by Georg Ebers
CHAPTER II.
The April sun, ere it sank to rest, had won the victory and kindlydried the garments of the horsemen who were approaching Ratisbon by theNuremberg road.
A young man who had ridden forward in advance of the great train oftravellers behind him checked his steed above the village of Kneiting,just where the highway descended in many a curve to the valley of theDanube, and gazed at the landscape whose green spring leafage, freshenedby rain, appeared before him.
His heart throbbed faster, and he thought that he had seen no fairerprospect in all the wide tract of earth over which he had wanderedduring the past five years. Below him were green meadows and fields,pleasant villages, and the clear, full current of the Danube, alongwhose left bank extended a beautifully formed mountain chain, whosedeclivity toward the river presented a rich variety to the eye,for sometimes it was clothed in budding groves, sometimes displayedpicturesque bare cliffs, and again vineyards in which labourers wereworking. From the farthest distance the steeples of Ratisbon offered thefirst greeting to the resting horseman.
What a wealth of memories this pleasant landscape awoke in the mind ofthe returning traveller! How often he had walked through these charmingvalleys, climbed these heights, stopped in these villages! It wasdifficult for him to turn from this view, but he let his bay horse haveits way when the companion whom he had left behind overtook him here,and the animal followed the other's black Brabant steed, with which ithad long been on familiar terms. He rode slowly at his friend's sideinto the valley.
Both silently feasted their eyes upon the scene opening with increasingmagnificence before them.
As they reached the village of Winzer, the victorious sun wasapproaching the western horizon, and diffused over it a fan of goldenrays. The gray cloud bank above, which a light breeze was driving beforeit, was bordered with golden edges. The young green foliage, refreshedby the rain, glittered as richly and magnificently as emerald andchrysoprase, and the primroses and other early spring flowers, which hadjust grown up along the roadside and in the meadows, shone in brightercolours than in the full light of noon. The big fresh drops on theleaves and blossoms sparkled and glittered in the last rays of the sun.
Now Ratisbon also appeared.
The city, with its throng of steeples, was surrounded by a dampvapour which the reflection of the sun coloured with a faint, scarcelyperceptible roseate hue. The notes of bells from the twin towers of thecathedral and the convent of Nieder Munster, from St. Emmeram on theright, and the church of the Dominicans on the left, echoed softly inthis hour when Nature and human activity were at rest--often dying awayin the distance--to greet the returning citizen.
Obeying an involuntary impulse, Wolf Hartschwert raised his hat. Withinthe shelter of the walls of this venerable city he had played as aboy, completed his school and student days, and early felt the firstquickened throbbing of the heart. Here he had first been permitted totest what knowledge he had won in the schools of poetry and music.
He had remained in Ratisbon until his twenty-first year, then he hadventured out into the world, and, after an absence of five years, he wasreturning home again.
But was the stately city before him really his home?
When he had just gazed down upon it from the height, this question hadoccupied his thoughtful mind.
He had not been born on the shore of this river, but of the Main. Allwho had been dearest to him in Ratisbon--the good people who had rearedhim from his fourth year as their own child, the woman who gave himbirth, and the many others to whom he was indebted for kindnesses--wereno longer there.
But why had he not thought first of the mother, who is usually thecentre of the circle of love, and whose figure precedes every other, nowthat he was approaching the place where she rested beneath the turf? Heasked himself the question with a faint feeling of self-reproach, but hedid not confess the true reason.
When the summons to Ratisbon had reached him in Brussels, he had beenjoyously ready to obey it--nay, he had felt it a great happiness to seeagain the beloved place for which he had never ceased to long. And yet,the nearer he approached it, the more anxiously his heart throbbed.
When, soon after noonday, the rain drenched him, he had experiencedno discomfort, because such exquisite sunny visions of the future hadhovered before him; but as the sky cleared they had shrivelled anddoubt of the result of the decision which he was riding to meet had casteverything else into the shade.
Now the whole city appeared before him, and, as he looked at thecathedral, whose machicolated tower permitted the rosy hue of the sky toshine through, his heart rose again, and he gazed with grateful delightat the verdant spring attire of his home and the magnificence with whichshe greeted him; her returning son.
