Landolin Part 28

"Yes, certainly; why not?"

"You ought to go away a few weeks, and when you come back matters will be in a better condition. Other things will have happened in the meantime, and----You may believe me it would be well."

Landolin shook his head, and said after a long silence: "I know you mean thoroughly well; of course you do; but I shall not stir from this spot. I'll stay, if only to fool the rest of them. Already the honorable t.i.tus--the hypocrite!--has been trying to spread the rumor that I am going to sell my farm. I'll stay here and cry fie upon the whole country. We have owned our farm for hundreds and hundreds of years. You can ask Walderjorgli; he will testify."

"I believe your word alone," said the judge's wife; Landolin nodded well pleased, for it did him good to be so readily believed, and he continued, in a clear voice:

"Yes, madame, we farmers are not so easily displaced as the----people of rank. We at Reutershofen are a strong stock; people may dig as much as they choose at the roots; they will not bring it down."

All his pride arose; his sunken face became full; his form seemed to grow larger. The judge's wife did not know what more to say; and she would have been heard no longer, for a thousand voices cried:

"Walderjorgli! The Master of Justice! Walderjorgli!"

The cry spread, the girls and children on the further meadow took it up; crying, "Walderjorgli!"

A man appeared, who stood head and shoulders above all who surrounded him. His head was covered with soft, snow-white hair; his snow-white beard fell far down to his breast, and his face, with its heavy contracted brows and its large nose, looked as if chiseled with an axe.

"Hutadi! Hutadi!" screamed Landolin, springing up as if in a frenzy, and dashing into the crowd. "Hutadi!" he screamed, stretching out his arms, and clenching his fist in t.i.tus' face.

CHAPTER LII.

"Be quiet, Landolin! The time for that has gone by," said Walderjorgli in a commanding tone; and laid his broad hand between the combatants.

They stood still; but their chests heaved, and they looked down at the ground like chidden boys.

The ancient cry of defiance, "Hutadi!"--no one knows exactly what it means; probably 'Beware' or 'Take care of yourself'--was formerly regarded as a challenge which no one could refuse. When it rang out, whether from forest or from meadow, whoever heard it must give battle to him who called.

In his youth, Walderjorgli had been considered the readiest and most powerful of combatants; but in his riper years he had become one of the most even-tempered and circ.u.mspect of men, so that he was elected Master of Justice for the forest republic in the mountain; which, as an independent peasant state, acknowledged no lord but the emperor.

Jorgli settled lawsuits, decreed punishments, and in conjunction with the council, apportioned the taxes; and all without appeal.

Jorgli was the only survivor of that last emba.s.sy which the forest peasants sent to the emperor at Vienna, to protest against being made subject to any prince. They desired to remain a free peasantry of the empire. Jorgli insisted that he was ninety-three years of age, but it was universally believed that he was already over a hundred; for the church registers had been burned with the church and parsonage in Napoleon's time.

The thought flashed through Landolin's mind that Walderjorgli could, with one stroke, reinstate him in all his old honor; so he said:

"From you, Master of Justice, I am glad to receive commands. All reverence is due you; and besides, you were my grandfather's dearest friend."

He laid his hand on his heart, and hoped that Walderjorgli would grasp it; but the old man looked sternly at him from under his bushy, snow-white brows, and said:

"How is your wife?"

Landolin could scarcely answer. What did this mean? His health was not asked after! Had his wife then suddenly acquired any peculiar distinction? Did the old man ask after her only to avoid asking after Landolin's own health?

He stammered out an answer; and the old man sent a greeting by him to his wife, who was "a good, honest housewife." Landolin smiled. If nothing is given him, still it's well that one of his family gets something, for then he too has a share in it.

Landolin informed the bystanders that Walderjorgli's family and his own were the oldest in the country, for theirs had been the only two farmer families that had survived the war with Sweden. While he was talking, he noticed that n.o.body listened to him; but he went on, and finished what he was saying with his eyes fixed on the ground.

The judge's wife had approached, and t.i.tus gained an advantage by introducing her, and saying:

"This is the benefactress of the whole neighborhood."

