“You haven’t got that in the cupboard! oh-ho-ho!”
That sparkling wit!
Le Vigan starts singing … oh yes! … and pretty loud …
“Harras, well never sleep again!”
“Watch it! … our general will be turning up!”
General? … bah! what’s a general to Le Vig? … let him turn up!”
“Y avait dix filles dans un pré!
Toutes les dix à marier!
Y avait Dine! … y avait Chine!”
“Shhh! shhh! … Le Vig!”
“You see! … sound asleep!”
“Et la duchesse de Montbazon!”
“Shut up! … shut up!”
He’s miffed …
“If that’s the way it is, I’ll tell him the whole story!”
“Canary! You want to go to jail?”
“Exactly!”
“You want to be shot?”
“Why not? … tell me why not!”
I signal to Harras … his head! … yes yes! … it’s all right! … he knows … what doesn’t he know?
But is the wagon harnessed?
“Kracht! Kracht!”
Kracht again …
“Jawohl! … everything’s ready!” … Nicholas is ready … and the two SA escorts … we’re to wait … Harras’s orders! … Kracht makes another trip to the isba … be comes back … “Don’t take them out yet … have they eaten? … have they slept? … all of them?”
“Ja ja! … ja!”
We wait … one minute … two minutes … and rat-tat-tat! … a motorcycle … another! … a whole squadron of motorcycles! … man! … he’d told me … he tells me again …
“Don’t call him by his name! … whatever you do! … colleague, that’s it! … colleague! … don’t act as if you knew … or Madame! … or Le Vigan! … he’s very friendly, very simple …”
Rat-tat-tat! … more motorcycles … and then a horrible clanking of chains!
“He’s come in a tank! … panzer! … panzer … a general, you see! … a general! … he knows how to talk to lunatics! … oh, yes! … friendly! … you’ll see! … not one of those intolerant alienists! no! not a fanatic!”
He still has time to say …
“Most understanding! … but don’t mention his brother!”
“Oh no! … no!”
There’s the general … he gets out of the tank … he seems to know the estate … and the manor … he’s dressed like Harras … military chameleon style … but unarmed … as far as I can see … he comes up to us! heil! heil! “attention!” … and handshakes all around! … he greets Lili … he takes off his helmet … a low bow! … not eccentric like Harras … very dignified, in fact … no oh-ho-ho about him! Le Vig breaks in …
“Catherinette … Catherina!
Et la duchesse de Montbazon!
No sign of surprise …
“Yes, yes, mon cher, of course!”
He knew it …
“Mes voeux! prières a Célinè … è … ne!
Toutes mes grâces à la Du-mai … ai … ne!”
Bravo! bravo! the general applauds … Le Vig sits down … at last someone who understands him … instantly …
“Splendid, Harras, we shall speak French!”
This Göring? fortyish … no bay window like Harras … far from it … and not a loud speaker … soft, husky voice, white hair … a man with troubles … and a few wrinkles! … a hundred years old! … light blue eyes … we’ve got our troubles too, come to think of it … Le Vig’s sulking … he takes another chair … no! … a stool! … I go and whisper in his ear …
It’s all right, Le Vig, you can go ahead … tell him you killed the Landrat! … you can shout! … go on! … try!”
“You think he won’t care?”
“Not a bit!”
“No! I won’t say a thing!”
He picks up his stool and goes off in the corner … he sits down … he’s miffed … he crosses his eyes … he uncrosses them … the surgeon-general’s going to say something … to me! … he’s going to explain! … I’d been thinking of something else …
“You see, my dear colleague …”
He speaks very slowly, he’s afraid I won’t understand … I see he has fine hands, oh yes … but his nails are dirty … traveling in the tank …
“Well, you see … Zomhof … the Chancellery can’t ignore it … they’ve sent me … all this must be straightened out … immediately! … you’ve heard? … the difficulties in the east … and recently in the west … very serious! … we have to raise new troops … a levy! … you understand levy? … like Napoleon! …”
“Oh certainly, mon général”
“No! no! … not a general to you! … your humble colleague!” … that’s all! … and a psychiatrist! … you see? … a madman among madmen! …”
He’s going to smile … no … the barest shadow …
“Yes! … yes! … visibly! they’ve covered me with embroidery … to complete the picture! … am I right, Harras?”
