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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5572.txt b/5572.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e84341 --- /dev/null +++ b/5572.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2269 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook A Word Only A Word, by Georg Ebers, v1 +#133 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: A Word Only A Word, Volume 1. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5572] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 12, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WORD ONLY A WORD, BY EBERS, V1 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +A WORD, ONLY A WORD + +By Georg Ebers + +Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford + + + +Volume 1. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"A word, only a word!" cried a fresh, boyish voice, then two hands were +loudly clapped and a gay laugh echoed through the forest. Hitherto +silence had reigned under the boughs of the pines and tops of the +beeches, but now a wood-pigeon joined in the lad's laugh, and a jay, +startled by the clapping of hands, spread its brown wings, delicately +flecked with blue, and soared from one pine to another. + +Spring had entered the Black Forest a few weeks before. May was just +over, yet the weather was as sultry as in midsummer and clouds were +gathering in denser and denser masses. The sun was still some distance +above the horizon, but the valley was so narrow that the day star had +disappeared, before making its majestic entry into the portals of night. + +When it set in a clear sky, it only gilded the border of pine trees on +the crest of the lofty western heights; to-day it was invisible, and the +occasional, quickly interrupted twittering of the birds seemed more in +harmony with the threatening clouds and sultry atmosphere than the lad's +gay laughter. + +Every living creature seemed to be holding its breath in anxious +suspense, but Ulrich once more laughed joyously, then bracing his bare +knee against a bundle of faggots, cried: + +"Give me that stick, Ruth, that I may tie it up. How dry the stuff is, +and how it snaps! A word! To sit over books all day long for one stupid +word--that's just nonsense!" + +"But all words are not alike," replied the girl. + +"Piff is paff, and paff is puff!" laughed Ulrich. "When I snap the +twigs, you always hear them say 'knack, knack,' and 'knack' is a word +too. The juggler Caspar's magpie, can say twenty." + +"But father said so," replied Ruth, arranging the dry sticks. "He toils +hard, but not for gold and gain, to find the right words. You are always +wanting to know what he is looking for in his big books, so I plucked up +courage to ask him, and now I know. I suppose he saw I was astonished, +for he smiled just as he does when you have asked some foolish question +at lessons, and added that a word was no trifling thing and should not be +despised, for God had made the world out of one single word." + +Ulrich shook his head, and after pondering a few minutes, replied. + +"Do you believe that?" + +"Father said so," was the little girl's only answer. Her words expressed +the firm, immovable security of childish confidence, and the same feeling +sparkled in her eyes. She was probably about nine years old, and in +every respect a perfect contrast to her companion, her senior by several +summers, for the latter was strongly built, and from beneath his +beautiful fair locks a pair of big blue eyes flashed defiance at the +world, while Ruth was a delicate little creature, with slender limbs, +pale cheeks, and coal-black hair. + +The little girl wore a fashionably-made, though shabby dress, shoes and +stockings--the boy was barefoot, and his grey doublet looked scarcely +less worn than the short leather breeches, which hardly reached his +knees; yet he must have had some regard for his outer man, for a red knot +of real silk was fastened on his shoulder. He could scarcely be the +child of a peasant or woodland laborer--the brow was too high, the nose +and red lips were too delicately moulded, the bearing was too proud and +free. + +Ruth's last words had given him food for thought, but he left them +unanswered until the last bundle of sticks was tied up. Then he said +hesitatingly: + +"My mother--you know.... I dare not speak of her before father, he goes +into such a rage; my mother is said to be very wicked--but she never was +so to me, and I long for her day after day, very, very much, as I long +for nothing else. When I was so high, my mother told me a great many +things, such queer things! About a man, who wanted treasures, and before +whom mountains opened at a word he knew. Of course it's for such a word +your father is seeking." + +"I don't know," replied the little girl. "But the word out of which God +made the whole earth and sky and all the stars must have been a very +great one." + +Ulrich nodded, then raising his eyes boldly, exclaimed: + +"Ah, if he should find it, and would not keep it to himself, but let you +tell me! I should know what I wanted." + +Ruth looked at him enquiringly, but he cried laughingly: "I shan't tell. +But what would you ask?" + +"I? I should ask to have my mother able to speak again like other +people. But you would wish...." + +"You can't know what I would wish." + +"Yes, yes. You would bring your mother back home again." + +"No, I wasn't thinking of that," replied Ulrich, flushing scarlet and +fixing his eyes on the ground. + +"What, then? Tell me; I won't repeat it." + +"I should like to be one of the count's squires, and always ride with him +when he goes hunting." + +"Oh!" cried Ruth. "That would be the very thing, if I were a boy like +you. A squire! But if the word can do everything, it will make you lord +of the castle and a powerful count. You can have real velvet clothes, +with gay slashes, and a silk bed." + +"And I'll ride the black stallion, and the forest, with all its stags +and deer, will belong to me; as to the people down in the village, I'll +show them!" + +Raising his clenched fist and his eyes in menace as he uttered the words, +he saw that heavy rain-drops were beginning to fall, and a thunder-shower +was rising. + +Hastily and skilfully loading himself with several bundles of faggots, he +laid some on the little girl's shoulders, and went down with her towards +the valley, paying no heed to the pouring rain, thunder or lightning; but +Ruth trembled in every limb. + +At the edge of the narrow pass leading to the city they stood still. The +moisture was trickling down its steep sides and had gathered into a +reddish torrent on the rocky bottom. + +"Come!" cried Ulrich, stepping on to the edge of the ravine, where +stones and sand, loosened by the wet, were now rattling down. + +"I'm afraid," answered the little girl trembling. "There's another flash +of lightning! Oh! dear, oh, dear! how it blazes!--oh! oh! that clap of +thunder!" + +She stooped as if the lightning had struck her, covered her face with her +little hands, and fell on her knees, the bundle of faggots slipping to +the ground. Filled with terror, she murmured as if she could command the +mighty word: "Oh, Word, Word, get me home!" + +Ulrich stamped impatiently, glanced at her with mingled anger and +contempt, and muttering reproaches, threw her bundle and his own into the +ravine, then roughly seized her hand and dragged her to the edge of the +cliff. + +Half-walking, half-slipping, with many an unkind word, though he was +always careful to support her, the boy scrambled down the steep slope +with his companion, and when they were at last standing in the water at +the bottom of the gully, picked up the dripping fagots and walked +silently on, carrying her burden as well as his own. + +After a short walk through the running water and mass of earth and +stones, slowly sliding towards the valley, several shingled roofs +appeared, and the little girl uttered a sigh of relief; for in the row of +shabby houses, each standing by itself, that extended from the forest to +the level end of the ravine, was her own home and the forge belonging to +her companion's father. + +It was still raining, but the thunder-storm had passed as quickly as it +rose, and twilight was already gathering over the mist-veiled houses and +spires of the little city, from which the street ran to the ravine. The +stillness of the evening was only interrupted by a few scattered notes of +bells, the finale of the mighty peal by which the warder had just been +trying to disperse the storm. + +The safety of the town in the narrow forest-valley was well secured, a +wall and ditch enclosed it; only the houses on the edge of the ravine +were unprotected. True, the mouth of the pass was covered by the field +pieces on the city wall, and the strong tower beside the gate, but it was +not incumbent on the citizens to provide for the safety of the row of +houses up there. It was called the Richtberg and nobody lived there +except the rabble, executioners, and poor folk who were not granted the +rights of citizenship. Adam, the smith, had forfeited his, and Ruth's +father, Doctor Costa, was a Jew, who ought to be thankful that he was +tolerated in the old forester's house. + +The street was perfectly still. A few children were jumping over the +mud-puddles, and an old washerwoman was putting a wooden vessel under the +gutter, to collect the rain-water. + +Ruth breathed more freely when once again in the street and among human +beings, and soon, clinging to the hand of her father, who had come to +meet her, she entered the house with him and Ulrich. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +While the boy flung the damp bundles of brushwood on the floor beside the +hearth in the doctor's kitchen, a servant from the monastery was leading +three horses under the rude shed in front of the smith Adam's work-shop +The stately grey-haired monk, who had ridden the strong cream-colored +steed, was already standing beside the embers of the fire, pressing his +hands upon the warm chimney. + +The forge stood open, but spite of knocking and shouting, neither the +master of the place, nor any other living soul appeared. Adam had gone +out, but could not be far away, for the door leading from the shop into +the sitting-room, was also unlocked. + +The time was growing long to Father Benedict, so for occupation he tried +to lift the heavy hammer. It was a difficult task, though he was no +weakling, yet it was not hard for Adam's arm to swing and guide the +burden. If only the man had understood how to govern his life as well as +he managed his ponderous tool! + +He did not belong to Richtberg. What would his father have said, had he +lived to see his son dwell here? + +The monk had known the old smith well, and he also knew many things about +the son and his destiny, yet no more than rumor entrusts to one person +concerning another's life. Even this was enough to explain why Adam had +become so reserved, misanthropic and silent a man, though even in his +youth lie certainly had not been what is termed a gay fellow. + +The forge where he grew up, was still standing in the market-place +of the little city below; it had belonged to his grandfather and great- +grandfather. There had never been any lack of custom, to the annoyance +of the wise magistrates, whose discussions were disturbed by the +hammering that rang across the ill-paved square to the windows of the +council-chamber; but, on the other hand, the idle hours of the watchmen +under the arches of the ground-floor of the town-hall were sweetened by +the bustle before the smithy. + +How Adam had come from the market-place to the Richtberg, is a story +speedily told. + +He was the only child of his dead parents, and early learned his father's +trade. When his mother died, the old man gave his son and partner his +blessing, and some florins to pay his expenses, and sent him away. He +went directly to Nuremberg, which the old man praised as the high-school +of the smith's art, and there remained twelve years. When, at the end +of that time, news came to Adam that his father was dead, and he had +inherited the forge on the market-place, he wondered to find that he was +thirty years old, and had gone no farther than Nuremberg. True, +everything that the rest of the world could do in the art of forging +might be learned there. + +He was a large, heavy man, and from childhood had moved slowly and +reluctantly from the place where he