoy a peculiar language; +tones uttered new words; the world of sense was enclosed, as it were, +within the glowing bloom of those luxurious flowers—the resident +spirits within were ever engaged in celebrating their triumphant +delights.</p> + +<p>"How this was accomplished, I can neither explain nor comprehend; but +soon, amid all this pomp of sin and unlawful pleasure, I began to sigh +for repose, for the old innocent earth I had left, with all its +virtuous, social endearments; and my desire grew as violent as it had +formerly been to leave it for what I had there obtained. I wished to +lead the same life as other mortals, with its mixed pains and +pleasures. I was satiated with splendour and excess, and turned with +thoughts of pleasure towards my native land. Some unaccountable mercy +of the Almighty granted me the privilege of returning. I found myself +once more in this present world, and still within reach of repentance +and salvation; and I now think only of receiving absolution for my +sins at the footstool of the Almighty Father, for which purpose I am +on the way to Rome; that so I may again be numbered in the rank of +other living men."</p> + +<p>Here the sad pilgrim became silent; and Frederick fixed his eye upon +him, with a searching glance, for some time. At last he took his poor +friend's hand, and said: "Although I have not yet recovered from my +astonishment,<span class="pagenum">[35]</span> and cannot, in any way, comprehend your narrative; yet +I conceive it impossible that all with which you have been thus +fearfully haunted can be other than a strong delusion of the mind. For +Emma herself is still alive, she is my own wife; we two have never +differed, much less engaged with our weapons, during the whole course +of our lives. No, we never hated each other, as you seem to think, +though you were missing just before my marriage from home. Besides, +you never, at the time, gave me a single hint that you loved my Emma."</p> + +<p>Then he again took his bewildered friend by the hand, and led him into +another apartment to his wife, who had just returned from a visit of +some days to one of her sisters.</p> + +<p>The pilgrim stood silent and thoughtful in her presence, while he +examined the form and features of the lady. Then, shaking his head +repeatedly, he said, in a low voice, "By Heavens! this is the most +wonderful incident of all!"</p> + +<p>Frederick now related to him every thing which had occurred to himself +since they parted, and attempted to explain how he must have been +labouring under a temporary delirium during many years past.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I know right well," answered the pilgrim, "how it is. It is now +that I am bewitched and insane; 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 withdraw his attention from the subject, by recurring to +scenes and incidents of his childhood; but the pilgrim was not to be +undeceived. One day he suddenly leaped up, declaring he must instantly +set out, and forth he went without even saying farewell.</p> + +<p>Frederick and his Emma often discoursed of the strange unhappy +pilgrim. A few months had elapsed, when, pale and worn, in tattered +attire and barefoot, his poor friend entered Frederick's apartment, +while he was yet asleep. He pressed his lips to his, and exclaimed +hastily, "The holy father cannot and will not forgive me. I must away<span class="pagenum">[36]</span> +and seek my former abode." And with this he went hurriedly away.</p> + +<p>Frederick roused himself, and was going into his wife's chamber, when +he met her women, who were all running to find him, in an agony of +terror and alarm. The Tannenhäuser had been there: he had come early +in the morning, and uttering the words, "She shall not stop me in my +career!" had despatched her upon the spot.</p> + +<p>Frederick had not been able yet to recall his thoughts, when a strange +feeling of horror came over him. He could not rest; he ran into the +open air, and when they wished to bring him back, he exclaimed, "that +the pilgrim had kissed his lips, and that the kiss was burning him +until he should meet with him again."</p> + +<p>He then ran rapidly in a variety of directions in search of the +Tannenhäuser and the mysterious mountain; and he was never afterwards +heard of. It is reported by the people, that whoever receives a kiss +from one of the dwellers of that mountain is unable to resist the +enchantment; which draws him with magic force into its subterraneous +depths.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i136.jpg" width="150" height="49" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[3]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_RUNENBERG">THE RUNENBERG.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i137-1.jpg" width="480" height="500" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i137-2l.jpg" width="48" height="171" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i137-2r.jpg" width="55" height="171" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i137-3.jpg" width="480" height="107" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b>A <span class="smcap">young</span></b> hunter was sitting in the midst of the +mountain-ranges, musing +beside his fowling-floor, whilst the rush of waters and of the woods +resounded through the solitude. He was thinking on his destiny; how he +was so young, and had forsaken father and mother, and his familiar +home, and all the acquaintances of his native village, to seek out for +himself a new country, to escape from<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> the circle of recurring habits; +and he looked up with a kind of wonder that he now found himself in +this valley, and in this employment. Great clouds were passing over +the heavens and sinking behind the hills; birds were singing from the +bushes, and an echo answered them. He slowly descended to the foot of +the hill, and seated himself beside a stream that was rushing over +rugged stones with a foamy murmur. He listened to the changeful melody +of the water; and it seemed as if the waves were telling him, in +unintelligible words, a thousand things that nearly concerned him, and +he could not but feel inwardly troubled that he was not able to +understand their speech. Then again he looked around him, and thought +he was joyful and happy; so he took fresh courage, and sang with a +loud voice this hunting-song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Joyful and merry amid the height<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The huntsman goes to the chase;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His booty must appear in sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the bright green thickets, though till night<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its path he vainly trace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And there his faithful dogs are yelling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Through the solitude sublime;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the wood the horns are telling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all hearts with courage swelling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O thou happy hunting-time!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His home is clefts and caves among,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The trees all greet him well:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Autumnal airs breathe round him strong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when he finds his prey, his song<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Resounds from every dell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Leave the landsman to his labour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the sailor to the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None so views Aurora's favour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None so tastes the morning's savour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When the dew lies heavily,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[5]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As who follows wood and game,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While Diana's smile doth shew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till some beauteous form inflame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His heart, that he most loved can name,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Happy hunting man art thou!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Whilst he thus sang, the sun had sunk deeper, and broad shadows fell +across the narrow valley. A cooling twilight stole over the earth; +while only the tops of the trees and the round summits of the +mountains were gilded by the evening glow. Christian's heart grew +still sadder: he liked not to return to his fowling-floor, and yet he +might not stay; he seemed to himself so lonely, and he longed for +society. Now he wished for those old books which once he had seen at +his father's house, and which he never would read, though his father +had often urged him thereto; the scenes of his childhood came before +him, his sports with the youth of the village, his acquaintances among +the children, the school that had so often distressed him; he wished +himself back again amid those scenes, which he had wilfully forsaken +to seek his fortune in unknown regions, on mountains, among strange +men, in a new occupation. As it grew darker, and the brook rushed +louder, and the birds of night with fitful wing began their devious +wanderings, he still sat dejected and disconsolate, and quite +unresolved what to do or purpose. Thoughtlessly he pulled out a +straggling root from the earth; when suddenly he heard a hollow +moaning under ground, which wound itself onward underneath, and only +died away plaintively in the distance. The sound penetrated his inmost +heart; it seized him as if he had unconsciously stirred the wound of +which the dying frame of nature was expiring in agony. He started up, +and would have fled away; for he had heard aforetime of the wondrous +mandrake-root, which, on being torn, sends forth such heart-rending +moans, that the person who has done it is fain to run away maddened by +its wailings. As he was about to depart, a stranger stood behind him, +and<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> asked him, with a friendly air, whither he was going. Christian +had wished for society, and yet he was terrified anew at this friendly +presence.</p> + +<p>"Whither so hastily?" asked the stranger again.</p> + +<p>The young hunter tried to collect his thoughts, and related how the +solitude had suddenly become so frightful to him, that he wished to +escape from it; the evening so dark, the green shades of the wood so +dreary, the brook spoke in loud lamentations, the clouds traversing +the heavens, drew his longing over to the other side of the mountains.</p> + +<p>"You are yet young," said the stranger, "and cannot well endure the +rigour of solitude. I will accompany you; for you will meet with no +house or hamlet within a league of this. On our way we can talk +together, and tell tales to each other; so your troublous thoughts +will leave you. In an hour the moon will emerge from behind the +mountains; her light will also dispel the darkness from your mind."</p> + +<p>They went on, and the stranger seemed to the youth almost as an old +acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"How came you on these mountains?" asked the former; "by your speech I +perceive you are not at home here."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" replied the youth, "much might be said on that subject; and yet +it is not worth the talk, not worth relating. I was forced away by a +singular impulse from my parents and relations; my spirit was not +master of itself; like a bird which is taken in a net, and vainly +struggles, so was my soul ensnared in strange imaginations and wishes. +We dwelt far from hence, in a plain where all around, you see no hill, +scarcely a height: few trees adorned the green level; but meadows, +fruitful corn-fields, and gardens, extended far as the eye could +reach; and a broad river glided like a mighty spirit by them. My +father was gardener to the castle, and wished to bring me up to the +same employment. He loved plants and flowers<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> beyond every thing, and +could devote himself the entire day long to the watching and tending +of them. Indeed he went so far as to maintain he could almost converse +with them; that he learnt from their growth and thriving, as well as +from the varied form and colour of their leaves. I, however, was +averse to the gardening occupation; and the more, as my father tried +to persuade me thereto, and even with threats to compel me. I wished +to be a fisherman, and made the attempt; but neither did a life upon +the waters suit me: I was then apprenticed to a tradesman in the town; +but soon came home from him also. Once on a time my father was telling +of the mountains, which, in his youth, he had travelled over; of the +subterranean mines and their workmen; of hunters and their occupation; +and suddenly there awoke in me the most decisive impulse, the feeling +that now I had found my destined way of life. Day and night I mused +thereon, and imagined high mountains, caves, and pine-forests, before +me: my fancy created for itself immense rocks; I heard, in thought, +the din of the chase, the horns, the cry of the hounds and of the +game; all my dreams were filled with these things, and therefore I had +no longer any rest or peace. The plains, the castle, my father's +little contracted garden with the prim flower-beds; the confined +dwelling; the wide heaven extended all around so dreary, and embracing +no heights, no lofty mountains,—all became more and more melancholy +and odious to me. It seemed to me as if all men about me were living +in deplorable ignorance, and that they would all feel and think as I +did, if once the feeling of their misery could arise within their +souls. Thus I harassed myself: till one morning I formed the +resolution to leave my parents' house for ever. I had found in a book +some descriptions of the nearest mountains, with pictures of the +neighbouring districts, and thereafter I directed my way. It was in +the early spring, and I felt myself quite light and joyful. I hastened +with all speed to leave the plain; and, one evening, I saw in the<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> +distance the dim outline of the mountain-chains lying before me. I +could scarcely sleep in the inn, so impatient was I to tread the +region which I regarded as my home: with the earliest dawn I was +awake, and again upon my journey. In the afternoon, I found myself +already below my much-loved hills; and, as a drunkard, I went on, then +stopped awhile, looked backward, and felt as if intoxicated with the +strange and yet familiar objects. Soon the plain behind me was lost to +my sight; the forest-streams were rushing to meet me; beech-trees and +oaks sounded down to me from steep precipices, with waving boughs; my +path led me past giddy abysses; and blue hills were standing high and +solemn in the distance. A new world was unlocked to me. I was not +weary. So I came, after certain days, having traversed a great part of +the mountains, to an old forester, who, at my earnest request, took me +to instruct me in the arts of the chase. I have now been three months +in his service. I took possession of the district in which I was to +have my abode, as of a kingdom. I made myself acquainted with every +cliff and cleft of the mountains; in my occupation, when at early dawn +we went to the woods, or felled trees in the forest, or exercised my +eye and my fowling-piece, or trained our faithful companions, the +dogs, to their duty, I was completely happy. But now I have been +sitting here for eight days upon my fowling-floor, in the loneliest +part of the mountains; and this evening my mind grew so sad as never +in my life before; I seemed so lost, so utterly unhappy; and even now +I cannot rid myself of that melancholy humour."</p> + +<p>The stranger listened attentively, as they both wandered through a +dark alley of the wood. They now came into the open country; and the +light of the moon, which above them was standing with its horns over +the mountain top, greeted them friendly. In undistinguishable forms, +and many sundered masses, which the pale glimmer again deceptively +united, the cleft mountain-range lay before them; in the background +was a steep hill, on which an<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> ancient weather-worn ruin shewed +ghastly in the white light. "Our way parts here," said the stranger; +"I am going down into this hollow; there, by that old mineshaft, is my +dwelling: the metal ores are my neighbours; the mountain-streams tell +me wonderful things in the night-season; thither, however, thou canst +not follow me. But see there, the Runenberg, with its rugged walls, +how beautiful and alluring the old stone-work looks down to us! Wert +thou never there?"</p> + +<p>"Never," replied young Christian. "I once heard my old forester relate +strange things of this mountain, which, foolishly enough, I have +forgotten; but I remember my mind was horror-struck that evening. I +should like at some time to ascend the height; for the lights are +there most beautiful; the grass must there be very green, the world +around very strange; and, perhaps, one might find up there many a +wonder of the ancient time."</p> + +<p>"You can scarcely fail," replied the other; "whoever only understands +how to seek, whose heart is right inwardly moved thereto, will find +there old friends, and all that he most ardently desires." With these +words the stranger rapidly descended the hill, without bidding his +companion farewell; he soon vanished in the thicket, and shortly after +the sound of his footsteps also died away. The young hunter was not +surprised, but only quickened his footsteps towards the Runenberg, +whereto every thing beckoned him: thither the stars seemed to shine, +the moon pointed out a bright path towards the ruins; light clouds +rose up in that direction; and out of the depths the waters and +rushing woods persuaded him, and spoke to him new courage. His steps +were as if winged; his heart beat; he felt within a joy so great, that +it almost rose to anguish. He came into places he had never seen +before, where the rocks became steeper, the foliage disappeared, and +the naked walls called out to him as with angry voices, while a +lonesome moaning wind drove him on. Thus he hastened on without +stopping, and came late after midnight<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> upon a narrow footpath which +ran along by the side of an abyss. He heeded not the chasm which +yawned beneath, and which threatened to devour him, so impelled was he +by wild imaginings and unintelligible desires. Now his perilous way +drew nigh a high wall, which appeared to lose itself in the clouds; +the path grew narrower at every step, so that the youth was obliged to +hold fast by the projecting stones to avoid plunging into the gulf +below.</p> + +<p>At length he could proceed no further; the path ended under a window; +he was obliged to come to a stand, and knew not whether to turn or +stay. Suddenly he saw a light, which behind the ancient wall appeared +to be moving. He looked after the gleam, and discovered that he could +see into an antique spacious hall, strangely adorned with various +kinds of precious stones and crystals, that sparkled in manifold +splendour, and mysteriously reflected each other from the wandering +light, which was borne in the hand of a tall female form, who, in a +thoughtful mood, was pacing up and down the apartment. She seemed not +to belong to mortals, so large, so powerful were her limbs, so firm +her countenance; but the enraptured youth thought he had never before +seen or imagined such beauty. He trembled, and yet secretly wished +that she might come to the window and perceive him. At last she +stopped, set down the light upon a crystal table, and sang with a +thrilling voice:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where can the Ancients keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That they do not appear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From diamond pillars weep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The crystals, many a tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In full fountain falling round;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And within sad tones resound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the waves so clear and bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And transparent as the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is form'd the beauteous glance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That doth the raptur'd soul entrance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And moves the heart in glowing dance.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[11]</span><span class="i0">Come, ye spirits all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the golden hall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Raise, from out the depths of gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heads that sparkle; quickly come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ye that are of wondrous power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be of hearts the masters now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where bright tears with passion glow;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be the rulers of the hour.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As soon as she had ended, she began to undress, laying aside her +garments in a splendid wardrobe. First, she took from her head a +golden veil, and her long black hair flowed in full ringlets down to +her waist; then she loosed her bosom-dress, and the youth forgot +himself and the world in gazing at the superterrestrial beauty. After +some time, she went to another golden cabinet, took thereout a tablet +that glittered with inlaid stones, rubies, diamonds, and all kinds of +jewels, and stood contemplating it with scrutinising look. The tablet +seemed to form a strange unintelligible figure, with its several lines +and colours; one while, as its brightness glanced towards him, he was +painfully dazzled; then, again, a soft green and blue playing over it, +refreshed his eye; but he stood devouring the objects with his looks, +and at the same time absorbed in deep thoughts. In his inmost heart +there was opened up an abyss of forms and harmony, of longing and +desire; troops of winged tones and sad and joyful melodies passed +through his spirit, that was moved to the very foundation: he saw a +world of pain and hope arise within himself, mighty wondrous rocks of +trust and daring confidence, deep torrents as of melancholy flowing +by. He no longer knew himself; and he was terrified as the fair one +opened the window, and reaching forth to him the magic tablet, spoke +to him these few words: "Take this in remembrance of me!" He grasped +the tablet, and felt the figure; the invisible within him immediately +passed away, and the light, and the potent beauty, and the strange +hall, had vanished. As it were, a dark night, with cloud-curtains, +fell within<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> his inmost soul; he searched after his former feelings, +after that inspiration and incomprehensible love; he gazed at the +costly tablet, in which the sinking moon was mirrored faint and +bluish.</p> + +<p>He still held the tablet fast pressed within his hands, when the +morning dawned; and he, exhausted, giddy, and half-asleep, fell +headlong down the steep mountain-side.</p> + +<p>The sun shone on the face of the stupified sleeper; who, on awaking, +found himself again upon a pleasant hill. He looked around, and beheld +far behind him, and scarcely discernible at the extreme horizon, the +ruins of the Runenberg; he searched for the tablet, and could no where +find it. Astonished and perplexed, he tried to collect his thoughts +and unite his recollections; but his memory was as if filled with a +confused mist, in which shapeless and unknown forms were wildly +contending with one another. His entire former life lay behind him, as +in a far distance; the strangest and the most familiar were so mingled +together, that he found it impossible to sever them. After long +struggle with himself, he at last thought that a dream, or sudden +madness, must have befallen him that night; but still he could not +understand how he had wandered so far into a strange and remote +region.</p> + +<p>Still, almost overcome with sleep, he descended the hill, and came +upon a beaten path, which led him down from the mountains on to the +open country. All was strange to him; he at first thought that he +should find his native home, but he saw before him quite a different +region, and at length conjectured that he must be on the southern side +of the mountains, which in the spring he had trodden from the north. +Towards noon he stood over a village from whose cottages a peaceful +smoke was ascending; children clad in festal dress were playing on the +green, and from the little church came the sound of the organ and the +chant of the congregation. All seized him with a sweet, indescribable +melancholy; all so stirred his heart, that he was<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> forced to weep. The +narrow gardens, the little cottages with their smoking chimneys, the +neatly parted cornfields, reminded him of the wants of poor human +nature, of its dependence on the friendly earth, in whose beneficence +it is obliged to trust; while the singing and the tones of the organ +filled his heart with a devoutness he had never felt before. His +feelings and wishes of the previous night appeared to him reckless and +wicked; he wished again, in a childlike, dependent, and humble spirit, +to unite himself to men as his brethren, and to withdraw from his +ungodly purposes and opinions. The plain, with its little river that +wound itself in manifold turnings about the gardens and meadows, +seemed charming and alluring to him; he thought with fear on his abode +in the solitary mountains amid the desolate rocks; he longed that he +might dwell in this peaceful village; and with these feelings he +entered the crowded church.</p> + +<p>The singing was just ended, and the priest had begun his sermon, which +was on the kindness of God in the harvest; how His goodness feeds all, +and satisfies every living thing; how wonderfully in the corn He has +provided for the support of the human race; how the love of God is +incessantly communicating itself in bread; and therefore the devout +Christian may, with thankfulness, perpetually celebrate a holy supper. +The congregation was edified. The young hunter's looks were fixed on +the pious preacher, and observed close by the pulpit a young maiden, +who seemed, beyond all others, resigned to devotion and attention. She +was slim and fair, her blue eye gleamed with the most piercing +softness, her countenance was as if transparent, and blooming with the +tenderest colours. The stranger youth had never felt himself and his +heart so before; so full of love and so calm, so resigned to the +stillest and the most enlivening feelings. He bowed himself in tears, +when the priest at last spoke the blessing; he felt penetrated by the +holy words, as by an invisible power; and the shadowy image of the +night sank down behind<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> him, like a spectre, into the deepest +distance. He left the church, stopped a while under a tall lime-tree, +and thanked God in a fervent prayer, that, without his deserving, He +had freed him from the snares of the evil spirit. The village was that +day celebrating the harvest-feast, and all men were determined to be +joyful; the children gaily dressed were rejoicing in cakes and dances; +the young men on the village square, which was encircled with young +trees, were preparing all things for the festival, where also the +musicians were sitting and trying their instruments. Christian went +again into the fields, in order to collect his thoughts and fix his +contemplations, and then returned to the village, where now all were +united in joyfulness and celebration of the festival. The fair +Elizabeth was also there with her parents; and the stranger joined +himself to the joyful throng. Elizabeth was dancing; and he had, in +the mean time, entered into conversation with the father, who was a +farmer, and one of the richest men in the village. The youth and +speech of the stranger seemed to please him, and so in a short time it +was agreed that Christian should remain with him as gardener. This he +was able to undertake; for he hoped that now the knowledge and +occupations he had so much despised at home would stand him in good +stead.</p> + +<p>From this time a new life began for him. He went to live with the +farmer, and was reckoned with his family. With his station also he +changed his dress. He was so good, so serviceable, and ever kind; so +diligent at his labour, that soon all in the house, but especially the +daughter, became friendly to him. So often as on Sunday he saw her +going to church, he held for her in readiness a beautiful nosegay, +which she received from him with blushing thankfulness: he missed her +when the day passed without his seeing her; and then in the evening +she would relate to him legends and pleasant stories. They became ever +more needful to each other; and the old people, who observed it, +seemed not to have any thing against it; for<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> Christian was the +handsomest and most industrious youth in the village. They themselves, +from the first moment, had felt a constraint of love and friendship +towards him. After half a year, Elizabeth was his wife. It was again +spring; the swallows and birds of song had come into the land; the +garden stood in its gayest attire; the marriage was celebrated with +all joyfulness; bride and bridegroom appeared as if intoxicated with +their happiness. Late in the evening, as they went to their chamber, +the young husband said to his beloved: "No, thou art not that form +which once charmed me in a dream, and which I never can quite forget; +yet am I happy in thy presence, and blest in thine embrace."</p> + +<p>How joyful was the family, when, after a year, it was increased by a +little daughter, that was named Leonora. It is true that Christian was +at times somewhat more serious as he contemplated the child; but yet +his youthful sprightliness always again returned to him. He scarcely +ever thought of his former way of life, for he felt himself quite at +home and contented. After some months, however, the thought of his +parents occurred to him, and especially how his father would rejoice +at his peaceful lot, at his condition as gardener and husbandman; it +pained him that he had been able for so long a time to forget father +and mother; his own child reminded him of what joy children are to +parents; and so he at length resolved to put himself on the journey, +and revisit his native home.</p> + +<p>Unwillingly he left his wife; all wished him happiness; and in the +fine season of the year, on foot he took his way. Already, after a few +miles, he felt how painful was the parting; for the first time in his +life he felt the smart of separation; the strange objects around +seemed almost savage to him; he felt as if he were lost in a hostile +solitude. Then the thought occurred to him that his youth was over; +that he had found a home to which he belonged, in which his heart had +taken root; he could almost lament the lost levity of former years; +and he felt<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> the extremest dejection of spirit as at a village he +turned into the inn to pass the night. He could not comprehend why he +had left his affectionate wife and acquired parents; and peevish and +discontented, he next morning set forth to continue his journey.</p> + +<p>His anguish increased as he came near the chain of mountains; the +distant ruins were already visible, and gradually became more +distinguishable; while numerous hill-tops rose round and clear from +out the blue mist. He went timidly on; often stopping and wondering +with himself at the fear, at the horror, which more and more oppressed +him at every step. "Madness!" he exclaimed, "I know thee well, and thy +perilous allurement; but I will manfully withstand thee. Elizabeth is +no idle dream; I know that she now thinks on me, that she is expecting +me, and, full of love, counts the hours of my absence. Do I not +already see forests as black hair before me? Do not the lightening +eyes look towards me from the brook? The giant forms, are they not +advancing to me from the mountains?"</p> + +<p>With these words, he was about to lay himself down to rest beneath a +tree, when he saw an old man sitting under its shadow, who was, with +the greatest attention, contemplating a flower, now holding it towards +the sun, then again shading it with his hand, counting its leaves, and +striving in all ways to impress it strictly on his memory. As he +approached nearer, the form seemed known to him, and soon no doubt +remained that the old man with the flower was his father. He rushed +into his arms with an expression of the most vehement joy; the other +was delighted, but not astonished, at meeting him so suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Art thou come to meet me already, my son?" said the old man; "I knew +that I should soon find thee, but I did not think that to-day such joy +would happen to me."</p> + +<p>"How came you to know, father, that you would meet with me?"</p> + +<p>"By this flower," replied the old gardener; "all my<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> life I have been +wishing to be able once to find it, but never had the fortune; for it +is very rare, and grows only on the mountains. I set out in quest of +thee, because thy mother is dead, and the solitude at home was too +oppressive and afflicting to me. I knew not whither to direct my way. +At last I wandered through the mountains, dreary as the journey seemed +to me. By the way, I sought for this flower, but could nowhere +discover it; and now, quite unexpected, I find it here, where the +beautiful plain lies stretched before me; thereby I knew that I should +find thee soon; and, see! how truly the dear flower has prophesied!"</p> + +<p>They embraced each other again, and Christian wept for his mother; but +the old man grasped his hand, and said: "Let us be going, that we may +soon lose sight of the mountain shadows. My heart is always sad at the +steep wild shapes, the horrid chasms, the gurgling waterfalls. Let us +again visit the kind, harmless level country."</p> + +<p>They wandered back; and Christian became more cheerful. He told his +father of his new fortune, of his child and of his home: his speech +made him as if intoxicated; and, in talking, he now for the first time +felt truly how nothing more was wanting to his happiness. Thus, amid +tales joyful and melancholy, they arrived at the village. All were +rejoiced at the speedy termination of the journey; most of all, +Elizabeth. The old man took up his abode with them, joined his little +fortune to their estate, and they formed, together, the most contented +and united circle among men. The field increased; the cattle throve; +Christian's house became in a few years one of the most considerable +in the village; and he soon saw himself the father of several +children.</p> + +<p>Five years had in this manner passed away, when a stranger, on his +journey, stopped, and took up his abode in Christian's house, as being +the most respectable in the village. He was a friendly, communicative +man, who related many things of his journey, played with and gave<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> +presents to the children, and, in short, was kind to every one. He was +so pleased with the neighbourhood, that he was resolved to spend some +days there; but the days grew to weeks, and at length to months. His +sojourn surprised no one, for all had already been accustomed to +regard him as belonging to the family. Only Christian often sat +musing; for it occurred to him that he had already aforetime known the +traveller, and yet he could not recollect the occasion when he could +have seen him.</p> + +<p>At last, after three months, the stranger took his leave, and said, +"My dear friends, a wonderful destiny and strange expectations impel +me forward into the nearest mountains; a magical form, which I cannot +withstand, allures me. I now leave you, and know not whether I shall +return to you. I have a sum of money by me, which is safer in your +hands than in mine, and therefore I pray you to take charge of it: +should I not come back in a year's time, then keep it, and take it as +a thank-offering for your kindness shewn to me."</p> + +<p>So the stranger departed; and Christian took the money into his +keeping. He carefully locked it up; and at times, in the excess of +anxiety, looked over it, counted it to see that none was missing, and +made himself much ado with it.</p> + +<p>"This sum would make us right happy," he once said to his father, +"should the stranger not return; we and our children would then be for +ever provided for."</p> + +<p>"Let alone the gold," said the old man; "therein lies no blessing: +hitherto, praise God, we have wanted nothing, and by all means put +this thought away from thee."</p> + +<p>Christian often arose in the night to waken the servants to their +labour, and himself to look after every thing. The father was anxious +lest, through excessive diligence, he should injure his youth and +health; therefore, one night, he arose in order to admonish him on the +subject, when, to his astonishment, he saw him sitting at a table, and +with the greatest eagerness counting over the gold.</p> + +<p>"My son," said the old man, in sadness, "shall it<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> come to this with +thee? has this cursed metal been brought under the roof only to our +unhappiness? Bethink thyself, my son, or the wicked fiend will consume +thy blood and life."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Christian, "I no longer comprehend myself; neither by +night nor by day have I any rest; see now how it looks at me, till the +ruddy glow goes deep into my heart. Listen how it clinks, this golden +blood; it calls me when asleep; I hear it when music sounds, when the +wind blows, when people are talking in the street. If the sun shines, +I see only these yellow eyes, with which it blinks at me, and wishes +to whisper secretly a word of love into my ear: so I am obliged +nightly to get up, though only to satisfy its strong desire, and then +I feel it inwardly exulting and rejoicing; when I touch it with my +fingers, it grows ruddier and more glorious in its joy. Only look +yourself now at the glow of its rapture!"</p> + +<p>The grey-haired man, shuddering and weeping, took his son in his arms, +prayed, and then said, "Christel, thou must turn again to the word of +God; thou must more diligently and devoutly go to church: otherwise +thou wilt languish, and in the saddest misery pine thyself away."</p> + +<p>The money was again locked up. Christian promised to betake himself to +other subjects; and the old man was composed. A year and more had +already passed, and no tidings heard of the stranger: the old man at +last yielded to the entreaties of his son; and the relinquished money +was laid out in lands and other ways. The young farmer's wealth was +soon talked of in the village; and Christian seemed extremely +contented and joyful, so that his father thought himself happy at +seeing him so well and cheerful; all fear had now vanished from his +soul. What, then, must have been his astonishment when, one evening, +Elizabeth took him aside, and told him, with tears, that she could no +longer understand her husband; he spoke so wildly, especially at +night; he had perplexing dreams; would often in his sleep for a long +time walk about the<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> room without knowing it, and tell of wondrous +things which oft made her shudder. But most frightful to her was his +merriment in the daytime; his laugh was wild and boisterous, his look +strange and wandering. The father stood terror-struck; and the +troubled wife continued: "He is always speaking of the stranger, and +maintains that otherwise he has long known him, for that this +stranger-man is really none other than a woman of wondrous beauty; he +also will no longer go out into the field, nor work in the garden, for +he says that he hears underground a fearful groaning when he only +pulls up a root; he starts and seems terrified at the plant and herbs, +as if they were spectres."</p> + +<p>"Merciful God!" exclaimed the father, "is the frightful hunger so fast +grown within him that it has come to this? Then is his enchanted heart +no longer human, but of cold metal; he who loves not flowers, has lost +all love and fear of God."</p> + +<p>The following day the father went for a walk with his son, and +repeated to him much of what he had heard from Elizabeth; he exhorted +him to piety, and to devote his spirit to holy contemplations.</p> + +<p>Christian replied, "Willingly, my father; and often I feel quite +happy, and every thing succeeds well with me: for a long time, for +years, I can forget the true form of my inward being, and lead, as it +were, a strange life with cheerfulness: but then suddenly, like a new +moon, the ruling star, which I myself am, arises on my heart, and +vanquishes the foreign influence. I could be quite happy, but that +once, on an extraordinary night, a mysterious sign was impressed +through my hand deeply within my soul; often the magic figure sleeps +and is at rest; I think it has passed away, when suddenly it springs +forth again as a poison, and makes its way in all directions. Then I +can think and feel nothing else; all around me is changed, or, rather, +is by this form swallowed up. As the madman shudders at the water, and +the infused poison within him becomes more venomous, so it happens to +me with every<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> cornered figure, every line, every beam; all will then +unbind the form that dwells within me, and promote its birth; and my +body and soul feel the anguish; as my spirit received it by a feeling +from without, so into an outward feeling she desires, with agonising +throes, to work it forth again, that she may be free from it and at +rest."</p> + +<p>"It was an unlucky star," said the old man, "that drew thee away from +us. Thou wert born for a still life; thy mind tended to quietness and +plants; then thy impatience led thee away into the society of savage +stones; the rocks, the rent cliffs, with their rugged shapes, have +overset thy spirit, and planted within thee the desolating hunger +after metal. Thou oughtest ever to have been on thy guard, and kept +thy view from the mountains. So I thought to bring thee up; but it was +not so to be. Thy humility, thy calmness, thy childlike feelings, have +been all overturned by obstinacy, wildness, and overbearing."</p> + +<p>"No," said the son; "I remember quite distinctly that it was a plant +which first made known to me the misery of the whole earth; only then +I understood the sighs and lamentations which are every where +perceptible in all nature, if only one will listen. In plants, herbs, +flowers, and trees, there moves and stirs painfully only one general +wound; they are the corpse of former glorious worlds of rock, they +present to our eye the frightfullest corruption. Now I well understand +that it was this which that root with its deep-fetched moaning wished +to say to me; in its agony it forgot itself, and told me all. +Therefore are all green plants so angry with me, and wait for my life; +they desire to obliterate the loved figure in my heart; and every +spring, with their distorted deathly looks, to win my soul. With +unpermitted and malicious art have they deceived thee, old man; for +they have gained complete possession of thy soul. Only ask the rocks, +thou wilt be astonished when thou hearest them speak."</p> + +<p>The father looked at him a long while, but could answer him no more. +They went silently back to the house,<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> and the old man was likewise +horrified at his son's mirth; for it seemed quite foreign to him, and +as if another being was, as from a machine, sporting and awkwardly +labouring within him.</p> + +<p>The harvest-feast was again to be celebrated; the people went to +church, and Elizabeth, with her children, set out to be present at the +service; her husband also prepared to accompany them; but at the +church-door he turned aside, and, deep in thought, went forth out of +the village. He seated himself on the height, and looked down on the +smoking cottages beneath him; heard the singing and organ-tones coming +from the church; and saw children gaily clad dancing and sporting upon +the village-green. "How have I lost my life in a dream!" said he to +himself: "years have passed away since I went down this hill among the +children; those who then were playing are to-day serious in the +church; I also went into the sacred building; but Elizabeth is now no +more a blooming child-like maiden; her youth is gone by; I cannot with +the longing of that time seek for the glance of her eyes: thus have I +wantonly neglected a high eternal happiness, to gain one that is only +passing and transitory."</p> + +<p>Full of strange desires, he walked to the neighbouring wood, and +buried himself in its thickest shades. A shuddering stillness +encompassed him; no breeze stirred amid the leaves. Meanwhile he saw a +man approaching him from the distance, whom he imagined to be the +stranger; he was struck with terror, and his first thought was, that +he would demand back his money. But as the form came nearer, he saw +how greatly he had been mistaken; for the features which he had +fancied, dissolved away as into one another, and an old woman of the +extremest ugliness came up to him. She was clad in dirty rags; a +tattered cloth bound together some grey hairs; and she hobbled on a +crutch. With frightful voice she spoke to Christian, and asked after +his name and station. He answered her minutely, and added, "But who +art thou?"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[23]</span></p> + +<p>"I am called the Woodwoman," said she; "and every child can tell of +me. Hast thou never known me?" With the last words she turned herself +about, and Christian thought he again recognised among the trees the +golden veil, the lofty gait, the majestic limbs. He wished to hasten +after her, but he had sight of her no more.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile something glittering drew his eye down to the grass. He took +it up, and saw again the magic tablet with its coloured precious +stones and remarkable figure, that he had lost so many years before. +The form and its varied light pressed all his senses with a sudden +power. He grasped it firmly, to assure himself that he had it once +more in his hands, and then hastened back with it to the village. His +father met him.</p> + +<p>"See," cried he to him, "that of which I have so often told you, and +which I thought only to have seen in a dream, is now truly and surely +mine."</p> + +<p>The old man contemplated the tablet a long while, and said: "My son, +my heart quite shudders as I view the aspect of these stones, and +foreboding guess the meaning of this inscription. See here, how cold +they sparkle, what cruel looks they cast up, bloodthirsty, like the +red eye of the tiger! Throw away this writing, which makes thee cold +and cruel, which will turn thy heart to stone.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">See the tender flowers beaming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As from out themselves they waken;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like as children from their dreaming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In smiling loveliness are taken.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their various hues in playful bliss<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All turn they to the golden sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when they feel his burning kiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Tis then their happiness is won.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And on his kisses so to languish,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To pine in love and melancholy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then smiling in their dearest anguish,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Soon fade in soft tranquillity.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum">[24]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This is to them the highest joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The fond delight they love to cherish;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Themselves in death to glorify,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath their lover's glance to perish.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then all around their perfum'd treasure<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They profluent pour in raptur'd calm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the air grows drunk with pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Enliven'd with the odorous balm.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love comes all human hearts approving,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Responsive touching every chord;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Well may the conscious soul record,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Now I know the due reward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gladness, sadness, pain of loving.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Wonderful incalculable treasures," answered the son, "must there +still be in the depths of the earth! Could some one but explore them, +raise them up, and snatch them to himself! Could he but so press to +his bosom the earth as a beloved bride, that in anguish and love she +would willingly grant to him what she had most precious! The Woodwoman +has called me; I go to seek her. Close by is an old ruined shaft, +which centuries ago some miner has dug open; perhaps there I shall +find her."</p> + +<p>He hastened forward. In vain the old man strove to detain him; he soon +vanished from his sight. Some hours afterwards, the father, with much +exertion, arrived at the old shaft: he saw footsteps impressed on the +sand at the entrance; and returned in tears, convinced that his son +had, in his madness, gone in, and been drowned in the depths of the +old collected waters.</p> + +<p>From that time he was always melancholy and in tears. The whole +village mourned for the young farmer. Elizabeth was inconsolable; the +children lamented aloud. Half a year after the old father died; +Elizabeth's parents soon followed him, and she was obliged to take the +sole management of the large estate. Her many avocations removed her +somewhat from her sorrow; the education of<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> her children, the +superintendence of her property, left her no time for care and grief. +So after two years she resolved on a new marriage, and gave her hand +to a young sprightly man, who had loved her from his youth. But soon +all things in the house assumed another form. The cattle died; men and +maid-servants were unfaithful; the barns filled with grain were +consumed by fire; people in the town who owed them various sums fled +away with the money. The landlord soon found himself compelled to sell +some fields and meadows; but a failure in the crops, and a year of +scarcity, only brought him into new embarrassments. It seemed nought +else than as if the gold, so wondrously obtained, were in all ways +seeking a speedy flight.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the family increased; and Elizabeth, as well as her husband, +became careless and dilatory from despair. He endeavoured to drown his +cares by drinking much of intoxicating wine, which made him irritable +and passionate, so that Elizabeth often bewailed her misery with +bitter tears.</p> + +<p>As soon as their fortune declined, their friends in the village kept +aloof; so that in a few years, they found themselves quite forsaken, +and with the greatest difficulty could struggle on from week to week.</p> + +<p>They had only a few sheep and one cow remaining; which Elizabeth +herself often tended with her children. She was once sitting thus with +her work on the grass, Leonora by her side, and a child at her breast, +when they saw from the distance a strange form coming towards them. It +was a man in a coat all in tatters, barefoot, his countenance sunburnt +to a dark-brown, and still more disfigured by a long rough beard; he +wore no covering on his head, but had a garland of green leaves +twisted through his hair, which made his wild appearance still more +strange and incomprehensible. On his back he carried in a fast-bound +sack a heavy burden; in walking he supported himself on a young +fir-tree.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[26]</span></p> + +<p>When he came nearer, he set down his load, and heavily fetched his +breath. He wished the lady good-day; she was terrified at his +presence, the child clung closely to her mother. When he had rested a +while, he said: "I have just come from a very fatiguing journey among +the roughest mountains upon earth; but have, at last, succeeded in +bringing with me the most precious treasures which imagination can +conceive or heart can wish. Look here and wonder!" Hereupon he opened +his sack, and emptied it; it was full of pebbles, mixed with large +pieces of flint and other stones. "It is only," he continued, "that +these jewels are not yet ground and polished, that they fail to take +the eye. The outward fire, with its brightness, is yet too deeply +buried in their inmost heart; but one has only to strike it out, and +make them feel that no dissimulation will any more serve them, then +you will see of what spirit they are the offspring." With these words, +he took one of the hard stones and struck it vehemently against +another, so that red sparks sprang forth between them, "Did you see +the glance?" he cried. "Thus are they all fire and light; they +illuminate the darkness with their laughter, but as yet they do it not +willingly." So saying, he again packed all up carefully in his sack, +which he tied fast together. "I know thee very well," he then said +sadly; "thou art Elizabeth." She started with terror.</p> + +<p>"How earnest thou to know my name?" she asked, with foreboding +shudder.</p> + +<p>"Ah, good God!" said the unhappy one; "I am indeed Christian, who once +came to thee as a hunter. Dost thou, then, know me no more?"</p> + +<p>She knew not, in her horror and deepest compassion, what to say. He +fell upon her neck and kissed her. Elizabeth exclaimed, "O God! my +husband is coming!"</p> + +<p>"Be tranquil," said he; "I am as good as dead to thee. There in the +forest my fair one awaits me; the powerful one, she that is adorned +with the golden veil. This is my dearest child Leonora. Come hither, +my dear,<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> beloved heart; give me too a kiss,—one only,—that I may +once again feel thy mouth upon my lips, then I will leave you."</p> + +<p>Leonora wept; she clasped close to her mother, who, in sobs and tears, +half turned her towards the wanderer; he half drew her to himself, +took her in his arms, and pressed her to his bosom. Then he went +silently away, and in the wood they saw him speaking with the +frightful Woodwoman.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" asked the husband, as he found mother and +daughter pale and dissolved in tears. Neither would answer him.</p> + +<p>But the unhappy one was from that day never again seen.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i159.jpg" width="100" height="148" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> + +<h2 id="THE_MYSTERIOUS_CUP">THE MYSTERIOUS CUP.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i161-1.jpg" width="480" height="489" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i161-2l.jpg" width="170" height="226" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i161-2r.jpg" width="25" height="226" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i161-3.jpg" width="480" height="44" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> forenoon bells were sounding +from the great cathedral. On the open +place, men and women were moving in various directions, carriages +passing along, and priests going to their churches. Ferdinand stood +upon the stairs regarding the multitude, and contemplating those who +went up to be present at high mass. The sunshine glistened on the +white stones; every one sought shel<span class="pagenum">[4]</span>ter against the heat; he only had +been long standing in meditation, leaning against a pillar, under the +burning beams, without feeling them; for he was lost amid the +recollections which had risen up in his thoughtfulness. He thought on +his former life, and inspired himself with the feeling which had +penetrated his being, and extinguished all other wishes.</p> + +<p>At the same hour he had stood here in the former year, to see the +women and maidens going to service; with listless heart and smiling +eye he had contemplated the various forms. Then there came across the +square a youthful form in black, tall and noble, her eyes modestly +cast before her on the ground; unembarrassed she ascended the stairs +with lovely grace; her silken dress lay around the most beautiful of +forms, and vibrated as in music about the moving limbs. She was going +to mount the highest step, when unconsciously she raised her eye, and +its azure beam met his glance. He was pierced as by lightning. She +stumbled, and quickly as he sprang forward, he could not hinder but +that for a moment she, in the most charming posture, lay kneeling at +his feet. He raised her; she looked not at him, but was all a blush, +nor answered his inquiry whether she was hurt. He followed her into +the church, and saw only the image as she had knelt before him, and +the loveliest of bosoms bent towards him. The following day he again +visited the threshold of the temple; for him the place was +consecrated. He had intended to take his departure, his friends were +impatiently expecting him at home; but now from henceforth this was +his father-land; his heart was inverted.</p> + +<p>He saw her often—she did not shun him—yet only for separate and +stolen moments; for her rich family sufficiently watched her, still +more a powerful and jealous bridegroom. They confessed to each other +their love, but knew not in their situation what to counsel; for he +was a stranger, and could offer his beloved no such great fortune as +she was entitled to expect. Now he felt his poverty;<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> yet when he +thought on his former way of life, he seemed to himself surpassingly +rich, for his existence was hallowed, his heart floated for ever in +the fairest emotion. Nature was now friendly to him, and her beauty +revealed to his meditations, he felt himself no longer a stranger to +devotion and religion; and now he trod this threshold, the mysterious +dimness of the temple, with far other feelings than in those days of +levity. He withdrew from his former acquaintances, and lived only to +love. Whenever he passed through her street, and only saw her at the +window, that day was for him a happy one. He had often spoken to her +in the twilight of evening, as her garden adjoined to that of a +friend, who, however, did not know his secret. Thus a year had +elapsed.</p> + +<p>All these scenes of his new existence again passed through his +remembrance. He raised his eyes; that noble form was even then gliding +across the square—she lightened upon him from among the mixed +multitude as a sun. A lovely song sounded into his longing heart; and +as she approached, he stepped back into the church. He held towards +her the holy water; her white fingers trembled as they touched his; +she bowed graciously. He followed her, and knelt near her. His whole +heart melted away in melancholy and love; it seemed to him as if, from +the wounds of longing, his existence was bleeding away in ardent +prayers; every word of the priest thrilled through him, every tone of +the music gushed devotion into his bosom; his lips quivered as the +fair one pressed the crucifix of her rosary to her ruby mouth. How had +he not been able to comprehend this faith and this love before?</p> + +<p>The priest raised the host, and the bell sounded. She bowed herself +more humbly, and crossed her breast. Like lightning it struck through +all his powers and feelings; and the altar-picture seemed alive—the +coloured dimness of the windows as a light of Paradise. Tears streamed +profusely from his eyes, and allayed the inward burning of his heart. +Divine service was ended. He again offered her<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> the holy font; they +spoke some words, and she withdrew. He remained behind, not to excite +notice; he looked after her till the hem of her garment vanished round +the corner. Then he felt as the weary bewildered traveller, who in the +thick forest beholds the last gleam of the descending sun.</p> + +<p>He awoke from his dream, as a dry, withered hand struck him on the +shoulder, and some one called him by name. He started back, and +recognised his friend the morose Albert, who lived apart from men, and +whose lonely house was open only to the young Ferdinand. "Are you +mindful of our engagement?" asked the hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>"O, yes," said Ferdinand; "and will you keep your promise to-day?"</p> + +<p>"This very hour," replied the other, "if you will follow me."</p> + +<p>They walked through the city to a distant street, and there into a +large building.</p> + +<p>"To-day," said the old man, "you must give yourself the trouble to go +with me to the back part of the house, into my most solitary chamber, +that we may not be at all disturbed."</p> + +<p>They passed through many rooms, then up some stairs, and along several +passages; and Ferdinand, who had thought that he knew the house well, +now could not but wonder at the number of the apartments, as well as +the singular arrangement of the spacious building; but more than all, +that the old man, who was not married and had no family, should occupy +it alone, with only a single servant, and would never let out any +portion of the superfluous room to strangers. At length Albert +unlocked a door, and said, "Now we are at the place." They entered a +large and lofty chamber, hung round with red damask, that was trimmed +with golden listings; the seats were of the same stuff; and through +heavy red silk curtains, which were let down, there glimmered a purple +light.</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," said the old man, as he went into another room.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[7]</span></p> + +<p>Ferdinand, in the mean time, took up some books, in which he found +strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, together with +many curious plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to +him to be works on alchemy: he knew, also, that the old man had the +reputation of being a gold-maker. On the table lay a lute, singularly +overlaid with mother-of-pearl and coloured wood, and representing +birds and flowers in splendid forms. The star in the middle was a +large piece of mother-of-pearl, worked out in the most skilful manner +into many intersecting circles, almost like the centre of a window in +a Gothic church.</p> + +<p>"You are looking at my instrument," said Albert, who had now returned: +"it is two hundred years old; I brought it with me as a memorial of my +journey into Spain. But now leave all that, and take a seat."</p> + +<p>They sat down at the table, which likewise was covered with red cloth; +and the old man placed something on it which was carefully wrapped up.</p> + +<p>"From pity to your youth," he began, "I lately promised to foretell +you whether or not you could become happy; and this promise I am +willing to fulfil at the present hour, though you recently wished to +treat the matter as a jest. You need not alarm yourself, for what I +design can happen without danger. I shall make no dread incantations, +nor shall any horrible apparition terrify you. The thing which I shall +endeavour may fail in two ways; either if you do not love so truly as +you have wished to make me believe, for then my labour is in vain, and +nothing will shew itself; or if you should disturb the oracle, and +destroy it by a useless question, or by a hasty movement leaving your +seat, the figure would break in pieces. So you must keep yourself +quite still."</p> + +<p>Ferdinand gave his word; and the old man unfolded from the cloths that +which he had brought with him. It was a golden goblet, of very costly +and beautiful workmanship: around its broad foot ran a wreath of +flowers,<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> twined with myrtles and various other leaves and fruit, +highly chased with dim and brilliant gold. A similar ring, only +richer, adorned with figures of children, and wild little animals +playing with them, or flying before them, wound itself around the +centre of the cup. The chalice was beautifully turned; above, it was +bent back toward the lips; and within, the gold sparkled with a ruddy +glow. The old man placed the goblet between himself and the youth, and +beckoned him nearer.</p> + +<p>"Do you not feel something," said he, "when your eye loses itself in +this splendour?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ferdinand; "this brightness reflects into my very inmost +being,—I might say, I feel it as a kiss in my longing bosom."</p> + +<p>"It is right," said the old man. "Now let your eyes no more stray +around, but keep them fixed on the glance of this gold, and think as +earnestly as you can on your beloved."</p> + +<p>Both sat still awhile, and, absorbed in contemplation, beheld the +gleaming cup. But soon the old man, with mute gesture, first slowly, +then more quickly, and at last with rapid movement, proceeded with +extended finger to draw regular circles around the glow of the goblet. +Then he paused, and took the circles from the opposite direction. When +he had thus continued for some time, Ferdinand thought he heard music, +but it sounded as from without in a distant street. Soon, however, the +tones came nigher; they struck on his ear louder and louder, and +vibrated more distinctly through the air; so that, at last, he felt no +doubt but that they issued from the interior of the goblet. The music +became still stronger, and of such penetrating power, that the heart +of the young man trembled, and tears rose into his eyes. Busily moved +the old man's hand in various directions across the mouth of the cup; +and it appeared as if sparks from his fingers were convulsively +striking and sounding on the gold. Soon the shining points increased, +and followed, as on a thread,<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> the motion of his finger; they +glittered of various colours, and crowded still more closely on one +another, till they rushed altogether in continuous lines. Now it +seemed as if the old man in the red twilight was laying a wondrous net +over the brightening gold, for at will he drew the beams hither and +thither, and wove up with them the opening of the goblet: they obeyed +him, and remained lying like a covering, waving to and fro, and +playing into one another. When they thus were fastened, he again +described the circles around the rim; the music subsided, and became +softer and softer, till it could no longer be perceived; and the +bright net-work quivered, as if in agony. It burst in increasing +agitation, and the beams rained down drops into the chalice; but out +of the fallen drops arose a reddish cloud, which formed itself in +manifold circles, and floated like foam over the mouth of the cup. A +bright point darted up with the greatest rapidity through the cloudy +circles. There stood the image; and suddenly, as it were, an eye +looked out from the mist; above, golden locks flowed in ringlets; +presently a soft blush went up and down the quivering shade; and +Ferdinand recognised the smiling countenance of his beloved—the blue +eyes, the delicate cheeks, the lovely red mouth. The head waved to and +fro, raised itself more distinctly and visibly on the slender white +neck, and bowed towards the enraptured youth. The old man kept on +describing his circles around the goblet, and thereout issued the +glancing shoulders; and at last the whole of the lovely image pressed +from out the golden bed, and gracefully waved to and fro.</p> + +<p>Ferdinand thought he felt the breath as the beloved form inclined +towards him, and almost touched him with burning lips. In his +ravishment he could no longer command himself, but impressed a kiss on +the mouth, and endeavoured to grasp the beautiful arm, and quite to +raise the lovely form out of its golden prison. Then a violent +trembling suddenly struck through the image, as in a<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> thousand +fragments the head and body broke together; and a rose lay at the foot +of the goblet, in whose blush the sweet smile still appeared. +Ferdinand passionately seized it, and pressed it to his mouth. At his +ardent longing, it withered and dissolved away in the air.</p> + +<p>"Thou hast badly kept thy word," said the old man, angrily: "thou +canst only impute the fault to thyself."</p> + +<p>He again wrapped up his goblet, drew aside the curtains, and opened a +window. The clear daylight broke in; and Ferdinand, in a melancholy +mood, and with many apologies, took his leave of the murmuring old +man. He hastened with emotion through the streets of the city, and sat +down under the trees without the gate. She had told him in the morning +that she was to go that night with some relations into the country.</p> + +<p>Intoxicated with love, he now sat, now wandered into the wood. Still +he beheld the fair form as it ascended from the glowing gold: he +expected to see her step forth in the splendour of her beauty, when +the fairest of shapes broke in pieces before his eyes; and he was +angry with himself that, through his restless desire and the +bewilderment of his senses, he had destroyed the image, and perhaps +his own happiness.