Short Stories From Austria- Ferdinand Von Saar

by Ferdinand Ludwig Adam

  There it was, as if the noise were suddenly joined by a peculiar reverberation. I got up and stepped close to the windows. Listen! Was not that ringing bells? I quietly opened a grand piano. Now a peculiarly elongated tone. The fire horn! Fire - fire in place! I got ready as quickly as possible and left the house through the low-lying window so as not to wake anyone prematurely; Stop followed me with a feathery sentence. After a few hasty steps I looked up to the sky; deep black, it came to light above the tops of the spruce trees, which stood close to the house. So move forward to gain a view! More and more clearly I heard the dull bells, while a mysterious cry of woe seemed to go with the storm. Now the sky was already tanning, then it reddened - and when I reached the edge of the forest, the place lay before me, daylighted by the flames of a burning house. As I immediately informed, it was that of the mayor; Nearby, separated only by another, low, but elongated one, the courthouse, the largest in the town, illuminated by the roaring tep, towered almost blood-red. Luckily it drifted the direction of the wind does not penetrate the flames into the patches, but towards the back, towards the open field; Also, the fire brigade, which had recently formed here, was already in full activity.

  For a minute I stared at the awfully magnificent spectacle, while down below, at the howling of the accumulated people, the syringes rattled across the square, sending their jets of water dewing into the licking flames. Then I wondered if I should go there or, for the time being, inform the certainly unsuspecting foresters. At the same time I involuntarily made half a turn and saw behind me in the bushes a huddled female figure whom I had not noticed before. The firelight darkened her countenance, as well as the harsh red fruits of a dry wild rosebush on which she sat immediately. It was Maruschka.

  ,You!?' I exclaimed as a sudden certainty rose in me.

  'Yes, me,' she replied calmly.

  ,What are you doing here?'

  I'm watching. I've been waiting for it for two hours. '

  ,You have -!'

  , Just talk! I've set the fire. '

  , Loin! ' I exclaimed, raising my rifle, involuntarily trying to smash the butt on her head.

  , Oho! ' she screamed, leaping rapidly. Are you coming like that? I'm not afraid of you with your gun. Because if you do not shoot me down right away, you could be sick! She looked at me wildly threatening and uncertainly on the ground. The thin neck of a bottle flashed from the pocket of her dress; she had obviously drunk brandy. 'But what do you care about?' she drove, suddenly turning in, away; 'Nothing happens to you, because the fire does not reach the forest.'

  Who speaks of it? But the people down there! '

  , The people down there? Because of that, I have kindled it! At that time I did not do it when they accused me. Now they are to burn, all together! '

  , Dishonorable! But Heaven itself will make your intention ashore. Look, the wind has stopped, and the house is already burning weaker. '

  She looked wide-eyed and saw that I was right. As is often the case in heavy storms, momentary rest had occurred in the air, and it seemed as if the fire had already become master.

  She clenched her fingers together. 'Well, the house is gone!' she gasped convulsively.

  , What's up? The mayor has a new build up. And assuming even that he was badly damaged, was such a revenge on you? Was not he punished enough for the injustice that he did to you, as you think? He lost his son. Or do not you know that? '

  'How should I not know it!' she said contemptuously. 'But what do I know about his hating for his boy? What do I care, that he is gone! '

  'You liked him!'

  ,The? The Aff was always repugnant to me. I took it because it gave me money - and because you did not like me! '

  At the same moment we felt a terrible, hot gust of wind that shook us both; the trunks behind us groaned and creaked, and new flames spewed from the suffocating fire.

  ,Ha! Ha!' she exclaimed with shrill laughter.,Do you see, Heaven means well with me! It's burning again - it's burning! Now also the neighbor house goes on! ' She cheered in wild joy, pulled out the bottle, and drank greedily, head bowed, arm raised. 'Yes, now they will roast - all - all - who brought me to the workhouse. Oh, what did I do there! I do not want to work, I do not like to work, I can not work - and whoever compels me, he is my enemy, I hate him and I kill him! ' She began, a brandy-drunk maennade, to dance around with clumsy, ugly leaps.

  I harshly grabbed her and forced her to stand still. 'You can not work?' I called. 'Now you'll have to be all right! For in the end - I pointed to the fire - you get at least ten years in prison. And people are not going to be celebrated there! '

  , Prison! ' she exclaimed with great laughter., Penitentiary! I want to see him, who brings me to the penitentiary! '

  ,What? Do you think you will not fall for it immediately? Do not put you on trial? '

  If you have me! '

  , Do you mean to escape? Where are you going?'

  She spread her arms wide, as if to designate the infinite space.

  'The gendarmes will find you everywhere!'