"Isn't it beautiful here?" he asked, suddenly breaking the silence ashe turned to Massi, the violinist, who rode at his side, and thenwas secretly grateful to him when, after a curt "Very pleasant," hedisturbed him with no further speech.
It was so delightful to listen to the notes of the bells, so familiar tohim, whose pure tones had accompanied with their charming melody all hiswanderings in childhood and youth. At the same time, the mood in whichthe best musical ideas came to him suddenly overpowered him. A new air,well worth remembering, pressed itself on him unbidden, and his excitedimagination showed him in its train himself, and by his side, first,a romping, merry child, and then a girlish figure in the first buddingcharm of youth. He thought he heard her sing, and old, unforgotten notesof songs swiftly crowded out his own musical creations.
Every tone from the fresh red lips of the lovely fair-haired girlawakened a new memory. The past lived again, and, without his volition,transformed the image of the child of whom he had thought whenever herecalled his youthful days in Ratisbon into that of a lovely bride, withthe myrtle wreath on her waving hair, while beside her he beheld himselfwith the wedding bouquet on his slashed velvet holiday doublet.
He involuntarily seized the saddlebag which contained the handsomestgift he had bought in Brussels for the person who had drawn him back toRatisbon with a stronger power of attraction than anything else. If allwent well, that very day, perhaps, he might have the right to call herhis own.
These visions of the future aroused so joyous a feeling in his youngsoul that Massi, the violinist, read in his by no means mobile featureswhat was passing in his mind. His cheery "Well, Sir Knight!" awakenedhis ever-courteous colleague and travelling companion from his dream,and, when the latter started and turned toward him, Alassi gailycontinued: "To see his home and his family again does, indeed, make anyman glad! The sight of yonder shining steeples and roofs seems to makeyour heart laugh, Sir Wolf, and, by Our Lady, you have good reasonto bestow one or more candles upon her, for, besides other delightfulthings, a goodly heritage is awaiting you in Ratisbon."
Here he paused, for the sunny radiance vanished simultaneously fromthe sky and from his companion's face. The violinist, as if in apology,added: "Some trouble always precedes an inheritance, and who knowswhether, in your case also, rumour did not follow the evil custom oflying or making a mountain out of a molehill?"
Wolf Hartschwert slightly shrugged his shoulders and calmly answered:
"It is all true about the heritage, Massi, and also the trouble, butit is unpleasant to hear you, too, call me 'Sir.' Let it drop for thefuture, if we are to be intimate. To others I shall, of course, be theknight or cavalier. You know what the title procures for a man, thoughyour saying--
'Knightly Knightly rank with lack of land More care than joy hath at command,'
is but too true. As for the heritage, an old friend has really named mein his will, but you must not expect that it is a large bequest. The manwho left it to me was a plain person of moderate property, and I myselfshall not learn until the next few days what I am to receive in additionto his modest house."
"The more it is, the more cordially I shall congratulate you," cried theviolinist, and then looked back toward the other travellers.
> Wolf did the same, and turned his horse. If he did not urge on theloiterers the gate, which was closed at nightfall, would need to beopened for them, for the five troopers who acted as escort had deemedtheir duty done when Winzer was reached, and made themselves comfortablein the excellent tavern there.
The carters had used the lash stoutly, yet it had been no easy matterto advance rapidly. The rain had softened the road, and the horses andbeasts of burden were sorely wearied by the long trip from Brussels toRatisbon, which had been made in hurried days' journeys. The train ofhorsemen and wagons stretched almost beyond the range of vision, for itcomprised the whole world-renowned orchestra of the Emperor Charles, andQueen Mary's boy choir.
Only the leaders were absent. Gombert had left Brussels later than theothers, and hastened after them with post-horses, overtaking them aboutan hour before, when he induced Appenzelder, the leader of the boychoir, to enter his carriage, though the latter was reluctant to leavethe young singers who were intrusted to his care. As to the othertravellers, the Queen and Don Luis Quijada had made a great mistake intheir calculations--the number considerably exceeded a hundred. Neitherhad thought of the women and children who accompanied the musicians.
