At length I came to myself, and hastened to quit the place where I had
nothing more to expect. In the first place I filled my pockets with
gold; then I secured the strings of the purse fast round my neck, and
concealed the purse itself in my bosom. I passed unobserved out of the
park, reached the highway and took the road to the city. As, sunk
in thought, I approached the gate, I heard a cry behind me--"Young
gentleman! eh! young gentleman! hear you!" I looked round, an old
woman called after me. "Do take care, sir, you have lost your shadow!"
"Thank you, good mother!" I threw her a gold piece for her well-meant
information, and stopped under the trees.
At the city gate I was compelled to hear again from the
sentinel--"Where has the gentleman left his shadow?" And immediately
again from some women--"Jesus Maria! the poor fellow has no shadow!"
That began to irritate me, and I became especially careful not to walk
in the sun. This could not, however, be accomplished everywhere--for
instance, over the broad street which I next must cross, actually, as
mischief would have it, at the very moment that the boys came out
of school. A cursed hunch-backed rogue, I see him yet, spied out
instantly that I had no shadow. He proclaimed the fact with a loud
outcry to the whole assembled literary street youth of the suburb,
who began forthwith to criticise me, and to pelt me with mud. "Decent
people are accustomed to take their shadows with them, when they go
into the sunshine." To defend myself from them I threw whole handfuls
of gold amongst them and sprang into a hackney-coach, which some
compassionate soul procured for me.
As soon as I found myself alone in the rolling carriage I began to
weep bitterly. The presentiment must already have arisen in me that,
far as gold on earth transcends in estimation merit and virtue,
so much higher than gold itself is the shadow valued; and as I had
earlier sacrificed wealth to conscience, I had now thrown away the
shadow for mere gold. What in the world could and would become of me!
I was still greatly discomposed as the carriage stopped before my
old inn. I was horrified at the bare idea of entering that wretched
cock-loft. I ordered my things to be brought down; received my
miserable bundle with contempt, threw down some gold pieces, and
ordered the coachman to drive to the most fashionable hotel. The house
faced the north, and I had not the sun to fear. I dismissed the driver
with gold; caused the best front rooms to be assigned me, and shut
myself up in them as quickly as I could!
What thinkest thou I now began? Oh, my dear Chamisso, to confess it
even to thee makes me blush. I drew the unlucky purse from my bosom,
and with a kind of rage which, like a rushing conflagration, grew in
me with self-increasing growth, I extracted gold, and gold, and gold,
and ever more gold, and strewed it on the floor, and strode amongst
it, and made it ring again, and, feeding my poor heart on the splendor
and the sound, flung continually more metal to metal, till in my
weariness I sank down on the rich heap, and, rioting thereon, rolled
and reveled upon it. So passed the day, the evening. I opened not my
door; the night found me lying on my gold, and then sleep overcame me.
I dreamed of thee. I seemed to stand behind the glass-door of thy
little room, and to see thee sitting then at thy work-table, between
a skeleton and a bundle of dried plants. Before thee lay open Haller,
Humboldt, and Linnaeus; on thy sofa a volume of Goethe and "The Magic
Ring." I regarded thee long, and everything in thy room, and then thee
again. Thou didst not move, thou drewest no breath--thou wert dead!
I awoke. It appeared still to be very early. My watch stood. I was
sore all over; thirsty and hungry too; I had taken nothing since the
morning before. I pushed from me with loathing and indignation the
gold on which I had before sated my foolish heart. In my vexation
I knew not what I should do with it. It must not lie there. I tried
whether the purse would swallow it again--but no! None of my windows
opened upon the sea. I found myself compelled laboriously to drag it
to a great cupboard which stood in a cabinet, and there to pile it. I
left only some handfuls of it lying. When I had finished the work, I
threw myself exhausted into an easy chair, and waited for the stirring
of the people in the house. As soon as possible I ordered food to be
brought, and the landlord to come to me.
I fixed in consultation with this man the future arrangements of
my house. He recommended for the services about my person a certain
Bendel, whose honest and intelligent physiognomy immediately
captivated me. He it was whose attachment has since accompanied me
consolingly through the wretchedness of life, and has helped me
to support my gloomy lot. I spent the whole day in my room among
masterless servants, shoemakers, tailors, and tradespeople. I fitted
myself out, and purchased besides a great many jewels and valuables
for the sake of getting rid of some of the vast heap of hoarded-up
gold; but it seemed to me as if it were impossible to diminish it.
