What the Swallow Sang Part 27

"The handsome young couple came here. I saw them again by accident a few years after, when business chanced to bring me into this neighborhood, for I would have gone out of my way to avoid a meeting which could only cause me pain. But as I drove through Rammin, one of the wheels of my carriage broke directly in front of the parsonage. I was thrown out so violently that I dislocated my arm, and was compelled to claim your parents' hospitality for several weeks. You cannot remember me, but I can still see the curly-haired, large-eyed little boy, who played so happily at his mother's side among the beds of asters in the garden in the autumn sunlight, and, thank G.o.d, had no suspicion of the meaning of the mournful expression with which the beautiful young mother often gazed over the child's head into vacancy.

Alas! for her the flowers did not bloom, the sun did not shine; everything around her was dark, and darkness was within her, in her warm young heart. And it was the same in the ardent heart of the man whom she had once so pa.s.sionately loved, and who had loved her with equal fervor, who, I am perfectly sure, loved her with no less devotion at that moment, when they already seemed to hate each other, perhaps fancied they did. Oh! my dear friend, I won't preach--I won't begin our late dispute again; but how can I help touching the wound, and saying: 'Here again it was--and in a fatal manner--the want of moderation, which will not be satisfied with things as they are, will not try to make the best of circ.u.mstances, but releasing itself from commonplace conditions, strives to realize an ideal vision'? These two beautiful natures, which could offer so much, be so much to each other, considered it nothing because it was not all. She expected him to be not only the champion of the Church before whom she had at first knelt in admiration, but also to possess every virtue the intelligent, much-courted young girl had ever admired in any man. He expected her to wear, in addition to all the charms with which nature had so lavishly endowed her--I know not what mystic crown, without which all earthly beauty was valueless in the eyes of the enthusiastic apostle. And instead of trying to lessen the necessary differences between their natures as much as possible by gentleness and patience, and overlook the remnant which would still be left, out of respect for the Great Power of which we are only an infinitesimal part, both with fatal defiance increased their special gifts; he wanted to do nothing but see and read obscure writings by a gla.s.s; she, who had always been far too proud to be vain, declared that the gla.s.s told her nothing except that she was young and beautiful, as the world was, in spite of all fanatics and devotees. And now this strange conflict went on in the quiet parsonage of a little village, on an island which in those days was almost entirely secluded from all intercourse with the outside world--what marvel was it that the two unhappy combatants bled from painful wounds--and must bleed to death if they are not separated in time, the world thinks and says in such cases. I am well aware of it, but I did not think so. I said to myself: 'These two cannot forget or lose each other, even if they should place a world between them, and next to themselves the person would suffer most who might be mad enough to aid this separation.' I said this also to the young wife, who could not or would not conceal her misery from me. I spoke to her--as I thought my duty required me to do--with earnest entreaty, and I must confess that in so speaking I drowned, not the voice of my conviction, but of my own heart, which during this strange scene seemed as if it would burst my laboring breast. Now, for the first time, I learned that before the right man came I had been dearer to the beautiful girl than I had ever ventured to hope or suspect--learned it in broken words and hints which rose from her glowing, pa.s.sionate heart like sparks from a blazing fire. How can I deny that I was touched by this fire, that it became inexpressibly difficult for me to withstand it? Yes, my friend, I struggled like the patriarch of old on that wondrous night, and from my heaving breast, like his, the magic words were gasped forth, 'I will not let thee go, except Thou bless me.'

"And was it no blessing that some trace of the repose I had won by so fierce a conflict seemed to calm the soul of the despairing young wife, that she--which in such a situation is everything--found time to regain her self-control, to remember what she had once possessed, to ask herself whether she might not possess it again if she desired. I can still see the look with which she extended her hand as she bade me farewell, the earnest, expressive glance in which a gleam of hope still sparkled. I can still hear her sweet voice utter the words which were the richest reward to me for all I had done and suffered, the words: 'I thank you, my friend.'"

