It had been hot all day--the roads had been dusty--the ground, as
one trod upon it, had felt warm--the air was motionless--animal as
well as vegetable life appeared weak and exhausted--Nature herself
seemed parched and thirsty--the people on the promenade, as it got
hotter and hotter, had walked slower and slower, until they were
now crawling along as unwillingly as if they had been marching to
their graves. The world, as if from apathy, was coming to a stand
still--Langen-Schwalbach itself appeared to be fainting away, when
the evening sun, having rested for a moment on the western height,
gradually vanished from our sight.
His red tyrannical rays had hardly left our pale abject faces, when all
people suddenly revived; like a herd of fawning courtiers who had been
kept trembling before their king, they felt that, left to themselves,
they could now breathe, and think, and stamp their feet. Parasols, one
after another, were shut up--the pedestrians on the promenade freshened
their pace--even fat patients, who had long been at anchor on the
benches, began to show symptoms of getting under weigh--every leaf
seemed suddenly to be enjoying the cool gentle breeze which was now
felt stealing up the valley; until, in a very few minutes, everything
in Nature was restored to life and enjoyment.
It was the hour for returning to my "hof," but the air as it blew into
my window was so delightfully refreshing, and so irresistibly inviting,
that I and my broad-brimmed hat went out _tête-à-tête_ to enjoy it. As
we passed the red pond of iron water, opposite to the great "Indian
Hof," which comes from the strong Stahl brunnen, having nothing to do,
I lingered for some time watching the horses that were brought there.
After having toiled through the excessive heat of the day, any water
would have been agreeable to them; but the nice, cool, strengthening,
effervescing mixture into which they were now led, seemed to be so
exceedingly delightful, that they were scarcely up to their knees
before they made a strong attempt to drink: but the rule being that
they should first half walk and half swim two or three times round the
pond, this cleansing or ablution was no sooner over--the reins were no
sooner loosened--when down went their heads into the red cooling pool;
and one had then only to look at the horses' eyes to appreciate their
enjoyment. With the whole of their mouths and nostrils immersed, they
seemed as if they fancied they could drink the pond dry; however, the
greedy force with which they held their heads down gradually relaxed,
until, at last, up they were raised, with an aspiration which seemed
to say, "We can hold no more!" In about ten seconds, however, their
noses again dropped to the surface, but only to play with an element
which seemed now to be useless--so completely had one single draught
altered its current value! As I stood at the edge of this pond, leaning
over the rail, mentally participating with the horses in the luxury
they were enjoying, a violent shower of rain came on; yet, before I
had hurried fifty yards for an umbrella, it had ceased. These little
showers are exceedingly common amongst the hills of Nassau in the
evenings of very hot days. From the power of the sun, the valleys
during the day are filled brimful with a steam, or exhalation, which
no sooner loses its parent, the sun, than the cold condenses it; and
then, like the tear on the cheek of a child that has suddenly missed
its mother, down it falls in heavy drops, and the next instant--smiles
again.
As the air was very agreeable, I wandered up the hilly road which
leads to Bad-Ems; and then, strolling into a field of corn, which
had been just cut, I continued to climb the mountain, until, turning
round, I found, as I expected, that I had attained just the sort of
view I wanted; but it would be impossible to describe to the reader
the freshness of the scene. Beneath was the long scrambling village
of the Langen-Schwalbach, the slates of which, absolutely blooming
from the shower they had just received, looked so very clean and
fresh, that for some time my eyes quite enjoyed rambling from one
roof to the next, and then glancing from one extremity of the town to
the other;--they had been looking at hot dazzling objects all day--I
thought I never should be able to raise them from the cool blue wet
slates. However, as the light rapidly faded, the landscape itself soon
became equally refreshing, for the dry parched corn-fields assumed a
richer hue, the green crops seemed bending under dew, and the whole
picture, hills, town, and all, appeared so newly painted, that the
colours from Nature's brush were too fresh to be dry. All of a sudden,
majestically rolling up the valley, was seen a misty vapour, which, at
last, reaching the houses, rolled from roof to roof, until it hovered
over, or rather rested upon the whole town, and this was no sooner the
case than the slates seemed all to have vanished!
In vain I looked for them, for the cloud exactly matching them in
colour had so completely disguised them, that they formed nothing
now but the base or foundation of the misty fabric which rested upon
them. Instead of a blue town, Langen-Schwalbach now appeared to be a
white one; for, the roofs no longer attracting attention, the shining
walls burst into notice, and a serpentine line of glistening patches,
nearly resembling a ridge of snow, clearly marked out the shape and
limits of the town; but as, in this elevated country, there is little
or no twilight, the features of the picture again rapidly faded, until
even this white line was hardly to be seen; corn-fields could now
scarcely be distinguished from green crops--all became dark--and the
large forest on the south hills, as well as the small woods which are
scattered on the heights, had so completely lost their colour, that
they appeared to be immense black pits or holes. In a short time every
thing beneath me was lost; and sitting on the ground, leaning against
seven sheaves of corn piled up together, I was enjoying the sublime
serenity, the mysterious uncertainty of the scene before me, when
another very beautiful change took place!
I believe I have already told the reader that, beside myself, there
were about 1200 strangers in the little village of Langen-Schwalbach.
