“As far as the sword is concerned, I have it in my power to assist Nutcracker. I placed an old Colonel of Cuirassiers on retirement on a pension yesterday, so that he has no further occasion for his sabre, which is sharp.”
This Colonel was settled, on his pension, in the back corner of the third shelf. He was fetched out and his sabre—still a bright and handsome silver weapon-taken off, and girt about Nutcracker.
Next night Marie could not close an eye for anxiety. About midnight she fancied she heard a strange stirring and noise in the sitting-room—a rustling and a clanging—and suddenly there came a shrill “Queak!”
“The king of the mice! The king of the mice!” she cried, and jumped out of bed, all terror. Everything was silent; but soon there came a gentle tapping at the door of her room, and a soft voice made itself heard, saying:
“Please open your door, dearest Miss Stahlbaum! Don’t be in the least degree alarmed; good, happy news!”
It was Drosselmeier’s voice—young Drosselmeier’s, I mean. She threw on her dressing-gown and opened the door as quickly as possible. There stood Nutcracker, with his sword all covered with blood in his right hand, and a little wax taper in his left. When he saw Marie, he knelt down on one knee, and said:
“It was you, and you only, dearest lady, who inspired me with knightly valour, and steeled me with strength to do battle with the insolent caitiff who dared to insult you. The treacherous king of the mice lies vanquished and writhing in his gore! Deign, lady, to accept these tokens of victory from the hand of him who is, till death, your true and faithful knight.”
With this Nutcracker took from his left arm the seven crowns of the Mouse-King, which he had ranged upon it, and handed them to Marie, who received them with the keenest pleasure. Nutcracker rose and continued as follows:
“Oh! my best beloved Miss Stahlbaum, if you would only take the trouble to follow me for a few steps, what glorious and beautiful things I could show you, at this supreme moment when I have overcome my hereditary foe! Do—do come with me, dearest lady!”
TOYLAND
I feel quite convinced, children, that none of you would have hesitated for a moment to go with good, kind Nutcracker, who had always shown himself to be such a charming person, and Marie was all the more disposed to do as he asked her, because she knew what her just claims on his gratitude were, and was sure that he would keep his word, and show her all sorts of beautiful things. So she said:
“I will go with you, dear Mr. Drosselmeier; but it mustn’t be very far, and it won’t do to be very long, because, you know, I haven’t had any sleep yet.”
“Then we will go by the shortest route,” said Nutcracker, “although it is, perhaps, rather the most difficult.”
He went on in front, followed by Marie, till he stopped before the big old wardrobe. Marie was surprised to see that though it was generally shut, the doors of it were now wide open, so that she could see her father’s travelling cloak of fox-fur hanging in the front. Nutcracker clambered deftly up this cloak, by the edgings and trimmings of it, so as to get hold of the big tassel which was fastened at the back of it by a thick cord. He gave this tassel a tug, and a pretty little ladder of cedarwood let itself quickly down through one of the armholes of the cloak.
“Now, Miss Stahlbaum, step up that ladder, if you will be so kind,” said Nutcracker. Marie did so. But as soon as she had got up through the armhole, and began to look out at the neck, a dazzling light came streaming on her, and she found herself standing on a lovely, sweet-scented meadow, from which millions of sparks were streaming upward, like the glitter of beautiful gems.
“This is Candy Mead, where we are now,” said Nutcracker. “But we’ll go in at that gate there.”
Marie looked up and saw a beautiful gateway on the meadow, only a few steps off. It seemed to be made of white, brown, and raisin-coloured marble; but when she came close to it she saw it was all of baked sugar-almonds and raisins, which—as Nutcracker said when they were going through it—was the reason it was called “Almond and Raisin Gate.” There was a gallery running round the upper part of it, apparently made of barley sugar, and in this gallery six monkeys, dressed in red doublets, were playing on brass instruments in the most delightful manner ever heard. It was all that Marie could do to notice that she was walking along upon a beautiful variegated marble pavement, which, however, was really a mosaic of lozenges of all colours. Presently the sweetest of odours came breathing round her, streaming from a beautiful little wood on both sides of the way. There was such a glittering and sparkling among the dark foliage that one could see all the gold and silver fruits hanging on the many-tinted stems, and these stems and branches were all ornamented and dressed up in ribbons and bunches of flowers like brides and bridegrooms and festive wedding guests. And as the orange perfume came wafted, as if on the wings of gentle zephyrs, there was a soughing among the leaves and branches, and all the gold-leaf and tinsel rustled and tinkled like beautiful music, to which the sparkling lights could not help dancing.
