Once, being on the northern coast, having drawn on my boots while I was
gathering together my straggling plants and seaweeds, a white bear
approached unawares the verge of the rock on which I stood. I wished to
throw off my slippers and move off to an adjacent island, which I
expected to reach over a rock whose head towered above the waves. With
one foot I reached the rock; I stretched out the other and fell into the
sea: I had not observed that my foot was only half-released from the
slipper.
{Schlemihl and the bear: p116.jpg}
Overpowered by the tremendous cold, I had the greatest difficulty in
rescuing my life from this peril; but as soon as I reached the land, I
hurried off to the wastes of Libya to dry myself there in the sun. I
had, however, scarcely set out ere the burning heat so oppressed my head,
that I reeled back again to the north very ill. I sought relief in rapid
movements; and with uncertain and hurried steps I hastened from the west
to the east, and from the east to the west. I placed myself in the most
rapid vicissitudes of day and night; now in the heats of summer, and now
in the winter's cold.
I know not how long I thus wandered over the earth. A burning fever
glowed through my veins, and with dreadful agony I perceived my intellect
abandoning me. Misfortune would have it that I should carelessly tread
on a traveller's heel; I must have hurt him, for I received a violent
blow; I staggered, and fell.
When I recovered my senses I was comfortably stretched on an excellent
bed, which stood among many others in a roomy and handsome apartment.
Somebody was sitting near my pillow; many persons passed through the
hall, going from one bed to another. They stood before mine, and I was
the subject of their conversation. They called me _Number Twelve_; and
on the wall at the foot of my bed that number certainly stood--it was no
illusion, for I could read it most distinctly: there was a black marble
slab, on which was inscribed in large golden letters, my name,
Peter Schlemihl,
quite correctly written. On the slab, and under my name, were two lines
of letters, but I was too weak to connect them, and closed my eyes again.
I heard something of which Peter Schlemihl was the subject, loudly and
distinctly uttered, but I could not collect the meaning. I saw a
friendly man and a beautiful woman in black apparel, standing before my
bed. Their forms were not strangers to me, though I could not recognize
them.
Some time passed by, and I gradually gathered strength. I was called No.
12, and No. 12, by virtue of his long beard, passed off for a Jew, but
was not the less attended to on that account. Nobody seemed to notice
that he had no shadow. My boots were, as I was assured, to be found,
with everything else that had been discovered with me, in good and safe
keeping, and ready to be delivered to me on my recovery. The place in
which I lay ill was called the _Schlemihlium_; and there was a daily
exhortation to pray for Peter Schlemihl, as the founder and benefactor of
the hospital. The friendly man whom I had seen at my bedside was Bendel;
the lovely woman was Mina.
I lived peaceably in the _Schlemihlium_, quite unknown; but I discovered
that I was in Bendel's native place, and that he had built this hospital
with the remainder of my once-unhallowed gold. The unfortunate blessed
me daily, for he had built it in my name, and conducted it wholly under
his own inspection. Mina was a widow: an unlucky criminal process had
cost Mr. Rascal his life, and taken from her the greater part of her
property. Her parents were no more. She dwelt here like a pious widow,
and dedicated herself to works of charity.
She was once conversing with Mr. Bendel near the bed No. 12.--"Why, noble
woman, expose yourself to the bad air which is so prevalent here? Is
your fate then so dreary that you long for death?"--"No, Mr. Bendel;
since I have dreamt out my long dreams, and my inner self was awakened,
all is well--death is the object of neither my hopes nor my fears. Since
then, I think calmly of the past and of the future. And you--do you not
yet serve your master and friend in this godlike manner, with sweet and
silent satisfaction?"--"Yes, noble woman--God be praised! Ours has been
a marvellous destiny. From our full cup we have thoughtlessly drunk much
joy and much bitter sorrow: 'tis empty now. Hitherto we have had only a
trial; now, with prudent solicitude, we wait for the real introduction to
substantial things. Far different is the true beginning; but who would
play over again the early game of life, though it is a blessing, on the
whole, to have lived? I am supported by the conviction that our old
friend is better provided for now than then."--"I feel it too," answered
the lovely widow, and they left me.
This conversation had produced a deep impression within me; but I doubted
in my mind if I should discover myself, or set out unknown from the
place. I decided, however; I ordered paper and pencil to be brought to
me, and wrote these words:--
"Your old friend too is better provided for than formerly, and if he do
penance it is the penance of reconciliation."
On this, finding myself better, I desired to dress myself. The keys were
deposited on the little trunk which stood close to my bed. I found in it
everything that belonged to me: I put on my clothes; and hung over my
black coat my botanical case, where I found again, with transport, my
northern plants. I drew on my boots, laid the note which I had written
on my bed, and when the door opened, was far on my way towards Thebes.
A long time ago, as I was tracing back my way homewards along the Syrian
coast, the last time I had wandered from my dwelling, I saw my poor
Figaro approaching me. This charming spaniel seemed to wish to follow
the steps of his master, for whom he must have so long waited. I stood
still and called him to me. He sprang barking towards me, with a
thousand expressions of his innocent and extravagant joy. I took him
under my arm, for, in truth, he could not follow me, and brought him with
me safely home.
I found everything thus in order, and returned again, as my strength
returned, to my former engagements and habits of life. And now for a
whole twelvemonth I have refrained from exposing myself to the unbearable
winter's cold.
And thus, my beloved Chamisso--thus do I yet live. My boots have not
lost their virtues, as the very learned tome of Tieckius, _De rebus
gestis Pollicilli_, gave me reason to apprehend. Their power is
unbroken: but my strength is failing, though I have confidence I have
applied them to their end, and not fruitlessly. I have learned more
profoundly than any man before me, everything respecting the earth: its
figure, heights, temperature; its atmosphere in all its changes; the
appearance of its magnetic strength; its productions, especially of the
vegetable world; all in every part whither my boots would carry me. I
have published the facts, clearly arranged, with all possible accuracy,
in different works, with my ideas and conclusions set down in various
treatises. I have established the geography of interior Africa and of
the North Pole,--of central Asia and its eastern coasts. My _Historia
Stirpium Plantarum utriusque Orbis_ has appeared, being but a large
fragment of my _Flora universalis Terrae_, and a companion to my _Systema
Naturae_. In that I believe I have not only increased the number of
known species more than a third (moderately speaking), but have thrown
some light on the general system of nature, and the geography of plants.
I am now busily engaged with my Fauna. I will take care before my death
that my MSS. be disposed in the Berlin university.
And you, my beloved Chamisso, you have I chosen for the keeper of my
marvellous history, which, when I shall have vanished from the earth, may
tend to the improvement of many of its inhabitants. But, my friend,
while you live among mankind, learn above all things first to reverence
your shadow, and next your money. If you will only live for Chamisso and
his better self, you need no counsel of mine.
FINIS.
ROBERT HARDWICKE, PRINTER, 192, PICCADILLY, LONDON.
Footnotes:
{20} A frock coat.
{37} Another novel of Fouque.
{112} Australia.