chanced to be. + +If work was pressing, he could not be induced to leave the anvil, even +when evening had closed in; if it was pleasant to sit over the beer, he +remained till after the last man had gone. While working, he was as +mute as the dead to everything that was passing around him; in the tavern +he rarely spoke, and then said only a few words, yet the young artists, +sculptors, workers in gold and students liked to see the stout drinker +and good listener at the table, and the members of his guild only +marvelled how the sensible fellow, who joined in no foolish pranks, and +worked in such good earnest, held aloof from them to keep company with +these hairbrained folk, and remained a Papist. + +He might have taken possession of the shop on the market-place directly +after his father's death, but could not arrange his departure so quickly, +and it was fully eight months before he left Nuremberg. + +On the high-road before Schwabach a wagon, occupied by some strolling +performers, overtook the traveller. They belonged to the better class, +for they appeared before counts and princes, and were seven in number. +The father and four sons played the violin, viola and reboc, and the two +daughters sang to the lute and harp. The old man invited Adam to take +the eighth place in the vehicle, so he counted his pennies, and room was +made for him opposite Flora, called by her family Florette. The +musicians were going to the fair at Nordlingen, and the smith enjoyed +himself so well with them, that he remained several days after reaching +the goal of the journey. When he at last went away Florette wept, but he +walked straight on until noon, without looking back. Then he lay down +under a blossoming apple-tree, to rest and eat some lunch, but the lunch +did not taste well; and when he shut his eyes he could not sleep, for he +thought constantly of Florette. Of course! He had parted from her far +too soon, and an eager longing seized upon him for the young girl, with +her red lips and luxuriant hair. This hair was a perfect golden-yellow; +he knew it well, for she had often combed and braided it in the tavern- +room beside the straw where they all slept. + +He yearned to hear her laugh too, and would have liked to see her weep +again. + +Then he remembered the desolate smithy in the narrow market-place and the +dreary home, recollected that he was thirty years old, and still had no +wife. + +A little wife of his own! A wife like Florette! Seventeen years old, +a complexion like milk and blood, a creature full of gayety and joyous +life! True, he was no light-hearted lad, but, lying under the apple-tree +in the month of May, he saw himself in imagination living happily and +merrily in the smithy by the market-place, with the fair-haired girl who +had already shed tears for him. At last he started up, and because he +had determined to go still farther on this day, did so, though for no +other reason than to carry out the plan formed the day before. The next +morning, before sunrise, he was again marching along the highway, this +time not forward towards the Black Forest, but back to Nordlingen. + +That very evening Florette became his betrothed bride, and the following +Tuesday his wife. + +The wedding was celebrated in the midst of the turmoil of the fair. +Strolling players, jugglers and buffoons were the witnesses, and there +was no lack of music and tinsel. + +A quieter ceremony would have been more agreeable to the plain citizen +and sensible blacksmith, but this purgatory had to be passed to reach +Paradise. + +On Wednesday he went off in a fair wagon with his young wife, and in +Stuttgart bought with a portion of his savings many articles of household +furniture, less to stop the gossips' tongues, of which he took no heed, +than to do her honor in his own eyes. These things, piled high in a +wagon of his own, he had sent into his native town as Florette's dowry, +for her whole outfit consisted of one pink and one grass-green gown, a +lute and a little white dog. + +A delightful life now began in the smithy for Adam. The gossips avoided +his wife, but they stared at her in church, and among them she seemed to +him, not unjustly, like a rose amid vegetables. The marriage he had made +was an abomination to respectable citizens, but Adam did not heed them, +and Flora appeared to feel equally happy with him. When, before the +close of the first twelvemonth after their wedding, Ulrich was born, the +smith reached the summit of happiness and remained there for a whole +year. + +When, during that time, he stood in the bow-window amid the fresh balsam, +auricular and yellow wallflowers holding his boy on his shoulder, while +his wife leaned on his arm, and the pungent odor of scorched hoofs +reached his nostrils, and he saw his journeyman and apprentice shoeing a +horse below, he often thought how pleasant it had been pursuing the finer +branches of his craft in Nuremberg, and that he should like to forge a +flower again; but the blacksmith's trade was not to be despised either, +and surely life with one's wife and child was best. + +In the evening he drank his beer at the Lamb, and once, when the surgeon +Siedler called life a miserable vale of tears, he laughed in his face and +answered: "To him who knows how to take it right, it is a delightful +garden." + +Florette was kind to her husband, and devoted herself to her child, so +long as he was an infant, with the most self-sacrificing love. Adam +often spoke of a little daughter, who must look exactly like its mother; +but it did not come. + +When little Ulrich at last began to run about in the street, +the mother's nomadic blood stirred, and she was constantly dinning it +into her husband's ears that he ought to leave this miserable place and +go to Augsburg or Cologne, where it would be pleasant; but he remained +firm, and though her power over him was great, she could not move his +resolute will. + +Often she would not cease her entreaties and representations, and when +she even complained that she was dying of solitude and weariness, his +veins swelled with wrath, and then she was frightened, fled to her room +and wept. If she happened to have a bold day, she threatened to go away +and seek her own relatives. This displeased him, and he made her feel it +bitterly, for he was steadfast in everything, even anger, and when he +bore ill-will it was not for hours, but months, nor at such times could +he be conciliated by coaxing or tears. + +By degrees Florette learned to meet his discontent with a shrug of her +shoulders, and to arrange her life in her own way. Ulrich was her +comfort, pride and plaything, but sporting with him did not satisfy her. + +While Adam was standing behind the anvil, she sat among the flowers in +the bow-window, and the watchmen now looked higher up than the forge, +the worthy magistrates no longer cast unfriendly glances at the smith's +house, for Florette grew more and more beautiful in the quiet life she +now enjoyed, and many a neighboring noble brought his horse to Adam to be +shod, merely to look into the eyes of the artisan's beautiful wife. + +Count von Frohlingen came most frequently of all, and Florette soon +learned to distinguish the hoof-beats of his horse from those of the +other steeds, and when he entered the shop, willingly found some pretext +for going there too. In the afternoons she often went with her child +outside the gate, and then always chose the road leading to the count's +castle. There was no lack of careful friends, who warned Adam, but he +answered them angrily, so they learned to be silent. + +Florette had now grown gay again, and sometimes sang like a joyous bird. + +Seven years elapsed, and during the summer of the eighth a scattered +troop of soldiers came to the city and obtained admission. They were +quartered under the arches of the town-hall, but many also lay in the +smithy, for their helmets, breast-plates and other pieces of armor +required plenty of mending. The ensign, a handsome, proud young fellow, +with a dainty moustache, was Adam's most constant customer, and played +very kindly with Ulrich, when Florette appeared with him. At last the +young soldier departed, and the very same day Adam was summoned to the +monastery, to mend something in the grating before the treasury. + +When he returned, Florette had vanished; "run after the ensign," people +said, and they were right. Adam did not attempt to wrest her from the +seducer; but a great love cannot be torn from the heart like a staff that +is thrust into the ground; it is intertwined with a thousand fibres, and +to destroy it utterly is to destroy the heart in which it has taken root, +and with it life itself. When he secretly cursed her and called her a +viper, he doubtless remembered how innocent, dear and joyous she had +been, and then the roots of the destroyed affection put forth new shoots, +and he saw before his mental vision ensnaring images, of which he felt +ashamed as soon as they had vanished. + +Lightning and hail had entered the "delightful garden" of Adam's life +also, and he had been thrust forth from the little circle of the happy +into the great army of the wretched. + +Purifying powers dwell in undeserved suffering, but no one is made better +by unmerited disgrace, least of all a man like Adam. He had done what +seemed to him his duty, without looking to the right or the left, but now +the stainless man felt himself dishonored, and with morbid sensitiveness +referred everything he saw and heard to his own disgrace, while the +inhabitants of the little town made him feel that he had been ill- +advised, when he ventured to make a fiddler's daughter a citizen. + +When he went out, it seemed to him--and usually unjustly--as if people +were nudging each other; hands, pointing out-stretched fingers at him, +appeared to grow from every eye. At home he found nothing but +desolation, vacuity, sorrow, and a child, who constantly tore open the +burning, gnawing wounds in his heart. Ulrich must forget "the viper," +and he sternly forbade him to speak of his mother; but not a day passed +on which he would not fain have done so himself. + +The smith did not stay long in the house on the market-place. He wished +to go to Freiburg or Ulm, any place where he had not been with her. A +purchaser for the dwelling, with its lucrative business, was speedily +found, the furniture was packed, and the new owner was to move in on +Wednesday, when on Monday Bolz, the jockey, came to Adam's workshop from +Richtberg. The man had been a good customer for years, and bought +hundreds of shoes, which he put on the horses at his own forge, for he +knew something about the trade. He came to say farewell; he had his own +nest to feather, and could do a more profitable business in the lowlands +than up here in the forest. Finally he offered Adam his property at a +very low price. + +The smith had smiled at the jockey's proposal, still he went to the +Richtberg the very next day to see the place. There stood the +executioner's house, from which the whole street was probably named. +One wretched hovel succeeded another. Yonder before a door, Wilhelm the +idiot, on whom the city boys played their pranks, smiled into vacancy +just as foolishly as he had done twenty years ago, here lodged Kathrin, +with the big goitre, who swept the gutters; in the three grey huts, from +which hung numerous articles of ragged clothing, lived two families of +charcoal-burners, and Caspar, the juggler, a strange man, whom as a boy +he had seen in the pillory, with his deformed daughters, who in winter +washed laces and in summer went with him to the fairs. + +In the hovels, before which numerous children were playing, lived honest, +but poor foresters. It was the home of want and misery. Only the +jockey's house and one other would have been allowed to exist in the +city. The latter was occupied by the Jew, Costa, who ten years before +had come from a distant country to the city with his aged father and a +dumb wife, and remained there, for a little daughter was born and the old +man was afterwards seized with a fatal illness. But the inhabitants +would tolerate no Jews among them, so the stranger moved into the +forester's house on the Richtberg which had stood empty because a better +one had been built deeper in the woods. The city treasury could use the +rent and tax exacted from Jews and demanded of the stranger. The Jew +consented to the magistrate's requirement, but as it soon became known +that he pored over