“Oh, how charming this is!” cried Marie, enraptured.
“This is Christmas Wood, dearest Miss Stahlbaum,” said Nutcracker.
“Ah!” said Marie, “if I could only stay here for a little! Oh, it is so lovely! ”
Nutcracker clapped his little hands, and immediately there appeared a number of little shepherds and shepherdesses, and hunters and huntresses, so white and delicate that you would have thought they were made of pure sugar, whom Marie had not noticed before, although they had been walking about in the wood. They brought a beautiful gold reclining chair, laid a white satin cushion in it, and politely invited Marie to take a seat. As soon as she did so, the shepherds and shepherdesses danced a pretty ballet, to which the hunters and huntresses played music on their horns, and then they all disappeared among the thickets.
“I must really apologize for the poor style in which this dance was executed, dearest Miss Stahlbaum,” said Nutcracker. “These people all belong to our Wire Ballet Troupe, and can only do the same thing over and over again. Had we not better go on a little farther?”
“Oh, I’m sure it was all most delightful, and I enjoyed it immensely!” said Marie, as she stood up and followed Nutcracker, who was leading the way. They went by the side of a gently rippling brook, which seemed to be what was giving out all the perfume which filled the wood.
“This is Orange Brook,” said Nutcracker; “but, except for its sweet scent, it is nowhere nearly as fine a water as the River Lemonade, a beautiful broad stream, which falls—as this one does also—into the Almond-milk Sea.”
And, indeed, Marie soon heard a louder plashing and rushing, and came in sight of the River Lemonade, which went rolling along in swelling waves of a yellowish colour, between banks covered with a herbage and underbrush which shone like green carbuncles. A remarkable freshness and coolness, strengthening heart and breast, exhaled from this fine river. Not far from it a dark yellow stream crept sluggishly along, giving out a most delicious odour; and on its banks sat numbers of pretty children, angling for little fat fishes, which they ate as soon as they caught them. These fish were very much like filberts, Marie saw when she came closer. A short distance farther, on the banks of this stream, stood a nice little village. The houses of this village, and the church, the parsonage, the barns, and so forth, were all dark brown with gilt roofs, and many of the walls looked as if they were plastered over with lemon peel and shelled almonds.
“That is Gingerthorpe on the Honey River,” said Nutcracker. “It is famed for the good looks of its inhabitants; but they are very short-tempered people, because they suffer so much from toothache. So we won’t go there at present.”
At this moment Marie caught sight of a little town where the houses were all sorts of colours and quite transparent, exceedingly pretty to look at. Nutcracker went on towards this town, and Marie heard a noise of bustle and merriment, and saw some thousands of nice little folks unloading a number of wagons which were drawn up in the
market place. What they were unloading from the wagons looked like packages of coloured paper and tablets of chocolate.
“This is Bonbonville,” Nutcracker said. “An embassy has just arrived from Paperland and the King of Chocolate. These poor Bonbonville people have been vexatiously threatened lately by the Fly-Admiral’s forces, so they are covering their houses over with their presents from Paperland, and constructing fortifications with the fine pieces of workmanship which the Chocolate-King has sent them. But oh! dearest Miss Stahlbaum, we are not going to restrict ourselves to seeing the small towns and villages of this country. Let us be off to the metropolis.”
