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diff --git a/4492-0.txt b/4492-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..166a758 --- /dev/null +++ b/4492-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4237 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4492 *** + +FARINA + +By George Meredith + + +THE WHITE ROSE CLUB + +In those lusty ages when the Kaisers lifted high the golden goblet of +Aachen, and drank, elbow upward, the green-eyed wine of old romance, +there lived, a bow-shot from the bones of the Eleven Thousand Virgins and +the Three Holy Kings, a prosperous Rhinelander, by name Gottlieb +Groschen, or, as it was sometimes ennobled, Gottlieb von Groschen; than +whom no wealthier merchant bartered for the glory of his ancient mother- +city, nor more honoured burgess swallowed impartially red juice and white +under the shadow of his own fig-tree. + +Vine-hills, among the hottest sun-bibbers of the Rheingau, glistened in +the roll of Gottlieb's possessions; corn-acres below Cologne; basalt- +quarries about Linz; mineral-springs in Nassau, a legacy of the Romans to +the genius and enterprise of the first of German traders. He could have +bought up every hawking crag, owner and all, from Hatto's Tower to +Rheineck. Lore-ley, combing her yellow locks against the night-cloud, +beheld old Gottlieb's rafts endlessly stealing on the moonlight through +the iron pass she peoples above St. Goar. A wailful host were the wives +of his raftsmen widowed there by her watery music! + +This worthy citizen of Cologne held vasty manuscript letters of the +Kaiser addressed to him: + +'Dear Well-born son and Subject of mine, Gottlieb!' and he was easy with +the proudest princes of the Holy German Realm. For Gottlieb was a money- +lender and an honest man in one body. He laid out for the plenteous +harvests of usury, not pressing the seasons with too much rigour. 'I sow +my seed in winter,' said he, 'and hope to reap good profit in autumn; but +if the crop be scanty, better let it lie and fatten the soil.' + +'Old earth's the wisest creditor,' he would add; 'she never squeezes the +sun, but just takes what he can give her year by year, and so makes sure +of good annual interest.' + +Therefore when people asked Gottlieb how he had risen to such a pinnacle +of fortune, the old merchant screwed his eye into its wisest corner, and +answered slyly, 'Because I 've always been a student of the heavenly +bodies'; a communication which failed not to make the orbs and systems +objects of ardent popular worship in Cologne, where the science was long +since considered alchymic, and still may be. + +Seldom could the Kaiser go to war on Welschland without first taking +earnest counsel of his Well-born son and Subject Gottlieb, and lightening +his chests. Indeed the imperial pastime must have ceased, and the Kaiser +had languished but for him. Cologne counted its illustrious citizen +something more than man. The burghers doffed when he passed; and +scampish leather-draggled urchins gazed after him with praeternatural +respect on their hanging chins, as if a gold-mine of great girth had +walked through the awe-struck game. + +But, for the young men of Cologne he had a higher claim to reverence as +father of the fair Margarita, the White Rose of Germany; a noble maiden, +peerless, and a jewel for princes. + +The devotion of these youths should give them a name in chivalry. In her +honour, daily and nightly, they earned among themselves black bruises and +paraded discoloured countenances, with the humble hope to find it +pleasing in her sight. The tender fanatics went in bands up and down +Rhineland, challenging wayfarers and the peasantry with staff and beaker +to acknowledge the supremacy of their mistress. Whoso of them journeyed +into foreign parts, wrote home boasting how many times his head had been +broken on behalf of the fair Margarita; and if this happened very often, +a spirit of envy was created, which compelled him, when he returned, to +verify his prowess on no less than a score of his rivals. Not to possess +a beauty-scar, as the wounds received in these endless combats were +called, became the sign of inferiority, so that much voluntary maiming +was conjectured to be going on; and to obviate this piece of treachery, +minutes of fights were taken and attested, setting forth that a certain +glorious cut or crack was honourably won in fair field; on what occasion; +and from whom; every member of the White Rose Club keeping his particular +scroll, and, on days of festival and holiday, wearing it haughtily in his +helm. Strangers entering Cologne were astonished at the hideous +appearance of the striplings, and thought they never had observed so ugly +a race; but they were forced to admit the fine influence of beauty on +commerce, seeing that the consumption of beer increased almost hourly. +All Bavaria could not equal Cologne for quantity made away with. + +The chief members of the White Rose Club were Berthold Schmidt, the rich +goldsmith's son; Dietrich Schill, son of the imperial saddler; Heinrich +Abt, Franz Endermann, and Ernst Geller, sons of chief burghers, each of +whom carried a yard-long scroll in his cap, and was too disfigured in +person for men to require an inspection of the document. They were +dangerous youths to meet, for the oaths, ceremonies, and recantations +they demanded from every wayfarer, under the rank of baron, were what few +might satisfactorily perform, if lovers of woman other than the fair +Margarita, or loyal husbands; and what none save trained heads and +stomachs could withstand, however naturally manful. The captain of the +Club was he who could drink most beer without intermediate sighing, and +whose face reckoned the proudest number of slices and mixture of colours. +The captaincy was most in dispute between Dietrich Schill and Berthold +Schmidt, who, in the heat and constancy of contention, were gradually +losing likeness to man. 'Good coin,' they gloried to reflect, 'needs no +stamp.' + +One youth in Cologne held out against the standing tyranny, and chose to +do beauty homage in his own fashion, and at his leisure. It was Farina, +and oaths were registered against him over empty beer-barrels. An axiom +of the White Rose Club laid it down that everybody must be enamoured of +Margarita, and the conscience of the Club made them trebly suspicious of +those who were not members. They had the consolation of knowing that +Farina was poor, but then he was affirmed a student of Black Arts, and +from such a one the worst might reasonably be feared. He might bewitch +Margarita! + +Dietrich Schill was deputed by the Club to sound the White Rose herself +on the subject of Farina, and one afternoon in the vintage season, when +she sat under the hot vine-poles among maiden friends, eating ripe +grapes, up sauntered Dietrich, smirking, cap in hand, with his scroll +trailed behind him. + +'Wilt thou?' said Margarita, offering him a bunch. + +'Unhappy villain that I am!' replied Dietrich, gesticulating fox-like +refusal; 'if I but accept a favour, I break faith with the Club.' + +'Break it to pleasure me,' said Margarita, smiling wickedly. + +Dietrich gasped. He stood on tiptoe to see if any of the Club were by, +and half-stretched out his hand. A mocking laugh caused him to draw it +back as if stung. The grapes fell. Farina was at Margarita's feet +offering them in return. + +'Wilt thou?' said Margarita, with softer stress, and slight excess of +bloom in her cheeks. + +Farina put the purple cluster to his breast, and clutched them hard on +his heart, still kneeling. + +Margarita's brow and bosom seemed to be reflections of the streaming +crimson there. She shook her face to the sky, and affected laughter at +the symbol. Her companions clapped hands. Farina's eyes yearned to her +once, and then he rose and joined in the pleasantry. + +Fury helped Dietrich to forget his awkwardness. He touched Farina on the +shoulder with two fingers, and muttered huskily: 'The Club never allow +that.' + +Farina bowed, as to thank him deeply for the rules of the Club. 'I am +not a member, you know,' said he, and strolled to a seat close by +Margarita. + +Dietrich glared after him. As head of a Club he understood the use of +symbols. He had lost a splendid opportunity, and Farina had seized it. +Farina had robbed him. + +'May I speak with Mistress Margarita?' inquired the White Rose chief, in +a ragged voice. + +'Surely, Dietrich! do speak,' said Margarita. + +'Alone?' he continued. + +'Is that allowed by the Club?' said one of the young girls, with a saucy +glance. + +Dietrich deigned no reply, but awaited Margarita's decision. She +hesitated a second; then stood up her full height before him; faced him +steadily, and beckoned him some steps up the vine-path. Dietrich bowed, +and passing Farina, informed him that the Club would wring satisfaction +out of him for the insult. + +Farina laughed, but answered, 'Look, you of the Club! beer-swilling has +improved your manners as much as fighting has beautified your faces. Go +on; drink and fight! but remember that the Kaiser's coming, and fellows +with him who will not be bullied.' + +'What mean you?' cried Dietrich, lurching round on his enemy. + +'Not so loud, friend,' returned Farina. 'Or do you wish to frighten the +maidens? I mean this, that the Club had better give as little offence as +possible, and keep their eyes as wide as they can, if they want to be of +service to Mistress Margarita.' + +Dietrich turned off with a grunt. + +'Now!' said Margarita. + +She was tapping her foot. Dietrich grew unfaithful to the Club, and +looked at her longer than his mission warranted. She was bright as the +sunset gardens of the Golden Apples. The braids of her yellow hair were +bound in wreaths, and on one side of her head a saffron crocus was stuck +with the bell downward. Sweetness, song, and wit hung like dews of +morning on her grape-stained lips. She wore a scarlet corset with bands +of black velvet across her shoulders. The girlish gown was thin blue +stuff, and fell short over her firm-set feet, neatly cased in white +leather with buckles. There was witness in her limbs and the way she +carried her neck of an amiable, but capable, dragon, ready, when aroused, +to bristle up and guard the Golden Apples against all save the rightful +claimant. Yet her nether lip and little white chin-ball had a dreamy +droop; her frank blue eyes went straight into the speaker: the dragon +slept. It was a dangerous charm. 'For,' says the minnesinger, 'what +ornament more enchants us on a young beauty than the soft slumber of a +strength never yet called forth, and that herself knows not of! It sings +double things to the heart of knighthood; lures, and warns us; woos, and +threatens. 'Tis as nature, shining peace, yet the mother of storm.' + +'There is no man,' rapturously exclaims Heinrich von der Jungferweide, +'can resist the desire to win a sweet treasure before which lies a dragon +sleeping. The very danger prattles promise.' + +But the dragon must really sleep, as with Margarita. + +'A sham dragon, shamming sleep, has destroyed more virgins than all the +heathen emperors,' says old Hans Aepfelmann of Duesseldorf. + +Margarita's foot was tapping quicker. + +'Speak, Dietrich!' she said. + +Dietrich declared to the Club that at this point he muttered, 'We love +you.' Margarita was glad to believe he had not spoken of himself. He +then informed her of the fears entertained by the Club, sworn to watch +over and protect her, regarding Farina's arts. + +'And what fear you?' said Margarita. + +'We fear, sweet mistress, he may be in league with Sathanas,' replied +Dietrich. + +'Truly, then,' said Margarita, 'of all the youths in Cologne he is the +least like his confederate.' + +Dietrich gulped and winked, like a patient recovering wry-faced from an +abhorred potion. + +'We have warned you, Fraulein Groschen!' he exclaimed. 'It now becomes +our duty to see that you are not snared.' + +Margarita reddened, and returned: 'You are kind. But I am a Christian +maiden and not a Pagan soldan, and I do not require a body of tawny +guards at my heels.' + +Thereat she flung back to her companions, and began staining her pretty +mouth with grapes anew. + + + + +THE TAPESTRY WORD + +Fair maids will have their hero in history. Siegfried was Margarita's +chosen. She sang of Siegfried all over the house. 'O the old days of +Germany, when such a hero walked!' she sang. + +'And who wins Margarita,' mused Farina, 'happier than Siegfried, has in +his arms Brunhild and Chrimhild together!' + +Crowning the young girl's breast was a cameo, and the skill of some +cunning artist out of Welschland had wrought on it the story of the +Drachenfels. Her bosom heaved the battle up and down. + +This cameo was a north star to German manhood, but caused many chaste +expressions of abhorrence from Aunt Lisbeth, Gottlieb's unmarried sister, +who seemed instinctively to take part with the Dragon. She was a frail- +fashioned little lady, with a face betokening the perpetual smack of +lemon, and who reigned in her brother's household when the good wife was +gone. Margarita's robustness was beginning to alarm and shock Aunt +Lisbeth's sealed stock of virtue. + +'She must be watched, such a madl as that,' said Aunt Lisbeth. 'Ursula! +what limbs she has!' + +Margarita was watched; but the spy being neither foe nor friend, nothing +was discovered against her. This did not satisfy Aunt Lisbeth, whose own +suspicion was her best witness. She allowed that Margarita dissembled +well. + +'But,' said she to her niece, 'though it is good in a girl not to flaunt +these naughtinesses in effrontery, I care for you too much not to say--Be +what you seem, my little one!' + +'And that am I!' exclaimed Margarita, starting up and towering. + +'Right good, my niece,' Lisbeth squealed; 'but now Frau Groschen lies in +God's acre, you owe your duty to me, mind! Did you confess last week?' + +'From beginning to end,' replied Margarita. + +Aunt Lisbeth fixed pious reproach on Margarita's cameo. + +'And still you wear that thing?' + +'Why not?' said Margarita. + +'Girl! who would bid you set it in such a place save Satan? Oh, thou +poor lost child! that the eyes of the idle youths may be drawn there! +and thou become his snare to others, Margarita! What was that Welsh +wandering juggler but the foul fiend himself, mayhap, thou maiden of sin! +They say he has been seen in Cologne lately. He was swarthy as Satan and +limped of one leg. Good Master in heaven, protect us! it was Satan +himself I could swear!' + +Aunt Lisbeth crossed brow and breast. + +Margarita had commenced fingering the cameo, as if to tear it away; but +Aunt Lisbeth's finish made her laugh outright. + +'Where I see no harm, aunty, I shall think the good God is,' she +answered; 'and where I see there's harm, I shall think Satan lurks.' + +A simper of sour despair passed over Aunt Lisbeth. She sighed, and was +silent, being one of those very weak reeds who are easily vanquished and +never overcome. + +'Let us go on with the Tapestry, child,' said she. + +Now, Margarita was ambitious of completing a certain Tapestry for +presentation to Kaiser Heinrich on his entry into Cologne after his last +campaign on the turbaned Danube. The subject was again her beloved +Siegfried slaying the Dragon on Drachenfels. Whenever Aunt Lisbeth +indulged in any bitter virginity, and was overmatched by Margarita's +frank maidenhood, she hung out this tapestry as a flag of truce. They +were working it in bits, not having contrivances to do it in a piece. +Margarita took Siegfried and Aunt Lisbeth the Dragon. They shared the +crag between them. A roguish gleam of the Rhine toward Nonnenwerth could +be already made out, Roland's Corner hanging like a sentinel across the +chanting island, as one top-heavy with long watch. + +Aunt Lisbeth was a great proficient in the art, and had taught Margarita. +The little lady learnt it, with many other gruesome matters, in the +Palatine of Bohemia's family. She usually talked of the spectres of +Hollenbogenblitz Castle in the passing of the threads. Those were dismal +spectres in Bohemia, smelling of murder and the charnel-breath of +midnight. They uttered noises that wintered the blood, and revealed +sights that stiffened hair three feet long; ay, and kept it stiff! + +Margarita placed herself on a settle by the low-arched window, and Aunt +Lisbeth sat facing her. An evening sun blazoned the buttresses of the +Cathedral, and shadowed the workframes of the peaceful couple to a +temperate light. Margarita unrolled a sampler sheathed with twists of +divers coloured threads, and was soon busy silver-threading Siegfried's +helm and horns. + +'I told you of the steward, poor Kraut, did I not, child?' inquired Aunt +Lisbeth, quietly clearing her throat. + +'Many times!' said Margarita, and went on humming over her knee + + 'Her love was a Baron, + A Baron so bold; + She loved him for love, + He loved her for gold.' + +'He must see for himself, and be satisfied,' continued Aunt Lisbeth; 'and +Holy Thomas to warn him for an example! Poor Kraut!' + +'Poor Kraut!' echoed Margarita. + + 'The King loved wine, and the Knight loved wine, + And they loved the summer weather: + They might have loved each other well, + But for one they loved together.' + +'You may say, poor Kraut, child!' said Aunt Lisbeth. 'Well! his face was +before that as red as this dragon's jaw, and ever after he went about as +white as a pullet's egg. That was something wonderful!' 'That was it!' +chimed Margarita. + + 'O the King he loved his lawful wife, + The Knight a lawless lady: + And ten on one-made ringing strife, + Beneath the forest shady.' + +'Fifty to one, child!' said Aunt Lisbeth: 'You forget the story. They +made Kraut sit with them at the jabbering feast, the only mortal there. +The walls were full of eye-sockets without eyes, but phosphorus instead, +burning blue and damp.' + +'Not to-night, aunty dear! It frightens me so,' pleaded Margarita, for +she saw the dolor coming. + +'Night! when it's broad mid-day, thou timid one! Good heaven take pity +on such as thou! The dish was seven feet in length by four broad. Kraut +measured it with his eye, and never forgot it. Not he! When the dish- +cover was lifted, there he saw himself lying, boiled! + +"'I did not feel uncomfortable then," Kraut told us. "It seemed +natural." + +'His face, as it lay there, he says, was quite calm, only a little +wrinkled, and piggish-looking-like. There was the mole on his chin, and +the pucker under his left eyelid. Well! the Baron carved. All the +guests were greedy for a piece of him. Some cried out for breast; some +for toes. It was shuddering cold to sit and hear that! The Baroness +said, "Cheek!"' + +'Ah!' shrieked Margarita, 'that can I not bear! I will not hear it, +aunt; I will not!' + +'Cheek!' Aunt Lisbeth reiterated, nodding to the floor. + +Margarita put her fingers to her ears. + +'Still, Kraut says, even then he felt nothing odd. Of course he was +horrified to be sitting with spectres as you and I should be; but the +first tremble of it was over. He had plunged into the bath of horrors, +and there he was. I 've heard that you must pronounce the names of the +Virgin and Trinity, sprinkling water round you all the while for three +minutes; and if you do this without interruption, everything shall +disappear. So they say. "Oh! dear heaven of mercy!" says Kraut, "what +I felt when the Baron laid his long hunting-knife across my left cheek!"' + +Here Aunt Lisbeth lifted her eyes to dote upon Margarita's fright. She +was very displeased to find her niece, with elbows on the window-sill and +hands round her head, quietly gazing into the street. + +She said severely, 'Where did you learn that song you were last singing, +Margarita? Speak, thou girl!' + +Margarita laughed. + + 'The thrush, and the lark, and the blackbird, + They taught me how to sing: + And O that the hawk would lend his eye, + And the eagle lend his wing.' + +'I will not hear these shameless songs,' exclaimed Aunt Lisbeth. + + 'For I would view the lands they view, + And be where they have been: + It is not enough to be singing + For ever in dells unseen !' + +A voice was heard applauding her. 'Good! right good! Carol again, +Gretelchen! my birdie!' + +Margarita turned, and beheld her father in the doorway. She tripped +toward him, and heartily gave him their kiss of meeting. Gottlieb +glanced at the helm of Siegfried. + +'Guessed the work was going well; you sing so lightsomely to-day, Grete! +Very pretty! And that's Drachenfels? Bones of the Virgins! what a +bold fellow was Siegfried, and a lucky, to have the neatest lass in +Deutschland in love with him. Well, we must marry her to Siegfried after +all, I believe! Aha? or somebody as good as Siegfried. So chirrup on, +my darling!' + +'Aunt Lisbeth does not approve of my songs,' replied Margarita, +untwisting some silver threads. + +'Do thy father's command, girl!' said Aunt Lisbeth. + + 'And doing his command, + Should I do a thing of ill, + I'd rather die to his lovely face, + Than wanton at his will.' + +'There--there,' said Aunt Lisbeth, straining out her fingers; 'you see, +Gottlieb, what over-indulgence brings her to. Not another girl in +blessed Rhineland, and Bohemia to boot, dared say such words!--than-- +I can't repeat them!--don't ask me!--She's becoming a Frankish girl!' + +'What ballad's that?' said Gottlieb, smiling. + +'The Ballad of Holy Ottilia; and her lover was sold to darkness. And she +loved him--loved him----' + +'As you love Siegfried, you little one?' + +'More, my father; for she saw Winkried, and I never saw Siegfried. Ah! +if I had seen Siegfried! Never mind. She loved him; but she loved +Virtue more. And Virtue is the child of God, and the good God forgave +her for loving Winkried, the Devil's son, because she loved Virtue more, +and He rescued her as she was being dragged down--down--down, and was +half fainting with the smell of brimstone--rescued her and had her +carried into His Glory, head and feet, on the wings of angels, before +all men, as a hope to little maidens. + + 'And when I thought that I was lost + I found that I was saved, + And I was borne through blessed clouds, + Where the banners of bliss were waved.' + +'And so you think you, too, may fall in, love with Devils' sons, girl?' +was Aunt Lisbeth's comment. + +'Do look at Lisbeth's Dragon, little Heart! it's so like!' said Margarita +to her father. + +Old Gottlieb twitted his hose, and chuckled. + +'She's my girl! that may be seen,' said he, patting her, and wheezed up +from his chair to waddle across to the Dragon. But Aunt Lisbeth tartly +turned the Dragon to the wall. + +'It is not yet finished, Gottlieb, and must not be looked at,' she +interposed. 'I will call for wood, and see to a fire: these evenings of +Spring wax cold': and away whimpered Aunt Lisbeth. + +Margarita sang: + + 'I with my playmates, + In riot and disorder, + Were gathering herb and blossom + Along the forest border.' + +'Thy mother's song, child of my heart!' said Gottlieb; 'but vex not good +Lisbeth: she loves thee!' + + 'And do you think she loves me? + And will you say 'tis true? + O, and will she have me, + When I come up to woo?' + +'Thou leaping doe! thou chattering pie!' said Gottlieb. + + 'She shall have ribbons and trinkets, + And shine like a morn of May, + When we are off to the little hill-church, + Our flowery bridal way.' + +'That she shall; and something more !' cried Gottlieb. 'But, hark thee, +Gretelchen; the Kaiser will be here in three days. Thou dear one! had I +not stored and hoarded all for thee, I should now have my feet on a +hearthstone where even he might warm his boot. So get thy best dresses +and jewels in order, and look thyself; proud as any in the land. A +simple burgher's daughter now, Grete; but so shalt thou not end, my +butterfly, or there's neither worth nor wit in Gottlieb Groschen!' + +'Three days!' Margarita exclaimed; 'and the helm not finished, and the +tapestry-pieces not sewed and joined, and the water not shaded off.--Oh! +I must work night and day.' + +'Child! I'll have no working at night! Your rosy cheeks will soon be +sucked out by oil-light, and you look no better than poor tallow Court +beauties--to say nothing of the danger. This old house saw Charles the +Great embracing the chief magistrate of his liege city yonder. Some +swear he slept in it. He did not sneeze at smaller chambers than our +Kaisers abide. No gold ceilings with cornice carvings, but plain wooden +beams.' + + 'Know that the men of great renown, + Were men of simple needs: + Bare to the Lord they laid them down, + And slept on mighty deeds.' + +'God wot, there's no emptying thy store of ballads, Grete: so much shall +be said of thee. Yes; times are changeing: We're growing degenerate. +Look at the men of Linz now to what they were! Would they have let the +lads of Andernach float down cabbage-stalks to them without a shy back? +And why? All because they funk that brigand-beast Werner, who gets +redemption from Laach, hard by his hold, whenever he commits a crime +worth paying for. As for me, my timber and stuffs must come down stream, +and are too good for the nixen under Rhine, or think you I would +acknowledge him with a toll, the hell-dog? Thunder and lightning! if +old scores could be rubbed out on his hide!' + +Gottlieb whirled a thong-lashing arm in air, and groaned of law and +justice. What were they coming to! + +Margarita softened the theme with a verse: + + 'And tho' to sting his enemy, + Is sweetness to the angry bee, + The angry bee must busy be, + Ere sweet of sweetness hiveth he. + +The arch thrill of his daughter's voice tickled Gottlieb. 