“Oh-ho-ho! you’re too hard on yourself!”
“Not really! … not really, Harras!”
He explains …
“Zornhof is too near Berlin … for all these scandals! … you understand? … you see my point? seventy miles! a stone’s throw! … far away … let’s say two hundred miles … it wouldn’t have mattered! a trifle! … the Party wouldn’t have bothered! … but here … impossible! a scandal right next door! … they can’t help overhearing! you see my point, colleague?”
“Perfectly!”
“I must settle all this! immediately! …”
“Certainly! certainly, colleague!”
“The orders have been issued! … in Berlin! … we here … the execution … the details! … well then, Harras?”
Harras keeps running out and coming back … the general asks him …
“Is everything ready?”
“Jawohl!”
“Bring them out, but careful! … sure to resist!”
“Oh no! … they’re asleep!”
The ones in the isba?”
“Oh, yes …”
The two women here on their divans … Thor von Thorfels and Marie-Thérèse … they don’t have to move … they haven’t vomited … neither has the Revizor, he’s groaning a little but in his sleep …
Kracht whispers to me … Thor von Thorfels … the best way … we’ll carry her to the wagon as is, swaddled in blankets … all right with me … six or eight of us … we’ll lay her down in her blankets and she won’t wake up … she’ll sleep all the way, she’ll wake up in her castle! good joke! … I’m dog-tired, but one thing that strikes me … our eminent colleague hasn’t mentioned the two deaths … no, three! … I’d forgotten the Landrat! no! not I don’t forget a thing! it’s the hurry and excitement! Kracht has the three reports in his pocket … Harras asks for them …“quick, Kracht! quick!” Göring has to “certify” them … we hand them over … he reads …
“Harras, the time! the times! … they discussed it with me in Berlin … von Leiden Junior … the cripple … time of decease ten p.m.? stupid! Inge would inherit! … no! incorrect! impossible! … Marie-Thérèse-must inherit! … she must! … she stays here! … the Rittmeister died first! … Inge’s going far away! … the Rittmeister … let’s say eight p.m.! … understand? indispensable!”
It’s all right with us! … mostly I see that they’d better hurry! … Harras remarks …
“Weren’t the times of decease entered by the examining magistrate? … his inquest?”
“The fool! … the fool! … what did he know about it? … he wasn’t there! … witnesses? … none! … you were all at the Tanzhalle! weren’t you? … The Rittmeister died first! … indispensable! … you see, Harras! the time! … the moment!”
Very muddled circumstances! … but with all its other troubles the Chancellery in Berlin saw fit to worry about such absurdities! and dubious “reports”! … and send a general all this wa
y …
The illustrious colleague hesitates … of course he’s free to do what he likes … Harras told me so … he can cancel the times of decease …
“No! … I prefer! … don’t you agree?… much better! … “
He crosses out the times of decease with a green pencil … and writes in with a red pencil … unbestimmt! … uncertain!
“That will make for lawsuits … keep them busy! … what fun they’ll have! … ten years after the war! ten years! … they’ll still be at it! … am I right, Harras? your signature please!”…
Harras signs …
“And yours, colleague!”
My turn …
And then Kracht! He signs …
“And now my full powers!”
He takes a big rubber stamp from his pocket … incredible size … trouble getting it out … the size of his hand …
“There you are, colleague! … look! I bet you can’t read it!”
“I can try!”
Not so easy …
Everybody laughs! our Göring is in stitches! … I decipher …
“Quite a mouthful, eh?”
I read aloud …
“Der Reichsbevollmächtigter!”
