It was yet early, when I was awakened by the sound of voices violently
disputing in my antechamber. I listened: Bendel was forbidding access to
my door. Rascal swore loudly and deeply that he would take no orders
from his fellow-servant, and insisted on rushing into my apartment. The
good Bendel warned him that if such language reached my ears, he might
perchance lose a profitable place; but Rascal threatened to lay violent
hands upon him, if he impeded his entrance any longer.
I had half dressed myself. I angrily flung the door open, and called out
to Rascal, "What dost want, thou scoundrel?" He retreated two paces, and
answered with perfect coldness,
"Humbly to request, may it please your lordship, for once to show me your
shadow; the sun is shining so beautifully in the court."
I felt as if scathed by a thunderbolt, and it was long before I could
utter a word: "How can a servant presume against his master that--" He
interrupted me with provoking calmness: "A servant may be a very honest
man, and yet refuse to serve a shadowless master--I must have my
discharge." I tried another weapon.
"But, Rascal, my dear Rascal, who has put this wild notion into your
head? How can you imagine--" But he continued in the same tone, "There
are people who assert you have no shadow; so, in a word, either show me
your shadow, or give me my discharge!"
Bendel, pale and trembling, but more discreet than I, made me a sign to
seek a resource in the silence-imposing gold--but it had lost its power;
Rascal flung it at my feet: "I will take nothing from a shadowless
being." He turned his back upon me, put his hat on his head, and went
slowly out of the apartment whistling a tune. I stood there like a
petrifaction--looking after him, vacant and motionless.
Heavy and melancholy, with a deathlike feeling within me, I prepared to
redeem my promise, and, like a criminal before his judges, to show myself
in the forester's garden. I ascended to the dark arbour which had been
called by my name, where an appointment had been made to meet me. Mina's
mother came forwards toward me, gay, and free from care. Mina was seated
there, pale and lovely, as the earliest snow when it kisses the last
autumnal flower, and soon dissolves into bitter drops. The
forest-master, with a written sheet in his hand, wandered in violent
agitation from side to side, seemingly overcome with internal feelings,
which painted his usually unvarying countenance with constantly changing
paleness and scarlet. He came towards me as I entered, and with broken
accents requested to speak to me alone. The path through which he
invited me to follow him led to an open sunny part of the garden. I
seated myself down without uttering a word; a long silence followed,
which even our good mother dared not interrupt.
With irregular steps the forest-master paced the arbour backwards and
forwards; he stood for a moment before me, looked into the paper which he
held, and said with a most penetrating glance, "Count, and do you indeed
know one Peter Schlemihl?" I was silent--"a man of reputable character,
and of great accomplishments." He waited for my answer. "And what if I
were he?"--"He!" added he vehemently, "who has in some way got rid of his
shadow!"--"Oh, my forebodings! my forebodings!" exclaimed Mina, "alas! I
knew long ago that he had no shadow!" and she flung herself into her
mother's arms, who, alarmed, pressed her convulsively to her bosom,
reproaching me with having concealed such a fatal secret from her:--but
she, like Arethusa, was bathed in a fountain of tears, which flowed
abundantly at the sound of my voice, and at my approach tempestuously
burst forth.
"And so," cried the forest-master furiously, "your matchless impudence
has sought to betray that poor girl and me--and you pretended to love
her--her whom you have dragged to the abyss--see how she weeps, how she
is agonized! O shame! O sin!"
I was so completely confused that I answered incoherently: "After all,
'twas but a shadow--nothing but a shadow--one can manage without it; and
surely it is not worth making such a noise about." But I felt so deeply
the deception of my language, that I was silent before he deigned to give
me an answer. I added, "What a man has lost to-day he may find again to-
morrow."
He spoke angrily: "Explain to me, sir, explain how you got rid of your
shadow." I was compelled again to lie: "A vulgar fellow trod so clumsily
upon my shadow, that he tore a great hole in it; I sent it to be
mended--gold can do everything; I ought to have received it back
yesterday."
"Very well, sir, very well," he replied. "You sue for my daughter--others
do the same; as her father I must take care of her. I give you three
days' respite, which you may employ in procuring a shadow. Come to me
after this, and if you have one that suits you, you will be welcome: but
if not, on the fourth day, I must tell you, my daughter shall be the wife
of another." I attempted to address a word to Mina; but she clung,
violently agitated, closer to her mother, who silently beckoned to me
that I should retire. I slunk away as if the world's gates had closed
behind me.
Escaped to Bendel's affectionate guidance, I wandered with erring
footsteps through fields and woods, sweat-drops of anguish fell from my
brow; deep groans broke from my bosom; within me raged a wild frenzy.
I know not how long it had lasted, when on a sunny heath I found myself
held by the sleeve--I stood still, and looked around me. It was the grey-
coated stranger; he seemed to have followed me till he was out of breath.
He instantly began:
"I had announced myself for to-day; you have hardly been able to wait so
long--but all is well--you will take good counsel: exchange your shadow
again; it only waits your commands, and then turn back. You will be
welcome in the forester's garden; it was but a jest. Rascal, who has
betrayed you, and who is a suitor to your betrothed, I will dispose
of--the fellow is ripe."
