Left alone on the wild heath, I gave free current to my countless
tears, relieving my heart from an ineffably weary weight. But I saw no
bound, no outlet, no end to my intolerable misery, and I drank besides
with savage thirst of the fresh poison which the unknown had poured
into my wounds. When I called the image of Mina before my soul, and
the dear, sweet form appeared pale and in tears, as I saw her last in
my shame, then stepped, impudent and mocking, Rascal's shadow between
her and me; I covered my face and fled through the wild. Yet the
hideous apparition left me not, but pursued me in my flight, till I
sank breathless on the ground, and moistened it with a fresh torrent
of tears.
And all for a shadow! And this shadow a pen-stroke could have obtained
for me! I thought over the strange proposition and my refusal. All
was chaos in me. I had no longer either discernment or faculty of
comprehension.
The day went along. I stilled my hunger with wild fruits, my thirst
in the nearest mountain stream. The night fell; I lay down beneath a
tree. The damp morning awoke me out of a heavy sleep in which I heard
myself rattle in the throat as in death. Bendel must have lost all
trace of me, and it rejoiced me to think so. I would not return again
amongst men before whom I fled in terror, like the timid game of the
mountains. Thus I lived through three weary days.
On the fourth morning I found myself on a sandy plain bright with
the sun, and sat on a rock in its beams, for I loved now to enjoy its
long-withheld countenance. I silently fed my heart with its despair. A
light rustle startled me. Ready for flight I threw round me a hurried
glance; I saw no one, but in the sunny sand there glided past me a
human shadow, not unlike my own, which, wandering there alone,
seemed to have escaped from its possessor. There awoke in me a mighty
yearning. "Shadow," said I, "dost thou seek thy master? I will be he,"
and I sprang forward to seize it. I thought that if I succeeded in
treading on it so that its feet touched mine, it probably would remain
hanging there, and in time accommodate itself to me.
The shadow, on my moving, fled before me, and I was compelled to begin
a strenuous chase of the light fugitive, for which the thought of
rescuing myself from my fearful condition could alone have endowed me
with the requisite vigor. It flew toward a wood, at a great distance,
in which I must, of necessity, have lost it. I perceived this--a
horror convulsed my heart, inflamed my desire, added wings to my
speed; I gained evidently on the shadow, I came continually nearer,
I must certainly reach it. Suddenly it stopped, and turned toward me.
Like a lion on its prey, I shot with a mighty spring forward to make
seizure of it--and dashed unexpectedly against a hard and bodily
object. Invisibly I received the most unprecedented blows on the ribs
that mortal man probably ever received.
The effect of the terror in me was convulsively to close my arms,
and firmly to inclose that which stood unseen before me. In the rapid
transaction I plunged forward to the ground, but backward and under me
was a man whom I had embraced and who now first became visible.
The whole occurrence then became very naturally explicable to me. The
man must have carried the invisible bird's nest which renders him who
holds it, but not his shadow, imperceptible, and had now cast it away.
I glanced round, soon discovered the shadow of the invisible nest
itself, leaped up and toward it, and did not miss the precious prize.
Invisible and shadowless, I held the nest in my hand.
The man swiftly springing up, gazing round instantly after his
fortunate conqueror, descried on the wide sunny plain neither him nor
his shadow, for which he sought with especial avidity. For that I was
myself entirely shadowless he had no leisure to remark, nor could he
imagine such a thing. Having convinced himself that every trace had
vanished, he turned his hand against himself and tore his hair in
great despair. To me, however, the acquired treasure had given
the power and desire to mix again amongst men. I did not want for
self-satisfying palliatives for my base robbery, or, rather, I had no
need of them; and to escape from every thought of the kind, I hastened
away, not even looking round at the unhappy one, whose deploring voice
I long heard resounding behind me. Thus, at least, appeared to me the
circumstances at the time.
I was on fire to proceed to the Forester's garden, and there myself
to discern the truth of what the Detested One had told me. I knew not,
however, where I was. I climbed the next hill, in order to look round
over the country, and perceived from its summit the near city and the
Forester's garden lying at my feet. My heart beat violently, and tears
of another kind than what I had till now shed rushed into my eyes. I
should see her again! Anxious desire hastened my steps down the most
direct path. I passed unseen some peasants who came out of the city.
They were talking of me, of Rascal, and the Forest-master; I would
hear nothing--I hurried past.
I entered the garden, all the tremor of expectation in my bosom. I
seemed to hear laughter near me. I shuddered, threw a rapid glance
round me, but could discover nobody. I advanced farther. I seemed to
perceive a sound as of man's steps near me, but there was nothing to
be seen. I believed myself deceived by my ear. It was yet early, no
one in Count Peter's arbor, the garden still empty. I traversed the
well-known paths. I penetrated to the very front of the dwelling.
