Tales from the German Volume II Part 27

'I greet thee dear brother and colleague!' cried he in ecstasy.

'Colleague?' murmured Gerhard, turning himself again to his sausage table. 'We are not so far.'

'What did I say,' cried Dilbek, slapping Alf upon the shoulder: 'what did I say to you on our way towards Munster?'

'Your conversation has not so much weight with me as to cause me to mark or remember it,' answered Alf, peevishly.

'I said,' declaimed Dilbek, 'give to our prophet, our great Johannes, the world, and he would govern it in fine style. Now, the commencement is made. Johannes the First, has this day become king over Zion, otherwise called Munster.'

'King!' cried Alf and Gerhard in a breath.

'King,' repeated Dilbek. 'And he has obtained the honor in his usually sly way. Early this morning he caused us, the twelve judges, to be called to his house. 'Thus saith the Lord,' declared he to us; 'Even as I aforetime have taken Saul and after him David, from tending their sheep, and made them kings over my people, so set I Johannes Bockhold, my prophet, to be king over Zion.'

'King!' sighed Alf inaudibly, and once again thought with bitter repentance of Tuiskoshirer's crown.

'Honestly to confess it,' pursued the chattering Dilbek, 'this declaration was not much to our taste, as it lessened our official authority, and we had much to urge against it; but there we struck the wrong chord. 'Ye short sighted men!' cried the prophet; 'must I not take this office upon myself against my will? Rather would I drive horses and oxen, did I not feel myself irresistibly drawn by the hand of G.o.d. Therefore down, instantly;--resign your offices and do homage to your king.'

'The man has a methodical madness in depriving people of offices and honors,' growled Gerhard, vexed by his reminiscences.

'Still we were not satisfied,' continued Dilbek; 'and as we knew of no other expedient, we referred the whole matter to the people. That, however, did not help us. While Johannes labored with us, that withered old fox, Tuiskoshirer, wrought upon the people; and as we judges in a body accompanied the prophet to the market-place, the little man came to meet us there with a large naked sword, which he presented to Johannes, saying in a howling voice, 'In the name of G.o.d I give to thee, Johannes, the kingly dignity: govern thy people well! Long live the king of Zion! shouted the mult.i.tude with one voice, while we judges were standing and looking as though the b.u.t.ter had fallen from our bread. His kingly majesty, however, permitted mercy to prevail over right, and advanced a part of us to high honors; graciously remembering his old fellow laborers in G.o.d's kingdom. Knipperdolling is raised from the office of executioner to be governor of the city, Varend Rothman is the royal orator, I am lord steward, four of the twelve judges have been made royal counsellors, and in you, sir Gerhard, have I the honor and pleasure of greeting the royal treasurer.'

'No jokes!' bl.u.s.tered the butcher, whilst his full-moon face, lighted up by joy, once more exhibited a glistening crimson.

'I should be ashamed of myself,' said Dilbek, 'to jest in an unseemly manner with one of the high officers of the kingdom of Zion.'

'These incessant changes and innovations are almost enough to turn one's brain,' said Gerhard, while Alf was pouring water upon his hands with which he carefully washed his face and arms.

At the same time Dilbek continued: 'I bring to the lord treasurer the invitation of his majesty to repair immediately to the royal palace, to receive further commands.'

'My black dress suit, Susanna!' cried Gerhard, looking into the sitting room; 'my mantle, my plumed cap, my golden chain and sword!'

'Is your name nevertheless still called Kippenbrock?' asked Alf, significantly, by way of reminding his fickle kinsman, of his former protestations.

'Hold your tongue!' cried the new treasurer, as with inconceivable celerity (notwithstanding his corpulency) he encased himself in the official robes which his wife with joyful surprise had brought him.

'If it be agreeable to you, my lord steward,' said Gerhard to Dilbek, 'I will now accompany you to the king's majesty.'

'I commend myself to you, lady treasurer,' said Dilbek with a profound bow to the butcher's wife, and the two lords of the new kingdom departed.

'Now is Munster indeed wholly mad,' said Alf, 'and my worthy kinsman with the rest. If I were only so myself, I should feel better than I now do in my clear moments.'

CHAPTER XIII.

About mid-day some time afterwards, Alf came from his workshop to the parlor. The dinner already smoked upon the table; but his two elected brides were standing at the window eagerly examining some pieces of money which Tuiskoshirer was showing to them. Alf approached the group.

'The gold and silver money which the new king has caused to be coined,'

said Tuiskoshirer in a friendly and honied tone, laying a couple of pieces in his hand. Alf read on the reverse:

'The Word has become flesh and dwells amongst us. Whosoever is not born of water and of the Spirit cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d. One king over us, one G.o.d, one Faith, one Baptism. At Munster, 1534.'