'That's it, +birdie! You and the proverb are right. I don't know which is best + + 'Better hive + And keep alive + Than vengeance wake + With that you take.' + +A clatter in the cathedral square brought Gottlieb on his legs to the +window. It was a company of horsemen sparkling in harness. One +trumpeter rode at the side of the troop, and in front a standard-bearer, +matted down the chest with ochre beard, displayed aloft to the good +citizens of Cologne, three brown hawks, with birds in their beaks, on an +azure stardotted field. + +'Holy Cross!' exclaimed Gottlieb, low in his throat; 'the arms of Werner! +Where got he money to mount his men? Why, this is daring all Cologne in +our very teeth! 'Fend that he visit me now! Ruin smokes in that +ruffian's track. I 've felt hot and cold by turns all day.' + +The horsemen came jingling carelessly along the street in scattered twos +and threes, laughing together, and singling out the maidens at the gable- +shadowed windows with hawking eyes. The good citizens of Cologne did not +look on them favourably. Some showed their backs and gruffly banged +their doors: others scowled and pocketed their fists: not a few slunk +into the side alleys like well-licked curs, and scurried off with +forebent knees. They were in truth ferocious-looking fellows these +trusty servants of the robber Baron Werner, of Werner's Eck, behind +Andernach. Leather, steel, and dust, clad them from head to foot; big +and black as bears; wolf-eyed, fox-nosed. They glistened bravely in the +falling beams of the sun, and Margarita thrust her fair braided yellow +head a little forward over her father's shoulder to catch the whole +length of the grim cavalcade. One of the troop was not long in +discerning the young beauty. He pointed her boldly out to a comrade, who +approved his appetite, and referred her to a third. The rest followed +lead, and Margarita was as one spell-struck when she became aware that +all those hungry eyes were preying on hers. Old Gottlieb was too full of +his own fears to think for her, and when he drew in his head rather +suddenly, it was with a dismal foreboding that Werner's destination in +Cologne was direct to the house of Gottlieb Groschen, for purposes only +too well to be divined. + +'Devil's breeches!' muttered Gottlieb; 'look again, Grete, and see if +that hell-troop stop the way outside.' + +Margarita's cheeks were overflowing with the offended rose. + +'I will not look at them again, father.' + +Gottlieb stared, and then patted her. + +'I would I were a man, father!' + +Gottlieb smiled, and stroked his beard. + +'Oh! how I burn!' + +And the girl shivered visibly. + +'Grete! mind to be as much of a woman as you can, and soon such raff as +this you may sweep away, like cobwebs, and no harm done.' + +He was startled by a violent thumping at the streetdoor, and as brazen a +blast as if the dead were being summoned. Aunt Lisbeth entered, and +flitted duskily round the room, crying: + +'We are lost: they are upon us! better death with a bodkin! Never shall +it be said of me; never! the monsters!' + +Then admonishing them to lock, bar, bolt, and block up every room in the +house, Aunt Lisbeth perched herself on the edge of a chair, and reversed +the habits of the screech-owl, by being silent when stationary. + +'There's nothing to fear for you, Lisbeth,' said Gottlieb, with +discourteous emphasis. + +'Gottlieb! do you remember what happened at the siege of Mainz? and poor +Marthe Herbstblum, who had hoped to die as she was; and Dame +Altknopfchen, and Frau Kaltblut, and the old baker, Hans Topf's sister, +all of them as holy as abbesses, and that did not save them! and nothing +will from such godless devourers.' + +Gottlieb was gone, having often before heard mention of the calamity +experienced by these fated women. + +'Comfort thee, good heart, on my breast,' said Margarita, taking Lisbeth +to that sweet nest of peace and fortitude. + +'Margarita! 'tis your doing! have I not said--lure them not, for they +swarm too early upon us! And here they are! and, perhaps, in five +minutes all will be over! + +Herr Je!--What, you are laughing! Heavens of goodness, the girl is +delighted!' + +Here a mocking ha-ha! accompanied by a thundering snack at the door, +shook the whole house, and again the trumpet burst the ears with fury. + +This summons, which seemed to Aunt Lisbeth final, wrought a strange +composure in her countenance. She was very pale, but spread her dress +decently, as if fear had departed, and clasped her hands on her knees. + +'The will of the Lord above must be done,' said she; 'it is impious to +complain when we are given into the hand of the Philistines. Others have +been martyred, and were yet acceptable.' + +To this heroic speech she added, with cold energy: 'Let them come!' + +'Aunt,' cried Margarita, 'I hear my father's voice with those men. +Aunty! I will not let him be alone. I must go down to him. You will be +safe here. I shall come to you if there's cause for alarm.' + +And in spite of Aunt Lisbeth's astonished shriek of remonstrance, she +hurried off to rejoin Gottlieb. + + + + +THE WAGER + +Ere Margarita had reached the landing of the stairs, she repented her +haste and shrank back. Wrapt in a thunder of oaths, she distinguished: +''Tis the little maiden we want; let's salute her and begone! or cap your +skull with something thicker than you've on it now, if you want a whole +one, happy father!' + +'Gottlieb von Groschen I am,' answered her father, 'and the Kaiser----' + +''S as fond of a pretty girl as we are! Down with her, and no more +drivelling! It's only for a moment, old Measure and Scales!' + +'I tell you, rascals, I know your master, and if you're not punished for +this, may I die a beggar!' exclaimed Gottlieb, jumping with rage. + +'May you die as rich as an abbot! And so you will, if you don't bring +her down, for I've sworn to see her; there 's the end of it, man!' + +'I'll see, too, if the laws allow this villany !' cried Gottlieb. +'Insulting a peaceful citizen! in his own house! a friend of your +emperor! Gottlieb von Groschen!' + +'Groschen? We're cousins, then! You wouldn't shut out your nearest kin? +Devil's lightning! Don't you know me? Pfennig? Von Pfennig! This +here's Heller: that's Zwanziger: all of us Vons, every soul! You're +not decided? This'll sharpen you, my jolly King Paunch!' + +And Margarita heard the ruffian step as if to get swing for a blow. She +hurried into the passage, and slipping in front of her father, said to +his assailant: + +'You have asked for me! I am here!' + +Her face was colourless, and her voice seemed to issue from between a +tightened cord. She stood with her left foot a little in advance, and +her whole body heaving and quivering: her arms folded and pressed hard +below her bosom: her eyes dilated to a strong blue: her mouth ashy white. +A strange lustre, as of suppressed internal fire, flickered over her. + +'My name 's Schwartz Thier, and so 's my nature!' said the fellow with a +grin; 'but may I never smack lips with a pretty girl again, if I harm +such a young beauty as this! Friendly dealing's my plan o' life.' + +'Clear out of my house, then, fellow, and here's money for you,' said +Gottlieb, displaying a wrathfully-trembling handful of coin. + +'Pish! money! forty times that wouldn't cover my bet! And if it did? +Shouldn't I be disgraced? jeered at for a sheep-heart? No, I'm no ninny, +and not to be diddled. I'll talk to the young lady! Silence, out there! +all's going proper': this to his comrades through the door. 'So, my +beautiful maiden! thus it stands: We saw you at the window, looking like +a fresh rose with a gold crown on. Here are we poor fellows come to +welcome the Kaiser. I began to glorify you. "Schwartz Thier!" says +Henker Rothhals to me, "I'll wager you odds you don't have a kiss of that +fine girl within twenty minutes, counting from the hand-smack!" Done! +was my word, and we clapped our fists together. Now, you see, that's +straightforward! All I want is, not to lose my money and be made a fool +of--leaving alone that sugary mouth which makes mine water'; and he drew +the back of his hand along his stubbled jaws: 'So, come! don't hesitate! +no harm to you, my beauty, but a compliment, and Schwartz Thier's your +friend and anything else you like for ever after. Come, time's up, +pretty well.' + +Margarita leaned to her father a moment as if mortal sickness had seized +her. Then cramping her hands and feet, she said in his ear, 'Leave me to +my own care; go, get the men to protect thee'; and ordered Schwartz Thier +to open the door wide. + +Seeing Gottlieb would not leave her, she joined her hands, and begged +him. 'The good God will protect me! I will overmatch these men. Look, +my father! they dare not strike me in the street: you they would fell +without pity. Go! what they dare in a house, they dare not in the +street.' + +Schwartz Thier had opened the door. At sight of Margarita, the troop +gave a shout. + +'Now! on the doorstep, full in view, my beauteous one! that they may see +what a lucky devil I am--and have no doubts about the handing over.' + +Margarita looked behind. Gottlieb was still there, every member of him +quaking like a bog under a heavy heel. She ran to him. 'My father! I +have a device wilt thou spoil it, and give me to this beast? You can do +nothing, nothing! protect yourself and save me!' + +'Cologne! broad day!' muttered Gottlieb, as if the enormity had +prostrated his belief in facts; and moved slowly back. + +Margarita strode to the door-step. Schwartz Thier was awaiting her, his +arm circled out, and his leering face ducked to a level with his +victim's. This rough show of gallantry proved costly to him. As he was +gently closing his iron hold about her, enjoying before hand with grim +mouthridges the flatteries of triumph, Margarita shot past him through +the door, and was already twenty paces beyond the troop before either of +them thought of pursuing her. At the first sound of a hoof, Henker +Rothhals seized the rider's bridle-rein, and roared: 'Fair play for a +fair bet! leave all to the Thier!' The Thier, when he had recovered from +his amazement, sought for old Gottlieb to give him a back-hit, as +Margarita foresaw that he would. Not finding him at hand, out lumbered +the fellow as swiftly as his harness would allow, and caught a glimpse +of Margarita rapidly fleeting up the cathedral square. + +'Only five minutes, Schwartz Thier!' some of the troop sung out. + +'The devil can do his business in one,' was the retort, and Schwartz +Thier swung himself on his broad-backed charger, and gored the fine beast +till she rattled out a blast of sparkles from the flint. + +In a minute he drew up in front of Margarita. + +'So! you prefer settling this business in the square. + +Good! my choice sweetheart!' and he sprang to her side. + +The act of flight had touched the young girl's heart with the spirit of +flight. She crouched like a winded hare under the nose of the hound, and +covered her face with her two hands. Margarita was no wisp in weight, +but Schwartz Thier had her aloft in his arm as easily as if he had tossed +up a kerchief. + +'Look all, and witness!' he shouted, lifting the other arm. + +Henker Rothhals and the rest of the troop looked, as they came trotting +to the scene, with the coolness of umpires: but they witnessed something +other than what Schwartz Thier proposed. This was the sight of a +formidable staff, whirling an unfriendly halo over the head of the Thier, +and descending on it with such honest intent to confound and overthrow +him, that the Thier succumbed to its force without argument, and the +square echoed blow and fall simultaneously. At the same time the wielder +of this sound piece of logic seized Margarita, and raised a shout in the +square for all true men to stand by him in rescuing a maiden from the +clutch of brigands and ravishers. A crowd was collecting, but seemed to +consider the circle now formed by the horsemen as in a manner charmed, +for only one, a fair slender youth, came forward and ranged himself +beside the stranger. + +'Take thou the maiden: I'll keep to the staff,' said this latter, +stumbling over his speech as if he was in a foreign land among old roots +and wolfpits which had already shaken out a few of his teeth, and made +him cautious about the remainder. + +'Can it be Margarita!' exclaimed the youth, bending to her, and calling +to her: 'Margarita! Fraulein Groschen!' + +She opened her eyes, shuddered, and said: 'I was not afraid! Am I safe?' + +'Safe while I have life, and this good friend.' + +'Where is my father?' + +'I have not seen him.' + +'And you--who are you? Do I owe this to you?' + +'Oh! no! no! Me you owe nothing.' + +Margarita gazed hurriedly round, and at her feet there lay the Thier with +his steel-cap shining in dints, and three rivulets of blood coursing down +his mottled forehead. She looked again at the youth, and a blush of +recognition gave life to her cheeks. + +'I did not know you. Pardon me. Farina! what thanks can reward such +courage! Tell me! shall we go?' + +'The youth eyed her an instant, but recovering himself, took a rapid +survey, and called to the stranger to follow and help give the young +maiden safe conduct home. + +'Just then Henker Rothhals bellowed, 'Time's up!' He was answered by a +chorus of agreement from the troop. They had hitherto patiently acted +their parts as spectators, immovable on their horses. The assault on the +Thier was all in the play, and a visible interference of fortune in +favour of Henker Rothhals. Now general commotion shuttled them, and the +stranger's keen hazel eyes read their intentions rightly when he lifted +his redoubtable staff in preparation for another mighty swoop, this time +defensive. Rothhals, and half a dozen others, with a war-cry of curses, +spurred their steeds at once to ride him down. They had not reckoned the +length and good-will of their antagonist's weapon. Scarce were they in +motion, when round it whizzed, grazing the nostrils of their horses with +a precision that argued practice in the feat, and unhorsing two, Rothhals +among the number. He dropped heavily on his head, and showed signs of +being as incapable of combat as the Thier. A cheer burst from the crowd, +but fell short. + +The foremost of their number was struck flat to the earth by a fellow of +the troop. + +Calling on St. George, his patron saint, the stranger began +systematically to make a clear ring in his path forward. Several of the +horsemen essayed a cut at his arm with their long double-handed swords, +but the horses could not be brought a second time to the edge of the +magic circle; and the blood of these warriors being thoroughly up, they +now came at him on foot. In their rage they would have made short work +with the three, in spite of the magistracy of Cologne, had they not been +arrested by cries of 'Werner! Werner!' + +At the South-west end of the square, looking Rhinewards, rode the +marauder Baron, in full armour, helm and hauberk, with a single retainer +in his rear. He had apparently caught sight of the brawl, and, either +because he distinguished his own men, or was seeking his natural element, +hastened up for his share in it, which was usually that of the king of +beasts. His first call was for Schwartz Thier. The men made way, and he +beheld his man in no condition to make military responses. He shouted +for Henker Rothhals, and again the men opened their ranks mutely, +exhibiting the two stretched out in diverse directions, with their feet +slanting to a common point. The Baron glared; then caught off his mailed +glove, and thrust it between his teeth. A rasping gurgle of oaths was +all they heard, and presently surged up, + +'Who was it?' + +Margarita's eyes were shut. She opened them fascinated with horror. +There was an unearthly awful and comic mixture of sounds in Werner's +querulous fury, that was like the noise of a complaining bear, rolling up +from hollow-chested menace to yawning lament. Never in her life had +Margarita such a shock of fear. The half gasp of a laugh broke on her +trembling lips. She stared at Werner, and was falling; but Farina's arm +clung instantly round her waist. The stranger caught up her laugh, loud +and hearty. + +'As for who did it, Sir Baron,' he cried, is a cheery tone, 'I am the +man! As you may like to know why--and that's due to you and me both of +us--all I can say is, the Black Muzzle yonder lying got his settler for +merry-making with this peaceful maiden here, without her consent--an +offence in my green island they reckon a crack o' the sconce light +basting for, I warrant all company present,' and he nodded sharply about. +'As for the other there, who looks as if a rope had been round his neck +once and shirked its duty, he counts his wages for helping the devil in +his business, as will any other lad here who likes to come on and try.' + +Werner himself, probably, would have given him the work he wanted; but +his eye had sidled a moment over Margarita, and the hardly-suppressed +applause of the crowd at the stranger's speech failed to bring his ire +into action this solitary time. + +'Who is the maiden?' he asked aloud. + +'Fraulein von Groschen,' replied Farina. + +'Von Groschen! Von Groschen! the daughter of Gottlieb Groschen?-- +Rascals!' roared the Baron, turning on his men, and out poured a mud- +spring of filthy oaths and threats, which caused Henker Rothhals, who had +opened his eyes, to close them again, as if he had already gone to the +place of heat. + +'Only lend me thy staff, friend,' cried Werner. + +'Not I! thwack 'em with your own wood,' replied the stranger, and fell +back a leg. + +Werner knotted his stringy brows, and seemed torn to pieces with the +different pulling tides of his wrath. He grasped the mane of his horse +and flung abroad handfuls, till the splendid animal reared in agony. + +'You shall none of you live over this night, villains! I 'll hang you, +every hag's son! My last orders were,--Keep quiet in the city, ye +devil's brood. Take that! and that!' laying at them with his bare sword. +'Off with you, and carry these two pigs out of sight quickly, or I'll +have their heads, and make sure o' them.' + +The latter injunction sprang from policy, for at the head of the chief +street there was a glitter of the city guard, marching with shouldered +spears. + +'Maiden,' said Werner, with a bull's bow, 'let me conduct thee to thy +father.' + +Margarita did not reply; but gave her hand to Farina, and took a step +closer to the stranger. + +Werner's brows grew black. + +'Enough to have saved you, fair maid,' he muttered hoarsely. 'Gratitude +never was a woman's gift. Say to your father that I shall make excuses +to him for the conduct of my men.' + +Whereupon, casting a look of leisurely scorn toward the guard coming up +in the last beams of day, the Baron shrugged his huge shoulders to an +altitude expressing the various contemptuous shades of feudal coxcombry, +stuck one leather-ruffled arm in his side, and jolted off at an easy +pace. + +'Amen!' ejaculated the stranger, leaning on his staff. 'There are Barons +in my old land; but never a brute beast in harness.' + +Margarita stood before him, and took his two hands. + +'You will come with me to my father! He will thank you. I cannot. You +will come?' + +Tears and a sob of relief started from her. + +The city guard, on seeing Werner's redoubtable back turned, had adopted +double time, and now came panting up, while the stranger bent smiling +under a fresh overflow of innocent caresses. Margarita was caught to her +father's breast. + +'You shall have vengeance for this, sweet chuck,' cried old Gottlieb in +the intervals of his hugs. + +'Fear not, my father; they are punished': and Margarita related the story +of the stranger's prowess, elevating him into a second Siegfried. The +guard huzzaed him, but did not pursue the Baron. + +Old Gottlieb, without hesitation, saluted the astonished champion with a +kiss on either cheek. + +'My best friend! You have saved my daughter from indignity! Come with +us home, if you can believe that a home where the wolves come daring us, +dragging our dear ones from our very doorsteps. Come, that we may thank +you under a roof at least. My little daughter! Is she not a brave lass?' + +'She's nothing less than the white rose of Germany,' said the stranger, +with a good bend of the shoulders to Margarita. + +'So she's called,' exclaimed Gottlieb; 'she 's worthy to be a man!' + +'Men would be the losers, then, more than they could afford,' replied the +stranger, with a ringing laugh. + +'Come, good friend,' said Gottlieb; 'you must need refreshment. Prove +you are a true hero by your appetite. As Charles the Great said to +Archbishop Turpin, "I conquered the world because Nature gave me a +gizzard; for everywhere the badge of subjection is a poor stomach." +Come, all! A day well ended, notwithstanding!' + + + + +THE SILVER ARROW + +At the threshold of Gottlieb's house a number of the chief burgesses of +Cologne had corporated spontaneously to condole with him. As he came +near, they raised a hubbub of gratulation. Strong were the expressions +of abhorrence and disgust of Werner's troop in which these excellent +citizens clothed their outraged feelings; for the insult to Gottlieb was +the insult of all. The Rhinestream taxes were provoking enough to +endure; but that the licence of these free-booting bands should extend to +the homes of free and peaceful men, loyal subjects of the Emperor, was a +sign that the evil had reached from pricks to pokes, as the saying went, +and must now be met as became burgesses of ancient Cologne, and by joint +action destroyed. + +'In! in, all of you!' said Gottlieb, broadening his smile to suit the +many. 'We 'll talk about that in-doors. Meantime, I've got a hero to +introduce to you: flesh and blood! no old woman's coin and young girl's +dream-o'day: the honest thing, and a rarity, my masters. All that over +some good Rhine-juice from above Bacharach. In, and welcome, friends!' + +Gottlieb drew the stranger along with him under the carved old oak-wood +portals, and the rest paired, and reverentially entered in his wake. +Margarita, to make up for this want of courtesy, formed herself the last +of the procession. She may have had another motive, for she took +occasion there to whisper something to Farina, bringing sun and cloud +over his countenance in rapid flushes. He seemed to remonstrate in dumb +show; but she, with an attitude of silence, signified her wish to seal +the conversation, and he drooped again. On the door step she paused a +moment, and hung her head pensively, as if moved by a reminiscence. The +youth had hurried away some strides. Margarita looked after him. His +arms were straightened to his flanks, his hands clenched, and straining +out from the wrist. He had the aspect of one tugging against the +restraint of a chain that suddenly let out link by link to his whole +force. + +'Farina!' she called; and wound him back with a run. 'Farina! You do +not think me ungrateful? I could not tell my father in the crowd what +you did for me. He shall know. He will thank you. He does not +understand you now, Farina. He will. Look not so sorrowful. So much I +would say to you.' + +So much was rushing on her mind, that her maidenly heart became unruly, +and warned her to beware. + +The youth stood as if listening to a nightingale of the old woods, after +the first sweet stress of her voice was in his ear. When she ceased, he +gazed into her eyes. They were no longer deep and calm like forest +lakes; the tender-glowing blue quivered, as with a spark of the young +girl's soul, in the beams of the moon then rising. + +'Oh, Margarita!' said the youth, in tones that sank to sighs: 'what am I +to win your thanks, though it were my life for such a boon!' + +He took her hand, and she did not withdraw it. Twice his lips dwelt upon +those pure fingers. + +'Margarita: you forgive me: I have been so long without hope. I have +kissed your hand, dearest of God's angels!' + +She gently restrained the full white hand in his pressure. + +'Margarita! I have thought never before death to have had this sacred +bliss. I am guerdoned in advance for every grief coming before death.' + +She dropped on him one look of a confiding softness that was to the youth +like the opened gate of the innocent garden of her heart. + +'You pardon me, Margarita? I may call you my beloved? strive, wait, +pray, hope, for you, my star of life?' + +Her face was so sweet a charity! + +'Dear love! one word!