The Student Life of Germany Part 10

When all is ready for the duel, the two combatants confront each other.

The second stands at the left side of each, holding in his hand the so-called _Secondir-Prugel_, or second's cudgel, a weapon consisting of a strong rapier fixed into a basket-handle. The witness stands at the right side. His business is to put in order again the duel costume of the combatant when it becomes deranged, and to support his arm when it is become weary. The umpire stands at some little distance, between the two combatants, and before him is a chair, on which he marks the end of each round with a chalk line, forming the one side of a square, so that at the end of twelve rounds his marks have completed this figure....

[Ill.u.s.tration: Three overlapping squares]

At the end of the twenty-four, this....

[Ill.u.s.tration: Two sets of three overlapping squares]

The swords have been ground sharp in preparation, on the grindstone in the court below. The spectators have a.s.sembled themselves. These can only be students; and even these, if the combatants require it, evacuate the hall. In that case the cry is made "All must quit the place."

"We planted ourselves in the ancient att.i.tude of combat; the swords were crossed; the seconds cried 'loose!' and the swords whirred in the air."--_Hauff's Memoirs of Satan_.

The commanding second cries--"Upon the measure." Both combatants step forward upon the measure; the seconds station themselves at their posts; the witnesses step back. "Bind the sword!" cry the seconds; the combatants put themselves in att.i.tude, crossing their weapons. The seconds become more earnestly observant. "Loose!" they cry, and the swords flash in the air. On the style of fighting we shall say what need be said, below, under the head of the Fencing-school. We often see two practised swordsmen long circling round within the measure, watching keenly every movement of each other's eye, every turn of each other's hand, while the seconds follow all their movements with the same short and quick steps. Suddenly an unguarded part is espied, and stroke upon stroke falls with lightning speed. Quickly a blow is planted; the seconds dart between, and with the word "Halt," strikes the swords aside. The moment this word is given, the combatant must cease to strike: if he do not this, he has made an after-stroke, and where this is done three times, the offender must quit the measure with shame and contempt.

The second must be an expert swordsman, or he would not only run great danger himself, but be unable to give to his combatant the necessary protection. This office, as already stated, falls to the second _Chargirter_. He must exert all his skill to protect his combatant as much as possible, without holding his second-cudgel so as to prevent the blows of the antagonist reaching him. He must take heed that the opponent does not present his sword so horizontally that his combatant in rushing forward shall run upon its point. We have stated that it is a disgrace to the duellist if, before the round is ended, he goes backwards off the measure. This the student calls to "nip," or to "nip out," and says "he is nipped." A laughable circ.u.mstance of this kind once took place in Gottingen.

A little Jew had a quarrel with a renowned Schlager, or duellist, of great stature, who had maltreated the little Hebrew. When they stood upon the measure, the little fellow who had never before entered this arena, awaited with wrathful impatience the word "loose," and made a spring in the moment, whereby he gave the opponent a tremendous _quarte_ in the face, crying, "There, thou'st got something!" The tall fellow, who expected nothing so sudden, was horribly enraged at this inroad upon the honour of his swordsmanship, and so much the more as every one laughed heartily at the droll occurrence. Spite of all outcries and commands to "halt," the student pursued the Jew with terrible strokes, so that he, unable to maintain his ground, stepped continually backwards till he at length actually took refuge behind the stove. The seconds were seized with such a paroxysm of laughter at this scene, that they were unable sooner to run to the aid of the little Jew, and then first placed themselves as a wall between the stove and the enraged swordsman.

When a round is ended, the seconds and the witnesses, who come to their aid, often contend the point, whether an after-blow was made or not, whether one or other of the seconds forwarded, that is, exceeded his duty in protecting his protege to the prejudice of the opponent or not; which last act, if often repeated, ent.i.tles the other second to demand that he be dismissed from his post. But most frequently of all, the dispute is, whether the blow took or not. All these points of dispute have to be referred to the umpire, against whose decision there is no appeal. When the single round is fought, the seconds do not stand at the left side, but so that they make a cross with the duellers, as here that frequent springing in between them is not necessary. So goes the duel forward till terminated in one of the aforesaid ways. In the mean time the doctor has, from the very commencement of the fight, had his bandages in readiness, his needles threaded, and water set at hand, prepared at a moment with a skilful hand to afford a.s.sistance to the wounded.