'That is G.o.d's government, may it soon extend over the whole world!'

sighed Tuiskoshirer, most religiously rolling up his eyes.

'Under these kings we shall soon arrive at the pinnacle of prosperity!'

exclaimed Eliza, turning over the money in Alf's hand. On the other side, the wild inspired face of the prophet, in his kingly dress, boldly cut and well resembling the original, presented itself to the eyes of the beholder.

Alf looked upon the wild and pa.s.sionate eyes of the presentment, which seemed almost to roll in the masterly impression, and, mentally recurring to the pitiless human butchery with which the prophet had commenced the exercise of power, shudderingly cast the money upon the table.

Eliza hastily took up the largest piece to gaze once more upon the crowned figure. 'Yes,' she finally exclaimed, forgetting herself, 'that is a king for the whole world or none.'

'What is the matter with you, Eliza?' asked Alf, with surprise. 'You have never before spoken of the prophet with such partiality.'

'Crowns make beautiful!' whispered Tuiskoshirer, with a malicious laugh, and at that instant lord steward Dilbek rushed into the room.

'To the windows, children, if you wish to see something very particularly magnificent. The king is making his first tour through the city on horseback, and will immediately pa.s.s this way.'

'The king?' asked Eliza with joyful surprise, a deeper and more beautiful crimson suffusing her face as she hastened out of the room.

'What can all this mean?' sighed Alf, looking a moment after her, and then stepping to the window.

Nearer and nearer sounded the cry, 'Hail king of Zion!' from the dense mult.i.tude who preceded the royal procession through the streets.

'Now give attention,--here comes the procession,' cried Dilbek.

Already were heard the snorting and neighing of the first of the king's horses. At the head of the procession came four pages, in costly gold-embroidered velvet garments; a naked sword with a golden hilt, Tuiskoshirer's crown upon an open bible, the golden globe (emblem of imperial power), and two crossed swords, borne by lords and gentlemen, followed.

'That beautiful, light-haired boy who bears the great sword, is the bishop's own son,' whispered Dilbek to Alf, who recognized in the two foremost pages the victims he had torn from the tiger claws of the ferocious Matthias.

'Poor youths,' said he, 'hardly may I rejoice that I saved your miserable lives, since this compulsory servile duty rendered to your father's deadly enemy, must destroy the Spirit; which is a far greater evil than the destruction of the body.'

Now came, snorting and prancing, the dapple-grey charger that bore the king. The fair youth, who found himself quite at home in his high station, presented in his princely attire a truly majestic appearance.

High white ostrich feathers waved over the jeweled ornaments of his purple cap. Through the slashed folds of his gold-embroidered over-dress appeared the under garment of purple velvet, trimmed with gold lace. The ermine mantle which floated down upon the golden saddle cloth of the n.o.ble steed, completed the beautiful _tout-ensemble_, and Alf himself, notwithstanding his inward dislike of the prophet, could hardly conceal his admiration.

'Is it not true, that dress makes the man?' triumphantly whispered the lord steward to him. 'All this is the work of my ingenious needle. For three nights I have not been in bed,--in which time I directed the execution of all the difficult portions of the work. Now, G.o.d be praised! every thing has prospered with me, and I want to see, who will recognize the ma.s.s-dress out of which I have put it all together.'

Meanwhile the king had pa.s.sed by. Behind him came governor Knipperdolling and treasurer Kippenbrock, superbly mounted. Twelve yeomen of the guard, clothed in the royal livery, ash-color and green, upon princely horses with golden saddles, brought up the rear. The procession now halted a moment. Alf leaned farther out of the window to see what had occurred. He just then perceived that the king was bowing with indescribable grace to the fair Eliza, who, to see the better, had stationed herself before the house door. In sweet confusion the graceful girl returned the royal greeting, and, as the prince finally rode on after the bearers of the regalia, looked long and earnestly after him.

'This is a sudden and wonderful change!' exclaimed Alf, angrily. 'I see well that I must celebrate my nuptials to-morrow; if, indeed they are ever to be celebrated.'

'Hadst thou accepted my offer, brother,' said Tuiskoshirer, in a tone of friendly reproach, 'thou wouldst have spared thyself this, and who knows how many more afflictions.'

Followed by Dilbek, he went forth. Alf remained, in a pensive mood, thoughtlessly playing with the coins which had been left upon the table. 'Yes, truly,' murmured he at length, with bitterness, 'he who dares to coin money is held in higher consideration than he who is obliged to receive it in the way of business.'

The gentle Clara then approached him. 'Do not be angry with my sister,'

said she, entreatingly, in her kind way. 'Her heart is good in the main, and she will soon repent of an error into which she has been led by her vanity and pride.'