--or say nothing, but remain, and move not. So +beautiful you are! Oh, might I kneel to you here; dote on you; worship +this white hand for ever.' + +The colour had passed out of her cheeks like a blissful western red +leaving rich paleness in the sky; and with her clear brows levelled at +him, her bosom lifting more and more rapidly, she struggled against the +charm that was on her, and at last released her hand. + +'I must go. I cannot stay. Pardon you? Who might not be proud of your +love!--Farewell!' + +She turned to move away, but lingered a step from him, hastily touching +her bosom and either hand, as if to feel for a brooch or a ring. Then +she blushed, drew the silver arrow from the gathered gold-shot braids +above her neck, held it out to him, and was gone. + +Farina clutched the treasure, and reeled into the street. Half a dozen +neighbours were grouped by the door. + +'What 's the matter in Master Groschen's house now?' one asked, as he +plunged into the midst of them. + +'Matter?' quoth the joy-drunken youth, catching at the word, and mused +off into raptures; 'There never was such happiness! 'Tis paradise +within, exile without. But what exile! A star ever in the heavens to +lighten the road and cheer the path of the banished one'; and he loosened +his vest and hugged the cold shaft on his breast. + +'What are you talking and capering at, fellow?' exclaimed another: 'Can't +you answer about those shrieks, like a Christian, you that have just come +out of the house? Why, there's shrieking now! It 's a woman. Thousand +thunders! it sounds like the Frau Lisbeth's voice. What can be happening +to her?' + +'Perhaps she's on fire,' was coolly suggested between two or three. + +'Pity to see the old house burnt,' remarked one. + +'House! The woman, man! the woman!' + +'Ah!' replied the other, an ancient inhabitant of Cologne, shaking his +head, 'the house is oldest!' + +Farina, now recovering his senses, heard shrieks that he recognized as +possible in the case of Aunt Lisbeth dreading the wickedness of an +opposing sex, and alarmed by the inrush of old Gottlieb's numerous +guests. To confirm him, she soon appeared, and hung herself halfway out +of one of the upper windows, calling desperately to St. Ursula for aid. +He thanked the old lady in his heart for giving him a pretext to enter +Paradise again; but before even love could speed him, Frau Lisbeth was +seized and dragged remorselessly out of sight, and he and the rosy room +darkened together. + +Farina twice strode off to the Rhine-stream; as many times he returned. +It was hard to be away from her. It was harder to be near and not close. +His heart flamed into jealousy of the stranger. Everything threatened to +overturn his slight but lofty structure of bliss so suddenly shot into +the heavens. He had but to remember that his hand was on the silver +arrow, and a radiance broke upon his countenance, and a calm fell upon +his breast. 'It was a plight of her troth to me,' mused the youth. 'She +loves me! She would not trust her frank heart to speak. Oh, generous +young girl! what am I to dare hope for such a prize? for I never can be +worthy. And she is one who, giving her heart, gives it all. Do I not +know her? How lovely she looked thanking the stranger! The blue of her +eyes, the warm-lighted blue, seemed to grow full on the closing lids, +like heaven's gratitude. Her beauty is wonderful. What wonder, then, +if he loves her? I should think him a squire in his degree. There are +squires of high birth and low.' + +So mused Farina with his arms folded and his legs crossed in the shadow +of Margarita's chamber. Gradually he fell into a kind of hazy doze. The +houses became branded with silver arrows. All up the Cathedral stone was +a glitter, and dance, and quiver of them. In the sky mazed confusion of +arrowy flights and falls. Farina beheld himself in the service of the +Emperor watching these signs, and expecting on the morrow to win glory +and a name for Margarita. Glory and the name now won, old Gottlieb was +just on the point of paternally blessing them, when a rude pat aroused +him from the delicious moon-dream. + +'Hero by day! house-guard by night! That tells a tale,' said a cheerful +voice. + +The moon was shining down the Cathedral square and street, and Farina +saw the stranger standing solid and ruddy before him. He was at first +prompted to resent such familiar handling, but the stranger's face was +of that bland honest nature which, like the sun, wins everywhere back a +reflection of its own kindliness. + +'You are right,' replied Farina; 'so it is!' + +'Pretty wines inside there, and a rare young maiden. She has a throat +like a nightingale, and more ballads at command than a piper's wallet. +Now, if I hadn't a wife at home.' + +'You're married?' cried Farina, seizing the stranger's hand. + +'Surely; and my lass can say something for herself on the score of brave +looks, as well as the best of your German maids here, trust me.' + +Farina repressed an inclination to perform a few of those antics which +violent joy excites, and after rushing away and back, determined to give +his secret to the stranger. + +'Look,' said he in a whisper, that opens the private doors of a +confidence. + +But the stranger repeated the same word still more earnestly, and brought +Farina's eyes on a couple of dark figures moving under the Cathedral. + +'Some lamb's at stake when the wolves are prowling,' he added: ''Tis now +two hours to the midnight. I doubt if our day's work be over till we +hear the chime, friend.' + +'What interest do you take in the people of this house that you watch +over them thus?' asked Farina. + +The stranger muffled a laugh in his beard. + +'An odd question, good sooth. Why, in the first place, we like well +whatso we have done good work for. That goes for something. In the +second, I've broken bread in this house. Put down that in the reckoning. +In the third; well! in the third, add up all together, and the sum +total's at your service, young sir.' + +Farina marked him closely. There was not a spot on his face for guile to +lurk in, or suspicion to fasten on. He caught the stranger's hand. + +'You called me friend just now. Make me your friend. Look, I was going +to say: I love this maiden! I would die for her. I have loved her long. +This night she has given me a witness that my love is not vain. I am +poor. She is rich. I am poor, I said, and feel richer than the Kaiser +with this she has given me! Look, it is what our German girls slide in +their back-hair, this silver arrow!' + +'A very pretty piece of heathenish wear!' exclaimed the stranger. + +'Then, I was going to say--tell me, friend, of a way to win honour and +wealth quickly; I care not at how rare a risk. Only to wealth, or high +baronry, will her father give her!' + +The stranger buzzed on his moustache in a pause of cool pity, such as +elders assume when young men talk of conquering the world for their +mistresses: and in truth it is a calm of mind well won! + +'Things look so brisk at home here in the matter of the maiden, that I +should say, wait a while and watch your chance. But you're a boy of +pluck: I serve in the Kaiser's army, under my lord: the Kaiser will be +here in three days. If you 're of that mind then, I doubt little you may +get posted well: but, look again! there's a ripe brew yonder. Marry, you +may win your spurs this night even; who knows?--'S life! there's a tall +fellow joining those two lurkers.' + +'Can you see into the murk shadow, Sir Squire?' + +'Ay! thanks to your Styrian dungeons, where I passed a year's +apprenticeship: + + "I learnt to watch the rats and mice + At play, with never a candle-end. + They play'd so well; they sang so nice; + They dubb'd me comrade; called me friend!" + +So says the ballad of our red-beard king's captivity. All evil has a +good: + + "When our toes and chins are up, + Poison plants make sweetest cup" + +as the old wives mumble to us when we're sick. Heigho! would I were in +the little island well home again, though that were just their song of +welcome to me, as I am a Christian.' + +'Tell me your name, friend,' said Farina. + +'Guy's my name, young man: Goshawk's my title. Guy the Goshawk! so they +called me in my merry land. The cap sticks when it no longer fits. Then +I drove the arrow, and was down on my enemy ere he could ruffle a +feather. Now, what would be my nickname? + + "A change so sad, and a change so bad, + Might set both Christian and heathen a sighing: + Change is a curse, for it's all for the worse: + Age creeps up, and youth is flying!" + +and so on, with the old song. But here am I, and yonder's a game that +wants harrying; so we'll just begin to nose about them a bit.' + +He crossed to the other side of the street, and Farina followed out of +the moonlight. The two figures and the taller one were evidently +observing them; for they also changed their position and passed behind an +angle of the Cathedral. + +'Tell me how the streets cross all round the Cathedral you know the +city,' said the stranger, holding out his hand. + +Farina traced with his finger a rough map of the streets on the +stranger's hand. + +'Good! that's how my lord always marks the battlefield, and makes me show +him the enemy's posts. Forward, this way!' + +He turned from the Cathedral, and both slid along close under the eaves +and front hangings of the houses. Neither spoke. Farina felt that he +was in the hands of a skilful captain, and only regretted the want of a +weapon to make harvest of the intended surprise; for he judged clearly +that those were fellows of Werner's band on the look-out. They wound +down numberless intersections of narrow streets with irregular-built +houses standing or leaning wry-faced in row, here a quaint-beamed +cottage, there almost a mansion with gilt arms, brackets, and devices. +Oil-lamps unlit hung at intervals by the corners, near a pale Christ on +crucifix. Across the passages they hung alight. The passages and alleys +were too dusky and close for the moon in her brightest ardour to +penetrate; down the streets a slender lane of white beams could steal: +'In all conscience,' as the good citizens of Cologne declared, 'enough +for those heathen hounds and sons of the sinful who are abroad when God's +own blessed lamp is out.' So, when there was a moon, the expense of oil +was saved to the Cologne treasury, thereby satisfying the virtuous. + +After incessant doubling here and there, listening to footfalls, and +themselves eluding a chase which their suspicious movements aroused, they +came upon the Rhine. A full flood of moonlight burnished the knightly +river in glittering scales, and plates, and rings, as headlong it rolled +seaward on from under crag and banner of old chivalry and rapine. Both +greeted the scene with a burst of pleasure. The grey mist of flats on +the south side glimmered delightful to their sight, coming from that +drowsy crowd and press of habitations; but the solemn glory of the river, +delaying not, heedless, impassioned-pouring on in some sublime conference +between it and heaven to the great marriage of waters, deeply shook +Farina's enamoured heart. The youth could not restrain his tears, as if +a magic wand had touched him. He trembled with love; and that delicate +bliss which maiden hope first showers upon us like a silver rain when she +has taken the shape of some young beauty and plighted us her fair +fleeting hand, tenderly embraced him. + +As they were emerging into the spaces of the moon, a cheer from the +stranger arrested Farina. + +'Seest thou? on the wharf there! that is the very one, the tallest of the +three. Lakin! but we shall have him.' + +Wrapt in a long cloak, with low pointed cap and feather, stood the person +indicated. He appeared to be meditating on the flow of the water, +unaware of hostile presences, or quite regardless of them. There was a +majesty in his height and air, which made the advance of the two upon him +more wary and respectful than their first impulse had counselled. They +could not read his features, which were mantled behind voluminous folds: +all save a pair of very strange eyes, that, even as they gazed directly +downward, seemed charged with restless fiery liquid. + +The two were close behind him: Guy the Goshawk prepared for one of those +fatal pounces on the foe that had won him his title. He consulted Farina +mutely, who Nodded readiness; but the instant after, a cry of anguish +escaped from the youth: + +'Lost! gone! lost! Where is it? where! the arrow! The Silver Arrow! +My Margarita!' + +Ere the echoes of his voice had ceased lamenting into the distance, they +found themselves alone on the wharf. + + + + +THE LILIES OF THE VALLEY + +'He opened like a bat!' said the stranger. + +'His shadow was red!' said Farina. + +'He was off like an arrow!' said the stranger. + +'Oh! pledge of my young love, how could I lose thee!' exclaimed the +youth, and his eyes were misted with tears. + +Guy the Goshawk shook his brown locks gravely. + +'Bring me a man, and I 'll stand up against him, whoever he be, like a +man; but this fellow has an ill scent and foreign ways about him, that he +has! His eye boils all down my backbone and tingles at my finger-tips. +Jesu, save us!' + +'Save us!' repeated Farina, with the echo of a deadened soul. + +They made the sign of the Cross, and purified the place with holy +ejaculations. + +'I 've seen him at last; grant it be for the last time! That's my +prayer, in the name of the Virgin and Trinity,' said Guy. 'And now let's +retrace our steps: perchance we shall hunt up that bauble of yours, but +I'm not fit for mortal work this night longer.' + +Burdened by their black encounter, the two passed again behind the +Cathedral. Farina's hungry glances devoured each footmark of their +track. Where the moon held no lantern for him, he went on his knees, and +groped for his lost treasure with a miser's eager patience of agony, +drawing his hand slowly over the stony kerb and between the interstices +of the thick-sown flints, like an acute-feeling worm. Despair grew heavy +in his breast. At every turning he invoked some good new saint to aid +him, and ran over all the propitiations his fancy could suggest and his +religious lore inspire. By-and-by they reached the head of the street +where Margarita dwelt. The moon was dipping down, and paler, as if +touched with a warning of dawn. Chill sighs from the open land passed +through the spaces of the city. On certain coloured gables and wood- +crossed fronts, the white light lingered; but mostly the houses were +veiled in dusk, and Gottlieb's house was confused in the twilight with +those of his neighbours, notwithstanding its greater stateliness and the +old grandeur of its timbered bulk. They determined to take up their +position there again, and paced on, Farina with his head below his +shoulders, and Guy nostril in air, as if uneasy in his sense of smell. + +On the window-ledge of a fair-fitted domicile stood a flower-pot, a rude +earthen construction in the form of a river-barge, wherein grew some +valley lilies that drooped their white bells over the sides. + +The Goshawk eyed them wistfully. + +'I must smell those blessed flowers if I wish to be saved!' and he +stamped resolve with his staff. + +Moved by this exclamation, Farina gazed up at them. + +'How like a company of maidens they look floating in the vessel of life!' +he said. + +Guy curiously inspected Farina and the flower-pot, shrugged, and with his +comrade's aid, mounted to a level with it, seized the prize and +redescended. + +'There,' he cried, between long luxurious sniffs, 'that chases him out of +the nostril sooner than aught else, the breath of a fresh lass-like +flower! I was tormented till now by the reek of the damned rising from +under me. This is heaven's own incense, I think !' + +And Guy inhaled the flowers and spake prettily to them. + +'They have a melancholy sweetness, friend,' said Farina. 'I think of +whispering Fays, and Elf, and Erl, when their odour steals through me. +Do not you?' + +'Nay, nor hope to till my wits are clean gone,' was the Goshawk's reply. +'To my mind, 'tis an honest flower, and could I do good service by the +young maiden who there set it, I should be rendering back good service +done; for if that flower has not battled the devil in my nose this night, +and beaten him, my head's a medlar!' + +'I scarce know whether as a devout Christian I should listen to that, +friend,' Farina mildly remonstrated. 'Lilies are indeed emblems of the +saints; but then they are not poor flowers of earth, being transfigured, +lustrous unfadingly. Oh, Cross and Passion! with what silver serenity +thy glory enwraps me, gazing on these fair bells! I look on the white +sea of the saints. I am enamoured of fleshly anguish and martyrdom. All +beauty is that worn by wan-smiling faces wherein Hope sits as a crown on +Sorrow, and the pale ebb of mortal life is the twilight of joy +everlasting. Colourless peace! Oh, my beloved! So walkest thou for my +soul on the white sea ever at night, clad in the straight fall of thy +spotless virgin linen; bearing in thy hand the lily, and leaning thy +cheek to it, where the human rose is softened to a milky bloom of red, +the espousals of heaven with earth; over thee, moving with thee, a wreath +of sapphire stars, and the solitude of purity around!' + +'Ah!' sighed the Goshawk, dandling his flower-pot; 'the moon gives +strokes as well's the sun. I' faith, moon-struck and maid-struck in one! +He'll be asking for his head soon. This dash of the monk and the +minstrel is a sure sign. That 's their way of loving in this land: they +all go mad, straight off. I never heard such talk.' + +Guy accompanied these remarks with a pitiful glance at his companion. + +'Come, Sir Lover! lend me a help to give back what we've borrowed to its +rightful owner. 'S blood! but I feel an appetite. This night-air takes +me in the wind like a battering ram. I thought I had laid in a stout +four-and-twenty hours' stock of Westphalian Wurst at Master Groschen's +supper-table. Good stuff, washed down with superior Rhine wine; say your +Liebfrauenmilch for my taste; though, when I first tried it, I grimaced +like a Merry-Andrew, and remembered roast beef and Glo'ster ale in my +prayers.' + +The Goshawk was in the act of replacing the pot of lilies, when a blow +from a short truncheon, skilfully flung, struck him on the neck and +brought him to the ground. With him fell the lilies. He glared to the +right and left, and grasped the broken flower-pot for a return missile; +but no enemy was in view to test his accuracy of aim. + +The deep-arched doorways showed their empty recesses the windows slept. + +'Has that youth played me false?' thought the discomfited squire, as he +leaned quietly on his arm. Farina was nowhere near. + +Guy was quickly reassured. + +'By my fay, now! that's a fine thing! and a fine fellow! and a fleet +foot! That lad 'll rise! He'll be a squire some day. Look at him. +Bowels of a'Becket! 'tis a sight! I'd rather see that, now, than old +Groschen 's supper-table groaning with Wurst again, and running a river +of Rudesheimer! Tussle on! I'll lend a hand if there's occasion; but +you shall have the honour, boy, an you can win it.' + +This crying on of the hound was called forth by a chase up the street, in +which the Goshawk beheld Farina pursue and capture a stalwart runaway, +who refused with all his might to be brought back, striving every two and +three of his tiptoe steps to turn against the impulse Farina had got on +his neck and nether garments. + +'Who 'd have thought the lad was so wiry and mettlesome, with his soft +face, blue eyes, and lank locks? but a green mead has more in it than +many a black mountain. Hail, and well done! if I could dub you knight, +I would: trust me!' and he shook Farina by the hand. + +Farina modestly stood aside, and allowed the Goshawk to confront his +prisoner. + +'So, Sir Shy-i'the-dark! gallant Stick-i'the-back! Squire Truncheon, +and Knight of the noble order of Quicksilver Legs! just take your stand +at the distance you were off me when you discharged this instrument at my +head. By 'r lady! I smart a scratch to pay you in coin, and it's lucky +for you the coin is small, or you might reckon on it the same, trust me. +Now, back!' + +The Goshawk lunged out with the truncheon, but the prisoner displayed no +hesitation in complying, and fell back about a space of fifteen yards. + +'I suppose he guesses I've never done the stupid trick before,' mused +Guy, 'or he would not be so sharp.' Observing that Farina had also +fallen back in a line as guard, Guy motioned him to edge off to the right +more, bawling, 'Never mind why!' + +'Now,' thought Guy, 'if I were sure of notching him, I'd do the speech +part first; but as I'm not--throwing truncheons being no honourable +profession anywhere--I'll reserve that. The rascal don't quail. We'll +see how long he stands firm.' + +The Goshawk cleared his wrist, fixed his eye, and swung the truncheon +meditatively to and fro by one end. He then launched off the shoulder a +mighty down-fling, calmly, watching it strike the prisoner to earth, like +an ox under the hammer. + +'A hit!' said he, and smoothed his wrist. + +Farina knelt by the body, and lifted the head on his breast. 'Berthold! +Berthold!' he cried; 'no further harm shall hap to you, man! Speak!' + +'You ken the scapegrace?' said Guy, sauntering up. + +''Tis Berthold Schmidt, son of old Schmidt, the great goldsmith of +Cologne.' + +'St. Dunstan was not at his elbow this time!' + +'A rival of mine,' whispered Farina. + +'Oho!' and the Goshawk wound a low hiss at his tongue's tip. 'Well! as +I should have spoken if his ears had been open: Justice struck the blow; +and a gentle one. This comes of taking a flying shot, and not standing +up fair. And that seems all that can be said. Where lives he?' + +Farina pointed to the house of the Lilies. + +'Beshrew me! the dog has some right on his side. Whew! yonder he lives? +He took us for some night-prowlers. Why not come up fairly, and ask my +business? + +Smelling a flower is not worth a broken neck, nor defending your premises +quite deserving a hole in the pate. Now, my lad, you see what comes of +dealing with cut and run blows; and let this be a warning to you.' + +They took the body by head and feet, and laid him at the door of his +father's house. Here the colour came to his cheek, and they wiped off +the streaks of blood that stained him. Guy proved he could be tender +with a fallen foe, and Farina with an ill-fated rival. It was who could +suggest the soundest remedies, or easiest postures. One lent a kerchief +and nursed him; another ran to the city fountain and fetched him water. +Meantime the moon had dropped, and morning, grey and beamless, looked on +the house-peaks and along the streets with steadier eye. They now both +discerned a body of men, far down, fronting Gottlieb's house, and drawn +up in some degree of order. All their charity forsook them at once. + +'Possess thyself of the truncheon,' said Guy: 'You see it can damage. +More work before breakfast, and a fine account I must give of myself to +my hostess of the Three Holy Kings!' + +Farina recovered the destructive little instrument. + +'I am ready,' said he. 'But hark! there's little work for us there, I +fancy. Those be lads of Cologne, no grunters of the wild. 'Tis the +White Rose Club. Always too late for service.' + +Voices singing a hunting glee, popular in that age, swelled up the clear +morning air; and gradually the words became distinct. + + The Kaiser went a-hunting, + A-hunting, tra-ra: + With his bugle-horn at springing morn, + The Kaiser trampled bud and thorn: + Tra-ra! + + + And the dew shakes green as the horsemen rear, + And a thousand feathers they flutter with fear; + And a pang drives quick to the heart of the deer; + For the Kaiser's out a-hunting, + Tra-ra! + Ta, ta, ta, ta, + Tra-ra, tra-ra, + Ta-ta, tra-ra, tra-ra! + +the owner of the truncheon awoke to these reviving tones, and uttered a +faint responsive 'Tra-ra!' + +'Hark again!' said Farina, in reply to the commendation of the Goshawk, +whose face was dimpled over with the harmony. + + The wild boar lay a-grunting, + A-grunting, tra-ra! + And, boom! comes the Kaiser to hunt up me? + Or, queak! the small birdie that hops on the tree? + Tra-ra! + O birdie, and boar, and deer, lie tame! + For a maiden in bloom, or a full-blown dame, + Are the daintiest prey, and the windingest game, + When Kaisers go a-hunting, + Tra-ra! + Ha, ha, ha, ha, + Tra-ra, tra-ra, + Ha-ha, tra-ra, tra-ra! + +The voices held long on the last note, and let it die in a forest +cadence. + +''Fore Gad! well done. Hurrah! Tra-ra, ha-ha, tra-ra! That's a trick +we're not half alive to at home,' said Guy. 