were invited for his reception. Rasselwitz and Seidlitz were to be gone
for an hour only, and neither of them is returned yet."
"I wish Rasselwitz may not be dangling after the fair Netherlander,"
replied Netz, "and have forgotten Tausdorf and his welcome!"
"You must always be wagging your tongue at me," cried Rasselwitz, who
just then entered, and had caught the last words.
"Well, and do I lie?" asked Netz: "Are you not led in a string by the
fair stranger?"
"Would to Heaven she only thought it worth her while to lead me! but at
present she cares little about me."
"And yet you are always dangling after her, and paying court to her
when and how she pleases. What a great fool should I be if I were to
suffer myself to be so trotted about, and all to no purpose! Love's pay
must follow love's service, or else I care nothing for love, or all the
women of the earth."
"Time brings roses. I don't yet give up all hope."
"Holloa, gentlemen!" cried Schindel; "this is a conversation for the
tavern when you can no longer tell Hungary from Rhenish. How can you
think of amusing the noble ladies here present with your courtesans?"
"You are in a gross error, Herr von Schindel," said Netz warmly. "The
lady, of whom we speak, by no means belongs to that loose craft. Since
she has lodged with the Dutch nurseryman at the Park, she has led so
still and retired a life, that she may well be set up as a model for
other women. Besides, the splendour of her clothes and furniture
betokens great wealth, as her dignified manners are a sign of her high
birth."
"And yet lodges at the Park?" retorted Schindel; "and allows the young
men free access to her? That is strange! But who is she, and what would
she here? It does not at all please me, when a handsome female wanders
about the world in this way without protection."
"Thus much she has confessed to me," said Rasselwitz; "her abode here
has a mighty object; but what that object is she does not as yet hold
me fit to be entrusted with."
"If the girl should have some evil design towards you?" said Schindel
thoughtfully. "We have many a warning-tale from the olden time of young
libertines having been allured by some beautiful unknown, and, when at
last they fancied themselves at the goal of their wishes, they grasped
in their arms a hellish monster. At all events you will do well to be
cautious with your new acquaintance."
He was interrupted by the slow approach of footsteps. Supported by
Seidlitz, Tausdorf tottered into the room, and with a friendly smile
upon his pale features, stretched out his arms towards Althea, who
instantly hastened to the man of her affections, exclaiming, "Gracious
Heavens! what has happened to you, Tausdorf?"
"A slight accident, not worth talking of. As I was entering the
town-gate my horse shied and would not go forward, and, when I
attempted to force him on, he reared so high that he fell over with
me."
"And you have been wounded by the dreadful fall?"
"Oh, no. I did, indeed, strike my head against the pavement in falling,
but my hat broke the force of the blow."
"Has your horse ever shown such vice before?" asked Schindel.
"No," replied Tausdorf. "You know my old gray: he was the most docile
beast that I ever rode."
"Then this accident strikes me as something singular," rejoined
Schindel, "as if it were an omen intended by Providence to warn you of
some great evil at hand."
"Don't say that with so much earnestness, my good uncle," exclaimed
Tausdorf, laughing, "or you will terrify my Althea unnecessarily; and
if she should fall sick upon it, the mischief which my bay's
restiveness is supposed to prophesy would then have really come to
pass."
"I should like you as well again if you had a little more faith,"
replied Schindel angrily. "Animals have often a sharper insight into
the realm of spirits than your overwise men. Think on Balaam's awful
history. It would not be the first time that a horse shied when he was
bearing his master to his ruin. Who knows whether it is well that you
have just now rode into the town?"
"Herr von Schindel is the faithful Eckart, and warns every one," cried
Rasselwitz with forced laughter, and seized the goblet to wash down his
anxiety, while Netz exclaimed--"Are we not at last, then, to sit down
regularly, and fetch up our lost dinner-time?"
"Do so, good cousin, and take my place," replied Tausdorf, who since
Schindel's last words had grown unusually grave and gloomy: "My
honoured guests will easily excuse me if I leave them for my bed: I
should make a sorry host to-day, for my head is somewhat stunned and
dizzy from the fall, and repose will be the best thing for me."
He bowed, and left the company. The faithful Althea anxiously followed
him.
"A tedious melancholy feast for a welcome," muttered Netz.