  ,You mean? Or do you want to catch me straight away? Tut's! You also have a rifle! ' She quickly reached for it, and I had every effort to wrest it from her. 'Shoot me down!' she cried suddenly, 'shoot me down!' She threw herself to the ground and squirmed at my feet. 'Or no, kiss me!' she shouted, jumping up again quickly., Kiss me! Do you think I do not know that I liked you? That you were in love with me? Yes, in love! At that time - remember? You were just ashamed, otherwise you would have run after me like a dog would have fallen on my neck. Do it now, because it's all over! You have to do it! ' Like a wild cat, she jumped up to me and clutched at me, as if she wanted to strangle me while hersthirsty lips looking for mine. Stop, who started barking angrily, bit into her dress and tugged at it; but she did not pay attention. 'Come on,' she gasped, 'come with me into the forest! There it is night - no one sees us - come! come over'!' She tried to drag me away in an angry grip.

  I made every effort to get out - it did not work; I should have gone to the extreme of violence. And in spite of all the disgust and disgust, in spite of the fear I now felt before her, I suddenly felt a sudden flush of blood, my senses threatening to confuse; I was in a horrible situation....

  But there came the rescue! A closer rattle sounded; it was the small fire-spray of an external Maierhof, which came to the aid of the beleaguered place. To gain time, she had taken a wide dirt road that led past the forest below; However, it came, because of the heavily extended track, only slowly forward. The operating crew had dismounted and hurried alongside the jolting vehicle.

  ,Hey guys!' I shouted with all my strength. 'Here, you people! Here's the murder burner! Grasp her! Up her people! ' But nobody returned to it; my cries seemed to die in the wind, unannounced. The drunks, the insane, but seemed to come to their senses and to feel dismay. She lurched around, and so I threw her aside, cocking my rifle, and quickly firing both barrels into the air. That worked. The men stopped and looked up through the semi-darkness. Maruschka, recognizing the danger, turned quickly to escape and disappeared among the trunks.

  'You only go!' I shouted, trembling with excitement. 'They know you and will know how to find you!'

  But they were not found. All the inquiries that were made without delay after happily managed fire in the area as well as in the whole area, had no success. She was and remained missing. It was only in the spring, when the snow had melted long ago, that a female corpse was discovered in the woods under the boulders of a narrow and deep rift. She was disfigured beyond recognition; but all the evidence suggested that it had been the troglodytin's. I myself was spared the sight, for that same winter I had been assigned as sub-forester to a farm owned by a son-in-law of the count in southern Styria, near the Croatian border.”

  GINEVRA

  FOREWORD BY THE PUBLISHER

  In our novella, Saar has taken up older motifs and spun them on. The motif of the officer charged with love guilt he had in the reworking of ” Vae victis"Dr
opped again (Volume VIII, page 9); and with the papers to the “Haus Reichegg” not only the situation agrees, the participation of the officers in the dancing pleasure of the city dwellers, but also the description Ginevras. The manuscript of our novella is dated “Blansko, March 4, 1889". It is a fair copy, but it has undergone so many corrections that in some places it has become difficult to read. It is based on the first impression in the Vienna yearbook “Dioskuren” 1890 (XIX year, pages 149-179), which, of course, has been quietly modified in the correction; on the Dioscuri, however, is also the late impression in the periodical “Modern Art” (XVII Year, 1902/3, page 262 ff, 294 ff, 305 ff, 314 ff). For a new edition, the poet has first made changes in a separate impression from the Dioscuri, but then they entered again in the manuscript and this for the second time the impression in the fourth collection of novella “Frauenbilder” 1892 (page 1-82) based, whereby the corrections have become so numerous that the publisher repeatedly had to write down individual passages, and on this occasion also obtained the poet's approval for a few changes in the use of the word. Even though the correction had been remedied, this version was not enough for the tirelessly poetic writer. He requested on but they were then re-entered in the manuscript and used for the second time the impression in the fourth collection of novellas “Frauenbilder” 1892 (page 1-82), so that the corrections have become so numerous that the publisher repeatedly write individual passages in the pure and, on that occasion, accepted the poet's approval for a few changes in the use of words. Even though the correction had been remedied, this version was not enough for the tirelessly poetic writer. He requested on but they were then re-entered in the manuscript and used for the second time the impression in the fourth collection of novellas “Frauenbilder” 1892 (page 1-82), so that the corrections have become so numerous that the publisher repeatedly write individual passages in the pure and, on that occasion, accepted the poet's approval for a few changes in the use of words. Even though the correction had been remedied, this version was not enough for the tirelessly poetic writer. He requested on Even though the correction had been remedied, this version was not enough for the tirelessly poetic writer. He requested on Even though the correction had been remedied, this version was not enough for the tirelessly poetic writer. He requested on April 3, 1896 a copy of the “Images of Women” for a possibly necessary second edition and underwent extensive improvements in March of the following year, which then benefited the first two-volume edition of the “Novellen aus Österreich” 1897 (second volume, pages 179-232) The mother of Ginevra no longer comes from Conegliano, but from Bassano, and the sentence at the end, according to which the Colonel to the Pole is still in relationship, is only now inserted. In the second edition of this collection (op. Cit.) The cipher L... in Leitmeritz was dissolved in addition to minor stylistic changes. The reprint in Reclam's Universalbibliothek (No. 4600 [1904]) seems to be based on incompletely corrected sheets of this last edition;