</p> + +<p>When, after the midday hour, the pathway began to be crowded, he +withdrew further into the thicket, but watchfully still kept his eye +upon the high-road, and curiously examined every carriage that issued +from the gate. Evening drew on, a red glimmer was thrown up by the +setting sun; when the richly gilded coach rushed out from the gate, +and shone brightly amid the evening glow. He hastened towards it. +Already her eye had sought his. Graciously smiling, she leaned her +fair bosom from the window. He caught her loving look and greeting. +Now he stood by the side of the carriage, her fall glance falling upon +him; and as she hastily drew back, the rose which had adorned her +bosom flew out, and lay at his feet. He hastily took it up and kissed +it; and it seemed to him as<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> if it prophesied that he should no more +see his beloved one,—that now his happiness was destroyed for ever.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>People were up and down stairs; the whole house was in commotion; all +were making a noise and bustle about the morrow's great festival. The +mother, as the most active, was also the most joyful. The bride heeded +nothing, but retired, meditating her destiny, into her own chamber. +They were still expecting the son, the captain and his wife, and two +elder daughters with their husbands. Meanwhile Leopold, a younger son, +was mischievously busy in increasing the noise and disorder, +perplexing every thing, while he pretended to further it. Agatha, his +still unmarried sister, endeavoured to make him reasonable, and to +persuade him to meddle with nothing, and to leave the others in peace. +But the mother said: "Do not disturb him in his folly; for to-day more +or less of it does not signify. Therefore I only beg you all that, as +I have already so much to think of, you will not trouble me about any +thing that is not absolutely necessary. If the china should be broken, +or some of the silver spoons be lost, or the strangers' servants break +the windows,—with such trifles do not vex me by recounting them. When +these days of disquiet are over, then we will have a reckoning."</p> + +<p>"You are right, mother," said Leopold; "these are sentiments worthy of +a governor. Also, if some of the maids should break their necks—or +the cook get drunk, and set the chimney on fire—the butler, for joy, +let the malmsey run or be drunk out,—you shall hear nothing of such +childish tricks. But if an earthquake should overturn the +house,—that, dearest mother, it would be impossible to keep secret."</p> + +<p>"When will he ever become wiser?" said the mother. "What will thy +sisters think, when they find thee again quite as foolish as they left +thee two years ago?"</p> + +<p>"They must do my character the justice," replied the lively youth, +"that I am not so changeable as they or their<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> husbands, who, in a few +years, have so very much altered, and not to their advantage."</p> + +<p>The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was +sent to call her.</p> + +<p>"My dear mother," said he, "has Leopold made known to you my request?"</p> + +<p>"That I cannot tell," she replied; "for, amid the disorder now in the +house, one can scarcely retain a reasonable thought."</p> + +<p>The bride entered, and the young people saluted each other with joy.</p> + +<p>"The request I meant," continued the bridegroom, "is, that you would +not take it ill if I brought yet another guest into your house, which, +in truth, is, for these days, too full already."</p> + +<p>"You know yourself," said the mother, "that, spacious as the house is, +I could hardly find another chamber."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless," exclaimed Leopold, "I have partly provided for that, +by having the large room in the back of the house put in order."</p> + +<p>"Why, that is not commodious enough," replied the mother; "for many +years it has been only used as a lumber-room."</p> + +<p>"It is splendidly restored," said Leopold; "and the friend for whom it +is designed does not regard such matters—he is only anxious for our +love. Besides, he has no wife, and prefers to be in solitude; so that +it will be quite the place for him. We have had trouble enough to +persuade him, and bring him again amongst his fellow-creatures."</p> + +<p>"Not, surely, your morose gold-maker and conjuror?" asked Agatha.</p> + +<p>"No other," replied the bridegroom, "if you please to call him so."</p> + +<p>"Then, dear mother, do not let him," continued the sister; "what +should such a man do in our house? I have sometimes seen him pass down +the street with Leopold;<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> I have been frightened at his countenance. +The old sinner, too, almost never goes to church; he loves neither God +nor men; and it will bring no blessing on so solemn an occasion to +have such infidels under the roof. Who knows what may spring from it?"</p> + +<p>"How now thou speakest!" said Leopold, angrily: "because thou dost not +know him, therefore thou condemnest him; and because his nose does not +please thee, and he is no longer young and handsome, therefore, +according to thy notion, he must be familiar with spirits, and a +wicked man."</p> + +<p>"Grant, dear mother," said the bridegroom, "a little place in your +house to our old friend, and let him partake in our general joy. He +appears, dear sister Agatha, to have experienced much misfortune, +which has made him distrustful and misanthropic. He avoids all +society, with the exception of myself and Leopold. I have much to +thank him for: he first gave my mind a better direction; yea, I may +say, perhaps he alone has rendered me 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 still more, money upon my bare word. +He has the Christian disposition, my little sister; and who knows but +that, when thou comest to be better acquainted with him, thou mayest +not forego thy prudery, and fall in love with him, odious as he +appears to thee at present?"</p> + +<p>"Well, bring him to us," said the mother; "I have already been obliged +to hear so much about him from Leopold, that I am curious to make his +acquaintance. Only you must answer for it, that we cannot afford him a +better lodging."</p> + +<p>In the mean while travellers had arrived; they were members of the +family, the married daughters and the officer, and had brought their +children with them. The good old lady was delighted to see her +grandchildren; all was welcoming and joyful talk; and when Leopold +and<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> the bridegroom had also received and returned their salutations, +they went away to look after their ancient melancholy friend. This +latter lived, for the greater part of the year, about three miles from +the city; but he also kept a little dwelling for himself in a garden +near the gate. Here, by chance, the two young men had become +acquainted with him: they now met him at a coffee-house, as they had +previously appointed. As it was already evening, they after a little +conversation returned back to the house. The mother received the +stranger very graciously; the daughters kept themselves somewhat +distant; Agatha especially was shy, and carefully avoided his glance. +After the first general conversation was over, the eye of the old man +turned fixedly on the bride, who had come into the company later; he +appeared enraptured, and it was observed that he endeavoured secretly +to dry off a tear.</p> + +<p>The bridegroom rejoiced in his joy; and when after some time, they +stood aside at the window, he took the hand of the old man, and asked +him, "What do you say of my beloved Julia? Is she not an angel?"</p> + +<p>"O my friend," replied the old man, with emotion, "such beauty and +grace I have never yet seen; or rather I should say (for that +expression is incorrect), she is so beautiful, so charming, so +heavenly, that it seems to me as if I had long known her; as if she +were to me, stranger as she is, the dearest picture of my imagination, +that which had ever been at home within my heart."</p> + +<p>"I understand you," said the young man. "Yes, the truly beautiful, +great, and sublime, when it sets us in astonishment and admiration, +still does not surprise us as something strange, unheard-of, never +seen; but our inmost existence in such moments becomes clear to us, +our deepest recollections are awakened, and our dearest feelings are +made alive."</p> + +<p>At the supper the stranger took but little part in the conversation; +his gaze was intensely fixed upon the bride, so that, at length, she +became embarrassed and alarmed.<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> The officer told of a campaign, which +he had served in; the rich merchant, of his merchandise, and the bad +times; and the landowner, of the improvements he had begun on his +estate. After supper, the bridegroom took his leave, to return for the +last time to his lonely habitation; for in future he was to live with +his young wife in the mother's house, in chambers already furnished. +The company separated, and Leopold conducted the stranger to his +apartment.</p> + +<p>"You will excuse it," he began, as they went along, "that we are +obliged to lodge you somewhat far away from us, and not so +commodiously as my mother wished: but you see yourself how numerous +our family is, and other relations are coming to-morrow. You will, at +least, not be able to run away from us, for certainly you could not +find your way out of this spacious mansion."</p> + +<p>They went through several passages, and at last Leopold took leave of +his friend, and wished him good night. The servant placed two +wax-lights on the table, and having asked the stranger if he should +assist him to undress, which service being declined, he also withdrew; +and the stranger found himself alone.</p> + +<p>"How, then, does it happen," said he, as he walked up and down, "that +to-day that image springs so vividly from my heart? I forgot the long +past, and thought I saw herself; I was again young, and her voice +sounded as of old; it seemed to me as if I was awaking from a heavy +dream; but no, now I am awake, and the pleasing delusion was only a +sweet dream."</p> + +<p>He was too restless to sleep: he contemplated some pictures on the +walls, and then the chamber. "To-day," he exclaimed, "every thing is +so familiar, I could almost delude myself to imagine that this house +and this apartment are not strange to me." He tried to fix his +recollections, and took up some large books which were standing in a +corner. When he had turned over the leaves, he shook his head: a +lute-case was leaning against the wall; he opened it, and took out a +strange old instrument, which was damaged<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> and wanted the strings. +"No, I am not mistaken," he cried, astonished; "this lute is too +remarkable—it is the Spanish lute of my long-deceased friend Albert; +there stand his magic-books; this is the room where he wished to +awaken for me the happy oracle: faded is the red of the tapestry, the +golden embroidery is become dim; but wonderfully vivid in my mind is +all pertaining to those hours. Therefore it was that I shuddered as I +came hither through those long, complicated passages where Leopold led +me. O heaven, on this very table rose the image, springing forth as if +watered and refreshed by the redness of the gold. The same image +smiled on me here, which this evening has almost made me frenzied in +the hall—that hall where I have so often walked in familiar speech +with Albert."</p> + +<p>He undressed, but slept only little. Early in the morning he arose, +and again surveyed the room; he opened the window and saw as formerly +the same gardens and buildings before him, only that in the mean time +many new houses had been built. "Forty years have since then +vanished," he sighed, "and each day of that time contains a longer +life than all the remaining period."</p> + +<p>He was again called to the company. The morning passed away in varied +conversation; at length the bride entered in her marriage-dress. As +the old man noticed her he fell into such agitation, that every one in +the company observed it. They proceeded to the church, and the nuptial +ceremony was performed.</p> + +<p>When they had returned to the house, Leopold asked his mother, "Now +how do you like our friend, the good morose old man?"</p> + +<p>"I had imagined him, from your description," she replied, "to be much +more frightful; he is indeed mild and sympathetic, and might gain from +one a real trust in him."</p> + +<p>"Trust!" exclaimed Agatha; "in those frightful burning eyes, those +thousandfold wrinkles, that pale contracted mouth, and that strange +laugh which looks and sounds so scornfully! No, God preserve me from +such a<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> friend! If evil spirits wish to clothe themselves as men, they +must assume such a form as this."</p> + +<p>"Probably a younger and handsomer one," replied the mother; "but I +cannot recognise the good old man in thy description. One can see that +he is of a hasty temperament, and has been used to lock up his +feelings within himself; he may have experienced much misfortune, and +so is become mistrustful, and has lost that simple openness which +especially belongs to those who are happy."</p> + +<p>Their conversation was interrupted by the coming in of the rest of the +party. Dinner was served, and the stranger sat by Agatha and the rich +merchant.</p> + +<p>When the toasts were beginning, Leopold cried out, "Now stop a little, +my worthy friends; we must have the festal goblet for this, which +shall then go the round."</p> + +<p>He was about to rise, but his mother beckoned him to keep his seat. +"Thou wilt not be able to find it," she said; "for I have packed all +the plate away." She went out hastily to seek it herself.</p> + +<p>"How active and sprightly our old lady is to-day," observed the +merchant, "for all her breadth and weight! and though she reckons full +sixty, how nimbly she can move! Her countenance is always bright and +joyful, and to-day is she especially happy, for she makes herself +young again in the beauty of her daughter."</p> + +<p>The stranger applauded his saying, and the mother returned with the +goblet. They filled it full of wine, and from the head of the table +began to pass it round, each proposing the health that was dearest. +The bride drank the welfare of her husband; he, the love of his fair +Julia; likewise every one in his turn. The mother lingered as the +goblet came to her.</p> + +<p>"Now quickly," said the officer, somewhat roughly and hastily; "we +know well that you think all men faithless, and not one of them worthy +of a woman's love. What, then, is dearest to you?"</p> + +<p>The mother looked at him, as an angry seriousness suddenly<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> overspread +the mildness of her countenance. "As my son," said she, "knows me so +well, and so severely blames my disposition, let me be permitted not +to express what I was thinking, and let him endeavour by his constant +love to falsify what he attributes to me as my conviction." She passed +on the cup without drinking, and the company was for some time in +silent embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"It is reported," said the merchant, in an under-tone, leaning over to +the stranger, "that she did not love her husband, but another who +proved faithless to her; they say she was once the handsomest maiden +in all the town."</p> + +<p>When the goblet came to Ferdinand, he looked at it with astonishment, +for it was the very same from which Albert had aforetime called up to +him the beautiful shadow. He looked down into it and on the waving of +the wine; his hand trembled; it would not have surprised him had that +form again bloomed forth from the magic bowl, and therewith his +evanished youth. "No," said he, after some time; "that which glows +here is wine."</p> + +<p>"What else should it be?" said the merchant, laughing. "Drink, and be +happy."</p> + +<p>A thrill of terror struck the old man, as he hastily pronounced the +name, "Francesca!" and placed the goblet to his burning lips. The +mother cast on him an inquiring and astonished look.</p> + +<p>"Whence is this beautiful goblet?" said Ferdinand, who was ashamed of +his embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Many years ago," replied Leopold; "even before I was born, my father +bought it, with this house and all the furniture, from an old lonely +bachelor, a reserved man, whom all the neighbourhood considered a +magician."</p> + +<p>Ferdinand did not like to say that he had known that man; for his +whole soul was too much perplexed, as it were in a strange dream, to +let the rest look into it, even from a distance.</p> + +<p>After the cloth was removed, Ferdinand was left alone with the mother, +while the young people withdrew to<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> make preparations for the ball. +"Sit down by me," said she; "we will rest, for our dancing years are +past; and, if the question is not too bold, pray tell me if you have +ever seen our goblet elsewhere, or what was it that so very much moved +you?"</p> + +<p>"O, gracious lady," cried the old man, "pardon me my foolish vehemence +and emotion, for since I have been in your house I feel as if I were +no longer myself; every moment I forget that my hair is grey, that my +loved ones are dead. Your beautiful daughter, who now celebrates the +happiest day of her life, is so like a maiden whom I knew and adored +in my youth, that I regard it as a miracle. But no, not like, that +expression is too weak, she is her very self. Here, also, in this +house have I often been, and once in the strangest manner became +acquainted with this goblet." Hereupon he related to her his +adventure. "On the evening of that day," he concluded, "I saw for the +last time my beloved one, in the park as she went into the country. A +rose fell from her, this I have preserved; but she herself was lost to +me, for she became faithless, and soon after married."</p> + +<p>"Merciful God!" cried the old lady, starting with emotion; "surely +thou art not Ferdinand!"</p> + +<p>"That is my name," said he.</p> + +<p>"And I am Francesca," replied the mother.</p> + +<p>They wished to embrace, but immediately started back. Each +contemplated the other with searching glance; both endeavoured to +develop again out of the ruins of time those features which erewhile +they had known and loved in one another. And as in dark tempestuous +nights, amid the flight of black clouds, for a few fleeting moments +solitary stars ambiguously glimmer, immediately again to +disappear,—so shone for the time to these two, lightening from the +eyes, the brow, and lips, a transient glimpse of some well-known +feature, and it seemed as if their youth wept smiling in the distance.</p> + +<p>He bowed himself low, and kissed her hand, as two<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> big tears burst +from his eyes; then they embraced each other heartily.</p> + +<p>"Is thy wife dead?" asked the mother.</p> + +<p>"I was never married," sobbed Ferdinand.</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" cried the lady, wringing her hands; "then I have been the +faithless one! Yet no, not faithless. When I returned from the +country, where I stayed two months, I heard from every one, from thy +friends, not from mine only, that thou hadst long since gone away and +been married in thy fatherland. They shewed me the most credible +letters, and pressed me vehemently, availing themselves as well of my +despair as of my indignation; and so it happened that I gave my hand +to another, a deserving man; but my heart, my thoughts, were ever +devoted to thee."</p> + +<p>"I never removed from this place," said Ferdinand; "but after a time I +heard of thy marriage. 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 wonderful that we +should never since have met!"</p> + +<p>"I seldom went abroad," said she; "and as my husband soon after +assumed another name on account of an estate which he inherited, you +could have had no suspicion that we both were living in the same +city."</p> + +<p>"I avoided men," said Ferdinand, "and lived only to solitude. Leopold +is almost the only one that has again drawn me forth and led me +amongst men. O my beloved friend, it is like a horrible spectre-story, +how we lost and have again found each other!"</p> + +<p>The young people, on their return, found the old couple dissolved in +tears and in the deepest emotion. Neither told what had befallen them; +the secret seemed too holy. But from that time the old man was the +friend of the house; and death alone parted the two beings who in so +strange a manner had again found each other, in order shortly after to +be re-united.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /><p> + +<span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_LOVE-CHARM">THE LOVE-CHARM.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i179-1.jpg" width="480" height="477" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i179-2l.jpg" width="118" height="52" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i179-2r.jpg" width="63" height="285" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i179-3l.jpg" width="63" height="231" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">E</span>MILIUS</b> was sitting in deep thought by +a table, waiting for his friend +Roderick. A light was burning before him; the winter evening was cold; +and, glad as he was at other times to dispense with his companion's +society, on this occasion he was particularly anxious for his +presence, as he wished to tell him a secret, and to ask his advice. +The shy, retiring Emilius, in the common business and the ups and +downs of life, found such difficulties and so many insuperable +obstacles, that Destiny seemed to have been in one of her ironical +moods when she connected him with Roderick, who was, in all respects, +the very opposite of his friend. Unstable and flighty, with the first +impression<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> he was all on fire; there was nothing he would not +undertake; he had plans for every thing; no project could be too +difficult, no obstacle could deter him; while in carrying them out he +soon tired, and flagged as rapidly as he had been eager and elastic at +the outset; and difficulties, instead of being a spur to urge him to +increased activity, then only caused him to fling aside in disgust +what he had at first so enthusiastically undertaken. Hence he was for +ever full of schemes of some sort, but throwing them away and +forgetting them with as little reason as he had before thoughtlessly +adopted them. Between two such contradictory tempers not a day passed +without a quarrel, which threatened to be fatal to their friendship. +Yet perhaps, what seemed at first sight only to be a cause of +division, was, at bottom, one of the closest bonds that held them +together. In their hearts they were exceedingly fond of each other, +yet each found the greatest satisfaction in being able to complain of +the way the other treated him.</p> + +<p>Emilius was a young roan of property. His father and mother were dead, +so that he was his own master. He was of an imaginative though +somewhat melancholy turn of mind; and being now on his travels to +complete his education, he had been staying some time at a large town +to enjoy the pleasure of the carnival, about which he did not care a +straw, and to transact certain business with some of his relations +whom he had not yet taken the trouble to call upon. On his way there +he had stumbled upon the quicksilver Roderick, who was living not on +the best possible terms with his guardians, and, to rid himself of +them and their troublesome admonitions, had gladly availed himself of +his new friend's offer to take him with him as a companion on his +travels. Again and again they had been on the point of separating, but +their quarrels had only served to shew them how indispensable they +were to each other. When they came to any place of importance, they +were hardly out of their carriage<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> before Roderick had seen every +thing there was there worth notice—the next day most likely to forget +all about it again. While Emilius, after first spending weeks in +preparing himself with books, that nothing might escape his +observation, out of indolence generally left the place having seen +hardly any thing. Roderick went to all the public places, made a +thousand acquaintances, and not unfrequently would bring them to the +solitary apartments of his friend, and as soon as he began to be tired +of them himself, leave them alone for Emilius to entertain. Emilius's +modesty too was often severely distressed by the way in which Roderick +would speak of his talent and knowledge to sensible, well-informed +people; for he never confined himself to strict truth; and although +for himself he said he could never find time to listen to what his +companion had to say on these matters, yet he gave them to understand +there was scarce a subject in literature, history, or art on which +they could not derive from him the most valuable information. If +Emilius was disposed to do any thing, Roderick was sure to have been +at a ball the night before, or to have caught cold at a sledging +party, and be obliged to keep his bed; so that in the society of the +most restless and excitable of sociable mortals, he lived almost +wholly by himself.</p> + +<p>This evening, however, Emilius counted on him with some certainty, as +he had promised faithfully to spend it at home, to learn what it was +that for some weeks past had been weighing on his friend's spirits. +Emilius spent the interval in composing the following verses:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Spring-time, it is blithe and gay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the nightingale sits on the hawthorn-spray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every leaf and every flower<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quivers with joy at the music's power.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The play of the gentle evening air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the golden moonlight is passing fair,<span class="pagenum">[4]</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">As over the tree-tops it whispering sweeps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And its wings in the linden's fragrance steeps.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The glance of the new-blown rose is bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the gleaming of stars on a summer's night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a bride for the altar the garden arraying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And love in a thousand flowerets playing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet brighter, and fairer, and lovelier far<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the pale little lamplet's trembling star<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which yonder my love in her chamber shews<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As she lingers at night, to her couch ere she goes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her delicate tresses I watch her unbind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From around her fair temples the rose-wreath unwind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her exquisite form to my rapturous gaze<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With each motion the tightening nightdress betrays.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And oh, when the lute in her fingers she takes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stirr'd at her bidding sweet music awakes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a thrill at her exquisite touch, from the strings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spirit of melody laughingly springs.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She sends out a song to recall him again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wandering rogue—but she sends it in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he flies to my heart with a shout of loud laughter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For shelter; and there the pursuer flies after.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, out with thee, mischievous villains, away!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But together they bar themselves in as they say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Till this shall be broken we budge not from here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Love-god we'll teach thee to know and to fear."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Emilius stood up impatiently. It was now dark, and Roderick was not +come; he was craving to tell him of his love for an unknown beauty who +lived opposite to them, and kept him all day watching at the window, +and all night waking in his bed. A sound of footsteps on the stairs. +The door opened without any one knocking, and in came two gay-looking +figures with very ugly masks on their faces; one dressed as a Turk, in +a long gown of blue<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> and red; the other as a Spaniard, in a doublet of +red and light yellow, and a plume of feathers in his cap. Emilius was +getting impatient, when the Turk took off his mask, and shewed the +well-known, broad, merry face of Roderick.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," he said, "what a dismal-looking face! that is not +the way to look at carnival-times. I and my young officer friend here +are come to carry you off. There is a great ball to-night at the +saloon. I know you have sworn never to go about in any other dress +than this dingy old every-day black; but come along as you are—it is +late."</p> + +<p>"As usual," replied Emilius very angrily. "You have forgotten our +agreement it seems.—I am exceedingly sorry," he added, turning to the +stranger, "that it is not in my power to accompany you. My friend is +too hasty in making engagements for me. I cannot possibly leave the +house, as I have subjects of importance to talk over with him."</p> + +<p>The stranger, who understood Emilius's manner, and felt his visit was +ill-timed, took his leave immediately.</p> + +<p>Roderick, however, who took it all with the greatest coolness, put on +his mask again and stood up before the mirror. "What an object it +makes of me!" he said; "it is a miserable, tasteless device after all: +don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"What a question!" said Emilius in the greatest indignation. "To make +a caricature of yourself, and drown your senses in dissipation, is +just the sort of thing you most enjoy."</p> + +<p>"Because you do not like dancing," said the other, "and take it to be +a pernicious invention, no one else is to amuse himself. How +ridiculous it is when a man is made up of nothing but whims and +fancies!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," replied his irritated friend, "I am sure I have reason +enough to remark it too of you. I had hoped that, as you promised, you +would give this one evening to me, but——"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[6]</span></p> + +<p>"But it is the carnival," said Roderick, "and all my friends and a +number of ladies are expecting me at the great ball to-night. Really, +my dear friend, if you will but think of it, you will see it is mere +disease in you to feel such extreme dislike to these things."</p> + +<p>"Which of us two is most diseased," answered Emilius, "is a point I +will not attempt to decide. Your astonishing levity, your craving for +dissipation, your restless hunting after pleasures which do not reach +the heart, but only leave it sick and weary, does not seem to me to +indicate a very healthy frame of mind. Granted, however, if you will, +that my feeling is mere weakness, you would do better in some things +to let it take its way; and there is nothing in the whole world which +drives me more frantic than a ball with its fearful music. Some one +has said that to a deaf man, who cannot hear the music, a ball-room +must look like Bedlam let loose; but to me this terrible music itself, +these infernal tunes whirling and whizzing round with inconceivable +swiftness faster and faster, seizing all one's thoughts, saturating +one's body and soul, and haunting one like so many spectres,—is not +this the very jubilee of frenzy and madness itself? If dancing is ever +to be endurable to me, it must be to the tune of silence."</p> + +<p>"Well done, Mr. Paradox," said his friend; "you have got to this, have +you? to find the innocentest, naturalest, pleasantest thing in the +world a horrid, unnatural monster."</p> + +<p>"I cannot help my feelings," said he very seriously; "as long as I can +remember, these tunes have made me miserable, have often driven me to +despair. To me they are the fiends and furies of the world of sound; +they squeak and gibber round my head, and grin at me with hideous +laughter."</p> + +<p>"Mere nervousness," answered the other; "it is just like your +ridiculous horror of spiders, and a number of other innocent +creatures."</p> + +<p>"Innocent you call them," he said passionately, "because<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> they do not +affect you; but some people feel, and I am one of them, at the sight +of these hideous creatures, such as toads and spiders, or that most +odious of all nature's abortions, the bat, their very souls shaken +with unutterable horror and loathing; to them they can be neither +indifferent nor unmeaning, because their very being is the +contradiction of their own. Truly one may laugh at unbelievers whose +imagination is too weak for ghosts and hobgoblins, and other children +of darkness that we see in fevers or in one of Dante's pictures, when +the commonest life gives us master-pieces of all that is most +horrible. No one can have a real love for the beautiful unless he +feels a hatred of these monsters."</p> + +<p>"Why feel hatred?" asked Roderick. "Look at the sea, the great +water-kingdom, full of the strangest, comicalest, most amusing +figures, the whole deep looking like a grotesque masquerade; why is +one to find nothing there but the horrible phantoms your mind makes +them seem to you? But these fancies of yours do not stop here; you +make an idol of the rose, while for other flowers you have as +passionate a hatred. What has the poor orange-lily done to offend you, +and the many other beautiful children of the summer? So there are +colours you cannot bear, and scents, and thoughts. And you never do +any thing to overcome these repugnances; you yield to the first +temptation; so that at last, instead of a person, you will be nothing +but a bundle of whims and caprices."</p> + +<p>Emilius was now angry to the bottom of his heart, and would not +answer. He had given up all present purpose of making his +communication; indeed, importantly as he had said he had a secret that +he wished to tell, his volatile friend seemed to have no curiosity to +hear it, but sat playing with his mask on the sofa in the greatest +indifference. At last he cried out suddenly, "Be so good, Emilius, as +to lend me your large cloak."</p> + +<p>"What for?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I hear music in the church yonder," answered Roderick.<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> "I have never +happened to be at home any evening at this hour before, and now it +comes in just at the very nick of time. I can put on your cloak over +my dress; and when the service is over, go on straight to the ball."</p> + +<p>Emilius muttered something, and fetched the cloak from his wardrobe, +which he flung to Roderick, who had just risen, with an ironical +laugh.</p> + +<p>"Take my Turkish dagger I bought yesterday, if you please," Roderick +said, as he wrapped the cloak round him. "It is rather too serious an +article to have about one as a plaything. Some trifle goes wrong, an +angry word or two, perhaps, with some one, and no one knows how one +might not use it. Adieu till to-morrow then. Peace be with you." He +did not wait for an answer, but ran down the stairs.</p> + +<p>As soon as Emilius was by himself, he tried to forget his indignation, +and take his friend's behaviour as absurd. He took up the white, +glittering, beautifully-wrought dagger in his hand, and looked at it. +"I wonder," he said to himself, "how a man feels that has run this +sharp steel into an enemy's breast? or suppose he was to hurt with it +the object of his love." He ran it into the sheath, and then carefully +turned back the shutters from his window, and looked across the narrow +street. The house opposite was all dark; there was no light stirring; +the dear form that dwelt in it, and at this hour was generally to be +seen engaged in some household matter, seemed to be away. "Perhaps she +is at the ball," thought Emilius; "and yet it is not like her retired +ways." Suddenly a light appeared, and a little girl, that his beloved +unknown had as a companion, and was usually with her a great part of +the day, carried a candle across the room, set it down, and closed the +window-shutters. A broken binge prevented them from completely +shutting, and an opening remained large enough for any one standing +where Emilius was, to see over a part of the little room; and here he +would sit in a trance of<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> happiness till long after midnight, watching +every gesture, every movement of his beloved's hand. Delightedly he +would observe her teaching the child to read, or giving it lessons in +sewing and knitting. On inquiry he learnt that this child was a poor +orphan whom the beautiful maiden out of compassion had taken to live +with her, and was herself educating. It was a mystery to Emilius's +friends why he was living in this narrow, out-of-the-way street, in +such inconvenient lodgings, and what he could possibly be doing that +he was seen so little in society. By himself, and doing nothing, he +was most happy as he was; all that vexed him was, that he could not so +far overcome his shyness as to seek a nearer acquaintance with this +beautiful being, who had more than once encouraged him with a smile of +greeting or thanks for some trifling compliment he had ventured to +pay. He little knew that she would sit gazing over at him as +intoxicated as he; he never guessed what wishes were working in her +heart; of what an effort, what a sacrifice she was capable to gain +possession of his love.</p> + +<p>After walking uneasily up and down his room for some time, and the +light and the child had again disappeared, he suddenly came to the +resolution, contrary to his inclination and his nature, to go to the +ball; it had struck him that his unknown must have made an exception +to her usual retired way of living, and gone, for once in a way, to +take a taste of the world and its dissipation.</p> + +<p>The streets were brilliantly lighted; the snow crackled under his +feet. Carriages rolled by, and masques in all sorts of guises past +him, chattering and humming as they went along. In a number of houses +he heard the odious music; and he could not prevail on himself to take +the shortest road to the saloon, to which people were hurrying and +streaming from all directions. He walked round the old church, and +gazed at the tall spire as it rose up majestically across the sky; the +loneliness and silence of the place forming a striking contrast to the +thronging of the<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> town. The deep porch of the church was covered with +all sorts of carved work, which he had several times examined with the +greatest pleasure, and had called back into his memory the days of +ancient art and times gone by; and he now stept aside into it for a +few moments to give himself up to his meditations.</p> + +<p>He had scarcely entered, when his attention was caught by a figure +moving restlessly backwards and forwards, and apparently waiting for +some one. By the light of a lamp, which was burning before an image of +the Virgin, he was able to make out the face as well as the strange +dress. It was an old woman with features of the extremest ugliness, +which struck the eye the more because they were set off, in a singular +manner, against a scarlet boddice covered with gold lace. She wore a +dark petticoat, and her cap also glittered with gold. He thought at +first it must be some tasteless masque that had missed his way and +strayed there by mistake. As she passed under the light, however, it +was plain that the old yellow withered face was no imitation, but a +real one. Presently two men appeared wrapped in long cloaks; they +seemed to approach the place with caution, stop, looking often from +side to side, to see if any one followed them.</p> + +<p>The old woman went up to them. "Have you got the candles?" she asked +hastily, in a gruff, hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>"Here they are," said one of the men. "You know the price; it is all +right."</p> + +<p>The old woman seemed to give some money, which the man counted under +his cloak.</p> + +<p>"I may rely on it," she said again, "that they are made exactly by the +prescription, and that there is no fear of their working?"</p> + +<p>"Small doubt about that," answered the man, and disappeared again with +hasty steps in the darkness.</p> + +<p>The other, who stayed behind, was a young man. He took the old woman's +hand, and said, "Is it possible, Alexia, that these rites and forms +and strange old words,<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> which I never can have any faith in, have +power to fetter the free will of man, and force it to love and to +hate?"</p> + +<p>"Ay is it, young gentleman," said the old woman; "but one and one must +make two before that can be. It is not these candles alone that can do +the work, though they are steeped in human blood, and moulded at +midnight under the new moon; nor the magic rites, nor the invocation; +there are many other things wanted besides these, as the artists in +these matters know well."</p> + +<p>"Then I may depend on you?" said the stranger.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, after midnight, I am at your service," replied the old +woman; "and you shall not be the first to have reason to complain of +my skill. To-night, as you may have heard, I have some one else on +hand, a fellow with sense and understanding, whom it may be my art +shall produce some effect upon." The last words she muttered with a +half laugh; and the two then separated and went off in different +directions.</p> + +<p>Emilius passed out shuddering under the dark arch, and raised his eyes +to the image of the Virgin and Child. "Before thy eyes, thou blessed +one," he said half aloud, "these children of darkness dare make their +schemes for their infernal deeds! Oh, as thou holdest thy Child in thy +embrace of love, so may the Invisible Love keep us continually in its +all-powerful arms, and our poor hearts beat ever in joy and sorrow in +the presence of One greater, who will never let us fall."</p> + +<p>Clouds swept by over the tower and the sharp edge of the roof of the +church. The everlasting stars looked down serene and calm; and Emilius +with a strong effort flung off these horrors of darkness, and thought +of the beauty of his unknown. He went back into the crowded streets, +and approached the brilliantly illuminated mansion which contained the +ball-room. A crowd was round the door, a confused din of voices and +carriages rattling backwards and forwards, and at intervals the swell +of the alarming music pealing upon his ears.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[12]</span></p> + +<p>He had no sooner got into the room than he was lost in the rolling +crowd. Dancers sweeping past him; masques running against him and +pushing him from side to side; kettle-drums and trumpets dinning in +his ear; life itself seemed on a sudden to be turned into a dream. He +passed up and down among the rows of people with his eye alert only to +find one pair of bright eyes and the brown tresses of one beautiful +head. Never had he more passionately longed to catch a sight of her; +yet, with the adoration he felt for her, he could not help being +provoked to think she could find any pleasure in losing herself in +such a stormy ocean of madness and dissipation. "No," he said to +himself, "she cannot love me; no heart that loves could seek such an +infernal scene, where human beings are turned to fiends, and wild +shrieks of laughter, and these trumpets clanging, drown every pure and +holy feeling in devilish scorn. The rustling trees, the bubbling +fountains, lute-music, and the voice of noble song streaming out from +the impassioned bosom,—these are the sounds amidst which is the home +of love; but this is the very jubilee and thunder-cry of hell in all +the madness of despair."</p> + +<p>He could not find the object of his search, however, though he had +three times gone up and down the saloon, and scrutinised carefully all +the unmasked ladies, either dancing or sitting; and the idea that that +beautiful face was concealed under one of the disgusting masks was too +intolerable to be admitted for a moment.</p> + +<p>"You are here after all, then?" said the Spaniard, who came up and +joined him. "You are looking for your friend, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>Emilius had really never thought of him. Somewhat ashamed, he replied, +"Indeed I am surprised not to see him here. His mask is remarkable +enough."</p> + +<p>"Only conceive what the strange fellow is about," said the young +officer. "He has not danced once since he has been in the saloon. +Directly he entered he fell in with his friend Anderson, who, it +seems, has just come back<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> from his travels. Their conversation fell +upon literature; and as Anderson did not know the new poem which has +just come out, nothing would satisfy Mr. Roderick but that they must +shut themselves up in one of the back rooms; and there he is now with +a single candle reading the whole production aloud to him."</p> + +<p>"That is so like him," answered Emilius. "He is made up of whims and +fancies. I have done all I could—I have even risked one or two +friendly quarrels—to cure him of this way of living so altogether +extempore, gambling away his existence in impromptus; but these +follies are so grown into his heart, that he would sooner lose his +dearest friend than part with them. This book you speak of he +professes to be passionately fond of, and always has it about with +him. The other day I asked him to read it to me, and he began to do +so. We had scarcely got beyond the opening, and I had begun to enter +into the beauties of it, when suddenly he jumped up, ran out of the +room, and presently came back with the cook's apron on, made a +prodigious fuss to light a fire, and all to do me a beef-steak, for +which I had not the slightest inclination, and which, though he +fancies he does them better than any one in Europe, few people that +have tried once are very anxious to attempt a second time."</p> + +<p>The Spaniard laughed. "Has he never been in love?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"After his fashion," said Emilius bitterly; "as if he wanted to make a +fool of himself and turn love into ridicule; with a dozen women at +once, and, if you believe what he says, to desperation. In a week he +has forgotten them all."</p> + +<p>They were parted by the crowd, and Emilius went off to the room the +Spaniard had pointed out to him, where he heard his friend's voice +declaiming long before he reached it.</p> + +<p>"Ah! there you are, are you!" Roderick cried to him; "you are come in +the very nick of time; we are just at the place you and I left off at +the other day; so sit down and listen."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[14]</span></p> + +<p>"I am not in the mood at present," said Emilius; "neither do place and +time seem the best adapted for the purpose."</p> + +<p>"And why not, pray?" answered Roderick. "It is all in ourselves. Every +time is the right time to employ oneself in a proper way. Or perhaps +you want to dance? They want men; and at the expense of an hour or two +skipping about, and a pair of tired legs, you may make half a dozen +grateful young damsels fall in love with you."</p> + +<p>Emilius was already at the door: "Good night," he said; "I am going +home."</p> + +<p>"Stay one moment," called Roderick after him; "I am going away early +to-morrow morning into the country with this gentleman. I will look in +upon you before I go, to say good-by; but if you are asleep, don't +trouble yourself to wake, as I shall be back again in two or three +days.—That is the strangest fellow," he said, turning to his new +friend; "so solemn, so serious and soberminded, he is a regular +kill-joy; or rather, he does not know what joy means. Every thing must +be lofty, ideal, exalted, for him. His heart must take a part, even if +it be a puppetshow he is looking at; and when things do not come up to +his notions, as of course most things can't, then he gets upon stilts, +turns tragical, and the whole world is going to the devil. Under every +clown's and pantaloon's mask he looks for a heart overflowing with +longings and supernatural impulses; harlequins must philosophise on +the nothingness of human wishes: and if these expectations are not +exactly realised, tears start into his eyes, and he turns his back on +the pretty show in a fever of scorn and indignation."</p> + +<p>"Is he melancholy?" asked his hearer.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly that," said Roderick; "only his parents, I think, +indulged him too much, and he has taken no pains with himself. He has +let his feelings ebb and flow regularly, till it has grown into a +habit; and if ever the usual set of emotions are put out, he cries, 'A +miracle!'<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> and offers premiums to doctors to come and clear up a +marvellous natural phenomenon. He is the best fellow in the world; but +all the pains I have taken to cure him of these absurdities are thrown +away: nothing does him any good. It is as much as I can do to keep in +his good graces at all, he is so angry when I speak to him."</p> + +<p>"A doctor would be the thing for him, I should think," said the other.</p> + +<p>"It is one of his peculiarities," answered Roderick, "to despise the +whole art of medicine from beginning to end. Disorders, he says, are +all different in different persons, and all general rules and theories +are mere absurdities. He would rather go to old women, and use their +sympathetic simples. Again, on other grounds, he despises all +prudential proceedings, and every thing like orderliness and +moderation. From his childhood he has had his ideal of what a great +man ought to be, and what his endeavour is to be to make of himself; +and one of the points of this ideal is to have an utter scorn of all +<i>things</i>, particularly of money; and so, that he may never be +suspected of being economical, or not liking to give away, or indeed +of thinking of money at all, he flings it away in the absurdest way in +the world. Consequently, with all his fine property, he is always poor +and in difficulties, and is made a fool of by every one who is not +great in the sense in which he understands greatness. To be his friend +is the most difficult of things; for he is so irritable, that if one +does but cough, it is a sign one is not spiritual, and to pick one's +teeth would throw him into convulsions."</p> + +<p>"Has he never been in love?" inquired Anderson.</p> + +<p>"Why, who is he to love?" answered Roderick: "he despises all the +daughters of earth. If his ideal were to shew a fancy for a bow or a +ribbon, much more to dance, it would break his heart. And if she did +but catch a cold, I don't know what would become of him."</p> + +<p>Emilius was again in the crowd; when on a sudden the shock and pain +which such scenes and concourses often<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> produced came over him again, +and chased him away out of the room and the house, along the now empty +streets, to his house. It was not till he found himself alone in his +own room that he recovered his self-possession. His servant lit his +candle and placed it on the table; and Emilius told him to go to bed. +The other side of the street all was dark as the grave; and he sat +himself down to let the thoughts the ball had awakened in him flow off +into a poem.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">There was calm in the spirit's depths;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In chains the demons slept;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With purpose fell to work his ill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Uprose the wicked will.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"Fling wide," he cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"The prison-gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come forth, ye demons all!"<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With yell and shout<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That hideous rout<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sprung out at the welcome call.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Tralala! Tralala!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whoop, whoop, whoop, hurrah, hurrah!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Trumpet crash and cymbal clash;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Flute, and fife, and violin,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Squeaking, shrieking, clattering;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Clarions ring with deafening din;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Now hell's chorus shall begin,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Now the fiends of madness reign;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Gentle child-like peace is slain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">In and out, across, about,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whither pass this tumbling rout?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Merry dance we, and the lights flash free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jubilee, jubilee, jubilee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kettle-drums bang and cymbals clang,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the devil drown care in the pool of despair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">With smiling lip and flashing eye<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Yon fair one bids me to her side;<span class="pagenum">[17]</span><br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet silent soon those lips shall lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And wither'd be her beauty's pride.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Death's clammy hand is on her brow—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ha! 'tis a skull that's beckoning now!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">She must die; yet what care I?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Well to-day and well to-morrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">What have I to do with sorrow?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ay, grin as thou wilt, thou pale spectre, at me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll live and dance on, and I care not for thee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">To-day that face is fresh and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To-morrow 'tis bleach'd, and white, and bare:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come then, dearest, while we may,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let us drain love's sweets to-day.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Oh, seize the moment ere it flies!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Anguish and tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Sorrow and fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have mark'd thee for their prize.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The angel of death<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Swept by on the blast;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">On thee fell his breath<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Or ever he past.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gnawing worms and rottenness,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Death, decay, and nothingness:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">These are thy doom—how soon, how soon!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou must die, and so must I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One touch of thy robe, as the dance sweeps by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One squeeze of the hand, one glance of the eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the grim king has clutch'd thee—on! on! let us fly!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art lost, thou art gone; and away stagger I.<br /></span> +<span class="i6">So why should I care?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">There is joy in despair:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">More maids by dozens at my feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With tempting bait of proffer'd sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here's a fair dame would be my bride,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And she is fair as are the maids<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That wander in Elysian glades:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall it be she, or shall it be another?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There's a bold beauty at her side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That looks as if she'd like a lover,<span class="pagenum">[18]</span><br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ready to take whate'er she can,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Provided only 'tis a man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, these mad pleasures and these sirens smiling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With cheating hopes and mocking shows beguiling—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hell's curse is on them! Is the blossom fair?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hate, envies, murders, are the fruit they bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">So fast we whirl along the stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Life is death, and love a dream;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ebbing, flowing, wave on wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Soulless, lifeless to the grave.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Nature's beauty is a lie—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">She is all deformity;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Flower and tree the mocking guise<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Which cheat our fond believing eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">On then, ye cymbals, with your din;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Scream clarionets, and bugles ring:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Crash, crash, crash! 'tis the fiend-world's knell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yoicks forward—forward—home to hell!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He had finished, and was standing at the window. Then came she into +the room beyond him, beautiful as he had never seen her: her dark hair +was loose, and hung in long waving tresses on her ivory neck. She was +lightly dressed, and it seemed she had some household matter to +arrange before retiring to rest; for she placed two candles on stands +in front of the window, spread a cloth on the table, and again +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Emilius was sunk in his sweet dreamy visions, and the image of his +beloved was still playing before his fancy, when, to his horror, he +saw the fearful scarlet old woman stride across the room, her head and +bosom gleaming hideously as the gold caught the light from the +candles, and again vanished. Could he trust his eyes? The darkness had +deceived him; it was but a spectre his fancy had conjured up. But no; +she comes again, more hideous than before; her long grizzled hair in +loose and tangled masses floating down upon her breast and shoulders. +The beautiful maiden is behind her, with pale and rigid features,<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> her +fair bosom all unveiled, her form like a marble statue. Between them +was the little lovely child, weeping and praying, and watching +imploringly the maiden's eyes, who looked not down. In agony it raised +its little hands and stroked the neck and cheeks of the marble beauty. +She caught it fast by the hair, and in the other hand she held a +silver basin. The old woman howled and drew a knife and cut across the +little thing's white neck.</p> + +<p>Then came there something forward from behind, which they did not seem +to see, or it must have filled them with the same horror as it did +Emilius. A hideous serpent-head drew out coil after coil from the +darkness, and inclining over the child, which now hung with relaxed +limbs in the arms of the old woman, licked up with its black tongue +the spouting blood. And a green sparkling eye shot across through the +open shutter into the brain and eye and heart of Emilius, who fell +fainting to the ground. Roderick found him senseless some hours after.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>On a beautiful summer morning a party of friends were sitting round a +breakfast-table in a garden summer-house. They seemed very merry, +laughing and chattering, and drinking the health of the young bride +and bridegroom, and wishing them long life and happiness. The young +couple themselves were not present; the beauty herself being still +engaged at her toilet, while the bridegroom was wandering up and down +the walks at the other end of the garden, to enjoy in solitude the +sweetness of his own reflections.</p> + +<p>"What a shame it is," said Anderson, "that we are not to have any +music! All our young ladies are put out about it: they say they never +longed so much for a dance, and it is not to be: it is said he cannot +endure it."</p> + +<p>"We are to have a ball though, I can tell you, and a right mad and +merry one too," said a young officer; "every thing is arranged; the +musicians are come, and we have stowed them away where no one shall +know any<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> thing about them. Roderick has taken the direction on +himself; he says we ought not to give way to him too much; and that +to-day, of all days in the world, his whims and fancies must not be +indulged."</p> + +<p>"He is so much more sociable and like his fellow-creatures than he +used to be," said another young man, "that I do not think he will be +displeased at the alteration. The whole affair of this marriage has +come on so suddenly, so little like what we expected of him, he must +be changed."</p> + +<p>"His whole life," said Anderson, "has been as remarkable as his +character is. You all know how he came last autumn to the city on a +tour he was making, and lived all the winter through there by himself, +shut up in his room as if he was melancholy mad. He never went near +the theatre, or any other of our places of diversion; and had very +nearly quarrelled with Roderick, who was his most intimate friend, for +trying to dissipate him a little, and prevent him from for ever +indulging his gloomy humours. All this excitableness and irritability +of temper was at the bottom nothing but disease, as the event proved; +for four months ago, I believe you know, he fell into a violent +nervous fever, and was so ill that every one gave him up. He recovered +at last, and got rid of some of his fancies; but the strange thing +was, that when he came to his senses again, his memory was entirely +gone: his memory, that is, of all that had happened immediately +previous to his sickness. He could remember his childhood, and all his +boyish adventures were fresh as ever; but the last year or two were +blanks. All his friends, even Roderick, he had to become acquainted +with over again; and it is only by slow degrees that here and there +faint glimmerings of the past are beginning to come back upon his +recollection. When he was taken ill, his uncle took him into his own +house, where he could be better attended to: he was just like a child +in their hands, and let them do any thing they pleased with him. The +first time he went out to enjoy the<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> fresh spring-air in the park, he +saw by the road-side a young maiden sitting apparently in deep thought +on a bank. She looked up as he passed; their eyes met, and, as if +overcome by some indescribable feeling, he sprung out of the carriage, +sat down at her side, caught her hands in his, and dissolved into a +flood of tears. His friends were afraid that this outburst of feeling +was a relapse into fever; he was quite quiet, however, and seemed +happy and good-humoured. He paid a visit to the parents of the young +lady, and the first time he saw her again he asked her to marry him. +Her father and mother made no difficulty, and she consented. He was +now happy; a new life seemed to have sprung up in him; every day he +got better and stronger, and his mind easier: a fortnight ago he came +here on a visit to me, and the place delighted him so much that +nothing would satisfy him but what I must part with it to him. If I +had pleased, I might have turned his inclination to my advantage: any +thing I asked he was ready to give, so that the bargain be concluded +immediately. He made his arrangements, sent furniture down, and his +plan is to spend all the summer months here. And so it has come to +pass that here we are all of us to-day gathered together at my old +place for his wedding."</p> + +<p>The house was large, and most beautifully situated; on one side it +looked upon a river, with a garden sloping down to the water's edge +full of flowers, which filled the air with fragrance; and beyond, a +long range of hills skirting the bank of the river, and magnificently +wooded. Along the front was a broad open terrace, with rows of orange +and citron trees, and little doors leading to the various offices +underneath the house. The other side a lawn extended out to the park, +from which it was only divided by a light fence. This front of the +house had a very beautiful though very singular appearance. The two +projecting wings enclosed a spacious area, which was partly roofed +over, and divided into three stories, forming<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> open galleries running +along the centre of the building, supported on tiers of pillars rising +one above another. From these galleries were doors opening into all +the different rooms in the house; and the various figures passing +along these spacious corridors, behind the columns above or below, and +disappearing into the different doors, in their various occupations, +produced a very singular effect. In one or other of them the party +used to collect itself at teatime, or for any games that might be +going on; so that from below the whole had the air of a theatre, when +it was the greatest pleasure to stand and watch the passing forms +above, as in a beautiful tableau.</p> + +<p>The young party were just rising, when the bride crossed the garden to +join them. She was richly dressed in violet velvet, with a necklace of +brilliants on her ivory throat, and her white swelling bosom gleaming +through the rich lace which covered it; a myrtle sprig and a wreath of +roses formed her simple though most tasteful head-dress. She greeted +them kindly, and the young men were overcome by her extraordinary +beauty. She had gathered some flowers in the garden, and was returning +to the house to see after the arrangements for the banquet. The tables +were set out in the lowest of the open galleries. Their white damask +coverings, and the glass and crystal vessels on them, were of the +greatest beauty. Multitudes of flowers of every hue and colour stood +in elegant vases; the pillars were wound with wreaths of green leaves +and roses; and how enchanting it was to see the bride moving up and +down among the flowers, so gracefully passing between the table and +the column, looking that all was right in the arrangement. Presently +she vanished, and then appeared again for a moment at the upper +gallery as she passed to her chamber.</p> + +<p>"She is the most charming, the most beautiful creature I ever saw," +Anderson cried; "my friend is a lucky man."</p> + +<p>"And her very paleness," put in the young officer,<span class="pagenum">[23]</span> "enhances her +beauty; her dark eyes flash so above those marble cheeks; and those +lips, so glowingly red, make her whole appearance truly enchanting."</p> + +<p>"The air of silent melancholy," said Anderson, "which surrounds her, +adds to the majesty of her bearing."</p> + +<p>The bridegroom came up to them and asked for Roderick. The party had +already missed him for some time, and no one could guess what had +become of him; they now dispersed in search of him. At last a young +man they asked told them he was down below in the hall, playing off +tricks at cards, to the great amazement of a troop of grooms and +servants. They went down and disturbed the circle of gapers. Roderick, +however, did not let himself be put out, but went on for some time +with his conjuring. As soon as he had done, he went with the rest of +the party into the garden, saying, by way of accounting for his +employment, "I merely do it to strengthen those fellows' faith for +them. Their groomships are setting up to be free-thinkers, and it is +as well to give them a staggerer now and then—it helps to their +conversion."</p> + +<p>"I perceive," the bridegroom said, "that my friend, among his other +accomplishments, does not think charlatanism beneath his notice."</p> + +<p>"We live in strange times," he answered; "one must not despise any +thing now-a-days; nobody knows what he may not come to."</p> + +<p>When the two friends were alone, Emilius turned again into the retired +walk, and said, "Can you tell me why it is that to-day, which is or +ought to be the happiest of my life, I feel so deeply depressed? +Whatever you may think of me, I assure you I am not fit for the duties +that devolve on me; I have no skill to move up and down a crowd of +people with a civil speech for every one; entertain all these hosts of +her and my relations, with respects for fathers and mothers, and +compliments for ladies; receive visitors, and see that horses and +servants are taken care of—I cannot do it."