The guests looked at each other with disturbed countenance. A painful
silence spread over the whole party, and the old Schindel put his
finger to his nose, and said, "I keep to it still; this adventure is a
very doubtful omen: God turn all to the best!"
* * * * *
The two brothers, Christopher and Francis, had come to see the splendid
aloe, which was at the Dutch nurseryman's in the park, and was then
unfolding all the glory of its blossoms. Both were not a little
astonished at meeting here, for at other times the way of the one was
regularly not that of the other. Bareheaded, and with all the respect
due to the rich Patricians, the gardener opened to them the door of the
particular green-house, in which stood the giant plant. From the midst
of enormous prickly leaves the stem rose up like a tree, to almost
three times a man's height; from that again a multitude of branches had
sprouted perpendicularly, each of which bore a multitude of colossal
flower-tufts, so that many thousand flowers showed themselves together,
offering to the astonished eye the appearance of an immense nosegay.
"This splendid aloe, called also _Agave Americana_," said the gardener,
haranguing in a monotonous tone, and repeating the same thing for the
hundredth time,--"this splendid aloe has come to Germany from the new
world through Spain; it reaches a very great age, sometimes a hundred
years, flowers only once in its long vegetable life, but that once, as
we see here, with such an extravagant prodigality of its best strength
and noblest juices, that it thereby draws on its own death, perishing
entirely after it has completed its time of blooming: on this account
it is a great rarity, whenever we can get to this wonderful sight in
our climate, which in fact is not over favourable to this miraculous
and beautiful plant."
The brothers had soon satiated themselves with looking at this
wonder-work of nature, and had scarcely paid any attention to the
gardener's set speech. At last Christopher said,
"This aloe must have brought you many a fair half-crown, master
gardener?"
But Francis had long been peeping between the leaves after a handsome
female, who sate at the end of the green-house under a blooming
oleander, and seemed to be reading diligently in an old manuscript. Her
brows were shadowed by white ostrich feathers that rose from a bonnet
of the same colour; her auburn locks rolled down in luxuriant abundance
upon a closely-fitting dress of purple velvet, girdled by a rich gold
band; while a chain of gold-chased emeralds heaved up and down upon the
laced kerchief which veiled her fair voluptuous bosom.
"Master, who is that handsome woman?" said Francis to the gardener, in
a low eager tone.
"Bona van der Noot," whispered the man in reply; "the widow of a rich
Netherlander, who for four weeks has lodged in the upper floor of my
house."
"The widow of a _rich_ Netherlander?" asked Christopher, who now began
to look after her, and in whom, to the natural delight in a beautiful
figure, awoke also the calculating spirit of the man of wealth,
desirous of heaping up still more to his collected money-bags--"Have
the kindness, master, to help us to a nearer intimacy."
"She has once for all forbidden such things," replied the gardener;
"but what would I not do to please you, Mr. Christopher?"
And going up to the fair stranger, he said respectfully, "Permit me,
noble lady, to give way to the wishes of these gentlemen, and present
to you the sons of our worshipful burgomaster."
"You are acting contrary to our agreement, master," replied Bona, with
gentle reproach. "My society has so little worth, and I feel so little
desire to form new acquaintances, that neither party will thank you
much for your mediation."
In the meantime Francis and Christopher had approached with profound
inclinations; in doing this the former had got a full view of her, when
he suddenly stood still with open mouth and staring eyes, and no sooner
had he heard her voice, than he cried out at once, "That is Agatha, or
the Devil!"
"What ails you now, brother?" cried Christopher in alarm; and Bona
anxiously asked the gardener whether the young man had not sometimes
paroxysms of madness.
"No; it cannot be she, however;" stammered Francis, retreating in
confusion. "The rich clothes, the cheerful countenance--no, that cannot
be the pale, haggard spectre that tormented me so cruelly in the
Hildebrand--and now, too, the beautiful long auburn locks with the
auburn eye-brows!--Agatha had dark brown hair. Pardon me, noble lady,
my mistake and rudeness; your great likeness to a girl, whom I knew
only too well, had deceived me."