The duel with swords is, as may be inferred from what we have described, not very dangerous, and thus it proves itself, since from the great number of duels which annually occur, so few serious consequences follow. There are now students, who, during their career, have fought from thirty to forty, and even sixty times, and yet have come out of them all with a few slight wounds in the face. Yet tragical consequences are by no means wanting. Noses and eyes are sometimes lost, and even fatal terminations are now and then put to them.[18] The wounded are nursed with great care by their companions; and those who distinguish themselves with their weapons, speedily mount to the head of their Ch.o.r.es. It is said that two brothers were such strong and perfect swordsmen, that they disabled a whole Ch.o.r.e, with whom they came into contention for further exercise of their weapons for the whole half-year. The duels with the crooked sabre, are the most frequently attended by unhappy results.

The duel is distinctly prohibited by the laws. The enactments of the academical senate concerning it are as follows:--

1. If any one is slain in a duel, or is deadly wounded therein, or so wounded that he finds himself in danger of his life; or that a lasting disadvantage, through mutilation or internal injury, is occasioned him; or if the duel has been with pistols, with the fleuret, or with the crooked sabre; and even when the duel with pistols, with fleuret, or with the crooked sabre, has not been completed, but only intended, the affair can no longer be regarded as a mere violation of discipline, but to be penalty treated, a trial const.i.tuted against the actors, and all the aiders and abettors, before the university magistrate, and all the minutes and evidence to be handed over for the decision of the civil courts of justice.

2. Shall the duel with sword or crooked sabre have been followed by none of the aforestated consequences, without making any further distinction between the relative position of challenger and challenged, both parties shall, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, suffer a punishment of from four weeks incarceration to the enforcement of the _consilium abeundi_. On account of more serious circ.u.mstances, in especial, on account of a wilful seeking after contention, of gross insult, of rejection to offers of reconciliation, neglect of the summons of a surgeon, or of fighting the duel under unusually dangerous regulations, shall, according to the circ.u.mstances of the case, punishment of a higher kind be inflicted on one or both parties, as may appear right, even to the extent of the sharp relegation.

In milder circ.u.mstances, and towards that party who shall have made sufficient offers of reconciliation, or who has been injured or insulted in a gross degree, the lighter penalty of imprisonment from eight days to four weeks may be inflicted.

A duel is held to be perpetrated from the moment of its commencement.

3. Seconds and so-called umpires may pa.s.s without punishment, or according to circ.u.mstances, may be imprisoned not exceeding eight days: shall the duel, however, have been effectuated under unusually dangerous circ.u.mstances, they shall be punished with greater severity, even to the _consilium abeundi_. The witnesses, spectators, cartel-bearers, or those in whose house the duel has been allowed to take place, or who have contributed towards it by other means, shall be imprisoned from eight to fourteen days.

4. Those who have been guilty of exciting others to fight a duel, shall suffer the _consilium abeundi_, or in some aggravated cases the simple or sharper relegation.

5. He who is aware of an appointed duel, shall make it immediately known to the university magistrate whereupon those concerned in it will be, without delay, confined to their houses, or, if circ.u.mstances require it, be arrested.

6. After inquiry, reconcilement of the parties is to be attempted; but if this cannot be effected, both parties must sign a declaration, with which they must be satisfied. But in both cases must both parties give their word of honour that they will fight no more during the remainder of the term of their academical rights of citizenship, and sign the protocol for that purpose presented by the magistrate of the university. Whoever refuses to do this shall immediately receive the _consilium abeundi_; and whoever afterwards breaks his word of honour and again fights, shall be visited with the sharper relegation, also he who fights with him.

7. Those students of medicine or surgery, who shall, at any time, undertake the bandaging for a duel, shall, after the first bandaging and performing of what was immediately necessary to the wounded, instantly give information thereof to an authorized surgeon; and if they fail to do this, they shall, according to the degree of danger of the wounded, suffer a proportionate imprisonment; and if the case warrant it, the _consilium abeundi_, or relegation.