{Schlemihl offered the parchment: p72.jpg}
I stood there still, as if I were asleep--"Announced for to-day?"--I
reckoned the time over again; it was so. I had erred in my calculations.
I put my right hand on the bag in my bosom; he discovered my meaning, and
drew back two paces.
"No, Sir Count, that is in good hands; that you may retain." I looked on
him with staring and inquiring eyes. He spoke: "May I ask for a trifling
memento? Be so good as to sign this note." The following words were on
the parchment he held:
"I hereby promise to deliver over my soul to the bearer after its
natural separation from my body."
I looked with dumb astonishment, now on the grey unknown, and now on the
writing. In the mean time he had dipped a new pen in a drop of my blood,
which was flowing from a scratch made by a thorn in my hand. He handed
the pen to me.
"Who are you, then?" I at last inquired.
"What does that matter?" he answered. "Don't you see what I am?--a poor
devil; a sort of philosopher or alchemist, who receives spare thanks for
great favours he confers on his friends; one who has no enjoyment in this
world, except a little _experimentializing_:--but sign, I pray--ay, just
there on the right, _Peter Schlemihl_."
I shook my head. "Forgive me, sir, for I will not sign."--"Not!" replied
he, with seeming surprise, "why not?"
"'Tis an affair that requires some consideration--to add my soul to my
shadow in the bargain."--"Oh, oh!" he exclaimed, "consideration!" and
burst into a loud laugh. "May I then be allowed to ask, what sort of a
thing is your soul? Have you ever seen it? Do you know what will become
of it when you are once departed? Rejoice that you have found somebody
to take notice of it; to buy, even during your lifetime, the reversion of
this X, this galvanic power, this polarising influence, or whatever the
silly trifle may turn out to be; to pay for it with your bodily shadow,
with something really substantial; the hand of your mistress, the
fulfilment of your prayers. Or will you rather deliver over the sweet
maiden to that contemptible scoundrel, Mr. Rascal? No, no! look to that
with your own eyes. Come hither; I will lend you the wishing-cap too,
(he drew something from his pocket), and we will have a ramble unseen
through the forest-garden."
I must confess I was sadly ashamed to be thus laughed at by this fellow.
I hated him from the bottom of my soul; and I believe this personal
antipathy prevented me, more than my principles, from giving the required
signature for my shadow, necessary as it was to me. The thought was
unbearable, that I should undertake such a walk in his company. This
sneaking scoundrel, this scornful, irritating imp, placing himself
betwixt me and my beloved, sporting with two bleeding hearts, roused my
deepest feelings. I looked on what had past as ordained, and considered
my misery as irretrievable. I turned upon the man and said:
"Sir, I sold you my shadow for this most estimable bag of yours: I have
repented it enough; if the bargain can be annulled, in the name of--" He
shook his head--looked at me with a dark frown. I began again: "I will
sell you nothing more of my possessions, though you may offer as high a
price as for my shadow; and I will sign nothing. Hence you may conclude
that the metamorphosis to which you invite me would perhaps be more
agreeable to you than to me. Forgive me, but it cannot be otherwise; let
us part."
"I am sorry, Mr. Schlemihl, that you so capriciously push away the
favours which are presented to you; but I may be more fortunate another
time. Farewell, till our speedy meeting! By the way, you will allow me
to mention, that I do not by any means permit my purchases to get mouldy;
I hold them in special regard, and take the best possible care of them."
With this he took my shadow out of his pocket, and with a dexterous fling
it was unrolled and spread out on the heath on the sunny side of his
feet, so that he stood between the two attendant shadows, mine and his,
and walked away; mine seemed to belong to him as much as his own; it
accommodated itself to all his movements and all his necessities.
When I saw my poor shadow again, after so long a separation, and found it
applied to such base uses, at a moment when for its sake I was suffering
nameless anguish, my heart broke within me, and I began to weep most
bitterly. The hated one walked proudly on with his spoil, and
unblushingly renewed his proposals.
"You may have it--'tis but a stroke of the pen; you will save, too, your
poor unhappy Mina from the claws of the vagabond; save her for the arms
of the most honourable Count. 'Tis but a stroke of the pen, I say."
Tears broke forth with new violence; but I turned away, and beckoned him
to be gone.
Bendel, who had followed my steps to the present spot, approached me full
of sadness at this instant. The kind-hearted fellow perceived me
weeping, and observed my shadow, which he could not mistake, attached to
the figure of the extraordinary, grey, unknown one, and he endeavoured by
force to put me in possession of my property; but not being able to lay
firm hold on this subtle thing, he ordered the old man, in a peremptory
tone, to abandon what did not belong to him. He, for a reply, turned his
back upon my well-meaning servant, and marched away. Bendel followed him
closely, and lifting up the stout black-thorn cudgel which he carried,
required the man to give up the shadow, enforcing the command with the
strength of his nervous arm; but the man, accustomed perhaps to such
encounters, bowed his head, raised his shoulders, and walked silently and
calmly over the heath, accompanied by my shadow and my faithful man. For
a long time I heard the dull sound echoed over the waste. It was lost at
last in the distance. I stood alone with my misery as before.