The same noise more distinctly followed me. I seated myself with an
agonized heart on a bench which stood in the sunny space before the
house-door. It seemed as if I had heard the unseen kobold, laughing in
mockery, seat himself near me. The key turned in the door, it opened,
and the Forest-master issued forth with papers in his hand. A mist
seemed to envelop my head. I looked up, and--horror! the man in the
gray coat sat by me, gazing on me with a satanic leer. He had drawn
his magic-cap at once over his head and mine; at his feet lay his
and my shadow peaceably by each other. He played negligently with
the well-known parchment which he held in his hand, and as the
Forest-master, busied with his documents, went to and fro in the
shadow of the arbor, he stooped familiarly to my ear and whispered
in it these words--"So then you have, notwithstanding, accepted my
invitation, and here sit we for once, two heads under one cap. All
right! all right! But now give me my bird's nest again; you have no
further need of it, and are too honest a man to wish to withhold it
from me; but there needs no thanks; I assure you that I have lent it
you with the most hearty good will." He took it unceremoniously out
of my hand, put it in his pocket, and laughed at me again, and that so
loud that the Forest-master himself looked round at the noise. I sat
there as if changed to stone.
"But you must admit," continued he, "that such a cap is much more
convenient. It covers not only your person but your shadow at the same
time, and as many others as you have a mind to take with you. See you
again today. I conduct two of them"--he laughed again. "Mark this,
Schlemihl; what we at first won't do with a good will, that will we
in the end be compelled to. I still fancy you will buy that thing
from me, take back the bride (for it is yet time), and we leave Rascal
dangling on the gallows, an easy thing for us so long as rope is to be
had. Hear you--I will give you also my cap into the bargain."
The mother came forth, and the conversation began. "How goes it with
Mina?"
"She weeps."
"Silly child! it cannot be altered!"
"Certainly not; but to give her to another so soon? Oh, man! thou art
cruel to thy own child."
"No, mother, that thou quite mistakest. When she, even before she has
wept out her childish tears, finds herself the wife of a very rich and
honorable man, she will awake comforted out of her trouble as out of a
dream, and thank God and us--that shalt thou see!"
"God grant it!"
"She possesses now, indeed, a very respectable property; but after the
stir that this unlucky affair with the adventurer has made, canst
thou believe that a partner so suitable as Mr. Rascal could be readily
found for her? Dost thou know what a fortune Mr. Rascal possesses? He
has paid six millions for estates here in the country, free from
all debts. I have had the title deeds in my own hands! He it was
who everywhere had the start of me; and, besides this, has in his
possession bills on Thomas John for about three and a half millions."
"He must have stolen enormously!"
"What talk is that again! He has wisely saved what would otherwise
have been lavished away."
"A man that has worn livery--"
"Stupid stuff! He has, however, an unblemished shadow."
"Thou art right, but--"
The man in the gray coat laughed and looked at me. The door opened and
Mina came forth. She supported herself on the arm of a chambermaid,
silent tears rolling down her lovely pale cheeks. She seated herself
on a stool which was placed for her under the lime trees, and her
father took a chair by her. He tenderly took her hand, and addressed
her with tender words, while she began violently to weep.
"Thou art my good, dear child, and thou wilt be reasonable, wilt not
wish to distress thy old father, who seeks only thy happiness. I can
well conceive it, dear heart, that it has sadly shaken thee. Thou art
wonderfully escaped from thy misfortunes! Before we discovered the
scandalous imposition, thou hadst loved this unworthy one greatly;
see, Mina, I know it, and upbraid thee not for it. I myself, dear
child, also loved him so long as I looked upon him as a great
gentleman. But now thou seest how different all has turned out. What!
every poodle has his own shadow, and should my dear child have a
husband--no! thou thinkest, indeed, no more about him. Listen, Mina!
Now a man solicits thy hand, who does not shun the sunshine, an
honorable man, who truly is no prince, but who possesses ten millions,
ten times more than thou; a man who will make my dear child happy.
Answer me not, make no opposition, be my good, dutiful daughter, let
thy loving father care for thee, and dry thy tears. Promise me to give
thy hand to Mr. Rascal. Say, wilt thou promise me this?"
She answered with a faint voice--"I have no will, no wish further upon
earth. Happen with me what my father will."
At this moment Mr. Rascal was announced, and stepped impudently into
the circle. Mina lay in a swoon. My detested companion glanced angrily
at me, and whispered in hurried words--"And that can you endure? What
then flows instead of blood in your veins?" He scratched with a
hasty movement a slight wound in my hand, blood flowed, and he
continued--"Actually red blood!--So sign then!" I had the parchment
and the pen in my hand.