Short Stories From Austria- Ferdinand Von Saar

by Ferdinand Ludwig Adam

  I went home slowly. The longer I thought about what had happened, the more I came to realize that I could have expected such a result. He had become so obsessed with his fixed ideas that only the most painful collision with reality could bring him to his senses. May this collision happen! I had done mine, and Burda had to attribute the consequences to himself when he threw my exhortations to the wind. - -

  * *

  *

  Since that time barely two days had passed when he, who was evidently now avoiding me, rushed to my room after a fugitive throb. “Well, what do you say to that?” He shouted, flipping a small printed leaflet on the table in front of me. “Lies!”

  It was a newspaper clipping that contained an ad. It read:

  “Tellheim.

  We are being watched. Extremely careful. Hope and trust! invariable

  F.”

  “Well,” he urged, “do you understand? Do you understand?”

  “What should I understand?” I asked, looking dubious.

  “Well, that's how I want to come to your aid. Tellheim - that's what I mean. We are being watched - is there still no light on you? Extreme care - I will not let me say twice. Hope and trust!Immutable F. - Fanny. You know that the Princess's name is Fanny?”

  “So you believe...?” I exclaimed, amazed at this new phase of his delusion. “Which newspaper is that from?”

  “From the Foreigners Gazette.” This journal was then widely read and was pretty much the first to deal with such indoctrination.

  “You really presume that the princess would contact the announcement office of the Foreigners' Gazette -”

  “Why not?” He interrupted harshly. “There are familiar maids who can be assigned with such things.”

  “Je now - in novels. But even assuming that you use such an intermediary, it would have been much easier - and far better if you had been written.”

  He started. “Maybe,” he replied, confused. “And she would certainly have written to me,” he added, glad to find an escape from himself, “if she knew my name.”

  “In your place, I would find it very strange that this is not the case yet. It would have been easy to know your name.”

  “Of course,” he affirmed, annoyed that I put him in this tight spot. But already he was enlightened by a sudden inspiration. “And you will know him too. But what has been written remains something written and under certain circumstances can turn into a dangerous, treacherous document, while such an advertisement always and forever remains intelligible only to the initiate. Incidentally, “he continued, his eyebrows contract, cool and measured,” that, to disagree with me, you violently violate this speaking fact. I find this, after the Major has drawn you into trust, also very understandable. Incidentally, you can be completely reassured in this regard. For to that extent you know me well, that I am the man who now, after all that has happened, will observe the utmost restraint. Therefore, this whole matter should no longer be discussed between us today. “He bowed very formally and left the room.

  He might go! If he is now complete restraint preserved, so this was good for him, desirable for those who had been exposed to his rallies. The purpose of my mission was fulfilled. For the rest, the matter could be based on itself.

  V.

  Since that day an estrangement had occurred between me and Burda; we only met on unavoidable occasions and then talked about indifferent things. On top of that, I was destined for a job which kept me away from Vienna for a while, and so spring was already in the suit when I returned there again.

  It was not without unease that I had met my first meeting with Burda, and was therefore not a little astonished when he warmly received me at the visit which I had to pay him.

  “Dear friend,” he said with a certain melancholy, spreading his arms, “I am so glad to see you again. Frankly, I felt very lonely during your absence. However, “he continued blushing slightly,” by his own fault. At least we could have stayed in correspondence, if I did not at that time by my brusque behavior - Well, what has happened can not be undone, and I can only ask you to forgive and forget.”

  I assured me that this was already the case.

  “I know, I know, you are a good, excellent person - the only one I could trust - and still able to entrust. Therefore, I also expected your arrival with longing. Because you are now able to do me an extraordinary service of friendship. I have, “he continued somewhat meekly,” the lady I you do not need to call first, for a long time - not seen for a long time. You can imagine my dismay when she stopped appearing in the theater. But since at last her sisters did not show up in the box any more, I concluded that there was some special circumstance - and had met the right one. For as I had learned through a fortunate coincidence-I did not dare to investigate-the measles had broken out in the princely house, and all the daughters had gone to bed. But now the two older ones are already well again, and one sees them still in the theater - only the youngest remains invisible. My anxiety, then, has increased all the more as I have been made obligated by the caution which, as you know, for my person can make any inquiries. But you have friends, relatives, and acquaintances here in middle-class circles, and it would not seem likely if someone asked the concierge.”

  As this was easy to accomplish, I agreed, and was soon able to inform him that the Princess was still suffering from a consequent malady of the measles, but was soon recovering, a message that Burda received with melancholy joy.

  It was really spring now. The trees on the glacis had buds and leaves, the lawn gleamed in soft green, and the celebrations, which were held at the time of the imperial marriage, were favored by the most glorious weather. But by the same token, the Oriental question had once again become a burning one, and already the diplomatic threads of those European entanglements had begun to form, which were later to find a preliminary conclusion with the Crimean campaign and the capture of Sebastopol. Austria, too, had to take a stand in the midst of general armaments and pushed observation troops to the northern and south-eastern borders of the empire. As a result, some regiments were placed on the line of war, including ours, while at the same time being prepared to march in order, as the order stated, to take up temporary quarters in Bohemia.

