Das landhaus am Rhein. English
CHAPTER IV.
TRANQUILLITY ON THE ROAD, AND UNREST AT HOME.
On his way to Mattenheim, Eric met the Major. He felt cheerful enoughto tell him that he was scouring the country as if enlisting a corps offiremen; and, when he explained this meaning of his words, the Majorneeded no urging to agree to his part. He looked on the affair in thelight of a court of honor, from which no one should shrink.
"Poor man! Poor man!" he repeated, over and over again, "He was notopen with me; but then, neither was she. I do not take it ill of him.She was not so either: it was the first time in her life. She"--thiswas of course, Fraeulein Milch--"knew that I could not endure it. I cando much, comrade: you would not believe how much I can do. But there isone thing of which I am incapable; and that is hypocrisy. I cannot havefriendly intercourse with a man whom I neither love nor esteem. I knewthat the man had been a slaveholder; and I have always said that no onewho associates with poodles can keep off the fleas: and who wouldbelieve that the man could utter so many kindly words? And with you,comrade, he talked like a sage, like a saint. I, with my dull brains,cannot make out, and even Herr Weidmann could not help me, why the goodchildren must suffer all this. But now I will explain it to you. Now Iknow the reason. It came into my head on the road. This is how it is. Ihave not learned much. I used to be a drummer: I'll tell you my storysome time."
"Yes; but what have you discovered?"
"Just so she always reminds me when I wander off from what I wassaying. This is it. You see, man, as it says in Scripture, is born inpain, trouble; and the human soul is also born in pain, want, andmisery. We poor fellows know that; and that is why rich anddistinguished people are not fairly in the world. I mean--you know--andnow our Roland is born anew, into true nobility, for the first time.The Prince can ennoble the name, but not the soul, you understand; soit is. And our Roland is now the real nobleman. To endure evil and dogood, that is the motto which he has now received; and that is a devicewhich has yet been engraved upon no knightly shield: but you see itstands written within, and there it will remain."
The Major pointed to his heart with a trembling hand. Eric listened inastonishment, as this timid man, so slow of speech, uttered all this,with many interruptions, it is true, but with great fervor; and now theMajor reminded him how they had tormented themselves with the problemof what Roland should do with so much money, and said that it was nowdecided, once for all, he must do nothing but good with it.
When, at last, Eric was about to separate from the Major, the latterheld him fast once again, saying,--
"Listen only to this one thing more. I was a drummer: I'll tell you thestory some day. I became an officer; and my comrades did not dream howthey honored me, when they used secretly, thinking I did not hear it,to call me Capt. Drumsticks, or, for shortness, even Sticks. Yes: theydid honor to the Capt. Sticks; for, from that time forward, it becameclear to me. I was unable to explain it so to myself, but she made meunderstand: she knows every thing. Yes: so it is. He is only half alivewhom Fortune has made into something. Misfortune is the Holy Spirit,saying to mankind, 'Arise and walk.' You understand me?"
"Yes," said Eric earnestly, pressing the old man's valiant hand andriding on.
Looking back, he saw the veteran still standing on the same spot. Henodded to the horseman, as though he would have said to him, in thedistance. Yes: to you I have given good baggage,--my best. You will notlose it; and now, if I die, it is in the possession of one who willkeep it, and not give it away. He thanked the Builder of all theworlds, that he had caused him to pass through so much that was hard,and yet always to come out of it unharmed.
Meanwhile, Eric was riding cheerfully towards Mattenheim. On the way,however, he turned round. It seemed to him that he was bound in honorto summon Clodwig first. That in forming this resolution he was alsoinfluenced by an impulse of curiosity as to how Bella was now behaving,he frankly acknowledged to himself: nevertheless, he rode first toWolfsgarten.
The parrot shrieked from the open window, as though wishing to informall the inhabitants of the arrival of so unusual a guest; for it waslong since Eric had been there. He thought he had discerned the form ofBella in the room adjoining that at whose open window the parrot hung;but she did not show herself again.
Entering Clodwig's room, he found him, for the first time, in a stateof despondency. He must also have had some bodily ailment; since he didnot rise, as had always been his wont, greeting his young friend withas much formality as heartiness.
"I knew that you would come to me," said Clodwig, breathing hard, butspeaking in a mild voice.
"If one spirit can influence another at a distance, you and your mothermust have felt most clearly that I was with you at this time. And now,if you please, let us talk very quietly, as I am somewhat indisposed.Let us forget, first of all, that we are starved by intercourse withthat man. I think we ought, in this case, to think of him, and not ofourselves. See,"--taking up a phial,--"look at this. I take a childishdelight in this new chemical stuff, which looks exactly like clearwater, and yet serves to efface a written word without scratching thepaper at all; and now I am thinking, ought we not to be able to findsome moral agency similar to this?"
Eric, seeing the matter which he had in hand immediately referred to,laid the plan of the jury before Clodwig, and called upon him to bearhis part in it. Clodwig declined, with the remark that Herr Sonnenkamp,or whatever his name was, must have a court of his peers,--men ofsimilar rank, or, rather, of a similar profession with himself. He, forhis part, was no peer of Herr Sonnenkamp, or whatever he calledhimself.
Eric reminded his friend, with great caution, of his having dwelt onthe equality of privileges at Heilingthal; but Clodwig seemed to giveno heed to these words.
