Barbara Blomberg — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER VIII.

  When Barbara rose from her couch the next morning it was no longer earlyin the day. She had slept soundly and dreamlessly for several hours,then she had been kept awake by the same thoughts which had pressed uponher so constantly of late.

  She would defy Charles's cruel demand. The infuriating compulsioninflicted upon her could only strengthen her resolve. If she was draggedto a convent by force, she would refuse, at the ceremony of profession,to become a nun.

  She thought of a pilgrimage to induce Heaven to restore the lost melodyof her voice. But meanwhile the longing to see the Emperor Charles'sface once more again and again overpowered her. On the other hand, thedesire to speak to him and upbraid him to his face for the wrong he haddone her was soon silenced; it could only spoil his memory of her if heshould hear the discordant tones which inflicted pain on her own ear.

  Another train of thoughts had also kept her awake. How was her fatherfaring? Had he learned what she feared to confess to him? What hadbefallen him, and what had the recruiting officer to tell of his fate?

  She was to know soon enough, for she had scarcely risen from breakfastwhen a ducal servant announced Sir Pyramus.

  Barbara with anxious heart awaited his entrance, and as she stood there,her cheeks slightly flushed and her large, questioning eyes fixed uponthe door, she seemed to Frau Traut, in spite of her short hair and theloss of the rounded oval of her face, so marvellously beautiful that sheperfectly understood how she had succeeded in kindling so fierce a flamein the Emperor's heart, difficult as it was to fire.

  Frau Traut did not venture to determine what made the blood mount intoPyramus's cheeks when Barbara at his entrance held out her slender whitehand, for she had left the room immediately after his arrival. But shedid not need to remain absent long; the interview ended much sooner thanshe expected.

  This young officer was certainly a man of splendid physique, withhandsome, manly features, yet she thought she perceived in his manner anair of constraint which repelled her and, in fact, this gigantic soldierwas conscious that if, for a single moment, he relinquished the controlhe imposed upon himself his foolish heart would play him a trick.

  Barbara had seemed more beautiful than ever as she greeted him withalmost humble friendliness, instead of her former defiance. The hoarsetone of her voice, once so musical, caused him so much pain that hewas on the verge of losing his power to keep his resolve to concealthe feelings which, in spite of the insults she had heaped upon him, hestill cherished for her. While he allowed himself to look into her face,he realized for the first time how difficult a task he had undertaken,and therefore tried to assume an expression of indifference as hebegan the conversation with the remark that the ride to the citadel wasdetaining him from his duties longer than he could answer for in sucha stress of military business and, moreover, under the eyes of hisMajesty. Therefore it would only be possible to talk a very short time.

  He had hurled forth this statement rather than spoken it; but Barbara,smiling mournfully, replied that she could easily understand hisreluctance to lose so much time merely on her account.

  "For your sake, my dear lady," he replied with an acerbity which soundedsufficiently genuine, "it might scarcely have seemed feasible to go sofar from the camp; but for the brave old comrade who was intrusted to mycare I would have made even more difficult things possible--and you arehis daughter."

  The girl nodded silently to show that she understood the meaning of hiswords, and then asked how the journey had passed and what was the causeof her father's illness.

  Everything had gone as well as possible, he replied, until they reachedSpain; but there the captain was tortured by homesickness. Nothing hadpleased him except the piety of the people. The fiery wine did not suithim, the fare seemed unbearable, and the inability to talk with any oneexcept himself had irritated him to actual outbursts of rage. On theneat Netherland ship which bore him homeward matters were better; nay,while running into the harbour of Antwerp he had jested almost in hisold reckless manner. But when trying to descend the rope-ladder from thehigh ship into the skiff in which sailors had rowed from the land, hemade a misstep with his stiff leg and fell into the boat.

  A low cry of terror here escaped the lips of the deeply agitateddaughter, and Pyramus joined in her expressions of grief, declaring thata chill still ran down his back whenever he thought of that fall. Thecaptain had been saved as if by a miracle. Yet the consequences were byno means light, for when he, Pyramus, left him, he was barely able tototter from one chair to another. A journey on horseback, the physiciansaid, would kill him, and a ride in a carriage over the rough roadswould also endanger his life. Several months must pass ere he couldthink of returning home.

  In reply to Barbara's anxious question how the impatient man bore theinactivity imposed upon him, her visitor answered, "Rebelliously enough,but he has already grown quieter, and my sister is fond of him and takesthe best care of him."