8. The punishment for duels between students and persons of another cla.s.s, shall be regulated by the principles here laid down, unless attended with contingencies of particular aggravation.

9. The beadles who have detected duels in the course of the year, and he of them who through the discovery of appointed duels shall have contributed the most to the prevention of the fighting of duels, shall each, according to the evidences and degrees of zeal, receive a reward of forty, sixty, or eighty gulden,[19] and the academical senate, through the curator, shall determine the relative sum.

10. The weapons and other things necessary to a duel, which shall be found upon the place chosen or appointed for a duel, shall be seized, made useless, and so converted, as much as may be, to the benefit of the university treasury.

The beadles strive with all diligence to ent.i.tle themselves to the proffered reward; but, on the other hand, the students exert all their ingenuity to defeat the vigilance of these Arguses. In their behalf numerous persons are employed, who, through signs, give intelligence of the approach of the beadles, or, as they are termed by the students, Poodles. Amongst these, at Heidelberg, stands prominently forth the Red Fisherman, distinguished for his Herculean strength, and an inventive spirit not a whit inferior to that of Ulysses. That brown sunburnt countenance, whose features announce a rude bravery--that red hair--that solid build of limb--that mighty chest spread like the breastwork of a battery, and which the wide out-lying shirt is too proud to conceal, and the fantastic cap--the man is not a moment to be mistaken. He belongs to those creatures of the students which are to be found in every university city, and who, living by the students, are to them indispensable. So the Red Fisherman renders the most important services, both connected with the duels and otherwise. At night when the Lumpen-bell[20] sounds, he makes the round of the _Kneips_, and if he finds any of the sons of the Muses whose legs Bacchus has lamed, he throws one over each shoulder, like two sacks, and hastens with them to their lodgings. He is present at all Commerses and Comitates: like a true hound he partakes of all the enjoyments of his lords, and grimly defends them in their difficulties; as in the villages, where it often happens at the holding of a Commers there, that through their exuberant pranks they get into skirmishes with the peasants, who will a.s.sail them in troops with tremendous cudgels, and are, when their blood is up, on such occasions, merciless antagonists, beating, treading on, and even stamping on the faces of those whom they have knocked down. The Red Fisherman, in such emergencies, is another Ajax, and wresting their weapons from them, lays prostrate hosts of Bauers before him with their own cudgels. On all occasions he patiently bears the wanton whims and insolent humours of his own lords in their barley-cornish hours. On the other hand, the police treat him in trials and inquiries which come before the magistrates with all possible lenity and forbearance, as by his courage and skill in swimming he has already saved the lives of six or eight persons.

When a duel is about to take place, the Red Fisherman is generally posted on the Neckar-bridge, to give thence the first alarm signal. The moment that he perceives the beadles hastening that way, he gives the sign by a handkerchief, or in some other way, to a servant-girl, who is stationed for that purpose below the Hirsch-ga.s.se, and on receiving it, hastens in and gives the alarm. The combatants are hastily stripped of their duel dress, their own garments thrown on, the fighting apparatus thrown into some place of concealment, and all fly out by windows and doors, and plunge into the woods, where they return by a circuitous route to the city. If the surprise is too sudden to allow the _Pawkant_, or duellist, to divest himself of his inconvenient costume he runs, in full battle-habit, to conceal himself as he is, in the garret of the house, or in a neighbouring corn-field. The little garden-house which stands just above, called by them Tusculum, has afforded many a one shelter; indeed, at one time, two students regularly hired it and lived in it, so that when the surprised combatants ran in thither, they became only visiters, stepped in to see their friends. The police, however, soon prohibited their abode there.

The beadle has little chance of approach by the open highway; but he endeavours to cross the Neckar by a boat, at a distant spot, and so by hidden footways over the hills, to come slily upon their rendezvous; or he lounges as a Bauer or a sportsman through the neighbouring vineyards; or he comes riding up as a gen-d'arme.

But come the beadle however he will, The wit of the student's too much for him still.

He may think himself certain to pounce on his game, But he's still more certain to fail in his aim.

