very gently in Peregine's ear, that his (Peregrine's) horoscope was
lying on the table by the window. Here he saw all manner of lines, that
mysteriously crossed each other, and many other wonderful signs; but as
he was entirely deficient in astronomical knowledge, all remained
confused and dark to him, look as keenly as he would. Yet it seemed
strange to him, that, in the bright red point, in the middle of the
table on which the horoscope was drawn, he plainly recognised himself.
The longer he looked at this point, the more it gained the shape of a
heart, and the more brightly it reddened. Still it only sparkled as
through a web, with which it was overspread.
Peregrine plainly saw that Leuwenhock wanted to draw off his attention
from the horoscope, and as he ran no risk of being deceived, very
rationally resolved to question his friendly enemy at once, and without
any circumlocution, as to the meaning of the mysterious table.
Leuwenhock assured him, with a malicious smile, that nothing would give
him greater pleasure than the explaining to his respected friend the
signs upon the table, which he himself had drawn, according to his
slight knowledge in such matters.
The thoughts ran thus:--"Hoho! are you after that, my wise sir? In
truth Master Flea has not advised you ill. I myself am to explain the
table, and help you to the understanding of the magic might that dwells
in your worthy person! I might invent some lies for you, but of what
use would it be, for, if I were to tell you the truth, you would not
understand a syllable, but would remain stupid as ever? From pure
convenience, therefore, and not to put myself to the trouble of
invention, I will tell you so much of the signs of the table as seems
good to me."
Peregrine knew now that, if he was not to learn all, at least he would
not be deceived with falsehoods.
Leuwenhock placed the tablet on something like an easel, which he
brought forward from a corner of the room, and both seating themselves
before it, considered it for a time in silence. At length Leuwenhock
began with much solemnity:
"You, perhaps, do not suspect that those lines, those characters on the
table, which you are so attentively considering, are your own
horoscope, drawn by myself, with mysterious astrologic art, under the
favourable influence of the stars.--How came you to such a presumptuous
idea? what could make you wish to unravel the web of my fate, to read
my destiny?--so might you ask, my friend, and with perfect justice, if
I were not able to show you my inward call thereto. I know not whether
you have heard of the celebrated rabbi, Isaac Ben Harravad. Among other
profound knowledge, he had the strange gift of reading by men's faces
whether the soul had previously inhabited another body, or whether it
was to be considered quite fresh and new. I was yet very young when the
rabbi died of an indigestion, brought on by eating of a dish highly
seasoned with garlic. The Jews ran away with the body so quickly, that
the deceased had not time to collect and carry off all his knowledge,
which the illness had scattered. Laughing heirs divided the property,
but I had fished off that wonderful seer-gift, in the very moment that
the Angel of Death had set his sword upon the rabbi's breast. In this
way the wonderful faculty has come to me, and I, like the rabbi, Isaac
Ben Harravad, can read in the faces of men, whether the soul has before
occupied another body or not. Your brow, Mr. Tyss, when I saw it the
first time, excited the strangest thoughts and doubts. I was certain of
the previous existence of your soul long ago, and yet the form, prior
to your present life, remained a perfect mystery. I was forced to have
recourse to the stars, and draw your horoscope, to solve the
difficulty."
"Well!" exclaimed Peregrine;--"and have you discovered anything, Mr.
Leuwenhock?"
"Certainly!" replied Leuwenhock, assuming a still more solemn
tone--"certainly! I have discovered that the physical principle, which
now animates the agreeable body of my very worthy friend, Mr. Peregrine
Tyss, existed long ago, although only as a thought or consciousness of
a shape. Look here; consider attentively the red point in the centre of
the table. That is not only yourself, but the point is the form, of
which your physical principle once could not be conscious. As a
sparkling carbuncle, you then lay in a deep mine of the earth; but
stretched over you, on the green surface of the ground, slept the
beautiful Gamaheh; and her form also passed away in unconsciousness.