'I feel friendly with these +German lads.' + +The Goshawk's disposition toward German lads was that moment harshly +tested by a smart rap on the shoulder from an end of German oak, and a +proclamation that he was prisoner of the hand that gave the greeting, in +the name of the White Rose Club. Following that, his staff was wrested +from him by a dozen stout young fellows, who gave him no time to get his +famous distance for defence against numbers; and he and Farina were +marched forthwith to the chorusing body in front of Gottlieb Groschen's +house. + + + + +THE MISSIVES + +Of all the inmates, Gottlieb had slept most with the day on his eyelids, +for Werner hung like a nightmare over him. Margarita lay and dreamed in +rose-colour, and if she thrilled on her pillowed silken couch like a +tense-strung harp, and fretted drowsily in little leaps and starts, it +was that a bird lay in her bosom, panting and singing through the night, +and that he was not to be stilled, but would musically utter the sweetest +secret thoughts of a love-bewitched maiden. Farina's devotion she knew +his tenderness she divined: his courage she had that day witnessed. The +young girl no sooner felt that she could love worthily, than she loved +with her whole strength. Muffed and remote came the hunting-song under +her pillow, and awoke dreamy delicate curves in her fair face, as it +thinned but did not banish her dream. Aunt Lisbeth also heard the song, +and burst out of her bed to see that the door and window were secured +against the wanton Kaiser. Despite her trials, she had taken her spell +of sleep; but being possessed of some mystic maiden belief that in cases +of apprehended peril from man, bed was a rock of refuge and fortified +defence, she crept back there, and allowed the sun to rise without her. +Gottlieb's voice could not awaken her to the household duties she loved +to perform with such a doleful visage. She heard him open his window, +and parley in angry tones with the musicians below. + +'Decoys!' muttered Aunt Lisbeth; 'be thou alive to them, Gottlieb!' + +He went downstairs and opened the street door, whereupon the scolding and +railing commenced anew. + +'Thou hast given them vantage, Gottlieb, brother mine,' she complained; +'and the good heavens only can say what may result from such +indiscreetness.' + +A silence, combustible with shuffling of feet in the passage and on the +stairs, dinned horrors into Aunt Lisbeth's head. + +'It was just that sound in the left wing of Hollenbogenblitz,' she said: +'only then it was night and not morning. Ursula preserve me!' + +'Why, Lisbeth! Lisbeth!' cried Gottlieb from below. 'Come down! 'tis +full five o' the morning. Here's company; and what are we to do without +the woman?' + +'Ah, Gottlieb! that is like men! They do not consider how different it +is for us!' which mysterious sentence being uttered to herself alone, +enjoyed a meaning it would elsewhere have been denied. + +Aunt Lisbeth dressed, and met Margarita descending. They exchanged the +good-morning of young maiden and old. + +'Go thou first,' said Aunt Lisbeth. + +Margarita gaily tripped ahead. + +'Girl!' cried Aunt Lisbeth, 'what's that thing in thy back hair?' + +'I have borrowed Lieschen's arrow, aunt. Mine has had an accident.' + +'Lieschen's arrow! An accident! Now I will see to that after breakfast, +Margarita.' + +'Tra-ra, ta-ta, tra-ra, tra-ra,' sang Margarita. + + 'The wild boar lay a-grunting, + A-grunting, tra-ra.' + +'A maiden's true and proper ornament! Look at mine, child! I have worn +it fifty years. May I deserve to wear it till I am called! O Margarita! +trifle not with that symbol.' + + '"O birdie, and boar, and deer, lie tame!" + +I am so happy, aunty.' + +'Nice times to be happy in, Margarita.' + + "Be happy in Spring, sweet maidens all, + For Autumn's chill will early fall." + +So sings the Minnesinger, aunty; and + + '"A maiden in the wintry leaf + Will spread her own disease of grief." + +I love the Minnesingers! Dear, sweet-mannered men they are! Such +lovers! And men of deeds as well as song: sword on one side and harp on +the other. They fight till set of sun, and then slacken their armour to +waft a ballad to their beloved by moonlight, covered with stains of +battle as they are, and weary!' + +'What a girl! Minnesingers! Yes; I know stories of those Minnesingers. +They came to the castle--Margarita, a bead of thy cross is broken. I +will attend to it. Wear the pearl one till I mend this. May'st thou +never fall in the way of Minnesingers. They are not like Werner's troop. +They do not batter at doors: they slide into the house like snakes.' + +'Lisbeth! Lisbeth!' they heard Gottlieb calling impatiently. + +'We come, Gottlieb!' and in a low murmur Margarita heard her say: 'May +this day pass without trouble and shame to the pious and the chaste.' + +Margarita knew the voice of the stranger before she had opened the door, +and on presenting herself, the hero gave her a guardian-like salute. + +'One may see,' he said, 'that it requires better men than those of Werner +to drive away the rose from that cheek.' + +Gottlieb pressed the rosy cheek to his shoulder and patted her. + +'What do you think, Grete? You have now forty of the best lads in +Cologne enrolled to protect you, and keep guard over the house night and +day. There! What more could a Pfalzgrafin ask, now? And voluntary +service; all to be paid with a smile, which I daresay my lady won't +refuse them. Lisbeth, you know our friend. Fear him not, good Lisbeth, +and give us breakfast. Well, sweet chuck, you're to have royal honours +paid you. I warrant they've begun good work already in locking up that +idle moony vagabond, Farina--' + +'Him? What for, my father? How dared they! What has he done?' + +'O, start not, my fairy maid! A small matter of breakage, pet! He tried +to enter Cunigonde Schmidt's chamber, and knocked down her pot of lilies: +for which Berthold Schmidt knocked him down, and our friend here, out of +good fellowship, knocked down Berthold. However, the chief offender is +marched off to prison by your trusty guard, and there let him cool +himself. Berthold shall tell you the tale himself: he'll be here to +breakfast, and receive your orders, mistress commander-in-chief.' + +The Goshawk had his eye on Margarita. Her teeth were tight down on her +nether lip, and her whole figure had a strange look of awkwardness, she +was so divided with anger. + +'As witness of the affair, I think I shall make a clearer statement, fair +maiden,' he interposed. 'In the first place, I am the offender. We +passed under the window of the Fraulein Schmidt, and 'twas I mounted to +greet the lilies. One shoot of them is in my helm, and here let me +present them to a worthier holder.' + +He offered the flowers with a smile, and Margarita took them, radiant +with gratitude. + +'Our friend Berthold,' he continued, 'thought proper to aim a blow at me +behind my back, and then ran for his comrades. He was caught, and by my +gallant young hero, Farina; concerning whose character I regret that your +respected father and I differ: for, on the faith of a soldier and true +man, he's the finest among the fine fellows I've yet met in Germany, +trust me. So, to cut the story short, execution was done upon Berthold +by my hand, for an act of treachery. He appears to be a sort of captain +of one of the troops, and not affectionately disposed to Farina; for the +version of the affair you have heard from your father is a little +invention of Master Berthold's own. To do him justice, he seemed equally +willing to get me under the cold stone; but a word from your good father +changed the current; and as I thought I could serve our friend better +free than behind bars, I accepted liberty. Pshaw! I should have +accepted it any way, to tell the truth, for your German dungeons are +mortal shivering ratty places. So rank me no hero, fair Mistress +Margarita, though the temptation to seem one in such sweet eyes was +beginning to lead me astray. And now, as to our business in the streets +at this hour, believe the best of us.' + +'I will! I do!' said Margarita. + +'Lisbeth! Lisbeth!' called Gottlieb. 'Breakfast, little sister! our +champion is starving. He asks for wurst, milk-loaves, wine, and all thy +rarest conserves. Haste, then, for the honour of Cologne is at stake.' + +Aunt Lisbeth jingled her keys in and out, and soon that harmony drew a +number of domestics with platters of swine flesh, rolls of white wheaten +bread, the perpetual worst, milk, wine, barley-bread, and household +stores of dainties in profusion, all sparkling on silver, relieved by +spotless white cloth. Gottlieb beheld such a sunny twinkle across the +Goshawk's face at this hospitable array, that he gave the word of onset +without waiting for Berthold, and his guest immediately fell to, and did +not relax in his exertions for a full half-hour by the Cathedral clock, +eschewing the beer with a wry look made up of scorn and ruefulness, and +drinking a well-brimmed health in Rhine wine all round. Margarita was +pensive: Aunt Lisbeth on her guard. Gottlieb remembered Charles the +Great's counsel to Archbishop Turpin, and did his best to remain on earth +one of its lords dominant. + +'Poor Berthold!' said he. ''Tis a good lad, and deserves his seat at my +table oftener. I suppose the flower-pot business has detained him. +We'll drink to him: eh, Grete?' + +'Drink to him, dear father!--but here he is to thank you in person.' + +Margarita felt a twinge of pity as Berthold entered. The livid stains of +his bruise deepened about his eyes, and gave them a wicked light whenever +they were fixed intently; but they looked earnest; and spoke of a combat +in which he could say that he proved no coward and was used with some +cruelty. She turned on the Goshawk a mute reproach; yet smiled and loved +him well when she beheld him stretch a hand of welcome and proffer a +brotherly glass to Berthold. The rich goldsmith's son was occupied in +studying the horoscope of his fortunes in Margarita's eyes; but when +Margarita directed his attention to Guy, he turned to him with a glance +of astonishment that yielded to cordial greeting. + +'Well done, Berthold, my brave boy! All are friends who sit at table,' +said Gottlieb. 'In any case, at my table: + + "'Tis a worthy foe + Forgives the blow + Was dealt him full and fairly," + +says the song; and the proverb takes it up with, "A generous enemy is a +friend on the wrong side"; and no one's to blame for that, save old Dame +Fortune. So now a bumper to this jovial make-up between you. Lisbeth! +you must drink it.' + +The little woman bowed melancholy obedience. + +'Why did you fling and run?' whispered Guy to Berthold. + +'Because you were two against one.' + +'Two against one, man! Why, have you no such thing as fair play in this +land of yours? Did you think I should have taken advantage of that?' + +'How could I tell who you were, or what you would do?' muttered Berthold, +somewhat sullenly. + +'Truly no, friend! So you ran to make yourself twenty to two? But don't +be down on the subject. I was going to say, that though I treated you in +a manner upright, 'twas perhaps a trifle severe, considering your youth: +but an example's everything; and I must let you know in confidence, that +no rascal truncheon had I flung in my life before; so, you see, I gave +you all the chances.' + +Berthold moved his lips in reply; but thinking of the figure of defeat he +was exhibiting before Margarita, caused him to estimate unfavourably what +chances had stood in his favour. + +The health was drunk. Aunt Lisbeth touched the smoky yellow glass with a +mincing lip, and beckoned Margarita to withdraw. + +'The tapestry, child!' she said. 'Dangerous things are uttered after the +third glass, I know, Margarita.' + +'Do you call my champion handsome, aunt?' + +'I was going to speak to you about him, Margarita. If I remember, he has +rough, good looks, as far as they go. Yes: but thou, maiden, art thou +thinking of him? I have thrice watched him wink; and that, as we know, +is a habit of them that have sold themselves. And what is frail +womankind to expect from such a brawny animal?' + + 'And oh! to lace his armour up, + And speed him to the field; + To pledge him in a kissing-cup, + The knight that will not yield! + +I am sure he is tender, aunt. Notice how gentle he looks now and then.' + +'Thou girl! Yes, I believe she is madly in love with him. Tender, and +gentle! So is the bear when you're outside his den; but enter it, +maiden, and try! Thou good Ursula, preserve me from such a fate.' + +'Fear not, dear aunt! Have not a fear of it! Besides, it is not always +the men that are bad. You must not forget Dalilah, and Lot's wife, and +Pfalzgrafin Jutta, and the Baroness who asked for a piece of poor Kraut. +But, let us work, let us work!' + +Margarita sat down before Siegfried, and contemplated the hero. For the +first time, she marked a resemblance in his features to Farina: the same +long yellow hair scattered over his shoulders as that flowing from under +Siegfried's helm; the blue eyes, square brows, and regular outlines. +'This is a marvel,' thought Margarita. 'And Farina! it was to watch over +me that he roamed the street last night, my best one! Is he not +beautiful?' and she looked closer at Siegfried. + +Aunt Lisbeth had begun upon the dragon with her usual method, and was +soon wandering through skeleton halls of the old palatial castle in +Bohemia. The woolly tongue of the monster suggested fresh horrors to +her, and if Margarita had listened, she might have had fair excuses to +forget her lover's condition; but her voice only did service like a piece +of clock-work, and her mind was in the prison with Farina. She was long +debating how to win his release; and meditated so deeply, and exclaimed +in so many bursts of impatience, that Aunt Lisbeth found her heart +melting to the maiden. 'Now,' said she, 'that is a well-known story about +the Electress Dowager of Bavaria, when she came on a visit to the castle; +and, my dear child, be it a warning. Terrible, too!' and the little woman +shivered pleasantly. 'She had--I may tell you this, Margarita--yes, she +had been false to her wedded husband.--You understand, maiden; or, no! +you do not understand: I understand it only partly, mind. +False, I say----' + +'False--not true: go on, dear aunty,' said Margarita, catching the word. + +'I believe she knows as much as I do!' ejaculated Aunt Lisbeth; 'such are +girls nowadays. When I was young-oh! for a maiden to know anything then +--oh! it was general reprobation. No one thought of confessing it. We +blushed and held down our eyes at the very idea. Well, the Electress! +she was--you must guess. So she called for her caudle at eleven o'clock +at night. What do you think that was? Well, there was spirit in it: not +to say nutmeg, and lemon, and peach kernels. She wanted me to sit with +her, but I begged my mistress to keep me from the naughty woman: and no +friend of Hilda of Bayern was Bertha of Bohmen, you may be sure. Oh! +the things she talked while she was drinking her caudle. + +Isentrude sat with her,'and said it was fearful!--beyond blasphemy! and +that she looked like a Bible witch, sitting up drinking and swearing and +glaring in her nightclothes and nightcap. She was on a journey into +Hungary, and claimed the hospitality of the castle on her way there. +Both were widows. Well, it was a quarter to twelve. The Electress +dropped back on her pillow, as she always did when she had finished the +candle. Isentrude covered her over, heaped up logs on the fire, wrapped +her dressing-gown about her, and prepared to sleep. It was Winter, and +the wind howled at the doors, and rattled the windows, and shook the +arras--Lord help us! Outside was all snow, and nothing but forest; as +you saw when you came to me there, Gretelchen. Twelve struck. Isentrude +was dozing; but she says that after the last stroke she woke with cold. +A foggy chill hung in the room. She looked at the Electress, who had not +moved. The fire burned feebly, and seemed weighed upon: Herr Je!--she +thought she heard a noise. No. Quite quiet! As heaven preserve her, +says slip, the smell in that room grew like an open grave, clammily +putrid. Holy Virgin! This time she was certain she heard a noise; but +it seemed on both sides of her. There was the great door leading to the +first landing and state-room; and opposite exactly there was the panel of +the secret passage. The noises seemed to advance as if step by step, and +grew louder in each ear as she stood horrified on the marble of the +hearth. She looked at the Electress again, and her eyes were wide open; +but for all Isentrude's calling, she would not wake. Only think! Now +the noise increased, and was a regular tramp-grate, tramp-screw sound- +coming nearer and nearer: Saints of mercy! The apartment was choking +with vapours. Isentrude made a dart, and robed herself behind a curtain +of the bed just as the two doors opened. She could see through a slit in +the woven work, and winked her eyes which she had shut close on hearing +the scream of the door-hinges--winked her eyes to catch a sight for +moment--we are such sinful, curious creatures!--What she saw then, she +says she shall never forget; nor I! As she was a living woman, there she +saw the two dead princes, the Prince Palatine of Bohemia and the Elector +of Bavaria, standing front to front at the foot of the bed, all in white +armour, with drawn swords, and attendants holding pine-torches. Neither +of them spoke. Their vizors were down; but she knew them by their arms +and bearing: both tall, stately presences, good knights in their day, and +had fought against the Infidel! So one of them pointed to the bed, and +then a torch was lowered, and the fight commenced. Isentrude saw the +sparks fly, and the steel struck till it was shattered; but they fought +on, not caring for wounds, and snorting with fury as they grew hotter. +They fought a whole hour. The poor girl was so eaten up with looking on, +that she let go the curtain and stood quite exposed among them. So, to +steady herself, she rested her hand on the bed-side; and--think what she +felt--a hand as cold as ice locked hers, and get from it she could not! +That instant one of the princes fell. It was Bohmen. Bayern sheathed +his sword, and waved his hand, and the attendants took up the slaughtered +ghost, feet and shoulders, and bore him to the door of the secret +passage, while Bayern strode after--' + +'Shameful!' exclaimed Margarita. 'I will speak to Berthold as he +descends. I hear him coming. He shall do what I wish.' + +'Call it dreadful, Grete! Dreadful it was. If Berthold would like to +sit and hear--Ah! she is gone. A good girl! and of a levity only on the +surface.' + +Aunt Lisbeth heard Margarita's voice rapidly addressing Berthold. His +reply was low and brief. 'Refuses to listen to anything of the sort,' +Aunt Lisbeth interpreted it. Then he seemed to be pleading, and +Margarita uttering short answers. 'I trust 'tis nothing a maiden should +not hear,' the little lady exclaimed with a sigh. + +The door opened, and Lieschen stood at the entrance. + +'For Fraulein Margarita,' she said, holding a letter halfway out. + +'Give it,' Aunt Lisbeth commanded. + +The woman hesitated--''Tis for the Fraulein.' + +'Give it, I tell thee!' and Aunt Lisbeth eagerly seized the missive, and +subjected it to the ordeal of touch. It was heavy, and contained +something hard. Long pensive pressures revealed its shape on the paper. +It was an arrow. 'Go!' said she to the woman, and, once alone, began, +bee-like, to buzz all over it, and finally entered. It contained +Margarita's Silver Arrow. 'The art of that girl!' And the writing said: + + 'SWEETEST MAIDEN! + + 'By this arrow of our betrothal, I conjure thee to meet me in all + haste without the western gate, where, burning to reveal to thee + most urgent tidings that may not be confided to paper, now waits, + petitioning the saints, thy + + 'FARINA.' + +Aunt Lisbeth placed letter and arrow in a drawer; locked it; and 'always +thought so.' She ascended the stairs to consult with Gottlieb. Roars of +laughter greeted her just as she lifted the latch, and she retreated +abashed. + +There was no time to lose. Farina must be caught in the act of waiting +for Margarita, and by Gottlieb, or herself. Gottlieb was revelling. +'May this be a warning to thee, Gottlieb,' murmured Lisbeth, as she +hooded her little body in Margarita's fur-cloak, and determined that +she would be the one to confound Farina. + +Five minutes later Margarita returned. Aunt Lisbeth was gone. The +dragon still lacked a tip to his forked tongue, and a stream of fiery +threads dangled from the jaws of the monster. Another letter was brought +into the room by Lieschen. + +'For Aunt Lisbeth,' said Margarita, reading the address. 'Who can it be +from?' + +'She does not stand pressing about your letters,' said the woman; and +informed Margarita of the foregoing missive. + +'You say she drew an arrow from it?' said Margarita, with burning face. +'Who brought this? tell me!' and just waiting to hear it was Farina's +mother, she tore the letter open, and read: + + 'DEAREST LISBETH! + + 'Thy old friend writes to thee; she that has scarce left eyes to see + the words she writes. Thou knowest we are a fallen house, through + the displeasure of the Emperor on my dead husband. My son, Farina, + is my only stay, and well returns to me the blessings I bestow upon + him. Some call him idle: some think him too wise. I swear to thee, + Lisbeth, he is only good. His hours are devoted to the extraction + of essences--to no black magic. Now he is in trouble-in prison. + The shadow that destroyed his dead father threatens him. Now, by + our old friendship, beloved Lisbeth! intercede with Gottlieb, that + he may plead for my son before the Emperor when he comes--' + +Margarita read no more. She went to the window, and saw her guard +marshalled outside. She threw a kerchief over her head, and left the +house by the garden gate. + + + + +THE MONK + +By this time the sun stood high over Cologne. The market-places were +crowded with buyers and sellers, mixed with a loitering swarm of +soldiery, for whose thirsty natures winestalls had been tumbled up. +Barons and knights of the empire, bravely mounted and thickly followed, +poured hourly into Cologne from South Germany and North. Here, staring +Suabians, and round-featured warriors of the East Kingdom, swaggered up +and down, patting what horses came across them, for lack of occupation +for their hands. Yonder, huge Pomeranians, with bosks of beard stiffened +out square from the chin, hurtled mountainous among the peaceable +inhabitants. Troopers dismounted went straddling, in tight hose and +loose, prepared to drink good-will to whomsoever would furnish the best +quality liquor for that solemn pledge, and equally ready to pick a +quarrel with them that would not. It was a scene of flaring feathers, +wide-flapped bonnets, flaunting hose, blue and battered steel plates, +slashed woollen haunch-bags, leather-leggings, ensigns, and imperious +boots and shoulders. Margarita was too hurried in her mind to be +conscious of an imprudence; but her limbs trembled, and she instinctively +quickened her steps. When she stood under the sign of the Three Holy +Kings, where dwelt Farina's mother, she put up a fervent prayer of +thanks, and breathed freely. + +'I had expected a message from Lisbeth,' said Frau Farina; 'but thou, +good heart! thou wilt help us?' + +'All that may be done by me I will do,' replied Margarita; 'but his +mother yearns to see him, and I have come to bear her company.' + +The old lady clasped her hands and wept. + +'Has he found so good a friend, my poor boy! And trust me, dear maiden, +he is not unworthy, for better son never lived, and good son, good all! +Surely we will go to him, but not as thou art. I will dress thee. Such +throngs are in the streets: I heard them clattering in early this +morning. Rest, dear heart, till I return.' + +Margarita had time to inspect the single sitting-room in which her lover +lived. It was planted with bottles, and vases, and pipes, and cylinders, +piling on floor, chair, and table. She could not suppress a slight +surprise of fear, for this display showed a dealing with hidden things, +and a summoning of scattered spirits. It was this that made his brow so +pale, and the round of his eye darker than youth should let it be! She +dismissed the feeling, and assumed her own bright face as Dame Farina +reappeared, bearing on her arm a convent garb, and other apparel. +Margarita suffered herself to be invested in the white and black robes of +the denial of life. + +'There!' said the Frau Farina, 'and to seal assurance, I have engaged a +guard to accompany us. He was sorely bruised in a street combat +yesterday, and was billeted below, where I nursed and tended him, and he +is grateful, as man should be-though I did little, doing my utmost--and +with him near us we have nought to fear.' + +'Good,' said Margarita, and they kissed and departed. The guard was +awaiting them outside. + +'Come, my little lady, and with thee the holy sister! 