  These warlike prospects were greeted with enthusiastic rejoicing by the officers, and Burda, too, would have been in the mood, had he not been saddened and tormented by the thought that he would scarcely be able to see the princess now-and that he, as he himself, would see her express in a doubly uncertain and painful situation.

  The day of the departure came up. The evening before, Burda asked me to go to the Burgtheater with him once more. “You'll see,” he said, “she's coming today. Something inside me points to it. She will have under all circumstances learned that the regiment will march tomorrow-and will do its utmost to be able to give me at least a cross-eyed look.”

  I was already used to not putting any weight on such speeches. I neither confirmed him in his presuppositions nor discouraged him; I listened with a certain sympathetic silence that he could interpret as he wished. Incidentally, he himself had lost his former sensitivity and irritability; he had become soft and devoted. It seemed to be more about having someone to whom he could express his thoughts and feelings, regardless of whether one agrees or not.

  There were three small pieces. During the first the box remained empty; but at the beginning of the second - I could barely believe my eyes - the princess really did appear. And dressed in black - and alone. That is, as good as alone. For the lady who sat down next to her was undoubtedly a lady of the society or something like that.

  Burda struck me lightly; because he could say nothing in the crowd that surrounded us.

  I looked for the princess. She looked remarkably pale and attacked. In her hand she held a small bouquet of violets, which she brought from time to time, breathing in the scent, close to her face.

  When the play came to an end, she rose with all signs of fatigue and disappeared with her companion.


  As some movement started around us during the break, Burda whispered to me, “I think you're gone. We want to wait for the beginning of the last piece, then we'll go too.”

  We moved closer to the exit, later causing no disturbance, and as the box remained empty, we moved away from the first scenes that followed on stage.

  After taking our coats, Burda stopped in the empty foyer. “Well, did I really guess?”

  I did not know what to say.

  “You saw how suffering she still is,” he continued. “What kind of overcoming must have cost her to visit the theater. And what do you say to her that she has appeared in mourning?”

  “That may be a coincidence,” I said, almost fighting angrily against an assumption that, I must confess, had involuntarily appeared in myself. “Maybe a distant death in the family - or a farm mourning whose announcement is no longer ours.”

  “Possibly,” he said lightly, carefully avoiding my opinion. “But what is that?” He continued, fingering his left breast. Then he quickly unbuttoned his coat and pulled out of the inside pocket a bouquet of violets, which he initially regarded with disbelieving surprise. Finally, however, he straightened himself up and said, giving me the flowers replied, very seriously: “Dear friend, I am not talking anymore. You have, I am sure, seen these violets in the hands of the princess - and now I find them in my breast pocket. Farewell! I can no longer deprive you of your loved ones, from whom you will probably still want to say farewell, and thank you for your company. “With that he shook my hand and left.

  I was concerned and confused. Should these violets really...? No, no! It was an ostrich like any other of the hundreds that were offered on all street corners at this time of the year. So it had to be the one the princess...

  I want to get to the bottom of it, I said to myself and after a few steps, I already went out on the street, to return to the dressing room. One of the two guards, a slender, gray-haired male who used to serve the officers, had been gently dozing on his chair. When I arrived, he drove up.

  I approached him confidentially and asked:

  “Do you remember the officer who just left with me earlier?”

  The old man still stared at me a little sleepily; then he shouted: “Oh sure! How should I not? The great lieutenant, I know him very well.”

  I expected this. Because Burda, though generally very pensive, loved to be extremely generous to such people.

  “Well then, maybe you can tell me how a violet bouquet came into Herr Leutnant's coat pocket?”

  “Bouquet of violets? Into the pocket of Herr Lieutenant !? “cried the old man, almost clasping his hands over his head. Then he rummaged desperately in the military coats, which hung tightly against each other on the wall of the narrow room. “Right! Right! “He groaned; “I made a nice confusion!”

  “How so?”

  “Now you see: the bouquet was from a lady on the second floor - not young anymore - but interesting, very interesting. She had asked me to give it to a captain of the Alexander Regiment - you may know him - the one with the monstrous mustache - to put into his pocket. Now he also has such cuffs - though more orange-yellow - but so at night - and the mantle of Mr. Lieutenant hung right next to his - and there - - “he did not complete and made only significant gestures of confusion.

  “Well, well,” said I, “do not take it so tragically! Neither the captain nor the interesting lady needs to know about it. And if you really are to be questioned, you can easily admit your mistake; it was not a crime. Take this for interim comfort.”

  He received the delivered with a submissive Knix, but nonetheless still showed great unrest.