Strange lines and foreign constellations cross your life from the point
of time when the thought first put on a form, and became Mr. Peregrine
Tyss. You are in possession of a talisman without knowing it, and this
talisman is that very red carbuncle; it may be that King Sekakis wore
it as a precious jewel in his crown, or, perhaps, in some measure, was
the carbuncle itself; enough,--you possess it now; but a certain event
must take place if its slumbering power is to be awakened; and with
this waking of the power of your talisman will be decided the fate of
an unhappy creature, who hitherto has led a shadowy life between fear
and changing hope.--Alas! it was only a shadowy life that the sweet
Gamaheh could gain by the profoundest magic, as the operative talisman
was stolen from us. You alone have killed her, you alone can breathe
fresh life into her, when the carbuncle glows again in your breast."
"And can you," interrupted Peregrine, "can you explain what that event
is which is to awake the power of the talisman?"
The microscopist stared with open eyes at Peregrine, like a person who
is suddenly surprised into confusion, and who does not know what to
say. The thoughts ran thus: "If I had but held my tongue about the
talisman which the unlucky rascal carries within him, and which gives
him so much power over us that we must all dance to his pipe!--and now
I am to tell him the event on which depends the awaking the strength of
his talisman! Shall I confess to him that I don't know myself, that all
my art fails to loosen the knot in which the lines meet?--nay, that
when I consider the planetary centre of the horoscope, I feel most
piteously, and my own learned head seems to me no better than a painted
block for periwigs? Far from me be any such confession that would lower
me, and put arms into his hands against myself. I will fasten something
upon the ideot who fancies himself so wise,--something that shall make
his blood run cold, and take from him all farther inclination of
teazing me."
"My dearest sir," said the Flea-tamer, putting on a very important
face,--"my dearest Mr. Tyss, don't ask me to speak of this event. You
know that the horoscope does indeed plainly and perfectly instruct us
as to the existence of certain circumstances; but,--such is the wisdom
of Eternal Might,--the event of threatening dangers always remains dark
and doubtful. I esteem you too highly as an excellent kind-hearted man
to put you into disquiet and anxiety before the time; otherwise I
should at least tell you so much, that the event which is to give you
the consciousness of power, would in the same moment destroy your
present form of being with the most horrible agonies of hell. But no!
on that too I will be silent; and now not another word of the
horoscope. Do not, however, fret yourself, although the affair looks
bad enough, and I, with all my knowledge, can hardly see any chance of
a favourable issue to the adventure. Perhaps you may be saved from this
peril by some unexpected constellation, which is now beyond the reach
of observation."
Peregrine was astonished at this deceit, yet still the whole state of
the thing, the peculiar situation in which Leuwenhock stood without
suspecting it, appeared to him so exceedingly pleasant, that he could
not help breaking out into a loud fit of laughter. The microscopist,
somewhat surprised at this, asked, "What are you laughing at so
vehemently, my dear Mr. Tyss?"
"You do wisely," replied Peregrine, still laughing,--"you do very
wisely in keeping secret, out of pure kindness, this threatening event;
for besides that you are too much my friend to put me into fear and
terror, you have yet another excellent reason for your silence, which
is nothing else than that you do not know a syllable about the matter.
In vain was all your labour to unriddle that knot; your whole astrology
goes but to little; and, if Master Flea had not fallen upon your nose,
all your arts would have helped you little."
Leuwenhock's brow was red with rage; he clenched his fist, gnashed his
teeth, and trembled so violently with agitation, that he would have
tumbled from his seat, if Peregrine had not held him as firmly by the
arm as George Pepusch grasped the unlucky taverner by the throat, who
at length succeeded in saving himself by a dexterous side-spring.
Hereupon George rushed out and entered Leuwenhock's room just as
Peregrine was holding him fast upon his seat, while he muttered
furiously between his teeth, "Cursed Swammerdamm! is it _you_ that have
done this?"