"And I thank you," said Gotthold, seizing the hand of the deeply-agitated man, and pressing it warmly, "thank you with all my heart, for you have acted according to your sincere conviction, and what can a man do more? But you did not save my poor mother from dying of a broken heart."

Wollnow looked gloomily at the floor. Gotthold, smiling sadly, continued:

"To be sure, it is better to die so, to die young, than to live on with a broken heart, to the torment instead of the joy of one's self and others, as was the fate of my poor father. And he cannot have become reconciled to my mother's shade. Else why, when he pushed me from him in anger, did his pale lips murmur: 'You are just like your mother'?

No, no, my friend, I honor your wisdom, but I think one must be born wise--it is not to be learned."

"At least in one lesson," said Wollnow, with grave kindness, "and this has lasted long enough--too long, when I consider the condition of the pupil."

Gotthold protested against this decision; he felt perfectly well, and strong enough to continue the argument a long time; besides, the subject had a demoniacal charm for him.

"And for that very reason we will drop it," replied Wollnow, "and instead, if you are really strong enough, I will request you to answer a few questions in relation to your unlucky drive. I will confess that I put them partly at the desire of a prominent magistrate. At least, Justizrath von Zadenig declares that no farther steps can be taken in this disagreeable matter without your deposition, and has begged me to take it down in a legal form."

Gotthold looked up in astonishment--"What is the point in question?"

"It concerns, in the first place, the lost money, which must, if possible, be recovered," replied Wollnow.

"Poor Sellien! I am sorry for him," said Gotthold; "but I don't see how your questions and my answers can aid in its recovery."

"Let us see. Do you know that Sellien had the money with him when you left Dollan?"

"I am sure of it; as he did not suspect it came from me, he told me in a walk we took after dinner that Brandow had paid him, and showed me the packet, which he took out of the breast-pocket of his coat. I also saw it there during the whole evening--not without some little anxiety.

I feared he might be tempted to stake the money. Fortunately he always won."

"So he was gambling. Who was the loser?"

"Brandow."

"Did he lose much?"

"I think he lost five thousand thalers to Redebas, who was the only person that had the courage to make a stand against so rash an adversary."

"Of course he did not pay him on the spot."

"Certainly not; and from that very circ.u.mstance arose the quarrel which ended in the others leaving the house in a rage."

"Did you take any part in the dispute?"

"Oh, no; Sellien perhaps was a little mixed up with it; at least Brandow made it the pretext for the rudeness that drove us also from the house."

"Drove you out of the house! Very good," said Wollnow, when he had made a written record of the words. "And Sellien still had the money when you went away?"

"I felt the packet when I b.u.t.toned his overcoat; he was then partially intoxicated."

"And the overcoat was still b.u.t.toned when Lauterbach wanted to bandage his injuries here. So you said a short time ago, and Lauterbach confirms it. Did you make no attempt to remove his clothes at the smithy?"

"No. Old Prebrow wanted to do so, but Sellien, who came to his senses for a moment, begged so earnestly to be let alone, that we desisted, and contented ourselves with making him as comfortable a bed as we could on some straw and hay in the bottom of the wagon the Prebrows had already prepared."

"And did you feel the pocket-book there too?"

Gotthold reflected a moment. "No," said he, "he did not have it there.

I remember now, because first the old man and then I myself felt his breast, as he complained of severe pain in his left ribs. I could not have helped feeling the packet. That is certainly strange."

"It is indeed," replied Wollnow, "since neither of the worthy Prebrows, father and son, who carried him from the place where the accident occurred to the smithy, can have taken it out of his pocket."

"Impossible!" exclaimed Gotthold.

"And it is almost equally impossible, though in another sense, that during his fall he can have lost it out of the pocket of a closely-b.u.t.toned coat, over which another was b.u.t.toned."

"Yet there is no other supposition."

"So it seems. But let us go back a few steps. You had the impression throughout, that Brandow was driving you from the house. Did not that seem strange?"

"No and yes."

"We will suppose that the no refers to your relations with Brandow, and the yes to the a.s.sessor's, whose favor he certainly had the most urgent motives to keep. I confess it is incomprehensible to me. And on such a night too--as King Lear says, 'In storm and rain and darkness'--to drive you out of the house and give you a carriage with no lamps to convey you over such notoriously bad roads."