  "Your sister?" asked Barbara abashed, holding out her hand again; buthe pretended not to notice it, and merely explained curtly that she hadcome to the Netherlands with her husband. This enterprising man, likehimself, was a native of the principality of Grubenhagen in the HartzMountains. At sixteen the wild fellow went out into the world to seekhis fortune, and had found it as a daring sailor. He returned a richman to seek a wife in his old home. Now he had gone on a voyage to theIndies, and while his wife awaited his return she had gladly receivedher brother's old comrade. Nursing him would afford her a welcomeoccupation during her loneliness. Her house lacked nothing, and Barbaramight comfort herself with the knowledge that the captain would have thebest possible care.

  With these words he seemed about to leave her; but she stopped him withthe question, "And when the service summoned you away from him, had heheard what his daughter----"

  Here, flushing deeply, she paused with downcast eyes. Pyramus feasted ashort time on the spectacle of her humbled pride, but soon he couldno longer bear to see her endure such bitter suffering, and thereforeanswered hastily, "If you mean what is said about you and hisMajesty the Emperor, he was told of it by an old comrade from thisneighbourhood."

  "And he?" she asked anxiously.

  "He wrathfully ordered him out of the door," replied the officer, and hesaw how her eyes filled with tears.

  Then feeling how soft his own heart was also growing, he hurriedly saidfarewell. Again she gratefully extended her hand, and he clasped it andallowed himself the pleasure of holding it in his a short time. Thenbowing hastily, he left her.

  She had been the Emperor's toy, her voice had lost its melting melody,and yet he thought there was no woman more to be desired, far as hisprofession of recruiting had led him through all lands. This iron nolonger needed bending; but how fiercely the flames of suffering whichmelted her obstinate nature must have burned! Surely he had not seen herfor the last time, and perhaps Fate would now help him to perform thevow that he had made before her door in the dark entry of the house inRatisbon.

  While Sir Pyramus was leaving her Barbara had heard a man's voice inFrau Traut's room, but she scarcely noticed it. What she had learnedweighed heavily upon her soul.

  Her father would not believe what was, nevertheless, the full,undeniable truth. How would he deal with the certainty that he hadshowed his old comrade the door unjustly when he at last came home andshe confessed all, all that she had sinned and suffered? She was sureof one thing only--he, too, would not permit her child to be taken fromher; and she cherished a single hope--the blow which Fate had dealt bydestroying her tuneful voice would force him to pity, and perhaps inducehim to forgive her. Oh, if she could only have conjured him here, openedher heart fully, freely to him, and learned from his own lips that heapproved of her resistance!

  During this period of quiet reflection many sounds and shouts which shehad not heard before reached her room.

  As they grew louder and more frequent, Barbara rose to approach the openwindow, but ere she reached it Frau Taut returned.
<
br />   The visitor whom she had received was Adrian, her husband. He hadcome up the Trausnitz to make all sorts of arrangements, for somethingunusual was to happen which would bring even his Majesty the Emperorhere.

  These tidings startled Barbara.

  Suppose that Charles was now coming to influence her by the heavy weightof his personality; suppose he----

  But Frau Traut gave her no time to yield to these and other fears andhopes; she added, in a quiet tone, that his Majesty merely intended toinvest his son-in-law, Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, with the Order ofthe Golden Fleece in the Trausnitz courtyard. It would be a magnificentspectacle, and Barbara could witness it if she desired. One of therooms in the second story of the ladies' wing where she lodged was stilluntenanted, and her husband would be responsible if she occupied it,only Barbara must promise not to attract attention to herself by anysound or gesture.

  She yielded to this demand with eager zeal, and when Frau Trautperceived the girl's pale cheeks again flushed she wondered at the rapidexcitability of this singular creature, and willingly answered the longseries of questions with which she assailed her.

  Barbara especially desired to hear particulars about the mother ofMargaret of Parma, the wife of Ottavio Farnese, that Johanna Van derGheynst who gave this daughter to the Emperor.

  Then Barbara learned that she was a Netherland girl of respectablefamily, but of scarcely higher rank than her own; only she hadbeen adopted by Count Bon Haagestraaten before the Emperor made heracquaintance.

  "Was Johanna beautiful?" Barbara eagerly interrupted.

  "I think you are far handsomer," was the reply, "though she, too, was alovely creature."

  Then Barbara wished to learn whether she was fair or dark, lively orquiet, and, finally, whether she had consented to give up her child; andFrau Traut answered that Johanna had done this without resistance, andher daughter was afterward reared first by the Duchess of Savoy, andlater by Queen Mary, the regent of the Netherlands.