In the meantime I brooded over my situation in the most agonizing
doubts. I dared not venture a step out of my doors, and at evening I
caused forty waxlights to be lit in my room before I issued from
the shade. I thought with horror on the terrible scene with the
schoolboys, yet I resolved, much courage as it demanded, once more to
make a trial of public opinion. The nights were then moonlight. Late
in the evening I threw on a wide cloak, pressed my hat over my eyes,
and stole, trembling like a criminal, out of the house. I stepped
first out of the shade in whose protection I had arrived so far, in
a remote square, into the full moonlight, determined to learn my fate
out of the mouths of the passers-by.
Spare me, dear friend, the painful repetition of all that I had to
endure. The women often testified the deepest compassion with which
I inspired them, declarations which no less transpierced me than the
mockery of the youth and the proud contempt of the men, especially
of those fat, well fed fellows, who themselves cast a broad shadow.
A lovely and sweet girl, who, as it seemed, accompanied her parents,
while these discreetly only looked before their feet, turned by chance
her flashing eyes upon me. She was obviously terrified; she observed
my want of a shadow, let fall her veil over her beautiful countenance,
and dropping her head, passed in silence.
I could bear it no longer. Briny streams started from my eyes, and,
cut to the heart, I staggered back into the shade. I was obliged to
support myself against the houses to steady my steps and wearily and
late reached my dwelling.
I spent a sleepless night. The next morning it was my first care to
have the man in the gray coat everywhere sought after. Possibly I
might succeed in finding him again, and how joyful if he repented of
the foolish bargain as heartily as I did! I ordered Bendel to me, for
he appeared to possess address and tact; I described to him exactly
the man in whose possession lay a treasure without which my life was
only a misery. I told him the time, the place in which I had seen him;
I described to him all who had been present, and added, moreover, this
token: he should particularly inquire after a Dollond's telescope;
after a gold interwoven Turkish carpet; after a splendid
pleasure-tent; and, finally, after the black chargers, whose story,
we knew not how, was connected with that of the mysterious man, who
seemed of no consideration amongst them, and whose appearance had
destroyed the quiet and happiness of my life.
When I had done speaking I fetched out gold, such a load that I was
scarcely able to carry it, and added thereto precious stones and
jewels of a far greater value. "Bendel," said I, "these level many
ways, and make easy many things which appeared quite impossible; don't
be stingy with it, as I am not, but go and rejoice thy master with the
intelligence on which his only hope depends."
He went. He returned late and sorrowful. None of the people of Mr.
John, none of his guests, and he had spoken with all, were able, in
the remotest degree, to recollect the man in the gray coat. The new
telescope was there, and no one knew whence it had come; the carpet,
the tent were still there spread and pitched on the selfsame hill;
the servants boasted of the affluence of their master, and no one
knew whence these new valuables had come to him. He himself took his
pleasure in them, and did not trouble himself because he did not know
whence he had them. The young gentlemen had the horses, which they had
ridden, in their stables, and they praised the liberality of Mr. John
who on that day made them a present of them. Thus much was clear from
the circumstantial relation of Bendel, whose active zeal and able
proceeding, although with such fruitless result, received from me
their merited commendation. I gloomily motioned him to leave me alone.
"I have," began he again, "given my master an account of the matter
which was most important to him. I have yet a message to deliver which
a person gave me whom I met at the door as I went out on the business
in which I have been so unfortunate. The very words of the man were
these: 'Tell Mr. Peter Schlemihl he will not see me here again, as I
am going over sea, and a favorable wind calls me at this moment to
the harbor. But in a year and a day I will have the honor to seek
him myself, and then to propose to him another and probably to him
agreeable transaction. Present my most humble compliments to him,
and assure him of my thanks.' I asked him who he was, but he replied
that your honor knew him already."
"What was the man's appearance?" cried I, filled with foreboding, and
Bendel sketched me the man in the gray coat, trait by trait, word for
word, as he had accurately described in his former relation the man
after whom he had inquired.
"Unhappy one!" I exclaimed, wringing my hands--"that was the very
man!" and there fell, as it were, scales from his eyes.
"Yes! it was he, it was, positively!" cried he in horror, "and
I, blind and imbecile wretch, have not recognized him, have not
recognized him, and have betrayed my master!"
He broke out into violent weeping; heaped the bitterest reproaches
on himself, and the despair in which he was inspired even me with
compassion. I spoke comfort to him, assured him repeatedly that I
entertained not the slightest doubt of his fidelity, and sent him
instantly to the port, if possible to follow the traces of this
singular man. But in the morning a great number of ships which the
contrary winds had detained in the harbor, had run out, bound to
different climes and different shores, and the gray man had vanished
as tracelessly as a dream.