"Sir," replied Bona proudly, "you must yourself allow that this
assimilation to some old flame of yours cannot be particularly
flattering to me. To spare myself any farther such unpleasantnesses,
nothing remains for me but to withdraw, and leave it to your own
reflection whether it became you to insult an unblemished female, who
sought the hospitality of your father's town."
She walked away with great dignity.
"God confound you!" cried Christopher to his brother. "This is now the
second time that your madness has come between me and my object, when I
was trying to weave a love affair. Had it not been for your senseless
fray with Rasselwitz, I should have had leisure and opportunity to win
the widow. It was your fault alone that the banquet was put off, from
which I had promised myself so much. The refusal too, which the silly
woman gave me in the end, I owe to the fear of your relationship. No
one would willingly have any thing to do with you, for wherever you
come you make mischief, and that not merely from natural awkwardness,
but from evil intentions. If, therefore, you frighten away my bird this
time, I shall believe you do it on purpose, and have good reasons of
your own for preventing my second marriage; in which case I shall speak
a word in earnest with our father, and you will gain nothing by your
tricks."
Thus scolding and grumbling, he went off, and the gardener went with
him. Francis, however, had not listened to his lecture, but remained
there gloomily, and with the sheath of his sword beheaded the valuable
foreign plants that stood in their clay vases, in rows, upon a range of
steps. At last he cried, "I was mistaken; but the likeness was
surprising and really terrible. A horrid shuddering came over me as the
well-known features menaced me from out the strange form; I felt as if
some evil spirit stretched out his claws after me from the beautiful
face. The devil take conscience! It has often embittered my life, and
now, since the affair in the Hildebrand, it will no longer let me have
any real satisfaction."
There was a sudden rustling behind the glass door, through which Bona
had disappeared, and to which Francis had turned his back. Glancing
round fearfully to the place whence the noise came, he saw the magic
image of the fair stranger, and he shook and shuddered as if in the
frosts of fever.--"Heaven be merciful to me!" he cried,--clapped his
hands before his eyes, and rushed out through another door into the
garden.
No sooner had Francis left the green-house than Bona entered it through
the side-door. For some time she looked after him as he ran along the
principal alley of the garden, while her beautiful eyes sparkled with
silent wrath, her right hand pressed itself violently on her throbbing
bosom, as if she wished to keep down its heavings by force, and
thoughts of evil seemed to furrow her lovely forehead. At this instant
came tripping along from a side walk the knight, Rasselwitz, in all his
bravery, as with hope and desire on his face he bent his way towards
the green-house. The moment Bona perceived him, the furrows smoothed
themselves upon her brow, her eyes lost their fierceness, a gentle
longing spread over her features, and she flung herself in a
picturesque attitude on the garden-seat beneath the oleander.
Rasselwitz entering, said in the softest tone, "I owe it to my good
fortune, noble lady, that I find you here in this confidential
loneliness, and can paint the feelings which glow towards you in my
heart, without being interrupted by troublesome witnesses."
With angelic kindness Bona presented her hand to him, and drew him down
beside her, gently murmuring, "You have often before protested your
love to me, Herr von Rasselwitz, and I would willingly believe in it,
but mens' hearts are more treacherous than the treacherous waves of the
sea: Who would trust to them? who would answer to me for the
continuance of the inclination which you fancy you feel for me--perhaps
really feel at the present moment?"
Rasselwitz felt himself transported into the third heaven by this
accost, for she had never addressed him so before; and kissing her hand
with fervour, he cried, "O that you would honour me so far, beautiful
Bona, as to demand of me some proof of my sincerity!"
"Take care that I don't keep you to your word," replied Bona with a
lovely smile. "I might ask something of serious difficulty, and you
would then come off with disgrace."
"No, fair lady; you don't escape me so this time," protested Rasselwitz
with great animation. "You must rather allow me to keep _you_ to your
word. Demand any proof of my love, as hard and earnest as you can
devise, and, if I deny it to you, banish me from your presence for
ever."
"Do you know the man who just now left the garden?" asked Bona with
apparent calmness.
"Why should I not?" replied Rasselwitz. "It was Francis Friend, the
wild son of the old burgomaster."
"Challenge him for life or death," said Bona, "and I am yours."
Rasselwitz stared at the blood-thirsty beauty, and at length said with
a confused smile, "You must be jesting, noble lady? What good could you
get by egging us on to murder each other?"