Most of the women were the wives of the members of the orchestra, whohad availed themselves of this opportunity to see something of theworld. Others, from motives of love or jealousy, would not part fromtheir husbands. The little children had been taken because theirmothers, who were fond of travelling and, like their husbands, werenatives of all countries, possessed no relatives in Brussels who wouldcare for them.
The jealous spouses especially had not joined the party without cogentreasons, for the mirth in the first long wagon, covered with a linentilt, was uproarious enough.
Wolf and his companion heard shrill laughter and loud shrieks echoingfrom its dusky interior.
The younger men and the women who liked journeying were sitting inmotley confusion upon the straw which covered the bottom of the vehicle,and the boisterous mirth of the travellers gave ample proof that thehuge jugs of wine carried with them as the Emperor's provision for thejourney had been freely used.
In the second cart, an immense ark, swaying between four wheels anddrawn by a team of four horses, grave older artists sat silentlyopposite to each other, all more or less exhausted by the continualrocking motion of the long ride. These men and the other travellers werejoyfully surprised by the news that the goal of the journey was alreadyat hand. Pressing their heads together, they gazed out of the open linentilt which arched above the first cart or crowded to the little windowsof the coaches to see Ratisbon.
Even the old Neapolitan nurse, who was predicting future events from apack of cards, dropped them and peered out. But the noise in the secondtilted wagon was especially confused, for there the gay shouts of theboy choir, only half of whom were on horseback, mingled with the loudtalking of the women, the screams of the babies, and the barking of thedogs.
The groans of two young singers who were seriously ill were drowned bythe din and heeded by no one except the old drummer's pitying wife, whosometimes wiped the perspiration from the sufferers' brows or supportedtheir heads.
Other carts, containing the musicians' instruments, followed this tiltedwagon. Some members of the orchestra would not part with theirs, andbehind the saddle of many a mounted virtuoso or attendant was fastened aviolin case or a shapeless bag which concealed some other instrument.
A large number of musicians mounted on horses or mules surrounded thetwo-wheeled cart in which sat Hernbeize of Ghent, the treasurer of theorchestra, and his fat wife. The corpulent couple, squeezed closelytogether, silent and out of humour, had taken no notice of each other ortheir surrounding since Frau Olympia had presumed to drag her husband byforce out of the first wagon, where he was paying a visit to a clarionetplayer's pretty young wife.
Whenever Wolf appeared he urged the horsemen and drivers to greaterhaste, and thus the musical caravan, with its unauthorized companions,succeeded in passing through the gate ere it closed. Beyond it thetravellers were received by Quijada, the imperial valet, Adrian Dubois,and several quartermasters, who meanwhile had provided lodgings.
The major-domo greeted the musicians with dignified condescension, Wolfwith familiar friendship. Master Adrian, the valet, also shook handscordially with him and Massi, the "first violin" of the orchestra.Finally Don Luis rode up to Wolf and informed him that the Queen ofHungary wished to speak to him early the next morning, and that he alsohad something important to discuss at the earliest opportunity. Then helistened to the complaints of the quartermasters.
These men, who performed their duties with great lack of consideration,had supposed that they had provided for all the expected arrivals, but,after counting heads, they discovered that the billets were sufficientfor only half the number. Their attempt to escape providing for thewives was baffled by the vigorous interposition of the treasurer and bya positive order from Quijada.
Of course, under these circumstances they were very glad to have SirWolf Hartschwert return his billet--the room in the Crane allotted tohim by the valet was large enough to accommodate half a dozen women.
The nobleman returning to his home had no occasion to find shelter in atavern.
Yet, as he wished to remove the traces of the long ride ere he enteredhis own house and appeared before the person for whose sake he hadgladly left Brussels, he asked Massi's permission to use his room in theRed Cock for a short time.