huge volumes all day long and pursued no business, yet +paid for everything in good money, he was believed to be an alchemist and +sorcerer. + +All who lived here were miserable or despised, and when Adam had left the +Richtberg he told himself that he no longer belonged among the proud and +unblemished and since he felt dishonored and took disgrace in the same +dogged earnest, that he did everything else, he believed the people in +the Richtberg were just the right neighbors for him. All knew what it is +to be wretched, and many had still heavier disgrace to bear. And then! +If want drove his miserable wife back to him, this was the right place +for her and those of her stamp. + +So he bought the jockey's house and well-supplied forge. There would be +customers enough for all he could do there in obscurity. + +He had no cause to repent his bargain. + +The old nurse remained with him and took care of Ulrich, who throve +admirably. His own heart too grew lighter while engaged in designing or +executing many an artistic piece of work. He sometimes went to the city +to buy iron or coals, but usually avoided any intercourse with the +citizens, who shrugged their shoulders or pointed to their foreheads, +when they spoke of him. + +About a year after his removal he had occasion to speak to the file- +cutter, and sought him at the Lamb, where a number of Count Frolinger's +retainers were sitting. Adam took no notice of them, but they began to +jeer and mock at him. For a time he succeeded in controlling himself, +but when red-haired Valentine went too far, a sudden fit of rage +overpowered him and he felled him to the floor. The others now attacked +him and dragged him to their master's castle, where he lay imprisoned for +six months. At last he was brought before the count, who restored him to +liberty "for the sake of Florette's beautiful eyes." + +Years had passed since then, during which Adam had lived a quiet, +industrious life in the Richtberg with his son. He associated with no +one, except Doctor Costa, in whom he found the first and only real friend +fate had ever bestowed upon him. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Father Benedict had last seen the smith soon after his return from +imprisonment, in the confessional of the monastery. As the monk in his +youth had served in a troop of the imperial cavalry, he now, spite of his +ecclesiastical dignity, managed the stables of the wealthy monastery, and +had formerly come to the smithy in the market-place with many a horse, +but since the monks had become involved in a quarrel with the city, +Benedict ordered the animals to be shod elsewhere. + +A difficult case reminded him of the skilful, half-forgotten artisan; +and when the latter came out of the shed with a sack of coal, Benedict +greeted him with sincere warmth. Adam, too, showed that he was glad to +see the unexpected visitor, and placed his skill at the disposal of the +monastery. + +"It has grown late, Adam," said the monk, loosening the belt he was +accustomed to wear when riding, which had become damp. "The storm +overtook us on the way. The rolling and flashing overhead made the +sorrel horse almost tear Gotz's hands off the wrists. Three steps +sideways and one forward--so it has grown late, and you can't shoe the +rascal in the dark." + +"Do you mean the sorrel horse?" asked Adam, in a deep, musical voice, +thrusting a blazing pine torch into the iron ring on the forge. + +"Yes, Master Adam. He won't bear shoeing, yet he's very valuable. We +have nothing to equal him. None of us can control him, but you formerly +zounds!....you haven't grown younger in the last few years either, Adam! +Put on your cap; you've lost your hair. Your forehead reaches down to +your neck, but your vigor has remained. Do you remember how you cleft +the anvil at Rodebach?" + +"Let that pass," replied Adam--not angrily, but firmly. "I'll shoe the +horse early to-morrow; it's too late to-day." + +"I thought so!" cried the other, clasping his hands excitedly. "You know +how we stand towards the citizens on account of the tolls on the bridges. +I'd rather lie on thorns than enter the miserable hole. The stable down +below is large enough! Haven't you a heap of straw for a poor brother in +Christ? I need nothing more; I've brought food with me." + +The smith lowered his eyes in embarrassment. He was not hospitable. +No stranger had rested under his roof, and everything that disturbed his +seclusion was repugnant to him. Yet he could not refuse; so he answered +coldly: "I live alone here with my boy, but if you wish, room can be +made." + +The monk accepted as eagerly, as if he had been cordially invited; and +after the horses and groom were supplied with shelter, followed his host +into the sitting-room next the shop, and placed his saddle-bags on the +table. + +"This is all right," he said, laughing, as he produced a roast fowl and +some white bread. "But how about the wine? I need something warm inside +after my wet ride. Haven't you a drop in the cellar?" + +"No, Father!" replied the smith. But directly after a second thought +occurred to him, and he added: "Yes, I can serve you." + +So saying, he opened the cupboard, and when, a short time after, the monk +emptied the first goblet, he uttered a long drawn "Ah!" following the +course of the fiery potion with his hand, till it rested content near his +stomach. His lips quivered a little in the enjoyment of the flavor; then +he looked benignantly with his unusually round eyes at Adam, saying +cunningly: + +"If such grapes grow on your pine-trees, I wish the good Lord had given +Father Noah a pine-tree instead of a vine. By the saints! The +archbishop has no better wine in his cellar! Give me one little sip +more, and tell me from whom you received the noble gift?" + +"Costa gave me the wine." + +"The sorcerer---the Jew?" asked the monk, pushing the goblet away. "But, +of course," he continued, in a half-earnest, half-jesting tone, "when one +considers--the wine at the first holy communion, and at the marriage of +Cana, and the juice of the grapes King David enjoyed, once lay in Jewish +cellars!" + +Benedict had doubtless expected a smile or approving word from his host, +but the smith's bearded face remained motionless, as if he were dead. + +The monk looked less cheerful, as he began again "You ought not to grudge +yourself a goblet either. Wine moderately enjoyed makes the heart glad; +and you don't look like a contented man. Everything in life has not gone +according to your wishes, but each has his own cross to bear; and as for +you, your name is Adam, and your trials also come from Eve!" + +At these words the smith moved his hand from his beard, and began to push +the round leather cap to and fro on his bald head. A harsh answer was +already on his lips, when he saw Ulrich, who had paused on the threshold +in bewilderment. The boy had never beheld any guest at his father's +table except the doctor, but hastily collecting his thoughts he kissed +the monk's hand. The priest took the handsome lad by the chin, bent his +head back, looked Adam also in the face, and exclaimed: + +"His mouth, nose and eyes he has inherited from your wife, but the shape +of the brow and head is exactly like yours." + +A faint flush suffused Adam's cheeks, and turning quickly to the boy as +if he had heard enough, he cried: + +"You are late. Where have you been so long?" + +"In the forest with Ruth. We were gathering faggots for Dr. Costa." + +"Until now?" + +"Rahel had baked some dumplings, so the doctor told me to stay." + +"Then go to bed now. But first take some food to the groom in the +stable, and put fresh linen on my bed. Be in the workshop early +to-morrow morning, there is a horse to be shod." + +The boy looked up thoughtfully and replied: "Yes, but the doctor has +changed the hours; to-morrow the lesson will begin just after sunrise, +father." + +"Very well, we'll do without you. Good-night then." + +The monk followed this conversation with interest and increasing +disapproval, his face assuming a totally different expression, for the +muscles between his nose and mouth drew farther back, forming with the +underlip an angle turning inward. Thus he gazed with mute reproach at +the smith for some time, then pushed the goblet far away, exclaiming with +sincere indignation: + +"What doings are these, friend Adam? I'll let the Jew's wine pass, and +the dumplings too for aught I care, though it doesn't make a Christian +child more pleasing in the sight of God, to eat from the same dish with +those on whom the Saviour's innocent blood rests. But that you, +a believing Christian, should permit an accursed Jew to lead a +foolish lad. . . ." + +"Let that pass," said the smith, interrupting the excited monk; but the +latter would not be restrained, and only continued still more loudly and +firmly: "I won't be stopped. Was such a thing ever heard of? A baptized +Christian, who sends his own son to be taught by the infidel soul- +destroyer!" + +"Hear me, Father!" + +"No indeed. It's for you to hear--you! What was I saying? For you, +you who seek for your poor child a soul-destroying infidel as teacher. +Do you know what that is? A sin against the Holy Ghost--the worst of all +crimes. Such an abomination! You will have a heavy penance imposed upon +you in the confessional." + +"It's no sin--no abomination!" replied the smith defiantly. + +The angry blood mounted into the monk's cheeks, and he cried: +threateningly: "Oho! The chapter will teach you better to your sorrow. +Keep the boy away from the Jew, or ......" + +"Or?" repeated the smith, looking Father Benedict steadily in the face. + +The latter's lips curled still more deeply, as after a pause, he replied: +"Or excommunication and a fitting punishment will fall upon you and the +vagabond doctor. Tit for tat. We have grown tender-hearted, and it is +long since a Jew has been burned for an example to many." + +These words did not fail to produce an effect, for though Adam was a +brave man, the monk threatened him with things, against which he felt +as powerless as when confronted with the might of the tempest and the +lightning flashing from the clouds. His features now expressed deep +mental anguish, and stretching out his hands repellently towards his +guest, he cried anxiously "No, no! Nothing more can happen to me. No +excommunication, no punishment, can make my present suffering harder to +bear, but if you harm the doctor, I shall curse the hour I invited you +to cross my threshold." + +The monk looked at the other in surprise and answered in a more gentle +tone: "You have always walked in your own way, Adam; but whither are you +going now? Has the Jew bewitched you, or what binds you to him, that you +look, on his account, as if a thunderbolt had struck you? No one shall +have cause to curse the hour he invited Benedict to be his guest. See +your way clearly once more, and when you have come to your senses--why, +we monks have two eyes, that we may be able to close one when occasion +requires. Have you any special cause for gratitude to Costa?" + +"Many, Father, many !" cried the smith, his voice still trembling with +only too well founded anxiety for his friend. "Listen, and when you know +what he has done for me, and are disposed to judge leniently, do not +carry what reaches your ears here before the chapter no, Father-- +I beseech you--do not. For if it should be I, by whom the doctor came +to ruin, I--I...." The man's voice failed, and his chest heaved so +violently with his gasping breath, that his stout leathern apron rose +and fell. + +"Be calm, Adam, be calm," said the monk, soothingly answering his +companion's broken words. "All shall be well, all shall be well. Sit +down, man, and trust me. What is the terrible debt of gratitude you owe +the doctor?" + +Spite of the other's invitation, the smith remained standing and with +downcast eyes, began: + +"I am not good at talking. You know how I was thrown into a dungeon on +Valentine's account, but no one can understand my feelings during that +time. Ulrich was left alone here among this miserable rabble with nobody +to care for him, for our old maid-servant was seventy. I had buried my +money in a safe place and there was nothing in the house except a loaf of +bread and a few small coins, barely enough to last three days. The child +was always before my eyes; I saw him ragged, begging, starving. But my +anxiety tortured me most, after they had released me and I was going back +to my house from the castle. It was a walk of two hours, but each one +seemed as long as St. John's day. Should I find Ulrich or not? What had +become of him? It was already dark, when I at last stood before the +house. Everything was as silent as the grave, and the door was locked. +Yet I must get in, so I rapped with my fingers, and then pounded with my +fist on the door and shutters, but all in vain. Finally Spittellorle-- +[A nickname; literally: "Hospital Loura."]