"There are many gates through which hatred may enter the human breast,"
replied Bona with piercing looks; "and, if that be true which has been
told me, you also cannot possibly be a friend to this Francis."
"By heavens! I detest him as my worst sins, but I cannot challenge
him."
Upon this Bona started up and demanded with a look of scorn and
contempt, "Do you want the courage for it?"
"Only _you_ dare ask me that," replied Rasselwitz, starting up in his
turn; "and to you only could I give a cool answer. I have never shunned
the game of swords; but my knightly word binds me; I pledged it to the
prince palatine on the settling of that awkward business the other day,
and, if the monster does not begin again himself, he will have quiet
for me as long as he lives."
"Does not then the wish of your beloved weigh more with you than this
promise?" asked Bona in soul-melting tones; and, laying her hand upon
his shoulder, she gazed on him with a look that glowed through his
pulses and gave wings to them.
"You have not understood me, noble lady," replied Rasselwitz earnestly.
"We are talking here of my knightly word, on which depends my honour,
and consequently my earthly being. If this adamantine chain were to
hold no longer, what tie in the world could be relied on?"
"A clever brain would know how to manage a quarrel, and yet throw the
appearance of the first aggression upon his adversary. Rough and
violent as this Friend appears to me, it must be easy to irritate him
to unseemly language and vulgar action, and then you fight only in
self-defence, which the bishop cannot take amiss."
"That would be bad work, lady, with which I cannot meddle. To evade a
promise is to break a promise, and I am an honourable Silesian."
"Well answered," cried Bona with loud laughter, and reseated herself.
"Take your place again by my side, Herr von Rasselwitz; it was not so
evilly intended. I excuse you from the combat for life and death, to
which you seem to have so little inclination, and do you, on the other
hand, excuse me for the future from your love-protests which you cannot
prove. You have stood the first trial badly; I spare you the others."
"How! Your strange instigation was no more than a trial?"
"And a very badly contrived one too. How could I expect that you would
believe me, in this deadly hatred against a man whom I saw to-day for
the first time in my life, and who could not have ever injured me?--me,
a Netherlandress, who have lived but a few weeks at Schweidnitz? You
would have caught me finely, and put me into an awkward plight, had you
made as if you were willing to comply with my desire. I must then have
prayed you, for God's sake, to let poor Friend live, and you would have
had the pleasure of laughing at me soundly for my unsuccessful
project."
"Fool that I am!--and yet I rejoice from my heart that it was only a
joke. I could not, however, suspect you of such a trick."
"Did you have a long merry-making on Monday at the widow's?" asked
Bona, with a careless transition of the subject.
"Unfortunately, no; the bridegroom, whom we expected, had an accident
with his horse, and arrived late only to go to bed directly. This
untuned us all, and we separated at an early hour."
"I have already heard much of this bridegroom; but tell me more about
him; he is said to be a handsome man."
"A perfect model of manly beauty!"
"That is saying much; yet since a man of your appearance allows it, why
it must needs be so.--Brave?--that is understood of itself;--but I
suppose just as hot and violent, just as easy to be irritated, which
you gentlemen often wish to pass upon us for courage?"
"Nothing less. He is coolness and reflection personified, and on that
account seems as if born to be a general. If he had not been the leader
of the nobles on that decisive day which freed me from arrest, it had
unavoidably come to a battle in the city; the upshot was uncertain, and
in any case Bieler's murderers had escaped punishment."
A flash of anger quivered through Bona's beautiful features, and the
little pearl-teeth within her rosy lips were ground together firmly.
But the external calm was soon regained, and she asked with her former
indifference,--"Is this mirror of virtue and honour quite faithful to
his Althea?"
"It is perilous to answer for any thing of this sort; but in his case I
would almost venture it. He dwells on his bride with infinite
affection."
"That proves nothing; you men may love warmly, and yet be false withal.
Will you do me a favour, Herr von Rasselwitz?"
"Command me; I fly."
"Always supposing it is not for life and death," interposed Bona with
light mockery. "But I have a desire to become personally acquainted
with this Tausdorf, who is so much talked of. Besides I want to inquire
of him after a relation, who lives at Prague. Bring him hither with the
first opportunity."