No sooner did Peregrine perceive his friend than he let go of the
microscopist, and, going up to him, asked anxiously if that strange
frenzy were over which had so dangerously possessed him. Pepusch seemed
softened almost to tears, and protested that he had not in all his life
committed so many follies as in the course of that one day. Amongst
these not the least was, that after he had sent a ball through his head
in the forest, he had gone into a tavern,--where he did not know,--had
talked to people of strange things, and murderously set upon the host,
because, from his broken speech, he gathered that which was the very
happiest thing that could befall him. All his paroxysms would now soon
have reached the highest pitch, for the bystanders had taken his words
for insanity, and he had to fear, instead of reaping the fruit of the
happiest event, that he would be confined in a madhouse. With this he
explained what the host had let drop concerning Peregrine's conduct and
declarations, and asked, with downcast eyes, whether such an act of
self-denial, in favour of an unhappy friend, was probable, or even
possible, in the present day, when heroism had vanished from the earth.
At these declarations from his companion, Peregrine revived in his
inmost heart. He protested with warmth, that for his part he was far
removed from doing any thing that might in the least annoy his tried
friend; that he solemnly renounced all pretensions to the heart and
hand of the fair Doertje Elverdink, and willingly gave up a paradise,
though it had, indeed, opened upon him most seductively.
"And it was you," said Pepusch, rushing into his friend's arms,--"it
was you that I would have murdered, and, because I did not believe you,
I therefore shot myself. Oh, the madness of a mind ill at ease!"
"I pray you," said Peregrine, "I pray you come to your senses. You
speak of having shot yourself, and yet stand fresh and sound before me.
How do these things agree?"
"You are right," replied Pepusch, "it seems as if I could not speak to
you so rationally as I really do, if I had actually sent a ball through
my brain. The people, too, maintain that my pistols were not
particularly dangerous, nor, indeed, of iron, but of wood--in fact mere
toys--and so neither the duel nor the suicide could have been any thing
more than a pleasant mockery. We must have changed our parts; and I
have begun to mystify myself and play the child at the moment you have
left the world of dream to enter into real life. But be this as it may,
it is requisite that I should be certain of your generosity and my
fortune, and then the clouds will dissipate which trouble my sight, or
perhaps deceive me with the illusions of the _Fata Morgana_. Come, my
Peregrine, accompany me to the fair Doertje Elverdink."
Pepusch took his friend's arm, and was hastening off with him; but
their intended walk was spared, for the door opened, and in tripped
Doertje Elverdink, lovely as an angel, and behind her the old Swammer.
Leuwenhock, who had so long remained dumb, casting angry looks first at
Pepusch and then at Peregrine, seemed, upon seeing the old Swammerdamm,
as if struck by an electric shock. He stretched his clenched hands
towards him, and cried out in a voice hoarse with rage--"Ha! do you
come to mock me, you old deceitful monster? But you shall not succeed.
Defend yourself: your last hour has struck."
Swammerdamm started a few steps back, and as Leuwenhock was ready to
fall upon him with his telescope, drew the like arms for his defence.
The duel, which had begun at Peregrine's, seemed about to be renewed.
George Pepusch threw himself between the combatants, and while with his
left hand he beat down a murderous glance of Leuwenhock's, which would
have stretched his adversary to the earth, with the left he turned
aside the weapon of Swammerdamm, so that he could not injure
Leuwenhock. He then declared that he would not allow of any battle
between them, till he thoroughly knew the cause of their dissension.
Peregrine found this protest so reasonable, that he did not hesitate to
throw himself between the champions with a similar declaration. To this
the combatants were forced to yield. Swammerdamm, moreover, asserted,
that he had not at all come with hostile intentions, but merely to
enter into some composition with Leuwenhock, and thus to end a feud
which had so long divided two similarly-created principles, whose
united researches only could exhaust the deepest springs of knowledge.
With this he looked smilingly at Peregrine, into whose arms Doertje had
fled, and expressed a wish that he would mediate.
Leuwenhock, on the other hand, admitted that Doertje was, indeed, the
apple of contention, but that he had just now discovered a new trick of
his unworthy colleague. It was not only that, to revive his unjust
pretensions to Doertje, he denied the possession of a certain microscope
which he had received on a certain occasion as a quittance; but the
more to torment him,--Leuwenhock,--he had given it to another. In
answer to all this, Swammerdamm swore, high and low, that he had never
received the microscope, and had great reason to believe that
Leuwenhock had shamefully purloined it.