Leonhard Leitgeb, the landlord, and his bustling better half receivedWolf as a neighbour's son and an old acquaintance. But, after they hadshown him and Massi to the room intended for them and gone downstairsagain, the landlady of the Cock shook her head, saying:
"He was always a good lad and a clever one, too, but even if a duke'scoronet should fall upon the thin locks of the poor knight's son Ishould never take him for a real nobleman."
"Better let that drop," replied her husband. "Besides, the fine fellowis of more consequence since he had the legacy. If he should come herefor our Kattl, I'll wager you wouldn't keep him waiting."
"Indeed I wouldn't," cried the landlady, laughing. "But just hear what aracket those soldiers are making again down below!"
Meanwhile Wolf was hurriedly attending to his outer man.
Massi had stretched himself on the thin cushion which covered the seatof the wooden bench in the bay-window, and thrust his feet far out infront of him.
As he watched the Ratisbon knight diligently use the little hand mirrorwhile arranging his smooth, fair locks, he straightened himself, saying:
"No offence, Sir Knight, but when I think of the radiant face with whichyou gazed down into the valley of the Danube from the hill where youstopped before sunset, and now see how zealously you are striving toadorn your person, it seems to me that there must be in this goodcity some one for whom you care more than for all you left behind inBrussels. At your age, that is a matter of course, if there is a womanin the case, as I suppose. I know very well what I should do if I werein your place. Longing often urges me back to Spain like a scourge. Ihave already told you why I left my dear wife there in our home. A fewmore years in the service, and our savings and the pension together willbe enough to support us there and lay aside a little marriage dowry forour daughter. When I have what is necessary, I shall turn my back on theorchestra and the court of Brussels that very day, dear as music is tome, and sure as I am that I shall never again find a leader like ourGombert. You do not yet know with how sharp a tooth yearning rends thesoul of the man whom Fate condemns to live away from his family. Thisplace is your home, and dearer to you than any other, so build yourselfa snug nest here with the person you have in mind."
"How gladly I would do so!" replied the young knight, "but whether I canmust be decided within the next few davs."
"Inde-e-ed?" drawled Massi; then he bent his eyes thoughtfully upon thefloor for a short time, and, after calling Wolf by name in a tone ofgenuine friendly affection, he frankly added: "Su
rely you know how deara comrade you are to me! Yet precisely for that reason I stick to mycounsel. It's not only on account of the homesickness--I am, thinkingrather of your position at court--and, let me speak candidly, it isunworthy of a nobleman and a musician of such ability. The regent isgraciously disposed toward you, and you praise her liberality, butdo you yourself know the name of the office which you fill? More thanenough is placed upon you, and yet, so far as I see, nothing complete.They understand admirably how to make use of you. It would be wellif that applied solely to the musician. But sometimes she makes yousecretary, and you have to waste whole days in writing letters and dopenance for having learned so many languages; sometimes you must sharein the folly of arranging performances, and your wealth of knowledge isindustriously utilized in preparing mythological figures and devisingnew ideas for the exhibitions at which we have to furnish the music.This affords plenty of labour, but others reap the credit. Recently theBishop of Arras even asked you to write in German what he dictated inFrench, although you are in the regent's service, and just at that timeyou were transposing the old church songs for the boy choir. I regret tosee you do such tradesmen's work without adequate reward. Why, even ifher Majesty would give you a fat living or appoint you to the imperialcouncil which directs musical affairs in the Netherlands! Pardon me, SirWolf! But give people an inch, and they take an ell, and your ever readyobligingness will injure you, for the harder it is to win a thing thehigher its value becomes. You made yourself too cheap at court herepeople will surely know how to put a higher value upon a man whois equally skilful in Netherland, Italian, and German music. Incounterpoint you are little inferior to Maestro Gombert, and, besides,you play as many instruments as you have fingers on your hands. We alllike to have you lead us, because you do it with such delicate tasteand comprehension, and, moreover, with a vigour which one would scarcelyexpect from you. You will not lack patrons. Look around you here orelsewhere for a position as leader of an orchestra. Goinbert, to relievehimself a little, would like to have de Hondt come from Antwerp toBrussels. His place would be the very one for you if you find nothingworthy of you here, where you have a house of your own and other thingsthat bind you to the city."