  "How wisely the young lady acted," Frau Dubois concluded, "you yourselfknow. A crown now adorns her child's head for the second time, and youwill soon see how the Emperor Charles bestows honours upon her husband.His Majesty understood how to provide for his daughter, who is hisfirst child. Her former marriage, it is true, was short. Alessandro de'Medici, to whom she was wedded at almost too early an age, was murderedscarcely a year after their nuptials. Her present husband, the Duke ofParma, whom you will see, is, on the contrary, younger than she,but since the unfortunate campaign against Algiers, in which heparticipated, and after his recovery from the severe illness he enduredafter his return home, they enjoy a beautiful conjugal happiness. HisMajesty is warmly attached to his daughter, and the great distinctionwhich he will bestow upon her husband to-day is given by no means leastto please his own beloved child, though her mother was only a Jollannavan der Gheynst."

  Barbara had listened to these communications with dilated eyes, but thespeaker was now interrupted; the leech, Dr. Matthys, was announced, andimmediately entered the room.

  Barbara's outburst of rage had not lessened his sympathy for her, and inthe interest of science he desired to learn what effect his remedies hadhad. Unfortunately, in spite of their use, no improvement was visible.

  The strange absence of mind with which the girl, who usually answeredquestions so promptly and decidedly, now seemed scarcely to hear them,he attributed to the painful remembrance of her unseemly behaviour attheir last meeting, and therefore soon left her, by no means satisfiedwith his visit. On the way, however, he told himself that it was unfairto blame the bird which had just been captured for fluttering.

  When the leech had retired, Barbara regretted that she had answeredhim so indifferently. But the anticipation of seeing her imperial loveragain dominated every thought and feeling. Besides, she again and againsaw before her the figure of the young duke, whom she had never beheld,but whom Charles had married to the daughter of that Johanna who wassaid to have been neither more beautiful nor more aristocratic than sheherself.

  Frau Traut saw compassionately that she could not remain long quietlyin any place, and that when the noon meal was served she scarcely tastedfood.

  As soon as the first blast of the horns rose from the gate of thecitadel she urged departure like an impatient child, and her indulgentcompanion yielded, though she knew that the stately ceremonial would notbegin for a long time.

  The window which Adrian had assigned to the two women in a roomwhich was to be occupied by them alone afforded a view of the entirecourtyard, and from the arm-chair which Frau Traut had had brought forher Barbara gazed down into it with strained attention.

  The first sound of the horns had saluted Ottavio Farnese.

  Mounted on a spirited charger, he held aloft, as gonfaloniere of theChurch, the proud banner to be whose bearer was deemed by the Dukes ofParma one of their loftiest titles of honour.

  He was greeted by the nobles present with loud acclamations, butwas still booted and attired as beseemed a horseman. The cavaliers,officers, and pages who attended him entered the citadel in no regularorder. But as Ottavio swung himself from his magnificently formed,cream-coloured steed, and issued orders to his train, Barbara could lookhim directly in the face and, though she thought him neither handsomenor possessed of manly vigour, she could not help admitting that shehad rarely seen a young man of equally distinguished bearing. His everymovement bore the impress of royal self-confidence, yet at the same timewas unconstrained and graceful.

  Now he disappeared in the wing of the building that united the ladies'rooms with the main structure opposite.

  The Emperor Charles could not be here yet. His arrival would not havebeen passed by so quietly, and the imperial banner did not float eitherfrom the many-sided turret at the left end of the main building nor fromthe lofty roof of the ancient Wittelsbach tower. Great nobles, mountedon splendid chargers, constantly rode into the citadel, sometimes ingroups, and were saluted by the blast of horns; nimble squires led thehorses away, while ducal councillors, nobles, chamberlains, and ushersreceived the distinguished guests of the citadel and conducted themto the Turnitz, the huge banquet hall in the lower story of the mainbuilding, where the best of everything undoubtedly stood ready for them.

  But every arrangement had already been made for the approachingceremony--a broad wooden estrade was erected in the centre of thecourtyard, and richly decorated with garlands of flowers, blossomingbranches, flags, and streamers. At the back stood the Emperor's throne,covered with purple damask, and beside it numerous velvet cushions laypiled one upon another, waiting to be used.

  Barbara's vivid imagination already showed her the course of this rarespectacle, and she gladly and confidently expected that the Emperor mustturn his face toward her during the principal portion of the ceremony.