He stepped quickly onwards, and Marie followed him, all expectation. Soon a beautiful rosy vapour began to rise, suffusing everything with a soft splendour. She saw that this was reflected from rose-red, shining water, which went plashing and rushing away in front of them in wavelets of roseate silver. And on this delightful water, which kept broadening and broadening out wider and wider, like a great lake, the loveliest swans were floating, white as silver, with collars of gold. And, as if vying with each other, they were singing the most beautiful songs, at which little fish, glittering like diamonds, danced up and down in the rosy ripples.
“Oh!” cried Marie, in the greatest delight, “this must be the lake which Godpapa Drosselmeier was once going to make for me, and I am the girl who is to play with the swans.”
Nutcracker gave a sneering sort of laugh, such as she had never seen in him before, and said:
“My uncle could never make a thing of this kind. You would be much more likely to do it yourself. But don’t let us bother about that. Rather let us go sailing over the water, Lake Rosa here, to the metropolis.”
THE METROPOLIS
Nutcracker clapped his little hands again, and the waves of Lake Rosa began to sound louder and to splash higher, and Marie became aware of a sort of car approaching from the distance, made wholly of glittering precious stones of every colour, and drawn by two dolphins with scales of gold. Twelve of the dearest little Negro boys, with headdresses and doublets made of hummingbirds’ feathers woven together, jumped to land, and carried first Marie and then Nutcracker, gently gliding above the water, into the car, which immediately began to move along over the lake of its own accord. Ah! how beautiful it was when Marie went over the waters in the shell-shaped car, with the rose-perfume breathing around her, and the rosy waves splashing. The two golden-scaled dolphins lifted their nostrils, and sent streams of crystal high in the air; and as these fell down in glittering, sparkling rainbows, there was a sound as of two delicate, silvery voices, singing, “Who comes over the rosy sea?—Fairy is she. Bim-bim—fishes; sim-sim—swans; sfa-sfa-golden birds; tratrah, rosy waves, wake you, and sing, sparkle and ring, sprinkle and kling—this is the fairy we languish to see—coming at last to us over the sea. Rosy waves dash—bright dolphins play—merrily, merrily on!”
But the twelve little boys at the back of the car seemed to take some umbrage at this song of the water jets; for they shook the sun shades they were holding so that the palm leaves they were made of clattered and rattled together; and as they shook them they stamped an odd sort of rhythm with their feet, and sang:
“Klapp and klipp, and klipp and klapp, and up and down.”
“These are merry, amusing fellows,” said Nutcracker, a little put out, “but they’ll set the whole lake into a state of regular mutiny on my hands!” And in fact there did begin a confused and confusing noise of strange voices which seemed to be floating both in the water and in the air. However, Marie paid no attention to it, but went on looking into the perfumed rosy waves, from each of which a pretty girl’s face smiled back to her.
“Oh! look at Princess Pirlipat,” she cried, clapping her hands with gladness, “smiling at me so charmingly down there! Do look at her, Mr. Drosselmeier.”
But Nutcracker sighed, almost sorrowfully, and said:
“That is not Princess Pirlipat, dearest Miss Stahlbaum, it is only yourself; always your own lovely face smiling up from the rosy waves.” At this Marie drew her head quickly back, closed her eyes as tightly as she could, and was terribly ashamed. But just then the twelve Negroes lifted her out of the car and set her on shore. She found herself in a small thicket or grove, almost more beautiful even than Christmas Wood, everything glittered and sparkled so in it. And the fruit on the trees was extraordinarily wonderful and beautiful, and not only of very curious colours, but with the most delicious perfume.
“Ah!” said Nutcracker, “here we are in Comfit Grove, and yonder lies the metropolis.”
How shall I set about describing all the wonderful and beautiful sights which Marie now saw, or give any idea of the splendour and magnificence of the city which lay stretched out before her on a flowery plain? Not only did the walls and towers of it shine in the brightest and most gorgeous colours, but the shapes and appearance of the buildings were like nothing to be seen on earth. Instead of roofs the houses had on beautiful twining crowns, and the towers were garlanded with beautiful leaf-work, sculptured and carved into exquisite, intricate designs. As they passed in at the gateway, which looked as if it was made entirely of macaroons and sugared fruits, silver soldiers presented arms, and a little man in a brocade dressing gown threw himself upon Nutcracker’s neck, crying:
“Welcome, dearest prince! welcome to Sweetmeatburgh!”