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[24]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, all that goes right of itself," said Roderick. "Your house is +capitally arranged for that sort of thing. There is your steward, a +famous fellow, with omnipotence and omnipresence in his hands and +legs; he is made on purpose to arrange these matters, and see large +parties taken care of, and put properly in their places: leave it all +to him and your pretty bride."</p> + +<p>"This morning," said Emilius, "I was walking before sunrise in the +plantation here: my thoughts had taken a very serious turn, for I +felt, to the bottom of my soul, that my life was now become fixed and +definite, and that this love had given me a home and a calling. As I +approached the summer-house yonder, I heard voices. It was my beloved +in earnest conversation. 'Has it not turned out as I predicted?' said +a strange voice; 'exactly as I knew it must be? you have your wishes, +so be content.' I could not prevail on myself to go in to them; and +afterwards, when I came to the summer-house again, they were both +gone. I can do nothing but think and think what these words could +mean."</p> + +<p>"Very likely she has long loved you," said Roderick, "and you have not +known any thing about it: all the better for you."</p> + +<p>At that moment a late nightingale began to sing, as if to wish all joy +and good fortune to the lovers. Emilius became more and more gloomy.</p> + +<p>"Come down with me into the village yonder," said Roderick; "I will +shew you something to amuse you. You are not to suppose you are the +only man that is to be made happy to-day. There is a second pretty +couple. A young scamp, it seems, what with opportunity and having +nothing else to do, got upon too intimate terms with a damsel that +might be his mother, and the fool thinks he is in duty bound to make +her an honest woman. They'll have dressed themselves out by this time. +The scene will be rich; I would not miss it for the world."</p> + +<p>The sad and gloomy Emilius let himself be dragged<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> away by his +talkative friend, and they reached the cottage just at the moment the +cavalcade passed out on their road to the church. The young countryman +had on his every-day linen smock, and his only piece of smartness +consisted of a pair of leather gaiters, which he had polished up to +make look as bright as possible. He was a simple-looking fellow, and +seemed shy and awkward. The bride was tanned by the sun, and her face +shewed very few remaining traces of youthfulness. She was coarsely and +poorly dressed, but her clothes were clean, and a few red and blue +silk ribbons, rather faded, were pinned up in bows on her stomacher. +The worst part of her figure was her hair, which they had pasted up +with a daub of fat and meal, and done into a great cone with hair-pins +straight up from her head, on the top of which they had placed the +marriage-garland. She tried to laugh and seem in good spirits, but she +was ashamed and frightened. The old people followed. His father was in +the employ of the house; and the cottage, as well as the furniture and +clothes, all betrayed the extremest poverty. A dirty-looking +squint-eyed fiddler followed the troop, grinning and smirking, and +scraping away on a thing professing to be a violin, which was made up +half of wood and half of pasteboard, having three pieces of packthread +for strings.</p> + +<p>The cavalcade halted at the sight of the new landlord. Some +saucy-looking servants of the house, young boys and women, began to +laugh and cut jokes at the expense of the young couple, particularly +the ladies'-maids, who thought themselves a great deal prettier, and +saw that they had infinitely smarter clothes. A shudder passed over +Emilius. He looked round for Roderick, but he had run away again. An +impudent-looking boy, a servant of one of the visitors, who wanted to +be thought witty, pressed up to Emilius, and said, "What does your +worship say to this brilliant couple? neither of them know where they +are to get a piece of bread for to-morrow, and this<span class="pagenum">[26]</span> afternoon they +are going to give a ball, and have engaged the services of that good +gentleman yonder."</p> + +<p>"Not know where they are to get bread?" cried Emilius; "can these +things be?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," the other went on; "every one knows how miserably poor they +are; but the fellow says he will do his duty to the creature, though +she has not a farthing. Yes, indeed, love is all-powerful: the +ragamuffins haven't got so much as a bed; they have begged enough +small beer to get drunk upon, and they are to sleep to-night in the +straw."</p> + +<p>There was a loud laugh at this, and the two unlucky objects of it did +not dare to raise their eyes.</p> + +<p>Emilius pushed the chattering fool in bitter anger from him. "Here, +take this," he cried, and flung a hundred ducats, which he had +received that morning, into the hands of the astonished bridegroom: +the parents and the bridal pair wept aloud, threw themselves on their +knees, and kissed his hands and clothes. He struggled to free himself. +"Keep want from your bodies with that so long as it will last," he +said, half bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you have made us happy for our lives, best, kindest sir!" they +all cried.</p> + +<p>He scarcely knew how he broke from them. He found himself alone, and +ran with tottering steps into the wood, where, in the most secluded +spot that he could find, he flung himself down upon a bank and burst +into a flood of tears.</p> + +<p>"I am sick of life," he sobbed, in the deepest emotion. "I cannot +enjoy it, I cannot, will not be happy in it. Oh, take me quickly to +thyself, kind Earth, and hide me in thy cold arms from these wild +beasts that call themselves men. O God in heaven, what have I done, +that I sleep on down and wear silk apparel? that the grape spends her +choicest blood for me, and men crowd round and cringe to me with love, +and honour, and respect? This poor fellow is better, is nobler than I; +yet misery is his nurse,<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> and scorn and bitter mockery wish him joy +upon his wedding-day. Every dainty morsel I enjoy, every draught from +my cut glasses, my soft couches, and all this gold and ornament, oh, +they are tainted with the poison of sin, so long as the world hunts to +and fro these thousands upon thousands of poor wretches that hunger +for the dry crumbs that fall from my table, and have never known what +comfort means. Oh, now I understand you, ye holy saints; though the +proud world turned from you with disdain and scorn when ye gave your +all, even the cloak upon your back, to poverty, and chose rather as +poor beggars to be trodden under foot, and bear the scoffs and sneers +with which pride and selfish gluttony drive misery from their tables, +rather to endure yourselves the last extreme of wretchedness, than +bear upon your consciences this vile sin of wealth."</p> + +<p>The world, and all its forms and customs, swam as a mist before his +eyes; he thought he would find now his only friends and companions +among the abject and the vile, and renounce for ever the society of +all the world's great ones.</p> + +<p>They had been waiting for him a long time in the saloon for the +ceremony to be concluded; the bride became anxious, and her father and +mother went out into the park to look for him. After some time, when +he was partially recovered from his emotion, and his feelings were +easier, he returned, and the solemn knot was tied.</p> + +<p>And now they all left the great saloon for the open gallery, where the +tables were set out, bride and bridegroom first, and the rest +following in order. Roderick offered his arm to a lively-looking, +chattering young lady.</p> + +<p>"Why do brides always cry and look so serious and solemn at a +wedding?" said she, as they entered the room.</p> + +<p>"Because they never felt before this moment the true mysteriousness of +life," answered Roderick.</p> + +<p>"But our bride here," said his companion, "exceeds<span class="pagenum">[28]</span> every thing I have +ever seen; she looks perfectly miserable: I haven't seen her smile +once."</p> + +<p>"It is all the more honour to her heart," replied Roderick, who, +strange to say, seemed really affected. "You do not know, perhaps, +that some years ago she adopted a lone little orphan girl, and took +her to live with her and educate her. She devoted the whole of her +time to the child, and the love of the dear little thing was her +sweetest reward. She was just seven years old, when one day she had +gone out for a walk in the city, and never came home again; and +notwithstanding all the trouble that was taken to recover her, no one +has ever been able to tell what has become of her. This misfortune the +noble-minded woman took so much to heart, that a silent melancholy has +settled upon her ever since; and nothing has been able to distract her +from her regret for her little playfellow."</p> + +<p>"What an interesting story!" said the young lady. "Some time or other +we may have a most romantic conclusion, and a pretty poem written +about it."</p> + +<p>They seated themselves at the table, bride and bridegroom in the +centre, looking out upon the beautiful landscape. There was a great +deal of chattering and talking and drinking healths, and every one +seemed to be in the best possible spirits. The bride's parents enjoyed +themselves exceedingly; the bridegroom alone was gloomy and +abstracted; he did not seem to enter into any thing that was going on, +and took no part in the conversation. He started as he heard music +ringing down from above through the air; but he soon recovered +himself: it was but the soft note of a bugle which floated for a few +moments over the garden, then swept across the park and died away +among the distant hills. Roderick had placed the musicians in the +gallery immediately over the banquet, and this arrangement seemed to +satisfy Emilius. Towards the end of the feast he sent for his steward. +"My dearest," he said, turning to his bride, "shall not poverty<span class="pagenum">[29]</span> have +a share of our abundance?" He desired that a number of bottles of +wine, some roast meat, and a large portion of various other dishes, +might be sent to the poor couple in the village, that they also might +have reason to remember the day as a day of joy and happiness.</p> + +<p>"Only see, my dear friend," cried Roderick, "how every thing hangs +together in this world. This chattering and running about after every +body else's business but my own you so often complain of in me, has +given you the opportunity of doing this piece of kindness."</p> + +<p>Many persons present began to say something complimentary about +benevolence and compassionate hearts, and the young lady talked of +generosity and nobleness of feeling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, speak not so!" cried Emilius indignantly. "It is no kind action, +no action at all; it is nothing. If the swallow and the linnet fill +themselves with the refuse fragments of our abundance, shall not I +think of a poor brother-mortal who has need of my assistance? If I +followed the impulse of my heart, I should soon find little from you +and the like of you but such scorn and laughter as ye gave the saints +of old when they went out and made their homes in the wilderness, to +hear no more of the world and its generosities."</p> + +<p>No one spoke; and Roderick saw by the flashing eyes of his friend that +he was violently displeased: he was afraid his excitement might lead +him still more to forget himself, and endeavoured as quick as possible +to give the conversation another direction. Emilius, however, had +become uneasy and restless. His eyes were continually turned towards +the upper gallery, where the servants, who occupied the highest floor +of the house, were busily engaged.</p> + +<p>"Who is that ugly old woman in a grey cloak, going backwards and +forwards, making herself so busy there?" he asked at last.</p> + +<p>"She is one of my servants," answered the bride;<span class="pagenum">[30]</span> "she is to have the +overlooking of the ladies' maids and the younger girls."</p> + +<p>"How can you bear to have so hideous a creature about you?" said +Emilius.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let the poor thing be," replied the bride; "ugliness must live as +well as beauty, you know; she is a good honest soul, and can be of the +greatest use to us."</p> + +<p>They rose from table, and the party now pressed round the new +bridegroom to wish him all joy, and to beg to be allowed to have their +ball. The bride threw her arms round him affectionately as she said, +"My first request, dearest, you cannot refuse; it will make us all so +happy; it is so long since I have been at a ball, and you have never +seen me dance—are you not anxious to know how I shall look?"</p> + +<p>"I never saw you in such high spirits," said Emilius; "I will not +spoil your pleasure, do just as you please; only don't expect me to +jump and tumble about and make myself ridiculous."</p> + +<p>"If you are a bad dancer," said she, laughing, "you may be sure you +will be left in peace." She ran away to make the requisite alterations +in her dress for the ball.</p> + +<p>"She does not know," Emilius said to Roderick as they walked away +together, "that there is a secret door into her room from the one +adjoining; I will surprise her while she is dressing."</p> + +<p>When Emilius was gone, and the ladies had also disappeared to put on +their ball-dresses, Roderick took some of the young men aside and +brought them to his own room. "It is getting late," he said,—"it will +soon be dark; so now be quick all of you and get your masks on, and we +will make this night a right mad and merry one. Any device you can +think of, no matter what; the more hideous objects you can make +yourselves, the better I shall be pleased—not a monster in creation +but what I must have him—humpbacks, fat paunches, all of them. A +wedding is such a strange piece of business, married people<span class="pagenum">[31]</span> find, all +of a sudden, such a wholly new fairy-tale set of circumstances round +their necks, that we cannot make it absurd and mad enough to start +them properly in their altered condition, and set them rolling along +their new road; so to-night shall be a right wild mad nightmare, and +never listen to any one that tells you to be reasonable."</p> + +<p>"Don't alarm yourself," said Anderson; "we brought a box of masks and +dresses from town with us that will astonish even you."</p> + +<p>"And only look here," said Roderick, "what a treasure I have got from +my tailor! the tasteless wretch was going to clip it to pieces for +lappets. He bought it, he said, from an old woman, who I fancy must +have worn it at Lucifer's gala on the Block's berg. This scarlet +bodice with its lace and fringe, and the cap here all over glittering +with gold, will look infinitely becoming; and then with this green +petticoat on, and saffron trimmings, and this hideous mask, I will go +as an old woman at the head of the whole troop of travesters to their +room, and we will lead off our young lady in triumph to the ball; +come, be quick with you."</p> + +<p>The bugles were still playing, and the company were either dispersed +in groups about the garden, or sitting in front of the house. The sun +was going down behind a mass of heavy clouds, and a greyish mist was +spreading over the landscape, when suddenly its last beams burst out +under the dark curtain, and all the landscape round, and the house +itself, with its galleries and columns, and wreaths of flowers, was +bathed in a blood-red glow. At that moment the bride's parents and the +rest of the spectators saw the wild troop of figures sweep along the +upper gallery, Roderick going first as the scarlet old woman; and +after him humpbacks, fat-paunched monsters with huge periwigs, +harlequins, clowns, pantaloons, spectral dwarfs, women with broad +hoop-petticoats and yard-high frisures, all like the phantoms of a +hideous nightmare. On they<span class="pagenum">[32]</span> went, tumbling, twisting, staggering, +tripping, and strutting along the gallery, and disappeared into one of +the doors.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a wild shriek burst from the inner chambers, and out dashed +the pale bride into the crimson light; a short white petticoat was her +only dress; her fair bosom all open, and her hair floating in wild +disorder down her back. With quivering features, and eyes starting +from their sockets, she rushed madly along the corridors. Blinded with +terror, she could find neither door nor stairs; and fast behind her +flew Emilius, with the Turkish dagger gleaming in his uplifted hand: +she had reached the end of the gallery and could go no further; he +caught her. His masked friends, and the grey old woman, were close +behind; but ere they reached him the dagger was in her breast, he had +cut across her white neck; the red blood glittered in the evening +glow. The old woman flung her arms round him to drag him off; but with +one fierce effort, he hurled himself and her over the balcony, and +fell, dashed in pieces, at the feet of his relations, who, in silent +horror, had witnessed the bloody scene. Above and below, along the +stairs and corridors, were seen the hideous masks rushing wildly up +and down; like accursed demons come from hell.</p> + +<p>Roderick took the dying Emilius in his arms. He had found him in his +wife's room playing with the dagger; she was nearly dressed as he +entered. At the sight of the scarlet dress his memory had returned; +the terrible scene of that night rushed before his senses; gnashing +his teeth, he had sprung upon his trembling flying bride to avenge +that murder and those devilish arts. The old woman confessed the crime +that had been committed before she died; and the whole house was +turned suddenly to sorrow, and mourning, and woe.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="THE_BROTHERS">THE BROTHERS.</h2> + +<div class="wrap"> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i211-1.jpg" width="480" height="455" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i211-2l.jpg" width="178" height="170" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapr" src="images/i211-2r.jpg" width="83" height="260" alt="" /> +<img class="wrap" src="images/i211-3l.jpg" width="74" height="90" alt="" /> +<img class="wrapfull" src="images/i211-4.jpg" width="480" height="40" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><b><span class="hide">T</span>HERE</b> lived near Bagdad, Omar +and Mahmoud, two sons of poor parents. +On their father's death they inherited only a small property; and each +resolved to try to raise his fortune with it. Omar set forth to seek a +place where to settle. Mahmoud repaired to Bagdad, began business in a +small way, and soon increased his property. He lived very thriftily +and retired, carefully adding each sequin to his capital, as the +ground-work for some new plan of making money. He thus got into credit +with several rich merchants, who sometimes<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> assigned to him part of a +ship's freight, and entered into speculations in common with him. With +repeated good fortune Mahmoud grew bolder, ventured larger sums, and +every time they brought him in a high interest. By degrees he became +better known, his business extended, he had granted many heavy loans, +had the money of many others in his hands, and fortune seemed +constantly smiling. Omar, on the contrary, had been unfortunate, not +one of all his ventures had been successful; he came, quite poor, and +almost without clothes, to Bagdad, heard of his brother, and went to +him to seek his aid. Mahmoud was rejoiced to see his brother again, +though he deplored his poverty. Being very good-natured and sensitive, +he immediately gave him a large sum out of his business, and with this +money he at the same time established him in a shop. Omar began by +dealing in silk goods and women's apparel, and fortune seemed more +favourable to him in Bagdad: his brother had made him a present of the +money, and so he had no occasion to worry himself about repayment. In +all his undertakings he was less prudent than Mahmoud, and, for this +very reason, more fortunate. He soon gained the acquaintance of some +merchants, who till then had done business with Mahmoud, and he +succeeded in making them his friends. By this his brother lost many a +means of profit, which now fell to <i>his</i> lot. And Mahmoud too had just +chosen a wife, who forced him into numerous expenses, which before +that he had not had to make: he had to borrow of his acquaintances to +pay debts; money which he was expecting failed to come in; his credit +sank; and he was on the verge of despair, when news arrived that one +of his ships had foundered, and nothing, not the least morsel of any +thing, had been saved; at this moment a creditor appeared, pressingly +demanding the payment of a debt. Mahmoud saw very clearly that his +last hope of fortune depended on this payment; and he therefore +resolved, in the greatest distress, to have recourse to his brother. +He hastened to him, and<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> found him very much out of sorts on account +of a trifling loss which he had just undergone.</p> + +<p>"Brother," began Mahmoud, "I come, in the utmost perplexity, to ask a +favour of you."</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> Of what nature?</p> + +<p><i>Mahmoud.</i> My ship has gone to pieces; all my creditors are urgent, +and will not hear of delay; my whole happiness depends on this one +day; do just lend me ten thousand sequins for a time.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> Ten thousand sequins?—You're not talking nonsense, brother?</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> No, Omar, I know what that sum is very well; and just so much, +and not one sequin less, can save me from the most disgraceful +poverty.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> Ten thousand sequins?</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Give them to me, brother; I will do my utmost to return them to +you in a short time.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> Where are they to come from? I have much due to me that is +still unpaid; I don't myself know what I am to do,—this very day I +have been cheated of a hundred sequins.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Your credit will easily procure me this amount.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> But not a soul will lend money now. There's mistrust on all +sides; not that I am mistrustful, heaven knows, but every one would +guess that I want the money for you; and you know best on what frail +threads one's confidence in a merchant often hangs.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Dear Omar, I must confess I didn't expect these demurs from +you. If we were to change sides, you would not find me so suspicious +and dilatory.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> So you say. I am not suspicious either; I wish I could help +you. I call God to witness, how glad I should be.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> You can, if you like.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> All I have would not make the sum you require.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> O heavens! I had reproached myself for not<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> making my brother +the first of whom I asked assistance; and I am truly sorry that I have +burdened him with a single word.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> You are angry; you are wrong in being so.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Wrong? which of us neglects his duty? Ah, brother, I don't know +you!</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> I have just lost a hundred sequins to-day; another three +hundred are not at all safe, and I must make up my mind to the loss of +them. If you had but come to me last week,—oh, yes, then most +heartily.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Must I then remind you of our former friendship? Ah! how low +can misfortune degrade us!</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> You talk, brother, almost as if you wished to insult me.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Insult you?</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> When one does all one can,—when one is in distress oneself, +and in hourly fear of losing more,—can a man in such a case help +being vexed when he receives nothing but bitter mockery and abject +contempt for all his good-will?</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Shew me your good-will, and you shall receive my warmest +thanks.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> Doubt of it no longer, or you will enrage me; I can keep cool +a long time, and bear a good deal, but when I am irritated in such a +deliberate way——</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> I see how it is, Omar; you play the insulted man, only to have +a better excuse for breaking friends with me entirely.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> You would never have thought of such a thing, if you were not +caught in such paltry tricks yourself. We are most prone to suspect +others of those vices with which we are most familiar ourselves.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> No, Omar;—but since such language as yours encourages me to +boast,—I must say, I didn't act so towards you, when you came, a poor +stranger, to Bagdad.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> And so for the five hundred sequins which you then gave me, +you want ten thousand from me now.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[5]</span></p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Had I been able, I would gladly have given you more.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> To be sure, if you wish it, I must return you the five hundred +sequins, though you can shew no claim to them by law.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> Ah, brother!</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> I will send them to you:—are you expecting no letters from +Persia?</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> I have nothing more to expect.</p> + +<p><i>Omar.</i> To be frank with you, brother; you should have lived a little +more closely, and not have married either, just as I have kept from it +to this very hour; but from your childhood you were always somewhat +indiscreet, so let this serve as a warning to you.</p> + +<p><i>Mah.</i> You had a right to refuse me the favour I requested of you, but +not to make me such bitter reproaches into the bargain.</p> + +<p>Mahmoud's heart was deeply touched, and he left his ungrateful +brother. "And is it then true," cried he, "that covetousness only is +the soul of men? Their own selves are their first and last thought! +For money they barter truth and love; do violence to the most +beautiful feelings, to gain possession of the sordid metal that +fetters us to the grovelling earth in its disgraceful chains! +Self-interest is the rock on which all friendship is shivered. Men are +an abandoned race. I have never known a friend nor a brother; and my +only intercourse has been with men of trade. Fool that I was to speak +to them of love and friendship! Money only it is that one must change +and exchange for them."</p> + +<p>Returning home, he took a circuitous path, in order to let his painful +emotions subside. He wept at the sight of the noisy market-throng; +every one was as busy as an ant in carrying stores into his dingy +dwelling; no one cared for the other, unless induced by a sense of +profit; all were hurrying this way and that, as insensible as ciphers. +He went home disconsolate.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[6]</span></p> + +<p>There his grief was heightened; he found the five hundred sequins, +which he had once given with the greatest good-will to his brother; +they were soon the prey of his creditors. All he possessed was +publicly sold; one of his ships came into port, but the cargo only +served to pay the remainder of his debts. Poor as a beggar, he left +the town without even passing by his hard-hearted brother's house.</p> + +<p>His wife accompanied him in his misery, comforting him, and seeking to +dissipate his grief, but she succeeded very poorly. The remembrance of +his misfortune was still too fresh in Mahmoud's mind; still he saw +before him the towers of the town where the brother dwelt who had +remained so cold and unmoved by his distress.</p> + +<p>Omar made no inquiries after his brother, that he might have no +occasion to compassionate him; he fancied, too, all might after all +have passed off well. In the mean time his credit had suffered in some +measure on his brother's account; people began to be mistrustful +towards him, and several merchants were less ready than formerly in +entrusting him with their money. In addition to this, Omar grew very +miserly, and proud of the fortune he had amassed; so that he made many +enemies, who took pleasure in any loss that he might suffer.</p> + +<p>It seemed as if destiny were determined to punish his ingratitude +towards his brother; for loss after loss followed in quick succession. +Omar, who was all anxiety to recover these losses, hazarded larger +sums, and these too were swallowed up. He ceased to pay the money +which he owed; mistrust of him became general; all his creditors +pressed him at the same time; Omar knew no one who could assist him in +this crisis of perplexity. He saw no other resource left him, than +clandestinely to quit the town by night, and to try if fortune would +be more favourable to him in another quarter.</p> + +<p>The small property which he had been enabled to take with him was soon +exhausted. His disquietude increased<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> exactly as his money waned; he +saw before him the most abject poverty, and yet no means of escaping +it.</p> + +<p>Full of pensive thoughts and lamentations, he in this state reached +the Persian frontier. He had now spent all his money, except three +small coins, which just sufficed to pay for a supper in a +caravanserai; he felt hungry, and as the sun was already declining, he +hastened his steps, in order to reach some place of shelter, where for +that night, and perhaps for the last one, he might lodge once more.</p> + +<p>"How wretched I am!" said he to himself. "How does fate pursue me, and +claim me in my misery! What a frightful prospect lies open before me! +I shall be obliged to live on the alms of compassionate souls, to bear +contemptuous repulse, not dare to murmur when the profligate stalks +unabashed by, without deigning to give me a glance, and then squanders +a hundred gold pieces on some miserable toy. O poverty, how thou canst +debase mankind! How partially and unfairly does fortune dispense her +treasures! She pours the whole tide of her wealth on the vicious, and +lets the virtuous perish of hunger."</p> + +<p>The rocks that Omar surmounted made him tired; he sat down to rest +upon a bank of turf by the road-side. There a beggar on crutches came +hobbling past him, murmuring an unintelligible prayer. He was tattered +and famished, his burning eyes lay deep in his head, and his pale form +was enough to cut one to the heart, and compel one to pity. Omar's +attention was drawn, against his will, to this object of abhorrence, +that murmured still, and stretched forth his arid hand. He asked the +beggar's name, and then, for the first time, remarked that the unhappy +creature was both deaf and dumb.</p> + +<p>"Oh! how indescribably happy I am!" cried he; "and do I still lament? +Why can I not labour? why not satisfy my wants by the work of my +hands? How glad, how happy would this miserable object be to exchange +with me! I am ungrateful towards Heaven."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[8]</span></p> + +<p>Seized with a sudden impulse of compassion, he took his last pieces of +silver out of his pocket, and gave them to the beggar, who, after a +mute expression of thanks, pursued his way.</p> + +<p>Omar now felt extraordinarily light-hearted and cheerful; the Deity +had, for his instruction, held a picture as it were before him of the +misery to which man may sink. He now felt power enough within him to +bear with poverty, or by activity to cast it off. He made plans for +his sustenance, and only wished he could at once have an opportunity +of shewing how industrious he could be. Since his noble-minded +compassion for the beggar, and the generosity with which he had +sacrificed to him his whole remaining stock of money, he had had +sensations such as he had never known before.</p> + +<p>A steep rock abutted on the road, and Omar ascended it with a light +heart, to take a view of the country, made still more lovely by the +setting sun. Here he saw, lying at his feet, the beautiful world, with +its green plains and majestic hills, its dark forests, and +brightly-blushing rivers, and over all this the golden web-work of the +crimson evening; and he felt like a prince who ruled over the whole, +and put forth his power over hill, and wood, and stream.</p> + +<p>He continued sitting on the peak of the rock, absorbed in the +contemplation of the landscape. He resolved to await there the rising +of the moon, and then to continue his journey.</p> + +<p>The crimson of evening vanished, and twilight dropped from the clouds: +the dark night followed. The stars twinkled in the dark blue vault, +and earth silently reposed in solemn quiet. Omar gazed fixedly on the +night, till his eye wandered dizzily among the countless stars; he +supplicated the majesty of God, and felt a holy awe thrill through his +soul.</p> + +<p>Then it seemed that a beam of light arose in the distant horizon; it +ascended in blue coruscation, and passed<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> as a shining flame to the +zenith of heaven. The stars retreated palely, and, like the light of +new-born morning, it flickered over the firmament, and rained down in +softly tinted beams of crimson. Omar was astonished by the wondrous +phenomenon, and feasted his eye on the beauteous and unusual gleam; +the forests and hills around him sparkled, the distant clouds floated +in pale purple, and the radiance of the whole converged into a vault +of gold over Omar.</p> + +<p>"Hail, noble, compassionate, virtuous one!" cried a sweet voice from +above; "thou takest pity on misery, and the Lord looks down on thee +with well-pleased approval."</p> + +<p>Like dying flute-tones, the night-winds whispered round Omar; his +bosom heaved happily and pantingly, his eye was drunk with splendour, +his ear with heavenly harmony; and from amid the effulgence stepped +forth a form of light, and stood before the enraptured one; it was +Asrael, the radiant angel of God.</p> + +<p>"Mount with me in these beams to the abodes of the blessed," cried the +same sweet voice, "for thou hast deserved by thy nobleness of soul to +view the blessedness of Paradise."</p> + +<p>"My Lord," said the trembling Omar, "how can I, a mortal, follow thee? +My earthly body is not taken from me yet."</p> + +<p>"Give me thy hand," said the form of light. Omar tendered him it with +trembling rapture, and they soared through the clouds on the crimson +beams. They traversed the stars, and sweet sounds waited on their +steps, and the blush of morning lay in ambush in their path, and the +fragrance of flowers filled the air with aroma.</p> + +<p>Of a sudden it was night. Omar shrieked aloud, and found himself lying +at the foot of the crag, with shattered arms. The dark red moon just +rose from behind a hill, casting its first doubtful gleams on the +rocky valley.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thrice-wretched me!" cried Omar lamentingly,<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> on recovering his +senses. "Was Heaven so little satisfied with my misery that it must +dash me in a false dream from the peak of the rock, and shatter my +limbs, that I might become the prey of hunger? Is it thus that it +compensates my pity for the unfortunate? Oh, who was ever unhappier +than I?"</p> + +<p>A figure shuffled past him with pain, and Omar recognised him to be +the beggar to whom he that very day had given the remainder of his +money. Omar called out to him, and besought him in a pitiful strain to +share with him the benefaction which he himself had bestowed, but the +cripple went heedlessly gasping on his way; so that Omar did not know +whether he had heard him, or was only dissembling, that he might seem +to have a right to disregard him.</p> + +<p>"Am I not more wretched than this outcast?" said Omar, lamenting amid +the stillness of night. "Who will take pity on me, now that all is +taken from me that could comfort me?"</p> + +<p>He fetched a deep sigh, his arms pained him, a burning fire raged in +his bones, and every breath was drawn in torture. Now he took a review +of his fortune, and, for the first time, thought once more on his +brother.</p> + +<p>"Oh, where art thou, noble-minded one?" cried he; "perhaps the sword +of the angel of death has already smitten thee; misery perhaps has +consumed thee in the most wearing poverty, and thou hast cursed thy +poor brother in the last hour of anguish. Ah! I have deserved this at +thy hands; now do I suffer the penalty of my ingratitude, my +hard-heartedness! Heaven is just!—And I too could stalk along so +proudly, and call on God to witness my virtue! O Heaven, forgive the +sinner who, without a murmur, bows to thy chastisement."</p> + +<p>Omar buried himself in pensive thoughts; he remembered with what +brotherly love Mahmoud had received him when, for the first time, he +was destitute; he reproached himself for having neglected to save him, +and<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> for not having repaid by that means his debt of gratitude: he +longed for death, as the term of his penalty and his sufferings.</p> + +<p>The moon shone brightly over the landscape, and a small caravan, +consisting of a few camels, wound slowly through the vale. The lust of +life again awoke in Omar; he cried out for aid to the passers-by, in a +voice of wailing. They laid him carefully on a camel, that they might +have his wounds bound up in the next town, which they reached by break +of day. The merchant attended the unfortunate man himself, and Omar +recognised in him—his brother. His sense of shame knew no bounds, as +neither did the compassion of Mahmoud. The one brother begged for +pardon, and the other had already forgiven; tears flowed down the +cheeks of each, and the most touching reconciliation was solemnised +between them.</p> + +<p>Mahmoud had repaired to Ispahan after his impoverishment, and had +there made the acquaintance of a rich old merchant, who soon grew fond +of him, and assisted him with money. Fortune was favourable to the +exile, and in a short period he recovered his lost wealth. At this +moment his old benefactor died, making him his heir.</p> + +<p>On his recovery, Omar travelled with his brother to Ispahan, where the +latter set him up anew in business. Omar married, and never forgot how +much he owed to his brother; and from that time forward both lived in +the strictest concord, and afforded the whole town a pattern of +brotherly love.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="trnote"> +<p class="h4">Transcriber's Note:</p> + +<p>Archaic and inconsistent spelling retained.</p> +</div> + +</div><!--main--> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of +Ludwig Tieck, by Ludwig Tieck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE 'PHANTASUS' *** + +***** This file should be named 38838-h.htm or 38838-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/3/38838/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://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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0000000..60c04e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/38838-h/images/viii.jpg diff --git a/38838.txt b/38838.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..77bc465 --- /dev/null +++ b/38838.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7621 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig +Tieck, by Ludwig Tieck + +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: Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig Tieck + +Author: Ludwig Tieck + +Release Date: February 11, 2012 [EBook #38838] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE 'PHANTASUS' *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + SELECT WORKS OF LUDWIG TIECK. + + + Tales from the "Phantasus," Etc. + + + LONDON: + + PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, + + Great New Street, Fetter Lane. + + + [Illustration: Ludwig Tieck.] + + + Tales From the "Phantasus," etc. + + of Ludwig Tieck. + + + London James Burns + + mdcccxlv. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + I. PREFACE. + II. THE RECONCILIATION. + III. THE FRIENDS. + IV. THE ELVES. + V. THE WHITE EGBERT. + VI. THE FAITHFUL ECKART. + VII. THE TANNENHAeUSER. + VIII. THE RUNENBERG. + IX. THE MYSTERIOUS CUP. + X. THE LOVE-CHARM. + XI. THE BROTHERS. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Goethe says of himself, that the first sight of a work of genuine art +was always displeasing to him. There was no correspondence between his +own mind and the object he was contemplating. It would not fit--became +galling. He was made conscious of a deficiency in himself; and the +result was, a feeling of annoyance and irritation at the cause of it. +Yet if he could overcome this aversion, and set himself to work to +understand it, in faith that ultimately he would find himself repaid, +he never failed to make the most delightful discoveries; new powers +developed themselves in himself, and beauty after beauty came out in +the object. + +It is to this cause that we attribute the comparatively small success +which the works of Ludwig Tieck have hitherto met with in +England--just because they are genuine; and we venture to affirm, with +some confidence, that if people will take the same pains, they will +find their efforts attended with a similar result to that above +mentioned. There is nothing strange in all this: there is a deep +gloomy earnestness about Tieck, an unprepossessing sternness, which +makes people feel uncomfortable, without exactly knowing why. They +cannot make out his way of thought. They feel it is deep and strong; +but as they do not start with any confidence in him as a teacher, it +serves only to make them painfully conscious of their own dimensions, +and afraid of what the strong man may do with them. For all they know, +he may be a tyrant, using his powers only for destruction; breaking in +and wasting all their beautiful gardens, and leaving them nothing but +ashes, and torn-off leaves, and withering flowers. + +More or less, there is always something awful in a purely ethical +writer. Tieck's works do not profess to be religious writings. He is +concerned wholly with the nature of man as he finds him, and with the +working of the moral laws, the natural tendencies of virtue and vice +in the system of the universe; and in this way he contrasts strikingly +with writers like Fouque, whose works have so much of a distinct +religious character. The wild preternatural spirit which breathes +through all his tales forms but a subservient part. It does but +represent the elements in which our moral nature hangs; and is, in +fact, nothing more than the very element in which we all live, only +held in a certain light that we may see it. Why he does not introduce +the real influences of the other world as revelation makes them known +to us, is a question which we need not ask ourselves; it is enough +that it was not his purpose. + +But perhaps we shall find the clue to the general tone of his mind in +the state of things in Germany, and the general condition of European +feeling at the time in which he was brought up. + +His mind broke into consciousness at the stormy close of the +eighteenth century, when Europe was rocking to her foundation, and all +faith in God was dead. The seven thousand who would not bow the knees +to the Deity of man were hanging off in fear and trembling, and +watching for the doom of the world. In France, old Voltaire worshipped +as a god. In Germany, the students at the universities caricaturing +the sacrifice of the mass at the doors of the beerhouses, and one +riding through the streets of Goettingen upon an ass, to try, as he +said, what must have been the feelings of the Saviour (Goethe, +_Wahrheit und Dichtung_). It was a time of which Jean Paul said, "Now +strikes the twelfth hour of the night; and the foul birds of night are +screaming, and spectres dance; the dead walk abroad, the living +dream." + +Tieck was born in the Roman Catholic Church; but he was brought up +without any religious teaching; and the Church herself in those dark +hours possessed but few or none of those outward marks of holiness +which could make him feel safe in trusting himself implicitly to her +guidance: the poison of infidelity was in her very heart; disgraced by +the grossest idolatry, her enemies battering furiously at her from +without, and she apparently helpless to resist them. It is not so now: +she too has felt the warm breath of spring that has since swept over +the face of the earth, and is waking her up to new life and energy; +yet, if even now such scenes as those of last summer at Treves can +shock the senses of the cultivated world, what must it have been then? +She was like a cracked bell that would not ring when it was struck. + +In a country, then, where there was no religion to which he could +trust,--no philosophy but an infidel one; in despair of external +guidance, Tieck was forced to the bold step of trying for himself what +all these systems were made of; of going down himself, and searching +the foundations on which they rested; what this nature of his really +was. He dared stand boldly up before the world, and look it in the +face, and ask it what it was. And the still more awful questions he +asked of his own heart: What am I? How came I here? What is my +business here? It is a fiery trial; and woe to him who fails! Better +he had never been born! It is a sphinx he has to answer: if he find +not the solution of the riddle, the monster will devour him. And few +hearts but will quail, and few cheeks but will blanch, and few heads +but will reel, with those bottomless abysses of scepticism yawning +round. But it is like the Catholic legend of the purgatory of St. +Patrick. Few of those who ventured in ever returned to tell the tale; +but those who did were safe for ever. A man knows too well the value +of the true, when he has been at such cost in the pursuit of it, to +risk the losing of it again. "Abdallah" and "William Lovell," the two +first books of any importance which Tieck published, shew him in the +centre of the fearful struggle, wrestling with those two first +unanswerable questions. And so at last he was content to leave them. +To the last question he wrung out an answer from the depths of his own +being; he comes now to offer it to us--a true teacher, if a stern one: +and we shall do well to listen to his words; for the solemn +earnestness which breathes through every line he has written shews how +deeply he has read the mystery of life. The tales in the present +volume were written in the first period after he emerged into a calmer +and clearer light; and to these for the rest of this Preface we shall +confine ourselves. We have said enough to account for their peculiar +character externally; and the consideration of his later writings had +better be left to another opportunity: to speak of them now would be +but criticism without an object; before long some of them will be +produced before the public, and what is to be said will be said then. +Great things have happened in Germany since that time: a literature +has sprung up almost without parallel for depth, and richness, and +originality; and schools of poetry and philosophy various as those of +Athens. Tieck has led one school, Goethe another; and if officious +followers attempted to push them into rivalry, each knew his own place +too well for such unnatural feud to endure. + +The first startling feature, then, in all the characters in these +tales is their terrible reality. In all the circumstances of the wild +and wonderful, the supernatural working visibly, and interfering in +the direction and control for good and evil of the affairs of the +world; instead of finding the persons of the same fantastic character, +such as we might naturally expect, as harmonising better with the +elements in which they work; instead of saints with power of working +miracles, or the ideal heroes of the age of chivalry,--we have the +very men and women which we ourselves are, and such as we see every +day around us. Excepting, perhaps, Goethe, no one knew his own age +better than Tieck: he is a modern poet in every sense of the word; and +that is why we claim so high a place for him. + +The true poet of any time is he who can make that time +transparent--who can let his readers in behind the curtain of their +own souls and that of the society in which they live, and shew them +what they are all doing, hoping, fearing--clear up their cloudy +perceptions, and say for them what they would say for themselves if +they could. This is exactly what Tieck does. His Emilius's, Egberts, +Ludwigs,--what are they all, but the very men of whom every day he +walked into the street he saw thousands? No matter what the conditions +be under which he pictures them working, his men are real men, not +fantastic; and that is all we have any right to require. + +Yet I may say something about these marvellous conditions in which +they appear; for perhaps even they are not so unreal as they seem. + +It is only because we are used to them that this world and the beings +that inhabit it do not seem wonderful. There is nothing in the +phenomena which surround us abstractedly more reasonable than any +other set might be which worked by fixed rules. As a matter of fact we +experience one class, but that is all. It is not that one is wonderful +and the other simple, as people seem to assume. This world we live in +is, indeed, teeming with wonders. The poet has but to hold a +magnifying-glass before it, and forthwith a thousand new forms of +beauty start out before our eyes; and what before seemed most +beautiful has become a monster. There are, indeed, poets who can +produce the highest effect without any such magnifying; and the world +as mirrored in their minds appears transfigured, its form and +proportions continuing all the same. Yet the number of such spirits +as have appeared on this planet of ours we may count upon our fingers, +and of those who are fit to read and understand them the ratio is the +same. Even Shakspere does not at times disdain the aid of the +supernatural; and the idea of nature, as Tieck offers it, even its +wildest and most fantastic form, is far deeper and nearer the truth +than is the dull, common-place, lifeless thing which most men seem to +regard it as. The question, however, is one which he will best qualify +people to answer for themselves. + +Most of the tales in the present volume belong to the "Phantasus." A +party of persons meet together for conversation on various subjects of +art and literature, and these stories, with sundry other dramas, are +read aloud by different members of the society. They are introduced +with the following prefatory dialogue:-- + +"It is not at every moment, nor every time we choose to turn to her," +said Antony, "that Nature will unfold her secrets to us; or rather, it +is not always that we are in the mood to feel her sacredness. There +must first be a harmony in ourselves, if we are to find what surrounds +us harmonious; otherwise we do but cheat ourselves with empty phrases, +without ever rising to a true enjoyment of beauty. It may be, perhaps, +that there are times when unexpectedly some blessed influence descends +out of Heaven upon our hearts, and unlocks the door of inspiration; +but towards this we can add nothing. We have no right, no means of +looking for it; it is a revelation within us we know not how. So much +is certain, that it is not above twice, or at most three times, in a +man's life that he has the fortune, in any true sense, to see a +sunrise. When we do see it, it does not pass away like a summer cloud +before our minds; rather it forms one of the great epochs in our +lives. From such ecstatic feelings as we receive then it is long and +long ere we recover; by the side of these exalted moments years +dwindle into nothingness. But it is only in the calmness of solitude +that these high gifts can descend upon us. A party collecting itself +to see it as a sight on the top of a mountain, is only standing as it +were before an exhibition at a theatre, and can bring from it nothing +but the same kind of empty pleasure and foolish criticisms." + +"Still stranger is it," said Ernest, "that the great majority of men +are so dead to that awe and wonder, that fearful amazement with which +Nature often fills some minds. If they can feel it, it is only as an +obscure bewildered sensation of they know not what." + +"It is not only on the dreary peaks of the St. Gothard that we can +feel the terribleness of Nature. There are times when the most +beautiful scene is full of spectres that fly shrieking and screaming +across our hearts. Such strange shadowy forms, such wild forebodings, +go often hunting up and down our fancy, that we are fain to fly from +them in terror, and rid ourselves of our phantom rider, by plunging +into the dissipations of the world. While under such influences wild +poems and stories often rise up in us to people the dreary chaos of +desolation, and adorn it with creations of art; and these forms and +figures will be unconscious betrayers of the tone and temper of the +mind in which they spring. In these kind of stories the beautiful +mingles itself with the terrible, the sublime with the childish, +goading our fancy into a kind of poetic madness, and then turning it +to roam at will through the entire fabric of our souls." + +"Are the stories you are going to read to us of this kind?" asked +Clara. + +"Perhaps," replied Ernest. + +"And not allegorical?" + +"As you please to call them. There is not, and there cannot be any +creation of art which has not some kind of allegory at the bottom of +it, however little it may let itself be seen. The two forms of good +and evil appear in every poem; they meet us at every turn, in every +thing man produces, as the one eternal riddle in an endless +multiplicity of forms, which he is for ever struggling to resolve. As +there are particular aspects in which the most every-day life appears +like a myth, so it is possible to feel oneself in as close connexion +with, as much at home in the middle of the wildest wonders as the +ordinary incidents of life. One may go so far as to say, that the +commonest, simplest, pleasantest things, as well as the most +marvellous, can only be said to be true, can only exert an influence +on our minds, in so far as they contain some allegory as their +groundwork, as the link which connects them with the system of the +universe. This is why Dante's allegories come so home to us, because +they pierce through and through to the very heart and centre of +reality. Novalis says, there is no real history, except what might be +fable. Of course, there are many weak and sickly poems of this kind, +which merely drag wearily on to the moral, without taking the +imagination along with them; and these of all the different sorts of +instruction or entertainment are the most tiresome. But it is time to +proceed to our tales." + + * * * * * + +And here we would gladly leave this matter, and let the tales tell +their own story. What their idea is as a whole, they speak plainly +enough; and it would be to destroy their effect, as well as to +misunderstand the whole theory of this kind of fiction, to translate +them into a series of moral reflections, and append a didactic +sentiment to them as to one of AEsop's fables. And yet English readers +will not be content with a suggestion of allegory; they will be asking +for meanings, and requiring to have the whole matter laid out before +them in fair, plain characters of black and white; so that +notwithstanding my full consciousness of the general undesirableness +and the unphilosophical nature of such a proceeding, I will offer a +few general remarks, in the way of elucidation, for three or four of +these stories, which shall put people on the scent to find the real +meaning, not only of these stories in particular, but in general of +any such as may be brought before them. Consoling myself, therefore, +with the reflection that a preface is always read, as it is written, +the last thing in a book, and that in that case my explanation can +hurt no one, and may be of some profit to those who have failed to see +any thing for themselves, I proceed. + +"Egbert," "Eckhart," and the "Runenberg," naturally form into a group +together. They are different exhibitions of very similar ideas, and it +will be enough to explain one. I should advise people, however, to +read the three together straightforward, and then try to analyse for +themselves the impression left upon their minds. Perhaps it may be +something of this sort: that a single sin unrepented of and unatoned +for becomes a destiny; a seed from which, however diminutive and +trifling it may look, a whole life of crime and wickedness shoots up +as a matter of course, perhaps inevitably. Cause and effect, effect +and cause, going on producing and reproducing each other, each +successive step leading further and deeper into the mire, return +becoming more and more difficult, and at last impossible. + +Look at Christian in the "Runenberg." He is born to a calm and serene +life of tranquillity and peace; affectionate parents--a simple routine +of the gentlest and most beautiful of all nature's choicest +occupations--far away from all temptation--secure from every danger--a +home that ought to have given him all, and more than all, of enjoyment +and content,--whose life could promise more happily than his? Yet he +has no love, no heart, no feeling for it. His sense of duty is not +strong enough to set him to work; he finds it dull and uninteresting; +he craves for excitement, for something new. The _plain_ life is not +grand enough to suit his exalted aspirations: he must go to the +mountains, to the ups and downs, and rough and rugged ways of the +world, where he may climb, and hunt, and seek a broader range for +activity and enjoyment; he does not think of asking leave--he goes; he +never regrets leaving home; and at first finds all bright, and gay, +and delightful sunshine. The happy, happy hunting-time; and who so +happy in it as Christian? But it soon palls--it does not satisfy. The +cup is poisoned, there is a gall and wormwood in the taste the sweet +leaves behind; and again he thinks of home. He sings his old song; but +the words come wearily and listlessly--he has no heart for hunting any +more. He wishes to be at home again; but he makes no effort. The +mysterious mandrake in sympathy with his old life wakes up and speaks +to him. It is the warning-voice of conscience; but he dreams on. The +tempter comes, and he is lost irretrievably. The moment of return is +offered--now or never! and he refuses. He does not stay among the +mountains; he flies away to the plains beyond; he flings off, as he +fondly believes, the dark mysterious incidents of that night, as a +wild and impious dream; he thinks he is what he was; away he goes +again to the plains to his old employment, and he is happy, +industrious, contented in it. Every thing again looks smooth, and +bright, and beautiful; but he has not _gone back_, and now he may not. +What should have been for his peace, now is but a further snare to +make him fancy all is right with him. He does indeed set out to seek +his father, but wearily and unwillingly. His way would have led him +back over the mountains; but there he is not permitted to go. The +object of his journey comes to meet him; they go back together; he +becomes more and more prosperous, and sinks deeper and deeper into his +fatal delusion. Yet the fatal tablet is in his heart, the bond by +which he is bound to evil; even on his wedding-night he cannot forget +the giver. At length the long-smothered poison burst out with all its +fury, and flowers touch his heart no more. He curses them and nature; +the warning mandrake, instead of the voice of conscience, is but a +revelation of the power of evil. It has but taught him to despair, and +seek his friends elsewhere; and he is lost for ever. + +Of the more awful person in this fearful story I will not speak; but +for the outline of the fate of Christian, who can look round him into +the most ordinary life, and not see innumerable instances of it? The +burden of the other two stories is very similar: the way to understand +them is to try and analyse the feelings left on our mind by the whole, +and not distract ourselves by assuming a fancied meaning, and +speculating with the particulars to make each fragment fit our theory. +Do not let us perplex ourselves to find out what the little dog is, +what is the meaning of the bird, and the old woman. They may have many +meanings; but we shall never find them by beginning at that end. It is +only by the light of the whole that the parts become intelligible. + +"The Love-charm" is a work of a different nature; it is one of the +most remarkable of all Tieck's writings, and, as far as we know, +stands alone among the productions of modern art. With the help of a +popular German superstition, he has woven a tragedy out of the +ordinary events of every-day life, the spirit of which approaches as +near as modern thought can be made to approach to the fatalism of the +Greek drama. A destiny of some kind, either moral or external, is +essential to tragedy. What we mean by "the terrible" as applied to +human action, is, that the free will of man is laid under the +influence of some external power, which he has little or no ability to +resist, which hurries him on through a series of action and incident, +from which, if in full possession of his self-control, he would shrink +in horror. Thus, in common life the crimes men commit under the +influence of any of the loftier passions, such as love or revenge, or +when goaded on by famine or despair, or which men do in ignorance, +when the ignorance may partially, but not entirely, be their own +fault, are terrible, and therefore tragic. The individual seems to be +sacrificed, not to deserve all that has fallen on him; his fate +becomes one of the startling mysteries of life. The meaner or more +selfish the passion under which the crime is committed, or the cooler +and more deliberate the action, the more what he does loses the +character of tragic, and becomes merely disgusting. Pity goes with +terror, and in such cases there can be no pity. The destiny in +Shakspere's tragedies is a moral one; not an external power +constraining, but an internal power impelling; working not against, +but in and through the will. Such was the influence of his father's +spirit on Hamlet, Hecate and the Witches on Macbeth, Iago's intellect +on Othello, and so on with the rest. The Greek destiny, though in our +way of thinking less human, is more terrible even than that of +Shakspere. The sins of the fathers visited on the children, curses +continuing to work generation after generation, and the helpless +struggle of the victim only precipitating him into a darker +doom--there is a stern grandeur about this form of thought; it is a +feature of a broader philosophy than ours to bear to see the +individual sacrificed, and believe that in some mysterious way the +well-being of the whole is furthered by it, "with calm self-surrender +to hear the murderer's hand upon a brother's throat, yet stand with +upturned unquailing eyes before the everlasting Providence." It is a +scheme of thought so unlike ours that we can hardly realise it, it is +so like a monster to us. Yet this Love-charm is an attempt to do it; +and although the spell is but over a single person, and forms no +portion of a broad scheme of Providence; although for the stately +forms of kings and heroes stalking across the stage, we have but the +ball-going ladies and gentlemen of the eighteenth century, and but an +old witch for the Delphic oracle, or the gods appearing in visible +form; few people can rise from reading it without having been made to +feel that this life, after all, is a stranger thing than they have +been in the habit of imagining. + +Emilius's character is eminently tragic. He has every feature which +can interest us, without that moral or religious force in him which +would make us feel shocked at his fate. The Greeks felt that good and +holy men were no fitter subjects of tragedy than very wicked ones. +There is something revolting ([Greek: miarhon]) in the idea that a +good man can be allowed even in ignorance to fall into crime. Whatever +be the mysterious ways of Providence; whatever fearful power there may +be abroad, working on and influencing the destinies of mankind; what +indeed is the meaning of the prince of the power of the air, or +whether there be really such an element as chance; this, at least, we +must believe, that the good man is in the hands of the Highest, and +that the laws of nature would sooner be reversed than he be let fall +from His hands. But Emilius is a dreamer, whose power exhausts itself +in speculation, and never acts at all except on impulse: without +firmness, without will to give oneness of design and consistency to +his actions, this character--which is _no law_ to itself, which will +not command itself, no matter how pure may be in general its purposes, +or how lofty its aspirations--is exactly the one most open to be laid +under the spell of some other force. Every man's life, taken from +beginning to end, looked back upon presents an exhibition of some one +law or principle; whatever it be, in the end it is found to be +tolerably uniform and consistent: its principle may be an internal one +of will and conscience; if it is not this, if it grows not out of +self-command, it is pretty sure to be some more fatally perilous one. + +Emilius is admirably worked throughout. Contrast his feelings towards +man and nature, and life and love, as they appear in the first short +poem, and what they have become a few hours later, merely from the +excitement and irritation produced by the ball. The scene of the +village-marriage, the young man's warmth and nobleness, and exquisite +susceptibility, are introduced to heighten our pity for his fate; +while the way in which he is led to it, in a dreamy mood, listlessly +yielding to the caprice of a wayward companion, and not from any real +wish to find out want and relieve suffering, reduces the value of the +action to a mere gratification of a passion, and thus, while it +deepens our sympathy, adds nothing to our respect. The concluding +scene is so magnificent, that we cannot run the risk of injuring its +effect by offering any criticism on it; and with these few words we +leave the "Love-charm." + +In "Eckhart" and the "Runenberg" we have seen some of the moral trials +which meet men on first starting into life. In the "Friends" we have +the lighter kind of speculative. A very little philosophy serves to +teach us how very unreal every thing is that passes before our eyes; +how it all takes a colouring from our spirits; how the very same thing +appears almost contradictory to different people, or to the same +person in different moods; that we do not so much see things +themselves, as our own image thrown into them. Accordingly, men begin +to crave for a truer insight; they try to clear their intellect of the +gauzy film of feeling, and see things as they are. Ludwig, a young +indolent dreamer, full of all this kind of sentimental longing to be +rid of sentimentality, is on his way to visit a sick friend. He sits +down in the heat of the day under a tree to indulge in the pleasure of +a little disconsolate reflection on his friend's melancholy letter, +and insensibly falls off into a sleep, and dreams. At once he finds +all the difficulties of the world solved for him, all his highest +aspirations satisfied. The chasm that divides the worlds of sense and +spirit is bridged over; his mind meets its true objects. The earth he +despised he is now relieved from; the deceptions of nature all vanish; +he sees things as they are; he is in the real world of truth and +beauty; nothing is subjective any longer; he breathes a real genuine +objectivity; all mortal weaknesses, and with them love, may not enter +here; the phantoms of his childhood flit before him again, but no +longer as they were; they are transfigured into the cold sublimity of +Grecian goddesses. Alas! he is far from satisfied; after the first few +days of rapture, he would gladly be on earth again. He wished to be as +the gods; his wish is granted, and among the gods he cannot live. This +cold world may be a very grand place, but it is not for such as him. +Like Lessing's Phoenix, at first sight the dwellers here seem +beautiful beyond all conception; the second glance shews that if a man +will be like them he must be content to be the only one of his race, +with none to love him and none that he can love. "He is like the +spirits he can comprehend, not like them." The truth he sought, he +finds he has left behind; the old earth is his true home; and men, be +they what they will, are his brothers. His friend comes to meet him; +but he does not know him again, because here for the first time he +sees him as he is, while before he had only seen in him the image of +himself. If this be truth, he is sick of it; he sighs for the +deception again, if deception it was that had been so delightful; he +wakes to find his vision but a dream, in the sweet reality of his +friend's embrace. + +The "Elves," the last story which we shall notice, is of a far more +solemn character; with all its beauty, it has a sad dirge-like tone. +Written fourteen years later than the others, it is now the true +poet's lament over the hard insensibility of the world to its true +good. The world of spirit lies stretched out under the eyes of the +children of earth; the invisible visible; but from earth and to +earthly perceptions, dull, gloomy, unattractive. To the busy practical +man of business, to the prudential economist, the man of +understanding, the workers in it seem but idle, worthless vagabonds; +these lazy good-for-nothings, that scarcely till the ground, are never +seen at