  The dinner was over and the small table company went into the garden of the villa to take the coffee there. After settling on a terrace overlooking the surrounding heights and part of the city, the housewife said, “Tell us about this Ginevra, dear Colonel. Have you promised it long ago. Anyway, she must have been something very special, because you still remember her with a kind of devotion. So do not ask for it. We are all among us, and hopefully there will be no unexpected visit that could interrupt you.”

  The colonel, a tall, slender man in civilian attire, gazed thoughtfully at the glowing surface of the cigar he had just lit. “Well then,” said he, “if you will, it shall happen, though I must fear that I have made a very ill-considered promise. For what I can bring forward is really just an outdated love story, which, if it were printed today, perhaps nobody would like to read anymore. However, as I said, if you really want it, I'm ready. It is a pleasure, if a painful, to put oneself back in the golden days of youth.”

  I.

  “I was twenty years old and a midshipman in a regiment that formed part of the Terezfn peacekeeping force. This fort likes - apart from its graceful location in one of the most blessed regions of Bohemia - even today is not a particularly enjoyable place to stay; but then - in the forties - he could truly be called dreary. Because apart from the large main square, which was planted with two rows of trees and almost all had military buildings, there were only four lanes there. They led in the corresponding wind directions to the gates and ramparts and consisted mostly of small, hut-like houses, in which had settled Krämer and craftsmen, beer owners and spirits detractors. The officers were therefore entirely dependent on comradely intercourse, and we juniors did not have the most edifying existence. In the morning hours more or less busy,

  As far as myself was concerned, I did this wild, thoughtless activity because one could not exclude oneself. Besides, I was young, and after the severe discipline I once had to endure in a cadet-house, such rioting had the charm of novelty for me. My uncle, who to a certain extent took on the position of sonship for me, the early orphaned, and held a rather high and influential post at the Hofkriegsrat at the time, paid me a very handsome fine; So I lived carefree into the day, though occasionally, in my nature, I was not entirely free from sentimental and hypochondriacal tendencies.

  So it happened that one evening, in the carnival, once and sitting thoughtfully in my dreary barracks apartment, feeling very unhappy, for the following reason.

  The fortress commander, an invalided general, enjoyed a daughter, who, though she was neither very young nor particularly beautiful, but by virtue of her position had enough incentive to turn her head around to a newcomer like myself. She had grown remarkably slender, had shiny black eyes, very white teeth, protruding slightly between her lips, and knew how to give artificial freshness to her somewhat yellowed cheeks by tenderly applying red. With experienced comrades she was regarded as a coquettish coquette, and they had warned me in the beginning, half in jest, half in earnest. Still, I fell in love with her on the occasion of a religious ceremony that she attended, half-veiled, at her mother's side on the Oratory of the Garrison Church. Although she seemed to be very devoutly absorbed in her prayer book, I could notice that from time to time she looked at me, at first only from the side, but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot I could notice that from time to time she looked at me, at first only from the side, but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot I could notice that from time to time she looked at me, at first only from the side, but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which he
r father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot that from time to time she looked at me, at first only from the side, but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot that from time to time she looked at me, at first only from the side, but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot but then, with the affection of the face, ever longer and more insistent. I believed that this was all the more in my favor, since from that time on she always appeared behind the window panes when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot when I - and this happened several times a day - passed the commandant's house; indeed, once I could even perceive that she had climbed into a chair in the middle of the room in order to be able to observe her unseen from there, as she well thought. Therefore, I had no desire more than to personally approach her, and the official ball which her father was soon obliged to give seemed to me the most gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot Her father was soon obliged to give, seemed to me the gracious opportunity. I already thought a lot Her father was soon obliged to give, seemed to me the gracious opportunity. I already thought a lotlively as well as she looks forward tothis evening, how they attract me to him at once, how I would fly with them united in the dance - and what such youthful expectations were more. But I had, as they say, made the bill completely without the host. For foreign guests were also summoned to the ball, and among these were, in addition to higher civilian civil servants, the officers of a Chevaux-Leger regiment stationed in the countryside. Then I had the pain to see how these interesting newcomers drew the attention of the daughter of the house so much that they did not look for me, and when I introduced myself later, no encouraging word was left. In the confusion about it, I did not even dare to ask her to dance, and while the cruel one was hijacked almost all the time by a very aristocratic-looking Captain, I was doomed to