  Now the carpet on the stage was drawn tighter by lackeys in magnificentliveries, and the final touches were given to its decorations; nowpriests entered the smaller building at the left of the courtyard. Thebalcony on one of these buildings was adorned with flowers, and thesingers of St. Martin's Church in Landshut gradually filled it. Now--buthere Barbara's quiet observation suddenly ended; the air was shaken bythe roar of cannon from the bastions of the citadel, and the signalsof the warders' horns blended with the thunder of the artillery. Atthe same time the banners and streamers on every flagpole, stirred by alight breeze from the east, began to wave in the sunny August air. Thenthe blare of trumpets echoed, and a few minutes later from the Turnitzand the covered staircase between the main building and the right win;of the citadel the most brilliant body of men that Barbara had ever seenpoured into the courtyard. They were the Knights of the Golden Fleeceand the princes, counts, barons and knights, generals and colonels whomthe Emperor Charles had invited to the Trausnitz citadel to attend theapproaching solemn ceremonial.

  What did she care for these dignitaries in gold, silver, and steel,velvet and silk, gems and plumes, when the enthusiastic cheers of thisillustrious assemblage, the b
lare of trumpets, the thunder of cannon,and the ringing of bells loudly proclaimed the approach of him who,as their lord and master, stood far above them all? Would he appear onhorseback, or had he dismounted at the gate and was advancing on foot?Neither. He was borne in a sedan chair. It was covered with gilding,and the top of the arched roof and each of the four corners were adornedwith bunches of red and gold plumes, the colours of Philip of Burgundy,who more than a hundred years before had founded the order of the GoldenFleece.

  Instead of lackeys, strong sergeants, chosen from the differentregiments, bore the sedan chair. The gentlemen of the court--PrinceHenry of Nassau, Baron Malfalconnet, and Don Luis Quijada, with GeneralsFurstenberg and Mannsfeld, Count Hildebrand Madrucci, the Master of theTeutonic Order, the Marchese Marignano, and others--were preceded by thestiff, grave, soldierly figure of the Duke of Alba, and, by the sideof the platform, grandees and military commanders, Netherland lords,Italian, German, and Austrian princes, counts, barons, and knights hadtaken their places.

  When the sedan chair was at last set on the ground in front of thelowest step of the platform, Barbara thought that her heart would burst;for while the singers in the balcony began the "Venite populi mundi,"so familiar to her, and the cheers redoubled, Charles descended, and inwhat a guise she saw him again! He looked ten years older, and she feltwith him the keen suffering which every step must cause.

  This time it was not Quijada, but the Duke of Alba, who offered himthe support of his mailed arm, and, leaning on it, he ascended the lowstage.

  While doing so he turned his back to Barbara, and as with bent figureand outstretched head he wearily climbed the two stairs leading to theplatform, he presented a pitiable spectacle.

  And have you loved this wreck of a man with all the fervour of yourheart? the girl asked herself; does it still throb faster for him? couldyou even now expect from him a fairer happiness than from all thesehandsome warriors and nobles in the pride of their manly vigour? To thisold man you have sacrificed happiness and honour, given up your fatherand the noblest, best of friends!

  Fierce indignation for her own folly suddenly seized upon her with suchovermastering power that she looked away from the sovereign toward thesingers, who were summoning the whole world to pay homage to yonderbroken-down man, as though he were a demigod.

  A bitter smile hovered around her lips as she did so, but it vanishedas swiftly as it had come; for when she again fixed her eyes upon themonarch, she would gladly have joined in the mighty hymn. As if by amiracle, he had become an entirely different person. Now he stood beforethe throne in the full loftiness and dignity of commanding majesty. Apurple mantle fell from his shoulders, and the Duke of Alba was placingthe crown on his head instead of the velvet cap.

  Oh, no, she need not be ashamed of having loved this man, and she wasnot; for she loved him still, and was fully and joyously aware thatwhatever he suffered, whatever tortured and prematurely aged the manstill in his fourth decade, no one on earth equalled him in intellectand grandeur.

  And as pages then placed the velvet cushions on the carpet; as the Dukeof Parma, the gonfaloniere on whose head rested the blessing ofthe representative of Christ, bent the knee before his imperialfather-in-law, and the proud Alba and the other Knights of the GoldenFleece who were present did the same; as Charles, the grand master ofthe order, took from the cushion the symbol of honour which Count Henryof Nassau handed to him, and placed the golden sheepskin with the redribbon around Duke Ottavio's neck, while the plaudits, the ringing ofbells, and the thunder of the artillery echoed more loudly than everfrom the stone walls of the courtyard, tears filled Barbara's eyesand, as when the Emperor passed at the head of the bridal procession inPrebrunn, her voice again blended with the enthusiastic shouts of homageto the man standing in majestic repose before the throne, the man whowas the most exalted of human beings.