One of the most common punishments of the duel is confinement in the university prison; and a few words on the permitted fencing usages may here precede a short account of that. There is one regular fencing-master appointed in the university, who gives his instructions at his own house. Every Ch.o.r.e has here its place of practice; that is, a large room in the house of the fencing-master is hired by each Ch.o.r.e at a fixed hour of the day, where they meet together and practise fencing, the fencing-master often being present. Others who wish to accomplish themselves in the art of fence, join themselves to these Ch.o.r.e members, but it is forbidden to lunge, lest under the pretence of fencing the duel may be concealed. Of the German mode of fencing there is truly as little to say as if we should describe to any one how he should waltz. The customary weapon, and whoever has wielded it knows well the meaning of high and low, guard, quart, terz, high and low quart, prim, second, and so forth. The German rapier fight is not so ornamental as the French lunging with the fleuret. It requires greater strength, and the movements are only in the wrist; for the rest, it may be recommended to any one as a strengthening exercise. The rapier is similar to the Schlager, but, of course, blunt; a thick leather stulp covers the arm, and a mask the face. The German student, it is well known, arrives at a great dexterity in this practice, as he distinguishes himself in all bodily exercises of strength and dexterity, and as the Burschenschaft members did in the more useful gymnastic schools, where they often performed astonishing exploits. The gymnastic schools, as the rendezvous of the Burschenschaft, are unhappily cried down, and are thereby fallen completely into neglect.

It is an inspiriting sight to see able swordsmen contending with powerful strokes in the fencing-school; and sometimes all seem mad together, when a couple of the great dogs of the students having found their way in, each rushes to a.s.sist his master with yells and merciless bites. All in the room retreat to tables and chairs, and the wrath of the hounds is then turned against each other. They take the place of strife instead of their masters, who, in their individual ornature, in all corners of the room stand guarding themselves with their swords.

The _Carcer_ is the prison of the students, and consists of three or four rooms in the house of the Chief Beadle, immediately under the roof. It is secured with iron grating, and contains as furniture only a bed, a small table, and a wooden chair. These small chambers have received different names from the students, as the Solitude, Bellevue, Recreation, and the Hole. The last is the dark place into which the nightly disturbers are thrust, that they may here, undisturbed and undisturbing exercise their fancies till morning. They are under the care of a beadle, who supplies the necessities of the prisoner. The captive may not for the first few days quit his durance on any account.

Afterwards he may attend his college lectures, or he goes about during the time that he ought to attend them, taking care to avoid meeting the officers of police. He must also return to the prison at night. During the days that he is in close confinement, he can entertain himself with reading; he plays or drinks, smokes and chats with his acquaintance, who are allowed to see him by an order from the Amtmann. His food he procures from one of the regular eating-houses, by means of his boot-fox. If all visits to him are prohibited, in accordance with the severity of his sentence, and if he be not inclined to study, he lies in bed and consoles himself with his pipe the greater part of the day, which he finds far more agreeable than sitting in that hard and uncomfortable chair. Thus we see, that this punishment is not excessively cruel, though it has the property of promoting considerably the transparency of the purse; since this agreeable lodging must be paid for, and the services of the beadle during the day are nothing near so responsive to love as to money, and for which, at all events, he must pay a specified sum. In some universities, as in Giessen, the incarceration is more rigorous. There, all visits and books are denied.

The prisoner is not allowed to leave the prison; and even the bedstead is carried out in the morning, so that nothing is left to the poor wretch the whole day but to pace his small apartment, or to sit on that hard chair, and pour out his complaints to the four bare walls.

Certainly the stranger will not select a place where such barbarous sentiments are retained, and refinement of mind has made so little progress, for the scene of his university life, but will rather turn his steps towards the more humane and polished _Ruperto-Carolo_[21] or some similar university.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARACTERS CONNECTING THEMSELVES WITH STUDENT LIFE.

The appearance of the Red Fisherman in our last chapter has brought before our mind's eye some other of the creatures of the students, to whom we cannot better devote a brief chapter than in the present place.

These are the _Binsen-Bube_, the _Hofrath Dieh_, and the _Frau Gottliebin_. And we would have the renowned Red Fisherman to understand, that we mean not in bringing these personages into connexion with his name to bring his dignity into question, nor for a moment to place in comparison with him the two former of these individuals, over whose heads he looks down from the clouds of fame.