"The fools!"--softly whispered Master Flea to Peregrine--"the fools!
they are talking of the microscope which is in your eye. You know that
I was present at the treaty of peace concluded between them about the
possession of the princess, and, when Swammerdamm was flinging into the
pupil of his left eye the microscopic glass which he had, in fact,
received from Leuwenhock, I snapped it up, because it was not
Leuwenhock's, but my lawful property. Tell them plainly at once, that
you have the jewel."
Upon this Peregrine made no hesitation in declaring that he was in
possession of the microscopic glass which Swammerdamm should have
received, but did not receive, from Leuwenhock; and moreover that the
union was not yet settled, and neither Leuwenhock nor Swammerdamm had
at present the unconditional right to look on Doertje Elverdink as his
foster-daughter.
After much argument, it was agreed by the disputants that Mr. Tyss
should marry Doertje Elverdink, who tenderly loved him; and then, after
seven months, should decide which of the two microscopists was the most
desirable father-in-law.
However beautiful Doertje appeared in a dress so admirable that it might
seem to have been fashioned by the Loves, and whatever burning looks of
passion she might cast at Peregrine, yet he still thought of his protege
as well as of his friend, and remained true to his plighted word,
declaring again that he renounced Doertje's hand. The microscopists were
not a little astonished, when Peregrine announced George Pepusch for the
man who had the justest claims to the princess, and that he, at all events,
had no right to interfere with her choice.
With tears in her eyes the maiden staggered towards Peregrine, who
caught her in his arms as she was sinking senseless to the earth.
"Ingrate!"--she sighed--"you break my heart in thrusting me from
you.--But you will have it.--Take, then, my parting kiss, and let me
die!"
Peregrine bent down to her, but when his mouth touched her mouth, she
bit his lips so violently that the blood started, at the same time
exclaiming merrily,--"Monster! it is so one must punish you!--Be
reasonable, be civil, and take me, let the other cry out as he will."
During this the two microscopists had fallen together by the ears
again, heaven knows wherefore; while George Pepusch flung himself quite
disconsolately at Gamaheh's feet, and cried out in a voice that sounded
wretched enough for any lover,--
"Oh, Gamaheh! is then your passion quite extinguished? Do you no more
remember the glorious times in Famagusta?--no more the pleasant days in
Berlin?--no more----"
"You are a fool!" interrupted the little-one, laughing; "you are a
fool, George, with your Gamahehs, your Thistle, Zeherit, and all the
other nonsense that you must once have dreamed. I did like you, do like
you, and will have you,--although the tall one yonder pleases me
better,--if you solemnly promise, nay swear, to bend all your mind
to----"
Here she softly whispered something to Pepusch, and Peregrine thought
he collected that Master Flea was the subject of it. In the meantime
the dispute between the microscopists had grown hotter and hotter; they
had again recourse to their weapons, and Peregrine was busy in trying
to sooth their wrath, when the company was again augmented. The door
was burst open amidst a strange screaming and croaking, and in rushed
the Amateur, Monsieur Legenie, and the barber, Leech. With wild,
furious gestures they flew upon the princess, and the barber had
already caught her by the shoulder, when Pepusch thrust away the odious
assailant with irresistible might, wound about his whole flexible body,
and squeezed it together in such a manner that he shot up into the air,
quite thin and long, roaring aloud with pain all the time.
While this was going on with the barber, the two microscopists had
reconciled themselves in an instant on the appearance of the common
enemy, and made a united attack on the Amateur with much success. It
availed him nothing that, when he was sufficiently drubbed below, he
rose up to the cieling; for Leuwenhock and Swammerdamm had both seized
short thick sticks, and whenever the Amateur descended, they drove him
up again by blows, dexterously applied to that part of the body which
best can bear them. It was a pretty game of racket, at which the
Amateur, by compulsion indeed, played the most fatiguing, and at the
same time the most ungracious part, namely, that of the ball.
This war seemed to inspire the little-one with the greatest terror; she
clung to Peregrine, and entreated him to bear her away from such an
abominable uproar. This he could the less refuse, as there seemed to be
no need of him on the field of battle; and he therefore carried her
home, that is, into the apartments of his lodger. But no sooner had she
got there and found herself alone with Peregrine, than she employed all
the arts of the most refined coquetry to allure him into her snares.