church, and shew no symptom of respectability; why do they +cumber the earth? the talk is of cage and pillory for them; no child +of theirs may approach the unhallowed precincts. Accident leads a +young girl beyond the boundary, and then how changed is every thing! +The dull scene has become more brilliant than the gardens of Aladdin; +scales fall from her eyes; now it is the old world that is dark and +gloomy. Down among the mysteries of the fountains of Nature, she sees +her now no longer yielding reluctantly an unwilling pittance to the +sweat of the labour of man, but _uncursed_. At the word of the +dwellers in that enchanted land, her choicest fruits and flowers she +pours out in lavish abundance. The spirits of the elements work +visibly there, and the mortal sees them, and knows now who are the +true benefactors of mankind. Time and space exist not for these pure +beings. Seven years are gone in one night, and the narrow fir-clump +contains the garden of Eden. + +The mortal goes back to earth: what she has seen she may not tell. +These esoteric secrets of the poet are not for the crawling animal who +cannot hold himself upright, nor turn his eyes to heaven, and who only +knows the sun by the sight of his own shadow: but one of them she +weds; and the child of these two--oh, what may we not hope from that +child! Alas, in vain! In vain, from the secret labours of these +beautiful beings, the brooks run fresh and full, and the fields +overflow with plenty. Men will not see; in the midst of their +abundance they curse the author of it. In an evil hour of weakness the +initiated betrays the secret, and then all is gone. The gloom of the +fir-clump vanishes; it becomes like any other. The gipsy rabble are +gone; what all men hated, they are relieved of; but with this comes +the loss, too, of all they prized--their corn, their wine, and +fruitful trees. Famine comes, and drought and pestilence; the elfin +child dies, and all is ruin and disaster. They see not their tokens. +There is not one prophet more. What a deep philosophy runs through all +this! + +Have we heard our prophets? At the end of the last century one said:-- + +"Yes, another era is already dawning upon earth, when it shall be +light, when man shall wake from high and lofty dreams; and these +dreams he shall find realised, and that he has lost nothing but sleep. + +"The rocks and stones which two veiled figures, Sin and Destiny, like +Deucalion and Pyrrha, fling behind them at their true prophet, shall +rise and be new men. + +"And at the sunset gate of this age stands written, 'Here lies the way +to wisdom and to virtue;' as at the west gate of the Chersonese the +proud writing, 'Here lies the way to Byzantium.' + +"O eternal Providence, thou wilt that it shall be light!" + +Whether this prophecy be fulfilled or fulfilling, and whether Germany +has yet done any thing to the accomplishment of it, is for time to +shew. So much is clear, that not here in England only, but all Europe +over, there is a move forward--a cry of hunger and thirst for +something deeper and truer; and to this move no living man has more +contributed than Ludwig Tieck. He is the last, the only survivor of +the noble band of German poets; and Europe has not a man of whom she +is more justly proud. + +The morning of his life broke in storm and tempest. Like some infant +river just starting from its snowy cradle in its native mountains, +foaming and dashing down its narrow bed, bounding from rock to rock, +and powdering the air with vapour, which catches the sun's rays as it +rises, and shivers them into a thousand brilliant hues,--his strong +mind broke fiercely and impetuously from the clouds of error, and +unbelief, and freezing scepticism, in which it was nurtured; at first, +with loud questionings of fate, troubled and dark, yet, with all its +fallings, flinging round itself in the wildest profusion rays and +flashes of exquisite beauty. It rolls on down from its mountains; it +has swept now over every rock and shoal, and flows on calm, serene, +and deep, and clear through smiling fields, and woods, and villages, +and happy men and women, bearing on its broad bosom all who trust +themselves on it for profit or enjoyment, from the tiny pleasure-boat +of the young lover to the tall ship sweeping proudly forward, laden +with the choicest fruits and produce of every clime. As the heavens +draw up the water from the ocean, and, lading their clouds with it, +bear it off into the centre of huge continents, and with it start new +fountains into life, which again, winding as veins through all lands, +and scattering blessings as they go, flow back at last into their +parent sea,--so in all ages pure wisdom, entering into lofty spirits, +sends them down through their generation, scoring out deep channels on +it as they pass: the stream of life and light makes its way again to +the source from which it came; but with this mortal life it ceases not +to flow: its recipients become the veins of the world, and while the +world lasts they endure--as the channels of truth where men drink and +live. And one of them is TIECK. + + J. A. F. + + + + +THE RECONCILIATION. + + +Twilight was already gathering, when a young knight, mounted on his +charger, trotted through a lonely vale: the clouds grew gradually +darker, and the glow of evening paler: a little brook murmured softly +along, concealed by the mountain bushes that overhung it. + +The knight sighed, and surrendered himself to thought; the bridle hung +loose on the horse's neck; the steed itself no longer felt the rider's +spur, and now paced slowly along the narrow path that wound round the +precipitous rock. + +The noise of the little brook waxed louder; the clang of the hoof rung +through the solitude; the shades of evening grew deeper, and the ruins +of an old castle lay wondrously poised on the precipice of the +opposite mountain. The knight became more and more absorbed in +thought; he gazed fixedly and vacantly on the darkness, scarcely +noticing the objects that environed him. + +Now the moon rose behind him: her splendour tipped tree and shrub with +gold: the valley narrowed apace, and the shadow of the knight reached +to the opposite hill: the streamlet went foaming, all silver, over the +broken rocks, and a nightingale began her ravishing song, till it soon +sounded clearer from the forest. The knight now saw a crooked-grown +willow before him, that fell over the brook, while the water flowed +through its weeping branches. On a nearer approach, its dark outline +assumed a more decided form, and he now distinctly descried the figure +of a monk, bending low over the stream. He let the faint ripple flow +through the hollow of his hand, while a low and plaintive voice +exclaimed, "She comes not, she comes not! ah, in an eternity she'll +not float by!" + +The steed shied: a sudden dread took possession of the rider: he +struck both spurs into his charger's flanks, and loudly neighing, it +galloped away with him. + +The narrow path now grew wider, and led into a thick wood of oak, +through whose densely woven branches the moon could but sparely shoot +her beams. The knight soon stood before a cave, from which a small +fire shone invitation towards him: he alighted, tied his horse to a +tree, and entered the hollow. + +Before a wooden crucifix kneeled an aged hermit in deep devotion; he +was not aware of the knight's entrance, but still continued in fervent +prayer. A long white beard flowed down over his breast: years had +ploughed deep furrows in his brow: his eyes were dim: he had the +seeming of a saint. The knight took his stand at some distance from +him, folded his hands across his breast, and repeated some Ave-Marias. +Then the old man arose, dried a tear in his eye, and observed the +stranger in his dwelling. + +"Welcome to thee!" cried he, and offered the stranger a hand trembling +with age. + +The knight pressed it warmly; he felt his soul yearn towards him, and +his reverence was transmuted into love. + +"You did right to turn in here," continued the hermit, "for you will +not find a village or a hostelry for many a league. But why so silent? +Draw near to the fire and rest, and I will serve up such a little meal +as this cave of mine can best supply." + +The knight took the helmet from his head: his brown locks fell adown +his neck: the old man gazed on him with a searching glance. + +"Why does your eye wander so shily and unfixedly about?" he resumed, +in a friendly tone. + +The knight seemed to be collecting his thoughts. "A strange feeling of +awe," replied he, "has seized on me since riding through that valley. +Explain to me, if you can, the singular phenomenon which I there +beheld: or perhaps it is not a spirit, but an inhabitant of these +parts: and yet that is impossible; I saw him wave to and fro like the +misty vapour in the gleam of the rising moon; and a cold thrill of +fear drove me this way. Explain to me the riddle and the words which I +heard through the whispering of the bushes." + +"You saw the apparition?" said the hermit inquiringly, in a tone which +betrayed a warm interest in the event; "well, be seated at the fire, +and I will tell you the unhappy tale." + +Both took their places. The old man appeared lost in thought. The +knight was all attention; and after a short silence the hermit began: + +"It is now thirty years since I roamed the land in quest of adventures +and strife, just as you do now; since my locks flowed, just as yours +do, over my shoulders, and my glance with equal boldness confronted +danger. Grief has made me a decrepit old man before my time; not a +trace can you now discover of the lusty warrior, who at that time won +the respect of knighthood and the hearts of lovely girls. All is as a +dream to me now, and my joys and sorrows are shrouded in the twilight +distance. Farewell, ye happy days! scarce a faint glimmer from you now +can reach my cold worn heart. + +"I had a brother, who was only two years older than myself. We were +like each other in form and feeling, except that he was more impetuous +and stormy, and more especially inclined to be passionate. We loved +each other fondly; we shared no pleasure apart; in every conflict he +fought at my side; we seemed to live but for one another. + +"He became acquainted with a lady, whose love soon formed him to an +accomplished man. Her tenderness tempered his boisterous spirit; she +taught him that gentleness which is essential to every man who will +appear amiable in the eye of his friend. Clara became his wife; and +after the lapse of a year, the mother of a boy. Nothing now seemed +wanting to his happiness. + +"About this time the signal of the cross was again raised against the +infidels. Fired with holy zeal he girt on the sword, took the sign of +the Redeemer on his cloak, and marched forth with the enthusiast +throng to peril and to fame. My entreaties and his wife's tears were +too weak to detain him; the fervour of his enthusiasm tore him from +our arms. Ah, heavens! I still hoped at that time that we should have +the delight of seeing him once more: I foreboded dangers for him, but +not those sad events which have beguiled my life of every joy. + +"We now looked in vain for news: our anxious impatience suggested to +us a thousand mishaps, and fed us again with increased hope. Week +after week, and month after month passed away without our expectation +being in the smallest degree satisfied. To be sure, we heard that on +their march to the Holy Land discomforts of a thousand kinds had +befallen the crusaders; that they had been attacked by savage hordes, +and given up to misery and want; that the greater part of them had +been scattered in the woods, there to become a prey to hunger or the +wild beasts. But we had no special news of my brother, and we were +obliged to accustom ourselves to the thought that he too belonged to +the greater number of those unfortunates. His desolate widow wept for +him daily, and gave little ear to the weak grounds of consolation that +issued from the dejected heart of a suffering brother. + +"Five long sorrowful years were thus passed in lamentation and tears, +when I beheld at a tournament the daughter of William of Orlaburg. Oh, +sir knight, let me dwell for a moment on this brilliant epoch of my +life, and refresh my soul on the beautiful past. Ah, a rapturous +spring rose upon me, but winter returned all the colder to my heart: +not a flower remains to me of all those sunny days; a spiteful +hurricane has snapt them all away. Ida of Orlaburg was the most +charming creature of her sex: graceful and full of majesty, her lofty +figure claimed respect of every one, and her charitable temper won +every heart. She united the loveliness of woman with the nobility of +manly strength. + +"At a tournament given by her father, she saw Clara; her soul was +interested by the deep sorrow which spoke in the features of the +desolate wife. In misfortune, friendships are the most quickly and the +most lastingly formed. They saw each other very often; they loved each +other like two sisters, that had grown up together and shared each +other's every thought; and on the death of Ida's father, Clara had her +friend a constant guest at her castle. Ida it was who at last dried +the tears from eyes that were dim with weeping; who taught her to +smile again at the rising of the sun, and who, as I saw her so often, +at last robbed me of my heart and of my peace. + +"I experienced all the torments and all the ecstacies of love; my +nights were sleepless, my days without repose; the world lay extended +more beautifully before me; a charm and a loveliness sprang up every +where beneath my footsteps; an impetuous longing hurried me to her; +and yet in her presence my heart beat still more madly. + +"Am I not a child to speak to you so diffusely of my folly? In a few +months I disclosed to her my love; with an angel voice she assured me +of her attachment; we were betrothed, and--oh, who could participate +in my sense of happiness!--in two months we were to be married. How +did I reckon up every day and every hour! The tide of time flowed past +me in vexatious dilatoriness; I wanted to see it roll along in a +foaming torrent at my feet. + +"At last a messenger reached us with news of my brother. It was a +knight from Spain who had seen him in Africa. Corsairs had taken the +vessel in which he sailed, and sold him as a slave in Tunis. A very +high price was set on his liberty. + +"We were more pleased than saddened by this news, because we had +already taken his death for certain. Clara now dried her tears, and +surrendered herself to her joy. She got together the required sum as +quickly as possible, and made preparations to travel to her husband. + +"The stranger knight was in fact returning to Spain, and Clara +proposed setting out in his company; while Ida, who found it +impossible to part from her friend, resolved to accompany her in +knightly costume. + +"My most urgent expostulations were in vain, and I was at last obliged +to yield to their united entreaties. My brother's infant son was +consigned to the protection of a convent. They took their departure, +and, full of foreboding, my weeping eye followed them. + +"How I burned with desire to accompany them! but I was entangled in a +feud, in which I had promised a friend my succour, and my pledged word +bound me to Germany. Ah! in an ill-fated hour they departed; I never +beheld them more. + +"From that moment begins the dark period of my life. I was successful +in the feud. Oh, that I had fallen beneath the sword of an enemy, to +have escaped long years of torture, and the frightful hours in which +I first--oh, forgive me these tears! they still often flow at the +remembrance of Ida and my brother: age cannot so blunt our sympathies +that pain may not sometimes return with new force to our bosoms. + +"On their journey Ida was seized with the unhappy fancy of not +discovering herself to my brother till they all should have reached +their native country again, in order that she might then surprise him +the more joyfully as my bride. They arrived in Spain, and sent the +required sum to Tunis. The prisoner was liberated; on the wings of +affection he hastened over the sea, and forgot on Clara's bosom, in +one moment of rapture, the sufferings which he had endured for years. + +"Ida was soon presented to him as a friend; he received her kindly, +and enjoyed for some days in the society of his spouse that happiness +which he had so long been deprived of. But his eyes were soon rivetted +on Ida: he observed the tender connexion subsisting between her and +his wife, and suspicion kindled in his soul. 'She is untrue to me,' +cried he when alone; 'she divides her heart between me and this +hateful stranger!' + +"He now watched them both more closely than before, and soon thought +his suspicions justified; he thought he could discover a tenderness +which neither of them even took pains to conceal. By degrees he became +colder towards his wife, hiding the wound she had inflicted; whilst +she on her part, unconstrainedly and without the shadow of fear, +shared her affections with her consort and her friend. + +"Jealousy raged in my brother's bosom; he began to hate Clara and her +companion; he imputed a significancy to every look and every gesture; +the rancour within him robbed him of his sleep, or suspicion appalled +him in hideous dreams. + +"'For this, then, I came across the sea,' said he to himself; 'these +are the joys of meeting; these, then, are the delights of my love. I +am come to be the prey of racking torture. I find my home again at +the side of a faithless wife, and she herself meets me only that she +may the earlier proclaim to me her effrontery and her broken vows.' + +"He made an old squire the confidant of his chagrin: both now watched +the two friends with an indefatigable vigilance; they beheld a +thousand proofs of the supposed infidelity, without in the least +conjecturing the true posture of affairs; my brother's fury rose more +and more, and a dark resolve at last began to ripen in his breast. + +"It happened that he was with them and a faithful servant in a small +boat. The moon was up, and the shallop drifted slowly down the gentle +stream; he sat in cold unconsciousness by Clara, who had laid her hand +in his. He caught her eye with a searching glance; her husband seemed +strange to her, and abashed she sunk her head. Ida had seized her +other hand. + +"'Traitress!' cried he of a sudden; 'impostor! who sport with the +peace of a man, with truth, and truth's best vows!' Ah! at that moment +his good genius forsook him!--gnashing his teeth, he plunged his +dagger into Clara's bosom: Ida sank lifeless at the side of her +friend; he grasped the bloody poniard, raised the reeking blade, and +smote my Ida to the heart. + +"The dying Clara discovered to him his error. Her blood floated down +the stream. The film gathered in her eye. For a long time he stood +like one entranced; then sprang into the river, swam unconsciously to +land, and, deaf and dumb, without sensation or words of woe, he set +out on his return to Germany. + +"Thus, then, an ill-starred jest was the wreck of my every hope and +joy. In the mean time, I stood at a window of the castle, anxiously +awaiting the return of those I loved. Often was I aroused from my +musing mood by the hoof-tramp of horses: my eye wandered vacantly over +field and hill, while a joyful thrill passed through me at the sight +of a female figure. + +"At length came a knight dashing up on a black charger: it was my +brother. But ah, my joy was vain; his countenance was haggard, his +eyes rolled wildly, his heart beat impetuously. + +"'Where are Ida and Clara?' cried I. + +"A tear was the answer; he hung speechless on my neck. + +"'In the grave,' said he at length, violently sobbing. + +"O heavens! those were fearful hours that I then went through! My fist +trembled, my heart throbbed convulsively; a low voice whispered murder +and vengeance in my ears: but I saw my brother's wretchedness--I +forgave him; and well it is for me that I did so. + +"Oh, that he could have forgiven himself! But his misery and his crime +were present day and night to his soul. Clara came back to him in his +dreams, and shewed him the dagger reeking with her heart's warm blood. +From that hour he never smiled again. + +"'I am condemned to the most ghastly misery,' cried he, as he grasped +me by the hand; 'nor on the other side of the grave shall I be at +rest; my spirit will wander still in quest of Clara, and still never +find her: a fearful future drags its slow length in review before me. +Ah, my brother! even in death there is no more hope for me.' + +"My heart was broken; but my life seemed now granted that I might +console him. We left the castle, and laid aside our knightly garb; we +shrouded ourselves in holy weeds, and thus we went wayfaring through +the dark woods and over the desert plains, till this cavern at last +received us. + +"Often would my brother stand for long, long days by that rivulet, +gazing vacantly on the waters; even in the night he was sometimes +there; and then he would sit on a sundered fragment of the rock, while +his tears trickled down into the stream. My efforts to console him +were all in vain. + +"At last he revealed to me that Clara had appeared to him in a dream; +but she never could be reconciled, she said, till her blood should +float down that little brook; and for this reason he sat on the bank, +counting and watching the waves, in the eager hope of again finding +the drops that had gushed from her heart in that fatal hour. + +"I wept at the sight of my brother's madness; I tried to rid him of +the thought, but it was impossible. 'Ah!' cried he, 'and in distant +Spain her blood was shed; it flowed down the stream into the sea: how +long will it be before it returns hitherward to the springs?' + +"Now he scarcely ever left the brook--his sorrow and his delusion +increased with every day: at last he died of a broken heart. I buried +him by my cave. + +"Since then I have often seen his ghost sitting beside the stream: it +was always watching the passing ripple, and softly sighing, 'She comes +not--she comes not.' A thrill of horror runs through me every time, +and I pray till midnight for the peace of his soul." + + * * * * * + +The hermit ended; he cast down his eyes and silently counted his +beads. The knight had listened to the tale with anxious interest, and +after a few moments he inquired-- + +"And where was your brother's son left?" + +"We sought him in the convent," replied the old man, "but he had +clandestinely made his escape from the monks." + +"Your name?" + +"Why do you so fix your gaze upon me?--Ulfo of Waldburg." + +"O my uncle!" cried the knight, and threw himself on the bosom of the +astonished hermit. "Doubt not," cried he; "ah! that unhappy shade by +the rivulet is the spirit of my father." + +"Your father! his name was"-- + +"Charles of Waldburg. I ran away from the monks because their lonely +cloisters appeared a prison to me. I took service with a knight; and +now for some years I have been seeking you and my father." + +"O my son!" cried the old man, and locked him more fervently in his +arms; "yes, you are he: I know you by that sparkling eye; those are +your father's features and his chestnut locks." + +"O my unhappy father!" sighed the youth; "would that I could procure +his wandering spirit peace! would that my prayers could conciliate +Heaven and my mother's shade!" + +He stood in a musing mood, with his hands folded: "Uncle," cried he, +"what, if I have read aright the import of the dream? what, if my +mother's spirit had wished to direct the wretched man to me? Oh, come +now!" + +They left the cave. Clouds shrouded the moon; a hallowed stillness +spread its mantle over the world; they went into the lonely forest as +into a temple. Charles kneeled down on his father's grave. + +"Spirit of my father," said he in fervent prayer, "oh, hear thy son! +hearken to thy son, O my mother! and, gracious Heaven, let me not +implore thee in vain! Give rest to the unhappy one, and let the dread +pilgrim find a lodging in the grave. Oh, let me hear from thee, spirit +of my father, whether I conceived aright the sense of the prophecy! +Oh, grant me some sign that thou art reconciled with my mother's +ghost!" + +Like the soft echo of a flute came a breathing through the tree-tops: +two bright apparitions floated downwards in closely-wound embrace. +They came nearer. "We are reconciled," whispered a more than earthly +voice. Two hands were stretched forth over the kneeling one; and like +a light zephyr the words passed over him, "Be true to knighthood!" + +A cloud glided away from before the moon; and the phantoms dissolved +in her silver radiance. In glad amazement the two mortals gazed long +and lingeringly after them. + + + + +THE FRIENDS. + + +It was a beautiful spring morning, when Lewis Wandel went out to visit +a sick friend, in a village some miles distant from his dwelling. This +friend had written to him to say that he was lying dangerously ill, +and would gladly see him and speak to him once more. + +The cheerful sunshine now sparkled in the bright green bushes; the +birds twittered and leapt to and fro on the branches; the larks sang +merrily above the thin fleeting clouds; sweet scents rose from the +fresh meadows, and the fruit-trees of the garden were white and gay in +blossom. + +Lewis's eye roamed intoxicate around him; his soul seemed to expand; +but he thought of his invalid friend, and he bent forward in silent +dejection. Nature had decked herself all in vain, so serenely and so +brightly; his fancy could only picture to him the sick bed and his +suffering brother. + +"How song is sounding from every bough!" cried he; "the notes of the +birds mingle in sweet unison with the whisper of the leaves; and yet +in the distance, through all the charm of the concert, come the sighs +of the sick one." + +Whilst he thus communed, a troop of gaily-clad peasant girls issued +from the village; they all gave him a friendly salutation, and told +him that they were on their merry way to a wedding; that work was over +for that day, and had to give place to festivity. He listened to their +tale, and still their merriment rang in the distance on his ear; still +he caught the sound of their songs, and became more and more +sorrowful. In the wood he took his seat on a dismantled tree, drew the +oft-read letter from his pocket, and ran through it once more:-- + +"My very dear friend,--I cannot tell why you have so utterly forgotten +me, that I receive no news from you. I am not surprised that men +forsake me; but it heartily pains me to think that you too care +nothing about me. I am dangerously ill; a fever saps my strength: if +you delay visiting me any longer, I cannot promise you that you will +see me again. All nature revives, and feels fresh and strong; I alone +sink lower in languor; the returning warmth cannot animate me; I see +not the green fields, nothing but the tree that rustles before my +window, and sings death-songs to my thoughts; my bosom is pent, my +breathing is hard; and often I think the walls of my room will press +closer together and crush me. The rest of you in the world are holding +the most beautiful festival of life, whilst I must languish in the +dwelling of sickness. Gladly would I dispense with spring, if I could +but see your dear face once more: but you that are in health never +earnestly think what it really is to be ill, and how dear to us then, +in our helplessness, the visit of a friend is: you do not know how to +prize those precious minutes of consolation, because the whole world +receives you in the warmth and the fervour of its friendship. Ah! if +you did but know, as I do, how terrible is death, and how still more +terrible it is to be ill,--O Lewis, how would you hasten then to +behold once more this frail form, that you have hitherto called your +friend, and that by and by will be so ruthlessly dismembered! If I +were well, I would haste to meet you, or fancy that you may perhaps be +ill at this moment. If I never see you again--farewell." + +What a painful impression did the suffering depicted in this letter +make upon Lewis's heart, amid the liveliness of Nature, as she lay in +brilliancy before him! He melted into tears, and rested his head on +his hand.--"Carol now, ye foresters," thought he; "for ye know no +lamentation; ye lead a buoyant poetic existence, and for this are +those swift pinions granted you; oh, how happy are ye, that ye need +not mourn: warm summer calls you, and ye wish for nothing more; ye +dance forth to meet it, and when winter is advancing, ye are gone! O +light-winged merry forest-life, how do I envy thee! Why are so many +heavy cares burdened upon poor man's heart? Why may he not love +without purchasing his love by wailing--his happiness by misery? Life +purls on like a fleeting rivulet beneath his feet, and quenches not +his thirst, his fervid longing." + +He became more and more absorbed in thought, and at last he rose and +pursued his way through the thick forest. "If I could but help him," +cried he; "if Nature could but supply me with a means of saving him; +but as it is, I feel nothing but my own impotency, and the pain of +losing my friend. In my childhood I used to believe in enchantment and +its supernatural aids; would I now could hope in them as happily as +then!" + +He quickened his steps; and involuntarily all the remembrances of the +earliest years of his childhood crowded back upon him: he followed +those forms of loveliness, and was soon entangled in such a labyrinth +as not to notice the objects that surrounded him. He had forgotten +that it was spring--that his friend was ill: he hearkened to the +wondrous melodies, which came borne, as if from distant shores, upon +his ear: all that was most strange united itself to what was most +ordinary: his whole soul was transmuted. From the far vista of memory, +from the abyss of the past, all those forms were summoned forth that +ever had enraptured or tormented him; all those dubious phantoms were +aroused, that flutter formlessly about us, and gather in dizzy hum +around our heads. Puppets, the toys of childhood, and spectres, danced +along before him, and so mantled over the green turf, that he could +not see a single flower at his feet. First love encircled him with its +twilight morning gleam, and let down its sparkling rainbow over the +mead: his earliest sorrows glided past him in review, and threatened +to greet him in the same guise at the end of his pilgrimage. Lewis +sought to arrest all these changeful feelings, and to retain a +consciousness of self amid the magic of enjoyment,--but in vain. Like +enigmatic books, with figures grotesquely gay, that open for a moment +and in a moment are closed, so unstably and fleetingly all floated +before his soul. + +The wood opened, and in the open country on one side lay some old +ruins, encompassed with watch-towers and ramparts. Lewis was +astonished at having advanced so quickly amid his dreams. He emerged +from his melancholy, as he did from the shades of the wood; for often +the pictures within us are but the reflection of outward objects. Now +rose on him, like the morning sun, the memory of his first poetical +enjoyments, of his earliest appreciations of that luscious harmony +which many a human ear never inhales. + +"How incomprehensibly," said he, "did those things commingle then, +which seemed to me eternally parted by such vast chasms; my most +undefined presentiments assumed a form and outline, and gleamed on me +in the shape of a thousand subordinate phantoms, which till then I had +never descried! So names were found me for things that I had long +wished to speak of: I became recipient of earth's fairest treasures, +which my yearning heart had so long sought for in vain: and how much +have I to thank thee for since then, divine power of fancy and of +poetry! How hast thou smoothed for me the path of life, that erst +appeared so rough and perplexed! Ever hast thou revealed to me new +sources of enjoyment and happiness, so that no arid desert presents +itself to me now: every stream of sweet voluptuous inspiration hath +wound its way through my earth-born heart: I have become intoxicate +with bliss, and have communed with beings of heaven." + +The sun sank below the horizon, and Lewis was astonished that it was +already evening. He was insensible of fatigue, and was still far from +the point which he had wished to reach before night: he stood still, +without being able to understand how the crimson of evening could be +so early mantling the clouds; how the shadows of every thing were so +long, while the nightingale warbled her song of wail in the thicket. +He looked around him: the old ruins lay far in the background, clad in +blushing splendour; and he doubted whether he had not strayed from the +direct and well-known road. + +Now he remembered a phantasy of his early childhood, that till that +moment had never recurred to him: it was a female form of awe, that +glided before him over the lonely fields: she never looked round, yet +he was compelled, against his will, to follow her, and to be drawn on +into unknown scenes, without in the least being able to extricate +himself from her power. A slight thrill of fear came over him, and yet +he found it impossible to obtain a more distinct recollection of that +figure, or to usher back his mind into the frame, in which this image +had first appeared to him. He sought to individualise all these +singular sensations, when, looking round by chance, he really found +himself on a spot which, often as he had been that way, he had never +seen before. + +"Am I spell-bound?" cried he; "or have my dreams and fancies crazed +me? Is it the wonderful effect of solitude that makes me +irrecognisable to myself; or do spirits and genii hover round me and +hold my senses in thrall? Sooth, if I cannot enfranchise myself from +myself, I will await that woman-phantom that floated before me in +every lonely place in my childhood." + +He endeavoured to rid himself of every kind of phantasy, in order to +get into the right road again; but his recollections became more and +more perplexed; the flowers at his feet grew larger, the red glow of +evening more brilliant, and wondrously shaped clouds hung drooping on +the earth, like the curtains of some mystic scene that was soon to +unfold itself. A ringing murmur arose from the high grass, and the +blades bowed to one another, as if in friendly converse; while a light +warm spring rain dropped pattering amongst them, as if to wake every +slumbering harmony in wood, and bush, and flower. Now all was rife +with song and sound; a thousand sweet voices held promiscuous parley; +song entwined itself in song, and tone in tone; while in the waning +crimson of eve lay countless blue butterflies rocking, with its +radiance sparkling from their wavy wings. Lewis fancied himself in a +dream, when the heavy dark-red clouds suddenly rose again, and a vast +prospect opened on him in unfathomable distance. In the sunshine lay a +gorgeous plain, sparkling with verdant forests and dewy underwood. In +its centre glittered a palace of a myriad hues, as if composed all of +undulating rainbows and gold and jewels: a passing stream reflected +its various brilliancy, and a soft crimson aether environed this hall +of enchantment: strange birds, he had never seen before, flew about, +sportively flapping each other with their red and green wings: larger +nightingales warbled their clear notes to the echoing landscape: +lambent flames shot through the green grass, flickering here and +there, and then darting in coils round the mansion. Lewis drew nearer, +and heard ravishing voices sing the following words:-- + + Traveller from earth below, + Wend thee not farther, + In our hall's magic glow + Bide with us rather. + Hast thou with longing scann'd + Joy's distant morrow, + Cast away sorrow, + And enter the wish'd-for land. + +Without further scruple, Lewis stepped to the shining threshold, and +lingering but a moment ere he set his foot on the polished stone, he +entered. The gates closed after him. + +"Hitherward! hitherward!" cried invisible lips, as from the inmost +recesses of the palace; and with loudly throbbing heart he followed +the voices. All his cares, all his olden remembrances were cast away: +his inmost bosom rang with the songs that outwardly encompassed him: +his every regret was stilled: his every conscious and unconscious wish +was satisfied. The summoning voices grew so loud, that the whole +building re-echoed them, and still he could not find their origin, +though he long seemed to have been standing in the central hall of the +palace. + +At length a ruddy-cheeked boy stepped up to him, and saluted the +stranger guest: he led him through magnificent chambers, full of +splendour and melody, and at last entered the garden, where Lewis, as +he said, was expected. Entranced he followed his guide, and the most +delicious fragrance from a thousand flowers floated forth to meet him. +Broad shady walks received them. Lewis's dizzy gaze could scarcely +gain the tops of the high immemorial trees: bright-coloured birds sat +perched upon the branches: children were playing on guitars in the +shade, and they and the birds sang to the music. Fountains shot up, +with the clear red of morning sparkling upon them: the flowers were as +high as shrubs, and parted spontaneously as the wanderer pressed +through them. He had never before felt the hallowed sensations that +then enkindled in him; never had such pure heavenly enjoyment been +revealed to him: he was over-happy. + +But bells of silver sound rang through the trees, and their tops were +bowed: the birds and children with the guitars were hushed: the +rose-buds unfolded: and the boy now conducted the stranger into the +midst of a brilliant assembly. + +Lovely dames of lofty form were seated on beautiful hanks of turf, in +earnest conference. They were above the usual height of the human +race, and their more than earthly beauty had at the same time +something of awe in it, from which the heart shrunk back in alarm. +Lewis dared not interrupt their conversation: it seemed as if he were +among the god-like forms of Homer's song, where every thought must be +excluded that formed the converse of mortals. Odd little spirits stood +round, as ready ministers, waiting attentively for the wink of the +moment that should summon them from their posture of quietude: they +fixed their glances on the stranger, and then looked jeeringly and +significantly at each other. At last the beautiful women ceased +speaking, and beckoned Lewis to approach; he was still standing with +an embarrassed air, and drew near to them with trembling. + +"Be not alarmed," said the fairest of them all; "you are welcome to us +here, and we have long been expecting you: long have you wished to be +in our abode,--are you satisfied now?" + +"Oh, how unspeakably happy I am!" exclaimed Lewis; "all my dearest +dreams have met with their fulfillment, all my most daring wishes are +gratified now: yes, I am, I live among them. How it has happened so, I +cannot comprehend: sufficient for me, that it is so. Why should I +raise a new wail over this enigma, ere my olden lamentations are +scarcely at an end?" + +"Is this life," asked the lady, "very different from your former one?" + +"My former life," said Lewis, "I can scarcely remember. But has, then, +this golden state of existence fallen to my lot? this beautiful state, +after which my every sense and prescience so ardently aspired; to +which every wish wandered, that I could conceive in fancy, or realise +in my inmost thought; though its image, veiled in mist, seemed ever +strange in me--and is it, then, mine at last? have I, then, achieved +this new existence, and does it hold me in its embrace? Oh, pardon me, +I know not what I say in my delirium of ecstacy, and might well weigh +my words more carefully in such an assemblage." + +The lady signed; and in a moment every minister was in motion: there +was a stirring among the trees, every where a running to and fro, and +speedily a banquet was placed before Lewis of fair fruits and fragrant +wines. He sat down again, and music rose anew on the air. Rows of +beautiful boys and girls sped round him, intertwined in the dance, +while uncouth little cobolds lent life to the scene, and excited loud +laughter by their ludicrous gambols. Lewis noted every sound and every +gesture: he seemed newly-born since his initiation into this joyous +existence. "Why," thought he, "are those hopes and reveries of ours so +often laughed at, that pass into fulfilment sooner than ever had been +expected? Where, then, is that border-mark between truth and error +which mortals are ever ready with such temerity to set up? Oh, I ought +in my former life to have wandered oftener from the way, and then +perhaps I should have ripened all the earlier for this happy +transmutation." + +The dance died away; the sun sank to rest; the august dames arose; +Lewis too left his seat, and accompanied them on their walk through +the quiet garden. The nightingales were complaining in a softened +tone, and a wondrous moon rose above the horizon. The blossoms opened +to its silver radiance, and every leaf kindled in its gleam; the wide +avenues became of a glow, casting shadows of a singular green; red +clouds slumbered on the green grass of the fields; the fountains +turned to gold, and played high in the clear air of heaven. + +"Now you will wish to sleep," said the loveliest of the ladies, and +shewed the enraptured wanderer a shadowy bower, strewed with soft turf +and yielding cushions. Then they left him, and he was alone. + +He sat down and watched the magic twilight glimmering through the +thickly-woven foliage. "How strange is this!" said he to himself: +"perhaps I am now only asleep, and I may dream that I am sleeping a +second time, and may have a dream in my dream; and so it may go on for +ever, and no human power ever be able to awake me. No! unbeliever that +I am! it is beautiful reality that animates me now, and my former +state perhaps was but the dream of gloom." He lay down, and light +breezes played round him. Perfume was wafted on the air, and little +birds sang lulling songs. In his dreams he fancied the garden all +around him changed: the tall trees withered away; the golden moon +fallen from the sky, leaving a dismal gap behind her; instead of the +watery jet from the fountains, little genii gushed out, caracoling +over each in the air, and assuming the strangest attitudes. Notes of +woe supplanted the sweetness of song, and every trace of that happy +abode had vanished. Lewis awoke amid impressions of fear, and chid +himself for still feeding his fancy in the perverse manner of the +habitants of earth, who mingle all received images in rude disorder, +and present them again in this garb in a dream. A lovely morning broke +over the scene, and the ladies saluted him again. He spoke to them +more intrepidly, and was to-day more inclined to cheerfulness, as the +surrounding world had less power to astonish him. He contemplated the +garden and the palace, and fed upon the magnificence and the wonders +that he met there. Thus he lived many days happily, in the belief +that his felicity was incapable of increase. + +But sometimes the crowing of a cock seemed to sound in the vicinity; +and then the whole edifice would tremble, and his companions turn +pale: this generally happened of an evening, and soon afterwards they +retired to rest. Then often there would come a thought of earth into +Lewis's soul; then he would often lean out of the windows of the +glittering palace to arrest and fix these fleeting remembrances, and +to get a glimpse of the high road again, which, as he thought, must +pass that way. In this sort of mood, he was one afternoon alone, +musing within himself why it was just as impossible for him then to +recall a distinct remembrance of the world, as formerly it had been to +feel a presage of this poetic place of sojourn,--when all at once a +post-horn seemed to sound in the distance, and the rattle of +carriage-wheels to make themselves heard. "How strangely," said he to +himself, "does a faint gleam, a slight reminiscence of earth, break +upon my delight--rendering me melancholy and dejected! Then, do I lack +anything here? Is my happiness still incomplete?" + +The beautiful women returned. "What do you wish for?" said they, in a +tone of concern; "you seem sad." + +"You will laugh," replied Lewis; "yet grant me one favour more. In +that other life I had a friend, whom I now but faintly remember: he is +ill, I think; restore him by your skill." + +"Your wish is already gratified," said they. + +"But," said Lewis, "vouchsafe me two questions." + +"Speak!" + +"Does no gleam of love fall on this wondrous world? Does no friendship +perambulate these bowers? I thought the morning blush of spring-love +would be eternal here, which in that other life is too prone to be +extinguished, and which men afterwards speak of as of a fable. To +confess to you the truth, I feel an unspeakable yearning after those +sensations." + +"Then you long for earth again?" + +"Oh, never!" cried Lewis; "for in that cold earth I used to sigh for +friendship and for love, and they came not near me. The longing for +those feelings had to supply the place of those feelings themselves; +and for that reason I turned my aspirations hitherward, and hoped here +to find every thing in the most beautiful harmony." + +"Fool!" said the venerable woman: "so on earth you sighed for earth, +and knew not what you did in wishing to be here; you have overshot +your desires, and substituted phantasies for the sensations of +mortals." + +"Then who are ye?" cried Lewis, astounded. + +"We are the old fairies," said she, "of whom you surely must have +heard long ago. If you ardently long for earth, you will return +thither again. Our kingdom flourishes when mortals are shrouded in +night; but their day is _our_ night. Our sway is of ancient date, and +will long endure. It abides invisibly among men--to your eye alone has +it been revealed." + +She turned away, and Lewis remembered that it was the same form which +had resistlessly dragged him after it in his youth, and of which he +felt a secret dread. He followed now also, crying, "No, I will not go +back to earth! I will stay here!" "So, then," said he to himself, "I +devined this lofty being even in my childhood! And so the solution of +many a riddle, which we are too idle to investigate, may be within +ourselves." + +He went on much further than usual, till the fairy garden was soon +left far behind him. He stood on a romantic mountain-range, where the +ivy clambered in wild tresses up the rocks; cliff was piled on cliff, +and awe and grandeur seemed to hold universal sway. Then there came a +wandering stranger to him, who accosted him kindly, and addressed him +thus:--"Glad I am, after all, to see you again." + +"I know you not," said Lewis. + +"That may well be," replied the other; "but once you thought you knew +me well. I am your late sick friend." + +"Impossible! you are quite a stranger to me!" + +"Only," said the stranger, "because to-day you see me for the first +time in my true form: till now you only found in me a reflection of +yourself. You are right too in remaining here; for there is no love, +no friendship--not here, I mean, where all illusion vanishes." + +Lewis sat down and wept. + +"What ails you?" said the stranger. + +"That it is you--you who were the friend of my youth: is not that +mournful enough? Oh, come back with me to our dear, dear earth, where +we shall know each other once more under illusive forms--where there +exists the superstition of friendship! What am I doing here?" + +"What will that avail?" answered the stranger. "You will want to be +back again; earth is not bright enough for you: the flowers are too +small for you, the song too suppressed. Colour there, cannot emerge so +brilliantly from the shade; flowers there are of small comfort, and so +prone to fade; the little birds think of their death, and sing in +modest constraint: but here every thing is on a scale of grandeur." + +"Oh, I will be contented!" cried Lewis, as the tears gushed profusely +from his eyes. "Do but come back with me, and be my friend once more; +let us leave this desert, this glittering misery!" + +Thus saying, he opened his eyes, for some one was shaking him roughly. +Over him leant the friendly but pale face of his once sick friend. +"But are you dead?" cried Lewis. + +"Recovered am I, wicked sleeper," he replied. "Is it thus you visit +your sick friend? Come along with me; my carriage is waiting there, +and a thunder-storm is rising." + +Lewis rose: in his sleep he had glided off the trunk of the tree; his +friend's letter lay open beside him. "So am I really on the earth +again?" he exclaimed with joy; "really? and is this no new dream?" + +"You will not escape from earth," answered his friend with a smile; +and both were locked in heart-felt embraces. + +"How happy I am," said Lewis, "that I have you once more, that I feel +as I used to do, and that you are well again!" + +"Suddenly," replied his friend, "I felt ill; and as suddenly I was +well again. So I wished to go to you, and do away with the alarm that +my letter must have caused you; and here, half-way, I find you +asleep." + +"I do not deserve your love at all," said Lewis. + +"Why?" + +"Because I just now doubted of your friendship." + +"But only in sleep." + +"It would be strange enough though," said Lewis, "if there really were +such things as fairies." + +"There are such, of a certainty," replied the other; "but it is all a +fable, that their whole pleasure is to make men happy. They plant +those wishes in our bosoms which we ourselves do not know of; those +over-wrought pretensions--that super-human covetousness of super-human +gifts; so that in our desponding delirium we afterwards despise the +beautiful earth with all its glorious stores." + +Lewis answered with a pressure of the hand. + + + + +THE ELVES. + + +"Where is Maria, our child?" asked the father. + +"She is playing on the green," replied the mother, "with our +neighbour's son." + +"Do not let them run away," said the father anxiously; "they are so +thoughtless." + +The mother attended to the wants of the little ones, and gave them +their supper. + +"The weather is hot, mother," said the boy; and the little maiden +longed exceedingly to have some red cherries. + +"Be careful, child," said the mother; "do not run too far from the +house, or into the wood; your father and I are going into the field." + +"Oh, do not be anxious on that account," was the prompt reply of +young Andrew, "for we are all afraid of the wood; we will remain here +sitting at home, where we are near to the men." + +The mother went in, and soon returned with the father. They closed +their cottage, and turned towards the fields to look after the +peasants, and to see the hay-harvest in the meadows. + +Their dwelling was situated on a little green eminence, fenced round +by an ornamental hedge, which enclosed a fruit and flower garden; the +town lay a little lower down; and still further there rose in the +distance the towers of the baronial castle. Martin rented a large farm +of the lord, the proprietor, and lived in a happy state of contentment +with his wife and only child, as he was enabled, year by year, to lay +by something in reserve for the future, with the prospect of becoming +one day himself a man of property; for through his toil and industry +the land was fruitful, and the Count did not oppress him with undue +exactions. + +As he was walking towards the fields with his wife, he gazed joyously +around, and said, "How is it, Bridget, that the country about here is +so different from that in which we formerly lived? Here it is so green +and verdant; the whole town is beautified with thickly planted +fruit-trees; the soil teems with rich vegetation and shrubs; all the +houses are gay and cleanly--the inhabitants prosperous; indeed, it +would appear to me that the woods here are more majestic, and the sky +more blue; and as far as the eye can scan, we have pleasure in +beholding the bountiful earth." + +"But," said Brigitta, "to pass over to the other side of the river is +to migrate into quite another region, every thing there wears so +gloomy and withered an aspect; but as for our own hamlet, every +traveller confesses it to be the prettiest in the whole district." + +"Come, then, to the fir-plantation," answered her husband; "look back +and see how dark and dreary that spot seems in the distance, in the +midst of such a gay and animated landscape; the dusky huts behind the +dark firs; those detached buildings fallen into ruinous heaps; and +even the very stream flowing onwards so sadly and sluggishly." + +"That is true," said she, as they both stood still to gaze upon the +scene. "As often as one approaches the spot, one becomes sad and +sorrowful, one knows not why." + +"Who can the people really be? and why should they keep themselves at +such a distance from all the neighbourhood, avoiding any intercourse +with us, as though they were inwardly conscious of deeds of darkness?" + +"They are poor folk," said the young farmer; "seemingly of a +gipsy-tribe, who rob and pilfer at a distance off, and make this spot +perhaps their head-quarters: I wonder only that the baron allows them +to remain." + +"Possibly," said the woman kindly and compassionately, "they are poor +people, ashamed of their poverty; for, to speak the truth, we cannot +lay any crime, or even any trivial injury, to their charge; still it +is remarkable that they never go to church; and how they contrive to +subsist is strange enough, for their little garden, in itself a +perfect wilderness, cannot support them, and they have no +pasture-land." + +"God only knows," continued Martin, as they proceeded on their +way--"God only knows what they do; this at least is certain, that they +hold no intercourse; no stranger ever comes from, or goes to them; for +the spot where they dwell is bewitched and under ban, so that the +boldest young townsmen would hardly venture into it." + +This conversation continued through their walk to the fields. + +That dark district of which they spoke lay beyond the town in a hollow +that was surrounded on all sides by firs; there appeared to be a hut, +and several domestic buildings fast falling to decay. Smoke was seldom +seen to curl from it, still less frequently were any human beings +visible; at times some persons, led on by curiosity to venture +somewhat nearer, had seen on the rising ground in front of the hut +frightful old women, clad in uncouth rags, dandling equally frightful +and dirty children on their laps; black dogs prowled about continually +before the stream; and in the evening a monster of a man, whom no one +knew, passed over the bridge, and disappeared into the hut; then +several figures, like dim shadows, flitted along in the darkness, and +danced round about a fire which was heaped up on the earth: this +gloomy sport, the dark firs, and the ruinous huts, formed a most +singular contrast to the gay green landscape, the clear white houses +of the town, and the splendid new castle. + +The two children had eaten up all their fruit, and then began to run +races; and the little buoyant Maria outran, on each occasion, the +tardy Andrew. + +"That's no proof of your skill," he cried; "come, let us try a longer +distance, and then we'll see who shall be the conqueror." + +"As you please," said the little Maria; "only we must not run towards +the stream." + +"No," said Andrew; "but at the summit of that hill stands a large +pear-tree, about a quarter of a mile off. I will run to the left past +the fir-plantation, and you can go to the right through the fields; +and we shall not know, till we meet, which of us is the fastest +runner." + +"Good," said Maria, immediately starting off; "we shall not hinder +each other by going the same way, and our father says it is just the +same distance to the top of the hill, whether we go on this side, or +by the gipsy-huts." + +Andrew had already started off, and Maria, who ran towards the right, +saw him no more. + +"How very stupid he is!" said she to herself; "for if I could only +summon up courage enough to run over the bridge by the hut, and then +again out across the yard, I should certainly get there much sooner +than he will." She was already standing facing the stream and the +fir-hill. "Shall I?--No, it's too terrible." A little white dog stood +on the other side, keeping up a loud and continued bark at her. In her +fright the little animal appeared a perfect monster, and she sprang +back trembling. "Oh dear," said she, "Andrew has by this time got such +a long distance before me, while I'm stopping here to consider." The +little dog still barked on; and as she looked at it more attentively, +it no longer struck her as being so terrible, but, on the contrary, +she was quite charmed with it. It had a red collar, to which was +affixed a tiny glittering bell; and as often as it raised its head and +shook it, while barking, the tinkling noise it produced was to her +ears most musical. "Oh, I'll venture," cried little Maria; "I'll run +as fast as I can, and I shall soon be on the other side; they surely +can't eat me entirely." With this the young courageous child sprang on +the bridge, and quickly passed the little dog, who immediately ceased +his barking to fawn upon her. And now she was standing on the dread +spot; and the black firs, that were thickly grouped together, shut out +from her view the home of her fathers, and the rest of the pretty +landscape. But how amazed was she at the spectacle before her! + +Around her was a most brilliant expanse of flower-garden, in which +roses, lilies, and tulips, intertwining with one another, shone in all +those gorgeous colours in which Nature loves to garb her bright +creations; blue and golden butterflies fluttered about from blossom to +blossom, glittering as the sunbeams danced upon their fairy livery; +birds, whose plumage borrowed the tints of the rainbow, and whose tiny +throats quivered again as each note swelled forth more delicious than +the last, hung on cages and on glittering perches; children in short +white garments, with golden hair hanging in luxuriant curls, and clear +blue eyes, sported about, some leading little pet-lambs, others +feeding the birds; some culled the fragrant flowers, and wove garlands +for one another; others were tasting the delicious fruits--pears, +large clusters of grapes, and red apricots: no hut was visible, but a +large handsome mansion, with gates of brass and wood of exquisite +workmanship, towered on high in the middle of this paradise. Maria was +rivetted to the spot; indeed, the beauty of the garden and the +magnificence of the mansion had taken so firm a hold on her fancy, +that some moments elapsed ere she recovered her surprise even +partially. But, as it had ever been the study of her parents to enable +her to appear composed, whatever novelty might offer itself to her, +she approached fearlessly the nearest child, and with extended hand +wished it good day. + +"So you have come to see us then at last," said the little girl; "I +have often seen you dancing and sporting without there, but you were +afraid of our little dog." + +"Then you are not gipsies and strollers, as Andrew says you are. Ah, +truly, he's very stupid, and talks a great deal too much." + +"Only stop with us here," said her new friend; "you shall be so +happy." + +"But we are running for a wager, and--" + +"Oh, you'll get back to him very soon; take some of our fruit." Maria +tasted it, and it proved so delicious to her palate, that she declared +she had never before eaten any like it; and from this moment Andrew, +the race, and the prohibition of her parents, were altogether +forgotten. Then a more elderly female, whose dress was still more +beautiful than any thing Maria had hitherto seen, stepped forward, and +made inquiry about the stranger-child. + +"Most beautiful lady," said Maria, "I ran in here by accident, and now +they wish to keep me here." + +"You know, Zerina," said the beautiful lady, "that there is a short +time only allowed her; besides, you should first of all have asked my +permission." + +"I thought," said the child, "as she had been allowed to cross the +bridge, that I might keep her; we have often seen her running about in +the fields, and you have yourself been pleased with her gay and +spirited air; and she will be obliged to leave us soon enough." + +"No, I will stay here," said Maria, "it is so charming here; and I +find the best things to play with here are strawberries and pears; it +is not half so fine outside." + +The golden-dressed lady now retired, smiling; and many of the children +playfully sported about Maria--laughing, and inviting her to join +their dance. Some brought her a pet-lamb or wonderful toys, others +brought novel instruments and played and sang to her; but she +preferred the little playfellow, her first friend, for she was the +most gentle and good-natured of all. The little Maria constantly cried +out, "I will always stop here, and you shall be my sisters;" at which +all the children smiled and embraced her. + +"Now then," said Zerina, "we shall have a fine game;" and running +hastily into the palace, she returned with a little golden basket, in +which were very fine glittering seeds. She took some in her delicate +little fingers, and strewed the grains upon the green turf; and +immediately they saw the grass heave and float about, as it were in +waves; and after a few moments, beautiful rose-trees sprang from the +ground, grew rapidly up, and suddenly burst themselves into their full +beauty, exhaling the sweetest odours that floated round them in the +air. Maria herself took some of the seed, and scattered it; and +immediately there sprang up at her feet white lilies and cloves of +every hue. At a motion of Zerina's, these flowers all disappeared, and +others still more beautiful sprang up in their place. + +"Now," said Zerina to the astonished child, "prepare yourself for +something still greater." She then placed two pine-cones in the +ground, and stamped on them violently with her feet: instantly two +green shrubs stood before them. "Grasp me firmly," said she; and Maria +threw her arms around her delicate waist, and felt herself rising up +into the air; for the trees grew beneath them with surprising +quickness. The tall pines swayed to and fro at the will of the +breeze, and the two children, locked in each other's arms, kissed each +other, while floating backwards in the red clouds of evening. The +other little ones clambered up and down the stems of the trees with +elastic step, and if by chance one impeded the progress of another, +the whole number raised a loud shout of laughter. Maria at length grew +terrified; and at some mystic words uttered by the little one, the +trees sank again gently into the earth, setting them down in the spot +from which they had raised them up. They then went through the brazen +gate of the palace; here many women, some younger, some older, all of +that degree of beauty that no pencil could portray, were seated round +a circular hall, feasting on the most delicious fruits, and listening +to a concert of most delightful and invisible harmony. + +Round the ceiling of the hall, which was studded with gold and gems, +representing the starry sphere, were palm-trees, plants, and shrubs, +between which children clambered and sported in most graceful groups. +The figures varied and glowed in more burning colours, according to +the tones of the music. At one time, green and blue, sparkling like +clear rays of light, prevailed. Then the colours paled away, and +purple and gold burst forth: then the naked children, amid the +fanciful clusters that the different flowers wove, seemed to be full +of life, and to inhale and exhale breath with their ruby-red lips, so +that their beautiful white teeth were visible, and the bright glances +of their clear blue eyes were seen from beneath their dark fringe. +From the hall, some steps of marble and jasper led into a large +subterraneous chamber. The floor of this room was covered with vast +heaps of gold and silver; diamonds, pearls, and gems of all colours +dazzled the eyes; large deep vessels stood around the walls, all +filled with precious stones, and gold wrought into curious devices, +and mystic characters, with such ingenuity as no artisan, however +skilful, could form. Many little dwarfs were occupied in sorting the +precious heaps, and in filling vessels with the riches; others, with +crooked legs and long red noses, dragged in heavy sacks, as millers +carry their corn, and bending forward, poured out the grains on the +earth: then they jumped to the right and left, and seized the +treasures as they rolled away; and it often happened, that through +their zeal and eagerness to recover them, they rolled one against the +other and fell heavily on the ground. They made frightful faces +whenever Maria laughed at their grotesque manner and hideous +deformity. Behind sat a little old man, wrinkled by age, whom Maria +saluted very respectfully, but he merely bent his head in answer to +her deferential salutation: he had a sceptre in his right hand, and a +crown encircled his brow; all the other dwarfs seemed to look up to +him as their chief and superior; his fiat was instantly obeyed, though +his commands were given by signs and motions. + +"What is the matter now?" said he in a surly tone, as the children +approached nearer to him. The timid Maria kept silence, but her little +playfellow answered, that they had only come to see the chamber. + +"What," said the old man peevishly, "will there always be these +childish freaks? is there never to be an end to this idling?" He then +turned his attention again to his work, and ordered the pieces of gold +to be weighed and collected together. Some of the dwarfs he despatched +in different directions; many, too, he scolded right heartily. + +At length Maria's curiosity got the better of her fear, and in an +eager manner she said to her little friend, "Who is that old man?" + +"Our metal-prince," said the little one, as they left the chamber. + +They soon found themselves in the open air, by the side of a large +lake; still no sun had appeared hitherto, nor could they see any sky +above them. Here a little boat received them, and Zerina took the helm +and steered their course very skilfully. They floated rapidly down the +lake, and when they had arrived at about the middle, Maria saw that a +thousand canals, streams, and rivulets, branched off in every +direction from this miniature sea. + +"These waters," said the bright-beaming child, "flow exactly under +your garden, irrigating the soil around; and hence it is that your +flowers bloom more beautifully and more fragrantly than others, and +that your fruits are so superior in flavour; from this stream we +launch into the great canal." On a sudden there rose to the surface +from every branch of these blue waters a countless number of beautiful +children, swimming and plunging up and down among the mimic waves; +many wore graceful coronets of flags and water-lilies, glittering as +though with gems from the drops of spray; others waved branches of red +and white coral; others again carried curious horns, tastefully +decorated with blue ribbons; then several beautiful women rose to the +surface, swimming about among the group of younger naiads, and at +times the children might be seen hanging on the necks of the women, +covering them with kisses. They all saluted the stranger party; and +through the midst of this grouped assemblage the little barque floated +on from the main stream into a smaller rivulet, which became gradually +narrower and narrower, and at the same time the depth of water +diminished till the little boat grounded on the shore. Here the group +of naiads, who had accompanied their tiny vessel, took leave of them; +and Zerina knocked against the rock, which immediately opened like a +magnificent doorway to admit them, and a female figure, of a glowing +red colour, assisted them to disembark. + +"Is all going on merrily?" inquired Zerina. + +"Ay, merrily indeed," replied the other; "you are ever on the wing; no +cloud of sorrow ever darkens your brow, but the sunshine of happiness +always lights up those features of yours, curling that lip with a +smile of joy." + +They mounted a winding staircase, and Maria suddenly found herself in +a most glittering hall, so that on entering, her eyes were dazzled +with the brilliant lights that burst in their full splendour upon +her. Deep-red tapestry covered the walls with a brilliant glow; and as +soon as her eye was familiar with the unusual halo that invested the +whole chamber, she perceived figures moving gracefully up and down in +the tapestry, of such exquisite beauty and delicate symmetry of form, +that her imagination could not paint any thing more lovely. Their +bodies appeared to be formed of crystal of a reddish tint, and so +transparent, that one might see the life-blood circulating in their +veins. They smiled at the stranger-child, and bowed courteously: but +when the little Maria wished to approach nearer, Zerina held her back +forcibly, exclaiming, "You will burn yourself, little Maria; what you +are gazing upon is all fire." + +Maria perceived the heat, and said to Zerina, "Why don't these +charming creatures come out and play with us?" + +"It is impossible," answered Zerina; "as you live in air, so they live +in fire; if you were to be taken out of your peculiar element, you +would languish and droop; in the same manner, if you were to transport +them into your element, they would perish." + +"Only look," said Maria, "how happy and joyous they seem; listen how +they shout and sing." + +"Below," said her little friend, "the fire-streams spread in every +direction throughout the whole earth, imparting heat to the +vegetation, and ripening the seed, till it shoots upward into a +fruitful plant: hence you have your flowers and fruits. These +fire-streams go side by side with the water-streams; and to their +mutual agency you owe all the herbage of your pasture-land, all the +beauties of your flower-garden, all the luscious produce of your +orchards: they are your great benefactors: without them your present +fruitful land would be a desolate wilderness; your flower-gardens +overrun with noxious weeds, and your orchard-trees blighted and dying +away. In consequence of such benefits resulting from them, they are +ever active, ever happy. But this heat is too great for a child of +air; come, let us return to the garden." + +There had been a great change in the atmosphere; the moonshine lay on +all the flowers, the birds were hushed, and the children were +slumbering on the greensward. + +"Happy, holy calmness," thought Maria; "Peace has certainly chosen her +retreat in these lovely regions; Contentment is linked with her; and +wherever they roam hand in hand, all is joy, all is tranquillity." + +But did Maria slumber? No; she and her little friend felt no +weariness; they roamed through the live-long summer night amid the +groves and sylvan avenues, prattling in youthful eloquence on the +wondrous spectacles that were before them. At day-break they refreshed +themselves with fruits and milk; and Maria said to her little +companion, "Let us go out to the fir-trees yonder; it will be a change +for us." + +"With all my heart," said Zerina; "then you can see our sentries at +the same time, and they will be sure to please you. They take their +stand upon the rampart between the trees." + +They walked on through the flower-garden, through beautiful thickets +peopled with nightingales; then they mounted the vine-hills, and +following the course of a clear crystal stream in its winding channel, +they arrived at the firs, and the high ground that formed the boundary +of the district. + +"How is it," said Maria, "that we have had such a long walk to reach +the firs here within, when the circuit on the outside is so small?" + +"I cannot say how it is," said the other; "but so it is." + +They ascended the hill to the dark firs, and the cold breeze blew upon +them from without. A dark cloud, extending far across the horizon, +seemed to hang over the whole district; and above them stood wondrous +forms with whitened faces, not unlike the hideous heads of the white +owl, and clad in folding mantles of coarse and shaggy wool, fanning +themselves from time to time with bats' wings. + +"How I long to laugh!" said Maria; "but yet I'm afraid." + +"Those," said Zerina, "are our careful watchmen; they stand here in +order to strike awe and consternation into any that may venture to +approach, and to deter any curious folks from getting an insight into +our regions. You see they are wrapped up closely, and protected from +the weather; that is because it is raining and freezing without; but +neither snow, nor wind, nor hail, can penetrate here within: here is +eternal spring--here the bright garb of summer never fades. Our +sentinels are very devoted to us; so that, although they are seldom +relieved, yet they willingly keep watch at their posts." + +"But who are you?" at length asked Maria; "have you any names by which +we may call you?" + +"We are called Elves," said her little friend; "they speak well of us +too in the world, as I understand." + +On retracing their way into the flower-garden they heard a great shout +in the meadows, which grew louder as they approached nearer to the +spot. + +"A large beautiful bird has arrived," shouted the children, as they +followed the flight of the majestic creature, as it sailed through the +air: all pushed on hastily in its track, and Maria and her young +friend could see young and old all pressing forward to the spot with +hasty steps: songs of rejoicing were heard on every side, and a sweet +strain of triumphal music from within came floating through the air to +them. They entered the hall, and saw the whole circuit filled with the +elfin-tribe, all gazing up at a vast bird of beautiful plumage, which +was describing slowly many revolutions around the dome of the +building. The music burst forth more gaily than ever, and the colours +and lights in the ceiling revolved more rapidly, and shot forth again +in brighter colours and more fantastic groups. At length the music +died away softly, and the majestic bird fluttered down upon a +splendid throne, suspended mid-way from the ceiling, beneath the +window which lighted the apartment from above. His plumage was a +mixture of purple and green, through which the most brilliant golden +streaks were to be seen; on his head was a clear, shining coronet of +feathers, glittering as though it were studded with precious stones; +his beak was of a deep red tint, and his legs of bright blue. When he +rose again into the air, all the colours blended together so uniquely +that the eye was perfectly enraptured with the gorgeous galaxy of +magnificence which it presented. But soon he opened his brilliant +beak, and warbled sweet melody more delicious than that of the +nightingale: his song swelled forth and grew more powerful, gushing +out like lovely rays of light, till the whole assembly shed tears of +delight. + +When he had ceased his song, all present bowed low before him; again +he flew around the cupola in circles, and sailing swiftly through the +entrance, soared again up to the blue sky, where he was soon lost to +the eye, appearing for a time a mere bright speck upon the horizon. + +"Why are you all so glad?" asked Maria, bending down to the beautiful +child, who appeared to her smaller than the day before. + +"The king is coming," answered the child; "many of us have never yet +seen him; and wherever he goes, thither happiness and prosperity +follow him. We have been eagerly longing for his presence for some +time past, and looking forward to his coming as anxiously as you +children of air look forward to spring and spring-flowers after a +tedious winter. And now he has announced to us his approach through +that beautiful and intelligent messenger, the Phoenix. He dwells +afar off in Arabia, and there only appears one of the species at the +same time in the world: when he grows old, he builds himself a nest of +balm and incense, and, setting it on fire, burns to death, singing at +the same time as beautifully as you have heard him to-day; then from +the odoriferous ashes he rises again into a new existence, and soars +aloft with fresh vigour and beauty. But now, dear little Maria, you +must go; the period of your stay with us has expired: when the king +comes, no stranger must dwell with us, nor even see him once." + +"But he will soon leave you again," said Maria fondly, "and then I +will return to you, and never quit you." + +"It cannot be," answered her friend; "the king will stay here twenty +years, or even longer; but he will make every thing change for you for +the better: there will be no storms to harm your crops, no hail to +destroy the early blossoms of your fruit-trees, no floods to overflow +your pasture-land." + +Here the golden-dressed lady stepped up to Maria. + +"You must indeed go," she said; "though we must all be sorry that the +time for your visit has elapsed. Take this ring, and wear it always in +remembrance of your elfin friends; but remember, when you quit this +spot, never to mention to any living soul the place where you have +been staying--never to reveal aught of the wonders you have been +permitted to see here. Should you ever be tempted to disclose this +great secret, beware of the evil results that must ensue--they will +fall heavily upon you, as well as upon us: we shall be obliged to quit +the spot for ever, and your fruitful fields will be transformed to a +desolate wilderness. Come, kiss your little playfellow once more, and +then farewell. Remember my last caution." + +Maria bade them a sad farewell, and retraced her steps to her own +home. As she was crossing the bridge, the little white dog barked at +her again, as he had done when she first approached, and shook his +little bell. She crossed over, and began for the first time to think +of her parents, and the happy home she had deserted through her +disobedience. She pictured to herself the anguish of a loving mother, +the silent though deep sorrow of her father, the alarm of the whole +hamlet, as soon as the news of her disappearance was noised abroad. +She then thought of Andrew's glee when he reached the winning-post, +and how his eager eye was turned in the direction that she had agreed +to come by, expecting to see her downcast look. She then called to +mind the caution she had received not to make the communication known, +for fear of the evil results: "however," said she, "if I were to tell +them, and insist upon the truth of my statement, I should find no one +to credit my story." As she was indulging in her reveries, two men +passed her and saluted her. + +"What a pretty girl!" said they, "where can such a beautiful creature +have come from?" + +She quickened her pace; but on looking round her she was struck with +amazement: the flowers that she had left yesterday so lovely and +fragrant were dead, and their sweet odour was gone; the trees, +yesterday so verdant, were now leafless and withered; new buildings +had sprung up around her--indeed it would seem that some mystic agency +had been at work on the spot--that the spirit of enchantment had +passed over the district, and wrought a change indeed. + +"Then it must all be a dream," said Maria, rubbing her eyes as though +wakening up from a deep slumber; "it must all be a dream; and the +strange and wonderful sights I have seen must be the effects of +fancy.