CHAPTER XI.
SMOKE AND DESOLATION AT THE VILLA.
Sonnenkamp sat alone. He seemed to hear in his solitude a crackling, alow, almost inaudible gnawing, like a tongue of flame lapping the beamsand joists, devouring more and more, and increasing as it devoured itsprey. Such a low crackling, and such a lapping, he believed that heheard in his solitude.
He was mistaken, and yet he was well aware that there was a sparkkindled, and it was burning noiselessly; it ran along the floor of theroom, it reached the walls; the chairs, the closets, the books, are allon fire; the painted faces on the canvas are grotesquely distorted, andblaze up; and the flames spread on and on, creeping through all theapartments, enveloping at last the roof and the whole house, andflaring up into the sky.
Suppose that one should burn it all up, and every thing in it? No,there is another, a better means of deliverance, an energetic deed, asplendid, grand--here came a knock. It must be Bella coming to explainwhy she was not there when he returned from the trial to the seed-room.He opened the door quickly, and Weidmann, not Bella, entered.
"Have you any thing to ask me in private?" asked Sonnenkamp angrily.
"I have only a favor to beg of you."
"A favor? you?"
"Yes. Give me your son"--
"My son?" cried Sonnenkamp in astonishment.
"Will you be so good as to let me finish my sentence. Let your son comeinto my family for days, weeks, months, as long as you please; only letit be long enough for him to get a new hold in a different sphere. Heneeds an energetic and free activity. When your son passed a short timewith me before this thing happened, I perceived with satisfaction thathe had very little personal vanity with all his beauty. He takespleasure in looking at others rather than at himself. This would be ofhelp; and I would like to aid him still further. As your son will notbecome a soldier, perhaps it will be well for him to be instructed inhusbandry."
"Is this a plan which you have agreed upon with Herr Dournay?"
"Yes, it is his wish; and it seems to me a very good plan."
"Indeed?" said Sonnenkamp. "Perhaps Roland has already been informed ofthis wish, and of how well it suits?"
"I cannot blame you for this bitter feeling, I can very well understandit; for it is no trifling matter to be placed in a situation whereothers undertake to dispose of us and ours."
"I thank you, I thank you very kindly.'"
"If you decline, then no one knows any thing about it, except HerrDournay and myself."
"Have I said that I was going to decline? You will yet receive oneproof how much confidence I place in you: I have made you one of myexecutors."
"I am much older than you." Sonnenkamp made no reply to this remark,and Weidmann continued,--
"What conclusion have you come to about my request concerning yourson?"
"If he will go with you, he has my consent. Allow me one question. Isthis the expiation you would exact of me, or a part of it?"
Weidmann said it was not.
The carriage in which the Professorin, Roland, and Manna returned, nowentered the court-yard. Weidmann welcomed the Professorin verycordially, having known her a long time ago. He saw now for the firsttime, as a matron, the once blooming beauty. The three brought fromMattenheim a fresh strength for all that lay before them.
As they were sitting together in the green cottage, a messenger onhorseback came from Clodwig to summon Eric to his side.
Weidmann now renewed the proposal for Roland to go with him toMattenheim. Roland was advised by them all to go. Declaring that heneeded no inducement, he readily assented, and drove away withWeidmann, Prince Valerian, and Knopf. He was protected and sheltered bysuch a number of good men.
Mattenheim was situated on the other bank of the Rhine; and, while thecarriage was being ferried across, Roland stood at the stern of theboat, and gazed in silence for a long time at the parental home. Tearscame into his eyes; but he restrained them.
A tornado swept through the park, eddying around the house; and thefires just kindled in it were extinguished. The many fire-places wereof no avail, the whole house was full of smoke; and a whirling gust ofwind seemed to tear all the inmates of Villa Eden away from each other.Roland was gone, Pranken was seen there no more, Manna lived with theProfessorin in the green cottage, and Eric had ridden away. OnlySonnenkamp and Frau Ceres were there. Fraeulein Perini came, andinformed Sonnenkamp that his wife desired to speak with him instantly:she was in a state wholly beyond her control.
Sonnenkamp hurried to Frau Ceres' apartment; but she was not there. Themaid said that as soon as Fraeulein Perini had left the room, she hadhurried through the house into the park. They went after herimmediately, calling her by name. They found her, at last, sitting onthe river bank, in the midst of the storm, splendidly dressed, with acoronet on her head, thick rows of pearls on her bare neck, heavybracelets on her arms, and a girdle of glittering emeralds around herwaist. She looked at Sonnenkamp with a strange smile, and then said,--
"You have given me rich and beautiful ornaments."
She seemed to grow taller: she threw back her black hair.
"Look, here is the dagger! I wanted to kill myself with it; but I hurlit away from me."
The hilt of precious stones and pearls sparkled through the air,plunged into the water, and sank.
"What are you doing? What does this mean?"
"Come back with me!" she cried, "or, look, I will throw myself into theriver, and take with me these ornaments, the half of your riches."
"You are a deluded child," said Sonnenkamp contemptuously. "You think,do you, that these are genuine stones? I have never given into yourkeeping, you simple child, any but imitation jewels: the genuine ones,in a like setting and case, I have fast enough in my own possession, inthe burglar-proof safe."
"So! You are shrewd," replied Frau Ceres.
"And you, my wild child, you are not crazy."
"No, I am not, if I'm not made so. I shall remain with you, and neverleave you for a single instant. Oh! I know you--Oh! I know you, youwill forsake me."
Sonnenkamp shuddered.
What does this mean? How does it come to pass that this simple-mindedcreature has called out his slumbering thoughts, and brought them upfrom the depths of his soul? He addressed the kindest words to FrauCeres, and, bringing her back to the house, kissed her. She becamequieter; but the determination was fixed in him to become free. Therewas only one thing to be won, and then away into the wide, wide world!But first of all, he must go to the capital, and shoot down ProfessorCrutius. He struggled and wrestled with the thought, and at last he wasobliged to give it up. But the other thing must be. In confirmation ofthis hidden impression of his soul, there came a messenger from Eric,with the tidings that he could not leave Wolfsgarten, for Count Clodwigwas at the point of death.