'Tis no step from +here, and I gage to bring ye safe, as sure as my name's Schwartz Thier!-- +Hey? The good sister's dropping. Look, now! I'll carry her.' + +Margarita recovered her self-command before he could make good this +offer. + +'Only let us hasten there,' she gasped. + +The Thier strode on, and gave them safe-conduct to the prison where +Farina was confined, being near one of the outer forts of the city. + +'Thank and dismiss him,' whispered Margarita. + +'Nay! he will wait-wilt thou not, friend! We shall not be long, though +it is my son I visit here,' said Frau Farina. + +'Till to-morrow morning, my little lady! The lion thanked him that +plucked the thorn from his foot, and the Thier may be black, but he's not +ungrateful, nor a worse beast than the lion.' + +They entered the walls and left him. + +For the first five minutes Schwartz Thier found employment for his +faculties by staring at the shaky, small-paned windows of the +neighbourhood. He persevered in this, after all novelty had been +exhausted, from an intuitive dread of weariness. There was nothing to +see. An old woman once bobbed out of an attic, and doused the flints +with water. Harassed by increasing dread of the foul nightmare of +nothing-to-do, the Thier endeavoured to establish amorous intelligence +with her. She responded with an indignant projection of the underjaw, +evanishing rapidly. There was no resource left him but to curse her with +extreme heartiness. The Thier stamped his right leg, and then his left, +and remembered the old woman as a grievance five minutes longer. When +she was clean forgotten, he yawned. Another spouse of the moment was +wanted, to be wooed, objurgated, and regretted. The prison-gate was in a +secluded street. Few passengers went by, and those who did edged away +from the ponderous, wanton-eyed figure of lazy mischief lounging there, +as neatly as they well could. The Thier hailed two or three. One took +to his legs, another bowed, smirked, gave him a kindly good-day, and +affected to hear no more, having urgent business in prospect. The Thier +was a faithful dog, but the temptation to betray his trust and pursue +them was mighty. He began to experience an equal disposition to cry and +roar. He hummed a ballad + + 'I swore of her I'd have my will, + And with him I'd have my way: + I learn'd my cross-bow over the hill: + Now what does my lady say? + +Give me the good old cross-bow, after all, and none of these lumbering +puff-and-bangs that knock you down oftener than your man! + + 'A cross stands in the forest still, + And a cross in the churchyard grey: + My curse on him who had his will, + And on him who had his way! + +Good beginning, bad ending! 'Tisn't so always. "Many a cross has the +cross-bow built," they say. I wish I had mine, now, to peg off that. +old woman, or somebody. I'd swear she's peeping at me over the gable, +or behind some cranny. They're curious, the old women, curse 'em! And +the young, for that matter. Devil a young one here. + + 'When I'm in for the sack of a town, + What, think ye, I poke after, up and down? + Silver and gold I pocket in plenty, + But the sweet tit-bit is my lass under twenty. + +I should like to be in for the sack of this Cologne. I'd nose out that +pretty girl I was cheated of yesterday. Take the gold and silver, and +give me the maiden! Her neck's silver, and her hair gold. Ah! and her +cheeks roses, and her mouth-say no more! I'm half thinking Werner, the +hungry animal, has cast wolf's eyes on her. They say he spoke of her +last night. Don't let him thwart me. Thunderblast him! I owe him a +grudge. He's beginning to forget my plan o' life.' + +A flight of pigeons across the blue top of the street abstracted the +Thier from these reflections. He gaped after them in despair, and fell +to stretching and shaking himself, rattling his lungs with loud reports. +As he threw his eyes round again, they encountered those of a monk +opposite fastened on him in penetrating silence. The Thier hated monks +as a wild beast shuns fire; but now even a monk was welcome. + +'Halloo!' he sung out. + +The monk crossed over to him. + +'Friend!' said he, 'weariness is teaching thee wantonness. Wilt thou +take service for a night's work, where the danger is little, the reward +lasting?' + +'As for that,' replied the Thier, 'danger comes to me like greenwood to +the deer, and good pay never yet was given in promises. But I'm bound +for the next hour to womankind within there. They're my masters; as +they've been of tough fellows before me.' + +'I will seek them, and win their consent,' said the monk, and so left +him. + +'Quick dealing!' thought the Thier, and grew brisker. 'The Baron won't +want me to-night: and what if he does? Let him hang himself--though, +if he should, 'twill be a pity I'm not by to help him.' + +He paced under the wall to its farthest course. Turning back, he +perceived the monk at the gateway. + +'A sharp hand!' thought the Thier. + +'Intrude no question on me,' the monk began; 'but hold thy peace and +follow: the women release thee, and gladly.' + +'That's not my plan o' life, now! Money down, and then command me': and +Schwartz Thier stood with one foot forward, and hand stretched out. + +A curl of scorn darkened the cold features of the monk. + +He slid one hand into a side of his frock above the girdle, and tossed a +bag of coin. + +'Take it, if 'tis in thee to forfeit the greater blessing,' he cried +contemptuously. + +The Thier peeped into the bag, and appeared satisfied. + +'I follow,' said he; 'lead on, good father, and I'll be in the track of +holiness for the first time since my mother was quit of me.' + +The monk hurried up the street and into the marketplace, oblivious of the +postures and reverences of the people, who stopped to stare at him and +his gaunt attendant. As they crossed the square, Schwartz Thier spied +Henker Rothhals starting from a wine-stall on horseback, and could not +forbear hailing him. Before the monk had time to utter a reproach, they +were deep together in a double-shot of query and reply. + +'Whirr!' cried the Thier, breaking on some communication. 'Got her, have +they? and swung her across stream? I'm one with ye for my share, or call +me sheep!' + +He waved his hand to the monk, and taking hold of the horse's rein, ran +off beside his mounted confederate, heavily shod as he was. + +The monk frowned after him, and swelled with a hard sigh. + +'Gone!' he exclaimed, 'and the accursed gold with him! Well did a voice +warn me that such service was never to be bought!' + +He did not pause to bewail or repent, but returned toward the prison with +rapid footsteps, muttering: 'I with the prison-pass for two; why was I +beguiled by that bandit? Saw I not the very youth given into my hands +there, he that was with the damsel and the aged woman?' + + + + +THE RIDE AND THE RACE + +Late in the noon a horseman, in the livery of the Kaiser's body-guard, +rode dry and dusty into Cologne, with tidings that the Kaiser was at +Hammerstein Castle, and commanding all convocated knights, barons, +counts, and princes, to assemble and prepare for his coming, on a certain +bare space of ground within two leagues of Cologne, thence to swell the +train of his triumphal entry into the ancient city of his empire. + +Guy the Goshawk, broad-set on a Flemish mare, and a pack-horse beside +him, shortly afterward left the hotel of the Three Holy Kings, and +trotted up to Gottlieb's door. + +'Tent-pitching is now my trade,' said he, as Gottlieb came down to him. +'My lord is with the Kaiser. I must say farewell for the nonce. Is the +young lady visible?' + +'Nor young, nor old, good friend,' replied Gottlieb, with a countenance +somewhat ruffled. 'I dined alone for lack of your company. Secret +missives came, I hear, to each of them, and both are gadding. Now what +think you of this, after the scene of yesterday?--Lisbeth too!' + +'Preaches from the old text, Master Groschen; "Never reckon on womankind +for a wise act." But farewell! and tell Mistress Margarita that I take +it ill of her not giving me her maiden hand to salute before parting. +My gravest respects to Frau Lisbeth. I shall soon be sitting with you +over that prime vintage of yours, or fortune's dead against me.' + +So, with a wring of the hand, Guy put the spur to his round-flanked +beast, and was quickly out of Cologne on the rough roadway. + +He was neither the first nor the last of the men-at-arms hastening to +obey the Kaiser's mandate. A string of horse and foot in serpentine +knots stretched along the flat land, flashing colours livelier than the +spring-meadows bordering their line of passage. Guy, with a nod for all, +and a greeting for the best-disposed, pushed on toward the van, till the +gathering block compelled him to adopt the snail's pace of the advance +party, and gave him work enough to keep his two horses from being jammed +with the mass. Now and then he cast a weather-eye on the heavens, and +was soon confirmed in an opinion he had repeatedly ejaculated, that 'the +first night's camping would be a drencher.' In the West a black bank of +cloud was blotting out the sun before his time. Northeast shone bare +fields of blue lightly touched with loosefloating strips and flakes of +crimson vapour. The furrows were growing purple-dark, and gradually a +low moaning obscurity enwrapped the whole line, and mufed the noise of +hoof, oath, and waggon-wheel in one sullen murmur. + +Guy felt very much like a chopped worm, as he wriggled his way onward in +the dusk, impelled from the rear, and reduced to grope after the main +body. Frequent and deep counsel he took with a trusty flask suspended at +his belt. It was no pleasant reflection that the rain would be down +before he could build up anything like shelter for horse and man. Still +sadder the necessity of selecting his post on strange ground, and in +darkness. He kept an anxious look-out for the moon, and was presently +rejoiced to behold a broad fire that twinkled branchy beams through an +east-hill orchard. + +'My lord calls her Goddess,' said Guy, wistfully. 'The title's +outlandish, and more the style of these foreigners but she may have it +to-night, an she 'll just keep the storm from shrouding her bright eye +a matter of two hours.' + +She rose with a boding lustre. Drifts of thin pale upper-cloud leaned +down ladders, pure as virgin silver, for her to climb to her highest seat +on the unrebellious half-circle of heaven. + +'My mind's made up!' quoth Guy to the listening part of himself. 'Out of +this I'll get.' + +By the clearer ray he had discerned a narrow track running a white +parallel with the general route. At the expense of dislocating a mile of +the cavalcade, he struck into it. A dyke had to be taken, some heavy +fallows crossed, and the way was straight before him. He began to sneer +at the slow jog-trot and absence of enterprise which made the fellows he +had left shine so poorly in comparison with the Goshawk, but a sight of +two cavaliers in advance checked his vanity, and now to overtake them he +tasked his fat Flemish mare with unwonted pricks of the heel, that made +her fling out and show more mettle than speed. + +The objects of this fiery chase did not at first awake to a sense of +being pursued. Both rode with mantled visages, and appeared profoundly +inattentive to the world outside their meditations. But the Goshawk was +not to be denied, and by dint of alternately roaring at them and +upbraiding his two stumping beasts, he at last roused the younger of the +cavaliers, who called to his companion loudly: without effect it seemed, +for he had to repeat the warning. Guy was close up with them, when the +youth exclaimed: + +'Father! holy father! 'Tis Sathanas in person!' + +The other rose and pointed trembling to a dark point in the distance as +he vociferated: + +'Not here! not here; but yonder!' + +Guy recognized the voice of the first speaker, and cried: + +'Stay! halt a second! Have you forgotten the Goshawk?' + +'Never!' came the reply, 'and forget not Farina!' + +Spur and fleeter steeds carried them out of hearing ere Guy could throw +in another syllable. Farina gazed back on him remorsefully, but the Monk +now rated his assistant with indignation. + +'Thou weak one! nothing less than fool! to betray thy name on such an +adventure as this to soul save the saints!' + +Farina tossed back his locks, and held his forehead to the moon. All the +Monk's ghostly wrath was foiled by the one little last sweet word of his +beloved, which made music in his ears whenever annoyance sounded. + +'And herein,' say the old writers, 'are lovers, who love truly, truly +recompensed for their toils and pains; in that love, for which they +suffer, is ever present to ward away suffering not sprung of love: but +the disloyal, who serve not love faithfully, are a race given over to +whatso this base world can wreak upon them, without consolation or +comfort of their mistress, Love; whom sacrificing not all to, they know +not to delight in.' + +The soul of a lover lives through every member of him in the joy of a +moonlight ride. Sorrow and grief are slow distempers that crouch from +the breeze, and nourish their natures far from swift-moving things. A +true lover is not one of those melancholy flies that shoot and maze over +muddy stagnant pools. He must be up in the great air. He must strike +all the strings of life. Swiftness is his rapture. In his wide arms he +embraces the whole form of beauty. Eagle-like are his instincts; dove- +like his desires. Then the fair moon is the very presence of his +betrothed in heaven. So for hours rode Farina in a silver-fleeting +glory; while the Monk as a shadow, galloped stern and silent beside him. +So, crowning them in the sky, one half was all love and light; one, +blackness and fell purpose. + + + + +THE COMBAT ON DRACHENFELS + +Not to earth was vouchsafed the honour of commencing the great battle of +that night. By an expiring blue-shot beam of moonlight, Farina beheld a +vast realm of gloom filling the hollow of the West, and the moon was soon +extinguished behind sluggish scraps of iron scud detached from the +swinging bulk of ruin, as heavily it ground on the atmosphere in the +first thunder-launch of motion. + +The heart of the youth was strong, but he could not view without quicker +fawning throbs this manifestation of immeasurable power, which seemed as +if with a stroke it was capable of destroying creation and the works of +man. The bare aspect of the tempest lent terrors to the adventure he was +engaged in, and of which he knew not the aim, nor might forecast the +issue. Now there was nothing to illumine their path but such forked +flashes as lightning threw them at intervals, touching here a hill with +clustered cottages, striking into day there a May-blossom, a patch of +weed, a single tree by the wayside. Suddenly a more vivid and continuous +quiver of violet fire met its reflection on the landscape, and Farina saw +the Rhine-stream beneath him. + +'On such a night,' thought he, 'Siegfried fought and slew the dragon!' + +A blast of light, as from the jaws of the defeated dragon in his throes, +made known to him the country he traversed. Crimsoned above the water +glimmered the monster-haunted rock itself, and mid-channel beyond, flat +and black to the stream, stretched the Nuns' Isle in cloistral peace. + +'Halt!' cried the Monk, and signalled with a peculiar whistle, to which +he seemed breathlessly awaiting an answer. They were immediately +surrounded by longrobed veiled figures. + +'Not too late?' the Monk hoarsely asked of them. + +'Yet an hour!' was the reply, in soft clear tones of a woman's voice. + +'Great strength and valour more than human be mine,' exclaimed the Monk, +dismounting. + +He passed apart from them; and they drew in a circle, while he prayed, +kneeling. + +Presently he returned, and led Farina to a bank, drawing from some +hiding-place a book and a bell, which he gave into the hands of the +youth. + +'For thy soul, no word!' said the Monk, speaking down his throat as he +took in breath. 'Nay! not in answer to me! Be faithful, and more than +earthly fortune is thine; for I say unto thee, I shall not fail, having +grace to sustain this combat.' + +Thereupon he commenced the ascent of Drachenfels. + +Farina followed. He had no hint of the Monk's mission, nor of the part +himself was to play in it. Such a load of silence gathered on his +questioning spirit, that the outcry of the rageing elements alone +prevented him from arresting the Monk and demanding the end of his +service there. That outcry was enough to freeze speech on the very lips +of a mortal. For scarce had they got footing on the winding path of the +crags, when the whole vengeance of the storm was hurled against the +mountain. Huge boulders were loosened and came bowling from above: trees +torn by their roots from the fissures whizzed on the eddies of the wind: +torrents of rain foamed down the iron flanks of rock, and flew off in +hoar feathers against the short pauses of darkness: the mountain heaved, +and quaked, and yawned a succession of hideous chasms. + +'There's a devil in this,' thought Farina. He looked back and marked the +river imaging lurid abysses of cloud above the mountain-summit--yea! and +on the summit a flaming shape was mirrored. + +Two nervous hands stayed the cry on his mouth. + +'Have I not warned thee?' said the husky voice of the Monk. 'I may well +watch, and think for thee as for a dog. Be thou as faithful!' + +He handed a flask to the youth, and bade him drink. Farina drank and +felt richly invigorated. The Monk then took bell and book. + +'But half an hour,' he muttered, 'for this combat that is to ring through +centuries.' + +Crossing himself, he strode wildly upward. Farina saw him beckon back +once, and the next instant he was lost round an incline of the highest +peak. + +The wind that had just screamed a thousand death-screams, was now awfully +dumb, albeit Farina could feel it lifting hood and hair. In the +unnatural stillness his ear received tones of a hymn chanted below; now +sinking, now swelling; as though the voices faltered between prayer and +inspiration. Farina caught on a projection of crag, and fixed his eyes +on what was passing on the height. + +There was the Monk in his brown hood and wrapper, confronting--if he +might trust his balls of sight--the red-hot figure of the Prince of +Darkness. + +As yet no mortal tussle had taken place between them. They were arguing: +angrily, it was true: yet with the first mutual deference of practised +logicians. Latin and German was alternately employed by both. It +thrilled Farina's fervid love of fatherland to hear the German Satan +spoke: but his Latin was good, and his command over that tongue +remarkable; for, getting the worst of the argument, as usual, he revenged +himself by parodying one of the Church canticles with a point that +discomposed his adversary, and caused him to retreat a step, claiming +support against such shrewd assault. + +'The use of an unexpected weapon in warfare is in itself half a victory. +Induce your antagonist to employ it as a match for you, and reckon on +completely routing him . . .' says the old military chronicle. + +'Come!' said the Demon with easy raillery. 'You know your game--I mine! +I really want the good people to be happy; dancing, kissing, propagating, +what you will. We quite agree. You can have no objection to me, but a +foolish old prejudice--not personal, but class; an antipathy of the cowl, +for which I pardon you! What I should find in you to complain of--I have +only to mention it, I am sure--is, that perhaps you do speak a little too +much through your nose.' + +The Monk did not fall into the jocular trap by retorting in the same +strain. + +'Laugh with the Devil, and you won't laugh longest,' says the proverb. + +Keeping to his own arms, the holy man frowned. + +'Avaunt, Fiend!' he cried. 'To thy kingdom below! Thou halt raged over +earth a month, causing blights, hurricanes, and epidemics of the deadly +sins. Parley no more! Begone!' + +The Demon smiled: the corners of his mouth ran up to his ears, and his +eyes slid down almost into one. + +'Still through the nose!' said he reproachfully. + +'I give thee Five Minutes!' cried the Monk. + +'I had hoped for a longer colloquy,' sighed the Demon, jogging his left +leg and trifling with his tail. + +'One Minute !' exclaimed the Monk. + +'Truly so!' said the Demon. 'I know old Time and his habits better than +you really can. We meet every Saturday night, and communicate our best +jokes. I keep a book of them Down There!' + +And as if he had reason to remember the pavement of his Halls, he stood +tiptoe and whipped up his legs. + +'Two Minutes!' + +The Demon waved perfect acquiescence, and continued: + +'We understand each other, he and I. All Old Ones do. As long as he +lasts, I shall. The thing that surprises me is, that you and I cannot +agree, similar as we are in temperament, and playing for the long odds, +both of us. My failure is, perhaps, too great a passion for sport, aha! +Well, 'tis a pity you won't try and live on the benevolent principle. +I am indeed kind to them who commiserate my condition. I give them all +they want, aha! Hem! Try and not believe in me now, aha! Ho! . . . +Can't you? What are eyes? Persuade yourself you're dreaming. You can +do anything with a mind like yours, Father Gregory! And consider the +luxury of getting me out of the way so easily, as many do. It is my +finest suggestion, aha! Generally I myself nudge their ribs with the +capital idea--You're above bribes? I was going to observe--' + +'Three!' + +'Observe, that if you care for worldly honours, I can smother you with +that kind of thing. Several of your first-rate people made a bargain +with me when they were in the fog, and owe me a trifle. Patronage they +call it. I hook the high and the low. Too-little and too-much serve me +better than Beelzebub. A weak stomach is certainly more carnally +virtuous than a full one. Consequently my kingdom is becoming too +respectable. They've all got titles, and object to being asked to poke +the fire without--Honourable-and-with-Exceeding-Brightness-Beaming +Baroness This! Admirably-Benignant-Down-looking Highness That! +Interrupts business, especially when you have to ask them to fry +themselves, according to the rules . . . Would you like Mainz and the +Rheingau? . . . You don't care for Beauty--Puella, Puellae? I have +plenty of them, too, below. The Historical Beauties warmed up at a +moment's notice. Modern ones made famous between morning and night-- +Fame is the sauce of Beauty. Or, no--eh?' + +'Four!' + +'Not quite so fast, if you please. You want me gone. Now, where's +your charity? Do you ask me to be always raking up those poor devils +underneath? While I'm here, they've a respite. They cannot think you +kind, Father Gregory! As for the harm, you see, I'm not the more +agreeable by being face to face with you--though some fair dames do take +to my person monstrously. The secret is, the quantity of small talk I +can command: that makes them forget my smell, which is, I confess, +abominable, displeasing to myself, and my worst curse. Your sort, Father +Gregory, are somewhat unpleasant in that particular--if I may judge by +their Legate here. Well, try small talk. They would fall desperately in +love with polecats and skunks if endowed with small talk. Why, they have +become enamoured of monks before now! If skunks, why not monks? And +again--' + +'Five!' + +Having solemnly bellowed this tremendous number, the holy man lifted his +arms to begin the combat. + +Farina felt his nerves prick with admiration of the ghostly warrior +daring the Second Power of Creation on that lonely mountain-top. He +expected, and shuddered at thought of the most awful fight ever yet +chronicled of those that have taken place between heroes and the hounds +of evil: but his astonishment was great to hear the Demon, while Bell was +in air and Book aloft, retreat, shouting, 'Hold!' + +'I surrender,' said he sullenly. 'What terms?' + +'Instantaneous riddance of thee from face of earth.' + +'Good!