--No, it certainly is reality, and I am standing near the bridge +where our house stood yesterday." + +She proceeded on to her home, perfectly bewildered by the change that +a day had wrought; and, with a feeling of embarrassment that can be +more naturally conceived than portrayed, she opened the door, and saw +her father sitting behind a table, at which were seated a lady and a +youth, both of whom Maria fancied she had never seen before. + +"Father, dear father," cried Maria, gazing round her with a look of +deep amazement, "say, where is my mother?" + +The lady immediately rose from her seat, and, rushing towards her, +looked at her with an earnestness of feeling that itself would have +told the grand secret, that it was no other than her mother, and +exclaimed, "Yes, you are,--no;" and then she seemed for a minute to +distrust her powers of recollection,--"yes, you are our dear, lost +Maria;" and the mother and daughter were instantly clasped in each +other's arms. + +Still Maria scarcely seemed to credit her senses.--"How," said she to +herself, "can one single day have produced this change?--not only are +the buildings altered, and the general appearance of the country, but +my mother also wears a more aged appearance: can this be the effect of +one little day?" + +"Who, then, is that young man?" she inquired of her mother, who was by +this time fully satisfied of her daughter's identity. + +"That," replied Martin, "is your old playfellow Andrew; you surely +have not entirely forgotten him; though certainly a lapse of seven +years must have made some little change in all of us. Seven years have +now passed away since you disappeared so suddenly; and so many +continued years of sorrow and anxiety rarely, I trust, fall to the lot +of any mortals. Where have you been this long time? Why did we not +hear of you?--for, although we all rejoice exceedingly to receive you +again, still you must satisfy us with the cause of your disappearance, +and with an account of what has befallen you in your separation from +us." + +"Seven years!" exclaimed Maria; "seven years do you say have passed?" + +"Yes," said Andrew, "it is so indeed. I arrived first at the +pear-tree, and that was seven years ago; and as you have only this +moment returned, I think I can claim the prize as victor." + +"You remember," said her father, "our leaving you with Andrew, while +we went into the harvest-field: on our return you were missing. Andrew +told us the story of the race, and that he saw no more of you after +the start. We searched diligently for you, and everybody through the +hamlet offered their assistance to endeavour to discover you. But our +attempts were fruitless, and we returned to our home broken-hearted, +having lost all we prized on earth, our only child. But tell us, how +did you contrive to lose yourself?--we thought you were so well +acquainted with the whole district as to render it a matter of +impossibility. Where have you been? how have you been living?" + +These questions embarrassed the poor Maria in no slight degree: for +how could she tell of the wondrous elves--of her dear little +playfellow Zerina--of the gold and precious stones, the lovely fruits, +the variegated flower-beds, the streams of gentle water, the children +sporting in the rivulets? How could she describe the crystal +fire-beings--the beautifully-feathered phoenix, the palace of the +elf-king, with its brazen-wrought gates, and its highly decorated +ceilings? How could she trace to their imaginations the hideous form +of the metal-prince, and the strange figures of the sentinels on the +rampart? But even if she had been able to depict all the spectacles +she had witnessed in their proper colours, would such a strange story +have appeared credible, or even plausible? But she had not forgotten +the last parting admonition of the golden lady--no, it was still +ringing in her ears--"tell not aught of the things you have seen or +heard; evil results will happen to you and us:" and then the smiling +features of her little elfin friend were visible to her mind's +eye,--and could she harm so dear a head? No, it was not in her +disposition to injure any one, even should it not be likely to draw +down danger upon herself. + +"Where have you been?" again asked Martin. + +"As soon as I started off in the race," said Maria, "I was snatched +up, and carried off to a distance. I did not know the country," she +continued, "and could not get any communication to you: I seized the +first opportunity to make my escape, and have once more reached you." + +However strange and incredible this may have appeared, as it certainly +did, to her parents, still they were so happy to receive their lost +child, and to heap blessings on her head for cherishing such feelings +of love and affection towards them during her long absence, that they +forgot the mystery that seemed to invest her statement, in the joy +they experienced in having her again beneath the roof of her fathers. +He who can appreciate the joy with which a parent clasps to her bosom +a long-lost child, can readily pardon the seeming indifference as to +the cause of her separation. Andrew remained the whole evening, and +shared their frugal supper. But how great was the change to poor +Maria! Where were the chambers glittering with gold and gems? where +the costly tapestries? where the sweet odours floating about in the +air? where the strains of divine harmony that were wafted to her ears +but yesterday by every breeze? They were no longer--they lived but in +her memory. And she gazed with a dissatisfied air at the meanness of +her father's dwelling; and thought how gloomy it was after the +brightness of the palace; and, indulging her fancy, she dreamt of +Zerina and the little elves, and gladly availed herself of an +opportunity to seek her chamber for the night, where she might dwell +upon the strange events of one day apparently--of seven years in +reality. + +Andrew returned on the following morning, seemingly anxious to spend +as much time as possible in the society of his first playfellow, +Maria. The news of her return spread rapidly through the hamlet, and +many were the hearty congratulations poured forth, mingled with +blessings, on her youthful head. It at length reached the ears of the +noble proprietor of the castle, who sent for her, and listened to her +statement with no little surprise and wonder: they were struck with +her vivacity of spirit, tempered with unassuming modesty, and with her +plain unvarnished tale;--so well hitherto had she concealed in her own +bosom any feeling that might have thrown a shade of suspicion on her +story, and brought to light the awful secret of which she was +possessed. It was now the month of February; but the whole country +wore that rich appearance which a more matured season of the year +induces: the trees were clad in their brilliant green livery; the +nightingale's notes were already to be heard in the woods; and never +had such an early or so lovely a spring gladdened the earth before in +the recollection of the most aged villager. The hills seemed to +increase in size; the vines planted on them shot forth more numerous +tendrils, and the thick clusters, that promised an abundant vintage, +were already peeping forth among the leaves; the fruit-trees were +covered with blossoms, and there had been no hail to crush the produce +in the bud, no blight to destroy the hopes of the farmer at a more +advanced season. The following year wore the same happy appearance; +the harvest was still more abundant than before, and at the conclusion +of their toil Maria assented to the wishes of her parents and crowned +their joy by becoming Andrew's bride. Still she would often dwell upon +the happy days that were passed behind the fir-trees, till she grew +silent and serious, but more beautiful each succeeding day. It pained +her too, as often as Andrew talked of the gipsies and vagabonds, and +prayed that the Baron might some day purge his estate of such +worthless characters, as he styled them. On such occasions the +temptation of defending her benefactors was great indeed; but whenever +Andrew mentioned the subject she was more silent than before, in +consequence of her knowledge of the result of such a communication. +Thus matters went on steadily for a year, at the end of which time +they were blessed with a daughter, whom Maria named Elfrida--the name +doubtless having reference to those kind beings whose home she had +once shared, and who were at that time the secret agents in working +the grand changes that had taken place. + +Elfrida was a very intelligent child from her birth, and ran about +alone and prattled ere a twelvemonth had passed over her head. As she +grew older, her singular beauty was the remark of every one, and her +quick perception astonished them: she did not associate with other +children, but seemed to shun their sports, and avoid their company, +retiring frequently into an arbour or some secret spot, and passing +the hours in reading or working, and indulging her love of solitude. +Old Martin rejoiced to see the bloom of health on the cheek of his +grandchild, and to trace the rapid development of her intellect; but +Brigitta was constantly saying, "That child will not see many +years--she is too good, too beautiful for earth; she will smile on us +here for a time, but she will soon be carried off to a happier home +than we can give her." The child was never in need of any +assistance--she rose with the lark, and was off immediately to her +chosen retreat: but on one occasion, when they were going to the +castle, Maria insisted on dressing her child, who resisted her with +prayers and tears, begging and entreating that her mother would leave +her. Maria persevered, and on stripping her discovered a singular +piece of gold, corresponding exactly to the treasures which she had +seen in the elves' chambers, fastened to her bosom by a silken thread. +The child, terrified at the discovery, declared that she knew not how +she had come by it, but at the same time prayed that her mother would +not remove it, but allow her still to keep the treasure. At the +child's earnest entreaty Maria replaced it by its thread, and took her +to the castle; but it made a deep impression on her heart, and she was +from that moment full of thought. + +By the side of old Martin's house were some detached buildings, +erected as storehouses for fruits and corn; behind them was a +grass-plat, where stood an old arbour, which no one was in the habit +of visiting, in consequence of its distance from the new +dwelling-house. This was the favourite retreat of Elfrida, and no one +disturbed her, even though she were to spend the greater part of the +day there in solitude. One afternoon Maria went to the arbour to find +an article she had mislaid, and observed a bright stream of light +issuing through a chink in the wall: she hastily removed a few loose +stones, and, peeping in, saw Elfrida seated on a little rustic bench, +and by her side Zerina, sporting with her. The elf embraced the child, +and said, "Ah, my dear little thing, I played with your mother once as +I do with you, when she visited us: you are growing so fast, and +becoming so rational--'tis a sad pity." + +"How I wish," said Elfrida, "how I wish I could remain a child all my +life, to please you!" + +"Ah," said Zerina, "it is with you as with the blossoms of the trees: +how beautiful the bloom is! but ere you have had time to admire the +bud, the warm sun shoots down on it, the blossom bursts and comes to +its full maturity." + +"How I wish I could see you in your home, if it were only once!" said +the child. + +"That is impossible," said Zerina; "since our king has come, no child +of earth can visit us: but I can come often to you--no one knows it, +either here or there; I fly to and fro like a bird; so that we can be +happy with one another as long as we live." + +"What can I do to please you, dear Zerina?" said the child. + +"Let us make a crown again," answered Zerina, taking a golden box from +her bosom. She shook two grains upon the earth, and there arose a +greenish bush with two red roses, which bent towards each other, and +seemed to kiss. They plucked the two roses, and the bush sank again +into the earth. + +"I wish my rose would not die so soon," said the child. + +"Give it to me," said the elf; and breathing on it she kissed it three +times, and gave it back to the child, and said, "now it will live till +the winter." + +"How sweet!" said Elfrida; "I'll set it up in my room like a picture, +and kiss it morning and evening." + +"Now, dear Elfrida, I must leave you," said Zerina; "the sun is going +down, and my time has passed;" and she disappeared from the arbour, +and soon regained her fairy home. + +From this moment Maria looked with a certain degree of awe and +reverence upon her child, and let her roam at her will even more than +she had done before--soothing and quieting her husband whenever he +wished to go in search of the little fugitive. Maria frequently crept +to the hole, and always discovered the elf there playing or chattering +with the child. + +"Should you like to be able to fly?" asked the elf one day of her +little friend. + +"Willingly," replied Elfrida. + +Zerina embraced her, and they floated up together from the earth to +the top of the arbour. The mother, in her anxiety for her darling +child, leant forward from her hiding-place to look for them, when +Zerina perceived her, and, holding up her finger in a threatening +manner, she smiled sweetly on her, and brought down the child to earth +again, and disappeared. + +Maria was in the habit of shaking her head kindly at her husband in +their disputes concerning the occupants of the district behind the +fir-plantations: on one occasion she said, "You are unjust in your +ideas of them;" but when pressed by her husband for an explanation, +she was silent. Scarce a day passed without a serious conversation +between them on the same subject; and on another occasion Andrew was +more than usually enraged against them, and said, "The Baron ought to +expel them; they are injurious to the hamlet." + +"Silence!" cried Maria, "they are benefactors, and no vagabonds!" and, +binding him by a promise never to divulge aught of what she was about +to mention, she related to him the story of her youth, with all the +particulars of the elfin regions. As he continued incredulous, she led +him to the arbour, where he saw the elf caressing his child. On his +approach Zerina grew pale, and trembled exceedingly, and lifted her +finger in a threatening manner at Maria, no longer smiling as before. +"It is not your fault," said she to the child, "but I must leave you +for ever;" and embracing Elfrida, she flew in the form of a raven, +with most discordant shrieks, towards the fir-plantation. + +The little child silently kissed her rose, and wept incessantly; +Andrew spoke little. At length night came on: the trees moaned as the +blast swept by, the owls whooped mournfully, the thunder boomed along +the sky, and the earth rocked violently. Maria and Andrew lay +trembling with fear, and endeavouring to shut out all the fury of the +storm, and the roar of the thunder from their thoughts. How eagerly +did they long for the morning! At length day dawned, and the sun shone +forth again. Andrew dressed himself hastily, and, opening his door, +looked forth on the scene around him. What a change was there!--the +prospect could not even be recognised; the verdant freshness of the +wood was gone, the hill had sunk into the ground, the stream wound +slowly on, with scarce a sufficient depth of water to cover its +channel; the sky wore a grey gloomy hue, and the fir-trees, that had +ever been so unusually dark, wore the same appearance as the rest of +the vegetation. Maria looked at her ring, the gift of the elf, and saw +that the stone was of a strange palish colour, having lost all its +fire and brilliancy. + +The villagers, in different groups, were discussing the events of the +singular night; some had passed over the heath by the gipsy-huts early +in the morning, and found no trace of living creature. The huts were +certainly still standing, but they were tenantless; and the whole spot +was so entirely changed that there was no feature in it to distinguish +it from the hamlet in which they themselves dwelt. In the course of +the day Elfrida sought a conference with her mother, and said, "I was +so restless last night, dear mother, I could not close my eyes; and, +being terrified by the storm, I prayed fervently for safety during the +many dark hours that still remained before morning dawned; and in the +midst of my prayers the door opened suddenly, and my little playfellow +entered to take leave of me. She was equipped as though for a long +journey, and had a pilgrim's staff. She was angry, dear mother, very +angry with you; for she has undergone severe and painful punishments +on your account, and that too when she was so fond of you: and even +amid all this trouble, resulting from your want of prudence, she says +she is sorry to leave the district on your account." Maria begged her +to conceal the whole matter from her father, and to mention it to none +of the villagers. + +Meantime the ferry-man, who plied on the stream near which their +gardens were situated, came, with terror depicted on his face, to tell +the strange things he had seen and heard. "At twilight," said he, "a +man of gigantic stature called to hire the ferry till sunrise this +morning, on one condition, that I would promise to keep myself within +doors, and not venture to peep forth to see what was being done. I was +afraid that some trick was to be played off; and although I retired to +rest, I could not sleep for thinking on the strange bargain. I crept +silently to the window, and looked forth; the dark dusky clouds chased +one another restlessly through the expanse of sky; the distant woods +moaned heavily, strange noises floated in the air, and the cottage +shook from its very foundations. Suddenly I saw a white stream of +light, brightening ever and anon, like many thousand twinkling stars; +it floated on from the direction of the firs, waving to and fro over +the fields, and spreading towards the stream. I heard a tramping of +footsteps, and a buzzing, rustling noise, which grew by degrees more +and more distinct: then I saw many thousand glittering figures--men, +women, and children--pass on to the ferry-boat and embark, and the +gigantic man ferried them across; many beautiful creatures swam over +by the boat, and lively clouds of white and blue floated over their +heads; melancholy music was wafted by the breeze around me, and the +sounds of lamentation, as though of colonies parting for a distant +country from their father-land: the stroke of the oar fell heavily on +my ear, and then all again was silence for a while. Then the boat +returned, and was laden anew: many hideous dwarfs rolled along heavy +vessels; but whether they were demons of earth or not, I cannot say. +Then there came a brilliant and stately procession, in the midst of +which appeared an aged man, on a small white horse, the head of which +was adorned by precious stones of every colour. The old man's head was +surrounded by a coronet, which shone so vividly, that, as he passed, +methought the sun was rising, and that the beams of early day were +piercing through the mists of midnight. This procession lasted during +the whole night, till at length, worn out with fatigue, I fell into a +deep slumber. In the morning all seemed quiet; but when I rose to look +after my ferry-boat, I observed that the stream was almost dry, and +the water so low, that I must altogether remove my ferry." + +This was the strange recital on the part of the ferry-man, who had +been an eye-witness of the wondrous spectacle. In the same year a +dreadful famine prevailed through the whole district; the corn was +blighted; the fruit-trees withered away; the foliage of the woods +became of a sickly yellow colour; the springs dried up; and soon that +pretty hamlet, which had been for years the delight of the traveller, +was nothing more than a barren desert, naked and sterile; a vast +expanse of sand, with here and there a tuft of grass, and even that +discoloured and dying. The vines, that were formerly the pride of the +district, afforded no more rich clusters; and the whole spot wore so +melancholy and gloomy an aspect, that in the following year the Count +and his family removed from the once magnificent castle, which soon +afterwards fell to ruins. + +Elfrida gazed fondly at the rose day and night, and kissed it, +dreaming of her dear little playfellow; and as the flower drooped and +faded, so did her little head droop; and ere the balmy breezes of +spring returned with their freshness, she was gone. Maria would often +stand before the door of the cottage, weeping for her lost child, and +dreaming of that happiness once her own, never again to return. On her +fell all the misery that was predicted by the golden lady, if she +should ever divulge aught of the elves or their fairy regions: she +bowed her head to the stroke, and like her child faded slowly away, +and followed her to the grave. The broken-hearted parents could no +longer dwell in the spot, embittered as it was by the recollection of +former days of happiness, and the prospect of heaviness and gloom for +the future; and since the link that bound them to all that was dear +had been rudely snapt asunder, old Martin, Brigitta, and Andrew, +quitted the spot, and retired to a district where the old man had +passed his first happy days. + + + + +THE WHITE EGBERT. + + +High up in the Hartz Mountains there lived in a castle a knight who +was known by the name of the White Egbert. He was about forty years +old, rather below the middle height; and he obtained his name from the +quantity of short, smooth, white hair which covered his pale haggard +cheeks. He lived a peaceable retired life, never involved in feuds +with his neighbours; indeed, he was seldom seen beyond the walls of +his small castle. His wife loved quiet as much as he; they were +passionately attached to each other; and their only cause of sorrow +was that Heaven had not blessed their union with children. + +It was seldom that a guest was seen at the castle; and if ever +such an event did happen, it never was allowed to interfere with +their ordinary way of going on. No advance was made upon the +frugality--almost meanness--with which the establishment was +conducted; the only difference being that at such times Egbert assumed +an air of lightness and gaiety, whereas when alone he was observed to +be reserved and melancholy. + +His most frequent visitor was Philip Walters; a man to whom Egbert had +attached himself, because he observed in him, on the whole, a general +resemblance to himself in his ways of thinking. This person was a +native of France, and spent the greater part of his time there; but he +was often for more than six months together in the mountains in the +neighbourhood of Egbert's castle, looking for grasses and minerals, of +which he was a collector. He had a small property of his own, and was +independent of every one. Egbert often accompanied him on these +expeditions, and every year a closer attachment formed itself between +them. + +There are hours in every man's life in which, if he has a secret from +his friend, he becomes suddenly in labour with it, and what before he +may have taken the greatest pains to conceal, he now feels an +irresistible impulse to throw out of himself--to lay bare the whole +burden of his heart, that it may form a new link to bind his friend to +him. Friendship ebbs and flows, and is subject to singular influences. +There are moments of violent repulsion; there are others when every +barrier is dissolved, and spirits flow together and mingle into one. + +On a dark cloudy evening, one day late in autumn, Egbert was sitting +with his friend and his wife Bertha round the fire in the castle-hall. +The flame flung a bright ruddy glow along the walls, and played and +flickered in the deep oak roof. The night looked in gloomily through +the windows, and the trees outside shook with the wet and the cold. +Walters complained of the distance he had to go to his house, and +Egbert pressed him to stay and spend half the night talking over the +fire, and then accept a room in the castle till next morning. Walters +agreed to do so; wine and supper were brought in; fresh logs of wood +were thrown upon the fire; and the friends' conversation became more +and more easy and confidential. + +When the things were taken away, and the servants had retired, Egbert +took Walters' hand, and said, "My dear friend, you must let my wife +Bertha tell you the history of her younger days; it is a very strange +one, and well worth your hearing." + +"With the greatest pleasure," said Walters; and they again drew their +chairs round the fire-place. + +It was toward midnight; dark masses of cloud were sweeping across the +sky, and the moon looking fitfully out between. "Do not think I am +forcing myself on you," Bertha said. "My husband tells me you are so +noble-hearted a person, it is a shame to conceal any thing from you. +Singular as it may sound, the story I am about to tell you is true. + +"I was born in a village in the plains. My father was a poor herdsman. +Our housekeeping was none of the best, and my parents often did not +know where they were to get a mouthful of bread. What was to me most +distressing of all was, that they often quarrelled because they were +poor, and each brought the bitterest complaints against the other for +being the cause of it. Of me, they and every one else said I was a +stupid, silly little creature; that I could not do the commonest thing +properly; and, indeed, I was a good-for-nothing helpless child. +Whatever I took up, I was sure to let fall and break. I could neither +sew, nor spin, nor knit, nor could I learn. I could not help in +managing the house; all I knew was that we were poor and miserable. I +used often to sit in a corner and think how I would help my parents if +I was all of a sudden to get rich; how I would shower gold and silver +on them, and what fun it would be to see how surprised they would +look; and I used to fancy all sorts of spirits sweeping round me, and +shewing me treasures buried under ground; or giving me little pebbles, +which suddenly turned to precious stones. In short, the strangest +notions got hold of me; and when I had to get up and help at any thing +in the house, I was all the stupider about it, because my brain was +running upon these sort of ideas. + +"My father was often very angry with me for being such an idle, +useless burden upon him. He sometimes spoke to me very harshly, and it +was seldom that I ever got a kind word from him. So it went on till I +was about eight years old; and now matters got serious--I must learn +to do something. My father thought it was wilfulness and obstinacy in +me, and all I wanted was to spend my time in amusement. Enough: one +day, after a number of threats which all proved fruitless, he gave me +a dreadful beating, and declared I should have the same every day till +I had learned to turn myself to some purpose or other. + +"All that night I lay on my bed crying; I felt so wretched and +miserable that I wished to die. I was afraid of the daylight, because +I did not know what to begin about. I wished and wished for every +possible accomplishment, and I could not conceive why I was stupider +than other children that I knew. I was almost in despair. When morning +began to break, I got up; and hardly knowing what I did, I opened the +door of our little cottage. I ran out into the open fields, and +presently into a wood close by, which was so thick that daylight could +hardly find its way into it. I ran on and on without ever looking +behind me. I did not feel the least tired; all I was afraid of was +that my father would catch me, and beat me again worse than before for +running away. + +"When I had got to the other side of the wood, the sun was by this +time high in the air, and I saw a dark heavy mass beyond me, covered +with a thick mist. Presently I had to scramble up some hills, and then +to follow a winding rocky path; and now I felt sure I must have found +my way into the neighbouring mountains, and I began to be afraid; +living as I did down in the plains, I had never seen them before; and +the name of mountains, when I heard people speaking of them, had a +somewhat fearful and ominous sound about it. Still, I could not find +courage to return; worse fears drove me forward; I often started and +looked round as the wind moaned among the fir-trees, or a distant +woodman's axe echoed among the hills; and at last when some of the +coalmen and miners met me, and I heard them speaking a language I did +not understand, I was almost frightened out of my senses. Soon, +however, I got used to them, and begged my way on through a number of +villages. People gave me enough to eat and drink, and I had always an +answer ready for any questions that might be asked me. I had gone on +this way for four days, when I fell into a narrow footpath; I followed +it, and it led further and further away from the main road, through a +wholly different sort of country, where the aspect of the mountains +was entirely altered, and became wilder and stranger,--among rocks and +cliff's tumbled rudely one upon another, and looking as if the first +gust of wind would bring them all crashing down. I did not know +whether I should go on or not. It was the middle of summer, so that +hitherto I had spent the night either in the woods or in some one or +other of the shepherds' huts; but here I saw no signs whatever of any +thing like a human habitation, nor in so wild a spot could I hope to +find any. The cliffs grew steeper and more precipitous; often I had to +pass along the edge of abysses that made me giddy even to look at; at +last the very path came to an abrupt conclusion. Now I gave myself up +for lost; I cried and screamed, and all the answer was the echoing of +my voice along the rocky valley; darkness came on, and I looked for a +bank of moss to lie down upon. I could not sleep, for all night long I +heard strange wild noises round me, which sometimes sounded like the +howling of wild beasts; at others, like the screaming of the +mountain-birds, or the moaning of the wind among the rocks and cliffs. +I prayed to God to protect me; and towards morning I fell asleep. + +"Day had broken when I awoke. There was a steep hill immediately +before me, which I climbed up, in the hope of finding some way out of +the wilderness; when I had got at the top, however, all around me, as +far as my eye could reach, every thing was buried in fog; in the dull +grey light I could find nothing but rock, rock, rock, not a tree, not +a blade of grass, not a shrub to be seen, only here and there a branch +of heather projecting, with a sad lonely look, from a cleft or chasm +in the mountain's side. I cannot tell you how I craved for the sight +of a human being, if it was only to be afraid of him. I was hungry and +exhausted, and I flung myself down, and determined to lie there and +die. In a little while, however, the desire of life got the better of +this feeling; I raised myself up and walked on, crying and sobbing all +that day through. At last I hardly knew what or where I was; I was so +tired that I had almost lost all consciousness; I scarcely wished to +live, and yet I was afraid to die. + +"Towards evening I approached a part where the country resumed a +softer and milder look; and my heart began to beat again, and the +desire of life tingled in all my veins. I fancied I caught the sound +of a mill-wheel in the distance; I redoubled my speed; and oh! how +light and happy I felt when at last I found myself at the end of the +rocks and mountains, and saw once more the woods, and meadows, and +soft swelling pleasant hills, spread smiling out before me! It seemed +as if I had broke at once from hell into Paradise, and I cared no more +for being alone and helpless. Instead of the mill I hoped to find, I +came upon a waterfall, which a good deal diminished my exultation. I +was stooping down, however, to drink some water out of my hands, when +on a sudden I fancied I heard some one cough at a short distance from +me. Never had I a more agreeable surprise than at that moment. I went +towards the place the sound seemed to come from, and on turning the +corner of a wood, I saw an old woman sitting down, apparently resting +herself. She was dressed all in black, a black cap covering her head +and half her face; in her hand she had a crooked stick. + +"I went up to her, and asked her to help me. She bade me sit down at +her side, and gave me some bread and a little wine. While I was eating +she chanted a sort of hymn in a harsh, rough voice; and as soon as I +had done, she rose and told me to follow her. Strange and odd as the +old woman's voice and appearance was, I was delighted at this +invitation; she limped away before me, helping herself along with her +stick; and I followed, at first hardly able to keep from laughing at +the strange faces she made at every step. We soon left the mountains +behind us; we walked on over soft grassy meadows, and then along a +forest glade; as we came out again into the open country the sun was +just setting, and the splendour of that evening, and the feeling it +produced in me, I never shall forget. The sky was steeped in gold and +crimson; the trees stood with their tops flushed in the evening glow; +a gleam of enchanting beauty lay upon the fields; every leaf was +hushed and still; and the pure heaven looked down as if the +sky-curtain was withdrawn, and Paradise lay open to our eyes; the +brook bubbled along the valley; and from time to time, as a soft air +swept over the forest, the rustling leaves appeared to gasp for joy. +Visions of the world, and all its strange and wondrous incidents, rose +up before my chilled soul. I forgot myself and my conductress, and +eyes and heart were lost in ecstacy in gazing on those golden clouds. + +"We went up a gentle hill which was planted with chestnut-trees; from +the top of which we saw down into a green valley, in the middle of +which, surrounded by a clump of chestnuts, lay a little cottage. +Presently a burst of merry barking greeted us, and a bright beautiful +little dog came bounding and jumping up against the old woman, and +frisking round us with every sign of the greatest satisfaction. Then +he turned to me, and, after looking me all over, seemed tolerably +satisfied, and ran back again to his mistress. As we descended the +hill, I heard a strange kind of song, which seemed to come from the +cottage, and to be sung by a bird: + + 'In my forest-bower + I sing all day, + Hour after hour, + To eternity. + Oh, happy am I + In my forest-bower!' + +These few words were repeated over and over again: the nearest +description I can give of the sound is, that it was like the effect of +a bugle and a cornet answering each other at a great distance over +water. + +"My curiosity was at the greatest possible stretch of excitement; and +without waiting for the old woman's permission, I ran into the +cottage. The twilight was beginning to fall; and, by the sinking +light, I found a neat, well-arranged little room, a few cups and +glasses on a sideboard, and some singular-looking boxes on a table. In +a very beautiful cage in the window hung a bird; and it was indeed +from it that the song came which I had heard. The old woman was +coughing and panting, hardly able to recover her breath. She took +scarcely any notice of me--did not even seem to know I was +present--but patted her little dog, and then turned and talked to the +bird, which only answered with singing the same song. All this time I +stood watching her movements; and it almost frightened me to see how +eternally her face kept working and twitching; her head, too, shook as +if age had loosened its hold on her shoulders; and altogether she +looked so odd and strange, that, do what I would, I could not make out +what her features were like. + +"When she had got her breath again, she lit a candle, threw a cloth +over a little table, and put out some supper. At last she turned round +to me, and told me to take one of the twisted-cane chairs, and sit +down. I did so, and seated myself exactly opposite to her, with the +light between us. Then she folded her lanky withered fingers together, +and said a long prayer, making all the time such strange contortions +with her face, that again it was all I could do to help bursting out +laughing. But I was afraid of making her angry, and checked myself. +After supper, she said another long grace, and then shewed me a bed in +a little narrow chamber adjoining, she herself sleeping in the room in +which we supped. I was tired and half stupified, and so soon fell +asleep. I awoke several times, however, in the night, and heard the +old woman coughing and talking to her dog, and the bird now and +then--which seemed to be in a dream--bringing out single words and +lines of its song. The chestnuts rustled outside the window; far away +a nightingale was singing; and all these sounds together made so odd a +mixture, that I could hardly persuade myself I was awake, and that I +had not fallen into another still stranger dream. + +"In the morning the old woman woke me up, and presently set me to +work. I had to spin, and I soon learnt how to do it; and besides this, +I had to take care of the dog and the bird. I very quickly got into +the way of managing the household matters, and of knowing the uses of +the different articles. One can get used to any condition, and I was +no exception: I soon ceased to think there was any thing odd about the +old woman, that the cottage was remarkably situated, and that one +never saw any other human being there, or that the bird was so very +extraordinary a creature. I was delighted with its beauty; all its +feathers glittered with every conceivable colour, the brightest +sky-blue alternating with deep scarlet over its head and body; and +when it sang, it swelled itself out so proudly, that the colours +shewed more brilliantly than ever. + +"The old woman often went out in the morning, and did not return till +evening, when I used to go out with the little dog to meet her; and +she would call me her child, her little daughter. In one's childhood +one soon takes to people, and I became exceedingly attached to her. In +the evenings she would teach me to read, and I was quick and ready in +learning; and this afterwards, when I was much alone, became a source +of infinite amusement to me; for she had a number of old manuscript +books in the cottage, full of fairy-tales, and all sorts of queer old +stories. + +"There is something very odd about my recollections of the way I went +on then. Not a human creature ever came near us; our home +family-circle certainly was not an extensive one; and the dog and the +bird make the same impression on me now that the recollection of long +and well-known old friends produces; yet, often and often as I must +have repeated it, do what I will, I cannot call back again the +singular name of the little dog. + +"So things went on for some four years or more; and I must have been +about twelve years old, when the old woman took me at last deeper into +her confidence, and revealed to me a secret. Every day the bird laid +an egg; and in each egg was a pearl, or some other precious stone. I +had often observed before that she had some mysterious doings with the +cage; but I had never troubled myself much about it. Now, however, she +gave me a charge while she was absent to take these eggs, and put them +by carefully in the odd-looking boxes. Leaving me sufficient food in +her absence, she would now be away sometimes weeks and months at a +time; and my wheel went round, and the little dog barked, and the bird +sang, and all was so still in the country round, that while I was +there I do not remember a single storm. No foot of man ever strayed +there; no wild beast ever came near our dwelling; I worked on there +day after day, and I was happy. Oh, fortunate indeed would men be, if +they could but go on through life in such peace and quiet to their +graves! + +"From the little that I read, I made myself a set of notions of what +the world was, and what men were; and very queer ones they were; for +they were all taken from myself and the society in which I lived. If +we talked of gay, bright, happy people, I could only fancy them like +the little dog; beautiful stately ladies must look like the bird, and +ancient dames like my old woman. My stories contained something about +love, and I made myself the heroine of many wonderful adventures: I +pictured for myself the most beautiful knight the world had ever seen; +I adorned him with every grace and every perfection; and though, after +all my trouble, I could not tell exactly what he was like, I could +feel the most passionate despair if he did not return my affection; +and I had all sorts of eloquent speeches to make--which I would often +repeat aloud--to win his love. You smile! Ah, well, we are none of us +young now! + +"I was much the happiest when I was by myself; for then I was absolute +mistress in the cottage. The dog was very fond of me, and did all that +I wished; the bird replied with his song to all my questions; my wheel +went round merrily; and I never for a moment felt a wish for any +change. When the old woman came back from her long expeditions, she +would praise me for being so good and attentive. Her household, she +said, was much better attended to since I had been there; she was +pleased with my growth, and the general healthiness of my appearance; +in short, she spoke to me and treated me exactly as if I had been her +daughter. 'You are going on well indeed, my child,' she said one day, +with a roughish coarse voice: 'if you continue in this way, you will +never come to any mischief. But, you may depend upon it, it never +fails, if once one gets out of the right road, but sooner or later we +shall be punished for it.' I took little notice of this at the time +she said it; for in all I did and said I was a lively, thoughtless +child; but by and by, in the night, her words recurred to me, and I +could not conceive what she meant. I thought them all over and over +again. I had often read about riches and wealth, and so on; and at +last it occurred to me that those pearls and precious stones must be +of great value. This soon became more plain to me; but what could she +have meant by the right road? I could not make any thing of it, do +what I would. + +"I was now fourteen years old; and it is unfortunate for people that +generally they only get their understanding to lose their innocence by +the light of it. I now came clearly enough to comprehend that it would +be easy for me, while the old woman was away, to take the bird and the +jewels, and go with them into the world that I had read about; and +then very likely I might find my beautiful knight, who still continued +in my thoughts. + +"At first this idea was no more than any other, just flashing across +my mind and then gone again; but when I sat by myself at my wheel, in +spite of myself it kept coming back to me, till at last it completely +took possession of my mind; and I already saw myself dressed with the +greatest magnificence, with knights and princes standing round me; and +so I would let myself dream on, and then when I started up and found +myself in a little narrow room, I felt vexed and disappointed. For the +rest, so that I did what I was told, the old woman did not trouble +herself about what was passing in my mind. + +"One day she went away again, telling me that this time she would be +absent longer than usual; I was to see that every thing was kept +right, and do what I could to prevent the time hanging heavy on my +hands. I took leave of her with some distress, as I felt a misgiving +that I should never see her again; I stood watching her a long time as +she hobbled away, almost without knowing myself why I was so unhappy. +It seemed as if my purpose was already before my mind, and yet I was +not actually conscious of it. + +"Never did I take so much care of the dog and the bird as now; they +seemed closer to my heart than they had been before. The old woman had +been gone some days, when one morning I got up with the fixed purpose +to leave the cottage with the bird, and go and look for what was +called the world. Still I felt unhappy and miserable. I wished to stay +where I was, and yet this thought had got too strong a hold on me; +there was a singular struggle going on in my soul, as if two opposite +spirits were fighting in me. One moment came the sweetness of that +sequestered spot before me, looking so beautiful; and then the next, +the ravishing idea of a new world, and all the wonderful things in it. +I hardly knew what to make of myself. The little dog kept jumping up +upon me incessantly. The sunshine lay spread out brilliantly over the +green fields, and the chestnut-leaves glistened as it fell on them. +Suddenly I felt a strong impulse seize me; I caught the little dog and +tied it up in the cottage, and then took the cage and the bird under +my arm. The dog whined and struggled at this unusual treatment; he +looked up at me with imploring eyes, but I could not venture to take +him with me. One of the boxes of precious stones I took and made fast +to my girdle, the rest I left in their places. The bird stretched and +strained with his head in an odd wild way as I went out with him +through the door; the dog sprung at his chain to follow me; but he was +bound fast, and he was obliged to stay. I avoided the road that led to +the mountains, and went down the valley the opposite way. The little +dog kept whining and barking incessantly, and I felt for him in my +heart; the bird made one or two attempts to sing, but it seemed he did +not like being carried, and would not go on. + +"For a long time I heard the barking of the dog, getting weaker and +fainter, however, as I got further away; at last it ceased altogether. +I cried, and had almost turned about and gone back again, but the +craving for something new urged me forward. I was soon over the hill, +and I walked on through wood and meadow till towards evening, when I +found myself near a village. I felt rather frightened at first in +going into an inn among strange people; but they shewed me into a +chamber with a bed, and I slept there very comfortably, only that I +dreamed of the old woman, who seemed to threaten me. + +"My journey had very little variety; but the further I went, the more +I was haunted by the recollection of the old woman and the little dog. +The poor little thing, I thought, would be sure to die of hunger, +without me to help it; and at every turn in the forest I expected to +see the figure of the old woman coming to meet me. Sighing and +weeping, I travelled on: whenever I stopped to rest myself, and set +the cage down upon the ground, the bird would sing his strange song, +and then bitter feelings of regret would come upon me for the dear old +cottage. So forgetful is our nature, I thought my first journey had +not been half so miserable as that, and I craved to be again once more +as I was then. + +"I had parted with some of the jewels, and at last, after a long round +of walking, one day I came to a village. I felt a strange emotion on +entering it; I was overcome by something, and could not tell why. Very +soon, however, I recollected myself, and found I was in the village +where I was born. How surprised I was! a thousand reminiscences came +pouring back upon me, and the tears ran down my cheeks. It was very +much altered. New houses had sprung up; others, which were new when I +went away, were crumbling to the ground; I found traces of burning +also; and every thing looked much smaller and more confined than I had +fancied. I was infinitely delighted, however, at the thought of seeing +my father and mother again after so long an absence. I found the +little cottage; the well-known doorway; the handle of the door was +exactly as it used to be; it seemed like yesterday that I had had it +in my hand. My heart beat and throbbed; I opened the door hastily; but +all the faces in the room were strange to me; they stared at me as I +entered. I asked for old Martin the shepherd; but they told me he and +his wife had been dead for three years past. I drew back as quickly as +I could, and went crying out of the village. + +"I had been thinking how delightful it would be to surprise them with +all my riches; the strangest accident had realised the dreams of my +childhood--I could make them happy--and now all was vain. They could +not share with me; and what all my life long had been the dearest +object of my hope was lost to me for ever. + +"I went to a pleasant-looking town, where I rented a small house with +a garden, and took a servant to live with me. I did not find the world +quite the wonderful place I expected; but I soon learnt to think less +and less of the old woman and the cottage I had lived in with her; and +so altogether I lived on pleasantly enough. + +"For a long time the bird had left off singing, so that I was not a +little frightened when one night he began again with a different song. + + 'My forest-bower, + Thou'rt far from me; + Oh, hour by hour + I grieve for thee: + Ah, when shall I see + My forest-bower?' + +I could not sleep all night. The whole thing came back again into my +thoughts, and I felt more clearly than ever that I had done what I +ought not. When I got up, the bird's head was turned towards me; he +kept watching me with a strange expression, and seemed to be +reproaching me. Now he never stopped singing; and his song came louder +and deeper I thought than it had ever been before. The more I looked +at him, the more uncomfortable he made me. At last I opened the cage, +thrust in my hand and caught him by the neck. I pressed my fingers +violently together; he looked imploringly in my face; I let him go; +but he was already dead: I buried him in the garden. + +"After this I was haunted by a fear of my servant; my conscience told +me what I had done, and I was afraid that some day or other she would +be robbing, or perhaps murdering me. Shortly, however, I became +acquainted with a young knight, who pleased me exceedingly. I gave him +my hand; and here, Herr Walters, is my story ended." + +"Ah, you should have seen her then," Egbert broke in hastily; "her +youthful freshness and beauty; and what an indescribable charm she had +received from her retired education! She came before me as a kind of +miraculous being, and I set no bounds to my affection for her. I was +poor myself; indeed I had nothing; but through her love I was placed +in the position in which you find me. We withdrew hither, and neither +of us has ever, for a single moment, regretted our union." + +"But see, with our talking and chatting," interrupted Bertha, "it is +already past midnight; we had better go to bed." + +She rose to retire to her chamber; as they parted Walters kissed her +hand, and wished her good night. "Thanks, noble lady," he said, "for +your story. I think I can see you with your strange bird, and feeding +the little Strohmian." + +Walters, too, retired to sleep; but Egbert continued restlessly pacing +up and down the hall. "What fools we men are!" he said to himself. +"Was it not I that prevailed on my wife to tell her story? and now I +am sorry it should have been told! Will he not make use of it for some +evil purpose? Will he not blab, and let our secret out to others? Is +he not very likely (it is just what a man would naturally do) to feel +some accursed hankering after one's jewels, and lay some plan or other +to get hold of them?" + +It struck him Walters had not taken leave of him with, as much +heartiness as he naturally would have done after being admitted into +such a piece of confidence. When once a man has admitted a feeling of +suspicion into his breast, every trifle becomes a confirmation of it. +Then for a moment he would feel ashamed of so ungenerous a distrust +of his noble-hearted friend; and yet he could not fling it off; all +night long these feelings kept swaying to and fro through his breast. +He slept but little. + +The next morning Bertha was unwell, and could not appear at breakfast. +Walters did not seem much to distress himself about it, and of the +knight also he took leave with apparent unconcern. Egbert could not +well make it out; he went to his wife's room, she was in a violent +fever; she said she supposed telling her story the preceding night +must have over-excited her. + +After that evening Walters came seldom to his friend's castle; and +when he did he never stayed, but went away again almost immediately +with a few unmeaning words. Egbert was excessively distressed at this +behaviour: he never said any thing about it, either to his wife or to +Walters; but they must both have seen that there was something which +made him uneasy. Bertha's illness too was another subject of distress +to him. The physician became alarmed; the colour faded from her +cheeks, and her eyes grew of an unnatural brightness. One morning she +called her husband to her bedside, and sent the servants out of the +room. + +"My dear husband," she began, seriously, "I have something to tell +you, which, however unmeaning and trifling it may seem to you, has +been the cause of all my illness, and has almost driven me out of my +senses. You know that whenever I have spoken of the events of my +childhood, in spite of all the trouble I have taken, I have never been +able to think of the name of the little dog that was so long with me. +The other evening as Walters took leave of me, he said, suddenly, 'I +fancy I see you feeding the little Strohmian.' Can it be accident that +he hit upon the name? or does he know the dog, and said what he did on +purpose? In what mysterious way is this man bound up with my destiny? +At times I try to persuade myself that it is all fancy; but no, it is +certainly true, too true. I cannot tell you how it has terrified me +to be so helped out with my recollection by a perfect stranger: what +do you say, Egbert?" + +Egbert regarded his suffering wife with the deepest emotion. For some +time he could not speak, but stood lost in his own reflections. At +last he muttered a few words of consolation, and left her. He retired +to a remote apartment, and paced up and down in indescribable +uneasiness. Walters had for many years been his only companion; and +now was this man the only one in the world whose existence was a pain +and grief to him. Could this one being be removed out of his path, +all, he thought, would then be well with him. To dissipate his +unpleasant reflections, he took his cross-bow and went out into the +mountains to hunt. + +It was a rough stormy winter's day; the snow lay deep upon the +hill-side, and the heavy branches of the pine-trees bent under their +burden. He scrambled rapidly on; the sweat stood upon his brow; but he +could not light on any game, and that increased his ill-humour. +Suddenly he saw a figure moving at some distance from him: it was +Walters, who was gathering moss from the trunks of the trees. Hardly +knowing what he did, he levelled his cross-bow at him; Walters looked +round, and raised his hand with a menacing gesture; but the bolt was +sped to its mark, and he fell to the earth. + +Egbert now felt relieved from a heavy burden. Yet a feeling of terror +drove him hastily back to his castle. He had a long way to go; for he +had wandered far away into the forests. When he reached it, Bertha was +already dead: on her deathbed she had spoken incessantly of Walters +and the old woman. + +Egbert now lived for a long time entirely alone. He had always been +dark and gloomy enough; for his wife's strange history troubled him, +and he was continually afraid some terrible misfortune would befall +them. His own conscience made him uneasy also. His friend's murder +was for ever before his eyes, and his life was an eternal +self-upbraiding. + +As some relief to his feelings, he went from time to time to the next +great town, where he could find society and forget himself in feasting +and dissipation. He longed to find a friend to fill up the dreary +chasm in his soul; and then again when he thought of Walters, he +shrunk in terror from it, as he felt convinced that any friend must +only be a source of new misery to him. So many years he had lived with +Bertha in their sweet seclusion, Walters' friendship had so long been +his greatest delight; and now both were suddenly snatched away from +him. There were many moments when it all seemed to him like a strange, +wild romance, and that he only dreamt that he was alive. + +A young knight, Hugo, attached himself to the silent, gloomy Egbert, +and seemed to be inspired with a real deep affection for him. Egbert +was very much surprised, and came forward to meet this new offer of +friendship the more readily because it was so entirely unexpected. The +two were now continually together. The stranger shewed Egbert every +possible attention. Neither ever rode out without the other; in short, +wherever they were, they appeared inseparable. + +Yet it was only for a very brief interval that Egbert allowed himself +to feel happy; for he was too sure that Hugo only loved him because he +did not know his history. His friend was in an error respecting him; +and he felt the same impulse as he had done before to unbosom himself +to him, that he might be assured whether he was indeed his friend or +not. Then, again, caution kept him back, and the fear of becoming an +object of abhorrence to Hugo; there were times when he was so terribly +oppressed with a sense of his unworthiness that he could not believe +any one who was not an utter stranger to him could entertain the +slightest regard for him. For all that, however, he could not contain +himself; and one day as they were walking by themselves, he told his +whole history, and then asked whether he could still love a murderer. +Hugo was touched, and tried to comfort him; and Egbert returned with a +lighter heart to the town. + +Yet it seemed to be his curse that a feeling of suspicion must arise +even in the hour of confidence; for hardly were they returned to their +room, and the glare of the candle was thrown upon his friend's face, +than he found something there which displeased him. He fancied he +could trace a malicious laugh. It struck him too that Hugo did not +seem so ready to talk to him as usual, and that his attention was +almost entirely given to the other persons present. There was an old +knight in the party who had never been a friend of Egbert, and used to +ask unpleasant questions about his wife, and where he got his money +from.... To this person Hugo attached himself, and the two held a long +mysterious conversation together, while their looks were from time to +time directed towards himself. Here he saw all his suspicions at once +confirmed. He believed he was betrayed, and his fierce and gloomy +temper now got complete mastery over him. As he stood with his eyes +fixed on them as they talked, suddenly he saw Walters' face, his air, +his gesture--the whole figure so familiar to him. He looked again; and +now he was convinced that it was no one but Walters that was speaking +with the old knight.... In unutterable terror, almost beside himself, +he rushed out of the room, and that night left the city, and returned +as fast as possible to his castle. + +He wandered restlessly from chamber to chamber; not a thought could he +find to soothe him; sleep fled from his eyes, and from one terrible +imagination he could only fall into another yet more terrible. He +thought he must be mad, and that what he had seen was but a crazed +dream; but Walters' features had been too vivid, and all was again a +riddle. He resolved to leave the castle, and set out upon his travels, +to bring his mind again into order: every thought of friendship, every +wish for society, he had now given up for ever. + +He set out without having made up his mind which way he would go; +indeed he thought little of the country through which he passed. One +day he had been riding for some time at a rapid pace among the +mountains, when he found himself suddenly involved in a labyrinth of +rocks, from which he could not discover any way of escape. At last he +fell in with an old countryman, who shewed him a path leading past a +waterfall. He offered the old man some money as a reward, but he +declined to accept it. + +"What is the matter with me?" said Egbert to himself; "I could have +fancied this was Walters again." He looked round, and Walters it +certainly was. Egbert spurred his horse on at its utmost speed; he +flew away over rocks and through woods and meadows, until at length it +sunk exhausted under him to the earth. He did not pause to think of +this, but continued to hurry on on foot. + +In a kind of half-dream, he climbed a little hill; he fancied he heard +the lively barking of a dog somewhere near him. Tall chestnuts rustled +in the wind, and he caught the strange wild strains of a song: + + "In my forest-home + Again sing I, + Where pain hath no life; + No envy and strife. + Oh, am I not happy + In my forest home?" + +Egbert was completely stupified, his senses reeled; all seemed a dark +painful riddle to him. He could not tell whether he was dreaming now, +or whether he had not dreamt of a Bertha as his wife. The common and +the wonderful were so strangely mingled together; the world round him +was enchanted.... His thoughts and recollections swam confusedly +before his mind. + +A crooked hump-backed old woman came panting up the hill with a +crutch. + +"Are you come to bring me my bird? my pearls? my dog?" she screamed +to him; "see how wickedness is its own punisher! I was your friend +Walters--I was Hugo." + +"God in heaven," muttered Egbert to himself, "to what dreadful place +have I wandered? Where am I?" + +"And Bertha was your sister." + +Egbert fell to the ground. + +"What made her run away from me in that way? the time of trial was +almost over, and thus all had ended well. She was the daughter of a +knight; he sent her to the herdsman to be brought up. She was your +father's daughter." + +"Oh, why, why have I ever had this dreadful foreboding?" cried Egbert. + +"Because when you were young you once heard your father speak of it. +He could not let her stay with him, for he was afraid of his wife; she +was the child of an earlier marriage." + +Egbert's heartstrings burst; he lay gasping out his life upon the +ground; faintly and more faintly he heard the old woman speak, the dog +bark, and the bird chant on his unwearying song. + + + + +THE FAITHFUL ECKART. + + + That noble duke, the great + Of Burgundy's proud land, + Felt all his foemen's hate, + And, vanquish'd, bit the sand. + + He spoke: "I'm struck! I bleed! + Where is my valour fled? + Friends fail me at my need, + My knights are flown or dead; + + I cannot hold the field-- + I faint! My strength, my pride, + Has left me here to yield-- + True Eckart's from my side. + + It was not thus of old, + When war raged fierce and strong-- + The last to have it told, + He loved his home too long. + + Now, see they trooping come-- + Not long my sword is mine: + Flight's made for the base groom-- + I'll die as died my line." + + With that he raised his sword, + And would have smote his breast; + When, truer than his word, + Good Eckart forward prest. + + Back spurn'd the vaunting foe, + And dashed into the throng; + Nor was his bold son slow + To bring his knights along. + + The bold duke saw the sign, + And cried, "Now, God be praised! + Now tremble, foemen mine, + My drooping hopes be raised!" + + Again he charged and cheer'd, + True Eckart wins the fight; + "But where's his boy?" he heard; + "No more he sees the light." + + When now the foe was fled, + Out spoke the duke aloud; + "Well hath it with me sped, + Yet Eckart's head is bow'd. + + Though many thou hast slain, + For country and for life; + Thy son lies on the plain, + No more to join the strife." + + Then Eckart's tears flow'd fast, + Low stoop'd the warrior down; + Embraced and kiss'd his last, + And sadly made his moan. + + "Sweet Heins, how died'st so young, + Ere yet thou wert a man? + What boots it that I'm strong, + And thou so still and wan? + + Yet thou hast saved thy prince + From his dread foeman's scorn! + Thou art his--accept him, since + He never will return!" + + Bold Burgundy then mourn'd + To see a father's grief; + His heart within him burn'd, + But could not bring relief. + + He mingles tears with tears; + He clasps him to his breast; + The hero he reveres, + And speaks his deep distress:-- + + "Most faithful hast thou been, + When fail'd me all beside; + Henceforth we will be seen + Like brothers, side by side. + + Throughout all Burgundy, + Be lord of me and mine; + And could more honour be, + I'd freely make it thine." + + He journey'd through the land, + Each liege-man hail'd him home; + To each he gave command, + True Eckart to welcome. + + * * * * * + +It was the voice of an old mountaineer that sung this song, resounding +far among the rocks, where the faithful Eckart was sitting upon a +declivity, weeping aloud. His youngest boy stood near his father, and +said, "Why do you cry so bitterly, my dear father? Why are you so much +better and stronger than other men, if you are afraid--can you be +afraid of them?" + +Meanwhile the duke, at the head of a hunting-party, was leisurely +proceeding homewards; Burgundy himself was mounted upon a stately, +richly caparisoned steed. His princely gold and silver trappings +sparkled in the evening sun; insomuch that the young Conrad could not +sufficiently admire the fine procession as it passed. Faithful Eckart +raised his eyes, and looked darkly and sorrowfully towards the place; +while his tender Conrad began to sing, as he lost sight of the +princely cavalcade in the distance:-- + + "If you'd wield + Sword and shield, + And have good steed + With spear at need + And harquebuss,--what must you do? + You must feel + Your nerves like steel, + Strong in heart and spirit;-- + Manhood good + In your blood + To bear you stoutly through with merit." + +The old warrior pressed his son to his heart, and looked earnestly at +his large clear blue eyes. He then said, "Did you hear the song of +the good mountaineer, my boy?" + +"Did I?" repeated the boy: "surely he sang loud enough. And are you, +then, still that faithful Eckart whom I was glad to hear so praised?" + +"That same duke is now my enemy: he holds my second son in +durance,--yea, hath already laid him low, if I must believe all that +the people of the country say." + +"Then take your great sword, father, and bear it no longer," exclaimed +his brave boy: "they will tremble when they see you; the good people +will uphold you all the country round, for they say you are their +greatest hero." + +"No, I must not do that, my boy; for then I should prove my enemies' +worst words true. I must not be unfaithful to my native prince. I will +not break my fealty and the peace of the country, to keep which I have +sworn." + +"But what does he want to do with us?" inquired Conrad, impatiently. + +Eckart had risen, but he again seated himself, and said, "Dear boy, +the whole of that history would sound too harsh and strange in thy +young ears. Enough to know that great people always bear their worst +enemy in their own heart, and live in fear night and day. The duke now +thinks he has trusted me too much, and been all along only cherishing +a viper in his bosom. Yet in the country they call me the prince's +sword--the strong sword that restored him life and land;--all the +people call me Faithful Eckart, and the wretched and oppressed cry +unto me for help in the hearing of the court. This the duke cannot +bear. His envy hath turned to rage, and they who might help, set him +against me, and have turned his heart from love to hatred." + +The aged hero then related how the duke had spoken evil words, and +banished him from before his face for ever; and how they now became +quite strange, like enemies, because envious men had said that he was +going to deprive the duke of his dominions. More sadly did he proceed +to tell, as he passed his hand across his eyes, how the duke had +seized upon himself and his son, and accused them of wanting to take +his land and life; "Yea, 'tis said he hath even doomed my son to die." + +Young Conrad spoke not to his father, seeing he wept. At length he +said, "Father, let me go to the court, and I will talk to the duke, +that he may be brought to understand you, and treat you better. Should +he have hurt a hair of my brother's head, he is so bad a man that you +shall punish him; yet it can scarce be that he hath so soon forgotten +all your services." + +"Alas! don't you remember the old proverb, poor boy?