There must have been a great weight on the soul of this man, usually soattentive; for, without noticing Eric's reminder, he related how muchhe had exerted himself in these latter days for the American, some hotheads at court having wished to summon him before a tribunal on acharge of high treason. This idea had been very repulsive to thePrince, who had written Clodwig a letter with his own hand, thankinghim for having given his counsel against any elevation to the ranks ofthe nobility. Clodwig had thereupon advised the Prince to desist fromany further proceedings against the man, who, he said, had been alluredand seduced into things with which he should have nothing to do.
Again Eric expressed his wish that Clodwig would assist at the trial.
He merely replied,--
"I will inform the Court that the man summons a tribunal of his ownaccord. It will have a good effect there; and to oblige you"--here hesat upright, and his expression of languor changed to one ofresolution. He passed his hand over his whole face, as though feelingthat he must wipe away its look of distress--"yes, on your account, inthe belief that your connection with that house may be, by this means,severed, or that light may be thrown upon it, I do not shrink from theappeal."
It was hard to Eric that this consent should be given for his sake, andnot with a view to serving the cause. He was on the point of announcinghis intention of becoming the man's son, when approaching footstepswere heard. Clodwig rose hastily, and, seizing Eric's hand, said, in alow but decided voice,--
"Well, I yield. The man wishes a court of honor: he shall have one."
Clodwig had uttered these words quickly and precipitately, for at thatmoment Bella entered.
She greeted Eric with Latin words; and it was with a strange confusionof sensations that he perceived in her a sudden defiance, utterly outof keeping with the present state of things, and, above all, withClodwig's dejected mood.
"Pray tell me," she asked, "did you ever pass through a phase in whichyou admired men of force, like Ezzelin von Romano? There is, after all,something great in such violent natures, especially when contrastedwith men of petty interests and weak dilettanteism"--,
Eric could not understand what this meant. It did not occur to him thatBella, screened by the presence of a stra
nger, was discharging arrows,none of which missed their mark.
Clodwig gently closed his eyes, nodded, and then opened them again.
"Oh, yes," she continued, more calmly, "I am glad that I remember aquestion which I wished to put to you. Tell me, what would Cicero orSocrates have said, on reading Lord Byron's 'Cain'?" Eric looked at herwith a puzzled air. This question was so extravagantly odd, that he didnot know whether it was intended as a sneer, or whether she was insane.Bella, however, went on:--
"Has Roland ever yet read Byron's 'Cain'?"
"I believe not."
"Give him the book now. It must have an effect upon him. He, too, is ason, who has a right to revolt at his father's banishment from Eden. Itis wonderful, the correspondence between the two stories,--is it not?Do you know that we are all, strictly speaking, children of Cain? Abelwas childless; yes, the pious Abel had no children: we are alldescended from Cain. A grand pedigree! One more question, dear HerrDoctor, Have you never got out of the _savants_ the form and color ofthe mark branded on Cain's brow by God the Father?"
"I do not understand you," Eric answered,
"Neither do I understand myself," laughed Bella, It was a dismal laugh.
She then continued:--
"I began to read Cicero, 'De Summo Bono,' with the help of atranslation, of course; but I did not get far, and took up Byron's'Cain,' instead: that is the finest thing the modern world hasproduced."
Eric still know not what to reply, and only gazed into the faces ofBella and Clodwig. "What is going on here?" he said to himself.
Bella began again,--
"Were not the female slaves who served the Roman ladies obliged to puffout their cheeks, when a noble matron wished to strike them in theface? _A propos_, how is Fraeulein Sonnenkamp?"
"She has gone to the convent," replied Eric with downcast eyes.
It oppressed him to be obliged to answer Bella's questions with regardto Manna.
"That seems to me very sensible," was the rejoinder.
"Such a cloister is a shelter where the sensitive child will best findrepose until the storm is past. What will Roland now do? What are yourintentions, and those of your mother?"
These questions were put in a manner so superficial, so distant, and soconventional, that Eric was able to reply with a certain degree ofcheerfulness,--
"In the interim, we have recourse to the great deed which is souniversal."
"The great deed?"
"Yes: in the mean time, we are doing nothing."
In the midst of this conversation, Eric's thoughts were in the conventwith Manna. There she, too, was now confronting people who had oncebeen such near friends to her. How did they now appear in their newcharacter of enemies and antagonists? Surely they had not assumed thiscold, indifferent tone. He felt as though he must stretch out his handprotectingly over Manna, who was now bearing crushing reproaches, and,perhaps, even allowing a penance to be laid upon herself. He grievedthat he had let her travel alone with Roland and Fraeulein Perini. Hefelt that he ought not to have left her.
Such was his absorbing thought; and so he absently took leave, sayingthat he must go on to Weidmann's. Again he rode through the wood whichhe had traversed on Clodwig's horse the first time that he went toVilla Eden. How utterly different was the Villa to-day! And here atWolfsgarten,--here he felt that there was some mystery which he couldnot unravel. How extremely happy had Bella and Clodwig then seemed tohim! and now, what were they? Bella's strange, wandering talk,jumbling together Cicero and Byron's 'Cain,' showed that she must havepassed hours in dragging herself restlessly through all sorts ofthings. Then Clodwig seemed overwhelmed by melancholy from which evenhis universal kindness could only temporarily rouse him.
Eric felt that he must forget all this, since he had in view an endwhich he must pursue for others and himself,--more than for himself,for Manna. Only he who is personally free from care can devote himselffully and freely to the service of others.