  This was therefore released. But what about the black clothes? Certainly, just as it did then with the yellow toilet, which apparently was chosen by chance, since the intention of going to a party with the prince after the theater was different from that of the sisters. So I thought, when I was back on the street. Then it jumped through me. The princess had visited the Burgtheater-what if the other two were in the opera, where Italian stagione was and where the Medori celebrated their triumphs? It would have to show what sorrow is all about!

  It was not too late, so I hurried to the other one Theater over. They gave Verdi's Ernani. The house was overcrowded; the doors of the parterre were open to both sides, in order to create a corridor for those who, to at least hear, renounced seeing. I tried to push through, unconcerned that my recklessness caused signs of disapproval. But I could not get far. The stage, as well as the right side of the theater remained completely closed to me, only the left one could be envisaged. There, however, in a small proscenium box, the two princesses sat in the company of the elderly lady who had been at the court ball with them - all dressed in black. My guess had not deceived me: a family mourning, albeit not a close member, otherwise you would probably not have visited the theater. I was content and moved away, ignoring the death-song of Ernani, who now unleashed stormy applause behind my back.

  So even here onWas it clear to me that I only thought about what the Princess had led to the Burgtheater while I was on my way? Quite simply the fact that there was no room for them in that proscenium box. Or more probable: after a long illness, she wanted to go to the theater for the first time, and had preferred a small, cheerful piece, which she might like to see, to a noisy opera. The last thread of Burda's phantasm fluttered. And yet, I could not smile at him this time. Rather, a very deep, almost sad mood overcame me. Did I have to say that, from his point of view, there was a semblance of intentionality in all these coincidences; For a moment I had lost my convictions again. It almost looked as if destiny pretended to play a cruel game with him. - -

  The following day, at eight o'clock in the morning, we marched off. When we crossed the Franzensbrücke and approached the station, a few cars were jammed at the end of the Jagerzeile, stopped by the passing troops. Now a Fiaker, who quickly brought his horses to a halt, rolled up. As far as one could tell - on one side the curtain was half lowered - a darkly dressed lady sat in the elegant coupe. I saw Burda, who was not far in front of me in the ranks, flinch suddenly, then stepped out against all instructions and turned against the Fiaker. As? In the end, would he believe the princess came here to see him again? Certainly, that was his opinion. After all! If he still enjoys this delusion, it's the last one anyway.

  VI.

  The regiment had moved to the cantonment stations in Bohemia. The staff was with a battalion in a respectable county seat, the rest was distributed in larger or smaller towns. The company, in which Burda - who had now advanced to lieutenant rank - and I stood, had been assigned a market town near a train station. The area was not without grace. Well-built fields, lush meadows alternated with gentle, beautifully wooded heights. There was also a large, well-kept tavern where both of us - the captain had taken the mayor's quarters - found a very comfortable accommodation. At the far end of the spot, branching off to the side, a stately linden-tree led up to a small castle, which looked much like a medieval fort. and had been well received with evident care; Everything added later was as adapted as possible to the remnants of the past. This castle belonged to the wealthy Count's family M... and was formerly used only on autumnal hunting trips; but now it was inhabited by a young couple. A younger son of the house had married during the winter and preferred to a honeymoon, to spend with his wife the honey moons in this rural seclusion. All sorts of stories were told about the closed, shy life of the newlyweds. At first you did not even see her; only now that the weather was better could one occasionally see them on horseback or in chariots, but always united, as inseparable, and even claimed that the young countess, amazonated, accompanied her husband on each of his walks. The two of us, as we were doing a company exercise, had passed by in a light car, which was covered with four small piebalds, steered by the Countess herself. Burda had remarked on this occasion that it really required decency to pay a visit to the castle - and indeedin corpore. But our captain, a rather rude nature, had replied that it looked like he wa
nted to push himself. One should not care about these aristocrats until they themselves took note of the imperial officers we were.

  At Burda, however, the castle became increasingly attractive. He walked around it in ever-closer circles on each of our walks together, and loved to look down from a nearby hill to the mysterious treetops of the park, which, not too broadly, approached the forest.

  “Oh!” He cried one evening, just as the sun sank and their last gold flared up on the horizon, “oh, which lucky enough to be able to live in such a proud seclusion with the queen of his heart! “Then, after a pause and with his arms out, describing a circle in the air,” Who knows if not one of my ancestors once ruled this ground? But what good is it to me? “He concluded with a shrill sigh, shrugging his shoulders.

  A silence came.

  “But do you know,” he said suddenly, again looking at the castle, “that one day the Princess might come here?”

  I looked at him so surprised that if he had been the former, it would have hurt him deeply. But now he scarcely paid any attention to it and, as it were, continued in soliloquy: “If I am not mistaken, the M... with the L... are somehow intermarried. And there it would be - as soon as one has learned my whereabouts - not too difficult to make a visit to the factory. In any case, easier than to appear alone in the box at that time - and to show yourself on the northern runway in the morning.”

  In the meantime I had caught myself and reminded that I am no longer astonished by anything.

  “Well, now,” said I, “it's still possible.”