--Now,' said the Demon, 'did you suppose I was to be trapped into a +fight? No doubt you wish to become a saint, and have everybody talking +of my last defeat . . . . Pictures, poems, processions, with the +Devil downmost! No. You're more than a match for me.' + +'Silence, Darkness!' thundered the Monk, 'and think not to vanquish thy +victor by flatteries. Begone!' + +And again he towered in his wrath. + +The Demon drew his tail between his legs, and threw the forked, fleshy, +quivering end over his shoulder. He then nodded cheerfully, pointed his +feet, and finicked a few steps away, saying: 'I hope we shall meet +again.' + +Upon that he shot out his wings, that were like the fins of the wyver- +fish, sharpened in venomous points. + +'Commands for your people below?' he inquired, leering with chin awry. +'Desperate ruffians some of those cowls. You are right not to +acknowledge them.' + +Farina beheld the holy man in no mood to let the Enemy tamper with him +longer. + +The Demon was influenced by a like reflection; for, saying, 'Cologne is +the city your Holiness inhabits, I think?' he shot up rocket-like over +Rhineland, striking the entire length of the stream, and its rough- +bearded castle-crests, slate-ledges, bramble-clefts, vine-slopes, and +haunted valleys, with one brimstone flash. Frankfort and the far Main +saw him and reddened. Ancient Trier and Mosel; Heidelberg and Neckar; +Limberg and Lahn, ran guilty of him. And the swift artery of these +shining veins, Rhine, from his snow cradle to his salt decease, glimmered +Stygian horrors as the Infernal Comet, sprung over Bonn, sparkled a fiery +minute along the face of the stream, and vanished, leaving a seam of +ragged flame trailed on the midnight heavens. + +Farina breathed hard through his teeth. + +'The last of him was awful,' said he, coming forward to where the Monk +knelt and grasped his breviary, 'but he was vanquished easily.' + +'Easily?' exclaimed the holy man, gasping satisfaction: 'thou weakling! +is it for thee to measure difficulties, or estimate powers? Easily? +thou worldling! and so are great deeds judged when the danger's past! +And what am I but the humble instrument that brought about this wondrous +conquest! the poor tool of this astounding triumph! Shall the sword say, +This is the battle I won! Yonder the enemy I overthrow! Bow to me, ye +lords of earth, and worshippers of mighty acts? Not so! Nay, but the +sword is honoured in the hero's grasp, and if it break not, it is +accounted trusty. This, then, this little I may claim, that I was +trusty! Trusty in a heroic encounter! Trusty in a battle with earth's +terror! Oh! but this must not be said. This is to think too much! +This is to be more than aught yet achieved by man!' + +The holy warrior crossed his arms, and gently bowed his head. + +'Take me to the Sisters,' he said. 'The spirit has gone out of me! I am +faint, and as a child!' + +Farina asked, and had, his blessing. + +'And with it my thanks!' said the Monk. 'Thou hast witnessed how he can +be overcome! Thou hast looked upon a scene that will be the glory of +Christendom! Thou hast beheld the discomfiture of Darkness before the +voice of Light! Yet think not much of me: account me little in this +matter! I am but an instrument! but an instrument!--and again, but an +instrument!' + +Farina drew the arms of the holy combatant across his shoulders and +descended Drachenfels. + +The tempest was as a forgotten anguish. Bright with maiden splendour +shone the moon; and the old rocks, cherished in her beams, put up their +horns to blue heaven once more. All the leafage of the land shook as to +shake off a wicked dream, and shuddered from time to time, whispering of +old fears quieted, and present peace. The heart of the river fondled +with the image of the moon in its depths. + +'This is much to have won for earth,' murmured the Monk. 'And what is +life, or who would not risk all, to snatch such loveliness from the +talons of the Fiend, the Arch-foe? Yet, not I! not I! say not, 'twas I +did this!' + +Soft praises of melody ascended to them on the moist fragrance of air. +It was the hymn of the Sisters. + +'How sweet!' murmured the Monk. 'Put it from me! away with it!' + +Rising on Farina's back, and stirruping his feet on the thighs of the +youth, he cried aloud: 'I charge ye, whoso ye be, sing not this deed +before the emperor! By the breath of your nostrils; pause! ere ye +whisper aught of the combat of Saint Gregory with Satan, and his victory, +and the marvel of it, while he liveth; for he would die the humble monk +he is.' + +He resumed his seat, and Farina brought him into the circle of the +Sisters. Those pure women took him, and smoothed him, lamenting, and +filling the night with triumphing tones. + +Farina stood apart. + +'The breeze tells of dawn,' said the Monk; 'we must be in Cologne before +broad day.' + +They mounted horse, and the Sisters grouped and reverenced under the +blessings of the Monk. + +'No word of it!' said the Monk warningly. 'We are silent, Father!' they +answered. 'Cologne-ward!' was then his cry, and away he and Farina, +flew. + + + + +THE GOSHAWK LEADS + +Morning was among the grey eastern clouds as they rode upon the camp +hastily formed to meet the Kaiser. All there was in a wallow of +confusion. Fierce struggles for precedence still went on in the +neighbourhood of the imperial tent ground, where, under the standard of +Germany, lounged some veterans of the Kaiser's guard, calmly watching the +scramble. Up to the edge of the cultivated land nothing was to be seen +but brawling clumps of warriors asserting the superior claims of their +respective lords. Variously and hotly disputed were these claims, as +many red coxcombs testified. Across that point where the green field +flourished, not a foot was set, for the Kaiser's care of the farmer, and +affection for good harvests, made itself respected even in the heat of +those jealous rivalries. It was said of him, that he would have camped +in a bog, or taken quarters in a cathedral, rather than trample down a +green blade of wheat, or turn over one vine-pole in the empire. Hence +the presence of Kaiser Heinrich was never hailed as Egypt's plague by the +peasantry, but welcome as the May month wherever he went. + +Father Gregory and Farina found themselves in the centre of a group ere +they drew rein, and a cry rose, 'The good father shall decide, and all's +fair,' followed by, 'Agreed! Hail and tempest! he's dropped down o' +purpose.' + +'Father,' said one, 'here it is! I say I saw the Devil himself fly off +Drachenfels, and flop into Cologne. Fritz here, and Frankenbauch, saw +him too. They'll swear to him: so 'll I. Hell's thunder! will we. +Yonder fellows will have it 'twas a flash o' lightning, as if I didn't +see him, horns, tail, and claws, and a mighty sight 'twas, as I'm a +sinner.' + +A clash of voices, for the Devil and against him, burst on this accurate +description of the Evil spirit. The Monk sank his neck into his chest. + +'Gladly would I hold silence on this, my sons,' said he, in a +supplicating voice. + +'Speak, Father,' cried the first spokesman, gathering courage from the +looks of the Monk. + +Father Gregory appeared to commune with himself deeply. At last, lifting +his head, and murmuring, 'It must be,' he said aloud: + +''Twas verily Satan, O my sons! Him this night in mortal combat I +encountered and overcame on the summit of Drachenfels, before the eyes of +this youth; and from Satan I this night deliver ye! an instrument herein +as in all other.' + +Shouts, and a far-spreading buzz resounded in the camp. Hundreds had now +seen Satan flying off the Drachenstein. Father Gregory could no longer +hope to escape from the importunate crowds that beset him for +particulars. The much-contested point now was, as to the exact position +of Satan's tail during his airy circuit, before descending into Cologne. +It lashed like a lion's. 'Twas cocked, for certain! He sneaked it +between his legs like a lurcher! He made it stumpy as a brown bear's! +He carried it upright as a pike! + +'O my sons! have I sown dissension? Have I not given ye peace?' +exclaimed the Monk. + +But they continued to discuss it with increasing frenzy. + +Farina cast a glance over the tumult, and beheld his friend Guy beckoning +earnestly. He had no difficulty in getting away to him, as the fetters +of all eyes were on the Monk alone. + +The Goshawk was stamping with excitement. + +'Not a moment to be lost, my lad,' said Guy, catching his arm. 'Here, +I've had half-a-dozen fights already for this bit of ground. Do you know +that fellow squatting there?' + +Farina beheld the Thier at the entrance of a tumbledown tent. He was +ruefully rubbing a broken head. + +'Now,' continued Guy, 'to mount him is the thing; and then after the +wolves of Werner as fast as horse-flesh can carry us. No questions! +Bound, are you? And what am I? But this is life and death, lad! Hark!' + +The Goshawk whispered something that sucked the blood out of Farina's +cheek. + +'Look you--what's your lockjaw name? Keep good faith with me, and you +shall have your revenge, and the shiners I promise, besides my lord's +interest for a better master: but, sharp! we won't mount till we're out +of sight o' the hell-scum you horde with.' + +The Thier stood up and staggered after them through the camp. There was +no difficulty in mounting him horses were loose, and scampering about the +country, not yet delivered from their terrors of the last night's +tempest. + +'Here be we, three good men!' exclaimed Guy, when they were started, and +Farina had hurriedly given him the heads of his adventure with the Monk. +'Three good men! One has helped to kick the devil: one has served an +apprenticeship to his limb: and one is ready to meet him foot to foot any +day, which last should be myself. Not a man more do we want, though it +were to fish up that treasure you talk of being under the Rhine there, +and guarded by I don't know how many tricksy little villains. Horses can +be ferried across at Linz, you say?' + +'Ay, thereabout,' grunted the Thier. + +'We 're on the right road, then!' said Guy. 'Thanks to you both, I've +had no sleep for two nights--not a wink, and must snatch it going--not +the first time.' + +The Goshawk bent his body, and spoke no more. Farina could not get a +word further from him. By the mastery he still had over his rein, the +Goshawk alone proved that he was of the world of the living. Schwartz +Thier, rendered either sullen or stunned by the latest cracked crown he +had received, held his jaws close as if they had been nailed. + +At Linz the horses were well breathed. The Goshawk, who had been snoring +an instant before, examined them keenly, and shook his calculating head. + +'Punch that beast of yours in the ribs,' said he to Farina. 'Ah! not a +yard of wind in him. And there's the coming back, when we shall have +more to carry. Well: this is my lord's money; but i' faith, it's going +in a good cause, and Master Groschen will make it all right, no doubt; +not a doubt of it.' + +The Goshawk had seen some excellent beasts in the stables of the Kaiser's +Krone; but the landlord would make no exchange without an advance of +silver. This done, the arrangement was prompt. + +'Schwartz Thier!--I've got your name now,' said Guy, as they were +ferrying across, 'you're stiff certain they left Cologne with the maiden +yesternoon, now?' + +'Ah, did they! and she's at the Eck safe enow by this time.' + +'And away from the Eck this night she shall come, trust me!' + +'Or there will I die with her!' cried Farina. + +'Fifteen men at most, he has, you said,' continued Guy. + +'Two not sound, five true as steel, and the rest shillyshally. 'Slife, +one lock loose serves us; but two saves us: five we're a match for, +throwing in bluff Baron; the remainder go with victory.' + +'Can we trust this fellow?' whispered Farina. + +'Trust him!' roared Guy. 'Why, I've thumped him, lad; pegged and +pardoned him. Trust him? trust me! If Werner catches a sight of that +snout of his within half-a-mile of his hold, he'll roast him alive.' + +He lowered his voice: 'Trust him? We can do nothing without him. +I knocked the devil out of him early this morning. No chance for his +Highness anywhere now. This Eck of Werner's would stand a siege from the +Kaiser in person, I hear. We must into it like weasels; and out as we +can.' + +Dismissing the ferry-barge with stern injunctions to be in waiting from +noon to noon, the three leapt on their fresh nags. + +'Stop at the first village,' said Guy; 'we must lay in provision. As +Master Groschen says, "Nothing's to be done, Turpin, without provender."' + +'Goshawk!' cried Farina; 'you have time; tell me how this business was +done.' + +The only reply was a soft but decided snore, that spoke, like a +voluptuous trumpet, of dreamland and its visions. + +At Sinzig, the Thier laid his hand on Guy's bridle, with the words, 'Feed +here,' a brief, but effective, form of signal, which aroused the Goshawk +completely. The sign of the Trauben received them. Here, wurst reeking +with garlic, eggs, black bread, and sour wine, was all they could +procure. Farina refused to eat, and maintained his resolution, in spite +of Guy's sarcastic chiding. + +'Rub down the beasts, then, and water them,' said the latter. 'Made a +vow, I suppose,' muttered Guy. + +'That's the way of those fellows. No upright manly take-the-thing-as-it- +comes; but fly-sky-high whenever there's a dash on their heaven. What +has his belly done to offend him? It will be crying out just when we +want all quiet. I wouldn't pay Werner such a compliment as go without a +breakfast for him. Not I! Would you, Schwartz Thier?' + +'Henker! not I!' growled the Thier. 'He'll lose one sooner.' + +'First snatch his prey, or he'll be making, God save us! a meal for a +Kaiser, the brute.' + +Guy called in the landlady, clapped down the score, and abused the wine. + +'Sir,' said the landlady, 'ours is but a poor inn, and we do our best.' + +'So you do,' replied the Goshawk, softened; 'and I say that a civil +tongue and rosy smiles sweeten even sour wine.' + +The landlady, a summer widow, blushed, and as he was stepping from the +room, called him aside. + +'I thought you were one of that dreadful Werner's band, and I hate him.' + +Guy undeceived her. + +'He took my sister,' she went on, 'and his cruelty killed her. He +persecuted me even in the lifetime of my good man. Last night he came +here in the middle of the storm with a young creature bright as an angel, +and sorrowful--' + +'He's gone, you're sure?' broke in Guy. + +'Gone! Oh, yes! Soon as the storm abated he dragged her on. Oh! the +way that young thing looked at me, and I able to do nothing for her.' + +'Now, the Lord bless you for a rosy Christian!' cried Guy, and, in his +admiration, he flung his arm round her and sealed a ringing kiss on each +cheek. + +'No good man defrauded by that! and let me see the fellow that thinks +evil of it. If I ever told a woman a secret, I 'd tell you one now, +trust me. But I never do, so farewell! Not another?' + +Hasty times keep the feelings in a ferment, and the landlady was +extremely angry with Guy and heartily forgave him, all within a minute. + +'No more,' said she, laughing: 'but wait; I have something for you.' + +The Goshawk lingered on a fretting heel. She was quickly under his elbow +again with two flasks leaning from her bosom to her arms. + +'There! I seldom meet a man like you; and, when I do, I like to be +remembered. This is a true good wine, real Liebfrauenmilch, which I only +give to choice customers.' + +'Welcome it is!' sang Guy to her arch looks; 'but I must pay for it.' + +'Not a pfennig!' said the landlady. + +'Not one?' + +'Not one !' she repeated, with a stamp of the foot. + +'In other coin, then,' quoth Guy; and folding her waist, which did not +this time back away, the favoured Goshawk registered rosy payment on a +very fresh red mouth, receiving in return such lively discount, that he +felt himself bound in conscience to make up the full sum a second time. + +'What a man!' sighed the landlady, as she watched the Goshawk lead off +along the banks; 'courtly as a knight, open as a squire, and gentle as a +page!' + + + + +WERNER'S ECK + +A league behind Andernach, and more in the wintry circle of the sun than +Laach, its convenient monastic neighbour, stood the castle of Werner, the +Robber Baron. Far into the South, hazy with afternoon light, a yellow +succession of sandhills stretched away, spouting fire against the blue +sky of an elder world, but now dead and barren of herbage. Around is a +dusty plain, where the green blades of spring no sooner peep than they +become grimed with sand and take an aged look, in accordance with the +ungenerous harvests they promise. The aridity of the prospect is +relieved on one side by the lofty woods of Laach, through which the sun +setting burns golden-red, and on the other by the silver sparkle of a +narrow winding stream, bordered with poplars, and seen but a glistening +mile of its length by all the thirsty hills. The Eck, or Corner, itself, +is thick-set with wood, but of a stunted growth, and lying like a dark +patch on the landscape. It served, however, entirely to conceal the +castle, and mask every movement of the wary and terrible master. A +trained eye advancing on the copse would hardly mark the glimmer of the +turrets over the topmost leaves, but to every loophole of the walls lies +bare the circuit of the land. Werner could rule with a glance the +Rhine's course down from the broad rock over Coblentz to the white tower +of Andernach. He claimed that march as his right; but the Mosel was no +hard ride's distance, and he gratified his thirst for rapine chiefly on +that river, delighting in it, consequently, as much as his robber nature +boiled over the bound of his feudal privileges. + +Often had the Baron held his own against sieges and restrictions, bans +and impositions of all kinds. He boasted that there was never a knight +within twenty miles of him that he had not beaten, nor monk of the same +limit not in his pay. This braggadocio received some warrant from his +yearly increase of licence; and his craft and his castle combined, +made him a notable pest of the region, a scandal to the abbey whose +countenance he had, and a frightful infliction on the poorer farmers +and peasantry. + +The sun was beginning to slope over Laach, and threw the shadows of the +abbey towers half-way across the blue lake-waters, as two men in the garb +of husbandmen emerged from the wood. Their feet plunged heavily and +their heads hung down, as they strode beside a wain mounted with straw, +whistling an air of stupid unconcern; but a close listener might have +heard that the lumbering vehicle carried a human voice giving them +directions as to the road they were to take, and what sort of behaviour +to observe under certain events. The land was solitary. A boor passing +asked whether toll or tribute they were conveying to Werner. Tribute, +they were advised to reply, which caused him to shrug and curse as he +jogged on. Hearing him, the voice in the wain chuckled grimly. Their +next speech was with a trooper, who overtook them, and wanted to know +what they had in the wain for Werner. Tribute, they replied, and won the +title of 'brave pigs' for their trouble. + +'But what's the dish made of?' said the trooper, stirring the straw with +his sword-point. + +'Tribute,' came the answer. + +'Ha! You've not been to Werner's school,' and the trooper swung a sword- +stroke at the taller of the two, sending a tremendous shudder throughout +his frame; but he held his head to the ground, and only seemed to betray +animal consciousness in leaning his ear closer to the wain. + +'Blood and storm! Will ye speak?' cried the trooper. + +'Never talk much; but an ye say nothing to the Baron,'--thrusting his +hand into the straw--'here's what's better than speaking.' + +'Well said!--Eh? Liebfrauenmilch? Ho, ho! a rare bleed!' + +Striking the neck of the flask on a wheel, the trooper applied it to his +mouth, and ceased not deeply ingurgitating till his face was broad to the +sky and the bottle reversed. He then dashed it down, sighed, and shook +himself. + +'Rare news! the Kaiser's come: he'll be in Cologne by night; but first he +must see the Baron, and I'm post with the order. That's to show you how +high he stands in the Kaiser's grace. Don't be thinking of upsetting +Werner yet, any of you; mind, now!' + +'That's Blass-Gesell,' said the voice in the wain, as the trooper trotted +on: adding, ''gainst us.' + +'Makes six,' responded the driver. + +Within sight of the Eck, they descried another trooper coming toward +them. This time the driver was first to speak. + +'Tribute! Provender! Bread and wine for the high Baron Werner from his +vassals over Tonnistein.' + +'And I'm out of it! fasting like a winter wolf,' howled the fellow. + +He was in the act of addressing himself to an inspection of the wain's +contents, when a second flask lifted in air, gave a sop to his curiosity. +This flask suffered the fate of the former. + +'A Swabian blockhead, aren't you?' + +'Ay, that country,' said the driver. 'May be, Henker Rothhals happens to +be with the Baron?' + +'To hell with him! I wish he had my job, and I his, of watching the +yellow-bird in her new cage, till she's taken out to-night, and then a +jolly bumper to the Baron all round.' + +The driver wished him a fortunate journey, strongly recommending him to +skirt the abbey westward, and go by the Ahr valley, as there was +something stirring that way, and mumbling, 'Makes five again,' as he put +the wheels in motion. + +'Goshawk!' said his visible companion; 'what do you say now?' + +'I say, bless that widow!' + +'Oh! bring me face to face with this accursed Werner quickly, my God !' +gasped the youth. + +'Tusk! 'tis not Werner we want--there's the Thier speaking. No, no, +Schwartz Thier! I trust you, no doubt; but the badger smells at a hole, +before he goes inside it. We're strangers, and are allowed to miss our +way.' + +Leaving the wain in Farina's charge, he pushed through a dense growth of +shrub and underwood, and came crouching on a precipitous edge of shrouded +crag, which commanded a view of the stronghold, extending round it, as if +scooped clean by some natural action, about a stone'sthrow distant, and +nearly level with the look-out tower. Sheer from a deep circular basin +clothed with wood, and bottomed with grass and bubbling water, rose a +naked moss-stained rock, on whose peak the castle firmly perched, like a +spying hawk. The only means of access was by a narrow natural bridge of +rock flung from this insulated pinnacle across to the mainland. One man, +well disposed, might have held it against forty. + +'Our way's the best,' thought Guy, as he meditated every mode of gaining +admission. 'A hundred men an hour might be lost cutting steps up that +steep slate; and once at the top we should only have to be shoved down +again.' + +While thus engaged, he heard a summons sounded from the castle, and +scrambled back to Farina. + +'The Thier leads now,' said he, 'and who leads is captain. It seems +easier to get out of that than in. There's a square tower, and a round. +I guess the maiden to be in the round. Now, lad, no crying out--You +don't come in with us; but back you go for the horses, and have them +ready and fresh in yon watered meadow under the castle. The path down +winds easy.' + +'Man!' cried Farina, 'what do you take me for?--go you for the horses.' + +'Not for a fool,' Guy rejoined, tightening his lip; 'but now is your time +to prove yourself one.' + +'With you, or without you, I enter that castle!' + +'Oh! if you want to be served up hot for the Baron's supper-mess, by all +means.' + +'Thunder!' growled Schwartz Thier, 'aren't ye moving?' + +The Goshawk beckoned Farina aside. + +'Act as I tell you, or I'm for Cologne.' + +'Traitor!' muttered the youth. + +'Swearing this, that if we fail, the Baron shall need a leech sooner than +a bride.' + +'That stroke must be mine!' + +The Goshawk griped the muscle of Farina's arm till the youth was +compelled to slacken it with pain. + +'Could you drive a knife through a six-inch wood-wall? I doubt this wild +boar wants a harder hit than many a best man could give. 