--came out of the red house +next mine, and I heard all. The old woman had become idiotic, and was in +the stocks. Ulrich was at the point of death, and Doctor Costa had taken +him home. When I heard this, I felt the same as you did just now; anger +seized upon me, and I was as much ashamed as if I were standing in the +pillory. My child with the Jew! There was not much time for reflection, +and I set off at full speed for the doctor's house. A light was shining +through the window. It was high above the street, but as it stood open +and I am tall, I could look in and see over the whole room. At the right +side, next the wall, was a bed, where amid the white pillows lay my boy. +The doctor sat by his side, holding the child's hand in his. Little +Ruth nestled to him, asking: 'Well, father?' The man smiled. Do you +know him, Pater? He is about thirty years old, and has a pale, calm +face. He smiled and said so gratefully, so-so joyously, as if Ulrich +were his own son: 'Thank God, he will be spared to us!' The little girl +ran to her dumb mother, who was sitting by the stove, winding yarn, +exclaiming: + +'Mother, he'll get well again. I have prayed for him every day.' The +Jew bent over my child and pressed his lips upon the boy's brow--and I, +I--I no longer clenched my fist, and was so overwhelmed with emotion, +that I could not help weeping, as if I were still a child myself, and +since then, Pater Benedictus, since...." He paused; the monk rose, laid +his hand on the smith's shoulder, and said: + +"It has grown late, Adam. Show me to my couch. Another day will come +early to-morrow morning, and we should sleep over important matters. But +one thing is settled, and must remain so-under all circumstances: the boy +is no longer to be taught by the Jew. He must help you shoe the horses +to-morrow. You will be reasonable!" + +The smith made no reply, but lighted the monk to the room where he and +his son usually slept. His own couch was covered with fresh linen for +the guest--Ulrich already lay in his bed, apparently asleep. + +"We have no other room to give you," said Adam, pointing to the boy; but +the monk was content with his sleeping companions, and after his host had +left him, gazed earnestly at Ulrich's fresh, handsome face. + +The smith's story had moved him, and he did not go to rest at once, but +paced thoughtfully up and down the room, stepping lightly, that he might +not disturb the child's slumber. + +Adam had reason to be grateful to the man, and why should there not be +good Jews? + +He thought of the patriarchs, Moses, Solomon, and the prophets, and had +not the Saviour himself, and John and Paul, whom he loved above all the +apostles, been the children of Jewish mothers, and grown up among Jews? +And Adam! the poor fellow had had more than his share of trouble, and he +who believes himself deserted by God, easily turns to the devil. He was +warned now, and the mischief to his son must be stopped once for all. +What might not the child hear from the Jew, in these times, when heresy +wandered about like a roaring lion, and sat by all the roads like a +siren. Only by a miracle had this secluded valley been spared the evil +teachings, but the peasants had already shown that they grudged the +nobles the power, the cities the rich gains, and the priesthood the +authority and earthly possessions, bestowed on them by God. He was +disposed to let mildness rule, and spare the Jew this time--but only on +one condition. + +When he took off his cowl, he looked for a hook on which to hang it, and +while so doing, perceived on the shelf a row of boards. Taking one down, +he found a sketch of an artistic design for the enclosure of a fountain, +done by the smith's hand, and directly opposite his bed a linden-wood +panel, on which a portrait was drawn with charcoal. This roused his +curiosity, and, throwing the light of the torch upon it, he started back, +for it was a rudely executed, but wonderfully life-like head of Costa, +the Jew. He remembered him perfectly, for he had met him more than once. + +The monk shook his head angrily, but lifted the picture from the shelf +and examined more closely the doctor's delicately-cut nose, and the noble +arch of the brow. While so doing, he muttered unintelligible words, and +when at last, with little show of care, he restored the modest work of +art to its old place, Ulrich awoke, and, with a touch of pride, +exclaimed: + +"I drew that myself, Father!" + +"Indeed!" replied the monk. "I know of better models for a pious lad. +You must go to sleep now, and to-morrow get up early and help your +father. Do you understand?" + +So saying, with no gentle hand he turned the boy's head towards the wall. +The mildness awakened by Adam's story had all vanished to the winds. + +Adam allowed his son to practise idolatry with the Jew, and make pictures +of him. This was too much. He threw himself angrily on his couch, and +began to consider what was to be done in this difficult matter, but sleep +soon brought his reflections to an end. + +Ulrich rose very early, and when Benedict saw him again in the light of +the young day, and once more looked at the Jew's portrait, drawn by the +handsome boy, a thought came to him as if inspired by the saints +themselves--the thought of persuading the smith to give his son to the +monastery. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +This morning Pater Benedictus was a totally different person from the +man, who had sat over the wine the night before. Coldly and formally he +evaded the smith's questions, until the latter had sent his son away. + +Ulrich, without making any objection, had helped his father shoe the +sorrel horse, and in a few minutes, by means of a little stroking over +the eyes and nose, slight caresses, and soothing words, rendered the +refractory stallion as docile as a lamb. No horse had ever resisted +the lad, from the time he was a little child, the smith said, though +for what reason he did not know. These words pleased the monk, for he +was only too familiar with two fillies, that were perfect fiends for +refractoriness, and the fair-haired boy could show his gratitude for +the schooling he received, by making himself useful in the stable. + +Ulrich must go to the monastery, so Benedictus curtly declared with the +utmost positiveness, after the smith had finished his work. At midsummer +a place would be vacant in the school, and this should be reserved for +the boy. A great favor! What a prospect--to be reared there with +aristocratic companions, and instructed in the art of painting. Whether +he should become a priest, or follow some worldly pursuit, could be +determined later. In a few years the boy could choose without restraint. + +This plan would settle everything in the best possible way. The Jew need +not be injured, and the smith's imperiled son would be saved. The monk +would hear no objections. Either the accusation against the doctor +should be laid before the chapter, or Ulrich must go to the school. + +In four weeks, on St. John's Day, so Benedictus declared, the smith and +his son might announce their names to the porter. Adam must have saved +many florins, and there would be time enough to get the lad shoes and +clothes, that he might hold his own in dress with the other scholars. + +During this whole transaction the smith felt like a wild animal in the +hunter's toils, and could say neither "yes" nor "no." The monk did not +insist upon a promise, but, as he rode away, flattered himself that he +had snatched a soul from the claws of Satan, and gained a prize for the +monastery-school and his stable--a reflection that made him very +cheerful. + +Adam retrained alone beside the fire. Often, when his heart was heavy, +he had seized his huge hammer and deadened his sorrow by hard work; but +to-day he let the tool lie, for the consciousness of weakness and lack +of will paralyzed his lusty vigor, and he stood with drooping head, as +if utterly crushed. The thoughts that moved him could not be exactly +expressed in words, but doubtless a vision of the desolate forge, where +he would stand alone by the fire without Ulrich, rose before his mind. +Once the idea of closing his house, taking the boy by the hand, and +wandering out into the world with him, flitted through his brain. But +then, what would become of the Jew, and how could he leave this place? +Where would his miserable wife, the accursed, lovely sinner, find him, +when she sought him again? Ulrich had run out of doors long ago. Had +he gone to study his lessons with the Jew? He started in terror at the +thought. Passing his hands over his eyes, like a dreamer roused from +sleep, he went into his chamber, threw off his apron, cleansed his face +and hands from the soot of the forge, put on his burgher dress, which he +only wore when he went to church or visited the doctor, and entered the +street. + +The thunder-storm had cleared the air, and the sun shone pleasantly on +the shingled roofs of the miserable houses of the Richtberg. Its rays +were reflected from the little round window-panes, and flickered over the +tree-tops on the edge of the ravine. + +The light-green hue of the fresh young foliage on the beeches glittered +as brightly against the dark pines, as if Spring had made them a token of +her mastery over the grave companions of Winter; yet even the pines were +not passed by, and where her finger had touched the tips of the branches +in benediction, appeared tender young shoots, fresh as the grass by the +brook, and green as chrysophase and emerald. + +The stillness of morning reigned within the forest, yet it was full of +life, rich in singing, chirping and twittering. Light streamed from the +blue sky through the tree-tops, and the golden sunbeams shimmered and +danced over the branches, trunks and ground, as if they had been prisoned +in the woods and could never find their way out. The shadows of the tall +trunks lay in transparent bars on the underbrush, luxuriant moss, and +ferns, and the dew clung to the weeds and grass. + +Nature had celebrated her festival of resurrection at Easter, and the day +after the morrow joyous Whitsuntide would begin. Fresh green life was +springing from the stump of every dead tree; even the rocks afforded +sustenance to a hundred roots, a mossy covering and network of thorny +tendrils clung closely to them. The wild vine twined boldly up many a +trunk, fruit was already forming on the bilberry bushes, though it still +glimmered with a faint pink hue amid the green of May. A thousand +blossoms, white, red, blue and yellow, swayed on their slender stalks, +opened their calixes to the bees, unfolded their stars to deck the +woodland carpet, or proudly stretched themselves up as straight as +candles. Grey fungi had shot up after the refreshing rain, and gathered +round the red-capped giants among the mushrooms. Under, over and around +all this luxuriant vegetation hopped, crawled, flew, fluttered, buzzed +and chirped millions of tiny, short-lived creatures. But who heeds them +on a sunny Spring morning in the forest, when the birds are singing, +twittering, trilling, pecking, cooing and calling so joyously? Murmuring +and plashing, the forest stream dashed down its steep bed over rocks and +amid moss-covered stones and smooth pebbles to the valley. The hurrying +water lived, and in it dwelt its gay inhabitants, fresh plants grew along +the banks from source to mouth, while over and around it a third species +of living creatures sunned themselves, fluttered, buzzed and spun +delicate silk threads. + +In the midst of a circular clearing, surrounded by dense woods, smoked a +charcoal kiln. It was less easy to breathe here, than down in the forest +below. Where Nature herself rules, she knows how to guard beauty and +purity, but where man touches her, the former is impaired and the latter +sullied. + +It seemed as if the morning sunlight strove to check the smoke from the +smouldering wood, in order to mount freely into the blue sky. Little +clouds floated over the damp, grassy earth, rotting