Jorgli took the lady's delicate hand in his large one, and said:

"I've heard of you before. You are a n.o.ble woman; it is well. In old times women were not of so much account as they are now. But it is quite right now. And is that your son? Did you not once come to see me when you were a student? You have behaved yourself n.o.bly."

He clapped the lieutenant on the shoulder, and every one was astonished that Walderjorgli still talked so well, and knew everything that was going on. It was considered a great honor to be spoken to by him.

t.i.tus said very cleverly what an honor it was that Walderjorgli had come to the celebration, and begged that he would ascend the platform and speak a few pithy words to the a.s.sembly. The judge's wife added that it would be a precious memory to old and young, to children and children's children, if they could say that they had heard the last Master of Justice speak.

Walderjorgli looked at t.i.tus and the judge's wife with a penetrating, almost contemptuous glance; for he was not vain, nor did he wish to be considered wise, and play the part of a prophet; so he shook his great head, and stuck his thumbs into the arm-holes of his long red vest, but straightened himself to his full height, and his eyes sparkled, when the district forester, who knew exactly how to deal with Jorgli, added that it would be well if the clergy were not allowed to entirely monopolize everything, even the soldier's a.s.sociations, and to dedicate the flag; it would be particularly appropriate that a man like Jorgli should drive the nail that fastened the flag to the staff: the Emperor Joseph would certainly have approved of that.

When the Emperor Joseph was mentioned it seemed as if a new life were awakened in Jorgli. Around Emperor Joseph, who was venerated like a holy martyr, were gathered recollections of Jorgli's father, which he almost considered events in his own life.

He clenched his hands, and raising his arms, said, "Very well; so let it be."

He was led to the platform, and boundless were the acclamations of joy when he appeared, supported on the right hand by t.i.tus, and on the left by the lieutenant.

There fell such a silence that the people noticed the whirring of the wings of a pair of doves which flew over the speaker's stand. Pointing to them, Jorgli cried:

"There they fly! One says not to the other, 'We will turn this way or that.' Their flight agrees by nature. So it is. Agreeing by nature--"

He paused, and seemed unable to proceed. The figure had evidently led him off from what he meant to say. He looked around perplexed, and seemed not to be able to speak another word--yes, even to have forgotten that he stood upon the platform.

His two companions above, and the audience below, stood in painful embarra.s.sment. It was wrong to have brought an old man of a hundred on the stand.

Just then the district forester, who stood near, said audibly, "Emperor Joseph."

Jorgli opened his mouth wide and nodded. Yes, now he had his guiding-star again. Almost inaudibly, and in a very confused manner, he spoke of the Emperor Joseph and of the new emperor. Only this much was plain--that he considered the present emperor as the direct successor and continuer of the Emperor Joseph's struggles against the Pope.

t.i.tus handed Jorgli a nail, and the lieutenant gave him a hammer. He nailed the flag to the flag-staff, and this widely visible act was more than the best speech; and he left the stand amid cheers and the sounds of trumpets.

He immediately called for his wagon. He wished to go home, and no one dared urge him to remain.

The four-horse wagon drove up the meadow. Landolin pushed his way up to it, and said, "Jorgli, I will go home with you. Take me along."

"Give my greetings to your wife," said Jorgli, turning away from him.

He let himself be helped into the wagon, and then drove away. The wheels were hardly heard on the meadow, and the people on both sides saluted reverently, as they made way for him.

"How glad I should have been, if I could have sat in the wagon beside him!" thought Landolin.

No one ever prayed--no one ever offered to an angel,--to a saint,--more childlike pet.i.tions than these--"Take me with you; deliver me from this misery,"--which had just pa.s.sed Landolin's lips. But in these days the best are no longer good, and have no pity.

When Jorgli had gone the merriment began anew. They invited one another to drink, and new groups were soon formed. Only Landolin was not invited. He stood alone. Stop! Landolin struck his hand on his pocket, and the money jingled. With that a man can call a comrade who will talk with him better than any one else, and make him forget his cares.

He turned away from the meadow, and went to the city side of the Sword Inn. There were no guests there to-day. An old servant brought him wine. He drank alone, and had his gla.s.s refilled again and again.