'Sblood! obey, +sirrah. How shall we keep yon fellow true, if he sees we're at points?' + +'I yield,' exclaimed Farina with a fall of the chest; 'but hear I nothing +of you by midnight--Oh! then think not I shall leave another minute to +chance. Farewell! haste! Heaven prosper you! You will see her, and die +under her eyes. That may be denied to me. What have I done to be +refused that last boon?' + +'Gone without breakfast and dinner,' said Guy in abhorrent tones. + +A whistle from the wain, following a noise of the castlegates being flung +open, called the Goshawk away, and he slouched his shoulders and strode +to do his part, without another word. Farina gazed after him, and +dropped into the covert. + + + + +THE WATER-LADY + +'Bird of lovers! Voice of the passion of love! Sweet, deep, disaster- +toning nightingale!' sings the old minnesinger; 'who that has not loved, +hearing thee is touched with the wand of love's mysteries, and yearneth +to he knoweth not whom, humbled by overfulness of heart; but who, +listening, already loveth, heareth the language he would speak, yet +faileth in; feeleth the great tongueless sea of his infinite desires +stirred beyond his narrow bosom; is as one stript of wings whom the +angels beckon to their silver homes: and he leaneth forward to ascend to +them, and is mocked by his effort: then is he of the fallen, and of the +fallen would he remain, but that tears lighten him, and through the tears +stream jewelled shafts dropt down to him from the sky, precious ladders +inlaid with amethyst, sapphire, blended jasper, beryl, rose-ruby, ether +of heaven flushed with softened bloom of the insufferable Presences: and +lo, the ladders dance, and quiver, and waylay his eyelids, and a second +time he is mocked, aspiring: and after the third swoon standeth Hope +before him with folded arms, and eyes dry of the delusions of tears, +saying, Thou hast seen! thou hast felt! thy strength hath reached in thee +so far! now shall I never die in thee !' + +'For surely,' says the minstrel, 'Hope is not born of earth, or it were +perishable. Rather know her the offspring of that embrace strong love +straineth the heavens with. This owe we to thy music, bridal +nightingale! And the difference of this celestial spirit from the +smirking phantasy of whom all stand soon or late forsaken, is the +difference between painted day with its poor ambitious snares, and night +lifting its myriad tapers round the throne of the eternal, the prophet +stars of everlasting time! And the one dieth, and the other liveth; and +the one is unregretted, and the other walketh in thought-spun raiment of +divine melancholy; her ears crowded with the pale surges that wrap this +shifting shore; in her eyes a shape of beauty floating dimly, that she +will not attain this side the water, but broodeth on evermore. + +'Therefore, hold on thy cherished four long notes, which are as the very +edge where exultation and anguish melt, meet, and are sharpened to one +ecstasy, death-dividing bird! Fill the woods with passionate chuckle and +sob, sweet chaplain of the marriage service of a soul with heaven! Pour +out thy holy wine of song upon the soft-footed darkness, till, like a +priest of the inmost temple, 'tis drunken with fair intelligences!' + +Thus the old minstrels and minnesingers. + +Strong and full sang the nightingales that night Farina held watch by the +guilty castle that entombed his living beloved. The castle looked itself +a denser shade among the moonthrown shadows of rock and tree. The meadow +spread like a green courtyard at the castle's foot. It was of lush deep +emerald grass, softly mixed with grey in the moon's light, and showing +like jasper. Where the shadows fell thickest, there was yet a mist +of colour. All about ran a brook, and babbled to itself. The spring +crocus lifted its head in moist midgrasses of the meadow, rejoiced with +freshness. The rugged heights seemed to clasp this one innocent spot as +their only garden-treasure; and a bank of hazels hid it from the castle +with a lover's arm. + +'The moon will tell me,' mused Farina; 'the moon will signal me the hour! +When the moon hangs over the round tower, I shall know 'tis time to +strike.' + +The song of the nightingales was a full unceasing throb. + +It went like the outcry of one heart from branch to branch. The four +long notes, and the short fifth which leads off to that hurried gush of +music, gurgling rich with passion, came thick and constant from under the +tremulous leaves. + +At first Farina had been deaf to them. His heart was in the dungeon with +Margarita, or with the Goshawk in his dangers, forming a thousand +desperate plans, among the red-hot ploughshares of desperate action. +Finally, without a sense of being wooed, it was won. The tenderness of +his love then mastered him. + +'God will not suffer that fair head to come to harm!' he thought, and +with the thought a load fell off his breast. + +He paced the meadows, and patted the three pasturing steeds. +Involuntarily his sight grew on the moon. She went so slowly. She +seemed not to move at all. A little wing of vapour flew toward her; it +whitened, passed, and the moon was slower than before. Oh! were the +heavens delaying their march to look on this iniquity? Again and again +he cried, 'Patience, it is not time!' He flung himself on the grass. The +next moment he climbed the heights, and was peering at the mass of gloom +that fronted the sky. It reared such a mailed head of menace, that his +heart was seized with a quivering, as though it had been struck. Behind +lay scattered some small faint-winkling stars on sapphire fields, and a +stain of yellow light was in a breach of one wall. + +He descended. What was the Goshawk doing? Was he betrayed? It was +surely now time? No; the moon had not yet smitten the face of the +castle. He made his way through the hazel-bank among flitting +nightmoths, and glanced up to measure the moon's distance. As he did so, +a first touch of silver fell on the hoary flint. + +'Oh, young bird of heaven in that Devil's clutch!' + +Sounds like the baying of boar-hounds alarmed him. They whined into +silence. + +He fell back. The meadow breathed peace, and more and more the +nightingales volumed their notes. As in a charmed circle of palpitating +song, he succumbed to languor. The brook rolled beside him fresh as an +infant, toying with the moonlight. He leaned over it, and thrice +waywardly dipped his hand in the clear translucence. + +Was it his own face imaged there? + +Farina bent close above an eddy of the water. It whirled with a strange +tumult, breaking into lines and lights a face not his own, nor the +moon's; nor was it a reflection. The agitation increased. Now a wreath +of bubbles crowned the pool, and a pure water-lily, but larger, ascended +wavering. + +He started aside; and under him a bright head, garlanded with gemmed +roses, appeared. No fairer figure of woman had Farina seen. Her visage +had the lustrous white of moonlight, and all her shape undulated in a +dress of flashing silver-white, wonderful to see. The Lady of the Water +smiled on him, and ran over with ripples and dimples of limpid beauty. +Then, as he retreated on the meadow grass, she swam toward him, and +taking his hand, pressed it to her. After her touch the youth no longer +feared. She curved her finger, and beckoned him on. All that she did +was done flowingly. The youth was a shadow in her silver track as she +passed like a harmless wave over the closed crocuses; but the crocuses +shivered and swelled their throats of streaked purple and argent as at +delicious rare sips of a wine. Breath of violet, and ladysmock, and +valley-lily, mingled and fluttered about her. Farina was as a man +working the day's intent in a dream. He could see the heart in her +translucent, hanging like a cold dingy ruby. By the purity of his nature +he felt that such a presence must have come but to help. It might be +Margarita's guardian fairy! + +They passed the hazel-bank, and rounded the castlecrag, washed by the +brook and, beneath the advancing moon, standing in a ring of brawling +silver. The youth with his fervid eyes marked the old weather-stains and +scars of long defiance coming into colour. That mystery of wickedness +which the towers had worn in the dusk, was dissolved, and he endured no +more the almost abashed sensation of competing littleness that made him +think there was nought to do, save die, combating single-handed such +massive power. The moon shone calmly superior, like the prowess of +maiden knights; and now the harsh frown of the walls struck resolution to +his spirit, and nerved him with hate and the contempt true courage feels +when matched against fraud and villany. + +On a fallen block of slate, cushioned with rich brown moss and rusted +weather-stains, the Water-Lady sat, and pointed to Farina the path of the +moon toward the round tower. She did not speak, and if his lips parted, +put her cold finger across them. Then she began to hum a soft sweet +monotony of song, vague and careless, very witching to hear. Farina +caught no words, nor whether the song was of days in dust or in flower, +but his mind bloomed with legends and sad splendours of story, while she +sang on the slate-block under sprinkled shadows by the water. + +He had listened long in trance, when the Water-Lady hushed, and stretched +forth a slender forefinger to the moon. It stood like a dot over the +round tower. Farina rose in haste. She did not leave him to ask her +aid, but took his hand and led him up the steep ascent. Halfway to the +castle, she rested. There, concealed by bramble-tufts, she disclosed the +low portal of a secret passage, and pushed it open without effort. She +paused at the entrance, and he could see her trembling, seeming to wax +taller, till she was like a fountain glittering in the cold light. Then +she dropped, as drops a dying bet, and cowered into the passage. + +Darkness, thick with earth-dews, oppressed his senses. He felt the +clammy walls scraping close on him. Not the dimmest lamp, or guiding +sound, was near; but the lady went on as one who knew her way. Passing a +low-vaulted dungeon-room, they wound up stairs hewn in the rock, and came +to a door, obedient to her touch, which displayed a chamber faintly +misted by a solitary bar of moonlight. Farina perceived they were above +the foundation of the castle. The walls gleamed pale with knightly +harness, habergeons gaping for heads, breastplates of blue steel, +halbert, and hand-axe, greaves, glaives, boar-spears, and polished spur- +fixed heel-pieces. He seized a falchion hanging apart, but the lady +stayed his arm, and led to another flight of stone ending in a kind of +corridor. Noises of laughter and high feasting beset him at this point. +The Lady of the Water sidled her head, as to note a familiar voice; and +then drew him to a looped aperture. + +Farina beheld a scene that first dazzled, but, as it grew into shape, +sank him with dismay. Below, and level with the chamber he had left, a +rude banqueting-hall glowed, under the light of a dozen flambeaux, with +smoking boar's flesh, deer's flesh, stone-flagons, and horn-beakers. At +the head of this board sat Werner, scarlet with furious feasting, and on +his right hand, Margarita, bloodless as a beautiful martyr bound to the +fire. Retainers of Werner occupied the length of the hall, chorusing the +Baron's speeches, and drinking their own healths when there was no call +for another. Farina saw his beloved alone. She was dressed as when he +parted with her last. The dear cameo lay on her bosom, but not heaving +proudly as of old. Her shoulders were drooped forward, and contracted +her bosom in its heaving. She would have had a humbled look, but for the +marble sternness of her eyes. They were fixed as eyes that see the way +of death through all earthly objects. + +'Now, dogs!' cried the Baron, 'the health of the night! and swell your +lungs, for I'll have no cat's cry when Werner's bride is the toast. Monk +or no monk's leave, she's mine. Ay, my pretty one! it shall be made +right in the morning, if I lead all the Laach rats here by the nose. +Thunder! no disrespect to Werner's bride from Pope or abbot. Now, sing +out!--or wait! these fellows shall drink it first.' + +He stretched and threw a beaker of wine right and left behind him, and +Farina's despair stiffened his limbs as he recognized the Goshawk and +Schwartz Thier strapped to the floor. Their beards were already moist +with previous libations similarly bestowed, and they received this in +sullen stillness; but Farina thought he observed a rapid glance of +encouragement dart from beneath the Goshawk's bent brows, as Margarita +momentarily turned her head half-way on him. + +'Lick your chaps, ye beasts, and don't say Werner stints vermin good +cheer his nuptial-night. Now,' continued the Baron, growing huskier as +he talked louder: 'Short and ringing, my devil's pups:--Werner and his +Bride! and may she soon give you a young baron to keep you in better +order than I can, as, if she does her duty, she will.' + +The Baron stood up, and lifted his huge arm to lead the toast. + +'Werner and his Bride!' + +Not a voice followed him. There was a sudden intimation of the call +being echoed; but it snapped, and ended in shuffling tones, as if the +hall-door had closed on the response. + +'What 's this?' roared the Baron, in that caged wild beast voice +Margarita remembered she had heard in the Cathedral Square. + +No one replied. + +'Speak! or I'll rot you a fathom in the rock, curs!' + +'Herr Baron!' said Henker Rothhals impressively; 'the matter is, that +there's something unholy among us.' + +The Baron's goblet flew at his head before the words were uttered. + +'I'll make an unholy thing of him that says it,' and Werner lowered at +them one by one. + +'Then I say it, Herr Baron!' pursued Henker Rothhals, wiping his +frontispiece: 'The Devil has turned against you at last. Look up there-- +Ah, it's gone now; but where's the man sitting this side saw it not?' + +The Baron made one spring, and stood on the board. + +'Now! will any rascal here please to say so?' + +Something in the cruel hang of his threatening hatchet jaw silenced many +in the act of confirming the assertion. + +'Stand out, Henker Rotthals !' + +Rotthals slid a hunting-knife up his wrist, and stepped back from the +board. + +'Beast!' roared the Baron, 'I said I wouldn't shed blood to-night. I +spared a traitor, and an enemy----' + +'Look again!' said Rothhals; 'will any fellow say he saw nothing there.' + +While all heads, including Werner's, were directed to the aperture which +surveyed them, Rothhals tossed his knife to the Goshawk unperceived. + +This time answers came to his challenge, but not in confirmation. The +Baron spoke with a gasping gentleness. + +'So you trifle with me? I'm dangerous for that game. Mind you of Blass- +Gesell? I made a better beast of him by sending him three-quarters of +the road to hell for trial.' Bellowing, 'Take that!' he discharged a +broad blade, hitherto concealed in his right hand, straight at Rothhals. +It fixed in his cheek and jaw, wringing an awful breath of pain from him +as he fell against the wall. + +'There's a lesson for you not to cross me, children!' said Werner, +striding his stumpy legs up and down the crashing board, and puffing his +monstrous girth of chest and midriff. 'Let him stop there awhile, to +show what comes of thwarting Werner!--Fire-devils! before the baroness, +too!--Something unholy is there? Something unholy in his jaw, I think! +--Leave it sticking! He's against meat last, is he? I'll teach you who +he's for!--Who speaks?' + +All hung silent. These men were animals dominated by a mightier brute. + +He clasped his throat, and shook the board with a jump, as he squeaked, +rather than called, a second time 'Who spoke?' + +He had not again to ask. In this pause, as the Baron glared for his +victim, a song, so softly sung that it sounded remote, but of which every +syllable was clearly rounded, swelled into his ears, and froze him in his +angry posture. + + 'The blood of the barons shall turn to ice, + And their castle fall to wreck, + When a true lover dips in the water thrice, + That runs round Werner's Eck. + + 'Round Werner's Eck the water runs; + The hazels shiver and shake: + The walls that have blotted such happy suns, + Are seized with the ruin-quake. + + 'And quake with the ruin, and quake with rue, + Thou last of Werner's race! + The hearts of the barons were cold that knew + The Water-Dame's embrace. + + 'For a sin was done, and a shame was wrought, + That water went to hide: + And those who thought to make it nought, + They did but spread it wide. + + 'Hold ready, hold ready to pay the price, + And keep thy bridal cheer: + A hand has dipped in the water thrice, + And the Water-Dame is here.' + + + + +THE RESCUE + +The Goshawk was on his feet. 'Now, lass,' said he to Margarita, 'now is +the time!' He took her hand, and led her to the door. Schwartz Thier +closed up behind her. Not a man in the hall interposed. Werner's head +moved round after them, like a dog on the watch; but he was dumb. The +door opened, and Farina entered. He bore a sheaf of weapons under his +arm. The familiar sight relieved Werner's senses from the charm. He +shouted to bar the prisoners' passage. His men were ranged like statues +in the hall. There was a start among them, as if that terrible noise +communicated an instinct of obedience, but no more. They glanced at each +other, and remained quiet. + +The Goshawk had his eye on Werner. 'Stand back, lass!' he said to +Margarita. She took a sword from Farina, and answered, with white lips +and flashing eyes, 'I can fight, Goshawk!' + +'And shall, if need be; but leave it to me now, returned Guy. + +His eye never left the Baron. Suddenly a shriek of steel rang. All fell +aside, and the combatants stood opposed on clear ground. Farina, took +Margarita's left hand, and placed her against the wall between the Thier +and himself. Werner's men were well content to let their master fight it +out. The words spoken by Henker Rothhals, that the Devil had forsaken +him, seemed in their minds confirmed by the weird song which every one +present could swear he heard with his ears. 'Let him take his chance, +and try his own luck,' they said, and shrugged. The battle was between +Guy, as Margarita's champion, and Werner. + +In Schwartz Thier's judgement, the two were well matched, and he +estimated their diverse qualities from sharp experience. 'For short work +the Baron, and my new mate for tough standing to 't!' Farina's summary +in favour of the Goshawk was, 'A stouter heart, harder sinews, and a good +cause. The combat was generally regarded with a professional eye, and +few prayers. Margarita solely there asked aid from above, and knelt to +the Virgin; but her, too, the clash of arms and dire earnest of mortal +fight aroused to eager eyes. She had not dallied with heroes in her +dreams. She was as ready to second Siegfried on the crimson field as +tend him in the silken chamber. + +It was well that a woman's heart was there to mark the grace and glory of +manhood in upright foot-to-foot encounter. For the others, it was a mere +calculation of lucky hits. Even Farina, in his anxiety for her, saw but +the brightening and darkening of the prospect of escape in every attitude +and hard-ringing blow. Margarita was possessed with a painful +exaltation. In her eyes the bestial Baron now took a nobler form and +countenance; but the Goshawk assumed the sovereign aspect of old heroes, +who, whether persecuted or favoured of heaven, still maintained their +stand, remembering of what stuff they were, and who made them. + +'Never,' say the old writers, with a fervour honourable to their +knowledge of the elements that compose our being, 'never may this bright +privilege of fair fight depart from us, nor advantage of it fail to be +taken! Man against man, or beast, singly keeping his ground, is as fine +rapture to the breast as Beauty in her softest hour affordeth. For if +woman taketh loveliness to her when she languisheth, so surely doth man +in these fierce moods, when steel and iron sparkle opposed, and their +breath is fire, and their lips white with the lock of resolution; all +their faculties knotted to a point, and their energies alive as the +daylight to prove themselves superior, according to the laws and under +the blessing of chivalry.' + +'For all,' they go on to improve the comparison, 'may admire and delight +in fair blossoming dales under the blue dome of peace; but 'tis the rare +lofty heart alone comprehendeth, and is heightened by, terrific +splendours of tempest, when cloud meets cloud in skies black as the +sepulchre, and Glory sits like a flame on the helm of Ruin' + +For a while the combatants aired their dexterity, contenting themselves +with cunning cuts and flicks of the sword-edge, in which Werner first +drew blood by a keen sweep along the forehead of the Goshawk. Guy had +allowed him to keep his position on the board, and still fought at his +face and neck. He now jerked back his body from the hip, and swung a +round stroke at Werner's knee, sending him in retreat with a snort of +pain. Before the Baron could make good his ground, Guy was level with +him on the board. + +Werner turned an upbraiding howl at his men. They were not disposed to +second him yet. They one and all approved his personal battle with Fate, +and never more admired him and felt his power; but the affair was +exciting, and they were not the pillars to prop a falling house. + +Werner clenched his two hands to his ponderous glaive, and fell upon Guy +with heavier fury. He was becoming not unworth the little womanly +appreciation Margarita was brought to bestow on him. The voice of the +Water-Lady whispered at her heart that the Baron warred on his destiny, +and that ennobles all living souls. + +Bare-headed the combatants engaged, and the headpiece was the chief point +of attack. No swerving from blows was possible for either: ward, or +take; a false step would have ensured defeat. This also induced caution. +Many a double stamp of the foot was heard, as each had to retire in turn. + +'Not at his head so much, he'll bear battering there all night long,' +said Henker Rothhals in a breathing interval. Knocks had been pretty +equally exchanged, but the Baron's head certainly looked the least +vulnerable, whereas Guy exhibited several dints that streamed freely. +Yet he looked, eye and bearing, as fresh as when they began, and the +calm, regular heave of his chest contrasted with Werner's quick gasps. +His smile, too, renewed each time the Baron paused for breath, gave +Margarita heart. It was not a taunting smile, but one of entire +confidence, and told all the more on his adversary. As Werner led off +again, and the choice was always left him, every expression of the +Goshawk's face passed to full light in his broad eyes. + +The Baron's play was a reckless fury. There was nothing to study in it. +Guy became the chief object of speculation. He was evidently trying to +wind his man. + +He struck wildly, some thought. Others judged that he was a random +hitter, and had no mortal point in aim. Schwartz Thier's opinion was +frequently vented. 'Too round a stroke--down on him! Chop-not slice!' + +Guy persevered in his own fashion. According to Schwartz Thier, he +brought down by his wilfulness the blow that took him on the left +shoulder, and nigh broke him. It was a weighty blow, followed by a thump +of sound. The sword-edge swerved on his shoulder-blade, or he must have +been disabled. But Werner's crow was short, and he had no time to push +success. One of the Goshawk's swooping under-hits half severed his right +wrist, and the blood spirted across the board. He gasped and seemed to +succumb, but held to it still, though with slackened force. Guy now +attacked. Holding to his round strokes, he accustomed Werner to guard +the body, and stood to it so briskly right and left, that Werner grew +bewildered, lost his caution, and gave ground. Suddenly the Goshawk's +glaive flashed in air, and chopped sheer down on Werner's head. So +shrewd a blow it was against a half-formed defence, that the Baron +dropped without a word right on the edge of the board, and there hung, +feebly grasping with his fingers. + +'Who bars the way now?' sang out Guy. + +No one accepted the challenge. Success clothed him with terrors, and +gave him giant size. + +'Then fare you well, my merry men all,' said Guy. 'Bear me no ill-will +for this. A little doctoring will right the bold Baron.' + +He strode jauntily to the verge of the board, and held his finger for +Margarita to follow. She stepped forward. The men put their beards +together, muttering. She could not advance. Farina doubled his elbow, +and presented sword-point. Three of the ruffians now disputed the way +with bare steel. Margarita looked at the Goshawk. He was smiling calmly +curious as he leaned over his sword, and gave her an encouraging nod. +She made another step in defiance. One fellow stretched his hand to +arrest her. All her maidenly pride stood up at once. 