Unrecognized, I recuperated peacefully in the Schlemihlium. I discovered that I was in Bendel’s home town where he had built this hospital with the remainder of my once ill-fated gold, dedicated in my name to the relief of the sick and suffering. Mina was a widow: Rascal’s crimes had brought him to the gallows at last and deprived her of the greater part of her fortune. Her parents were dead. She lived here as a God-fearing widow, devoted to charitable works.
She stood near bed Number Twelve one day, talking to Bendel.
“Dear lady,” he said, “why do you risk your health in this unwholesome air? Has fate been so hard on you that you want to die?”
“No, Mr Bendel,” she said, “since I have dreamt out my long dream and found my true self, I am contented. I neither fear death nor hope for it any more. I think calmly now of the past and of the future. And you too – do you not serve your master and friend in this godly manner with quiet satisfaction and joy?”
“I do, I do, thanks be to God! Providence has been good to us indeed. From a full cup we have drunk much bitter sorrow and much joy. What more can there be? Have we perhaps endured a testing only so that now, with wisdom and insight, we may embark on our true calling? How different that is from the way it all started. Who would want to live those days again and yet, on the whole, what a blessing it is that it happened. I cannot resist the conviction that our old friend also is better taken care of now than then.”
“I think so too,” answered the lovely widow, as they left me.
This conversation made a deep impression on me. But I was uncertain in my mind whether to reveal myself to them or not. In the end I made up my mind. I asked for paper and pencil.
“Your old friend,” I wrote, “is faring better now than he did. And if he still does penance, at least he is reconciled to his fate.”
Thereupon, as I now felt myself to be recovered, I asked for my clothes. They brought me the keys of the locker by my bed. Everything that belonged to me was there. I dressed, slung my case of botanical specimens – the northern plants were still there, I saw with delight – over my black coat. I drew on my boots, laid the note which I had written on my bed and no sooner out of the door, was well on my way back to Thebes.
As I made my way homewards along the Syrian coast – the selfsame road I had taken last time I left my cave – I saw my poor dog Figaro coming towards me. He had wanted to follow in the steps of his master, for whom he had waited so long. I stood still and called him. He sprang barking towards me in transports of innocent and extravagant joy. I tucked him under my arm, for of course he could not follow my footsteps, and brought him safely home. There I found everything in order and as my strength returned I took up once more my former avocations and way of life. Only for a whole year I avoided exposing myself to the winter’s bitterest cold.
And thus, my dear Chamisso, I still live. My boots have not lost their fabulous power, as that learned work of the famous Tieckius, De rebus gestis Pollicilli, had given me reason to fear. But my own powers are failing, though I think I have used them to the utmost and not without fruit. I have studied more deeply than any of my predecessors, and to the furthest limits that my boots would take me, everything concerned with the earth: its surface, altitude, temperatures; the changes of its atmosphere; the manifestations of magnetic power; life in all forms, especially in the vegetable kingdom. I have published my findings, with the utmost exactitude and care, in a number of works and have also left a record of the various ideas and conclusions that I have reached. I have established the geography of Central Africa and the North Polar lands, of inner Asia and its eastern coastline. My Historia sterpium plantarum utruisque orbis represents a fragment of my Flora universalis terrae, and a link in my Systema naturae. In this I believe I have not only increased the number of known species by more than a third but have thrown considerable light on the general order of nature and the geography of plants. I am now busily engaged with my Fauna. I will take care that before my death the manuscripts are deposited with the Berlin University.
And you, my dear Chamisso, I have chosen to be the trustee of my wondrous tale which, when I have departed this life, may teach a useful lesson to many other people. Remember, my friend, while you live in the world to treasure first your shadow and then your money. But if you choose to live for your inner self alone, you will need no counsel of mine.
Notes
p. 100, Justo Judicio Dei judicatus sum: “I am judged by the just judgement of God” (Latin).
p. 101, Justo Judicio Dei condemnatus sum: “By the just judgement of God I am condemned” (Latin).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Principal Dates of Chamisso’s Life
Peter Schlemihl
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Notes
Peter Schlemihl Page 7