"It is asking much," said Rasselwitz jestingly, "to expect that I
should myself introduce to you so dangerous a rival; but I build upon
his fore-praised fidelity."
"If, however, you cannot, or like not, it is of no consequence. It was
only a passing whim, which I can just as lightly give up again."
"By no means; and it is precisely to-morrow morning that your wish can
be most easily accomplished, for the lady Althea then goes to
Bogendorf, whence she does not return till the day afterwards, and she
leaves Tausdorf behind that he may have leisure to recover from his
fall. The singular plant, which is shown in this garden, shall be the
bait to bring him. He will come to admire a blooming aloe, and will be
agreeably surprised when the floweret of beauty unfolds to him the
splendour of its colours."
He imprinted a fiery kiss upon Bona's hand and departed. The maiden
looked after him with a bitter smile, then rose up, and walked slowly
into the green-house, where stood the aloe, which she considered for a
long time, and at length said, "Yes, proud aloe, you are the image of
my revenge. Your blossom requires years to break from the bud, but it
does at last break forth in vigour that will not be restrained; and
though you perish in the very moment of perfection, you have yet gained
your object; he who has done that has lived long enough."
* * * * *
Beamless, yet with splendid glow, hung the evening sun, like a bright
burning ruby in the horizon over the violet-coloured mountains. Purple
clouds, edged with gold, shot a glory about it, while the whole western
heavens shone in a sea of flame, and the blaze melted away farther on
into a lovely sea-green, which again in the east was lost in the dark
blue of night. Before the aloe, whose flowers seemed to burn in the
evening red, stood Tausdorf, sunk in its contemplation.--"The plant is
to be envied," he said to Rasselwitz; "he dies well, who, like it, dies
at the moment of reaching the pinnacle of strength and beauty; and I
could almost wish that such a death might one day be to myself."
"How earnestly and gravely you take every thing," replied
Rasselwitz--"nay gloomily too! For my part, it is precisely when I got
to the pinnacle that I should feel most eager to live on, because it is
then that life is gayest. When one is gone, the best pleasure is over;
and in good truth we shall always be dead long enough afterwards."
"In the ten years of experience, which I have beyond you, lies the
difference of our views. Throughout nature nothing stands still. He who
does not go forward goes backward. From the summit the road only leads
down again, and every retracing of our steps has something disconsolate
about it, which I would willingly buy off with a few years of
existence."
He turned about to depart, but Rasselwitz held him back:--"I cannot let
you go thus; you may, perhaps, have got over your accident, but you
still look pale, and the evening wind blows cursedly cool from the
mountains. Let us first, therefore, if agreeable to you, empty a flask
of tokay against the bad air, and then I will myself accompany you home
again."
"You gentlemen can't do without the wine-cup," said Tausdorf jestingly.
"If, however, it is really to be but a single flask, I am contented."
They went accordingly into the larger greenhouse, where at the end,
under an oleander-tree, a little table was neatly set out, covered with
a crimson silk cloth. Upon this was a dish of foreign salad between two
handsome flasks with handles, semi-transparent and edged with silver,
and two glass goblets, ready filled, in which the tokay sparkled like
blood in the last rays of the setting sun. By the table sat Bona in all
the fulness of her charms, seeming to enjoy with silent transport the
splendour of the evening heavens, whose crimson fire gave all the glory
of a seraph to her head and face.
"We interrupt here," said Tausdorf to Rasselwitz, struck by her
appearance, "and must seek some other place."
"You do not interrupt me, gentlemen," said Bona, rising with graceful
kindness. "A woman, who knows how to maintain her female dignity, has
no occasion to be afraid of men. But perhaps you wish to have a private
conversation with your companion, in which case I give way to you,
although I should have willingly enjoyed this splendid evening for a
quarter of an hour longer."
"You love then the charms of nature?" asked Tausdorf, whose sympathy
had been won by the first words of the stranger, and who now thought no
more of going.
"What being of head and heart but must love them?" replied Bona warmly.
"Nature ever reflects herself, and yet is ever new, nor has any mortal
hitherto succeeded in imitating the least of her wonders: so has she
gone on for centuries, silent and beautiful, clear and sublime,
benevolent in creating and maintaining as in destroying."