However firmly he bore in mind that all this was merely falsehood, and
aimed at bringing his protege into captivity, yet such a dizziness of
the senses seized him, that he did not even think of the microscopic
glass, which might have served him as an active antidote. Master Flea
was again in danger; he was, however, saved this time by Mr. Swammer,
who entered with George Pepusch. The former appeared to be exceedingly
delighted, but the latter had wrath and jealousy in his burning
glances. Peregrine left the room, and with wounded heart he strolled
through the streets of Frankfort. He went through the gate and onwards,
till he reached the very spot where the strange adventure had happened
with his friend, Pepusch. Here he again thought over his wonderful
destiny; the image of Gamaheh appeared to him lovelier than ever; the
blood rolled more quickly in his veins, his pulse beat more violently,
and his breast seemed ready to burst with feverish desire. He felt only
too painfully the greatness of the sacrifice which he had just made,
and with which he fancied that he had lost all the happiness of life.
The night had drawn in when he returned to the city. Without being
aware of it, perhaps from an unconscious dread of going back to his own
house, he wandered through many by lanes, and at last into the
Kalbecher-street. A man, with a knapsack on his back, asked him if the
bookbinder, Lemmerhirt, did not live there? and on looking up,
Peregrine saw that he was actually standing before the narrow dwelling;
the windows of the industrious binder, who worked through the night,
were shining brightly and loftily, and the door was opened to the man
with a knapsack, who entered immediately.
Peregrine now recollected, with vexation, that, in the tumult of the
last few weeks, he had forgotten to pay the bookbinder for several jobs
that he had executed for him; he resolved to go and settle all the very
next morning.
Seventh Adventure.
Hostile snares of the allied Microscopists, and their continued
stupidity.--New temptations of Mr. Peregrine Tyss, and new perils of
Master Flea.--Rose Lemmerhirt.--The decisive dream, and conclusion of
the tale.
Although we are wholly deficient in any certain information respecting
the result of the battle in Leuwenhock's chamber, yet we cannot suppose
otherwise than that the microscopists, with the help of George Pepusch,
had obtained a complete victory over the hostile confederates: it had
else been impossible that the old Swammer had returned so friendly and
contented as he really did. With the same glad face, Swammer, or rather
Mr. John Swammerdamm, came the following morning to Peregrine, who was
still in bed and earnestly conversing with his protege, Master Flea.
Upon seeing this visitor, Peregrine did not fail putting the
microscopic glass into the pupil of his eye.
After many long and tedious excuses for his early visit, Swammerdamm at
last took his place on the bed, positively refusing to let Peregrine
rise and put on his dressing-gown. In the strangest phrases he thanked
his landlord for the great civilities he had experienced, which, it
seems, consisted in his having been received as a lodger, and also
in that Mr. Tyss had allowed his household to be increased by the
addition of a young female, who was sometimes too loud and vivacious.
But the greatest favour shown by Mr. Peregrine, and not without some
self-sacrifice, was in his having effected a reconciliation between him
(Swammerdamm) and his old friend, Antony von Leuwenhock.--In fact, as
Swammerdamm went on to say, both hearts had inclined to each other at
the moment when they were attacked by the Amateur and the barber and
had to protect Doertje Elverdink from those monsters. The serious
reconciliation of the microscopists had soon after followed.
Leuwenhock had perceived, as well as Swammerdamm, the paramount
influence which Peregrine had over both of them; and the first use,
which they made of their renewed friendship, was, to consider in unison
the strange horoscope of Mr. Tyss, and, as far as possible, to
interpret it.
"What my friend, Leuwenhock, could not do alone," continued the
microscopist, "was effected by our united powers, and thus this was the
second experiment which, in spite of all the obstacles opposed to us,
we undertook with the most splendid results."
"The short-sighted fool!" lisped Master Flea, who sate upon the pillow,
close to Peregrine's ear. "He still fancies that the Princess, Gamaheh,
was restored to life by him. A pretty life, indeed, is that, to which
the awkwardness of the two microscopists has condemned the poor thing!"