Villa Eden Part 176

"And would you--" asked the Prince, "No, I will put another question to you. How do you regard a man who traffics in beings of this inferior race?"

Sonnenkamp started up immediately from his chair, but he sat down again quickly, and said:--

"Creatures, your Highness, who cannot help themselves, and who never will be able to, are protected as they would not otherwise be by being considered as property; that so called generosity, without profit, without material regard either for property or for honor, is like a soul without a body; one can conceive it, but it does not exist, at least in the world we see before us."

"Very fine--very good. You are a thinker. I myself believe that the negro is better off with a master. But how is it when you see with your own eyes the child sold away from the mother, and in that way every tie of family forcibly torn asunder?"

"But, your Highness, that happens very seldom, or rather hardly ever,"

replied Sonnenkamp with great composure, "for it would be a material disadvantage, and would make the slaves less inclined to work; but should it happen, any sentimental feeling about the matter would be only narrowing the sentimentalism from a wider sphere to a special case. A brute that has outgrown the care of its parents knows the parents no more, mates do not know each other after the brooding time is past. I will not say----"

"What is it?" said the Prince, interrupting him suddenly.

The white-haired valet entered.

"Why am I interrupted?"

"His Excellency the Minister begs your Highness to open this immediately."

The Prince opened the letter, and took out a printed sheet; a red line ran along the margin of it like a streak of blood. The Prince began to read, he looked up from the page towards Sonnenkamp: he read on farther, the paper cracked and trembled in his hand; he laid it down on the table and said:--

"Confounded audacity!" Sonnenkamp was standing at the table, and it seemed to him as if the two telegraphic k.n.o.bs had changed into eyes, one white and one black, and from the green table a fabulous creature of strange form was shaping itself,--a queer monster with a white and a black eye, and that it was emerging from the deep, moving along sluggishly, and staggering from side to side. As if in the frenzy of fever he sat there collecting all his strength. The Prince, looking now at the paper, now at Sonnenkamp, at last walked up to him and held out the paper; the rustle of it was like the stab of a knife as he said:--

"Here, read it--read it."

Printed in large letters on it were these words marked with red ink:--

"A humble suggestion for a coat-of-arms and escutcheon for the enn.o.bled slave-trader and slave-killer, James Heinrich Sonnenkamp, formerly Banfield, from Louisiana--"

Sonnenkamp read only these words, and then stared up at the Prince, on whose face was a distorted smile.

"Give me your hand," said the Prince, "give me your hand and tell me, on your word of honor, that it is a lie. Give me your hand, and we will then crush the impudent scoundrels."

Sonnenkamp staggered back, as if a shot had struck him. What was all that he had enjoyed in life compared with the anguish of this moment?

He stretched out his hand doubled up, as if he wished to say: I can break you like a slender twig. But he opened his hand, and held it on high with the forefinger pointing to heaven.

Then suddenly there appeared in front of him a large powerful negro, rolling his eyes and showing his teeth.

With a cry more like that of a wild beast than of a human being, Sonnenkamp fell backwards upon his chair.

The figure in front of him gave a yell, and behind him yelled another--it was Adams, who had rushed in.

"Prince! master!" cried the negro, "this is the man who took me, who carried me off as a slave, and pitched me into the water. Let him only show his finger, it still bears the mark of my teeth. Let me have him, let me have him! I'll suck his blood for him, I'll choke him! Only let me have him a minute--let me have him! then kill me!"

Adams caught hold of Sonnenkamp's hand from behind, and clutched it as if he would crush it.

Sonnenkamp struggled with all his might to throw off the powerful hold, wrestling with the negro clinging fast to him; and his anguish was doubled, for he was not only wrestling, but, as he thought, he could see in the mirror opposite two beings, one was himself--was it really he?--the other a devil, a demon.

Is it all only a fever-fancy, or is it reality?

The Prince's finger constantly plied the telegraphic bell on his table; servants began to pour in, in great numbers.

The Prince cried:--

"Take Adams out. See that he keeps quiet; and the rest of you show this man out of the palace."

Adams was torn away from Sonnenkamp; he roared like a bull that has received the fatal stroke, and foamed at the mouth.

The Prince took the parchment with the red seal up from the table, and turned away with it.

Then Sonnenkamp rose up; he glanced at the Prince, his eyes almost starting from their sockets, and shrieked out:--

"What would you have? and what then are you? Your ancestors, or connections, or whatever else they were, sold their subjects away into America, and got a fixed price for a shot-off arm, for a lucky corpse.

You have trafficked in white men, and sent them across the sea. And what are you now? Secret proprietors of gambling h.e.l.ls at home. Pah! I bought my slaves from a prince, bought them honorably, but what did you do? You sold off your subjects, and on Sundays those who were left behind had to say amen in the church, when the Lord of lords was supplicated for your welfare. Are you ashamed of this kinship? But I tell you he was a man, and deserved better to reign than----"

He was not sure whether the Prince still heard what he was saying; the servants seized him and gave him to understand that he must be quiet, that such loud talking was not permitted there.

Sonnenkamp had fallen; he was raised again, and led down the staircase.

He looked about him often, as if he wanted to say, I shall never tread these halls more.

Below, the carriage was waiting. Sonnenkamp leaned on Joseph and said:--

"Joseph, sit beside me in the carriage."

That was all he said.

When they had reached the hotel, and got out, the little fellow was in the midst of the hackmen; they all had courage enough now, and cried out:--

"Long live the Baron! hurra! again hurra!"

Sonnenkamp could not utter a word. Was the world mocking at him?

He could not tell how he got up the steps. In a moment he was sitting in a large chair; he gazed at the mirror, as if in that room too the reflection of the negro must confront him there.

He sat there, staring, without speaking a word.

CHAPTER IV.

DISSECTED.

Sonnenkamp leaned back in the arm-chair and stared before him; then he looked at the chair itself and caught hold of the arms of it, as if he wanted to ask, Does the chair I am sitting on still hold together?

Then, as he laid his hand upon his breast, he began to quiver like an aspen; he felt the order, tore it off with vehemence, and cried:--

"So it in, I must struggle with two worlds. I must fight with the old one as I have with the new. Cheer up! the new hunt is beginning. I will not suffer myself to be put down. I must either despise myself, or despise you; we will see who is strongest, who is most worthy."