Marie wondered not a little to see such a very grand personage recognize young Mr. Drosselmeier as a prince. But she heard such a number of small delicate voices making such a loud clamouring and talking, and such a laughing and chattering going on, and such a singing and playing, that she couldn’t give her attention to anything else, but asked Drosselmeier what was the meaning of it all.
“Oh, it is nothing out of the common, dearest Miss Stahlbaum,” he answered. “Sweetmeatburgh is a large, populous city, full of mirth and entertainment. This is only the usual thing that is always going on here every day. Please come on a little farther.”
After a few paces more they were in the great market place, which presented the most magnificent appearance. All the houses which were round it were of filagreed sugarwork, with galleries towering above galleries; and in the centre stood a lofty cake covered with sugar, by way of obelisk, with fountains round it spouting orgeat, lemonade, and other delicious beverages into the air. The runnels at the sides of the footways were full of creams, which you might have ladled up with a spoon if you had chosen. But prettier than all this were the delightful little people who were crowding about everywhere by the thousand, shouting, laughing, playing, and singing, in short, producing all that jubilant uproar which Marie had heard from the distance. There were beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen, Greeks and Armenians, Tyrolese and Jews, officers and soldiers, clergymen, shepherds, jack-puddings, in short, people of every conceivable kind to be found in the world.
The tumult grew greater towards one of the corners; the people streamed asunder. For the Great Mogul happened to be passing along there in his palanquin, attended by three-and-ninety grandees of the realm, and seven hundred slaves. But it chanced that the Fishermen’s Guild, about five hundred strong, were keeping a festival at the opposite corner of the place; and it was rather an unfortunate coincidence that the Grand Turk took it in his head just at this particular moment to go out for a ride, and crossed the square with three thousand Janissaries. And, as if this were not enough, the grand procession of the Interrupted Sacrifice came along at the same time, marching up towards the obelisk with a full orchestra playing, and the chorus singing: “Hail! all hail to the glorious sun!”
So there was a thronging and a shoving, a driving and a squeaking; and soon lamentations arose, and cries of pain, for one of the fishermen had knocked a Brahmin’s head off in the throng, and the Great Mogul had been very nearly run down by a jack-pudding. The din grew wilder and wilder. People were beginning to shove one another, and even to come to fisticuffs; when the man in the brocade dressing gown who had welcomed Nutcra
cker as prince at the gate, clambered up to the top of the obelisk, and, after a very clear-tinkling bell had rung thrice, shouted very loudly three times: “Pastrycook! pastrycook! pastrycook!”
Instantly the tumult subsided. Everybody tried to save himself as quickly as he could; and after the entangled processions had been disentangled, the dirt properly brushed off the Great Mogul, and the Brahmin’s head stuck on again all right, the merry noise went on just the same as before.
“Tell me why that gentleman called out ‘Pastrycook,’ Mr. Drosselmeier, please,” said Marie.
“Ah! dearest Miss Stahlbaum,” said Nutcracker, “in this place ‘Pastrycook’ means a certain unknown and very terrible Power, which it is believed can do with people just what it chooses. It represents the Fate or Destiny which rules these happy little people, and they stand in such awe and terror of it that the mere mention of its name quells the wildest tumult in a moment, as the burgomaster has just shown. Nobody thinks further of earthly matters, cuffs in the ribs, broken heads, or the like. Every one retires within himself, and says: ‘What is man? and what his ultimate destiny?’ ”
Marie could not forbear a cry of admiration and utmost astonishment as she now found herself suddenly before a castle shining in roseate radiance, with a hundred beautiful towers. Here and there at intervals upon its walls were rich bouquets of violets, narcissuses, tulips, carnations, whose dark, glowing colours heightened the dazzling whiteness, inclining to rose-colour, of the walls. The great dome of the central building, as well as the pyramidal roofs of the towers, were set all over with thousands of sparkling gold and silver stars.
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