tree-trunks, piles of +wood and heaps of twigs that surrounded the kiln. A moss-grown but stood +at the edge of the forest, and before it sat Ulrich, talking with the +coal-burner. People called this man "Hangemarx," and in truth he +looked in his black rags, like one of those for whom it is a pity that +Nature should deck herself in her Spring garb. He had a broad, peasant +face, his mouth was awry, and his thick yellowish-red hair, which in many +places looked washed out or faded, hung so low over his narrow forehead, +that it wholly concealed it, and touched his bushy, snow-white brows. +The eyes under them needed to be taken on trust, they were so well +concealed, but when they peered through the narrow chink between the rows +of lashes, not even a mote escaped them. Ulrich was shaping an arrow, +and meantime asking the coal-burner numerous questions, and when the +latter prepared to answer, the boy laughed heartily, for before Hangemarx +could speak, he was obliged to straighten his crooked mouth by three +jerking motions, in which his nose and cheeks shared. + +An important matter was being discussed between the two strangely +dissimilar companions. + +After it grew dark, Ulrich was to come to the charcoal-burner again. +Marx knew where a fine buck couched, and was to drive it towards the boy, +that he might shoot it. The host of the Lamb down in the town needed +game, for his Gretel was to be married on Tuesday. True, Marx could kill +the animal himself, but Ulrich had learned to shoot too, and if the place +whence the game came should be noised abroad, the charcoal-burner, +without any scruples of conscience, could swear that he did not shoot +the buck, but found it with the arrow in its heart. + +People called the charcoal-burner a poacher, and he owed his ill-name of +"Hangemarx" to the circumstance that once, though long ago, he had +adorned a gallows. Yet he was not a dishonest man, only he remembered +too faithfully the bold motto, which, when a boy, one peasant wood-cutter +or charcoal-burner whispered to another: + +"Forest, stream and meadow are free." + +His dead father had joined the Bundschuh,--[A peasants' league which +derived its name from the shoe, of peculiar shape, worn by its members.] +--adopted this motto, and clung fast to it and with it, to the belief +that every living thing in the forest belonged to him, as much as to the +city, the nobles, or the monastery. For this faith he had undergone much +suffering, and owed to it his crooked mouth and ill name, for just as his +beard was beginning to grow, the father of the reigning count came upon +him, just after he had killed a fawn in the "free" forest. The legs of +the heavy animal were tied together with ropes, and Marx was obliged to +take the ends of the knot between his teeth like a bridle, and drag the +carcass to the castle. While so doing his cheeks were torn open, and the +evil deed neither pleased him nor specially strengthened his love for the +count. When, a short time after, the rebellion broke out in Stuhlingen, +and he heard that everywhere the peasants were rising against the monks +and nobles, he, too, followed the black, red and yellow banner, first +serving with Hans Muller of Bulgenbach, then with Jacklein Rohrbach of +Bockingen, and participating with the multitude in the overthrow of the +city and castle of Neuenstein. At Weinsberg he saw Count Helfenstein +rush upon the spears, and when the noble countess was driven past him to +Heilbronn in the dung-cart, he tossed his cap in the air with the rest. + +The peasant was to be lord now; the yoke of centuries was to be broken; +unjust imposts, taxes, tithes and villenage would be forever abolished, +while the fourth of the twelve articles he had heard read aloud more than +once, remained firmly fixed in his memory "Game, birds and fish every one +is free to catch." Moreover, many a verse from the Gospel, unfavorable +to the rich, but promising the kingdom of heaven to the poor, and that +the last shall be first, had reached his ears. Doubtless many of the +leaders glowed with lofty enthusiasm for the liberation of the poor +people from unendurable serfdom and oppression; but when Marx, and men +like him, left wife and children and risked their lives, they remembered +only the past, and the injustice they had suffered, and were full of a +fierce yearning to trample the dainty, torturing demons under their +heavy peasant feet. + +The charcoal-burner had never lighted such bright fires, never tasted +such delicious meat and spicy wine, as during that period of his life, +while vengeance had a still sweeter savor than all the rest. When the +castle fell, and its noble mistress begged for mercy, he enjoyed a +foretaste of the promised paradise. Satan has also his Eden of fiery +roses, but they do not last long, and when they wither, put forth sharp +thorns. The peasants felt them soon enough, for at Sindelfingen they +found their master in Captain Georg Truchsess of Waldberg. + +Marx fell into his troopers' hands and was hung on the gallows, but only +in mockery and as a warning to others; for before he and his companions +perished, the men took them down, cut their oath-fingers from their +hands, and drove them back into their old servitude. When he at last +returned home, his house had been taken from his family, whom he found in +extreme poverty. The father of Adam, the smith, to whom he had formerly +sold charcoal, redeemed the house, gave him work, and once, when a band +of horsemen came to the city searching for rebellious peasants, the old +man did not forbid him to hide three whole days in his barn. + +Since that time everything had been quiet in Swabia, and neither in +forest, stream nor meadow had any freedom existed. + +Marx had only himself to provide for; his wife was dead, and his sons +were raftsmen, who took pine logs to Mayence and Cologne, sometimes even +as far as Holland. He owed gratitude to no one but Adam, and showed in +his way that he was conscious of it, for he taught Ulrich all sorts of +things which were of no advantage to a boy, except to give him pleasure, +though even in so doing he did not forget his own profit. Ulrich was now +fifteen, and could manage a cross-bow and hit the mark like a skilful +hunter, and as the lad did not lack a love for the chase, Marx afforded +him the pleasure. All he had heard about the equal rights of men he +engrafted into the boy's soul, and when to-day, for the hundredth time, +Ulrich expressed a doubt whether it was not stealing to kill game that +belonged to the count, the charcoal-burner straightened his mouth, and +said: + +"Forest, stream and meadow are free. Surely you know that." + +The boy gazed thoughtfully at the ground for a time, and then asked: + +"The fields too?" + +"The fields?" repeated Marx, in surprise. "The fields? The fields are a +different matter." He glanced as he spoke, at the field of oats he had +sown in the autumn, and which now bore blades a finger long. "The fields +are man's work and belong to him who tills them, but the forest, stream +and meadow were made by God. Do you understand? What God created for +Adam and Eve is everybody's property." + +As the sun rose higher, and the cuckoo began to raise its voice, Ulrich's +name was shouted loudly several times in rapid succession through the +forest. The arrow he had been shaping flew into a corner, and with a +hasty "When it grows dusk, Marxle!" Ulrich dashed into the woods, and +soon joined his playmate Ruth. + +The pair strolled slowly through the forest by the side of the stream, +enjoying the glorious morning, and gathering flowers to carry a bouquet +to the little girl's mother. Ruth culled the blossoms daintily with the +tips of her fingers; Ulrich wanted to help, and tore the slender stalks +in tufts from the roots by the handful. Meantime their tongues were not +idle. Ulrich boastfully told her that Pater Benedictus had seen his +picture of her father, recognized it instantly, and muttered something +over it. His mother's blood was strong in him; his imaginary world was a +very different one from that of the narrow-minded boys of the Richtberg. + +His father had told him much, and the doctor still more, about the wide, +wide world-kings, artists and great heroes. From Hangemarx he learned, +that he possessed the same rights and dignity as all other men, and +Ruth's wonderful power of imagination peopled his fancy with the +strangest shapes and figures. She made royal crowns of wreaths, +transformed the little hut, the lad had built of boughs, behind the +doctor's house, into a glittering imperial palace, converted round +pebbles into ducats and golden zechins--bread and apples into princely +banquets; and when she had placed two stools before the wooden bench on +which she sat with Ulrich her fancy instantly transformed them into a +silver coronation coach with milk-white steeds. When she was a fairy, +Ulrich was obliged to be a magician; if she was the queen, he was king. + +When, to give vent to his animal spirits, Ulrich played with the +Richtberg boys, he always led them, but allowed himself to be guided +by little Ruth. He knew that the doctor was a despised Jew, that she +was a Jewish child; but his father honored the Hebrew, and the foreign +atmosphere, the aristocratic, secluded repose that pervaded the solitary +scholar's house, exerted a strange influence over him. + +When he entered it, a thrill ran through his frame; it seemed as if he +were penetrating into some forbidden sanctuary. He was the only one of +all his playfellows, who was permitted to cross this threshold, and he +felt it as a distinction, for, in spite of his youth, he realized that +the quiet doctor, who knew everything that existed in heaven and on +earth, and yet was as mild and gentle as a child, stood far, far above +the miserable drudges, who struggled with sinewy hands for mere existence +on the Richtberg. He expected everything from him, and Ruth also seemed +a very unusual creature, a delicate work of art, with whom he, and he +only, was allowed to play. + +It might have happened, that when irritated he would upbraid her with +being a wretched Jewess, but it would scarcely have surprised him, +if she had suddenly stood before his eyes as a princess or a phoenix. + +When the Richtberg lay close beneath them, Ruth sat down on a stone, +placing her flowers in her lap. Ulrich threw his in too, and, as the +bouquet grew, she held it towards him, and he thought it very pretty; +but she said, sighing: + +"I wish roses grew in the forest; not common hedgeroses, but like those +in Portugal--full, red, and with the real perfume. There is nothing that +smells sweeter." + +So it always was with the pair. Ruth far outstripped Ulrich in her +desires and wants, thus luring him to follow her. + +"A rose!" repeated Ulrich. "How astonished you look!" + +Her wish reminded him of the magic word she had mentioned the day before, +and they talked about it all the way home, Ulrich saying that he had +waked three times in the night on account of it. Ruth eagerly +interrupted him, exclaiming: + +"I thought of it again too, and if any one would tell the what it was, +I should know what to wish now. I would not have a single human being +in the world except you and me, and my father and mother." + +"And my little mother!" added Ulrich, earnestly. + +"And your father, too!" + +"Why, of course, he, too!" said the boy, as if to make hasty atonement +for his neglect. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +The sun was shining brightly on the little windows of the Israelite's +sitting-room, which were half open to admit the Spring air, though +lightly shaded with green curtains, for Costa liked a subdued light, and +was always careful to protect his apartment from the eyes of passers-by. + +There was nothing remarkable to be seen, for the walls were whitewashed, +and their only ornament was a garland of lavender leaves, whose perfume +Ruth's mother liked to inhale. The whole furniture consisted of a chest, +several stools, a bench covered with cushions, a table, and two plain +wooden arm-chairs. + +One of the latter had long been the scene of Adam's happiest hours, for +he used to sit in it when he played chess with Costa. + +He had sometimes looked on at the noble game while in Nuremberg; but the +doctor understood it thoroughly, and had initiated him into all its +rules. + +For the first two years Costa had remained far in advance of his pupil, +then he was compelled to defend himself in good earnest, and now it not +unfrequently happened that the smith vanquished the scholar. True, the +latter was much quicker than the former, who if the situation became +critical, pondered over it an unconscionably long time. + +Two hands more unlike had rarely met over a chess-board; one suggested a +strong, dark ploug-ox, the other a light, slender-limbed palfrey. The +Israelite's figure looked small in contrast with the smith's gigantic +frame. How coarse-grained, how heavy with thought the German's big, fair +head appeared, how delicately moulded and intellectual the Portuguese +Jew's. + +To-day the two men had again sat down to the game, but instead of +playing, had been talking very, very earnestly. In the course of the +conversation the doctor had left his place and was pacing restlessly to +and fro. Adam retained his seat. + +His friend's arguments had convinced him. Ulrich was to be sent to +the monastery-school. Costa had also been informed of the danger that +threatened his own person, and was deeply agitated. The peril was great, +very great, yet it was hard, cruelly hard, to quit this peaceful nook. +The smith understood what was passing in his mind, and said: + +"It is hard for you to go. What binds you here to the Richtberg?" + +"Peace, peace!" cried the other. "And then," he added more calmly, +"I have gained land here." + +"You?" + +"The large and small graves behind the executioner's house, they are my +estates." + +"It is hard, hard to leave them," said the smith, with drooping head. +"All this comes upon you on account of the kindness you have shown my +boy; you have had a poor reward from us." + +"Reward?" asked the other, a subtle smile hovering around his lips. +"I expect none, neither from you nor fate. I belong to a poor sect, +that does not consider whether its deeds will be repaid or not. We love +goodness, set a high value on it, and practise it, so far as our power +extends, because it is so beautiful. What have men called good? Only +that which keeps the soul calm. And what is evil? That which fills it +with disquiet. I tell you, that the hearts of those who pursue virtue, +though they are driven from their homes, hunted and tortured like noxious +beasts, are more tranquil than those of their powerful persecutors, who +practise evil. He who seeks any other reward for virtue, than virtue +itself, will not lack disappointment. It is neither you nor Ulrich, who +drives me hence, but the mysterious ancient curse, that pursues my people +when they seek to rest; it is, it is.... Another time, to-morrow. This +is enough for to-day." + +When the doctor was alone, he pressed his hand to his brow and groaned +aloud. His whole life passed before his mind, and he found in it, +besides terrible suffering, great and noble joys, and not an hour in +which his desire for virtue was weakened. He had spent happy years here +in the peace of his simple home, and now must again set forth and wander +on and on, with nothing before his eyes save an uncertain goal, at the +end of a long, toilsome road. What had hitherto been his happiness, +increased his misery in this hour. It was hard, unspeakably hard, to +drag his wife and child through want and sorrow, and could Elizabeth, +his wife, bear it again? + +He found her in the tiny garden behind the horse, kneeling before a +flower-bed to weed it. As he greeted her pleasantly, she rose and +beckoned to him. + +"Let us sit down," he said, leading her to the bench before the hedge, +that separated the garden from the forest. There he meant to tell her, +that they must again shake the dust from their feet. + +She had lost the power of speech on the rack in Portugal, and could only +falter a few unintelligible words, when greatly excited, but her hearing +had remained, and her husband understood how to read the expression of +her eyes. A great sorrow had drawn a deep line in the high, pure brow, +and this also was eloquent; for when she felt happy and at peace it was +scarcely perceptible, but if an anxious or sorrowful mood existed, the +furrow contracted and deepened. To-day it seemed to have entirely +disappeared. Her fair hair was drawn plainly and smoothly, over her +temples, and the slender, slightly stooping figure, resembled a young +tree, which the storm has bowed and deprived of strength and will to +raise itself. + +"Beautiful!" she exclaimed in a smothered tone, with much effort, but +her bright glance clearly expressed the joy that filled her soul, as she +pointed to the green foliage around her and the blue sky over their +heads. + +"Delicious-delicious!" he answered, cordially. "The June day is +reflected in your dear face. You have learned to be contented here?" + +Elizabeth nodded eagerly, pressing both hands upon her heart, while her +eloquent glance told him how well, how grateful and happy, she felt here; +and when in reply to his timid question, whether it would be hard for her +to leave this place and seek another, a safer home, she gazed at first in +surprise, then anxiously into his face, and then, with an eager gesture +of refusal, gasped "Not go--not go!" He answered, soothingly: + +"No, no; we are still safe here to-day!" + +Elizabeth knew her husband, and had keen eyes; a presentiment of +approaching danger seized upon her. Her features assumed an expression +of terrified expectation and deep grief. The furrow in her brow +deepened, and questioning glances and gestures united with the +"What?--what?" trembling on her lips. + +"Do not fear!" he replied, tenderly." We must not spoil the present, +because the future might bring something that is not agreeable to us." + +As he uttered the words, she pressed closely to him, clutching his arm +with both hands, but he felt the rapid throbbing of her heart, and +perceived by the violent agitation expressed in every feature, what deep, +unconquerable horror was inspired by the thought of being compelled to go +out into the world again, hunted from country to country, from town to +town. All that she had suffered for his sake, came back to his memory, +and he clasped her trembling hands in his with passionate fervor. It +seemed as if it would be very, very easy, to die with her, but wholly +impossible to thrust her forth again into a foreign land and to an +uncertain fate; so, kissing her on her eyes, which were dilated with +horrible fear, he exclaimed, as if no peril, but merely a foolish wish +had suggested the desire to roam: + +"Yes, child, it is best here. Let us be content with what we have. We +will stay!--yes, we will stay!" Elizabeth drew a long breath, as if +relieved from an incubus, her brow became smooth, and it seemed as if the +dumb mouth joined the large upraised eyes in uttering an "Amen," that +came from the inmost depths of the heart. + +Costa's soul was saddened and sorely troubled, when he returned to the +house and his writing-table. The old maid-servant, who had accompanied +him from Portugal, entered at the same time, and watched his +preparations, shaking her head. She was a small, crippled Jewess, a +grey-haired woman, with youthful, bright, dark eyes, and restless hands, +that fluttered about her face with rapid, convulsive gestures, while she +talked. + +She had grown old in Portugal, and contracted rheumatism in the unusual +cold of the North, so even in Spring she wrapped her head in all the gay +kerchiefs she owned. She kept the house scrupulously neat, understood +how to prepare tempting dishes from very simple materials, and bought +everything she needed for the kitchen. This was no trifling matter for +her, since, though she had lived more than nine years in the black +Forest, she had learned few German words. Even these the neighbors +mistook for Portuguese, though they thought the language bore some +distant resemblance to German. Her gestures they understood perfectly. + +She had voluntarily followed the doctor's father, yet she could not +forgive the dead man, for having brought her out of the warm South into +this horrible country. Having been her present master's nurse, she took +many liberties with him, insisting upon knowing everything that went on +in the household, of which she felt herself the oldest, and therefore the +most distinguished member; and it was strange how quickly she could hear +when she chose, spite of her muffled ears! + +To-day she had been listening again, and as her master was preparing to +take his seat at the table and sharpen his goose-quill, she glanced +around to see that they were entirely alone; then approached, saying in +Portuguese: + +"Don't begin that, Lopez. You must listen to me first." + +"Must I?" he asked, kindly. + +"If you don't choose to do it, I can go!" she answered, angrily. "To be +sure, sitting still is more comfortable than running." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Do you suppose yonder books are the walls of Zion? Do you feel inclined +to make the monks' acquaintance once more?" + +"Fie, fie, Rahel, listening again? Go into the kitchen!" + +"Directly! Directly! But I will speak first. You pretend, that you are +only staying here to please your wife, but it's no such thing. It's +yonder writing that keeps you. I know life, but you and your wife are +just like two children. Evil is forgotten in the twinkling of an eye, +and blessing is to come straight from Heaven, like quails and manna. +What sort of a creature have your books made you, since you came with the +doctor's hat from Coimbra? Then everybody said: 'Lopez, Senor Lopez. +Heavenly Father, what a shining light he'll be!' And now! The Lord have +mercy on us! You work, work, and what does it bring you? Not an egg; +not a rush! Go to your uncle in the Netherlands. He'll forget the +curse, if you submit! How many of the zechins, your father saved, are +still left?" + +Here the doctor interrupted the old woman's torrent of speech with a +stern "enough!" but she would not allow herself to be checked, and +continued with increasing volubility. + +"Enough, you say? I fret over perversity enough in silence. May my +tongue wither, if I remain mute to-day. Good God! child, are you out +of your senses? Everything has been crammed into your poor head, but +to be sure it isn't written in the books, that when people find out what +happened in Porto, and that you married a baptized child, a Gentile, +a Christian girl......" + +At these words the doctor rose, laid his hands on the servant's shoulder, +and said with grave, quiet earnestness. + +"Whoever speaks of that, may betray it; may betray it. Do you +understand me, Rahel? I know your good intentions, and therefore tell +you: my wife is content here, and danger is still far away. We shall +stay. And besides: since Elizabeth became mine, the Jews avoid me as an +accursed, the Christians as a condemned man. The former close the doors, +the latter would fain open them; the gates of a prison, I mean. No +Portuguese will come here, but in the Netherlands there is more than one +monk and one Jew from Porto, and if any of them recognize me and find +Elizabeth with me, it will involve no less trifle than her life and mine. +I shall stay here; you now know why, and can go to your kitchen." + +Old Rahel reluctantly obeyed, yet the doctor did not resume his seat at +the writing-table, but for a long time paced up and down among his books +more rapidly than usual. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +St. John's day was close at hand. Ulrich was to go to the monastery the +following morning. Hitherto Father Benedict had been satisfied, and no +one molested the doctor. Yet the tranquillity, which formerly exerted so +beneficial an effect, had departed, and the measures of precaution he now +felt compelled to adopt, like everything else that brought him into +connection with the world, interrupted the progress of his work. + +The smith was obliged to provide Ulrich with clothing, and for this +purpose went with the lad and a well-filled purse, not to his native +place, but to the nearest large city. + +There many a handsome suit of garments hung in the draper's windows, +and the barefooted boy blushed crimson with delight, when he stood before +this splendid show. As he was left free to choose, he instantly selected +the clothes a nobleman had ordered for his son, and which, from head to +foot, were blue on one side and yellow on the other. But Adam pushed +them angrily aside. Ulrich's pleasure in the gay stuff reminded him of +his wife's outfit, the pink and green gowns. + +So he bought two dark suits, which fitted the lad's erect figure as if +moulded upon him, and when the latter stood before him in the inn, neatly +dressed, with shoes on his feet, and a student's cap on his head, Adam +could not help gazing at him almost idolatrously. + +The tavern-keeper whispered to the smith, that it was long since he had +seen so handsome a young fellow, and the hostess, after bringing the +beer, stroked the boy's curls with her wet hand. + +On reaching home, Adam permitted his son to go to the doctor's in his new +clothes; Ruth screamed with joy when she saw him, walked round and round +him, and curiously felt the woollen stuff of the doublet and its blue +slashes, ever and anon clapping her hands in delight. + +Her parents had expected that the parting would excite her most +painfully, but she smiled joyously into her playmate's face, when he bade +her farewell, for she took the matter in her usual way, not as it really +was, but as she imagined it to be. Instead of the awkward Ulrich of the +present, the fairy-prince he was now to become stood before her; he was +to return without fail at Christmas, and then how delightful it would be +to play with him again. Of late they had been together even more than +usual, continually seeking for the word, and planning a thousand +delightful things he was to conjure up for her, and she for him and +others. + +It was the Sabbath, and on this day old Rahel always dressed the child in +a little yellow silk frock, while on Sunday her mother did the same. The +gown particularly pleased Ulrich's eye, and when she wore it, he always +became more yielding and obeyed her every wish. So Ruth rejoiced that it +chanced to be the Sabbath, and while she passed her hand over his +doublet, he stroked her silk dress. + +They had not much to say to each other, for their tongues always faltered +in the presence of others. The doctor gave Ulrich many an admonitory +word, his wife kissed him, and as a parting remembrance hung a small gold +ring, with a glittering stone, about his neck, and old Rahel gave him a +kerchief full of freshly-baked cakes to eat on his way. + +At noon on St. John's day, Ulrich and his father stood before the gate of +the monastery. Servants and mettled steeds were waiting there, and the +porter, pointing to them, said: "Count Frohlinger is within." + +Adam turned pale, pressed his son so convulsively to his breast that he +groaned with pain, sent a laybrother to call Father Benedict, confided +his child to him, and walked towards home with drooping head. + +Hitherto Ulrich had not known whether to enjoy or dread the thought of +going to the monastery-school. The preparations had been pleasant +enough, and the prospect of sharing the same bench with the sons of +noblemen and aristocratic citizens, flattered his unity; but when he saw +his father depart, his heart melted and his eyes grew wet. The monk; +noticing this, drew him towards him, patted his shoulder, and said: "Keep +up your courage! You will see that it is far pleasanter with us, than +down in the Richtberg." + +This gave Ulrich food for thought, and he did not glance around as the +Father led him up the steep stairs to the landing-place, and past the +refectory into the court-yard. + +Monks were pacing silently up and down the corridors that surrounded it, +and one after another raised his shaven head higher over his white cowl, +to cast a look at the new pupil. + +Behind the court-yard stood the stately, gable-roofed building containing +the guest-rooms, and between it and the church lay the school-garden, +a meadow planted with fruit trees, separated from the highway by a wall. + +Benedictus opened the wooden gate, and pushed Ulrich into the playground. + +The noise there had been loud enough, but at his entrance the game +stopped, and his future companions nudged each other, scanning him with +scrutinizing glances. + +The monk beckoned to several of the pupils, and made them acquainted with +the smith's son, then stroking Ulrich's curls again, left him alone with +the others. + +On St. John's day the boys were given their liberty and allowed to play +to their hearts' content. + +They took no special notice of Ulrich, and after having stared +sufficiently and exchanged a few words with him, continued their +interrupted game of trying to throw stones over the church roof. + +Meantime Ulrich looked at his comrades. + +There were large and small, fair and dark lads among them, but not one +with whom he could not have coped. To this point his scrutiny was first +directed. + +At last he turned his attention to the game. Many of the stones, that +had been thrown, struck the slates on the roof; not one had passed over +the church. The longer the unsuccessful efforts lasted, the more evident +became the superior smile on Ulrich's lips, the faster his heart +throbbed. His eyes searched the grass, and when he had discovered a +flat, sharp-edged stone, he hurriedly stooped, pressed silently into the +ranks of the players, and bending the upper part of his body far back, +summoned all his strength, and hurled the stone in a beautiful curve high +into the air. + +Forty sparkling eyes followed it, and a loud shout of joy rang out as it +vanished behind the church roof. One alone, a tall, thin, black-haired +lad, remained silent, and while the others were begging Ulrich to throw +again, searched for a stone, exerted all his power to equal the 11 +"greenhorn," and almost succeeded. Ulrich now sent a second stone after +the first, and, again the cast was successful. Dark-browed Xaver +instantly seized a new missile, and the contest that now followed so +engrossed the attention of all, that they saw and heard nothing until a +deep voice, in a firm, though not unkind tone, called: "Stop, boys! +No games must be played with the church." + +At these words the younger boys hastily dropped the stones they had +gathered, for the man who had shouted, was no less a personage than the +Lord Abbot himself. + +Soon the lads approached to kiss the ecclesiastic's hand or sleeve, and +the stately priest, who understood how to guide those subject to him by a +glance of his dark eyes, graciously and kindly accepted the salutation. + +"Grave in office, and gay in sport" was his device. Count von +Frohlinger, who had entered the garden with him, looked like one whose +motto runs: "Never grave and always gay." + +The nobleman had not grown younger since Ulrich's mother fled into the +world, but his eyes still sparkled joyously and the brick-red hue that +tinged his handsome face between his thick white moustache and his eyes, +announced that he was no less friendly to wine than to fair women. How +well his satin clothes and velvet cloak became him, how beautifully the +white puffs were relieved against the deep blue of his dress! How +proudly the white and yellow plumes arched over his cap, and how delicate +were the laces on his collar and cuffs! His son, the very image of the +handsome father, stood beside him, and the count had laid his hand +familiarly on his shoulder, as if he were not his child, but a friend +and comrade. + +"A devil of a fellow!" whispered the count to the abbot. "Did you see +the fair-haired lad's throw? From what house does the young noble come?" + +The prelate shrugged his shoulders, and answered smiling: + +"From the smithy at Richtberg." + +"Does he belong to Adam?" laughed the other. "Zounds! I had a bitter +hour in the confessional on his mother's account. He has inherited the +beautiful Florette's hair and eyes; otherwise he looks like his father. +With your permission, my Lord Abbot, I'll call the boy." + +"Afterwards, afterwards," replied the superior of the monastery in a tone +of friendly denial, which permitted no contradiction. "First tell the +boys, what we have decided?" + +Count Frohlinger bowed respectfully, then drew his son closer to his +side, and waited for the boys, to whom the abbot beckoned. + +As soon as they had gathered in a group before him, the nobleman +exclaimed: + +"You have just bid this good-for-nothing farewell. What should you say, +if I left him among you till Christmas? The Lord Abbot will keep him, +and you, you...." + +But he had no time to finish the sentence. The pupils rushed upon him, +shouting: + +"Stay here, Philipp! Count Lips must stay!" + +One little flaxen-headed fellow nestled closely to his regained +protector, another kissed the count's hand, and two larger boys seized +Philipp by the arm and tried to drag him away from his father, back into +their circle. + +The abbot looked on at the tumult kindly, and bright tear-drops ran down +into the old count's beard, for his heart was easily touched. When he +recovered his composure, he exclaimed: + +"Lips shall stay, you rogues; he shall stay! And the Lord Abbot has +given you permission, to come with me to-day to my hunting-box and light +a St. John's fire. There shall be no lack of cakes and wine." + +"Hurrah! hurrah! Long live the count!" shouted the pupils, and all +who had caps tossed them into the air. Ulrich was carried away by the +enthusiasm of the others; and all the evil words his father had so +lavishly heaped on the handsome, merry gentleman--all Hangemarx's abuse +of knights and nobles were forgotten. + +The abbot and his companion withdrew, but as soon as the boys knew that +they were unobserved, Count Lips cried: + +"You fellow yonder, you greenhorn, threw the stone over the roof. I saw +it. Come here. Over the roof? That should be my right. Whoever breaks +the first window in the steeple, shall be victor." + +The smith's son felt embarrassed, for he shrank from the mischief and +feared his father and the abbot. But when the young count held out his +closed hands, saying: "If you choose the red stone, you shall throw +first," he pointed to his companion's right hand, and, as it concealed +the red pebble, began the contest. He threw the stone, and struck the +window. Amid loud shouts of exultation from the boys, more than one +round pane of glass, loosened from the leaden casing, rattled in broken +fragments on the church roof, and from thence fell silently on the grass. +Count Lips laughed aloud in his delight, and was preparing to follow +Ulrich's example, but the wooden gate was pushed violently open, and +Brother Hieronymus, the most severe of all the monks, appeared in the +playground. The zealous priest's cheeks glowed with anger, terrible were +the threats he uttered, and declaring that the festival of St. John +should not be celebrated, unless the shameless wretch, who had +blasphemously shattered the steeple window, confessed his fault, +he scanned the pupils with rolling eyes. + +Young Count Lips stepped boldly forward, saying beseechingly: + +"I did it, Father--unintentionally! Forgive me!" + +"You?" asked the monk, his voice growing lower and more gentle, as he +continued: "Folly and wantonness without end! When will you learn +discretion, Count Philipp? But as you did it unintentionally, I will +let it pass for to-day." + +With these words, the monk left the court-yard; and as soon as the gate +had closed behind him, Ulrich approached his generous companion, and said +in a tone that only he could hear, yet grateful to the inmost depths of +his heart: + +"I will repay you some day." + +"Nonsense!" laughed the young count, throwing his arm over the shoulder +of the artisan's son. "If the glass wouldn't rattle, I would throw now; +but there's another day coming to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Autumn had come. The yellow leaves were fluttering about the school +play-ground, the starlings were gathering in flocks on the church roof +to take their departure, and Ulrich would fain have gone with them, no +matter where. He could not feel at home in the monastery and among his +companions. Always first in Richtberg, he was rarely so here, most +seldom of all in school, for his father had forbidden the doctor to +teach him Latin, so in that study he was last of all. + +Often, when every one was asleep, the poor lad sat studying by the ever- +burning lamp in the lobby, but in vain. He could not come up with the +others, and the unpleasant feeling of remaining behind, in spite of the +most honest effort, spoiled his life and made him irritable. + +His comrades did not spare him, and when they called him "horse-boy," +because he was often obliged to help Pater Benedictus in bringing +refractory horses to reason, he flew into a rage and used his superior +strength. + +He stood on the worst terms of all with black-haired