The _Binsen-Bube_, or as he is also called, the _Blumen-Bube_, that is, the Rush-boy, or the Flower-boy, will figure in another part of the volume, and therefore must first stand forth the Herr Hofrath Diehl, or in pure English, the Privy Counsellor Diehl, an individual on whom many foreigners must have stumbled in Heidelberg.

This individual has served for some thirty years to amuse the rackety young men by his original nonsense; and we lament to be obliged to say that the students of a former time were not wholly guiltless of originating the condition in which he now finds himself. He is a melancholy example of a student scathed in his career; and who has, from one unfortunate hour, sunk continually deeper and deeper into the depths of misery and insignificance. What part he played as a student we are not able precisely to state; but this must be certain, that he never could have been enlightened by the sun of reason as men on the average are, and now it is with him an everlasting eclipse. According to the opinions of some, he must unluckily have been walking under a great umbrella when reason was rained down from heaven. He thus early became a plaything in the hands of men who were base enough to abuse his simplicity. He received a forged letter, containing the intelligence that he was appointed a privy counsellor of the Hesse Darmstadt court, and the scoundrels who deceived him advised him to use some peculiar kind of pomatum, which should give to his head a look of official dignity. The upshot of this infamous business was that he lost nearly all his hair by this application, and was brought back from Darmstadt, whither he had gone to take possession of his office, to the university a crazed man. From the consequences of this lamentable history he has never recovered. His mind, weak before, has since remained hopelessly confused. He has continued to occupy a small chamber, where he employs himself busily in scheming and maturing plans for the improvement of the world; for the maintenance of the European balance of power; for the better pursuit of philosophy, and for bringing it into a better connexion and alliance with other branches of education; and in the discovery of an elixir of longevity. The results of his profound meditations are laid down in vast ma.s.ses of ma.n.u.scripts, which, alas! like the Journey from Stolpe to Danzig,[22]

have never been able to find a publisher. Yet they are by no means useless to their author, if they are unappreciated by the world. He employs them as mattra.s.ses and pillows for his bed; and he busies himself with scattering great quant.i.ties of water out of his window in order to dissipate those heavy vapours which have prevented the booksellers from perceiving what would be so greatly to their advantage. During the day, this singular man traverses all the streets, and goes round to all the Beer-kneips. With short and measured steps he walks about clad in an old coat which he owes to the kindness of some student. Now it is a polonaise, now a velvet frock, and anon it is a mackintosh. He wears, like the student, a little cap, from below which hangs his scanty and white hair. His countenance has a singular expression of mixed pride and humility, of friendliness and melancholy; and in his right hand he carries a light stick, in such a manner as if every moment he was about to raise it in the act of demonstrating some of his cosmopolitan propositions. This moment he picks up from the street some worthless fragment, and even a bit of wood for his fire; the next instant he whistles his little dog, a faithful companion to which he is most fondly attached; and now he is greeting this person and the other, with the words "How goes it, my friend, to-day, with thee?" for he stands on the _Smollis_ with every body, that is, he puts himself on the familiar footing of thee and thou; to another, "Good-day, my dear son."

In the Kneips he seeks to attract attention by an harangue, or by his remarks on the affairs of the day. He then waits with quietness till the landlord, in requital for the drawing together of hearers, sets before him a small refreshment, or till a compa.s.sionate guest treats him to a choppin of beer, or presents him with a few kreutzers.

Formerly he had a stall in the half-yearly fair, where he sold partly pins made by himself, and partly other wares, as knives and scissors, and such like, at double the price at which the man at the next stall, who furnished him with them, did. That our readers may have some idea of the character and quality of the worthy privy counsellor's compositions, of which he says he has at least eighteen thousand sheets by him, we give a specimen which was written expressly for us, and which the reader may or may not, just as he is disposed, try his teeth upon. We have, however, no doubt but that those sagacious and penetrating people who have put in the mouth of Jean Paul Richter so many things which he never thought of, will also do our Hofrath the same most obliging kindness, and wish right heartily that he may have the good fortune to find at least one such commentator.