  She understood only a few words of the brief speech which the monarchaddressed to the new Knight of the Golden Fleece. She saw for the firsttime the dignitaries of so many different nations upon whom she wasgazing down, and most of whom she did not even know by name. But whatdid she care how they were called and who they were? Her eyes were fixedonly on Charles and the young man in the armour artistically inlaid withgold, peach-coloured silver brocade, and white silk, who was kneelingbefore him.

  Suppose that a son of hers should be permitted to share such an honour;suppose that Charles should some day bend down to her child and kiss hisbrow with the paternal affection which he had just showed to the youngduke whom he had wedded to his daughter? And this daughter was the childof a mother who was her sister in sorrow, and had been her superior innothing, neither in birth nor in beauty.

  She said this to herself while she was intently watching the progress ofthe solemn ceremonial. How lovingly and with what enthusiastic reverenceOttavio was now gazing up into the face of his imperial father-in-law,and with what grateful fervour, as the youngest Knight of the Fleece,he kissed his hand! Not only outwardly but in heart--the warm lightof their eyes revealed it--these men, so unlike in age and gifts, wereunited; yet Ottavio was not Charles's own son, as another would havebeen whom she wished to withhold from such a father, and in her selfishblindness to withdraw from the path to the summit of all earthlysplendour and honour.

  Who gave her the right to commit so great, so execrable a robbery?

  What could she, the poor, deserted, scorned toy of a king--give to herchild, and what the mightiest of the mighty yonder?

  If he was ready to claim as his own the young life which she expectedwith hopeful yearning, it would thereby receive a benefit so vast,a gift so brilliant that all the wealth of love and care which sheintended to bestow upon it vanished in darkness by comparison. Charles'sresolve, which she had execrated as cruel, was harsh only against herwho had angered him, and who could give him so little more; for herchild it meant grandeur and splendour, and thereby, she thought in hervain folly, the highest happiness attainable for human beings.

  Still she gazed as though spellbound at the decorated stage, but theceremony was already rapidly approaching its close. The great noblessurrounded the new Knight of the Fleece to congratulate him, the Dukeof Alba first; but vouchsafed a few brief, gracious words only to a fewdignitaries, and then, this time assisted by Quijada, descended to thesedan chair.

  Barbara had learned from Frau Traut that his Majesty knew that she washere in the ladies' apartments. Would he now raise his eyes to her,though but for a brief space?

  He was already standing at the door of the sedan chair, and until nowhad kept his gaze bent steadily upon the ground. Meanwhile he must beexperiencing severe pain; she saw it by the lines around the corners ofhis mouth. Now he placed his sound right foot upon the little step; now,before drawing the aching left one after it, he turned toward Quijada,whose hand was supporting him under the arm; and now--no, she was notmistaken--now he raised his eyes with the speed of lightning toward theladies' apartments, and for one short second his glance met hers. Thenhis head vanished in the sedan chair.

  Nevertheless, he had looked toward her, and this was a great boon. Withall her strength she made it her own, and soon she felt absolutely surethat when he knew she was so near him he had been unable to resist thedesire to gaze once more into her face. Perhaps it was intended for aprecious farewell gift.

  As soon as the sedan chair, amid cheers and the blare of trumpets,had disappeared in the direction of the drawbridge and the great mainentrance, Barbara retired to her room. Frau Traut knew not whether sheought to bless or bewail having obtained permission for her to witnessthe bestowal of the Fleece.

  At any rate, another great transformation had taken place in thisextremely impressionable young creature. Barbara's impetuous natureseemed destroyed and crushed, and the bright gaiety which had pleasedFrau Dubois so much the first day of their meeting had greatlydiminished. Only on special occasions her former fiery vivacity burstforth, but the sudden flame expired as quickly as it had blazed and,dreamily absorbed in her own thoug
hts, she obeyed her with the docilityof a child.

  This swift and marked change in the disposition of her charge, whomQuijada and her own husband had described as so totally different,awakened her anxiety; yet it was easy to perceive that the volcano hadnot burned out, but was merely quiescent for the time.

  During the night the dull indifference which she showed in the dayabandoned her, and her attentive companion often heard her sobbingaloud.

  It did not escape Frau Tract's notice that since Barbara had seen theEmperor again in the Trausnitz courtyard a mental conflict had begunwhich absorbed her whole being, but the girl did not permit her anyinsight into her deeply troubled soul.