Xaver, to whom he +owed the nickname. + +This boy's father was the chief magistrate of the little city, and was +allowed to take his son home with him at Michaelmas. + +When the black-haired lad returned, he had many things to tell, gathered +from half-understood rumor, about Ulrich's parents. Words were now +uttered, that brought the blood to Ulrich's cheeks, yet he intentionally +pretended not to hear them, because he dared not contradict tales that +might be true. He well knew who had brought all these stories to the +others, and answered Xaver's malicious spite with open enmity. + +Count Lips did not trouble himself about any of these things, but +remained Ulrich's most intimate friend, and was fond of going with him +to see the horses. His vivacious intellect joyously sympathized with the +smith's son, when he told him about Ruth's imaginary visions, and often +in the play-ground he went apart with Ulrich from their companions; but +this very circumstance was a thing that many, who had formerly been on +more intimate terms with the aristocratic boy, were not disposed to +forgive the new-comer. + +Xaver had never been friendly to the count's son, and succeeded in +irritating many against their former favorite, because he fancied himself +better than they, and still more against Ulrich, who was half a servant, +yet presumed to play the master and offer them violence. + +The monks employed in the school soon noticed the ill terms, on which the +new pupil stood with his companions, and did not lack reasons for shaking +their heads over him. + +Benedictus had not been able to conceal, who had been Ulrich's teacher +in Richtberg; and the seeds the Jew had planted in the boy, seemed to be +bearing strange and vexatious fruit. + +Father Hieronymus, who instructed the pupils in religion, fairly raged, +when he spoke of the destructive doctrines, that haunted the new +scholar's head. + +When, soon after Ulrich's reception into the school, he had spoken of +Christ's work of redemption, and asked the boy: "From what is the world +to be delivered by the Saviour's suffering?" the answer was: "From the +arrogance of the rich and great." Hieronymus had spoken of the holy +sacraments, and put the question: "By what means can the Christian surely +obtain mercy, unless he bolts the door against it--that is, commits a +mortal sin?" and Ulrich's answer was: "By doing unto others, what you +would have others do unto you." + +Such strange words might be heard by dozens from the boy's lips. Some +were repeated from Hangemarx's sayings, others from the doctor's; and +when asked where he obtained them, he quoted only the latter, for the +monks were not to be allowed to know anything about his intercourse with +the poacher. + +Sharp reproofs and severe penances were now bestowed, for many a word +that he had thought beautiful and pleasing in the sight of God; and the +poor, tortured young soul often knew no help in its need. + +He could not turn to the dear God and the Saviour, whom he was said to +have blasphemed, for he feared them; but when he could no longer bear his +grief, discouragement, and yearning, he prayed to the Madonna for help. + +The image of the unhappy woman, about whom he had heard nothing but ill +words, who had deserted him, and whose faithlessness gave the other boys +a right to jeer at him, floated before his eyes, with that of the pure, +holy Virgin in the church, brought by Father Lukas from Italy. + +In spite of all the complaints about him, which were carried to the +abbot, the latter thought him a misguided, but good and promising boy, +an opinion strengthened by the music-teacher and the artist Lukas, whose +best pupil Ulrich was; but they also were enraged against the Jew, who +had lured this nobly-gifted child along the road of destruction; and +often urged the abbot, who was anything but a zealot, to subject him to +an examination by torture. + +In November, the chief magistrate was summoned, and informed of the +heresies with which the Hebrew had imperiled the soul of a Christian +child. + +The wise abbot wished to avoid anything, that would cause excitement, +during this time of rebellion against the power of the Church, but the +magistrate claimed the right to commence proceedings against the doctor. +Of course, he said, sufficient proof must be brought against the accused. +Father Hieronymus might note down the blasphemous tenets he heard from +the boy's lips before witnesses, and at the Advent season the smith and +his son would be examined. + +The abbot, who liked to linger over his books, was glad to know that the +matter was in the hands of the civil authorities, and enjoined Hieronymus +to pay strict attention. + +On the third Sunday in Advent, the magistrate again came to the +monastery. His horses had worked their way with the sleigh through the +deep snow in the ravine with much difficulty, and, half-frozen, he went +directly to the refectory and there asked for his son. + +The latter was lying with a bandaged eye in the cold dormitory, and when +his father sought him, he heard that Ulrich had wounded him. + +It would not have needed Xaver's bitter complaints, to rouse his father +to furious rage against the boy who had committed this violence, and he +was by no means satisfied, when he learned that the culprit had been +excluded for three weeks from the others' sports, and placed on a very +frugal diet. He went furiously to the abbot. + +The day before (Saturday), Ulrich had gone at noon, without the young +count, who was in confinement for some offence, to the snow-covered play- +ground, where he was attacked by Xaver and a dozen of his comrades, +pushed into a snow-bank, and almost suffocated. The conspirators had +stuffed icicles and snow under his clothes next his skin, taken off his +shoes and filled them with snow, and meantime Xaver jumped upon his back, +pressing his face into the snow till Ulrich lost his breath, and believed +his last hour had come. + +Exerting the last remnant of his strength, he had succeeded in throwing +off and seizing his tormentor. While the others fled, he wreaked his +rage on the magistrate's son to his heart's content, first with his +fists, and then with the heavy shoe that lay beside him. Meantime, +snowballs had rained upon his body and head from all directions, +increasing his fury; and as soon as Xaver no longer struggled he started +up, exclaiming with glowing cheeks and upraised fists: + +"Wait, wait, you wicked fellows! The doctor in Richtberg knows a word, +by which he shall turn you all into toads and rats, you miserable +rascals!" + +Xaver had remembered this speech, which he repeated to his father, +cleverly enlarged with many a false word. The abbot listened to the +magistrate's complaint very quietly. + +The angry father was no sufficient witness for him, yet the matter seemed +important enough to send for and question Ulrich, though the meal-time +had already begun. The Jew had really spoken to his daughter about the +magic word, and the pupil of the monastery had threatened his companions +with it. So the investigation might begin. + +Ulrich was led back to the prison-chamber, where some thin soup and bread +awaited him, but he touched neither. Food and drink disgusted him, and +he could neither work nor sit still. + +The little bell, which, summoned all the occupants of the monastery, was +heard at an unusual hour, and about vespers the sound of sleigh-bells +attracted him to the window. The abbot and Father Hieronymus were +talking in undertones to the magistrate, who was just preparing to enter +his sleigh. + +They were speaking of him and the doctor, and the pupils had just been +summoned to bear witness against him. No one had told him so, but he +knew it, and was seized with such anxiety about the doctor, that drops +of perspiration stood on his brow. + +He was clearly aware that he had mingled his teacher's words with the +poacher's blasphemous sayings, and also that he had put the latter into +the mouth of Ruth's father. + +He was a traitor, a liar, a miserable scoundrel! + +He wished to go to the abbot and confess all, yet dared not, and so the +hours stole away until the time for the evening mass. + +While in church he strove to pray, not only for himself but for the +doctor, but in vain, he could think of nothing but the trial, and while +kneeling with his hands over his eyes, saw the Jew in fetters before him, +and he himself at the trial in the town-hall. + +At last the mass ended. + +Ulrich rose. Just before him hung the large crucifix, and the Saviour on +the cross, who with his head bowed on one side, usually gazed so gently +and mournfully upon the ground, to-day seemed to look at him with mingled +reproach and accusation. + +In the dormitory, his companions avoided him as if he had the plague, but +he scarcely noticed it. + +The moonlight and the reflection from the snow shone brightly through the +little window, but Ulrich longed for darkness, and buried his face in the +pillows. The clock in the steeple struck ten. + +He raised himself and listened to the deep breathing of the sleepers on +his right and left, and the gnawing of a mouse under the bed. + +His heart throbbed faster and more anxiously, but suddenly seemed to +stand still, for a low voice had called his name. + +"Ulrich!" it whispered again, and the young count, who lay beside him, +rose in bed and bent towards him. Ulrich had told him about the word, +and often indulged in wishes with him, as he had formerly done with Ruth. +Philipp now whispered: + +"They are going to attack the doctor. The abbot and magistrate +questioned us, as if it were a matter of life and death. I kept what +I know about the word to myself, for I'm sorry for the Jew, but Xaver, +spiteful fellow, made it appear as if you really possessed the spell, +and just now he came to me and said his father would seize the Jew early +to-morrow morning, and then he would be tortured. Whether they will hang +or burn him is the question. His life is forfeited, his father said--and +the black-visaged rascal rejoiced over it." + +"Sileutium, turbatores!" cried the sleepy voice of the monk in charge, +and the boys hastily drew back into the feathers and were silent. + +The young count soon fell asleep again, but Ulrich buried his head still +deeper among the pillows; it seemed as if he saw the mild, thoughtful +face of the man, from whom he had received so much affection, gazing +reproachfully at him; then the dumb wife appeared before his mind, +and he fancied her soft hand was lovingly stroking his cheeks as usual. +Ruth also appeared, not in the yellow silk dress, but clad in rags of a +beggar, and she wept, hiding her face in her mother's lap. + +He groaned aloud. The clock struck eleven. He rose and listened. +Nothing stirred, and slipping on his clothes, he took his shoes in his +hand and tried to open the window at the head of his bed. It had stood +open during the day, but the frost fastened it firmly to the frame. +Ulrich braced his foot against the wall and pulled with all his strength, +but it resisted one jerk after another; at last it suddenly yielded and +flew open, making a slight creaking and rattling, but the monk on guard +did not wake, only murmured softly in his sleep. + +The boy stood motionless for a time, holding his breath, then swung +himself upon the parapet and looked out. The dormitory was in the second +story of the monastery, above the rampart, but a huge bank of snow rose +beside the wall, and this strengthened his courage. + +With hurrying fingers he made the sign of the cross, a low: "Mary, pray +for me," rose from his lips, then he shut his eyes and risked the leap. + +There was a buzzing, roaring sound in his ears, his mother's image +blended in strange distortion with the Jew's, then an icy sea swallowed +him, and it seemed as if body and soul were frozen. But this sensation +overpowered him only a few minutes, then working his way out of the mass +of snow, he drew on his shoes, and dashed as if pursued by a pack of +wolves, down the mountain, through the ravine, across the heights, and +finally along the river to the city and the Richtberg. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +He was steadfast in everything, even anger + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WORD ONLY A WORD, BY EBERS, V1 *** + +*********** This file should be named 5572.txt or 5572.zip ********** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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