'What a glorious +girl!' murmured the Goshawk, as he saw her face suddenly flash, and she +retreated a pace and swung a sharp cut across the knuckles of her +assailant, daring him, or one of them, with hard, bright eyes, +beautifully vindictive, to lay hand on a pure maiden. + +'You have it, Barenleib!' cried the others, and then to Margarita: 'Look, +young mistress! we are poor fellows, and ask a trifle of ransom, and then +part friends.' + +'Not an ace!' the Goshawk pronounced from his post. + +'Two to one, remember.' + +'The odds are ours,' replied the Goshawk confidently. + +They ranged themselves in front of the hall-door. Instead of accepting +this challenge, Guy stepped to Werner, and laid his moaning foe length- +wise in an easier posture. He then lifted Margarita on the board, and +summoned them with cry of 'Free passage!' They answered by a sullen +shrug and taunt. + +'Schwartz Thier! Rothhals! Farina! buckle up, and make ready then,' +sang Guy. + +He measured the length, of his sword, and raised it. The Goshawk had not +underrated his enemies. He was tempted to despise them when he marked +their gradually lengthening chaps and eyeballs. + +Not one of them moved. All gazed at him as if their marrows were +freezing with horror. + +'What's this?' cried Guy. + +They knew as little as he, but a force was behind them irresistible +against their efforts. The groaning oak slipped open, pushing them +forward, and an apparition glided past, soft as the pallid silver of the +moon. She slid to the Baron, and put her arms about him, and sang to +him. Had the Water-Lady laid an iron hand on all those ruffians, she +could not have held them faster bound than did the fear of her presence. +The Goshawk drew his fair charge through them, followed by Farina, the +Thier, and Rothhals. A last glimpse of the hall showed them still as old +cathedral sculpture staring at white light on a fluted pillar of the +wall. + + + + +THE PASSAGE OF THE RHINE + +Low among the swarthy sandhills behind the Abbey of Laach dropped the +round red moon. Soft lengths of misty yellow stole through the glens of +Rhineland. The nightingales still sang. Closer and closer the moon came +into the hushed valleys. + +There is a dell behind Hammerstein Castle, a ring of basking sward, +girdled by a silver slate-brook, and guarded by four high-peaked hills +that slope down four long wooded corners to the grassy base. Here, it is +said, the elves and earthmen play, dancing in circles with laughing feet +that fatten the mushroom. They would have been fulfilling the tradition +now, but that the place was occupied by a sturdy group of mortals, armed +with staves. The intruders were sleepy, and lay about on the inclines. +Now and then two got up, and there rang hard echoes of oak. Again all +were calm as cud-chewing cattle, and the white water ran pleased with +quiet. + +It may be that the elves brewed mischief among them; for the oaken blows +were becoming more frequent. One complained of a kick: another demanded +satisfaction for a pinch. 'Go to,' drawled the accused drowsily in both +cases, 'too much beer last night!' Within three minutes, the company +counted a pair of broken heads. The East was winning on the West in +heaven, and the dusk was thinning. They began to mark, each, whom he had +cudgelled. A noise of something swiftly in motion made them alert. A +roebuck rushed down one of the hills, and scampered across the sward. +The fine beast went stretching so rapidly away as to be hardly distinct. + +'Sathanas once more!' they murmured, and drew together. + +The name passed through them like a watchword. + +'Not he this time,' cried the two new-comers, emerging from the foliage. +'He's safe under Cologne--the worse for all good men who live there! But +come! follow to the Rhine! there 's work for us on the yonder side, and +sharp work.' + +'Why,' answered several, 'we 've our challenge with the lads of +Leutesdorf and Wied to-day.' + +'D' ye see this?' said the foremost of the others, pointing to a carved +ivory white rose in his cap. + +'Brothers!' he swelled his voice, 'follow with a will, for the White Rose +is in danger!' + +Immediately they ranked, and followed zealously through the buds of young +bushes, and over heaps of damp dead leaves, a half-hour's scramble, when +they defiled under Hammerstein, and stood before the Rhine. Their leader +led up the river, and after a hasty walk, stopped, loosened his hood, and +stripped. + +'Now,' said he, strapping the bundle to his back, 'let me know the hound +that refuses to follow his leader when the White Rose is in danger.' + +'Long live Dietrich!' they shouted. He dropped from the bank, and waded +in. He was soon supported by the remainder of the striplings, and all +struck out boldly into mid-stream. + +Never heard history of a nobler Passage of the Rhine than this made +between Andernach and Hammerstein by members of the White Rose Club, +bundle on back, to relieve the White Rose of Germany from thrall and +shame! + +They were taken far down by the rapid current, and arrived panting to +land. The dressing done, they marched up the pass of Tonnistein, and +took a deep draught at the spring of pleasant waters there open to +wayfarers. Arrived at the skirts of Laach, they beheld two farmer +peasants lashed back to back against a hazel. They released them, but +could gain no word of information, as the fellows, after a yawn and a +wink, started off, all heels, to make sure of liberty. On the shores of +the lake the brotherhood descried a body of youths, whom they hailed, and +were welcomed to companionship. + +'Where's Berthold?' asked Dietrich. + +He was not present. + +'The more glory for us, then,' Dietrich said. + +It was here seriously put to the captain, whether they should not halt at +the abbey, and reflect, seeing that great work was in prospect. + +'Truly,' quoth Dietrich, 'dying on an empty stomach is heathenish, and +cold blood makes a green wound gape. Kaiser Conrad should be hospitable, +and the monks honour numbers. Here be we, thirty and nine; let us go!' + +The West was dark blue with fallen light. The lakewaters were growing +grey with twilight. The abbey stood muffled in shadows. Already the +youths had commenced battering at the convent doors, when they were +summoned by the voice of the Goshawk on horseback. To their confusion +they beheld the White Rose herself on his right hand. Chapfallen +Dietrich bowed to his sweet mistress. + +'We were coming to the rescue,' he stammered. + +A laugh broke from the Goshawk. 'You thought the lady was locked up in +the ghostly larder; eh!' + +Dietrich seized his sword, and tightened his belt. + +'The Club allows no jesting with the White Rose, Sir Stranger.' + +Margarita made peace. 'I thank you all, good friends. But quarrel not, +I pray you, with them that save me at the risk of their lives.' + +'Our service is equal,' said the Goshawk, flourishing, 'Only we happen to +be beforehand with the Club, for which Farina and myself heartily beg +pardon of the entire brotherhood.' + +'Farina!' exclaimed Dietrich. 'Then we make a prisoner instead of +uncaging a captive.' + +'What 's this?' said Guy. + +'So much,' responded Dietrich. 'Yonder's a runaway from two masters: the +law of Cologne, and the conqueror of Satan; and all good citizens are +empowered to bring him back, dead or alive.' + +'Dietrich! Dietrich! dare you talk thus of the man who saved me?' cried +Margarita. + +Dietrich sullenly persisted. + +'Then, look!' said the White Rose, reddening under the pale dawn; 'he +shall not, he shall not go with you.' + +One of the Club was here on the point of speaking to the White Rose,-- +a breach of the captain's privilege. Dietrich felled him unresisting +to earth, and resumed: + +'It must be done, Beauty of Cologne! the monk, Father Gregory, is now +enduring shame and scorn for lack of this truant witness.' + +'Enough! I go !' said Farina. + +'You leave me?' Margarita looked tender reproach. Weariness and fierce +excitement had given a liquid flame to her eyes and an endearing darkness +round their circles that matched strangely with her plump youth. Her +features had a soft white flush. She was less radiant, but never looked +so bewitching. An aspect of sweet human languor caught at the heart of +love, and raised tumults. + +'It is a duty,' said Farina. + +'Then go,' she beckoned, and held her hand for him to kiss. He raised it +to his lips. This was seen of all the Club. + +As they were departing with Farina, and Guy prepared to demand admittance +into the convent, Dietrich chanced to ask how fared Dame Lisbeth. +Schwartz Thier was by, and answered, with a laugh, that he had quite +forgotten the little lady. + +'We took her in mistake for you, mistress! She was a one to scream! The +moment she was kissed--mum as a cloister. We kissed her, all of us, for +the fun of it. No harm--no harm! We should have dropped her when we +found we had the old bird 'stead of the young one, but reckoned ransom, +ye see. She's at the Eck, rattling, I's wager, like last year's nut in +the shell!' + +'Lisbeth! Lisbeth! poor Lisbeth; we will return to her. Instantly,' +cried Margarita. + +'Not you,' said Guy. + +'Yes! I!' + +'No!' said Guy. + +'Gallant Goshawk! best of birds, let me go!' + +'Without me or Farina, never! I see I shall have no chance with my lord +now. Come, then, come, fair Irresistible! come, lads. Farina can +journey back alone. You shall have the renown of rescuing Dame Lisbeth.' + +'Farina! forget not to comfort my father,' said Margarita. + +Between Margarita's society and Farina's, there was little dispute in the +captain's mind which choice to make. Farina was allowed to travel single +to Cologne; and Dietrich, petted by Margarita, and gently jeered by Guy, +headed the Club from Laach waters to the castle of the Robber Baron. + + + + +THE BACK-BLOWS OF SATHANAS + +Monk Gregory was pacing the high road between the Imperial camp and +suffering Cologne. The sun had risen through interminable distances of +cloud that held him remote in a succession of receding mounds and thinner +veils, realm beyond realm, till he showed fireless, like a phantom king +in a phantom land. The lark was in the breast of morning. The field- +mouse ran along the furrows. Dews hung red and grey on the weedy banks +and wayside trees. At times the nostril of the good father was lifted, +and he beat his breast, relapsing into sorrowful contemplation. Passed- +any citizen of Cologne, the ghostly head sunk into its cowl. 'There's a +black raven!' said many. Monk Gregory heard them, and murmured, 'Thou +hast me, Evil one! thou hast me!' + +It was noon when Farina came clattering down from the camp. + +'Father,' said he, 'I have sought thee.' + +'My son!' exclaimed Monk Gregory with silencing hand, 'thou didst not +well to leave me contending against the tongues of doubt. Answer me not. +The maiden! and what weighed she in such a scale?--No more! I am +punished. Well speaks the ancient proverb: + + "Beware the back-blows of Sathanas!" + +I, that thought to have vanquished him! Vanity has wrecked me, in this +world and the next. I am the victim of self-incense. I hear the demons +shouting their chorus--"Here comes Monk Gregory, who called himself +Conqueror of Darkness!" In the camp I am discredited and a scoff; in the +city I am spat upon, abhorred. Satan, my son, fights not with his fore- +claws. 'Tis with his tail he fights, O Farina!--Listen, my son! he +entered to his kingdom below through Cologne, even under the stones of +the Cathedral Square, and the stench of him abominably remaineth, +challenging the nostrils of holy and unholy alike. The Kaiser cannot +approach for him; the citizens are outraged. Oh! had I held my peace in +humbleness, I had truly conquered him. But he gave me easy victory, to +inflate me. I shall not last. Now this only is left, my son; that thou +bear living testimony to the truth of my statement, as I bear it to the +folly!' + +Farina promised, in the face of all, he would proclaim and witness to his +victory on Drachenfels. + +'That I may not be ranked an impostor!' continued the Monk. 'And how +great must be the virtue of them that encounter that dark spirit! Valour +availeth nought. But if virtue be not in' ye, soon will ye be puffed to +bursting with that devil's poison, self-incense. Surely, my son, thou +art faithful; and for this service I can reward thee. Follow me yet +again.' + +On the road they met Gottlieb Groschen, hastening to the camp. Dismay +rumpled the old merchant's honest jowl. Farina drew rein before him. + +'Your daughter is safe, worthy Master Groschen,' said he. + +'Safe?' cried Gottlieb; 'where is she, my Grete?' + +Farina briefly explained. Gottlieb spread out his arms, and was going to +thank the youth. He saw Father Gregory, and his whole frame narrowed +with disgust. + +'Are you in company with that pestilent animal, that curse of Cologne!' + +'The good Monk--,' said Farina. + +'You are leagued with him, then, sirrah! Expect no thanks from me. +Cologne, I say, is cursed! Meddling wretches! could ye not leave Satan +alone? He hurt us not. We were free of him. Cologne, I say, is cursed! +The enemy of mankind is brought by you to be the deadly foe of Cologne.' + +So saying, Gottlieb departed. + +'Seest thou, my son,' quoth the Monk, 'they reason not!' + +Farina was dejected. Willingly would he, for his part, have left the +soul of Evil a loose rover for the sake of some brighter horizon to his +hope. + +No twinge of remorse accompanied Gottlieb. The Kaiser had allotted him +an encampment and a guard of honour for his household while the foulness +raged, and there Gottlieb welcomed back Margarita and Aunt Lisbeth on the +noon after his meeting with Farina. The White Rose had rested at Laach, +and was blooming again. She and the Goshawk came trotting in advance of +the Club through the woods of Laach, startling the deer with laughter, +and sending the hare with her ears laid back all across country. In vain +Dietrich menaced Guy with the terrors of the Club: Aunt Lisbeth begged of +Margarita not to leave her with the footmen in vain. The joyous couple +galloped over the country, and sprang the ditches, and leapt the dykes, +up and down the banks, glad as morning hawks, entering Andernach at a +round pace; where they rested at a hostel as capable of producing good +Rhine and Mosel wine then as now. Here they had mid-day's meal laid out +in the garden for the angry Club, and somewhat appeased them on their +arrival with bumpers of the best Scharzhofberger. After a refreshing +halt, three boats were hired. On their passage to the river, they +encountered a procession of monks headed by the Archbishop of Andernach, +bearing a small figure of Christ carved in blackthorn and varnished: said +to work miracles, and a present to the good town from two Hungarian +pilgrims. + +'Are ye for Cologne?' the monks inquired of them. + +'Direct down stream!' they answered. + +'Send, then, hither to us Gregory, the conqueror of Darkness, that he may +know there is gratitude on earth and gratulation for great deeds,' said +the monks. + +So with genuflexions the travellers proceeded, and entered the boats by +the Archbishop's White Tower. Hammerstein Castle and Rheineck they +floated under; Salzig and the Ahr confluence; Rolandseck and Nonnenwerth; +Drachenfels and Bonn; hills green with young vines; dells waving fresh +foliage. Margarita sang as they floated. Ancient ballads she sang that +made the Goshawk sigh for home, and affected the Club with delirious love +for the grand old water that was speeding them onward. Aunt Lisbeth was +not to be moved. She alone held down her head. She looked not Gottlieb +in the face as he embraced her. Nor to any questioning would she +vouchsafe reply. From that time forth, she was charity to woman; and the +exuberant cheerfulness and familiarity of the men toward her soon grew +kindly and respectful. The dragon in Aunt Lisbeth was destroyed. She +objected no more to Margarita's cameo. + +The Goshawk quickly made peace with his lord, and enjoyed the +commendation of the Kaiser. Dietrich Schill thought of challenging him; +but the Club had graver business: and this was to pass sentence on +Berthold Schmidt for the crime of betraying the White Rose into the hands +of Werner. They had found Berthold at the Eck, and there consented to +let him remain until ransom was paid for his traitorous body. Berthold +in his mad passion was tricked by Werner, and on his release, by payment +of the ransom, submitted to the judgement of the Club, which condemned +him to fight them all in turn, and then endure banishment from Rhineland; +the Goshawk, for his sister's sake, interceding before a harsher +tribunal. + + + + +THE ENTRY INTO COLOGNE + +Seven days Kaiser Heinrich remained camped outside Cologne. Six times in +six successive days the Kaiser attempted to enter the city, and was +foiled. + +'Beard of Barbarossa!' said the Kaiser, 'this is the first stronghold +that ever resisted me.' + +The warrior bishops, electors, pfalzgrafs, and knights of the Empire, all +swore it was no shame not to be a match for the Demon. + +'If,' said the reflective Kaiser, 'we are to suffer below what poor +Cologne is doomed to undergo now, let us, by all that is savoury, reform +and do penance.' + +The wind just then setting on them dead from Cologne made the courtiers +serious. Many thought of their souls for the first time. + +This is recorded to the honour of Monk Gregory. + +On the seventh morning, the Kaiser announced his determination to make a +last trial. + +It was dawn, and a youth stood before the Kaiser's tent, praying an +audience. + +Conducted into the presence of the Kaiser, the youth, they say, succeeded +in arousing him from his depression, for, brave as he was, Kaiser +Heinrich dreaded the issue. Forthwith order was given for the cavalcade +to set out according to the rescript, Kaiser Heinrich retaining the youth +at his right hand. But the youth had found occasion to visit Gottlieb +and Margarita, each of whom he furnished with a flash,[flask ?] curiously +shaped, and charged with a distillation. + +As the head of the procession reached the gates of Cologne, symptoms of +wavering were manifest. + +Kaiser Heinrich commanded an advance, at all cost. + +Pfalzgraf Nase, as the old chronicles call him in their humour, but +assuredly a great noble, led the van, and pushed across the draw-bridge. + +Hesitation and signs of horror were manifest in the assemblage round the +Kaiser's person. The Kaiser and the youth at his right hand were cheery. +Not a whit drooped they! Several of the heroic knights begged the +Kaiser's permission to fall back. + +'Follow Pfalzgraf Nase!' the Kaiser is reported to have said. + +Great was the wonderment of the people of Cologne to behold Kaiser +Heinrich riding in perfect stateliness up the main street toward the +Cathedral, while right and left of him bishops and electors were dropping +incapable. + +The Kaiser advanced till by his side the youth rode sole. + +'Thy name?' said the Kaiser. + +He answered: 'A poor youth, unconquerable Kaiser! Farina I am called.' + +'Thy recompense?' said the Kaiser. + +He answered: 'The hand of a maiden of Cologne, most gracious Kaiser and +master!' + +'She is thine!' said the Kaiser. + +Kaiser Heinrich looked behind him, and among a host grasping the pommels +of their saddles, and reeling vanquished, were but two erect, a maiden +and an old man. + +'That is she, unconquerable Kaiser!' Farina continued, bowing low. + +'It shall be arranged on the spot,' said the Kaiser. + +A word from Kaiser Heinrich sealed Gottlieb's compliance. + +Said he: 'Gracious Kaiser and master! though such a youth could of +himself never have aspired to the possession of a Groschen, yet when the +Kaiser pleads for him, objection is as the rock of Moses, and streams +consent. Truly he has done Cologne good service, and if Margarita, my +daughter, can be persuaded--' + +The Kaiser addressed her with his blazing brows. + +Margarita blushed a ready autumn of rosy-ripe acquiescence. + +'A marriage registered yonder!' said the Kaiser, pointing upward. + +'I am thine, murmured Margarita, as Farina drew near her. + +'Seal it! seal it!' quoth the Kaiser, in hearty good humour; 'take no +consent from man or maid without a seal.' + +Farina tossed the contents of a flask in air, and saluted his beloved on +the lips. + +This scene took place near the charred round of earth where the Foulest +descended to his kingdom below. + +Men now pervaded Cologne with flasks, purifying the atmosphere. It +became possible to breathe freely. + +'We Germans,' said Kaiser Heinrich, when he was again surrounded by his +courtiers, 'may go wrong if we always follow Pfalzgraf Nase; but this +time we have been well led.' Whereat there was obsequious laughter. + +The Pfalzgraf pleaded a susceptible nostril. + +'Thou art, I fear, but a timid mortal,' said the Kaiser. + +'Never have I been found so on the German Field, Imperial Majesty!' +returned the Pfalzgraf. 'I take glory to myself that this Nether reek +overcomes me.' + +'Even that we must combat, you see!' exclaimed Kaiser Heinrich; 'but come +all to a marriage this night, and take brides as soon as you will, all of +you. Increase, and give us loyal subjects in plenty. I count prosperity +by the number of marriages in my empire!' + +The White Rose Club were invited by Gottlieb to the wedding, and took it +in vast wrath until they saw the, Kaiser, and such excellent stout German +fare present, when immediately a battle raged as to who should do the +event most honour, and was in dispute till dawn: Dietrich Schill being +the man, he having consumed wurst the length of his arm, and wine +sufficient to have floated a St. Goar salmon; which was long proudly +chronicled in his family, and is now unearthed from among the ancient +honourable records of Cologne. + +The Goshawk was Farina's bridesman, and a very spiriting bridesman was +he! Aunt Lisbeth sat in a corner, faintly smiling. + +'Child!' said the little lady to Margarita when they kissed at parting, +'your courage amazes me. Do you think? Do you know? Poor, sweet bird, +delivered over hand and foot!' + +'I love him! I love him, aunty! that's all I know,' said Margarita: +'love, love, love him!' + +'Heaven help you!' ejaculated Aunt Lisbeth. + +'Pray with me,' said Margarita. + +The two knelt at the foot of the bride-bed, and prayed very different +prayers, but to the same end. That done, Aunt Lisbeth helped undress the +White Rose, and trembled, and told a sad nuptial anecdote of the Castle, +and put her little shrivelled hand on Margarita's heart, and shrieked. + +'Child! it gallops!' she cried. + +''Tis happiness,' said Margarita, standing in her hair. + +'May it last only!' exclaimed Aunt Lisbeth. + +'It will, aunty! I am humble: I am true'; and the fair girl gathered the +frill of her nightgown. + +'Look not in the glass,' said Lisbeth; 'not to-night! Look, if you can, +to-morrow.' + +She smoothed the White Rose in her bed, tucked her up, and kissed her, +leaving her as a bud that waits for sunshine. + + + + +CONCLUSION + +The shadow of Monk Gregory was seen no more in Cologne. He entered the +Calendar, and ranks next St. Anthony. For three successive centuries the +towns of Rhineland boasted his visits in the flesh, and the conqueror of +Darkness caused dire Rhenish feuds. + +The Tailed Infernal repeated his famous Back-blow on Farina. The youth +awoke one morning and beheld warehouses the exact pattern of his own, +displaying flasks shaped even as his own, and a Farina to right and left +of him. In a week, they were doubled. A month quadrupled them. They +increased. + +'Fame and Fortune,' mused Farina, 'come from man and the world: Love is +from heaven. We may be worthy, and lose the first. We lose not love +unless unworthy. Would ye know the true Farina? Look for him who walks +under the seal of bliss; whose darling is for ever his young sweet bride, +leading him from snares, priming his soul with celestial freshness. +There is no hypocrisy can ape that aspect. Least of all, the creatures +of the Damned! By this I may be known.' + +Seven years after, when the Goshawk came into Cologne to see old friends, +and drink some of Gottlieb's oldest Rudesheimer, he was waylaid by false +Farinas; and only discovered the true one at last, by chance, in the +music-gardens near the Rhine, where Farina sat, having on one hand +Margarita, and at his feet three boys and one girl, over whom both bent +lovingly, like the parent vine fondling its grape bunches in summer +light. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A generous enemy is a friend on the wrong side +All are friends who sit at table +Be what you seem, my little one +Bed was a rock of refuge and fortified defence +Civil tongue and rosy smiles sweeten even sour wine +Dangerous things are uttered after the third glass +Everywhere the badge of subjection is a poor stomach +Face betokening the perpetual smack of lemon +Gratitude never was a woman's gift +It was harder to be near and not close +Loving in this land: they all go mad, straight off +Never reckon on womankind for a wise act +Self-incense +Sign that the evil had reached from pricks to pokes +So are great deeds judged when the danger's past (as easy) +Soft slumber of a strength never yet called forth +Suspicion was her best witness +Sweet treasure before which lies a dragon sleeping +We like well whatso we have done good work for +Weak reeds who are easily vanquished and never overcome +Weak stomach is certainly more carnally virtuous than a full one +Wins everywhere back a reflection of its own kindliness + + +[The End] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4492 *** |