A Treatise, composed at Heidelberg the 29th of October, 1840; and styled, a "Little Memorial and Gift of Friendship, from Friend von Diehl, Grand-ducal Privy Counsellor of Baden, and State Counsellor of the Mysteries of Heidelberg, to such of his friends as love the so-called Strictly Right, out of which every thing reasonable by degrees continually developes itself."

Now an author, who sees himself busy at his writing-table upon a composition, has to give to them that, as an inoculation of every thing, whatever it may be, which he has in his spirit consecrated to all worthiness, and so that it shall not be difficult to hear and understand, since it contains many incredible things. As he never in his time was so far advanced that he could learn to understand so much as he was striving after, as he was so poor, so very poor, therefore he was obliged to thrust back every thing of that kind to the period when finite things shall no longer be finite. It is to be desired that his inquiries should be continued either by himself, or by others of the student cla.s.s who go forth as teachers, accompanied by the necessary academical freedom, that is without all enactments and restraint. Let the pen have its course, as his thoughts for the most part have unfolded themselves, the spirit and the eye running through the right hand, and his ideas thus walking forth upon paper. Spirit, eye, and hand! hands pressed together! then draws the eye every thing so through it, as the sucking babe draws milk, that it must burst forth in some shape, as that milk in the babe, if obstructed in its natural current, will spring through in eruptions. But the Princes should take care of this, who have power, to advance the wise, so that they may be able to live, that they may be safe from the claws of an old wife's company, and may not be thrown about as feathers in the world, called also the great city street,--that in the University cities those of the grade of witches may not wash away all that belongs to the liberty of the duel in general. Especially shines this out of the Bible, out of the Testament--where the Dutch prescribe the gospels as well as the epistles, like physic, that they may preach upon it as the Bauers to their servants, when they have cleared out their stables, "You must make a bee-hive; set about it, make it quickly with a dung-fork and the handle of a flail." Preaching such nonsense do the Dutch divines wring themselves out as an old woman wrings out a wet cloth, yielding only that which men have no occasion for, and without which they would be more of men than with it. Thus money and the necessaries of life are continually decreased, or rather are rolled out thinly till they overspread and cover up the spirit of man, as a surgeon spreads out his plaster to the extent of two and twenty yards.

Two and twenty years have I laboured incessantly to defeat these drifts of the old wives, for the good of all states, but the more I labour the more enemies spring up. Still must I of necessity stand up for the princes, since that dwells in me which man styles duty. During the half of that two and twenty years, I have written treatises for the guidance of students of jurisprudence and criminal law, adapted to all cases and occasions, after which, however, no man inquires. Students diverge continually farther and farther from my views of law, being influenced by the city clergy, who warn them against them through means of the post. I live in privacy with the great Director of the whole world; yet have the malicious city old wife gossips calumniated me. And this led them to the base action, for many a base deed is brought about through medicaments. The most grievous evils not only arise but continue--I will point out only a few of them. To injure a man in his eyesight irreparably,--to damage his hearing,--to cause his hair to fall off,--to induce epilepsy,--to make his very spirit stand still! Instead of that office of important study to which I believe myself advanced, thus came I to sit there where inexpressible pains are given, which make every thing in man, that is of the nature of man, cry out. But the hardest of all was to become a maniac! To keep off this, I wrote from nine to ten thousand sheets, drawn from life itself, to throw out and express the very kernel of knowledge, which must yet be printed. But I am so poor, that I am always on the point of starvation; for many years I have belted myself more tightly in. I lodge at Widow Ueberlin's on the Freisenberg, who could, if she pleased, from the Great Frederick of Prussia, turn herself into the Grand Turk himself. She was not, however, aware of this; therefore, I a.s.sumed the crown of human misery, and wrote this year six hundred and fifteen hefts (each about six sheets of paper). Think only of the diligence in my dwelling!

It were well if a learned man in Baden would set himself upon a winter's work, in writing out my ma.n.u.scripts, in translating them, and sending them to the press, and to make an extract for each faculty, of such matter as relates to them. I am so poor that I am quite unable to defray the cost of such printing.