Of course every hof was fully inhabited, and, as soon as darkness
prevailed, the effect produced by each house being suddenly and
almost simultaneously lighted up, was really quite romantic. In
every direction, sometimes at the top of one hof, then at the bottom
of another, lights burst into existence--the eye attracted, eagerly
flew from one to another, until, from the number which burst into
life, it became quite impossible to attend to each. The bottom of the
valley, like the dancing of fire-flies, was sparkling in the most
irregular succession; till, in a short time, this fantastic confusion
vanished, and every room (there being no shutters) having its light,
Langen-Schwalbach was once again restored to view--each house, and
every story of each house, being now clearly defined by a regular and
very pleasing illumination; and while, seated in utter darkness, I
gazed at the gay sparkling scene before me, I could not help feeling
that, of all the beautiful contrasts in Nature, there can be no one
more vivid than the sudden change between darkness and light. How weary
we should be of eternal sunshine,--how gloomy would it be to grope
through one's life in utter darkness, and yet what loveliness do each
of these, by contrast, impart to the other! On the heights above the
village, how magnificent was the darkness after a hot sun-shining day;
and then, again, how lovely was the twinkling even of tallow-candles,
when they suddenly burst upon this darkness! Yet it is with these two
ingredients that Nature works up all her pictures; and, as Paganini's
tunes all come out of two strings of cat-gut, and two of the entrails
of a kitten, so do all the varieties which please our eyes proceed
from a mixture in different proportions of light and shade; and,
indeed, in the moral world, it is the chiaro-oscuro, the brightness
and darkness of which alone form the happiness of our existence. What
would prosperity be, if there was no such sorrow as adversity? what
would health be if sickness did not exist? and what would be the smile
of an approving conscience if there was not the torment of repentance
writhing under guilt? But I will persecute the reader no longer with
the reflections which occurred to me, as I sat in a wheat-field,
gazing on the lights of Langen-Schwalbach. Good or bad, they managed
to please me; however, after remaining in darkness, till it became
much colder than was agreeable, I wandered back to my hof, entered my
dormitory, and my head having there found its pillow, as I extinguished
my candle, I mumbled to myself--"There goes one of the tallow stars of
Langen-Schwalbach!--Sic transit gloria mundi!"
I was lying prostrate, still awake--and (there being no shutters to the
window at the foot of the bed) I was looking at some oddly-shaped,
tall, acute-angled, slated roofs, glistening in the light of the round
full moon, which was hanging immediately above them. The scene was
delightfully silent and serene. Occasionally I faintly heard a distant
footstep approaching, until treading heavily under the window, its
sound gradually diminished, till all again was silent. Sometimes a
cloud passing slowly across the moon would veil the roofs in darkness;
and then, again, they would suddenly burst upon the eye, in silvery
light, shining brighter than ever. As somewhat fatigued I lay half
enjoying this scene, and half dozing, I suddenly heard, apparently
close to me, the scream of a woman, which really quite electrified me!
On listening it was repeated, when, jumping out of bed and opening the
door, I heard it again proceeding from a room at the distant end of
the passage; and such was the violence of its tone, that my impression
was--"the lady's room is on fire!"
There is something in the piercing shriek of a woman in distress which
produces an irresistible effect on the featherless biped, called man;
and, in rushing to her assistance, he performs no duty--he exercises
no virtue--but merely obeys an instinctive impulse which has been
benevolently imparted to him--not for his own good, but for the safety
and protection of a weaker and a better sex.
But although this feeling exists so powerfully chez nous, yet it has
not by nature been imparted to common-place garments, such as coats,
black figured silk waistcoats, rusty knee-breeches, nor even to easy
shoes, blue worsted stockings, or such like; and, therefore, while,
by an irresistible attraction which I could not possibly counteract,
obeying the mysterious impulse of my nature, I rushed along the
passage, these base, unchivalric garments remained coldly dangling over
the back of a chair: in short, I followed the laws of my nature--they,
theirs.
With some difficulty, having succeeded in bursting open the door just
as a fifth shriek was repeated, I rushed in, and there, sitting up
in her bed--her soft arms most anxiously extended towards me--her
countenance expressing an agony of fear--sat a young lady, by no means
ill-favoured, and aged (as near as I could hastily calculate) about
twenty-one!
Almost in hysterics, she began, in German, to tell a long incoherent
story; and though, with calm, natural dignity, I did what I could
to quiet her, the tears rushed into her eyes--she then almost in
convulsions began, with her hands under the bed-clothes, to scratch
her knees, then shrieked again; and I do confess that I was altogether
at a loss to conceive what in the sacred name of virtue was the matter
with the young lady, when, by her repeating several times the word
"Ratten! Ratten!!" I at once comprehended that there were (or that the
amiable young person fancied that there were)--_rats in her bed_!
The dog Billy, as well as many puppies of less name, would instantly,
perhaps, have commenced a vigorous attack; rats, however, are reptiles
I am not in the habit either of hunting or destroying.
The young lady's aunt, an elderly personage, now appeared at the door,
in her night-clothes, as yellow and as sallow as if she had just
risen from the grave; peeping over her shoulder, stood our landlady's
blooming daughter in her bed-gown--Leonhard, the son _cum multis
aliis_. What they could all have thought of the scene--what they could
have thought of my strange, gaunt, unadorned appearance--what they
could have thought of the niece's screams--and what they would have
thought had I deigned to tell them I had come to her bedside merely to
catch rats--it was out of my power to divine: however, the fact was, I
cared not a straw what they thought; but, seeing that my presence was
not requisite, I gravely left the poor innocent sufferer to tell her
own story. "Ratten! Ratten!!" was its theme; and, long before her fears
subsided, my mind, as well as its body, were placidly intranced in
sleep.