And I translate … I abridge:
“The Reich Plenipotentiary!”
I’m all admiration … I tell him … he interrupts … he beats his breast …
“That’s me! … that’s me! … paranoiac, aren’t I? … clear case! wouldn’t you say?”
“Oh, mon général”
“Oh yes! don’t be afraid! but I’ll give it back to them! … I’ve only got it for Zornhof! this mission … this one affair! the full powers are there! all the powers! there! as they must be! … you understand? the Chancellery: all paranoiacs! … c’est la guerre! … indispensable!”
“And now, colleague, I will affix the stamp!”
From his other pocket … more trouble … he extricates the pad … the ink pad … and bam! bam! … twice under each signature! …
Harras turns to me …
“Colleague! … your trip to Rostock! now’s the time!”
I’d been thinking about it all right, but I didn’t dare … he dares! he even explains … we want to visit the coast … to see the beach … Warnemünde … Lili and me … three days! … vacation! … four days! … tourists! …
Le Vig’ll stay here … he’ll go later …
“Why, of course! … gladly! … what have I got the full powers for? goodness gracious!”
He takes a big sheet of white paper … he stamps it in three places … and he signs …
“You’ll fill it out, Harras!”
Could anyone be more gracious? …
“And now, my friends, our travelers!”
Always in a hurry! … true, it’s high time! … it’s getting light … well, pretty near … only Marie-Thérèse and the Revizor are left in the drawing room … pickled! in alcohol and morphine! … they can’t have heard anything … dead to the world … but they’ve vomited some … we won’t carry the countess … Kracht motions to me: the bibels have turned up, six of them! … they’ll carry her on her divan … as is! … first to the isba! … then to the wagon! … the wagon’s warm, stuffed with straw … hitched … to eight cows … not very fat, but not thin … it’s ready loaded, they’ve put in everything … bales of hay, sacks of bread, sacks of rice, cases of canned goods, boxes, bottles … plenty to last them to Stettin … if that’s where they’re going …
Göring inspects … “They’ll be all right …” I ask Harras …
“Which way?”…
“I’ve told you, first Stettin! … the Kommandantur has been notified … they’ll give them a sleigh … Stettin’s not far! … three days … four days … very slowly … they’ll change the escort, different SA-men … then east and north … Danzig … Königsberg … then up toward Memel … the countess will be at home! … in her forests! with her daughter and little Cillie … the Stettin Kommandantur will take their cows … and give them horses … little Tartar horses … special for the snow … you see, it all hinges on the cold weather!”
He can say that again … it’s the end of October … the main thing is they should get started! … the general and Harras think they’d better go see … they haven’t time … here they come! … they’re ready … first the Kretzers in tears … don’t seem to have slept much … holding each other by the arm … she’s pressing the two tunics to her bosom … they stagger to the wagon …
“Say, are they tight?”
“No! no! it’s grief!”
I can see Le Vig”s getting, ready to provoke them … I calm him down …
“All right! … all right!”
So then he starts singing … well, humming … the Kretzers sit down on the sacks … she’s still sobbing … the bibels bring the countess on her divan, bundled up in blankets … they lay her down divan and all on the straw … very gently …
“Ah, colleague, you know … this brings back memories of my youth! … the Embarkation for Cytherea! ° …”
This embarkation makes him pensive … he’s looking on … our Surgeon-General, I mean …
“You know, colleague, I used to dance here! many times! … old Count von Leiden, not the Rittmeister … his father Hugo … gave big balls … I was a medical corps lieutenant then, in the Grenadier-Guards, stationed in Moorsburg … I often danced with little Thor Thorfels … Lord, how unbeautiful we are now! … me and my rubber stamp, she and her forests! … her monument! as big as it is gloomy! her castle! … you’ll see! A Teutonic Bastille! two wars! … going on three! … ludicrous! … ludicrous!”