"All that is true," said Gotthold in an embarra.s.sed tone; "but recurring to Brandow's unfriendliness--which, moreover, he instantly regretted, and tried to make amends for the same evening--will scarcely help us to the recovery of the money."

"You see what an unskilful inquisitor I am," replied Wollnow, pa.s.sing his hand over his brow. "Let us leave the master, and without regard for the old adage, turn to the man. Was he not the same one who drove you out in the morning?"

"The same. Brandow's trainer, and as you see, occasional coachman, steward also, in a word, factotum."

"Factotum, very good," said Wollnow. "A do-everything, in contrast to always doing right, for this Signer Do-everything seems to fear nothing and no one, at least that was the impression he made upon me. What do you think of the man?"

"That he is a remarkable fellow, so far as this, that any one who had seen him once would hardly forget him. I remember him perfectly from the time I first knew him, years ago, till now: the square flat head, and low retreating forehead of the large animals of the cat tribe, to which his green squinting eyes also bear a resemblance, while his broad shoulders, short, thick-set figure, and clumsy bow legs are more like the dog tribe--a cross between the terrier and bull-dog, whose tenacity and faithfulness he also possesses. I believe he would go through fire and water for his master."

"And water," said Wollnow. "What wonderful eyes you artists have! How dear that description is! And now we have this estimable monster, this faithful Caliban, on the front seat of the carriage, driving through the darkness. What about the ride?"

"I have frankly confessed that, until just before the accident, I noticed little or nothing of what was pa.s.sing around me. But I remember now that we ascended the hill with difficulty, probably because the wind was directly against us, and Hinrich Scheel, with his usual cruelty, violently lashed the poor horses, which seemed to have a presentiment of their fate, and would not move from the spot until Hinrich at last jumped out of the carriage."

"Jumped out of the carriage," repeated Wollnow; "that was very wise, very apropos; for the fall occurred directly after, didn't it?"

"It must have taken place at that very moment."

"Let us say a few moments after, otherwise the faithful Caliban would have been obliged to join the party. The fall you have already described to me, so far as you were conscious of the precise moment--and it is astonishing how far an artist's observation extends to the gates, nay, I might say across the very threshold of death. And how long did this terrible moment, when you were so near your end, last?"

"I can hardly say; I became unconscious without pain or struggle, as quickly and imperceptibly as the lid falls over the eye; and in the same manner, without the slightest struggle, my senses returned, and I lay with my eyes fixed upon the moon, watching the yellowish brown clouds over her face grow thinner and thinner--as if I had nothing else to do--until her rays suddenly pierced the last transparent veil, and shone in their full brilliancy. At the same moment the consciousness of my situation returned, and I knew as well as if some one had told me that I had remained lying on a ledge about half way down the slope, while the carriage and horses, sliding down the precipice to the edge of the mora.s.s, were lying in one confused, terrible heap, amid which I could distinguish nothing. After this, I must have again fallen, not into an unconscious condition, but a sort of delirious state. I had a distinct vision of a horseman, who, with a speed that only occurs in dreams, dashed away from me across the marsh in the direction of Neuenhof. Like the traditional ghostly rider, he had his head bent far over the long thin neck of his flying steed, and wore a tall hat. A ghost in a tall hat, isn't it ridiculous?"

"Very ridiculous!" said Wollnow. He had risen from his seat again, and gone to the window to conceal his agitation from Gotthold. What was that the groom had said just now about the remarkable speed of the horse Brandow had ridden that night? And the spectral rider had dashed in the direction of Neuenhof, from whence Brandow had come!--Brandow, who strangely enough had worn a tall hat that night, and the tall hat was splashed with marshy water.

Wollnow turned to Gotthold again: "Do you think it impossible for any one, I mean any one of flesh and blood, to cross Dollan marsh, even on the best and fastest horse?"

"What put that into your head?" asked Gotthold in amazement.