-- + + 'When the mighty want your hand, + They'll promise you both gifts and land; + When the evil day hath pass'd, + Their friendship flieth too as fast.' + +Yes, and all my long and painful life has gone for nothing. Wherefore +did he raise me high above my peers, only to plunge me into the lowest +ignominy? The love of princes is like a fatal poison, which they ought +to reserve only for their enemies, and which finally often proves the +ruin of its heedless possessor: so it hath ever been." + +"I will hasten to him," said Conrad; "I will plainly remind him of all +you have done and suffered for him; and then he will treat you as well +as he did before." + +"You forget," replied Eckart, "that they have pronounced us traitors: +we had better seek refuge together quickly in some foreign land, where +we shall, perhaps, be more fortunate than here." + +"What, father, in your old age!--and will you turn your back upon our +sweet home? Let us rather try any way but this," said Conrad. "I will +see the Duke of Burgundy; I will appease and make him friendly to us; +for what harm can he do _me_, though he does hate and fear you?" + +"I do not like to let you go," replied Eckart; "for my mind misgives +me sadly; yet I should like to be reconciled to him, for he was once +my kind friend, and for the sake of your poor brother, who is +lingering in prison, or perhaps dead." + +The sun was now casting its last wild beams upon the green earth; and +Eckart sat down, absorbed in deep thought, leaning against the root of +a tree. He looked at Conrad earnestly a long while, and at length +said, "If you will go, my son, then go now, before the night gathers +in: the lights are already up, you see, in the windows of the duke's +castle. I can hear the trumpets sounding at a distance for the +festival;--perhaps his son's bride is arrived, and he may feel more +friendly disposed towards us." + +His son was instantly on his way; yet he parted with him unwillingly, +for he no longer put any faith in his own good fortune or the duke's +gratitude. Young Conrad was bold and hopeful; doubting nothing but +that he should touch the duke's heart, who had heretofore caressed him +on his knees. + +"Art thou sure thou wilt come back to me, my sweetest child?" cried +the old man; "for were I to lose thee, I have seen thee for the last +time--the last of thy race." His young son then kissed and comforted +him, promising that he would be with him very soon; and they +separated. + +Conrad knocked at the castle-gate, and was admitted. The aged Eckart +remained seated where he was, exposed to the night-winds, all alone. +"And I have lost him too; I am sure I have lost him." He cried +bitterly in his solitude, "These eyes will never rest upon his dear +face again." While thus lamenting, he saw an old wayfaring man leaning +upon his crutch, and trying, at great hazard, to make his way down the +mountain. A precipice yawned beneath him; and Eckart, aware of his +danger, went and took him by the hand. "Whither are you going?" he +inquired, as he assisted him down to the place where he had himself +sat. + +The old man sat down, and wept till the tears ran over his furrowed +cheeks. Eckart sought to comfort him with gentle advice; but the other +seemed too much afflicted to pay attention to him. + +"What terrible calamity can it be that thus overpowers you?" inquired +Eckart. "Only try to speak." + +"Alas, my children!" exclaimed the aged man. + +Then Eckart again thought of Conrad, of Heins, and Dietrich, and +became himself inconsolable. + +"I say nothing," he added, "if your children are all dead; for then +your grief is, indeed, great." + +"Oh, worse than dead!" exclaimed the other. "No, they are not dead," +he repeated in a still more bitter voice; "but they are lost to me for +ever! Yea, would to Heaven that they were only dead!" + +The good old hero almost shrieked at hearing these words, and besought +the unhappy father to explain so horrible a mystery: to which the +latter replied, "We live in a wonderful world; and these are strange +times. Surely the last dreaded day cannot be far from hand; for +alarming signs and omens are daily abroad, threatening the world more +and more. All evil things seem to have broken loose beyond their +ancient boundaries, and rage and destroy on every side. The fear of +God restrains us not--there is no foundation for any thing good; evil +spirits walk in the broad day, and boldly scare the good away from us, +or celebrate their nightly orgies in their unholy retreats. O my dear +sir, we are grown grey in the world, but not old enough for such +prodigious things. Doubtless you have seen the great comet--Heaven's +portentous lightning in the sky, which glares so prophetically down +upon us. Every one forebodes disasters; but none think of reforming +their lives in order to escape the threatened evil. As if this, too, +were not enough, the ancient earth discovers her trouble, and casts up +her mysterious secrets from the deep, while that portentous light +serves to reveal them from above. And, hark! have you never heard of +the strange mountain which the people round call Venus-berg?" + +"No, never," said Eckart, "though I have travelled far and wide here +around the hills." + +"At that I wonder much," replied the old man; "for the dreadful thing +is now become as well known as it is true: for that, good sir, is the +very mountain whither the devils fled for refuge in the centre of the +earth, when the holy Christian faith began to wax strong, and pressed +hard upon the heathen idols. There, they now say, that fatal goddess +Venus holds her unblest orgies; whither the infernal powers of worldly +lust and ambition, and all forbidden wishes, come trooping in myriads +for their prey; so that the whole mountain hath become forsaken and +accursed from time immemorial." + +"On what side lies the mountain?" inquired Eckart. + +"There is the mystery; it is a secret," whispered the old man, "which +those who know dare not tell, and none know but those who are in the +power of our great adversary; and indeed none but wicked persons will +ever venture the discovery. Once only a wandering musician by miracle +appeared again; but he came commissioned by the powers of darkness to +traverse the world; and he plays strange notes upon a pipe--sounds +which are heard to echo first in the distance, then more loud and +sweet. Those who approach too close within his sphere are seized with +a strange unaccountable delirium; and away they run in search of the +mountain, heedless of every obstacle, and never weary--never satisfied +until they gain the fatal summit, which opens for them, and whence +there is no return. Their supernatural strength forsakes them only in +the infernal abode; when they continue wandering round its unhallowed +precincts like unblest pilgrims, without the least hope of salvation. +I lost all hope of comfort in my two sons long ago: they grew wilful +and abandoned; they despised their parents, and our holy faith itself. +Then they began to hear the strange music; and they are now fled far +into the hills--the inhabited world is too narrow for them; and they +will never stop until they reach the boundless regions below." And the +old man wrung his hands. + +"And what do you think of doing in this matter?" + +"What should I do?--with this crutch, my only support, I have set out +in pursuit of them, being determined either to find them or to die." + +At these words he rose with a resolute effort, and hastened forward as +fast as his feeble steps could bear him, as if fearful of losing a +moment; while Eckart gazed after him with a look of pity, lamenting +his useless anxiety and sorrows yet to come. + +"To all his other evils," cried Eckart, "even madness itself does not +seem to have brought any relief." + +Night came, and passed away;--the morning broke, yet no signs of young +Conrad. The old warrior wandered among the hills, and cast his eyes +wistfully towards the castle; still no one appeared. Then he heard a +tumult, as if proceeding from the place; and, unable to restrain his +anxiety, he at last mounted his steed that was grazing near, and rode +hastily towards the castle. He no longer disguised himself, but +spurred boldly among the troops and pages surrounding the +castle-gates, not one of whom ventured to stop or lay a hand upon him. +All opened to him a path. + +"Where is my son Conrad?" inquired the old hero, as he advanced. + +"Inquire nothing," said one of the pages, casting down his eyes: "it +would only grieve you;--better turn back." + +"And Dietrich," added the old man,--"where is he?" + +"Mention his name no more," said an aged knight, "the duke's rage was +kindled, and he thought to punish you through him." + +Hot scorn flushed the face of the old hero when he heard these words; +grief and fury took possession of him, and he rode through the +castle-gates with speed. All opened a way for him with fear and +reverence; and he soon threw himself from his horse at the +palace-doors. With trembling step he mounted into the marble halls. + +"Am I here," he cried, "in the dwelling of the man who was once my +friend?" He tried to collect his thoughts; but dreadful visions seemed +to rise before him: and he staggered wildly into the duke's presence. + +Not aware of his arrival, Burgundy uttered a cry of alarm, as he found +himself confronted with the old man. "Art thou the Duke of Burgundy?" +asked the old hero. + +The duke replied, "I am." + +"And hast thou caused my son Dietrich to die?" + +The duke answered, "Yes." + +"And my youngest boy! my Conrad!--was not he too good and beautiful +for thy sword?--hast thou killed him too?" + +"I have," said the duke again. + +And Eckart replied, as he shed tears, "Oh, say not that! say not that, +Burgundy!--for I cannot bear those words: recall them. Say, at least, +that it repents you of all you have done; and I will yet try to take +comfort, though you have now done your worst to break my heart." + +The duke answered, "Away! thou faithless traitor! hence from my sight! +thou art the bitterest enemy I have on the face of the earth." + +Eckart stood firm, and said, "Heretofore thou didst call me thy best +friend; but good thoughts are now become strange to thee. Never did I +aught against thy honour: nay, I have revered and loved thee as my +true prince, so help me God! or here, with this hand upon my good +sword, I could take speedy and bitter vengeance for all my wrongs. But +no; I will for ever banish myself from your presence, and end my few +and evil days in solitude and woe." + +Having uttered these sad words, Eckart turned away; while Burgundy, +agitated with hateful passions, called aloud for his pages and his +lancers, who surrounded the old hero, and followed him with the points +of their spears out of the duke's palace; none venturing, though at +their lord's command, to put him to death. + + Away he spurred at speed, + Eckart that noblest knight; + And spoke, "No more I heed + The world, nor wrong, nor right. + + My sons are gone, and I + Am left to mourn alone; + My prince would have me die; + And friends I have not one." + + Then made he to the woods, + And with full heart did strive + To bear his dismal moods-- + To bear his woes and live. + + "I fly man's hated face! + Ye mountains, lakes, and trees, + Be now my resting-place, + And join your tears to these. + + No child beguiles my grief; + Their lives were sworn away; + Their days were all too brief-- + My last one they did slay!" + + Thus wild did Eckart weep, + Till mind and sense were gone; + Then madly down the steep + He spurr'd his true steed on. + + He bounded, leaped, and fell, + Yet Eckart took no heed; + But said it was right well, + Though sadly he did bleed. + + He next ungirt his horse, + And lay down on the ground; + And wish'd it had happ'd worse-- + That he his grave had found. + +None of the duke's peasantry could say whither the faithful Eckart had +fled; for he had taken to the wild mountain-woods, and been seen by no +human being. The duke dreaded his great courage and prudence, and he +repented that he had not secured him, blaming his pages that they had +suffered him to escape. Yet, to make his mind more easy, he proceeded +at the head of a large train, as if going to the chase; being +determined to ride through all the surrounding hills and woods until +he should find the spot where Eckart had concealed himself, and there +put him to death. + +His followers spread themselves abroad on all sides, and vied with +each other in the hope of pleasing the prince, and reaping the reward +of their evil deed; but the day passed, and the sun went down, without +their discovering any traces of him they sought. + +A storm was now gathering, and the great clouds came darkling over the +woods and hills; the thunder began to peal along the sky; the +lightning flashed athwart the heavens, smiting the largest oaks; while +torrents of rain fell upon their heads. The duke and his followers ran +for shelter among the rocks and caves; but the duke's steed burst his +reins, and ran headlong down the heights; while his master's voice was +lost in the uproar of the storm, and separated from all his followers, +he called out in vain for assistance. + +Wild as the animals of the forest, poor Eckart had wandered, +unconscious now of his sorrows or whither he went. Roots and berries, +with the water of the mountain-spring, formed his sole refreshment: he +would no longer have known any of his former acquaintance; the day of +his despair seemed at length to have gone by. Yet no! As the storm +increased, he suddenly seemed to recover some portion of his +intellect, and to become aware of objects around him. Then he uttered +a loud cry of horror, tore his hair, and beat his aged breast, as he +bethought himself of his children. "Dear as the life-blood of my +heart," he cried, "whither, my sweet boys, are ye all gone? Oh, foul +befell my coward spirit that hath not yet avenged ye! Why smote I not +your fell destroyer, who hath pierced my heart through and through, +worse than with a thousand daggers? Mad wretch that I am! I deserve it +all--all; for well may your tyrant murderer despise me, when I oppose +not the assassin of my own children. Ah, would that he might once come +within the reach of my arm!--for now I long, when it is all too late, +to taste the sweetness of revenge." + +Thus he spent the night, wandering, and weeping as he went. At last he +thought he heard a distant voice of some one crying for help. He +turned his steps towards the direction in which it came; and finally +he approached a man, whom the darkness hid from his sight, though he +heard his voice close to him. This voice beseeched him piteously to +guide a stranger into the right path. Eckart shrieked as it again fell +upon his ear--he knew it; and he seized his sword. He prepared to cut +down the assassin of his children--he felt new strength--and drew +nigh, in the hope of full vengeance; when suddenly his oath of fealty, +and all his former promises, when he was the duke's friend, came +across his mind. Instead of piercing him to the heart, he took the +duke's hand, and promised to lead him into the right path. They passed +along conversing together, although the duke trembled with fear and +cold. Soon they met some one. It was Wolfram, the duke's page, who +had been long in search of his master. It was still dark night--not a +star cast its feeble rays through the thick black clouds. The duke +felt very weak, and sighed to reach some habitation, to refresh +himself and repose; besides, he was in dread of encountering the +enraged Eckart, whose strange feigned voice he did not yet know. He +feared he should hardly survive till morning, and trembled at every +fresh blast of wind that shook the trees, or the thunder as it rolled +more awfully above their heads. "My good Wolfram," cried the duke, +"mount this lofty fir, and cast a keen glance around thee to discover +some light--whether from house or hut it boots not, so that we can but +live to reach it." + +The page obeyed at his life's risk, as the storm bent the strongest +branches of the huge tree as if it had been a tender reed. Its topmost +boughs sometimes nearly touched the ground; while the boy appeared +little more than an acorn growing on a branch of the tree. At length +he cried out, "In the plain below us there I perceive a glimmering--I +can see the way we ought to go." At the same time he carefully +descended, and took the lead. In a short while the friendly light +greeted the eyes of all three--the very sight of which greatly +restored the fallen spirits of the duke. + +Absorbed within himself, Eckart uttered not a word. He walked along, +striving with the bitter feelings that rose in his breast, leading the +duke by the hand. + +At length the page knocked at the cottage-door; and an infirm old +woman appeared. When they had entered, Eckart loosed the duke's hand, +whom he had led along; and the latter fell trembling upon his knees, +to return Heaven thanks for his deliverance from the perils of that +terrific night. + +Eckart retired into a dark corner; where he found, stretched in sleep, +the same old man who shortly before had been bewailing his unhappy +fate in regard to his sons, whom he was then in search of. + +The duke having finished his prayers, thus spoke:--"This has indeed +appeared a miraculous night to me. I feel the goodness and almighty +power of God more than ever I had before reason to do. Yet my heart +hath failed within me, and I feel that I must shortly die; only +wishing for time, before I depart, to entreat forgiveness for my +manifold sins and offences against the Most High; but I will take care +to reward you both, my faithful companions, before I go, and that as +handsomely as I can. To thee, my trusty page, I bequeath the two +castles which lie close to the next mountain here, on condition that, +in remembrance of this terrific night, thou dost in future call them +the Tannenhaeuser, or Fir-houses.--And who art thou, good man, that +hast laid thy weary limbs in the corner? Come forth, that I may reward +thee quickly, according to thy great services and many kind offices +shewn me during this terrific night." + + Then up rose Eckart, like a thing + That starts from out the dim moonlight; + His furrowed cheek betrays the sting + Of many a woful day and night. + + The soul of Burgundy sighed sore + To witness thus that aged face; + The blood forsook his veins--he tore + His hair, and swooned for dire disgrace. + + They raise him from the low cold ground, + His limbs and temples warmly chafe: + "Then, O my God, at last he's found," + He cried; "true Eckart's here--he's safe. + + O whither shall I fly thy look? + Was't thou didst bring me from the wood? + And was it I thy dear babes struck-- + Thou that to me hast been so good?" + + And Burgundy, as thus he said, + He felt his heart was breaking fast; + On Eckart's breast he laid his head, + And thought he there would breathe his last. + + His senses fled! Then Eckart spoke: + "I reck not, master, of their fate-- + That so the world may see, though broke, + True Eckart's heart's yet true and great." + +Thus passed the night. In the morning the followers of the duke +arrived, and found him very sick. They placed him upon their mules, +and carried him back to his castle. Eckart stirred not from his side; +and often the duke took his hand, and, pressing it to his bosom, +looked up at him imploringly; when Eckart would embrace him, and speak +soft words of comfort till he was again still. The duke next called +together his council, and declared that such was his confidence in his +faithful Eckart, the bravest and noblest of all his land, that he +would leave him governor of his sons. Having said which, he died. + +Eckart then took the reins of government into his own hands, +fulfilling the trust reposed in him in such a humane and prudent way +as to excite the admiration of all the country. Shortly afterwards, +the report spread more and more on all sides, of the arrival of the +strange musician from Venus-berg, who seduced his victims with the +strange sweetness of his tones; so that they disappeared without +leaving a trace behind. Many gave credit to the report--others not; +while Eckart again bethought him of the unhappy old man whom he had +seen so forlorn and crazed upon the mountain. + +"I have now adopted you as my children," he said to the young princes, +as he one day sat with them on the bill before the castle; "your +happiness is now become my inheritance; I shall continue to survive, +after my departure, in your welfare and your good conduct." + +They all stretched themselves on the hill-side, whence they could look +far into the distant and lovely prospect beyond; and Eckart would then +strive to subdue the regrets he felt for his own children, though they +would appear as if passing over the mountain before him, while in the +distance he thought he heard the faint echo of delicious music +gradually growing louder. + + Hark! comes it not like dreams + Before the morning beams? + From some far greenwood bowers, + Such as the night-bird pours, + So sweet, and such its dying fall?-- + Those tones the magic song recall; + And Eckart sees each princely cheek + Flushed with the joys its victims seek; + Wild wishes seized each youthful breast + For some far unknown bourne of rest. + + "Away to the mountains!" they cried; "the deep woods + Where the trees, winds, and waters make music for gods: + Sweet, strange, secret voices are singing there now, + And invite us to seek their blest Eden below." + + In strange attire then came in view + The unblest sorcerer, and anew + Inspired the maddening youths, till bright + And brighter shone the sunny light. + Trees, streams, and flowers danced in the rays; + Through earth, air, heavens, were heard the lays; + The grass, fields, forests, trembling join'd + That magic tumult wild and blind. + Swift as a shadow fade the ties + That bind the soul to earth, and rise + Soft longings for unearthly scenes; + And strange confusion intervenes + Between the seen and unseen world, + Till reason from her seat is hurl'd, + + And madly bursts the soul away + To mingle in the infernal fray. + + 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 noble sons?-- + All that I was deploring-- + My lost beloved ones?" + + Yet soon his sense collected, + Brought doubts within his breast: + These magic arts detected, + A horror him possessed. + + His children fade in air-- + Mocks of infernal might; + His young friends vanished were-- + He could not check their flight. + + Yes, these his princely trust, + Late yielded to his power, + He now desert them must, + Or share their evil hour. + + Faith, duty to his prince, + Is still his watchword here; + He still thinks of him, since + His last sad look and tear. + + So boldly doth he now + Advance his foot and stand, + Arm'd proof to overthrow + The evil powers at hand. + + The wild musician comes; + Eckart his sword has ta'en; + But ah! those magic tunes + His mortal strength enchain! + + From out the mountain's side + Come thousand dwarfish shapes, + That threaten and deride, + And leap and grin like apes. + + The princes fair are gone, + And mingled with the swarm; + True Eckart is alone, + And faint his valiant arm. + + The rout of revellers grows, + Gathering from east to west, + And gives him no repose-- + Around--before--abreast. + + True Eckart's 'mid the din, + His might is lost and gone; + The hellish powers must win-- + He of their slaves be one. + + For now they reach the hill + Whence those wild notes are heard; + The dwarfish fiends stand still, + The hills their sides uprear'd, + + And made a mighty void, + Whence fiercer sprites glower'd grim. + "What now will us betide?" + He cried:--none answered him. + + Again he grasped his sword; + He said he must prove true: + Eckart has spoke the word, + And rushed amid the crew. + + He saved the princes dear; + They fled and reach'd the plain; + But see, the fiend is near-- + His imps their malice strain. + + Though Eckart's strength is gone, + He sees the children safe; + And cried, "I fight alone-- + Now let their malice chafe!" + + He fought--he fell--he died + Upon that well-fought field; + His old heroic pride + Both scorn'd to fly or yield. + + "True to the sire and son, + The bulwark of their throne, + Proud feats hath Eckart done; + There's not a knight, not one, + + Of all my court and land," + Cried the young duke full loud, + "Would make so bold a stand. + Our honour to uphold. + + For life, and land, and all, + To Eckart true we owe; + He snatch'd our souls from thrall, + For all it work'd him woe." + + And soon the story ran + Through Burgundy's broad land, + That who so venture can + To take his dangerous stand + + Upon that mountain-side, + Where in that contest hard + True Eckart fought and died, + Shall see his shade keep guard, + + To warn the wanderers back + Who seek th' infernal pit, + And spurn them from the track + That leads them down to it. + + + + +THE TANNENHAeUSER. + + +About four centuries had elapsed since the death of the Faithful +Eckart, when there lived a Lord of the Woods who stood in high +reputation as a counsellor at the imperial court. The same lord had a +son, one of the _handsomest_ knights in all the land, highly esteemed +and beloved by his friends and countrymen. Suddenly, however, he +disappeared under very peculiar circumstances, which occurred previous +to his departure; and no one could gather any tidings of him +whatsoever. But from the time of the Faithful Eckart, a tradition +respecting the Venus-berg had become very prevalent among the people, +and it was asserted by many that he must have wandered thither, and +there been devoted to eternal destruction. + +Among the whole of his friends and relatives who lamented the young +knight's loss, none grieved so much as Frederick of Wolfsburg. They +had been early companions, and their attachment had grown with their +years, insomuch that their subsequent attachment appeared rather the +result of necessity than of choice. Meanwhile the Lord of the Woods +died, having heard no account of his son; and in the course of a few +years his friend Frederick married. He had already a playful young +circle around him. Years passed away, and still no tidings arrived as +to the fate of his friend, whom he was at length reluctantly compelled +to number with the dead. + +One evening, as he was standing under the tower of his castle, he +observed a pilgrim approaching at some distance, in the direction of +the castle-gates. The stranger was very singularly dressed; his whole +appearance, and particularly his gait, striking the young knight as +something odd and unaccountable. As the pilgrim drew nigh, he went to +meet him; and, on examining his features, thought he could recognise +them. He looked again, and the whole truth burst upon him: it was +indeed no other than his long-lost friend--the young Lord of the +Fir-woods himself. Yet he shuddered, and uttered an exclamation of +surprise, when he contemplated the ravages which time had made in the +noblest face and form--the theme of his former admirers,--of which +only the ruins were to be traced;--no, he no longer appeared the same +being. + +The two friends embraced, while they still gazed at each other as upon +perfect strangers but newly introduced. Many were the confused +questions and answers which passed between them; and Frederick often +trembled at the strange wild glances of his friend: the fire seemed to +sparkle in his eyes. He agreed, however, to sojourn with him; but when +he had remained a few days, he informed Frederick that he was about to +go upon a pilgrimage to Rome. + +Their acquaintance in a short time grew more familiar, and resumed its +former happy and confidential tone. They recalled the mutual +adventures and plans of their early years, though the Lord of the +Woods seemed to avoid touching upon any incident which had occurred +since his late disappearance from home. This only raised Frederick's +curiosity the more; he entreated to be informed, and with yet more +earnestness as he found their former regard and confidence increase. +Still the stranger long sought, by the most friendly appeals and +warnings, to be excused; till at last, upon fresh solicitation, he +said, "Now, then, be it so! your wish shall be fully gratified; +only never in future reproach me, should my history excite +feelings--lasting feelings--of sorrow and dismay." + +Frederick took him in the most friendly manner by the arm, and led him +into the open air. They turned into a pleasant grove, and seated +themselves on a mossy bank; the stranger then giving his hand to his +friend, turned away his head among the soft leaves and grass, and, +amidst many bitter sighs and sobs, gave way to the sad emotions which +the recollection seemed to inspire. His friend, pressing his hand, +tried every means to console him; upon which the stranger, again +raising his head, began his story in a calmer voice, to the following +purport:-- + +"There goes an ancient tradition, that several hundred years ago there +lived a knight known by the name of the Faithful Eckart. It is farther +believed that there appeared a mysterious musician at that time from +one of the wonderful mountains, whose unearthly music awakened such +strange delight and wild wishes in the hearts of his audience, that +they would irresistibly follow him, and lose themselves in the +labyrinths of the same mountain. At that period, hell is supposed to +have kept its portals open there, in order to entrap, by such sweet +irresistible airs, unhappy mortals into its abyss. Often have I heard +the same account when I was a boy, and sometimes it used to make me +shudder. In a short time it seemed as if all nature, every tone and +every flower, reminded me, in spite of myself, of that same old +fearful saying. Oh, it is impossible for me to convey to you what kind +of mournful thought, what strange ineffable longing, one time suddenly +seized me, bound me, and led me, as it were, in chains; and +particularly when I gazed upon the floating clouds, and the streaks of +light ethereal blue seen between them; and what strange recollections +the woods and meadows conjured up in my soul. Often did I feel all the +love and tenderness of nature in my inmost spirit; often stretched +forth my arms, and longed for wings to fly into the embrace of +something yet more beautiful; to pour myself, like the spirit of +nature, over vale and mountain; to become all present with the grass, +the flowers, the trees; and to breathe in the fulness of the mighty +sea. When some lovely prospects had delighted me during the day, I was +sure to be haunted with dark and threatening images that same night, +all of which, seemed busy in closing against me the gates of life. One +dream, in particular, made an indelible impression upon my mind, +although I was unable to recall its individual features clearly to my +memory. + +"I thought I could see an immense concourse of people in the +streets,--I heard unintelligible words and languages, and I turned +away, and went in the dark night to the house of my parents, where I +found only my father, who was unwell. The next morning I threw my arms +round both my parents' necks--embracing them tenderly, as if I felt +that some evil power were about to separate us for ever. 'Oh, were I +to lose you,' I said to my dear father, 'how very lonely and unhappy +should I feel in this world without you!' They kissed and consoled me +tenderly, but they could not succeed in dispelling that dark +foreboding image from my imagination. + +"As I grew older, I did not mingle with other children of my own age +in their sports. I wandered lonely through the fields; and on one +occasion it happened that I missed my way, and got into a gloomy wood, +where I wandered about, calling for help. After searching my way back +for some time in vain, I all at once found myself standing before a +lattice, which opened into a garden. Here I remarked pleasant shady +walks, fruit-trees, and flowers, among which were numbers of roses, +which shone lovely in the sunbeams. An uncontrollable wish to approach +them more nearly seized me; and I eagerly forced my way through the +lattice-work, and found myself in that beautiful garden. I bent down +and embraced the plants and flowers, kissed the roses over and over, +and shed tears. While lost in this strange feeling, half sorrow, half +delight, two young maidens came towards me along the walk, one older, +and the other about my own years. I was roused from my trance, only +to yield myself up to fresh amazement. My eye reeled upon the younger, +and at that moment I felt as if I had been suddenly restored to +happiness after all my sufferings. They invited me into the house; the +parents of the young people inquired my name, and were kind enough to +send my father word that I was safe with them; and in the evening he +himself came to bring me home. + +"From this day forth the uncertain and idle tenour of my life acquired +some fixed aim;--my ideas recurred incessantly to the lovely maidens +and the garden; thither daily flew my hopes and all my wishes. I +abandoned my playmates, and all my usual pastimes, and could not +resist again visiting the garden, the castle, and its lovely young +inmate. Soon I appeared to become domesticated, and my absence no +longer created surprise; while my favourite Emma became hourly more +dear to me. My affection continued to increase in warmth and +tenderness, though I was myself unconscious of it. I was now happy! I +had not a wish to gratify, beyond that of returning, and looking +forward again to the hour of meeting. + +"About this time a young knight was introduced to the family; he was +acquainted likewise with my parents, and he appeared to attach himself +in the same manner as I had done to the fair young Emma. From the +moment I observed this, I began to hate him as my deadliest enemy. But +my feelings were indescribably more bitter when I fancied I saw that +Emma preferred his society to mine. I felt as if, from that instant, +the music which had hitherto accompanied me, suddenly died away in my +breast. My thoughts dwelt incessantly upon hatred and death; strange +feelings burned within my breast, in particular whenever I heard Emma +sing the well-known song to the lute. I did not even attempt to +disguise my enmity; and when my parents reproached me for my conduct, +I turned away from them with an obstinate and wilful air. I wandered +for hours together in the woods and among the rocks, indulging evil +thoughts, chiefly directed against myself;--I had already determined +upon my rival's death. + +"In the course of a few months the young knight declared his wishes to +Emma's parents, and they were received with pleasure. All that was +most sweet and wonderful in nature, all that had ever influenced and +delighted me, seemed to have united in my idea of Emma. I knew, I +acknowledged, and I wished for no other happiness--nothing +more--nothing but her. I had even wilfully predetermined that the loss +of her and my own destruction should take place on one and the same +day; neither should survive the other a moment. + +"My parents were much grieved at witnessing my wildness and rudeness +of manner; my mother became ill, but it touched me not; I inquired +little after her, and saw her only very seldom. The nuptial-day of my +rival |was drawing nigh, and my agony proportionably increased: it +hurried me through the woods and across the mountains, as if pursued +by a grizzly phantom by day and by night. I called down the most +frightful maledictions both upon Emma and myself. I had not a single +friend to advise with--no one wished to receive me--for all seemed to +have given me over for lost. Yes! for the detested fearful eve of the +bridal-day was at hand: I had taken refuge among the rocks and cliffs; +I was listening to the roaring cataract; I looked into the foaming +waters, and started back in horror at myself. On the approach of +morning, I saw my abhorred rival descending the hill at a little +distance; I drew nigh--provoked him with bitter and jeering words; and +when he drew his sword, I flew upon him like lightning, beat down his +guard with my hanger, and--he bit the dust. + +"I hastened from the spot--I never once looked back at him; but his +guide bore the body away. The same night I haunted the neighbourhood +of the castle where dwelt my Emma now. A few days afterwards, in +passing the convent near at hand, I heard the bells tolling, nuns +singing funeral-hymns, and saw death-lights burning in the sanctuary. +I inquired into the cause, and was informed that the young lady Emma +had died of the shock on hearing that her lover had been killed. + +"I was in doubt what to think, and where to remain; I doubted whether +I existed; whether all were true. I determined to see my parents; and +the night after reached the place where they lived. I found every +thing in commotion; the street was filled with horses and carriages; +pages and soldiers were all mingled together, and spoke in strange +broken words;--it was just as if the emperor were on the eve of +undertaking a campaign against his enemies. A single light was dimly +burning in my father's house; I felt a strange sensation, like +strangulation, within my breast. When I knocked, my father himself +came to the door, with slow soft steps; and just then I recollected a +strange dream I had in my childhood, and felt, with horrible truth, +that it was the same scene which I was then going through. Quite +dismayed, I inquired, 'Why are you up so late to-night, father?' He +led me in; saying, as he entered,--'I may well be up and watching, +when your mother has only this moment expired.' + +"These words shot like lightning through my soul. My father sat +himself thoughtfully down; I seated myself at his side; the corpse lay +upon a bed, and was appallingly covered over with white fillets and +napkins. My heart struggled, but could not burst. 'I myself keep +watch,' said the old man, 'for my poor wife always sits near me.' My +senses here failed me. I raised my eyes towards one corner, and there +I saw something rising up like a mist; it turned and motioned, and +soon took the well-known lineaments of my mother, who seemed to regard +me with a fixed and serious air. I attempted to escape, but I could +not; for the figure motioned to him, and my father held me fast in his +arms, while he softly whispered me, 'She died of grief, my son, for +you.' I embraced him with the most terrific, soul-cutting emotion. I +clung to him for protection like a feeble child,--burning tears ran +down my breast; but I uttered no sound. My father kissed me, and I +shuddered as I felt his lips, for they were deadly cold--cold as if I +had been kissed by the dead. 'How is it with you, dear father?' I +murmured in trembling agony; but he seemed to sink and gather into +himself, as it were, and replied not a word. I felt him in my arms, +growing colder and colder. I felt at his heart, but it was quite +still; yet, in the bitterness of my woe, I held the body fast clasped +in my embrace. + +"By a sudden glimmer, like the first break of morning, which shot +through the gloomy chamber, I there saw my father's spirit close to +that of my mother; and both gazed upon me with a compassionate +expression, as I stood with the dear deceased in my arms. From that +moment I saw and heard no more, I lay deprived of consciousness; and I +was found by the servants delirious, and yet powerless as a babe, on +the ensuing morning. + +"The memory of that hour is still as fearfully impressed upon my mind, +and I am at a loss to conjecture how I was so unfortunate as to +survive it. For it was now, indeed, that this once fair earth, with +life, and all that life had to afford, became worse than dead and +perished for me;--became a lone waste and wilderness, with all its +soft airs, sweet flowers, pure streams, and blue starry skies. I stood +like one, the last of a sudden overwhelming wreck, saved only to +regret that he had not perished with all that was dearest to him on +earth. How I lived on from day to day, I know not; till at last, +unable longer to contend with the fiends of remorse that grappled me, +I flew to society for relief. I joined a number of dissipated +characters, who sought, like me, to lose the sense of their follies +and enormities in the most dissolute pleasures. Yes, I sought to +propitiate the evil spirit within me by obedience to its worst +dictates. My former wildness and impatience revived, and I no longer +placed any restraint over my wishes. + +"I fell into the hands of an abandoned wretch of the name of Rudolf, +who only laughed at my lamentations and remorse. More than a year thus +elapsed; my anxiety and horror, in spite of all efforts to control +them, daily gaining ground upon me, until I was seized with utter +despair. Like all who experience that stage of such a malady, I took +to wandering without any object. I arrived at distant and unknown +places--spots unvisited by other feet; and often I could have thrown +myself from some airy height into the green sunny meads and vales +below, or rushed into the cool streams to quench my soul's fiery and +insatiable thirst; yet though I had no fear, something unaccountable +always restrained me. I made many attempts towards the close of the +day; for I longed to be annihilated: but when the morning returned, +with its golden beams, its fresh dews, and odorous flowers, I felt I +could destroy nothing; and hope and love of life revived within my +breast. A conviction then seized me, that all hell was conspired +together to work my utter perdition; that both my pleasures and my +pains arose from the same fiendish source; and that a malicious spirit +was gradually directing all the powers and influences of my mind to +that sole end. I yielded myself up to him, in order to dissipate these +alternating raptures and agonies. On one dark and stormy night I went +into the mountains; I mounted one of their highest and giddiest peaks, +where foot of man never before trod; and there, with my whole strength +of heart and soul, I invoked the foe of God and man to appear. I +called him in language that I felt he must obey. My words were +powerful--the fiend stood at my side, and I felt no alarm. While +conversing with him, I could feel my faith in each haunted and +wonder-working mountain growing stronger within me; and the base one +taught me a song sufficiently potent of itself to shew me the right +path into its labyrinths. It was thus I approached the strange +mountain: the night was dark and tempestuous; the moon glimmered +through a mass of dusky livid clouds; yet boldly and loudly did I +sing that song. A giant form arose, and motioned me back with its +staff. I drew nigher. 'I am the faithful Eckart,' exclaimed the +supernatural form; 'and, praise to the goodness of the blessed God, I +am permitted to hold watch here, to deter the unhappy from rushing +into the base fiend's power.' I pushed on. In passing, I found my way +led through subterraneous passages in the mountain. The path was so +narrow as to compel me to force my way: I heard the gushing of the +hidden waters, and the noise of the spirits engaged in forging steel, +gold, and silver in their caverns, for the temptation and perdition of +man. I heard, too, the deep clanging tones and notes in their simple +and secret powers, which supply all our earthly music; and the lower I +descended, the more there seemed to fall as it were a veil from before +my eyes. + +"Soon I heard other music, of quite an opposite character to the last; +and my spirit within me struggled, as if eager to fly nearer and catch +the notes. I came into more open space; and on all sides strange, +clear, glowing colours burst upon my eye. This I felt was what I had +all along sighed for;--deep in my heart I welcomed the presence of +something I had long looked for--the deep-seated master-passion, of +which I then felt the ravishing powers playing in their full strength +within my breast. A swarm of the mad heathen deities, with the goddess +Venus at their head, ran forward to greet me;--all demons, that +assumed those ancients' names, and were banished thither by the +Almighty, their career being fully run upon earth; though they still +continue to work in secret. + +"All the delights so familiar to the world I there found and enjoyed +in their fullest and keenest zest. My appetite was as insatiable as +the delight was lasting. The long-famed beauties of the ancient world +were all there--all that my most ardent wishes required was mine; and +each day that world grew brighter, and appeared arrayed in more +charming colours. The most costly wines slaked our thirst; the most +lovely and delicious forms played and wantoned in the air; a throng of +loves hovered invitingly around me, shedding perfumes over my head; +and tones of music burst forth from nature's inmost heart, and with +their undulating freshness restored the ardour of our desires, while +soft mists and dews stole over flowery fields, giving new essence to +their ravishing odours. + +"How many years thus passed, I am quite unable to state, for here was +no time and no divisions; the luscious charm of virgin beauty burned +in the flowers, and in the forms of girls bloomed the fragrant charm +of the flowers; their colours seemed to enjoy a peculiar language; +tones uttered new words; the world of sense was enclosed, as it were, +within the glowing bloom of those luxurious flowers--the resident +spirits within were ever engaged in celebrating their triumphant +delights. + +"How this was accomplished, I can neither explain nor comprehend; but +soon, amid all this pomp of sin and unlawful pleasure, I began to sigh +for repose, for the old innocent earth I had left, with all its +virtuous, social endearments; and my desire grew as violent as it had +formerly been to leave it for what I had there obtained. I wished to +lead the same life as other mortals, with its mixed pains and +pleasures. I was satiated with splendour and excess, and turned with +thoughts of pleasure towards my native land. Some unaccountable mercy +of the Almighty granted me the privilege of returning. I found myself +once more in this present world, and still within reach of repentance +and salvation; and I now think only of receiving absolution for my +sins at the footstool of the Almighty Father, for which purpose I am +on the way to Rome; that so I may again be numbered in the rank of +other living men." + +Here the sad pilgrim became silent; and Frederick fixed his eye upon +him, with a searching glance, for some time. At last he took his poor +friend's hand, and said: "Although I have not yet recovered from my +astonishment, and cannot, in any way, comprehend your narrative; yet +I conceive it impossible that all with which you have been thus +fearfully haunted can be other than a strong delusion of the mind. For +Emma herself is still alive, she is my own wife; we two have never +differed, much less engaged with our weapons, during the whole course +of our lives. No, we never hated each other, as you seem to think, +though you were missing just before my marriage from home. Besides, +you never, at the time, gave me a single hint that you loved my Emma." + +Then he again took his bewildered friend by the hand, and led him into +another apartment to his wife, who had just returned from a visit of +some days to one of her sisters. + +The pilgrim stood silent and thoughtful in her presence, while he +examined the form and features of the lady. Then, shaking his head +repeatedly, he said, in a low voice, "By Heavens! this is the most +wonderful incident of all!" + +Frederick now related to him every thing which had occurred to himself +since they parted, and attempted to explain how he must have been +labouring under a temporary delirium during many years past. + +"Oh! I know right well," answered the pilgrim, "how it is. It is now +that I am bewitched and insane; 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 withdraw his attention from the subject, by recurring to +scenes and incidents of his childhood; but the pilgrim was not to be +undeceived. One day he suddenly leaped up, declaring he must instantly +set out, and forth he went without even saying farewell. + +Frederick and his Emma often discoursed of the strange unhappy +pilgrim. A few months had elapsed, when, pale and worn, in tattered +attire and barefoot, his poor friend entered Frederick's apartment, +while he was yet asleep. He pressed his lips to his, and exclaimed +hastily, "The holy father cannot and will not forgive me. I must away +and seek my former abode." And with this he went hurriedly away. + +Frederick roused himself, and was going into his wife's chamber, when +he met her women, who were all running to find him, in an agony of +terror and alarm. The Tannenhaeuser had been there: he had come early +in the morning, and uttering the words, "She shall not stop me in my +career!" had despatched her upon the spot. + +Frederick had not been able yet to recall his thoughts, when a strange +feeling of horror came over him. He could not rest; he ran into the +open air, and when they wished to bring him back, he exclaimed, "that +the pilgrim had kissed his lips, and that the kiss was burning him +until he should meet with him again." + +He then ran rapidly in a variety of directions in search of the +Tannenhaeuser and the mysterious mountain; and he was never afterwards +heard of. It is reported by the people, that whoever receives a kiss +from one of the dwellers of that mountain is unable to resist the +enchantment; which draws him with magic force into its subterraneous +depths. + + + + +THE RUNENBERG. + + +A young hunter was sitting in the midst of the mountain-ranges, musing +beside his fowling-floor, whilst the rush of waters and of the woods +resounded through the solitude. He was thinking on his destiny; how he +was so young, and had forsaken father and mother, and his familiar +home, and all the acquaintances of his native village, to seek out for +himself a new country, to escape from the circle of recurring habits; +and he looked up with a kind of wonder that he now found himself in +this valley, and in this employment. Great clouds were passing over +the heavens and sinking behind the hills; birds were singing from the +bushes, and an echo answered them. He slowly descended to the foot of +the hill, and seated himself beside a stream that was rushing over +rugged stones with a foamy murmur. He listened to the changeful melody +of the water; and it seemed as if the waves were telling him, in +unintelligible words, a thousand things that nearly concerned him, and +he could not but feel inwardly troubled that he was not able to +understand their speech. Then again he looked around him, and thought +he was joyful and happy; so he took fresh courage, and sang with a +loud voice this hunting-song: + + Joyful and merry amid the height + The huntsman goes to the chase; + His booty must appear in sight + In the bright green thickets, though till night + Its path he vainly trace. + + And there his faithful dogs are yelling + Through the solitude sublime; + Through the wood the horns are telling, + And all hearts with courage swelling, + O thou happy hunting-time! + + His home is clefts and caves among, + The trees all greet him well: + Autumnal airs breathe round him strong; + And when he finds his prey, his song + Resounds from every dell. + + Leave the landsman to his labour, + And the sailor to the sea; + None so views Aurora's favour, + None so tastes the morning's savour, + When the dew lies heavily, + + As who follows wood and game, + While Diana's smile doth shew, + Till some beauteous form inflame + His heart, that he most loved can name, + Happy hunting man art thou! + +Whilst he thus sang, the sun had sunk deeper, and broad shadows fell +across the narrow valley. A cooling twilight stole over the earth; +while only the tops of the trees and the round summits of the +mountains were gilded by the evening glow. Christian's heart grew +still sadder: he liked not to return to his fowling-floor, and yet he +might not stay; he seemed to himself so lonely, and he longed for +society. Now he wished for those old books which once he had seen at +his father's house, and which he never would read, though his father +had often urged him thereto; the scenes of his childhood came before +him, his sports with the youth of the village, his acquaintances among +the children, the school that had so often distressed him; he wished +himself back again amid those scenes, which he had wilfully forsaken +to seek his fortune in unknown regions, on mountains, among strange +men, in a new occupation. As it grew darker, and the brook rushed +louder, and the birds of night with fitful wing began their devious +wanderings, he still sat dejected and disconsolate, and quite +unresolved what to do or purpose. Thoughtlessly he pulled out a +straggling root from the earth; when suddenly he heard a hollow +moaning under ground, which wound itself onward underneath, and only +died away plaintively in the distance. The sound penetrated his inmost +heart; it seized him as if he had unconsciously stirred the wound of +which the dying frame of nature was expiring in agony. He started up, +and would have fled away; for he had heard aforetime of the wondrous +mandrake-root, which, on being torn, sends forth such heart-rending +moans, that the person who has done it is fain to run away maddened by +its wailings. As he was about to depart, a stranger stood behind him, +and asked him, with a friendly air, whither he was going. Christian +had wished for society, and yet he was terrified anew at this friendly +presence. + +"Whither so hastily?" asked the stranger again. + +The young hunter tried to collect his thoughts, and related how the +solitude had suddenly become so frightful to him, that he wished to +escape from it; the evening so dark, the green shades of the wood so +dreary, the brook spoke in loud lamentations, the clouds traversing +the heavens, drew his longing over to the other side of the mountains. + +"You are yet young," said the stranger, "and cannot well endure the +rigour of solitude. I will accompany you; for you will meet with no +house or hamlet within a league of this. On our way we can talk +together, and tell tales to each other; so your troublous thoughts +will leave you. In an hour the moon will emerge from behind the +mountains; her light will also dispel the darkness from your mind." + +They went on, and the stranger seemed to the youth almost as an old +acquaintance. + +"How came you on these mountains?" asked the former; "by your speech I +perceive you are not at home here." + +"Ah!" replied the youth, "much might be said on that subject; and yet +it is not worth the talk, not worth relating. I was forced away by a +singular impulse from my parents and relations; my spirit was not +master of itself; like a bird which is taken in a net, and vainly +struggles, so was my soul ensnared in strange imaginations and wishes. +We dwelt far from hence, in a plain where all around, you see no hill, +scarcely a height: few trees adorned the green level; but meadows, +fruitful corn-fields, and gardens, extended far as the eye could +reach; and a broad river glided like a mighty spirit by them. My +father was gardener to the castle, and wished to bring me up to the +same employment. He loved plants and flowers beyond every thing, and +could devote himself the entire day long to the watching and tending +of them. Indeed he went so far as to maintain he could almost converse +with them; that he learnt from their growth and thriving, as well as +from the varied form and colour of their leaves. I, however, was +averse to the gardening occupation; and the more, as my father tried +to persuade me thereto, and even with threats to compel me. I wished +to be a fisherman, and made the attempt; but neither did a life upon +the waters suit me: I was then apprenticed to a tradesman in the town; +but soon came home from him also. Once on a time my father was telling +of the mountains, which, in his youth, he had travelled over; of the +subterranean mines and their workmen; of hunters and their occupation; +and suddenly there awoke in me the most decisive impulse, the feeling +that now I had found my destined way of life. Day and night I mused +thereon, and imagined high mountains, caves, and pine-forests, before +me: my fancy created for itself immense rocks; I heard, in thought, +the din of the chase, the horns, the cry of the hounds and of the +game; all my dreams were filled with these things, and therefore I had +no longer any rest or peace. The plains, the castle, my father's +little contracted garden with the prim flower-beds; the confined +dwelling; the wide heaven extended all around so dreary, and embracing +no heights, no lofty mountains,--all became more and more melancholy +and odious to me. It seemed to me as if all men about me were living +in deplorable ignorance, and that they would all feel and think as I +did, if once the feeling of their misery could arise within their +souls. Thus I harassed myself: till one morning I formed the +resolution to leave my parents' house for ever. I had found in a book +some descriptions of the nearest mountains, with pictures of the +neighbouring districts, and thereafter I directed my way. It was in +the early spring, and I felt myself quite light and joyful. I hastened +with all speed to leave the plain; and, one evening, I saw in the +distance the dim outline of the mountain-chains lying before me. I +could scarcely sleep in the inn, so impatient was I to tread the +region which I regarded as my home: with the earliest dawn I was +awake, and again upon my journey. In the afternoon, I found myself +already below my much-loved hills; and, as a drunkard, I went on, then +stopped awhile, looked backward, and felt as if intoxicated with the +strange and yet familiar objects. Soon the plain behind me was lost to +my sight; the forest-streams were rushing to meet me; beech-trees and +oaks sounded down to me from steep precipices, with waving boughs; my +path led me past giddy abysses; and blue hills were standing high and +solemn in the distance. A new world was unlocked to me. I was not +weary. So I came, after certain days, having traversed a great part of +the mountains, to an old forester, who, at my earnest request, took me +to instruct me in the arts of the chase. I have now been three months +in his service. I took possession of the district in which I was to +have my abode, as of a kingdom. I made myself acquainted with every +cliff and cleft of the mountains; in my occupation, when at early dawn +we went to the woods, or felled trees in the forest, or exercised my +eye and my fowling-piece, or trained our faithful companions, the +dogs, to their duty, I was completely happy. But now I have been +sitting here for eight days upon my fowling-floor, in the loneliest +part of the mountains; and this evening my mind grew so sad as never +in my life before; I seemed so lost, so utterly unhappy; and even now +I cannot rid myself of that melancholy humour." + +The stranger listened attentively, as they both wandered through a +dark alley of the wood. They now came into the open country; and the +light of the moon, which above them was standing with its horns over +the mountain top, greeted them friendly. In undistinguishable forms, +and many sundered masses, which the pale glimmer again deceptively +united, the cleft mountain-range lay before them; in the background +was a steep hill, on which an ancient weather-worn ruin shewed +ghastly in the white light. "Our way parts here," said the stranger; +"I am going down into this hollow; there, by that old mineshaft, is my +dwelling: the metal ores are my neighbours; the mountain-streams tell +me wonderful things in the night-season; thither, however, thou canst +not follow me. But see there, the Runenberg, with its rugged walls, +how beautiful and alluring the old stone-work looks down to us! Wert +thou never there?" + +"Never," replied young Christian. "I once heard my old forester relate +strange things of this mountain, which, foolishly enough, I have +forgotten; but I remember my mind was horror-struck that evening. I +should like at some time to ascend the height; for the lights are +there most beautiful; the grass must there be very green, the world +around very strange; and, perhaps, one might find up there many a +wonder of the ancient time." + +"You can scarcely fail," replied the other; "whoever only understands +how to seek, whose heart is right inwardly moved thereto, will find +there old friends, and all that he most ardently desires." With these +words the stranger rapidly descended the hill, without bidding his +companion farewell; he soon vanished in the thicket, and shortly after +the sound of his footsteps also died away. The young hunter was not +surprised, but only quickened his footsteps towards the Runenberg, +whereto every thing beckoned him: thither the stars seemed to shine, +the moon pointed out a bright path towards the ruins; light clouds +rose up in that direction; and out of the depths the waters and +rushing woods persuaded him, and spoke to him new courage. His steps +were as if winged; his heart beat; he felt within a joy so great, that +it almost rose to anguish. He came into places he had never seen +before, where the rocks became steeper, the foliage disappeared, and +the naked walls called out to him as with angry voices, while a +lonesome moaning wind drove him on. Thus he hastened on without +stopping, and came late after midnight upon a narrow footpath which +ran along by the side of an abyss. He heeded not the chasm which +yawned beneath, and which threatened to devour him, so impelled was he +by wild imaginings and unintelligible desires. Now his perilous way +drew nigh a high wall, which appeared to lose itself in the clouds; +the path grew narrower at every step, so that the youth was obliged to +hold fast by the projecting stones to avoid plunging into the gulf +below. + +At length he could proceed no further; the path ended under a window; +he was obliged to come to a stand, and knew not whether to turn or +stay. Suddenly he saw a light, which behind the ancient wall appeared +to be moving. He looked after the gleam, and discovered that he could +see into an antique spacious hall, strangely adorned with various +kinds of precious stones and crystals, that sparkled in manifold +splendour, and mysteriously reflected each other from the wandering +light, which was borne in the hand of a tall female form, who, in a +thoughtful mood, was pacing up and down the apartment. She seemed not +to belong to mortals, so large, so powerful were her limbs, so firm +her countenance; but the enraptured youth thought he had never before +seen or imagined such beauty. He trembled, and yet secretly wished +that she might come to the window and perceive him. At last she +stopped, set down the light upon a crystal table, and sang with a +thrilling voice: + + Where can the Ancients keep, + That they do not appear? + From diamond pillars weep + The crystals, many a tear, + In full fountain falling round; + And within sad tones resound. + In the waves so clear and bright, + And transparent as the light, + There is form'd the beauteous glance, + That doth the raptur'd soul entrance, + And moves the heart in glowing dance. + Come, ye spirits all, + To the golden hall; + Raise, from out the depths of gloom, + Heads that sparkle; quickly come, + Ye that are of wondrous power, + Be of hearts the masters now, + Where bright tears with passion glow; + Be the rulers of the hour. + +As soon as she had ended, she began to undress, laying aside her +garments in a splendid wardrobe. First, she took from her head a +golden veil, and her long black hair flowed in full ringlets down to +her waist; then she loosed her bosom-dress, and the youth forgot +himself and the world in gazing at the superterrestrial beauty. After +some time, she went to another golden cabinet, took thereout a tablet +that glittered with inlaid stones, rubies, diamonds, and all kinds of +jewels, and stood contemplating it with scrutinising look. The tablet +seemed to form a strange unintelligible figure, with its several lines +and colours; one while, as its brightness glanced towards him, he was +painfully dazzled; then, again, a soft green and blue playing over it, +refreshed his eye; but he stood devouring the objects with his looks, +and at the same time absorbed in deep thoughts. In his inmost heart +there was opened up an abyss of forms and harmony, of longing and +desire; troops of winged tones and sad and joyful melodies passed +through his spirit, that was moved to the very foundation: he saw a +world of pain and hope arise within himself, mighty wondrous rocks of +trust and daring confidence, deep torrents as of melancholy flowing +by. He no longer knew himself; and he was terrified as the fair one +opened the window, and reaching forth to him the magic tablet, spoke +to him these few words: "Take this in remembrance of me!" He grasped +the tablet, and felt the figure; the invisible within him immediately +passed away, and the light, and the potent beauty, and the strange +hall, had vanished. As it were, a dark night, with cloud-curtains, +fell within his inmost soul; he searched after his former feelings, +after that inspiration and incomprehensible love; he gazed at the +costly tablet, in which the sinking moon was mirrored faint and +bluish. + +He still held the tablet fast