"Here I should probably be obliged to crowd somebody else out of onein order to obtain a position," replied Wolf, "and I am unwilling to doso."
"You are wrong," cried the violinist. "The course of the world causesthe stronger--and that you are--to take precedence of the weaker. Learnat last to give up this modest withdrawal and elbow your way forward!"
"Pressing and jostling are not in my nature;" replied Wolf with a slightshrug of the shoulders. "Since I may hope to be relieved of anxietyconcerning my daily bread, I am disposed to leave the court and seekquiet happiness in a more definite circle of duties at home. You see,Massi, it is just the same with us human beings as with material things.There is my man cutting the rope from yonder package with his sharpknife. The contents are distributed in a trice, and yet it was tiresometo collect them and pack them carefully. Thus it would need only aword to separate myself from the court; but to join it again would be atotally different affair. There have been numerous changes in this citysince I went away, and many a hand which pressed mine in farewell isno longer here, or would perhaps be withdrawn, merely because I am aCatholic and intend to stay here among the Protestants. Besides--lay theroll on the table, Janche--besides, as you have already heard, thefinal decision does not depend upon myself.--Take care, Jan. That littlepackage is breakable!"
This last exclamation was addressed to Wolf's Netherland servant, whowas just unpacking his master's leather bag.
Massi noticed that the articles taken out could scarcely be intendedfor a man's use, and, pointing to a piece of Flanders velvet, he gailyremarked:
"So my guess was correct. Here, too, the verdict is to be pronounced bybeardless lips." Wolf blushed like a girl, but, after the violinist hadwaited a short time for the confirmation of his conjecture, he continuedmore gravely:
"It ill befits me to intrude upon your secret. Every one must go his ownway, and I have wondered why a person who so readily renders a serviceto others pursues his own path so unsocially. Will you ever let yourfriend know what stirs your heart?"
"I should often have confided in you gladly," replied Wolf, "but acertain shyness always restrained me. How can others be interested inwhat befalls a lonely, quiet fellow like me? It is not my habit to talkmuch, but you will always find me ready to use hand and brain in behalfof one who is as dear to me as you, Massi."
"You have already given me proof of that," replied the violinist, "and Ioften marvel how you find time, without neglecting your own business, todo so much for others with no payment except thanks. I thought youwould accomplish something great, because you paid no heed to women; butprobably you depend on other powers, for if it is a pair of beautifuleyes whose glance is to decide so important a matter----"
"Never mind that," interrupted Wolf beseechingly, raising his handsoothingly. "I confess with Terentius that nothing human is strangeto me. As soon as the decision comes, I will tell you--but youalone--several particulars. Now accept my thanks for your well-meantcounsel and the use of your room. I'll see you again early to-morrow. Ipromised Gombert and the leader of the boy choir to lend them a helpinghand, so we shall probably meet at the rehearsal.--Go to the stable,Janche, and see that the groom has rubbed the bay down thoroughly. Asfor the rolls and packages here----"
"I'll help you carry them," said the violinist, seizing his shoes; butWolf eagerly declined his assistance, and went out to ask the landlordto let him have one of his men.
But the servants of the overcrowded Red Cock all had their hands full,so the nine-year-old son of the Leitgeb couple and the cellar man's twosomewhat younger boys, who had not yet gone to bed, were made bearers ofthe parcels.
How eager they were to do something which suited grown people, and, whenWolf described the place where they were to carry the articles, FranLeitgeb sympathizingly helped him, and charged the children to hold thevaluable packages very carefully. They must not spare the knocker in thesecond story of the cantor house, for old Ursula's hearing was no longerthe best, and since the day before yesterday--Kathl had brought the newshome--she had been ill. "Some rare luck," the landlady continued, "willsurely follow the knight up to the Blombergs. The same old steep path,leads there; but as to Wawer!--it would be improper to say JungfrauBarbara--you will surer open your eyes--" Here she was summoned to thekitchen, and Wolf followed his little assistants into the street.