First time I’ve seen him laugh … nothing like Harras’s oh-ho-ho, but still a laugh …
“Ah, my friends, that castle! you could put all Königsberg in it! … and all the bears and their families! … and the Russians! … even the count couldn’t stand, it … he hunted all day … the poor thing now, all alone … I can see why she takes in anybody she can find! … did she talk to you about Paris?”
“My dear colleague, all she thinks about is Paris!”
“Nothing new … her Obsession even as a child … and speaking French! … same with Inge von Leiden, but less so …”
All this makes it clear that he’s a lot more than forty … he seemed young at first sight … “You know the city of Königsberg? … the home of obsessions! … look at Kant! … tomorrow you! … and me, if we go there! … we won’t go! … or to Cytherea either!”
We all laugh! … we won’t go! but where will we go?
“This Marie-Thérèse! the one who’s staying here … I knew her as a little girl … the heiress! … too young to dance … she came to watch …”
Kracht cornes out of the isba … he’s not alone, Inge all in black, with a black handkerchief knotted under her chin … little Cillie’s holding her by the hand … Kracht helps them into the wagon … Inge first … the Kretzers are in the middle, right over the axle … Countess Thor Thorfels hasn’t a care in the world, they’ve put her divan down in the turnips and hay and alfalfa … she’s sawing wood …
“Where’s Léonard?”
Harras is asking … he hadn’t seen him … he’s there … but not the same man as in the barn … soaked in urine, coated with cowflop! … oh no! … absolutely clean, washed … even combed … I can see why we didn’t spot him at first! … unrecognizable! … he’s the boss now …
“Everything in order, monsieur l’Oberarzt! … shipshape! … cows shod … fodder for at least five, days …”
He’s not kidding …
“Splendid! splendid, Léonard!”
An object lesson …
“You see, colleague, everything’s in order! … and so are they! … never let them run around loose! … never! … give them responsibility! … a command! a precise function! … and quick! a promotion! … signed and stamped …”
Undoubtedly! the living proof! …
“At the Chancellery they
understand … oh yes! they’re not all idiots, but much too slow! … life goes on! … if you don’t graft at once! … infection! … gangrene! … take Inge von Leiden here! a criminal, absolutely! obviously! … but her husband, the invalid, the cripple … was out to kill her too! … day and night! no other thought! … what’s to be done? … big Nicholas too! … they leave together! the only solution! … don’t, you agree?”
“Oh yes! … absolutely!”
“Psychoses get worse in one place, they evaporate somewhere else, change of scene … a murderer hits the road … he stops at a bridge and starts fishing … from that moment on his thoughts are serene! … a new man! … am I right, Harras? hundreds of affairs like this! in France … in Poland … in Germany … but here so near! … seventy miles! … I’ve said it … I say it again … impossible!”
The illustrious colleague has no regrets …
“I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting you! … and Madame! the great honor! they’re going away, that’s the main thing! movement! Moorsburg! they’ll be all right in Stettin … and points east! … they’re expected …”
It’s all right with me … expected? … expected? … La Kretzer is clutching her two tunics … plenty of time to exhibit them between here and Königsberg!
Looks like they’re going to shove off!
The two SA-men in back … one on each side … they’ll walk … Nicholas up ahead, leading the first pair of cows … a sign from Kracht and the cows pull ahead … very slowly … we wave goodbye … nobody waves back … neither Inge nor the Kretzers nor Nicholas … they don’t even look at us … the wagon’s finally moving … it hasn’t any springs … Harras observes … “neither has the tank!” … he fills me in…
I’ll leave my buggy here, the armored car … for you and Kracht! … and four SA-men … to keep order! the police force! you’ve lost your beadle! … oh-ho-ho! and your pastor! … but morality? … and order? are they to perish? no! … you’ll have no more trouble!”
“I understand!”
“A thousand regrets, Madame … sincerely sorry … but now I must be leaving …immediately!”
“On foot?”
“No! … no! … in the tank! … with; our colleague the general! and all the motorcycles! … in front! … in back!”
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