pressed within his hands, when the +morning dawned; and he, exhausted, giddy, and half-asleep, fell +headlong down the steep mountain-side. + +The sun shone on the face of the stupified sleeper; who, on awaking, +found himself again upon a pleasant hill. He looked around, and beheld +far behind him, and scarcely discernible at the extreme horizon, the +ruins of the Runenberg; he searched for the tablet, and could no where +find it. Astonished and perplexed, he tried to collect his thoughts +and unite his recollections; but his memory was as if filled with a +confused mist, in which shapeless and unknown forms were wildly +contending with one another. His entire former life lay behind him, as +in a far distance; the strangest and the most familiar were so mingled +together, that he found it impossible to sever them. After long +struggle with himself, he at last thought that a dream, or sudden +madness, must have befallen him that night; but still he could not +understand how he had wandered so far into a strange and remote +region. + +Still, almost overcome with sleep, he descended the hill, and came +upon a beaten path, which led him down from the mountains on to the +open country. All was strange to him; he at first thought that he +should find his native home, but he saw before him quite a different +region, and at length conjectured that he must be on the southern side +of the mountains, which in the spring he had trodden from the north. +Towards noon he stood over a village from whose cottages a peaceful +smoke was ascending; children clad in festal dress were playing on the +green, and from the little church came the sound of the organ and the +chant of the congregation. All seized him with a sweet, indescribable +melancholy; all so stirred his heart, that he was forced to weep. The +narrow gardens, the little cottages with their smoking chimneys, the +neatly parted cornfields, reminded him of the wants of poor human +nature, of its dependence on the friendly earth, in whose beneficence +it is obliged to trust; while the singing and the tones of the organ +filled his heart with a devoutness he had never felt before. His +feelings and wishes of the previous night appeared to him reckless and +wicked; he wished again, in a childlike, dependent, and humble spirit, +to unite himself to men as his brethren, and to withdraw from his +ungodly purposes and opinions. The plain, with its little river that +wound itself in manifold turnings about the gardens and meadows, +seemed charming and alluring to him; he thought with fear on his abode +in the solitary mountains amid the desolate rocks; he longed that he +might dwell in this peaceful village; and with these feelings he +entered the crowded church. + +The singing was just ended, and the priest had begun his sermon, which +was on the kindness of God in the harvest; how His goodness feeds all, +and satisfies every living thing; how wonderfully in the corn He has +provided for the support of the human race; how the love of God is +incessantly communicating itself in bread; and therefore the devout +Christian may, with thankfulness, perpetually celebrate a holy supper. +The congregation was edified. The young hunter's looks were fixed on +the pious preacher, and observed close by the pulpit a young maiden, +who seemed, beyond all others, resigned to devotion and attention. She +was slim and fair, her blue eye gleamed with the most piercing +softness, her countenance was as if transparent, and blooming with the +tenderest colours. The stranger youth had never felt himself and his +heart so before; so full of love and so calm, so resigned to the +stillest and the most enlivening feelings. He bowed himself in tears, +when the priest at last spoke the blessing; he felt penetrated by the +holy words, as by an invisible power; and the shadowy image of the +night sank down behind him, like a spectre, into the deepest +distance. He left the church, stopped a while under a tall lime-tree, +and thanked God in a fervent prayer, that, without his deserving, He +had freed him from the snares of the evil spirit. The village was that +day celebrating the harvest-feast, and all men were determined to be +joyful; the children gaily dressed were rejoicing in cakes and dances; +the young men on the village square, which was encircled with young +trees, were preparing all things for the festival, where also the +musicians were sitting and trying their instruments. Christian went +again into the fields, in order to collect his thoughts and fix his +contemplations, and then returned to the village, where now all were +united in joyfulness and celebration of the festival. The fair +Elizabeth was also there with her parents; and the stranger joined +himself to the joyful throng. Elizabeth was dancing; and he had, in +the mean time, entered into conversation with the father, who was a +farmer, and one of the richest men in the village. The youth and +speech of the stranger seemed to please him, and so in a short time it +was agreed that Christian should remain with him as gardener. This he +was able to undertake; for he hoped that now the knowledge and +occupations he had so much despised at home would stand him in good +stead. + +From this time a new life began for him. He went to live with the +farmer, and was reckoned with his family. With his station also he +changed his dress. He was so good, so serviceable, and ever kind; so +diligent at his labour, that soon all in the house, but especially the +daughter, became friendly to him. So often as on Sunday he saw her +going to church, he held for her in readiness a beautiful nosegay, +which she received from him with blushing thankfulness: he missed her +when the day passed without his seeing her; and then in the evening +she would relate to him legends and pleasant stories. They became ever +more needful to each other; and the old people, who observed it, +seemed not to have any thing against it; for Christian was the +handsomest and most industrious youth in the village. They themselves, +from the first moment, had felt a constraint of love and friendship +towards him. After half a year, Elizabeth was his wife. It was again +spring; the swallows and birds of song had come into the land; the +garden stood in its gayest attire; the marriage was celebrated with +all joyfulness; bride and bridegroom appeared as if intoxicated with +their happiness. Late in the evening, as they went to their chamber, +the young husband said to his beloved: "No, thou art not that form +which once charmed me in a dream, and which I never can quite forget; +yet am I happy in thy presence, and blest in thine embrace." + +How joyful was the family, when, after a year, it was increased by a +little daughter, that was named Leonora. It is true that Christian was +at times somewhat more serious as he contemplated the child; but yet +his youthful sprightliness always again returned to him. He scarcely +ever thought of his former way of life, for he felt himself quite at +home and contented. After some months, however, the thought of his +parents occurred to him, and especially how his father would rejoice +at his peaceful lot, at his condition as gardener and husbandman; it +pained him that he had been able for so long a time to forget father +and mother; his own child reminded him of what joy children are to +parents; and so he at length resolved to put himself on the journey, +and revisit his native home. + +Unwillingly he left his wife; all wished him happiness; and in the +fine season of the year, on foot he took his way. Already, after a few +miles, he felt how painful was the parting; for the first time in his +life he felt the smart of separation; the strange objects around +seemed almost savage to him; he felt as if he were lost in a hostile +solitude. Then the thought occurred to him that his youth was over; +that he had found a home to which he belonged, in which his heart had +taken root; he could almost lament the lost levity of former years; +and he felt the extremest dejection of spirit as at a village he +turned into the inn to pass the night. He could not comprehend why he +had left his affectionate wife and acquired parents; and peevish and +discontented, he next morning set forth to continue his journey. + +His anguish increased as he came near the chain of mountains; the +distant ruins were already visible, and gradually became more +distinguishable; while numerous hill-tops rose round and clear from +out the blue mist. He went timidly on; often stopping and wondering +with himself at the fear, at the horror, which more and more oppressed +him at every step. "Madness!" he exclaimed, "I know thee well, and thy +perilous allurement; but I will manfully withstand thee. Elizabeth is +no idle dream; I know that she now thinks on me, that she is expecting +me, and, full of love, counts the hours of my absence. Do I not +already see forests as black hair before me? Do not the lightening +eyes look towards me from the brook? The giant forms, are they not +advancing to me from the mountains?" + +With these words, he was about to lay himself down to rest beneath a +tree, when he saw an old man sitting under its shadow, who was, with +the greatest attention, contemplating a flower, now holding it towards +the sun, then again shading it with his hand, counting its leaves, and +striving in all ways to impress it strictly on his memory. As he +approached nearer, the form seemed known to him, and soon no doubt +remained that the old man with the flower was his father. He rushed +into his arms with an expression of the most vehement joy; the other +was delighted, but not astonished, at meeting him so suddenly. + +"Art thou come to meet me already, my son?" said the old man; "I knew +that I should soon find thee, but I did not think that to-day such joy +would happen to me." + +"How came you to know, father, that you would meet with me?" + +"By this flower," replied the old gardener; "all my life I have been +wishing to be able once to find it, but never had the fortune; for it +is very rare, and grows only on the mountains. I set out in quest of +thee, because thy mother is dead, and the solitude at home was too +oppressive and afflicting to me. I knew not whither to direct my way. +At last I wandered through the mountains, dreary as the journey seemed +to me. By the way, I sought for this flower, but could nowhere +discover it; and now, quite unexpected, I find it here, where the +beautiful plain lies stretched before me; thereby I knew that I should +find thee soon; and, see! how truly the dear flower has prophesied!" + +They embraced each other again, and Christian wept for his mother; but +the old man grasped his hand, and said: "Let us be going, that we may +soon lose sight of the mountain shadows. My heart is always sad at the +steep wild shapes, the horrid chasms, the gurgling waterfalls. Let us +again visit the kind, harmless level country." + +They wandered back; and Christian became more cheerful. He told his +father of his new fortune, of his child and of his home: his speech +made him as if intoxicated; and, in talking, he now for the first time +felt truly how nothing more was wanting to his happiness. Thus, amid +tales joyful and melancholy, they arrived at the village. All were +rejoiced at the speedy termination of the journey; most of all, +Elizabeth. The old man took up his abode with them, joined his little +fortune to their estate, and they formed, together, the most contented +and united circle among men. The field increased; the cattle throve; +Christian's house became in a few years one of the most considerable +in the village; and he soon saw himself the father of several +children. + +Five years had in this manner passed away, when a stranger, on his +journey, stopped, and took up his abode in Christian's house, as being +the most respectable in the village. He was a friendly, communicative +man, who related many things of his journey, played with and gave +presents to the children, and, in short, was kind to every one. He was +so pleased with the neighbourhood, that he was resolved to spend some +days there; but the days grew to weeks, and at length to months. His +sojourn surprised no one, for all had already been accustomed to +regard him as belonging to the family. Only Christian often sat +musing; for it occurred to him that he had already aforetime known the +traveller, and yet he could not recollect the occasion when he could +have seen him. + +At last, after three months, the stranger took his leave, and said, +"My dear friends, a wonderful destiny and strange expectations impel +me forward into the nearest mountains; a magical form, which I cannot +withstand, allures me. I now leave you, and know not whether I shall +return to you. I have a sum of money by me, which is safer in your +hands than in mine, and therefore I pray you to take charge of it: +should I not come back in a year's time, then keep it, and take it as +a thank-offering for your kindness shewn to me." + +So the stranger departed; and Christian took the money into his +keeping. He carefully locked it up; and at times, in the excess of +anxiety, looked over it, counted it to see that none was missing, and +made himself much ado with it. + +"This sum would make us right happy," he once said to his father, +"should the stranger not return; we and our children would then be for +ever provided for." + +"Let alone the gold," said the old man; "therein lies no blessing: +hitherto, praise God, we have wanted nothing, and by all means put +this thought away from thee." + +Christian often arose in the night to waken the servants to their +labour, and himself to look after every thing. The father was anxious +lest, through excessive diligence, he should injure his youth and +health; therefore, one night, he arose in order to admonish him on the +subject, when, to his astonishment, he saw him sitting at a table, and +with the greatest eagerness counting over the gold. + +"My son," said the old man, in sadness, "shall it come to this with +thee? has this cursed metal been brought under the roof only to our +unhappiness? Bethink thyself, my son, or the wicked fiend will consume +thy blood and life." + +"Yes," said Christian, "I no longer comprehend myself; neither by +night nor by day have I any rest; see now how it looks at me, till the +ruddy glow goes deep into my heart. Listen how it clinks, this golden +blood; it calls me when asleep; I hear it when music sounds, when the +wind blows, when people are talking in the street. If the sun shines, +I see only these yellow eyes, with which it blinks at me, and wishes +to whisper secretly a word of love into my ear: so I am obliged +nightly to get up, though only to satisfy its strong desire, and then +I feel it inwardly exulting and rejoicing; when I touch it with my +fingers, it grows ruddier and more glorious in its joy. Only look +yourself now at the glow of its rapture!" + +The grey-haired man, shuddering and weeping, took his son in his arms, +prayed, and then said, "Christel, thou must turn again to the word of +God; thou must more diligently and devoutly go to church: otherwise +thou wilt languish, and in the saddest misery pine thyself away." + +The money was again locked up. Christian promised to betake himself to +other subjects; and the old man was composed. A year and more had +already passed, and no tidings heard of the stranger: the old man at +last yielded to the entreaties of his son; and the relinquished money +was laid out in lands and other ways. The young farmer's wealth was +soon talked of in the village; and Christian seemed extremely +contented and joyful, so that his father thought himself happy at +seeing him so well and cheerful; all fear had now vanished from his +soul. What, then, must have been his astonishment when, one evening, +Elizabeth took him aside, and told him, with tears, that she could no +longer understand her husband; he spoke so wildly, especially at +night; he had perplexing dreams; would often in his sleep for a long +time walk about the room without knowing it, and tell of wondrous +things which oft made her shudder. But most frightful to her was his +merriment in the daytime; his laugh was wild and boisterous, his look +strange and wandering. The father stood terror-struck; and the +troubled wife continued: "He is always speaking of the stranger, and +maintains that otherwise he has long known him, for that this +stranger-man is really none other than a woman of wondrous beauty; he +also will no longer go out into the field, nor work in the garden, for +he says that he hears underground a fearful groaning when he only +pulls up a root; he starts and seems terrified at the plant and herbs, +as if they were spectres." + +"Merciful God!" exclaimed the father, "is the frightful hunger so fast +grown within him that it has come to this? Then is his enchanted heart +no longer human, but of cold metal; he who loves not flowers, has lost +all love and fear of God." + +The following day the father went for a walk with his son, and +repeated to him much of what he had heard from Elizabeth; he exhorted +him to piety, and to devote his spirit to holy contemplations. + +Christian replied, "Willingly, my father; and often I feel quite +happy, and every thing succeeds well with me: for a long time, for +years, I can forget the true form of my inward being, and lead, as it +were, a strange life with cheerfulness: but then suddenly, like a new +moon, the ruling star, which I myself am, arises on my heart, and +vanquishes the foreign influence. I could be quite happy, but that +once, on an extraordinary night, a mysterious sign was impressed +through my hand deeply within my soul; often the magic figure sleeps +and is at rest; I think it has passed away, when suddenly it springs +forth again as a poison, and makes its way in all directions. Then I +can think and feel nothing else; all around me is changed, or, rather, +is by this form swallowed up. As the madman shudders at the water, and +the infused poison within him becomes more venomous, so it happens to +me with every cornered figure, every line, every beam; all will then +unbind the form that dwells within me, and promote its birth; and my +body and soul feel the anguish; as my spirit received it by a feeling +from without, so into an outward feeling she desires, with agonising +throes, to work it forth again, that she may be free from it and at +rest." + +"It was an unlucky star," said the old man, "that drew thee away from +us. Thou wert born for a still life; thy mind tended to quietness and +plants; then thy impatience led thee away into the society of savage +stones; the rocks, the rent cliffs, with their rugged shapes, have +overset thy spirit, and planted within thee the desolating hunger +after metal. Thou oughtest ever to have been on thy guard, and kept +thy view from the mountains. So I thought to bring thee up; but it was +not so to be. Thy humility, thy calmness, thy childlike feelings, have +been all overturned by obstinacy, wildness, and overbearing." + +"No," said the son; "I remember quite distinctly that it was a plant +which first made known to me the misery of the whole earth; only then +I understood the sighs and lamentations which are every where +perceptible in all nature, if only one will listen. In plants, herbs, +flowers, and trees, there moves and stirs painfully only one general +wound; they are the corpse of former glorious worlds of rock, they +present to our eye the frightfullest corruption. Now I well understand +that it was this which that root with its deep-fetched moaning wished +to say to me; in its agony it forgot itself, and told me all. +Therefore are all green plants so angry with me, and wait for my life; +they desire to obliterate the loved figure in my heart; and every +spring, with their distorted deathly looks, to win my soul. With +unpermitted and malicious art have they deceived thee, old man; for +they have gained complete possession of thy soul. Only ask the rocks, +thou wilt be astonished when thou hearest them speak." + +The father looked at him a long while, but could answer him no more. +They went silently back to the house, and the old man was likewise +horrified at his son's mirth; for it seemed quite foreign to him, and +as if another being was, as from a machine, sporting and awkwardly +labouring within him. + +The harvest-feast was again to be celebrated; the people went to +church, and Elizabeth, with her children, set out to be present at the +service; her husband also prepared to accompany them; but at the +church-door he turned aside, and, deep in thought, went forth out of +the village. He seated himself on the height, and looked down on the +smoking cottages beneath him; heard the singing and organ-tones coming +from the church; and saw children gaily clad dancing and sporting upon +the village-green. "How have I lost my life in a dream!" said he to +himself: "years have passed away since I went down this hill among the +children; those who then were playing are to-day serious in the +church; I also went into the sacred building; but Elizabeth is now no +more a blooming child-like maiden; her youth is gone by; I cannot with +the longing of that time seek for the glance of her eyes: thus have I +wantonly neglected a high eternal happiness, to gain one that is only +passing and transitory." + +Full of strange desires, he walked to the neighbouring wood, and +buried himself in its thickest shades. A shuddering stillness +encompassed him; no breeze stirred amid the leaves. Meanwhile he saw a +man approaching him from the distance, whom he imagined to be the +stranger; he was struck with terror, and his first thought was, that +he would demand back his money. But as the form came nearer, he saw +how greatly he had been mistaken; for the features which he had +fancied, dissolved away as into one another, and an old woman of the +extremest ugliness came up to him. She was clad in dirty rags; a +tattered cloth bound together some grey hairs; and she hobbled on a +crutch. With frightful voice she spoke to Christian, and asked after +his name and station. He answered her minutely, and added, "But who +art thou?" + +"I am called the Woodwoman," said she; "and every child can tell of +me. Hast thou never known me?" With the last words she turned herself +about, and Christian thought he again recognised among the trees the +golden veil, the lofty gait, the majestic limbs. He wished to hasten +after her, but he had sight of her no more. + +Meanwhile something glittering drew his eye down to the grass. He took +it up, and saw again the magic tablet with its coloured precious +stones and remarkable figure, that he had lost so many years before. +The form and its varied light pressed all his senses with a sudden +power. He grasped it firmly, to assure himself that he had it once +more in his hands, and then hastened back with it to the village. His +father met him. + +"See," cried he to him, "that of which I have so often told you, and +which I thought only to have seen in a dream, is now truly and surely +mine." + +The old man contemplated the tablet a long while, and said: "My son, +my heart quite shudders as I view the aspect of these stones, and +foreboding guess the meaning of this inscription. See here, how cold +they sparkle, what cruel looks they cast up, bloodthirsty, like the +red eye of the tiger! Throw away this writing, which makes thee cold +and cruel, which will turn thy heart to stone. + + See the tender flowers beaming, + As from out themselves they waken; + Like as children from their dreaming, + In smiling loveliness are taken. + + Their various hues in playful bliss + All turn they to the golden sun; + And when they feel his burning kiss, + 'Tis then their happiness is won. + + And on his kisses so to languish, + To pine in love and melancholy; + Then smiling in their dearest anguish, + Soon fade in soft tranquillity. + + This is to them the highest joy, + The fond delight they love to cherish; + Themselves in death to glorify, + Beneath their lover's glance to perish. + + Then all around their perfum'd treasure + They profluent pour in raptur'd calm; + Until the air grows drunk with pleasure, + Enliven'd with the odorous balm. + + Love comes all human hearts approving, + Responsive touching every chord; + Well may the conscious soul record, + 'Now I know the due reward, + The gladness, sadness, pain of loving.'" + +"Wonderful incalculable treasures," answered the son, "must there +still be in the depths of the earth! Could some one but explore them, +raise them up, and snatch them to himself! Could he but so press to +his bosom the earth as a beloved bride, that in anguish and love she +would willingly grant to him what she had most precious! The Woodwoman +has called me; I go to seek her. Close by is an old ruined shaft, +which centuries ago some miner has dug open; perhaps there I shall +find her." + +He hastened forward. In vain the old man strove to detain him; he soon +vanished from his sight. Some hours afterwards, the father, with much +exertion, arrived at the old shaft: he saw footsteps impressed on the +sand at the entrance; and returned in tears, convinced that his son +had, in his madness, gone in, and been drowned in the depths of the +old collected waters. + +From that time he was always melancholy and in tears. The whole +village mourned for the young farmer. Elizabeth was inconsolable; the +children lamented aloud. Half a year after the old father died; +Elizabeth's parents soon followed him, and she was obliged to take the +sole management of the large estate. Her many avocations removed her +somewhat from her sorrow; the education of her children, the +superintendence of her property, left her no time for care and grief. +So after two years she resolved on a new marriage, and gave her hand +to a young sprightly man, who had loved her from his youth. But soon +all things in the house assumed another form. The cattle died; men and +maid-servants were unfaithful; the barns filled with grain were +consumed by fire; people in the town who owed them various sums fled +away with the money. The landlord soon found himself compelled to sell +some fields and meadows; but a failure in the crops, and a year of +scarcity, only brought him into new embarrassments. It seemed nought +else than as if the gold, so wondrously obtained, were in all ways +seeking a speedy flight. + +Meanwhile the family increased; and Elizabeth, as well as her husband, +became careless and dilatory from despair. He endeavoured to drown his +cares by drinking much of intoxicating wine, which made him irritable +and passionate, so that Elizabeth often bewailed her misery with +bitter tears. + +As soon as their fortune declined, their friends in the village kept +aloof; so that in a few years, they found themselves quite forsaken, +and with the greatest difficulty could struggle on from week to week. + +They had only a few sheep and one cow remaining; which Elizabeth +herself often tended with her children. She was once sitting thus with +her work on the grass, Leonora by her side, and a child at her breast, +when they saw from the distance a strange form coming towards them. It +was a man in a coat all in tatters, barefoot, his countenance sunburnt +to a dark-brown, and still more disfigured by a long rough beard; he +wore no covering on his head, but had a garland of green leaves +twisted through his hair, which made his wild appearance still more +strange and incomprehensible. On his back he carried in a fast-bound +sack a heavy burden; in walking he supported himself on a young +fir-tree. + +When he came nearer, he set down his load, and heavily fetched his +breath. He wished the lady good-day; she was terrified at his +presence, the child clung closely to her mother. When he had rested a +while, he said: "I have just come from a very fatiguing journey among +the roughest mountains upon earth; but have, at last, succeeded in +bringing with me the most precious treasures which imagination can +conceive or heart can wish. Look here and wonder!" Hereupon he opened +his sack, and emptied it; it was full of pebbles, mixed with large +pieces of flint and other stones. "It is only," he continued, "that +these jewels are not yet ground and polished, that they fail to take +the eye. The outward fire, with its brightness, is yet too deeply +buried in their inmost heart; but one has only to strike it out, and +make them feel that no dissimulation will any more serve them, then +you will see of what spirit they are the offspring." With these words, +he took one of the hard stones and struck it vehemently against +another, so that red sparks sprang forth between them, "Did you see +the glance?" he cried. "Thus are they all fire and light; they +illuminate the darkness with their laughter, but as yet they do it not +willingly." So saying, he again packed all up carefully in his sack, +which he tied fast together. "I know thee very well," he then said +sadly; "thou art Elizabeth." She started with terror. + +"How earnest thou to know my name?" she asked, with foreboding +shudder. + +"Ah, good God!" said the unhappy one; "I am indeed Christian, who once +came to thee as a hunter. Dost thou, then, know me no more?" + +She knew not, in her horror and deepest compassion, what to say. He +fell upon her neck and kissed her. Elizabeth exclaimed, "O God! my +husband is coming!" + +"Be tranquil," said he; "I am as good as dead to thee. There in the +forest my fair one awaits me; the powerful one, she that is adorned +with the golden veil. This is my dearest child Leonora. Come hither, +my dear, beloved heart; give me too a kiss,--one only,--that I may +once again feel thy mouth upon my lips, then I will leave you." + +Leonora wept; she clasped close to her mother, who, in sobs and tears, +half turned her towards the wanderer; he half drew her to himself, +took her in his arms, and pressed her to his bosom. Then he went +silently away, and in the wood they saw him speaking with the +frightful Woodwoman. + +"What is the matter?" asked the husband, as he found mother and +daughter pale and dissolved in tears. Neither would answer him. + +But the unhappy one was from that day never again seen. + + + + +THE MYSTERIOUS CUP. + + +The forenoon bells were sounding from the great cathedral. On the open +place, men and women were moving in various directions, carriages +passing along, and priests going to their churches. Ferdinand stood +upon the stairs regarding the multitude, and contemplating those who +went up to be present at high mass. The sunshine glistened on the +white stones; every one sought shelter against the heat; he only had +been long standing in meditation, leaning against a pillar, under the +burning beams, without feeling them; for he was lost amid the +recollections which had risen up in his thoughtfulness. He thought on +his former life, and inspired himself with the feeling which had +penetrated his being, and extinguished all other wishes. + +At the same hour he had stood here in the former year, to see the +women and maidens going to service; with listless heart and smiling +eye he had contemplated the various forms. Then there came across the +square a youthful form in black, tall and noble, her eyes modestly +cast before her on the ground; unembarrassed she ascended the stairs +with lovely grace; her silken dress lay around the most beautiful of +forms, and vibrated as in music about the moving limbs. She was going +to mount the highest step, when unconsciously she raised her eye, and +its azure beam met his glance. He was pierced as by lightning. She +stumbled, and quickly as he sprang forward, he could not hinder but +that for a moment she, in the most charming posture, lay kneeling at +his feet. He raised her; she looked not at him, but was all a blush, +nor answered his inquiry whether she was hurt. He followed her into +the church, and saw only the image as she had knelt before him, and +the loveliest of bosoms bent towards him. The following day he again +visited the threshold of the temple; for him the place was +consecrated. He had intended to take his departure, his friends were +impatiently expecting him at home; but now from henceforth this was +his father-land; his heart was inverted. + +He saw her often--she did not shun him--yet only for separate and +stolen moments; for her rich family sufficiently watched her, still +more a powerful and jealous bridegroom. They confessed to each other +their love, but knew not in their situation what to counsel; for he +was a stranger, and could offer his beloved no such great fortune as +she was entitled to expect. Now he felt his poverty; yet when he +thought on his former way of life, he seemed to himself surpassingly +rich, for his existence was hallowed, his heart floated for ever in +the fairest emotion. Nature was now friendly to him, and her beauty +revealed to his meditations, he felt himself no longer a stranger to +devotion and religion; and now he trod this threshold, the mysterious +dimness of the temple, with far other feelings than in those days of +levity. He withdrew from his former acquaintances, and lived only to +love. Whenever he passed through her street, and only saw her at the +window, that day was for him a happy one. He had often spoken to her +in the twilight of evening, as her garden adjoined to that of a +friend, who, however, did not know his secret. Thus a year had +elapsed. + +All these scenes of his new existence again passed through his +remembrance. He raised his eyes; that noble form was even then gliding +across the square--she lightened upon him from among the mixed +multitude as a sun. A lovely song sounded into his longing heart; and +as she approached, he stepped back into the church. He held towards +her the holy water; her white fingers trembled as they touched his; +she bowed graciously. He followed her, and knelt near her. His whole +heart melted away in melancholy and love; it seemed to him as if, from +the wounds of longing, his existence was bleeding away in ardent +prayers; every word of the priest thrilled through him, every tone of +the music gushed devotion into his bosom; his lips quivered as the +fair one pressed the crucifix of her rosary to her ruby mouth. How had +he not been able to comprehend this faith and this love before? + +The priest raised the host, and the bell sounded. She bowed herself +more humbly, and crossed her breast. Like lightning it struck through +all his powers and feelings; and the altar-picture seemed alive--the +coloured dimness of the windows as a light of Paradise. Tears streamed +profusely from his eyes, and allayed the inward burning of his heart. +Divine service was ended. He again offered her the holy font; they +spoke some words, and she withdrew. He remained behind, not to excite +notice; he looked after her till the hem of her garment vanished round +the corner. Then he felt as the weary bewildered traveller, who in the +thick forest beholds the last gleam of the descending sun. + +He awoke from his dream, as a dry, withered hand struck him on the +shoulder, and some one called him by name. He started back, and +recognised his friend the morose Albert, who lived apart from men, and +whose lonely house was open only to the young Ferdinand. "Are you +mindful of our engagement?" asked the hoarse voice. + +"O, yes," said Ferdinand; "and will you keep your promise to-day?" + +"This very hour," replied the other, "if you will follow me." + +They walked through the city to a distant street, and there into a +large building. + +"To-day," said the old man, "you must give yourself the trouble to go +with me to the back part of the house, into my most solitary chamber, +that we may not be at all disturbed." + +They passed through many rooms, then up some stairs, and along several +passages; and Ferdinand, who had thought that he knew the house well, +now could not but wonder at the number of the apartments, as well as +the singular arrangement of the spacious building; but more than all, +that the old man, who was not married and had no family, should occupy +it alone, with only a single servant, and would never let out any +portion of the superfluous room to strangers. At length Albert +unlocked a door, and said, "Now we are at the place." They entered a +large and lofty chamber, hung round with red damask, that was trimmed +with golden listings; the seats were of the same stuff; and through +heavy red silk curtains, which were let down, there glimmered a purple +light. + +"Wait a moment," said the old man, as he went into another room. + +Ferdinand, in the mean time, took up some books, in which he found +strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, together with +many curious plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to +him to be works on alchemy: he knew, also, that the old man had the +reputation of being a gold-maker. On the table lay a lute, singularly +overlaid with mother-of-pearl and coloured wood, and representing +birds and flowers in splendid forms. The star in the middle was a +large piece of mother-of-pearl, worked out in the most skilful manner +into many intersecting circles, almost like the centre of a window in +a Gothic church. + +"You are looking at my instrument," said Albert, who had now returned: +"it is two hundred years old; I brought it with me as a memorial of my +journey into Spain. But now leave all that, and take a seat." + +They sat down at the table, which likewise was covered with red cloth; +and the old man placed something on it which was carefully wrapped up. + +"From pity to your youth," he began, "I lately promised to foretell +you whether or not you could become happy; and this promise I am +willing to fulfil at the present hour, though you recently wished to +treat the matter as a jest. You need not alarm yourself, for what I +design can happen without danger. I shall make no dread incantations, +nor shall any horrible apparition terrify you. The thing which I shall +endeavour may fail in two ways; either if you do not love so truly as +you have wished to make me believe, for then my labour is in vain, and +nothing will shew itself; or if you should disturb the oracle, and +destroy it by a useless question, or by a hasty movement leaving your +seat, the figure would break in pieces. So you must keep yourself +quite still." + +Ferdinand gave his word; and the old man unfolded from the cloths that +which he had brought with him. It was a golden goblet, of very costly +and beautiful workmanship: around its broad foot ran a wreath of +flowers, twined with myrtles and various other leaves and fruit, +highly chased with dim and brilliant gold. A similar ring, only +richer, adorned with figures of children, and wild little animals +playing with them, or flying before them, wound itself around the +centre of the cup. The chalice was beautifully turned; above, it was +bent back toward the lips; and within, the gold sparkled with a ruddy +glow. The old man placed the goblet between himself and the youth, and +beckoned him nearer. + +"Do you not feel something," said he, "when your eye loses itself in +this splendour?" + +"Yes," said Ferdinand; "this brightness reflects into my very inmost +being,--I might say, I feel it as a kiss in my longing bosom." + +"It is right," said the old man. "Now let your eyes no more stray +around, but keep them fixed on the glance of this gold, and think as +earnestly as you can on your beloved." + +Both sat still awhile, and, absorbed in contemplation, beheld the +gleaming cup. But soon the old man, with mute gesture, first slowly, +then more quickly, and at last with rapid movement, proceeded with +extended finger to draw regular circles around the glow of the goblet. +Then he paused, and took the circles from the opposite direction. When +he had thus continued for some time, Ferdinand thought he heard music, +but it sounded as from without in a distant street. Soon, however, the +tones came nigher; they struck on his ear louder and louder, and +vibrated more distinctly through the air; so that, at last, he felt no +doubt but that they issued from the interior of the goblet. The music +became still stronger, and of such penetrating power, that the heart +of the young man trembled, and tears rose into his eyes. Busily moved +the old man's hand in various directions across the mouth of the cup; +and it appeared as if sparks from his fingers were convulsively +striking and sounding on the gold. Soon the shining points increased, +and followed, as on a thread, the motion of his finger; they +glittered of various colours, and crowded still more closely on one +another, till they rushed altogether in continuous lines. Now it +seemed as if the old man in the red twilight was laying a wondrous net +over the brightening gold, for at will he drew the beams hither and +thither, and wove up with them the opening of the goblet: they obeyed +him, and remained lying like a covering, waving to and fro, and +playing into one another. When they thus were fastened, he again +described the circles around the rim; the music subsided, and became +softer and softer, till it could no longer be perceived; and the +bright net-work quivered, as if in agony. It burst in increasing +agitation, and the beams rained down drops into the chalice; but out +of the fallen drops arose a reddish cloud, which formed itself in +manifold circles, and floated like foam over the mouth of the cup. A +bright point darted up with the greatest rapidity through the cloudy +circles. There stood the image; and suddenly, as it were, an eye +looked out from the mist; above, golden locks flowed in ringlets; +presently a soft blush went up and down the quivering shade; and +Ferdinand recognised the smiling countenance of his beloved--the blue +eyes, the delicate cheeks, the lovely red mouth. The head waved to and +fro, raised itself more distinctly and visibly on the slender white +neck, and bowed towards the enraptured youth. The old man kept on +describing his circles around the goblet, and thereout issued the +glancing shoulders; and at last the whole of the lovely image pressed +from out the golden bed, and gracefully waved to and fro. + +Ferdinand thought he felt the breath as the beloved form inclined +towards him, and almost touched him with burning lips. In his +ravishment he could no longer command himself, but impressed a kiss on +the mouth, and endeavoured to grasp the beautiful arm, and quite to +raise the lovely form out of its golden prison. Then a violent +trembling suddenly struck through the image, as in a thousand +fragments the head and body broke together; and a rose lay at the foot +of the goblet, in whose blush the sweet smile still appeared. +Ferdinand passionately seized it, and pressed it to his mouth. At his +ardent longing, it withered and dissolved away in the air. + +"Thou hast badly kept thy word," said the old man, angrily: "thou +canst only impute the fault to thyself." + +He again wrapped up his goblet, drew aside the curtains, and opened a +window. The clear daylight broke in; and Ferdinand, in a melancholy +mood, and with many apologies, took his leave of the murmuring old +man. He hastened with emotion through the streets of the city, and sat +down under the trees without the gate. She had told him in the morning +that she was to go that night with some relations into the country. + +Intoxicated with love, he now sat, now wandered into the wood. Still +he beheld the fair form as it ascended from the glowing gold: he +expected to see her step forth in the splendour of her beauty, when +the fairest of shapes broke in pieces before his eyes; and he was +angry with himself that, through his restless desire and the +bewilderment of his senses, he had destroyed the image, and perhaps +his own happiness. + +When, after the midday hour, the pathway began to be crowded, he +withdrew further into the thicket, but watchfully still kept his eye +upon the high-road, and curiously examined every carriage that issued +from the gate. Evening drew on, a red glimmer was thrown up by the +setting sun; when the richly gilded coach rushed out from the gate, +and shone brightly amid the evening glow. He hastened towards it. +Already her eye had sought his. Graciously smiling, she leaned her +fair bosom from the window. He caught her loving look and greeting. +Now he stood by the side of the carriage, her fall glance falling upon +him; and as she hastily drew back, the rose which had adorned her +bosom flew out, and lay at his feet. He hastily took it up and kissed +it; and it seemed to him as if it prophesied that he should no more +see his beloved one,--that now his happiness was destroyed for ever. + + * * * * * + +People were up and down stairs; the whole house was in commotion; all +were making a noise and bustle about the morrow's great festival. The +mother, as the most active, was also the most joyful. The bride heeded +nothing, but retired, meditating her destiny, into her own chamber. +They were still expecting the son, the captain and his wife, and two +elder daughters with their husbands. Meanwhile Leopold, a younger son, +was mischievously busy in increasing the noise and disorder, +perplexing every thing, while he pretended to further it. Agatha, his +still unmarried sister, endeavoured to make him reasonable, and to +persuade him to meddle with nothing, and to leave the others in peace. +But the mother said: "Do not disturb him in his folly; for to-day more +or less of it does not signify. Therefore I only beg you all that, as +I have already so much to think of, you will not trouble me about any +thing that is not absolutely necessary. If the china should be broken, +or some of the silver spoons be lost, or the strangers' servants break +the windows,--with such trifles do not vex me by recounting them. When +these days of disquiet are over, then we will have a reckoning." + +"You are right, mother," said Leopold; "these are sentiments worthy of +a governor. Also, if some of the maids should break their necks--or +the cook get drunk, and set the chimney on fire--the butler, for joy, +let the malmsey run or be drunk out,--you shall hear nothing of such +childish tricks. But if an earthquake should overturn the +house,--that, dearest mother, it would be impossible to keep secret." + +"When will he ever become wiser?" said the mother. "What will thy +sisters think, when they find thee again quite as foolish as they left +thee two years ago?" + +"They must do my character the justice," replied the lively youth, +"that I am not so changeable as they or their husbands, who, in a few +years, have so very much altered, and not to their advantage." + +The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was +sent to call her. + +"My dear mother," said he, "has Leopold made known to you my request?" + +"That I cannot tell," she replied; "for, amid the disorder now in the +house, one can scarcely retain a reasonable thought." + +The bride entered, and the young people saluted each other with joy. + +"The request I meant," continued the bridegroom, "is, that you would +not take it ill if I brought yet another guest into your house, which, +in truth, is, for these days, too full already." + +"You know yourself," said the mother, "that, spacious as the house is, +I could hardly find another chamber." + +"Nevertheless," exclaimed Leopold, "I have partly provided for that, +by having the large room in the back of the house put in order." + +"Why, that is not commodious enough," replied the mother; "for many +years it has been only used as a lumber-room." + +"It is splendidly restored," said Leopold; "and the friend for whom it +is designed does not regard such matters--he is only anxious for our +love. Besides, he has no wife, and prefers to be in solitude; so that +it will be quite the place for him. We have had trouble enough to +persuade him, and bring him again amongst his fellow-creatures." + +"Not, surely, your morose gold-maker and conjuror?" asked Agatha. + +"No other," replied the bridegroom, "if you please to call him so." + +"Then, dear mother, do not let him," continued the sister; "what +should such a man do in our house? I have sometimes seen him pass down +the street with Leopold; I have been frightened at his countenance. +The old sinner, too, almost never goes to church; he loves neither God +nor men; and it will bring no blessing on so solemn an occasion to +have such infidels under the roof. Who knows what may spring from it?" + +"How now thou speakest!" said Leopold, angrily: "because thou dost not +know him, therefore thou condemnest him; and because his nose does not +please thee, and he is no longer young and handsome, therefore, +according to thy notion, he must be familiar with spirits, and a +wicked man." + +"Grant, dear mother," said the bridegroom, "a little place in your +house to our old friend, and let him partake in our general joy. He +appears, dear sister Agatha, to have experienced much misfortune, +which has made him distrustful and misanthropic. He avoids all +society, with the exception of myself and Leopold. I have much to +thank him for: he first gave my mind a better direction; yea, I may +say, perhaps he alone has rendered me worthy of my Julia's love." + +"He lends me all his books," continued Leopold; "and, what is more, +his old manuscripts; and, what is still more, money upon my bare word. +He has the Christian disposition, my little sister; and who knows but +that, when thou comest to be better acquainted with him, thou mayest +not forego thy prudery, and fall in love with him, odious as he +appears to thee at present?" + +"Well, bring him to us," said the mother; "I have already been obliged +to hear so much about him from Leopold, that I am curious to make his +acquaintance. Only you must answer for it, that we cannot afford him a +better lodging." + +In the mean while travellers had arrived; they were members of the +family, the married daughters and the officer, and had brought their +children with them. The good old lady was delighted to see her +grandchildren; all was welcoming and joyful talk; and when Leopold +and the bridegroom had also received and returned their salutations, +they went away to look after their ancient melancholy friend. This +latter lived, for the greater part of the year, about three miles from +the city; but he also kept a little dwelling for himself in a garden +near the gate. Here, by chance, the two young men had become +acquainted with him: they now met him at a coffee-house, as they had +previously appointed. As it was already evening, they after a little +conversation returned back to the house. The mother received the +stranger very graciously; the daughters kept themselves somewhat +distant; Agatha especially was shy, and carefully avoided his glance. +After the first general conversation was over, the eye of the old man +turned fixedly on the bride, who had come into the company later; he +appeared enraptured, and it was observed that he endeavoured secretly +to dry off a tear. + +The bridegroom rejoiced in his joy; and when after some time, they +stood aside at the window, he took the hand of the old man, and asked +him, "What do you say of my beloved Julia? Is she not an angel?" + +"O my friend," replied the old man, with emotion, "such beauty and +grace I have never yet seen; or rather I should say (for that +expression is incorrect), she is so beautiful, so charming, so +heavenly, that it seems to me as if I had long known her; as if she +were to me, stranger as she is, the dearest picture of my imagination, +that which had ever been at home within my heart." + +"I understand you," said the young man. "Yes, the truly beautiful, +great, and sublime, when it sets us in astonishment and admiration, +still does not surprise us as something strange, unheard-of, never +seen; but our inmost existence in such moments becomes clear to us, +our deepest recollections are awakened, and our dearest feelings are +made alive." + +At the supper the stranger took but little part in the conversation; +his gaze was intensely fixed upon the bride, so that, at length, she +became embarrassed and alarmed. The officer told of a campaign, which +he had served in; the rich merchant, of his merchandise, and the bad +times; and the landowner, of the improvements he had begun on his +estate. After supper, the bridegroom took his leave, to return for the +last time to his lonely habitation; for in future he was to live with +his young wife in the mother's house, in chambers already furnished. +The company separated, and Leopold conducted the stranger to his +apartment. + +"You will excuse it," he began, as they went along, "that we are +obliged to lodge you somewhat far away from us, and not so +commodiously as my mother wished: but you see yourself how numerous +our family is, and other relations are coming to-morrow. You will, at +least, not be able to run away from us, for certainly you could not +find your way out of this spacious mansion." + +They went through several passages, and at last Leopold took leave of +his friend, and wished him good night. The servant placed two +wax-lights on the table, and having asked the stranger if he should +assist him to undress, which service being declined, he also withdrew; +and the stranger found himself alone. + +"How, then, does it happen," said he, as he walked up and down, "that +to-day that image springs so vividly from my heart? I forgot the long +past, and thought I saw herself; I was again young, and her voice +sounded as of old; it seemed to me as if I was awaking from a heavy +dream; but no, now I am awake, and the pleasing delusion was only a +sweet dream." + +He was too restless to sleep: he contemplated some pictures on the +walls, and then the chamber. "To-day," he exclaimed, "every thing is +so familiar, I could almost delude myself to imagine that this house +and this apartment are not strange to me." He tried to fix his +recollections, and took up some large books which were standing in a +corner. When he had turned over the leaves, he shook his head: a +lute-case was leaning against the wall; he opened it, and took out a +strange old instrument, which was damaged and wanted the strings. +"No, I am not mistaken," he cried, astonished; "this lute is too +remarkable--it is the Spanish lute of my long-deceased friend Albert; +there stand his magic-books; this is the room where he wished to +awaken for me the happy oracle: faded is the red of the tapestry, the +golden embroidery is become dim; but wonderfully vivid in my mind is +all pertaining to those hours. Therefore it was that I shuddered as I +came hither through those long, complicated passages where Leopold led +me. O heaven, on this very table rose the image, springing forth as if +watered and refreshed by the redness of the gold. The same image +smiled on me here, which this evening has almost made me frenzied in +the hall--that hall where I have so often walked in familiar speech +with Albert." + +He undressed, but slept only little. Early in the morning he arose, +and again surveyed the room; he opened the window and saw as formerly +the same gardens and buildings before him, only that in the mean time +many new houses had been built. "Forty years have since then +vanished," he sighed, "and each day of that time contains a longer +life than all the remaining period." + +He was again called to the company. The morning passed away in varied +conversation; at length the bride entered in her marriage-dress. As +the old man noticed her he fell into such agitation, that every one in +the company observed it. They proceeded to the church, and the nuptial +ceremony was performed. + +When they had returned to the house, Leopold asked his mother, "Now +how do you like our friend, the good morose old man?" + +"I had imagined him, from your description," she replied, "to be much +more frightful; he is indeed mild and sympathetic, and might gain from +one a real trust in him." + +"Trust!" exclaimed Agatha; "in those frightful burning eyes, those +thousandfold wrinkles, that pale contracted mouth, and that strange +laugh which looks and sounds so scornfully! No, God preserve me from +such a friend! If evil spirits wish to clothe themselves as men, they +must assume such a form as this." + +"Probably a younger and handsomer one," replied the mother; "but I +cannot recognise the good old man in thy description. One can see that +he is of a hasty temperament, and has been used to lock up his +feelings within himself; he may have experienced much misfortune, and +so is become mistrustful, and has lost that simple openness which +especially belongs to those who are happy." + +Their conversation was interrupted by the coming in of the rest of the +party. Dinner was served, and the stranger sat by Agatha and the rich +merchant. + +When the toasts were beginning, Leopold cried out, "Now stop a little, +my worthy friends; we must have the festal goblet for this, which +shall then go the round." + +He was about to rise, but his mother beckoned him to keep his seat. +"Thou wilt not be able to find it," she said; "for I have packed all +the plate away." She went out hastily to seek it herself. + +"How active and sprightly our old lady is to-day," observed the +merchant, "for all her breadth and weight! and though she reckons full +sixty, how nimbly she can move! Her countenance is always bright and +joyful, and to-day is she especially happy, for she makes herself +young again in the beauty of her daughter." + +The stranger applauded his saying, and the mother returned with the +goblet. They filled it full of wine, and from the head of the table +began to pass it round, each proposing the health that was dearest. +The bride drank the welfare of her husband; he, the love of his fair +Julia; likewise every one in his turn. The mother lingered as the +goblet came to her. + +"Now quickly," said the officer, somewhat roughly and hastily; "we +know well that you think all men faithless, and not one of them worthy +of a woman's love. What, then, is dearest to you?" + +The mother looked at him, as an angry seriousness suddenly overspread +the mildness of her countenance. "As my son," said she, "knows me so +well, and so severely blames my disposition, let me be permitted not +to express what I was thinking, and let him endeavour by his constant +love to falsify what he attributes to me as my conviction." She passed +on the cup without drinking, and the company was for some time in +silent embarrassment. + +"It is reported," said the merchant, in an under-tone, leaning over to +the stranger, "that she did not love her husband, but another who +proved faithless to her; they say she was once the handsomest maiden +in all the town." + +When the goblet came to Ferdinand, he looked at it with astonishment, +for it was the very same from which Albert had aforetime called up to +him the beautiful shadow. He looked down into it and on the waving of +the wine; his hand trembled; it would not have surprised him had that +form again bloomed forth from the magic bowl, and therewith his +evanished youth. "No," said he, after some time; "that which glows +here is wine." + +"What else should it be?" said the merchant, laughing. "Drink, and be +happy." + +A thrill of terror struck the old man, as he hastily pronounced the +name, "Francesca!" and placed the goblet to his burning lips. The +mother cast on him an inquiring and astonished look. + +"Whence is this beautiful goblet?" said Ferdinand, who was ashamed of +his embarrassment. + +"Many years ago," replied Leopold; "even before I was born, my father +bought it, with this house and all the furniture, from an old lonely +bachelor, a reserved man, whom all the neighbourhood considered a +magician." + +Ferdinand did not like to say that he had known that man; for his +whole soul was too much perplexed, as it were in a strange dream, to +let the rest look into it, even from a distance. + +After the cloth was removed, Ferdinand was left alone with the mother, +while the young people withdrew to make preparations for the ball. +"Sit down by me," said she; "we will rest, for our dancing years are +past; and, if the question is not too bold, pray tell me if you have +ever seen our goblet elsewhere, or what was it that so very much moved +you?" + +"O, gracious lady," cried the old man, "pardon me my foolish vehemence +and emotion, for since I have been in your house I feel as if I were +no longer myself; every moment I forget that my hair is grey, that my +loved ones are dead. Your beautiful daughter, who now celebrates the +happiest day of her life, is so like a maiden whom I knew and adored +in my youth, that I regard it as a miracle. But no, not like, that +expression is too weak, she is her very self. Here, also, in this +house have I often been, and once in the strangest manner became +acquainted with this goblet." Hereupon he related to her his +adventure. "On the evening of that day," he concluded, "I saw for the +last time my beloved one, in the park as she went into the country. A +rose fell from her, this I have preserved; but she herself was lost to +me, for she became faithless, and soon after married." + +"Merciful God!" cried the old lady, starting with emotion; "surely +thou art not Ferdinand!" + +"That is my name," said he. + +"And I am Francesca," replied the mother. + +They wished to embrace, but immediately started back. Each +contemplated the other with searching glance; both endeavoured to +develop again out of the ruins of time those features which erewhile +they had known and loved in one another. And as in dark tempestuous +nights, amid the flight of black clouds, for a few fleeting moments +solitary stars ambiguously glimmer, immediately again to +disappear,--so shone for the time to these two, lightening from the +eyes, the brow, and lips, a transient glimpse of some well-known +feature, and it seemed as if their youth wept smiling in the distance. + +He bowed himself low, and kissed her hand, as two big tears burst +from his eyes; then they embraced each other heartily. + +"Is thy wife dead?" asked the mother. + +"I was never married," sobbed Ferdinand. + +"Heavens!" cried the lady, wringing her hands; "then I have been the +faithless one! Yet no, not faithless. When I returned from the +country, where I stayed two months, I heard from every one, from thy +friends, not from mine only, that thou hadst long since gone away and +been married in thy fatherland. They shewed me the most credible +letters, and pressed me vehemently, availing themselves as well of my +despair as of my indignation; and so it happened that I gave my hand +to another, a deserving man; but my heart, my thoughts, were ever +devoted to thee." + +"I never removed from this place," said Ferdinand; "but after a time I +heard of thy marriage. 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 wonderful that we +should never since have met!" + +"I seldom went abroad," said she; "and as my husband soon after +assumed another name on account of an estate which he inherited, you +could have had no suspicion that we both were living in the same +city." + +"I avoided men," said Ferdinand, "and lived only to solitude. Leopold +is almost the only one that has again drawn me forth and led me +amongst men. O my beloved friend, it is like a horrible spectre-story, +how we lost and have again found each other!" + +The young people, on their return, found the old couple dissolved in +tears and in the deepest emotion. Neither told what had befallen them; +the secret seemed too holy. But from that time the old man was the +friend of the house; and death alone parted the two beings who in so +strange a manner had again found each other, in order shortly after to +be re-united. + + + + +THE LOVE-CHARM. + + +Emilius was sitting in deep thought by a table, waiting for his friend +Roderick. A light was burning before him; the winter evening was cold; +and, glad as he was at other times to dispense with his companion's +society, on this occasion he was particularly anxious for his +presence, as he wished to tell him a secret, and to ask his advice. +The shy, retiring Emilius, in the common business and the ups and +downs of life, found such difficulties and so many insuperable +obstacles, that Destiny seemed to have been in one of her ironical +moods when she connected him with Roderick, who was, in all respects, +the very opposite of his friend. Unstable and flighty, with the first +impression he was all on fire; there was nothing he would not +undertake; he had plans for every thing; no project could be too +difficult, no obstacle could deter him; while in carrying them out he +soon tired, and flagged as rapidly as he had been eager and elastic at +the outset; and difficulties, instead of being a spur to urge him to +increased activity, then only caused him to fling aside in disgust +what he had at first so enthusiastically undertaken. Hence he was for +ever full of schemes of some sort, but throwing them away and +forgetting them with as little reason as he had before thoughtlessly +adopted them. Between two such contradictory tempers not a day passed +without a quarrel, which threatened to be fatal to their friendship. +Yet perhaps, what seemed at first sight only to be a cause of +division, was, at bottom, one of the closest bonds that held them +together. In their hearts they were exceedingly fond of each other, +yet each found the greatest satisfaction in being able to complain of +the way the other treated him. + +Emilius was a young roan of property. His father and mother were dead, +so that he was his own master. He was of an imaginative though +somewhat melancholy turn of mind; and being now on his travels to +complete his education, he had been staying some time at a large town +to enjoy the pleasure of the carnival, about which he did not care a +straw, and to transact certain business with some of his relations +whom he had not yet taken the trouble to call upon. On his way there +he had stumbled upon the quicksilver Roderick, who was living not on +the best possible terms with his guardians, and, to rid himself of +them and their troublesome admonitions, had gladly availed himself of +his new friend's offer to take him with him as a companion on his +travels. Again and again they had been on the point of separating, but +their quarrels had only served to shew them how indispensable they +were to each other. When they came to any place of importance, they +were hardly out of their carriage before Roderick had seen every +thing there was there worth notice--the next day most likely to forget +all about it again. While Emilius, after first spending weeks in +preparing himself with books, that nothing might escape his +observation, out of indolence generally left the place having seen +hardly any thing. Roderick went to all the public places, made a +thousand acquaintances, and not unfrequently would bring them to the +solitary apartments of his friend, and as soon as he began to be tired +of them himself, leave them alone for Emilius to entertain. Emilius's +modesty too was often severely distressed by the way in which Roderick +would speak of his talent and knowledge to sensible, well-informed +people; for he never confined himself to strict truth; and although +for himself he said he could never find time to listen to what his +companion had to say on these matters, yet he gave them to understand +there was scarce a subject in literature, history, or art on which +they could not derive from him the most valuable information. If +Emilius was disposed to do any thing, Roderick was sure to have been +at a ball the night before, or to have caught cold at a sledging +party, and be obliged to keep his bed; so that in the society of the +most restless and excitable of sociable mortals, he lived almost +wholly by himself. + +This evening, however, Emilius counted on him with some certainty, as +he had promised faithfully to spend it at home, to learn what it was +that for some weeks past had been weighing on his friend's spirits. +Emilius spent the interval in composing the following verses: + + Spring-time, it is blithe and gay + When the nightingale sits on the hawthorn-spray, + And every leaf and every flower + Quivers with joy at the music's power. + + The play of the gentle evening air + In the golden moonlight is passing fair, + As over the tree-tops it whispering sweeps + And its wings in the linden's fragrance steeps. + + The glance of the new-blown rose is bright + As the gleaming of stars on a summer's night, + Like a bride for the altar the garden arraying, + And love in a thousand flowerets playing. + + Yet brighter, and fairer, and lovelier far + Is the pale little lamplet's trembling star + Which yonder my love in her chamber shews + As she lingers at night, to her couch ere she goes. + + Her delicate tresses I watch her unbind, + From around her fair temples the rose-wreath unwind; + Her exquisite form to my rapturous gaze + With each motion the tightening nightdress betrays. + + And oh, when the lute in her fingers she takes, + And stirr'd at her bidding sweet music awakes, + With a thrill at her exquisite touch, from the strings + The spirit of melody laughingly springs. + + She sends out a song to recall him again, + The wandering rogue--but she sends it in vain; + For he flies to my heart with a shout of loud laughter + For shelter; and there the pursuer flies after. + + Oh, out with thee, mischievous villains, away! + But together they bar themselves in as they say, + "Till this shall be broken we budge not from here, + And the Love-god we'll teach thee to know and to fear." + +Emilius stood up impatiently. It was now dark, and Roderick was not +come; he was craving to tell him of his love for an unknown beauty who +lived opposite to them, and kept him all day watching at the window, +and all night waking in his bed. A sound of footsteps on the stairs. +The door opened without any one knocking, and in came two gay-looking +figures with very ugly masks on their faces; one dressed as a Turk, in +a long gown of blue and red; the other as a Spaniard, in a doublet of +red and light yellow, and a plume of feathers in his cap. Emilius was +getting impatient, when the Turk took off his mask, and shewed the +well-known, broad, merry face of Roderick. + +"My dear fellow," he said, "what a dismal-looking face! that is not +the way to look at carnival-times. I and my young officer friend here +are come to carry you off. There is a great ball to-night at the +saloon. I know you have sworn never to go about in any other dress +than this dingy old every-day black; but come along as you are--it is +late." + +"As usual," replied Emilius very angrily. "You have forgotten our +agreement it seems.--I am exceedingly sorry," he added, turning to the +stranger, "that it is not in my power to accompany you. My friend is +too hasty in making engagements for me. I cannot possibly leave the +house, as I have subjects of importance to talk over with him." + +The stranger, who understood Emilius's manner, and felt his visit was +ill-timed, took his leave immediately. + +Roderick, however, who took it all with the greatest coolness, put on +his mask again and stood up before the mirror. "What an object it +makes of me!" he said; "it is a miserable, tasteless device after all: +don't you think so?" + +"What a question!" said Emilius in the greatest indignation. "To make +a caricature of yourself, and drown your senses in dissipation, is +just the sort of thing you most enjoy." + +"Because you do not like dancing," said the other, "and take it to be +a pernicious invention, no one else is to amuse himself. How +ridiculous it is when a man is made up of nothing but whims and +fancies!" + +"Yes, indeed," replied his irritated friend, "I am sure I have reason +enough to remark it too of you. I had hoped that, as you promised, you +would give this one evening to me, but----" + +"But it is the carnival," said Roderick, "and all my friends and a +number of ladies are expecting me at the great ball to-night. Really, +my dear friend, if you will but think of it, you will see it is mere +disease in you to feel such extreme dislike to these things." + +"Which of us two is most diseased," answered Emilius, "is a point I +will not attempt to decide. Your astonishing levity, your craving for +dissipation, your restless hunting after pleasures which do not reach +the heart, but only leave it sick and weary, does not seem to me to +indicate a very healthy frame of mind. Granted, however, if you will, +that my feeling is mere weakness, you would do better in some things +to let it take its way; and there is nothing in the whole world which +drives me more frantic than a ball with its fearful music. Some one +has said that to a deaf man, who cannot hear the music, a ball-room +must look like Bedlam let loose; but to me this terrible music itself, +these infernal tunes whirling and whizzing round with inconceivable +swiftness faster and faster, seizing all one's thoughts, saturating +one's body and soul, and haunting one like so many spectres,--is not +this the very jubilee of frenzy and madness itself? If dancing is ever +to be endurable to me, it must be to the tune of silence." + +"Well done, Mr. Paradox," said his friend; "you have got to this, have +you? to find the innocentest, naturalest, pleasantest thing in the +world a horrid, unnatural monster." + +"I cannot help my feelings," said he very seriously; "as long as I can +remember, these tunes have made me miserable, have often driven me to +despair. To me they are the fiends and furies of the world of sound; +they squeak and gibber round my head, and grin at me with hideous +laughter." + +"Mere nervousness," answered the other; "it is just like your +ridiculous horror of spiders, and a number of other innocent +creatures." + +"Innocent you call them," he said passionately, "because they do not +affect you; but some people feel, and I am one of them, at the sight +of these hideous creatures, such as toads and spiders, or that most +odious of all nature's abortions, the bat, their very souls shaken +with unutterable horror and loathing; to them they can be neither +indifferent nor unmeaning, because their very being is the +contradiction of their own. Truly one may laugh at unbelievers whose +imagination is too weak for ghosts and hobgoblins, and other children +of darkness that we see in fevers or in one of Dante's pictures, when +the commonest life gives us master-pieces of all that is most +horrible. No one can have a real love for the beautiful unless he +feels a hatred of these monsters." + +"Why feel hatred?" asked Roderick. "Look at the sea, the great +water-kingdom, full of the strangest, comicalest, most amusing +figures, the whole deep looking like a grotesque masquerade; why is +one to find nothing there but the horrible phantoms your mind makes +them seem to you? But these fancies of yours do not stop here; you +make an idol of the rose, while for other flowers you have as +passionate a hatred. What has the poor orange-lily done to offend you, +and the many other beautiful children of the summer? So there are +colours you cannot bear, and scents, and thoughts. And you never do +any thing to overcome these repugnances; you yield to the first +temptation; so that at last, instead of a person, you will be nothing +but a bundle of whims and caprices." + +Emilius was now angry to the bottom of his heart, and would not +answer. He had given up all present purpose of making his +communication; indeed, importantly as he had said he had a secret that +he wished to tell, his volatile friend seemed to have no curiosity to +hear it, but sat playing with his mask on the sofa in the greatest +indifference. At last he cried out suddenly, "Be so good, Emilius, as +to lend me your large cloak." + +"What for?" he asked. + +"I hear music in the church yonder," answered Roderick. "I have never +happened to be at home any evening at this hour before, and now it +comes in just at the very nick of time. I can put on your cloak over +my dress; and when the service is over, go on straight to the ball." + +Emilius muttered something, and fetched the cloak from his wardrobe, +which he flung to Roderick, who had just risen, with an ironical +laugh. + +"Take my Turkish dagger I bought yesterday, if you please," Roderick +said, as he wrapped the cloak round him. "It is rather too serious an +article to have about one as a plaything. Some trifle goes wrong, an +angry word or two, perhaps, with some one, and no one knows how one +might not use it. Adieu till to-morrow then. Peace be with you." He +did not wait for an answer, but ran down the stairs. + +As soon as Emilius was by himself, he tried to forget his indignation, +and take his friend's behaviour as absurd. He took up the white, +glittering, beautifully-wrought dagger in his hand, and looked at it. +"I wonder," he said to himself, "how a man feels that has run this +sharp steel into an enemy's breast? or suppose he was to hurt with it +the object of his love." He ran it into the sheath, and then carefully +turned back the shutters from his window, and looked across the narrow +street. The house opposite was all dark; there was no light stirring; +the dear form that dwelt in it, and at this hour was generally to be +seen engaged in some household matter, seemed to be away. "Perhaps she +is at the ball," thought Emilius; "and yet it is not like her retired +ways." Suddenly a light appeared, and a little girl, that his beloved +unknown had as a companion, and was usually with her a great part of +the day, carried a candle across the room, set it down, and closed the +window-shutters. A broken binge prevented them from completely +shutting, and an opening remained large enough for any one standing +where Emilius was, to see over a part of the little room; and here he +would sit in a trance of happiness till long after midnight, watching +every gesture, every movement of his beloved's hand. Delightedly he +would observe her teaching the child to read, or giving it lessons in +sewing and knitting. On inquiry he learnt that this child was a poor +orphan whom the beautiful maiden out of compassion had taken to live +with her, and was herself educating. It was a mystery to Emilius's +friends why he was living in this narrow, out-of-the-way street, in +such inconvenient lodgings, and what he could possibly be doing that +he was seen so little in society. By himself, and doing nothing, he +was most happy as he was; all that vexed him was, that he could not so +far overcome his shyness as to seek a nearer acquaintance with this +beautiful being, who had more than once encouraged him with a smile of +greeting or thanks for some trifling compliment he had ventured to +pay. He little knew that she would sit gazing over at him as +intoxicated as he; he never guessed what wishes were working in her +heart; of what an effort, what a sacrifice she was capable to gain +possession of his love. + +After walking uneasily up and down his room for some time, and the +light and the child had again disappeared, he suddenly came to the +resolution, contrary to his inclination and his nature, to go to the +ball; it had struck him that his unknown must have made an exception +to her usual retired way of living, and gone, for once in a way, to +take a taste of the world and its dissipation. + +The streets were brilliantly lighted; the snow crackled under his +feet. Carriages rolled by, and masques in all sorts of guises past +him, chattering and humming as they went along. In a number of houses +he heard the odious music; and he could not prevail on himself to take +the shortest road to the saloon, to which people were hurrying and +streaming from all directions. He walked round the old church, and +gazed at the tall spire as it rose up majestically across the sky; the +loneliness and silence of the place forming a striking contrast to the +thronging of the town. The deep porch of the church was covered with +all sorts of carved work, which he had several times examined with the +greatest pleasure, and had called back into his memory the days of +ancient art and times gone by; and he now stept aside into it for a +few moments to give himself up to his meditations. + +He had scarcely entered, when his attention was caught by a figure +moving restlessly backwards and forwards, and apparently waiting for +some one. By the light of a lamp, which was burning before an image of +the Virgin, he was able to make out the face as well as the strange +dress. It was an old woman with features of the extremest ugliness, +which struck the eye the more because they were set off, in a singular +manner, against a scarlet boddice covered with gold lace. She wore a +dark petticoat, and her cap also glittered with gold. He thought at +first it must be some tasteless masque that had missed his way and +strayed there by mistake. As she passed under the light, however, it +was plain that the old yellow withered face was no imitation, but a +real one. Presently two men appeared wrapped in long cloaks; they +seemed to approach the place with caution, stop, looking often from +side to side, to see if any one followed them. + +The old woman went up to them. "Have you got the candles?" she asked +hastily, in a gruff, hoarse voice. + +"Here they are," said one of the men. "You know the price; it is all +right." + +The old woman seemed to give some money, which the man counted under +his cloak. + +"I may rely on it," she said again, "that they are made exactly by the +prescription, and that there is no fear of their working?" + +"Small doubt about that," answered the man, and disappeared again with +hasty steps in the darkness. + +The other, who stayed behind, was a young man. He took the old woman's +hand, and said, "Is it possible, Alexia, that these rites and forms +and strange old words, which I never can have any faith in, have +power to fetter the free will of man, and force it to love and to +hate?" + +"Ay is it, young gentleman," said the old woman; "but one and one must +make two before that can be. It is not these candles alone that can do +the work, though they are steeped in human blood, and moulded at +midnight under the new moon; nor the magic rites, nor the invocation; +there are many other things wanted besides these, as the artists in +these matters know well." + +"Then I may depend on you?" said the stranger. + +"To-morrow, after midnight, I am at your service," replied the old +woman; "and you shall not be the first to have reason to complain of +my skill. To-night, as you may have heard, I have some one else on +hand, a fellow with sense and understanding, whom it may be my art +shall produce some effect upon." The last words she muttered with a +half laugh; and the two then separated and went off in different +directions. + +Emilius passed out shuddering under the dark arch, and raised his eyes +to the image of the Virgin and Child. "Before thy eyes, thou blessed +one," he said half aloud, "these children of darkness dare make their +schemes for their infernal deeds! Oh, as thou holdest thy Child in thy +embrace of love, so may the Invisible Love keep us continually in its +all-powerful arms, and our poor hearts beat ever in joy and sorrow in +the presence of One greater, who will never let us fall." + +Clouds swept by over the tower and the sharp edge of the roof of the +church. The everlasting stars looked down serene and calm; and Emilius +with a strong effort flung off these horrors of darkness, and thought +of the beauty of his unknown. He went back into the crowded streets, +and approached the brilliantly illuminated mansion which contained the +ball-room. A crowd was round the door, a confused din of voices and +carriages rattling backwards and forwards, and at intervals the swell +of the alarming music pealing upon his ears. + +He had no sooner got into the room than he was lost in the rolling +crowd. Dancers sweeping past him; masques running against him and +pushing him from side to side; kettle-drums and trumpets dinning in +his ear; life itself seemed on a sudden to be turned into a dream. He +passed up and down among the rows of people with his eye alert only to +find one pair of bright eyes and the brown tresses of one beautiful +head. Never had he more passionately longed to catch a sight of her; +yet, with the adoration he felt for her, he could not help being +provoked to think she could find any pleasure in losing herself in +such a stormy ocean of madness and dissipation. "No," he said to +himself, "she cannot love me; no heart that loves could seek such an +infernal scene, where human beings are turned to fiends, and wild +shrieks of laughter, and these trumpets clanging, drown every pure and +holy feeling in devilish scorn. The rustling trees, the bubbling +fountains, lute-music, and the voice of noble song streaming out from +the impassioned bosom,--these are the sounds amidst which is the home +of love; but this is the very jubilee and thunder-cry of hell in all +the madness of despair." + +He could not find the object of his search, however, though he had +three times gone up and down the saloon, and scrutinised carefully all +the unmasked ladies, either dancing or sitting; and the idea that that +beautiful face was concealed under one of the disgusting masks was too +intolerable to be admitted for a moment. + +"You are here after all, then?" said the Spaniard, who came up and +joined him. "You are looking for your friend, I suppose?" + +Emilius had really never thought of him. Somewhat ashamed, he replied, +"Indeed I am surprised not to see him here. His mask is remarkable +enough." + +"Only conceive what the strange fellow is about," said the young +officer. "He has not danced once since he has been in the saloon. +Directly he entered he fell in with his friend Anderson, who, it +seems, has just come back from his travels. Their conversation fell +upon literature; and as Anderson did not know the new poem which has +just come out, nothing would satisfy Mr. Roderick but that they must +shut themselves up in one of the back rooms; and there he is now with +a single candle reading the whole production aloud to him." + +"That is so like him," answered Emilius. "He is made up of whims and +fancies. I have done all I could--I have even risked one or two +friendly quarrels--to cure him of this way of living so altogether +extempore, gambling away his existence in impromptus; but these +follies are so grown into his heart, that he would sooner lose his +dearest friend than part with them. This book you speak of he +professes to be passionately fond of, and always has it about with +him. The other day I asked him to read it to me, and he began to do +so. We had scarcely got beyond the opening, and I had begun to enter +into the beauties of it, when suddenly he jumped up, ran out of the +room, and presently came back with the cook's apron on, made a +prodigious fuss to light a fire, and all to do me a beef-steak, for +which I had not the slightest inclination, and which, though he +fancies he does them better than any one in Europe, few people that +have tried once are very anxious to attempt a second time." + +The Spaniard laughed. "Has he never been in love?" he asked. + +"After his fashion," said Emilius bitterly; "as if he wanted to make a +fool of himself and turn love into ridicule; with a dozen women at +once, and, if you believe what he says, to desperation. In a week he +has forgotten them all." + +They were parted by the crowd, and Emilius went off to the room the +Spaniard had pointed out to him, where he heard his friend's voice +declaiming long before he reached it. + +"Ah! there you are, are you!" Roderick cried to him; "you are come in +the very nick of time; we are just at the place you and I left off at +the other day; so sit down and listen." + +"I am not in the mood at present," said Emilius; "neither do place and +time seem the best adapted for the purpose." + +"And why not, pray?" answered Roderick. "It is all in ourselves. Every +time is the right time to employ oneself in a proper way. Or perhaps +you want to dance? They want men; and at the expense of an hour or two +skipping about, and a pair of tired legs, you may make half a dozen +grateful young damsels fall in love with you." + +Emilius was already at the door: "Good night," he said; "I am going +home." + +"Stay one moment," called Roderick after him; "I am going away early +to-morrow morning into the country with this gentleman. I will look in +upon you before I go, to say good-by; but if you are asleep, don't +trouble yourself to wake, as I shall be back again in two or three +days.--That is the strangest fellow," he said, turning to his new +friend; "so solemn, so serious and soberminded, he is a regular +kill-joy; or rather, he does not know what joy means. Every thing must +be lofty, ideal, exalted, for him. His heart must take a part, even if +it be a puppetshow he is looking at; and when things do not come up to +his notions, as of course most things can't, then he gets upon stilts, +turns tragical, and the whole world is going to the devil. Under every +clown's and pantaloon's mask he looks for a heart overflowing with +longings and supernatural impulses; harlequins must philosophise on +the nothingness of human wishes: and if these expectations are not +exactly realised, tears start into his eyes, and he turns his back on +the pretty show in a fever of scorn and indignation." + +"Is he melancholy?" asked his hearer. + +"Not exactly that," said Roderick; "only his parents, I think, +indulged him too much, and he has taken no pains with himself. He has +let his feelings ebb and flow regularly, till it has grown into a +habit; and if ever the usual set of emotions are put out, he cries, 'A +miracle!' and offers premiums to doctors to come and clear up a +marvellous natural phenomenon. He is the best fellow in the world; but +all the pains I have taken to cure him of these absurdities are thrown +away: nothing does him any good. It is as much as I can do to keep in +his good graces at all, he is so angry when I speak to him." + +"A doctor would be the thing for him, I should think," said the other. + +"It is one of his peculiarities," answered Roderick, "to despise the +whole art of medicine from beginning to end. Disorders, he says, are +all different in different persons, and all general rules and theories +are mere absurdities. He would rather go to old women, and use their +sympathetic simples. Again, on other grounds, he despises all +prudential proceedings, and every thing like orderliness and +moderation. From his childhood he has had his ideal of what a great +man ought to be, and what his endeavour is to be to make of himself; +and one of the points of this ideal is to have an utter scorn of all +_things_, particularly of money; and so, that he may never be +suspected of being economical, or not liking to give away, or indeed +of thinking of money at all, he flings it away in the absurdest way in +the world. Consequently, with all his fine property, he is always poor +and in difficulties, and is made a fool of by every one who is not +great in the sense in which he understands greatness. To be his friend +is the most difficult of things; for he is so irritable, that if one +does but cough, it is a sign one is not spiritual, and to pick one's +teeth would throw him into convulsions." + +"Has he never been in love?" inquired Anderson. + +"Why, who is he to love?" answered Roderick: "he despises all the +daughters of earth. If his ideal were to shew a fancy for a bow or a +ribbon, much more to dance, it would break his heart. And if she did +but catch a cold, I don't know what would become of him." + +Emilius was again in the crowd; when on a sudden the shock and pain +which such scenes and concourses often produced came over him again, +and chased him away out of the room and the house, along the now empty +streets, to his house. It was not till he found himself alone in his +own room that he recovered his self-possession. His servant lit his +candle and placed it on the table; and Emilius told him to go to bed. +The other side of the street all was dark as the grave; and he sat +himself down to let the thoughts the ball had awakened in him flow off +into a poem. + + There was calm in the spirit's depths; + In chains the demons slept; + With purpose fell to work his ill + Uprose the wicked will. + "Fling wide," he cried, + "The prison-gate, + Come forth, ye demons all!" + With yell and shout + That hideous rout + Sprung out at the welcome call. + + Tralala! Tralala! + Whoop, whoop, whoop, hurrah, hurrah! + Trumpet crash and cymbal clash; + Flute, and fife, and violin, + Squeaking, shrieking, clattering; + Clarions ring with deafening din; + Now hell's chorus shall begin, + Now the fiends of madness reign; + Gentle child-like peace is slain. + + In and out, across, about, + Whither pass this tumbling rout? + Merry dance we, and the lights flash free, + Jubilee, jubilee, jubilee! + Kettle-drums bang and cymbals clang, + And the devil drown care in the pool of despair. + + With smiling lip and flashing eye + Yon fair one bids me to her side; + Yet silent soon those lips shall lie, + And wither'd be her beauty's pride. + Death's clammy hand is on her brow-- + Ha! 'tis a skull that's beckoning now! + She must die; yet what care I? + Well to-day and well to-morrow, + What have I to do with sorrow? + Ay, grin as thou wilt, thou pale spectre, at me; + I'll live and dance on, and I care not for thee. + + To-day that face is fresh and fair, + To-morrow 'tis bleach'd, and white, and bare: + Come then, dearest, while we may, + Let us drain love's sweets to-day. + Oh, seize the moment ere it flies! + Anguish and tears, + Sorrow and fears, + Have mark'd thee for their prize. + The angel of death + Swept by on the blast; + On thee fell his breath + Or ever he past. + Gnawing worms and rottenness, + Death, decay, and nothingness: + These are thy doom--how soon, how soon! + Thou must die, and so must I. + + One touch of thy robe, as the dance sweeps by, + One squeeze of the hand, one glance of the eye, + And the grim king has clutch'd thee--on! on! let us fly! + Thou art lost, thou art gone; and away stagger I. + So why should I care? + There is joy in despair: + More maids by dozens at my feet, + With tempting bait of proffer'd sweet. + Here's a fair dame would be my bride, + And she is fair as are the maids + That wander in Elysian glades: + Shall it be she, or shall it be another? + There's a bold beauty at her side, + That looks as if she'd like a lover, + Ready to take whate'er she can, + Provided only 'tis a man. + + Oh, these mad pleasures and these sirens smiling, + With cheating hopes and mocking shows beguiling-- + Hell's curse is on them! Is the blossom fair? + Hate, envies, murders, are the fruit they bear. + So fast we whirl along the stream, + Life is death, and love a dream; + Ebbing, flowing, wave on wave, + Soulless, lifeless to the grave. + Nature's beauty is a lie-- + She is all deformity; + Flower and tree the mocking guise + Which cheat our fond believing eyes. + On then, ye cymbals, with your din; + Scream clarionets, and bugles ring: + Crash, crash, crash! 'tis the fiend-world's knell, + Yoicks forward--forward--home to hell! + +He had finished, and was standing at the window. Then came she into +the room beyond him, beautiful as he had never seen her: her dark hair +was loose, and hung in long waving tresses on her ivory neck. She was +lightly dressed, and it seemed she had some household matter to +arrange before retiring to rest; for she placed two candles on stands +in front of the window, spread a cloth on the table, and again +disappeared. + +Emilius was sunk in his sweet dreamy visions, and the image of his +beloved was still playing before his fancy, when, to his horror, he +saw the fearful scarlet old woman stride across the room, her head and +bosom gleaming hideously as the gold caught the light from the +candles, and again vanished. Could he trust his eyes? The darkness had +deceived him; it was but a spectre his fancy had conjured up. But no; +she comes again, more hideous than before; her long grizzled hair in +loose and tangled masses floating down upon her breast and shoulders. +The beautiful maiden is behind her, with pale and rigid features, her +fair bosom all unveiled, her form like a marble statue. Between them +was the little lovely child, weeping and praying, and watching +imploringly the maiden's eyes, who looked not down. In agony it raised +its little hands and stroked the neck and cheeks of the marble beauty. +She caught it fast by the hair, and in the other hand she held a +silver basin. The old woman howled and drew a knife and cut across the +little thing's white neck. + +Then came there something forward from behind, which they did not seem +to see, or it must have filled them with the same horror as it did +Emilius. A hideous serpent-head drew out coil after coil from the +darkness, and inclining over the child, which now hung with relaxed +limbs in the arms of the old woman, licked up with its black tongue +the spouting blood. And a green sparkling eye shot across through the +open shutter into the brain and eye and heart of Emilius, who fell +fainting to the ground. Roderick found him senseless some hours after. + + * * * * * + +On a beautiful summer morning a party of friends were sitting round a +breakfast-table in a garden summer-house. They seemed very merry, +laughing and chattering, and drinking the health of the young bride +and bridegroom, and wishing them long life and happiness. The young +couple themselves were not present; the beauty herself being still +engaged at her toilet, while the bridegroom was wandering up and down +the walks at the other end of the garden, to enjoy in solitude the +sweetness of his own reflections. + +"What a shame it is," said Anderson, "that we are not to have any +music! All our young ladies are put out about it: they say they never +longed so much for a dance, and it is not to be: it is said he cannot +endure it." + +"We are to have a ball though, I can tell you, and a right mad and +merry one too," said a young officer; "every thing is arranged; the +musicians are come, and we have stowed them away where no one shall +know any thing about them. Roderick has taken the direction on +himself; he says we ought not to give way to him too much; and that +to-day, of all days in the world, his whims and fancies must not be +indulged." + +"He is so much more sociable and like his fellow-creatures than he +used to be," said another young man, "that I do not think he will be +displeased at the alteration. The whole affair of this marriage has +come on so suddenly, so little like what we expected of him, he must +be changed." + +"His whole life," said Anderson, "has been as remarkable as his +character is. You all know how he came last autumn to the city on a +tour he was making, and lived all the winter through there by himself, +shut up in his room as if he was melancholy mad. He never went near +the theatre, or any other of our places of diversion; and had very +nearly quarrelled with Roderick, who was his most intimate friend, for +trying to dissipate him a little, and prevent him from for ever +indulging his gloomy humours. All this excitableness and irritability +of temper was at the bottom nothing but disease, as the event proved; +for four months ago, I believe you know, he fell into a violent +nervous fever, and was so ill that every one gave him up. He recovered +at last, and got rid of some of his fancies; but the strange thing +was, that when he came to his senses again, his memory was entirely +gone: his memory, that is, of all that had happened immediately +previous to his sickness. He could remember his childhood, and all his +boyish adventures were fresh as ever; but the last year or two were +blanks. All his friends, even Roderick, he had to become acquainted +with over again; and it is only by slow degrees that here and there +faint glimmerings of the past are beginning to come back upon his +recollection. When he was taken ill, his uncle took him into his own +house, where he could be better attended to: he was just like a child +in their hands, and let them do any thing they pleased with him. The +first time he went out to enjoy the fresh spring-air in the park, he +saw by the road-side a young maiden sitting apparently in deep thought +on a bank. She looked up as he passed; their eyes met, and, as if +overcome by some indescribable feeling, he sprung out of the carriage, +sat down at her side, caught her hands in his, and dissolved into a +flood of tears. His friends were afraid that this outburst of feeling +was a relapse into fever; he was quite quiet, however, and seemed +happy and good-humoured. He paid a visit to the parents of the young +lady, and the first time he saw her again he asked her to marry him. +Her father and mother made no difficulty, and she consented. He was +now happy; a new life seemed to have sprung up in him; every day he +got better and stronger, and his mind easier: a fortnight ago he came +here on a visit to me, and the place delighted him so much that +nothing would satisfy him but what I must part with it to him. If I +had pleased, I might have turned his inclination to my advantage: any +thing I asked he was ready to give, so that the bargain be concluded +immediately. He made his arrangements, sent furniture down, and his +plan is to spend all the summer months here. And so it has come to +pass that here we are all of us to-day gathered together at my old +place for his wedding." + +The house was large, and most beautifully situated; on one side it +looked upon a river, with a garden sloping down to the water's edge +full of flowers, which filled the air with fragrance; and beyond, a +long range of hills skirting the bank of the river, and magnificently +wooded. Along the front was a broad open terrace, with rows of orange +and citron trees, and little doors leading to the various offices +underneath the house. The other side a lawn extended out to the park, +from which it was only divided by a light fence. This front of the +house had a very beautiful though very singular appearance. The two +projecting wings enclosed a spacious area, which was partly roofed +over, and divided into three stories, forming open galleries running +along the centre of the building, supported on tiers of pillars rising +one above another. From these galleries were doors opening into all +the different rooms in the house; and the various figures passing +along these spacious corridors, behind the columns above or below, and +disappearing into the different doors, in their various occupations, +produced a very singular effect. In one or other of them the party +used to collect itself at teatime, or for any games that might be +going on; so that from below the whole had the air of a theatre, when +it was the greatest pleasure to stand and watch the passing forms +above, as in a beautiful tableau. + +The young party were just rising, when the bride crossed the garden to +join them. She was richly dressed in violet velvet, with a necklace of +brilliants on her ivory throat, and her white swelling bosom gleaming +through the rich lace which covered it; a myrtle sprig and a wreath of +roses formed her simple though most tasteful head-dress. She greeted +them kindly, and the young men were overcome by her extraordinary +beauty. She had gathered some flowers in the garden, and was returning +to the house to see after the arrangements for the banquet. The tables +were set out in the lowest of the open galleries. Their white damask +coverings, and the glass and crystal vessels on them, were of the +greatest beauty. Multitudes of flowers of every hue and colour stood +in elegant vases; the pillars were wound with wreaths of green leaves +and roses; and how enchanting it was to see the bride moving up and +down among the flowers, so gracefully passing between the table and +the column, looking that all was right in the arrangement. Presently +she vanished, and then appeared again for a moment at the upper +gallery as she passed to her chamber. + +"She is the most charming, the most beautiful creature I ever saw," +Anderson cried; "my friend is a lucky man." + +"And her very paleness," put in the young officer, "enhances her +beauty; her dark eyes flash so above those marble cheeks; and those +lips, so glowingly red, make her whole appearance truly enchanting." + +"The air of silent melancholy," said Anderson, "which surrounds her, +adds to the majesty of her bearing." + +The bridegroom came up to them and asked for Roderick. The party had +already missed him for some time, and no one could guess what had +become of him; they now dispersed in search of him. At last a young +man they asked told them he was down below in the hall, playing off +tricks at cards, to the great amazement of a troop of grooms and +servants. They went down and disturbed the circle of gapers. Roderick, +however, did not let himself be put out, but went on for some time +with his conjuring. As soon as he had done, he went with the rest of +the party into the garden, saying, by way of accounting for his +employment, "I merely do it to strengthen those fellows' faith for +them. Their groomships are setting up to be free-thinkers, and it is +as well to give them a staggerer now and then--it helps to their +conversion." + +"I perceive," the bridegroom said, "that my friend, among his other +accomplishments, does not think charlatanism beneath his notice." + +"We live in strange times," he answered; "one must not despise any +thing now-a-days; nobody knows what he may not come to." + +When the two friends were alone, Emilius turned again into the retired +walk, and said, "Can you tell me why it is that to-day, which is or +ought to be the happiest of my life, I feel so deeply depressed? +Whatever you may think of me, I assure you I am not fit for the duties +that devolve on me; I have no skill to move up and down a crowd of +people with a civil speech for every one; entertain all these hosts of +her and my relations, with respects for fathers and mothers, and +compliments for ladies; receive visitors, and see that horses and +servants are taken care of--I cannot do it." + +"Oh, all that goes right of itself," said Roderick. "Your house is +capitally arranged for that sort of thing. There is your steward, a +famous fellow, with omnipotence and omnipresence in his hands and +legs; he is made on purpose to arrange these matters, and see large +parties taken care of, and put properly in their places: leave it all +to him and your pretty bride." + +"This morning," said Emilius, "I was walking before sunrise in the +plantation here: my thoughts had taken a very serious turn, for I +felt, to the bottom of my soul, that my life was now become fixed and +definite, and that this love had given me a home and a calling. As I +approached the summer-house yonder, I heard voices. It was my beloved +in earnest conversation. 'Has it not turned out as I predicted?' said +a strange voice; 'exactly as I knew it must be? you have your wishes, +so be content.' I could not prevail on myself to go in to them; and +afterwards, when I came to the summer-house again, they were both +gone. I can do nothing but think and think what these words could +mean." + +"Very likely she has long loved you," said Roderick, "and you have not +known any thing about it: all the better for you." + +At that moment a late nightingale began to sing, as if to wish all joy +and good fortune to the lovers. Emilius became more and more gloomy. + +"Come down with me into the village yonder," said Roderick; "I will +shew you something to amuse you. You are not to suppose you are the +only man that is to be made happy to-day. There is a second pretty +couple. A young scamp, it seems, what with opportunity and having +nothing else to do, got upon too intimate terms with a damsel that +might be his mother, and the fool thinks he is in duty bound to make +her an honest woman. They'll have dressed themselves out by this time. +The scene will be rich; I would not miss it for the world." + +The sad and gloomy Emilius let himself be dragged away by his +talkative friend, and they reached the cottage just at the moment the +cavalcade passed out on their road to the church. The young countryman +had on his every-day linen smock, and his only piece of smartness +consisted of a pair of leather gaiters, which he had polished up to +make look as bright as possible. He was a simple-looking fellow, and +seemed shy and awkward. The bride was tanned by the sun, and her face +shewed very few remaining traces of youthfulness. She was coarsely and +poorly dressed, but her clothes were clean, and a few red and blue +silk ribbons, rather faded, were pinned up in bows on her stomacher. +The worst part of her figure was her hair, which they had pasted up +with a daub of fat and meal, and done into a great cone with hair-pins +straight up from her head, on the top of which they had placed the +marriage-garland. She tried to laugh and seem in good spirits, but she +was ashamed and frightened. The old people followed. His father was in +the employ of the house; and the cottage, as well as the furniture and +clothes, all betrayed the extremest poverty. A dirty-looking +squint-eyed fiddler followed the troop, grinning and smirking, and +scraping away on a thing professing to be a violin, which was made up +half of wood and half of pasteboard, having three pieces of packthread +for strings. + +The cavalcade halted at the sight of the new landlord. Some +saucy-looking servants of the house, young boys and women, began to +laugh and cut jokes at the expense of the young couple, particularly +the ladies'-maids, who thought themselves a great deal prettier, and +saw that they had infinitely smarter clothes. A shudder passed over +Emilius. He looked round for Roderick, but he had run away again. An +impudent-looking boy, a servant of one of the visitors, who wanted to +be thought witty, pressed up to Emilius, and said, "What does your +worship say to this brilliant couple? neither of them know where they +are to get a piece of bread for to-morrow, and this afternoon they +are going to give a ball, and have engaged the services of that good +gentleman yonder." + +"Not know where they are to get bread?" cried Emilius; "can these +things be?" + +"Oh, yes," the other went on; "every one knows how miserably poor they +are; but the fellow says he will do his duty to the creature, though +she has not a farthing. Yes, indeed, love is all-powerful: the +ragamuffins haven't got so much as a bed; they have begged enough +small beer to get drunk upon, and they are to sleep to-night in the +straw." + +There was a loud laugh at this, and the two unlucky objects of it did +not dare to raise their eyes. + +Emilius pushed the chattering fool in bitter anger from him. "Here, +take this," he cried, and flung a hundred ducats, which he had +received that morning, into the hands of the astonished bridegroom: +the parents and the bridal pair wept aloud, threw themselves on their +knees, and kissed his hands and clothes. He struggled to free himself. +"Keep want from your bodies with that so long as it will last," he +said, half bewildered. + +"Oh, you have made us happy for our lives, best, kindest sir!" they +all cried. + +He scarcely knew how he broke from them. He found himself alone, and +ran with tottering steps into the wood, where, in the most secluded +spot that he could find, he flung himself down upon a bank and burst +into a flood of tears. + +"I am sick of life," he sobbed, in the deepest emotion. "I cannot +enjoy it, I cannot, will not be happy in it. Oh, take me quickly to +thyself, kind Earth, and hide me in thy cold arms from these wild +beasts that call themselves men. O God in heaven, what have I done, +that I sleep on down and wear silk apparel? that the grape spends her +choicest blood for me, and men crowd round and cringe to me with love, +and honour, and respect? This poor fellow is better, is nobler than I; +yet misery is his nurse, and scorn and bitter mockery wish him joy +upon his wedding-day. Every dainty morsel I enjoy, every draught from +my cut glasses, my soft couches, and all this gold and ornament, oh, +they are tainted with the poison of sin, so long as the world hunts to +and fro these thousands upon thousands of poor wretches that hunger +for the dry crumbs that fall from my table, and have never known what +comfort means. Oh, now I understand you, ye holy saints; though the +proud world turned from you with disdain and scorn when ye gave your +all, even the cloak upon your back, to poverty, and chose rather as +poor beggars to be trodden under foot, and bear the scoffs and sneers +with which pride and selfish gluttony drive misery from their tables, +rather to endure yourselves the last extreme of wretchedness, than +bear upon your consciences this vile sin of wealth." + +The world, and all its forms and customs, swam as a mist before his +eyes; he thought he would find now his only friends and companions +among the abject and the vile, and renounce for ever the society of +all the world's great ones. + +They had been waiting for him a long time in the saloon for the +ceremony to be concluded; the bride became anxious, and her father and +mother went out into the park to look for him. After some time, when +he was partially recovered from his emotion, and his feelings were +easier, he returned, and the solemn knot was tied. + +And now they all left the great saloon for the open gallery, where the +tables were set out, bride and bridegroom first, and the rest +following in order. Roderick offered his arm to a lively-looking, +chattering young lady. + +"Why do brides always cry and look so serious and solemn at a +wedding?" said she, as they entered the room. + +"Because they never felt before this moment the true mysteriousness of +life," answered Roderick. + +"But our bride here," said his companion, "exceeds every thing I have +ever seen; she looks perfectly miserable: I haven't seen her smile +once." + +"It is all the more honour to her heart," replied Roderick, who, +strange to say, seemed really affected. "You do not know, perhaps, +that some years ago she adopted a lone little orphan girl, and took +her to live with her and educate her. She devoted the whole of her +time to the child, and the love of the dear little thing was her +sweetest reward. She was just seven years old, when one day she had +gone out for a walk in the city, and never came home again; and +notwithstanding all the trouble that was taken to recover her, no one +has ever been able to tell what has become of her. This misfortune the +noble-minded woman took so much to heart, that a silent melancholy has +settled upon her ever since; and nothing has been able to distract her +from her regret for her little playfellow." + +"What an interesting story!" said the young lady. "Some time or other +we may have a most romantic conclusion, and a pretty poem written +about it." + +They seated themselves at the table, bride and bridegroom in the +centre, looking out upon the beautiful landscape. There was a great +deal of chattering and talking and drinking healths, and every one +seemed to be in the best possible spirits. The bride's parents enjoyed +themselves exceedingly; the bridegroom alone was gloomy and +abstracted; he did not seem to enter into any thing that was going on, +and took no part in the conversation. He started as he heard music +ringing down from above through the air; but he soon recovered +himself: it was but the soft note of a bugle which floated for a few +moments over the garden, then swept across the park and died away +among the distant hills. Roderick had placed the musicians in the +gallery immediately over the banquet, and this arrangement seemed to +satisfy Emilius. Towards the end of the feast he sent for his steward. +"My dearest," he said, turning to his bride, "shall not poverty have +a share of our abundance?" He desired that a number of bottles of +wine, some roast meat, and a large portion of various other dishes, +might be sent to the poor couple in the village, that they also might +have reason to remember the day as a day of joy and happiness. + +"Only see, my dear friend," cried Roderick, "how every thing hangs +together in this world. This chattering and running about after every +body else's business but my own you so often complain of in me, has +given you the opportunity of doing this piece of kindness." + +Many persons present began to say something complimentary about +benevolence and compassionate hearts, and the young lady talked of +generosity and nobleness of feeling. + +"Oh, speak not so!" cried Emilius indignantly. "It is no kind action, +no action at all; it is nothing. If the swallow and the linnet fill +themselves with the refuse fragments of our abundance, shall not I +think of a poor brother-mortal who has need of my assistance? If I +followed the impulse of my heart, I should soon find little from you +and the like of you but such scorn and laughter as ye gave the saints +of old when they went out and made their homes in the wilderness, to +hear no more of the world and its generosities." + +No one spoke; and Roderick saw by the flashing eyes of his friend that +he was violently displeased: he was afraid his excitement might lead +him still more to forget himself, and endeavoured as quick as possible +to give the conversation another direction. Emilius, however, had +become uneasy and restless. His eyes were continually turned towards +the upper gallery, where the servants, who occupied the highest floor +of the house, were busily engaged. + +"Who is that ugly old woman in a grey cloak, going backwards and +forwards, making herself so busy there?" he asked at last. + +"She is one of my servants," answered the bride; "she is to have the +overlooking of the ladies' maids and the younger girls." + +"How can you bear to have so hideous a creature about you?" said +Emilius. + +"Oh, let the poor thing be," replied the bride; "ugliness must live as +well as beauty, you know; she is a good honest soul, and can be of the +greatest use to us." + +They rose from table, and the party now pressed round the new +bridegroom to wish him all joy, and to beg to be allowed to have their +ball. The bride threw her arms round him affectionately as she said, +"My first request, dearest, you cannot refuse; it will make us all so +happy; it is so long since I have been at a ball, and you have never +seen me dance--are you not anxious to know how I shall look?" + +"I never saw you in such high spirits," said Emilius; "I will not +spoil your pleasure, do just as you please; only don't expect me to +jump and tumble about and make myself ridiculous." + +"If you are a bad dancer," said she, laughing, "you may be sure you +will be left in peace." She ran away to make the requisite alterations +in her dress for the ball. + +"She does not know," Emilius said to Roderick as they walked away +together, "that there is a secret door into her room from the one +adjoining; I will surprise her while she is dressing." + +When Emilius was gone, and the ladies had also disappeared to put on +their ball-dresses, Roderick took some of the young men aside and +brought them to his own room. "It is getting late," he said,--"it will +soon be dark; so now be quick all of you and get your masks on, and we +will make this night a right mad and merry one. Any device you can +think of, no matter what; the more hideous objects you can make +yourselves, the better I shall be pleased--not a monster in creation +but what I must have him--humpbacks, fat paunches, all of them. A +wedding is such a strange piece of business, married people find, all +of a sudden, such a wholly new fairy-tale set of circumstances round +their necks, that we cannot make it absurd and mad enough to start +them properly in their altered condition, and set them rolling along +their new road; so to-night shall be a right wild mad nightmare, and +never listen to any one that tells you to be reasonable." + +"Don't alarm yourself," said Anderson; "we brought a box of masks and +dresses from town with us that will astonish even you." + +"And only look here," said Roderick, "what a treasure I have got from +my tailor! the tasteless wretch was going to clip it to pieces for +lappets. He bought it, he said, from an old woman, who I fancy must +have worn it at Lucifer's gala on the Block's berg. This scarlet +bodice with its lace and fringe, and the cap here all over glittering +with gold, will look infinitely becoming; and then with this green +petticoat on, and saffron trimmings, and this hideous mask, I will go +as an old woman at the head of the whole troop of travesters to their +room, and we will lead off our young lady in triumph to the ball; +come, be quick with you." + +The bugles were still playing, and the company were either dispersed +in groups about the garden, or sitting in front of the house. The sun +was going down behind a mass of heavy clouds, and a greyish mist was +spreading over the landscape, when suddenly its last beams burst out +under the dark curtain, and all the landscape round, and the house +itself, with its galleries and columns, and wreaths of flowers, was +bathed in a blood-red glow. At that moment the bride's parents and the +rest of the spectators saw the wild troop of figures sweep along the +upper gallery, Roderick going first as the scarlet old woman; and +after him humpbacks, fat-paunched monsters with huge periwigs, +harlequins, clowns, pantaloons, spectral dwarfs, women with broad +hoop-petticoats and yard-high frisures, all like the phantoms of a +hideous nightmare. On they went, tumbling, twisting, staggering, +tripping, and strutting along the gallery, and disappeared into one of +the doors. + +Suddenly a wild shriek burst from the inner chambers, and out dashed +the pale bride into the crimson light; a short white petticoat was her +only dress; her fair bosom all open, and her hair floating in wild +disorder down her back. With quivering features, and eyes starting +from their sockets, she rushed madly along the corridors. Blinded with +terror, she could find neither door nor stairs; and fast behind her +flew Emilius, with the Turkish dagger gleaming in his uplifted hand: +she had reached the end of the gallery and could go no further; he +caught her. His masked friends, and the grey old woman, were close +behind; but ere they reached him the dagger was in her breast, he had +cut across her white neck; the red blood glittered in the evening +glow. The old woman flung her arms round him to drag him off; but with +one fierce effort, he hurled himself and her over the balcony, and +fell, dashed in pieces, at the feet of his relations, who, in silent +horror, had witnessed the bloody scene. Above and below, along the +stairs and corridors, were seen the hideous masks rushing wildly up +and down; like accursed demons come from hell. + +Roderick took the dying Emilius in his arms. He had found him in his +wife's room playing with the dagger; she was nearly dressed as he +entered. At the sight of the scarlet dress his memory had returned; +the terrible scene of that night rushed before his senses; gnashing +his teeth, he had sprung upon his trembling flying bride to avenge +that murder and those devilish arts. The old woman confessed the crime +that had been committed before she died; and the whole house was +turned suddenly to sorrow, and mourning, and woe. + + + + +THE BROTHERS. + + +There lived near Bagdad, Omar and Mahmoud, two sons of poor parents. +On their father's death they inherited only a small property; and each +resolved to try to raise his fortune with it. Omar set forth to seek a +place where to settle. Mahmoud repaired to Bagdad, began business in a +small way, and soon increased his property. He lived very thriftily +and retired, carefully adding each sequin to his capital, as the +ground-work for some new plan of making money. He thus got into credit +with several rich merchants, who sometimes assigned to him part of a +ship's freight, and entered into speculations in common with him. With +repeated good fortune Mahmoud grew bolder, ventured larger sums, and +every time they brought him in a high interest. By degrees he became +better known, his business extended, he had granted many heavy loans, +had the money of many others in his hands, and fortune seemed +constantly smiling. Omar, on the contrary, had been unfortunate, not +one of all his ventures had been successful; he came, quite poor, and +almost without clothes, to Bagdad, heard of his brother, and went to +him to seek his aid. Mahmoud was rejoiced to see his brother again, +though he deplored his poverty. Being very good-natured and sensitive, +he immediately gave him a large sum out of his business, and with this +money he at the same time established him in a shop. Omar began by +dealing in silk goods and women's apparel, and fortune seemed more +favourable to him in Bagdad: his brother had made him a present of the +money, and so he had no occasion to worry himself about repayment. In +all his undertakings he was less prudent than Mahmoud, and, for this +very reason, more fortunate. He soon gained the acquaintance of some +merchants, who till then had done business with Mahmoud, and he +succeeded in making them his friends. By this his brother lost many a +means of profit, which now fell to _his_ lot. And Mahmoud too had just +chosen a wife, who forced him into numerous expenses, which before +that he had not had to make: he had to borrow of his acquaintances to +pay debts; money which he was expecting failed to come in; his credit +sank; and he was on the verge of despair, when news arrived that one +of his ships had foundered, and nothing, not the least morsel of any +thing, had been saved; at this moment a creditor appeared, pressingly +demanding the payment of a debt. Mahmoud saw very clearly that his +last hope of fortune depended on this payment; and he therefore +resolved, in the greatest distress, to have recourse to his brother. +He hastened to him, and found him very much out of sorts on account +of a trifling loss which he had just undergone. + +"Brother," began Mahmoud, "I come, in the utmost perplexity, to ask a +favour of you." + +_Omar._ Of what nature? + +_Mahmoud._ My ship has gone to pieces; all my creditors are urgent, +and will not hear of delay; my whole happiness depends on this one +day; do just lend me ten thousand sequins for a time. + +_Omar._ Ten thousand sequins?--You're not talking nonsense, brother? + +_Mah._ No, Omar, I know what that sum is very well; and just so much, +and not one sequin less, can save me from the most disgraceful +poverty. + +_Omar._ Ten thousand sequins? + +_Mah._ Give them to me, brother; I will do my utmost to return them to +you in a short time. + +_Omar._ Where are they to come from? I have much due to me that is +still unpaid; I don't myself know what I am to do,--this very day I +have been cheated of a hundred sequins. + +_Mah._ Your credit will easily procure me this amount. + +_Omar._ But not a soul will lend money now. There's mistrust on all +sides; not that I am mistrustful, heaven knows, but every one would +guess that I want the money for you; and you know best on what frail +threads one's confidence in a merchant often hangs. + +_Mah._ Dear Omar, I must confess I didn't expect these demurs from +you. If we were to change sides, you would not find me so suspicious +and dilatory. + +_Omar._ So you say. I am not suspicious either; I wish I could help +you. I call God to witness, how glad I should be. + +_Mah._ You can, if you like. + +_Omar._ All I have would not make the sum you require. + +_Mah._ O heavens! I had reproached myself for not making my brother +the first of whom I asked assistance; and I am truly sorry that I have +burdened him with a single word. + +_Omar._ You are angry; you are wrong in being so. + +_Mah._ Wrong? which of us neglects his duty? Ah, brother, I don't know +you! + +_Omar._ I have just lost a hundred sequins to-day; another three +hundred are not at all safe, and I must make up my mind to the loss of +them. If you had but come to me last week,--oh, yes, then most +heartily. + +_Mah._ Must I then remind you of our former friendship? Ah! how low +can misfortune degrade us! + +_Omar._ You talk, brother, almost as if you wished to insult me. + +_Mah._ Insult you? + +_Omar._ When one does all one can,--when one is in distress oneself, +and in hourly fear of losing more,--can a man in such a case help +being vexed when he receives nothing but bitter mockery and abject +contempt for all his good-will? + +_Mah._ Shew me your good-will, and you shall receive my warmest +thanks. + +_Omar._ Doubt of it no longer, or you will enrage me; I can keep cool +a long time, and bear a good deal, but when I am irritated in such a +deliberate way---- + +_Mah._ I see how it is, Omar; you play the insulted man, only to have +a better excuse for breaking friends with me entirely. + +_Omar._ You would never have thought of such a thing, if you were not +caught in such paltry tricks yourself. We are most prone to suspect +others of those vices with which we are most familiar ourselves. + +_Mah._ No, Omar;--but since such language as yours encourages me to +boast,--I must say, I didn't act so towards you, when you came, a poor +stranger, to Bagdad. + +_Omar._ And so for the five hundred sequins which you then gave me, +you want ten thousand from me now. + +_Mah._ Had I been able, I would gladly have given you more. + +_Omar._ To be sure, if you wish it, I must return you the five hundred +sequins, though you can shew no claim to them by law. + +_Mah._ Ah, brother! + +_Omar._ I will send them to you:--are you expecting no letters from +Persia? + +_Mah._ I have nothing more to expect. + +_Omar._ To be frank with you, brother; you should have lived a little +more closely, and not have married either, just as I have kept from it +to this very hour; but from your childhood you were always somewhat +indiscreet, so let this serve as a warning to you. + +_Mah._ You had a right to refuse me the favour I requested of you, but +not to make me such bitter reproaches into the bargain. + +Mahmoud's heart was deeply touched, and he left his ungrateful +brother. "And is it then true," cried he, "that covetousness only is +the soul of men? Their own selves are their first and last thought! +For money they barter truth and love; do violence to the most +beautiful feelings, to gain possession of the sordid metal that +fetters us to the grovelling earth in its disgraceful chains! +Self-interest is the rock on which all friendship is shivered. Men are +an abandoned race. I have never known a friend nor a brother; and my +only intercourse has been with men of trade. Fool that I was to speak +to them of love and friendship! Money only it is that one must change +and exchange for them." + +Returning home, he took a circuitous path, in order to let his painful +emotions subside. He wept at the sight of the noisy market-throng; +every one was as busy as an ant in carrying stores into his dingy +dwelling; no one cared for the other, unless induced by a sense of +profit; all were hurrying this way and that, as insensible as ciphers. +He went home disconsolate. + +There his grief was heightened; he found the five hundred sequins, +which he had once given with the greatest good-will to his brother; +they were soon the prey of his creditors. All he possessed was +publicly sold; one of his ships came into port, but the cargo only +served to pay the remainder of his debts. Poor as a beggar, he left +the town without even passing by his hard-hearted brother's house. + +His wife accompanied him in his misery, comforting him, and seeking to +dissipate his grief, but she succeeded very poorly. The remembrance of +his misfortune was still too fresh in Mahmoud's mind; still he saw +before him the towers of the town where the brother dwelt who had +remained so cold and unmoved by his distress. + +Omar made no inquiries after his brother, that he might have no +occasion to compassionate him; he fancied, too, all might after all +have passed off well. In the mean time his credit had suffered in some +measure on his brother's account; people began to be mistrustful +towards him, and several merchants were less ready than formerly in +entrusting him with their money. In addition to this, Omar grew very +miserly, and proud of the fortune he had amassed; so that he made many +enemies, who took pleasure in any loss that he might suffer. + +It seemed as if destiny were determined to punish his ingratitude +towards his brother; for loss after loss followed in quick succession. +Omar, who was all anxiety to recover these losses, hazarded larger +sums, and these too were swallowed up. He ceased to pay the money +which he owed; mistrust of him became general; all his creditors +pressed him at the same time; Omar knew no one who could assist him in +this crisis of perplexity. He saw no other resource left him, than +clandestinely to quit the town by night, and to try if fortune would +be more favourable to him in another quarter. + +The small property which he had been enabled to take with him was soon +exhausted. His disquietude increased exactly as his money waned; he +saw before him the most abject poverty, and yet no means of escaping +it. + +Full of pensive thoughts and lamentations, he in this state reached +the Persian frontier. He had now spent all his money, except three +small coins, which just sufficed to pay for a supper in a +caravanserai; he felt hungry, and as the sun was already declining, he +hastened his steps, in order to reach some place of shelter, where for +that night, and perhaps for the last one, he might lodge once more. + +"How wretched I am!" said he to himself. "How does fate pursue me, and +claim me in my misery! What a frightful prospect lies open before me! +I shall be obliged to live on the alms of compassionate souls, to bear +contemptuous repulse, not dare to murmur when the profligate stalks +unabashed by, without deigning to give me a glance, and then squanders +a hundred gold pieces on some miserable toy. O poverty, how thou canst +debase mankind! How partially and unfairly does fortune dispense her +treasures! She pours the whole tide of her wealth on the vicious, and +lets the virtuous perish of hunger." + +The rocks that Omar surmounted made him tired; he sat down to rest +upon a bank of turf by the road-side. There a beggar on crutches came +hobbling past him, murmuring an unintelligible prayer. He was tattered +and famished, his burning eyes lay deep in his head, and his pale form +was enough to cut one to the heart, and compel one to pity. Omar's +attention was drawn, against his will, to this object of abhorrence, +that murmured still, and stretched forth his arid hand. He asked the +beggar's name, and then, for the first time, remarked that the unhappy +creature was both deaf and dumb. + +"Oh! how indescribably happy I am!" cried he; "and do I still lament? +Why can I not labour? why not satisfy my wants by the work of my +hands? How glad, how happy would this miserable object be to exchange +with me! I am ungrateful towards Heaven." + +Seized with a sudden impulse of compassion, he took his last pieces of +silver out of his pocket, and gave them to the beggar, who, after a +mute expression of thanks, pursued his way. + +Omar now felt extraordinarily light-hearted and cheerful; the Deity +had, for his instruction, held a picture as it were before him of the +misery to which man may sink. He now felt power enough within him to +bear with poverty, or by activity to cast it off. He made plans for +his sustenance, and only wished he could at once have an opportunity +of shewing how industrious he could be. Since his noble-minded +compassion for the beggar, and the generosity with which he had +sacrificed to him his whole remaining stock of money, he had had +sensations such as he had never known before. + +A steep rock abutted on the road, and Omar ascended it with a light +heart, to take a view of the country, made still more lovely by the +setting sun. Here he saw, lying at his feet, the beautiful world, with +its green plains and majestic hills, its dark forests, and +brightly-blushing rivers, and over all this the golden web-work of the +crimson evening; and he felt like a prince who ruled over the whole, +and put forth his power over hill, and wood, and stream. + +He continued sitting on the peak of the rock, absorbed in the +contemplation of the landscape. He resolved to await there the rising +of the moon, and then to continue his journey. + +The crimson of evening vanished, and twilight dropped from the clouds: +the dark night followed. The stars twinkled in the dark blue vault, +and earth silently reposed in solemn quiet. Omar gazed fixedly on the +night, till his eye wandered dizzily among the countless stars; he +supplicated the majesty of God, and felt a holy awe thrill through his +soul. + +Then it seemed that a beam of light arose in the distant horizon; it +ascended in blue coruscation, and passed as a shining flame to the +zenith of heaven. The stars retreated palely, and, like the light of +new-born morning, it flickered over the firmament, and rained down in +softly tinted beams of crimson. Omar was astonished by the wondrous +phenomenon, and feasted his eye on the beauteous and unusual gleam; +the forests and hills around him sparkled, the distant clouds floated +in pale purple, and the radiance of the whole converged into a vault +of gold over Omar. + +"Hail, noble, compassionate, virtuous one!" cried a sweet voice from +above; "thou takest pity on misery, and the Lord looks down on thee +with well-pleased approval." + +Like dying flute-tones, the night-winds whispered round Omar; his +bosom heaved happily and pantingly, his eye was drunk with splendour, +his ear with heavenly harmony; and from amid the effulgence stepped +forth a form of light, and stood before the enraptured one; it was +Asrael, the radiant angel of God. + +"Mount with me in these beams to the abodes of the blessed," cried the +same sweet voice, "for thou hast deserved by thy nobleness of soul to +view the blessedness of Paradise." + +"My Lord," said the trembling Omar, "how can I, a mortal, follow thee? +My earthly body is not taken from me yet." + +"Give me thy hand," said the form of light. Omar tendered him it with +trembling rapture, and they soared through the clouds on the crimson +beams. They traversed the stars, and sweet sounds waited on their +steps, and the blush of morning lay in ambush in their path, and the +fragrance of flowers filled the air with aroma. + +Of a sudden it was night. Omar shrieked aloud, and found himself lying +at the foot of the crag, with shattered arms. The dark red moon just +rose from behind a hill, casting its first doubtful gleams on the +rocky valley. + +"Oh, thrice-wretched me!" cried Omar lamentingly, on recovering his +senses. "Was Heaven so little satisfied with my misery that it must +dash me in a false dream from the peak of the rock, and shatter my +limbs, that I might become the prey of hunger? Is it thus that it +compensates my pity for the unfortunate? Oh, who was ever unhappier +than I?" + +A figure shuffled past him with pain, and Omar recognised him to be +the beggar to whom he that very day had given the remainder of his +money. Omar called out to him, and besought him in a pitiful strain to +share with him the benefaction which he himself had bestowed, but the +cripple went heedlessly gasping on his way; so that Omar did not know +whether he had heard him, or was only dissembling, that he might seem +to have a right to disregard him. + +"Am I not more wretched than this outcast?" said Omar, lamenting amid +the stillness of night. "Who will take pity on me, now that all is +taken from me that could comfort me?" + +He fetched a deep sigh, his arms pained him, a burning fire raged in +his bones, and every breath was drawn in torture. Now he took a review +of his fortune, and, for the first time, thought once more on his +brother. + +"Oh, where art thou, noble-minded one?" cried he; "perhaps the sword +of the angel of death has already smitten thee; misery perhaps has +consumed thee in the most wearing poverty, and thou hast cursed thy +poor brother in the last hour of anguish. Ah! I have deserved this at +thy hands; now do I suffer the penalty of my ingratitude, my +hard-heartedness! Heaven is just!--And I too could stalk along so +proudly, and call on God to witness my virtue! O Heaven, forgive the +sinner who, without a murmur, bows to thy chastisement." + +Omar buried himself in pensive thoughts; he remembered with what +brotherly love Mahmoud had received him when, for the first time, he +was destitute; he reproached himself for having neglected to save him, +and for not having repaid by that means his debt of gratitude: he +longed for death, as the term of his penalty and his sufferings. + +The moon shone brightly over the landscape, and a small caravan, +consisting of a few camels, wound slowly through the vale. The lust of +life again awoke in Omar; he cried out for aid to the passers-by, in a +voice of wailing. They laid him carefully on a camel, that they might +have his wounds bound up in the next town, which they reached by break +of day. The merchant attended the unfortunate man himself, and Omar +recognised in him--his brother. His sense of shame knew no bounds, as +neither did the compassion of Mahmoud. The one brother begged for +pardon, and the other had already forgiven; tears flowed down the +cheeks of each, and the most touching reconciliation was solemnised +between them. + +Mahmoud had repaired to Ispahan after his impoverishment, and had +there made the acquaintance of a rich old merchant, who soon grew fond +of him, and assisted him with money. Fortune was favourable to the +exile, and in a short period he recovered his lost wealth. At this +moment his old benefactor died, making him his heir. + +On his recovery, Omar travelled with his brother to Ispahan, where the +latter set him up anew in business. Omar married, and never forgot how +much he owed to his brother; and from that time forward both lived in +the strictest concord, and afforded the whole town a pattern of +brotherly love. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + +Archaic syntax and inconsistent spelling retained. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of +Ludwig Tieck, by Ludwig Tieck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE 'PHANTASUS' *** + +***** This file should be named 38838.txt or 38838.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/3/38838/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://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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