THE POWERS OF EVIL.
Rudy left Bex, and took the homeward path up the mountains, in the
fresh, cooling air, the domain of the Ice-Maiden. The thick foliage of
the trees deep below him looked as if they were potato plants; the
firs and the bushes appeared even less, the Alpine roses bloomed near
the snow, which lay in separate patches as if it were linen put out to
bleach. There was a single blue gentian, and he crushed it with the
butt-end of his gun.
Higher up he saw two chamois. Rudy's eyes sparkled, his thoughts took
a new flight; but he was not near enough to them for him to shoot with
confidence; so he climbed higher, where only coarse grass grew among
the blocks of stone; the chamois went placidly along the snow-fields.
Rudy hurried on eagerly, surrounded by misty clouds, and on a sudden
he stood in front of a precipitous rocky wall, and the rain began to
fall in torrents.
He felt a parching thirst, his head was hot, but his limbs were cold.
He seized his hunting-flask, but it was empty; he had not thought of
it when he rushed up the mountain. He had never been ill, but now he
had a presentiment of it; he was tired, he felt a desire to throw
himself down and go to sleep, but everything was streaming with water.
Strange objects vibrated before his eyes, but he saw on a sudden, what
he had never seen there before, a newly-built low house, leaning
against the rock, and at the door stood a young maiden. He thought it
was the schoolmaster's Annette, whom he once had kissed at a dance,
but it was not Annette, and yet he had seen her before, perhaps near
Grindelwald, that night when he went home from the shooting match at
Interlaken.
"Where do you come from?" he demanded.
"I am at home!" said she. "I am watching my flock."
"Your flock! Where do they graze? Here are only snow and rocks!"
"You are very clever!" said she with a laugh. "Here behind us, lower
down, is a beautiful meadow! that is where my goats go. I take good
care of them! I don't lose one; what is mine remains mine!"
[Illustration: She came out with a bowl of wine and gave it to Rudy to
drink.]
"You are brave!" said Rudy.
"You also!" replied she.
"Have you any milk? Pray give me some, for I am intolerably thirsty!"
"I have something better than milk!" said she, "that you shall have!
Yesterday some travelers came here with their guide; they forgot half
a bottle of wine, such as you have never tasted; they will not fetch
it, and I don't drink it, so you can have it."
And she came out with the wine, poured it into a wooden bowl, and gave
it to Rudy.
"That is good!" said he. "I have never tasted any wine so warming and
fiery!" and his eyes sparkled, and there came an animation, a glow
into him, as if all sorrow and depression had evaporated; and the
gushing, fresh human nature coursed through his veins.
"But this is surely the schoolmaster's Annette!" he exclaimed. "Give
me a kiss!"
"Then give me the pretty ring you have on your finger!"
"My engagement ring?"
"Exactly so!" said the girl; and she poured wine into the bowl, and
held it to his lips, and he drank it. The joy of living was in his
blood, he felt as if all the world belonged to him, and why should he
worry? Everything is for us to enjoy and to make us happy! The stream
of life is a stream of joy; to ride on it, to let ourselves float on
its surface, that is felicity! He looked at the young girl: it was
Annette, and still it was not Annette; even less was it the goblin
phantom, as he had called her, he met near Grindelwald. The girl here
on the mountain was fresh as the new-fallen snow, blooming as an
Alpine rose, and nimble as a kid, but still formed out of Adam's ribs,
as human as Rudy. And he put his arms around her, and gazed into her
wonderfully clear eyes. It was only for a second, and in this--who can
explain it? was it the spirit of life or of death that filled
him?--was he raised on high, or did he sink down into the deep,
murderous abyss of ice, deeper, ever deeper? He saw the walls of ice
like blue-green glass; endless crevasses gaped around him, and water
dripped sounding like chimes, and gleaming like pearls in bluish-white
flames. The Ice-Maiden gave him a kiss, and it chilled him through his
backbone and into his brain. He gave one cry of pain, dragged himself
away, stumbled and fell, and it was night before his eyes. The powers
of evil had played their game.
[Illustration: "The Ice-maiden gave him a kiss."]
When he reopened his eyes the Alpine maiden was gone, as was also the
sheltering cottage. Water drove down the bare rocky wall, the snow lay
all round him; Rudy shivered with cold, he was soaked to the skin, and
his ring was gone, his engagement ring which Babette had given him.
His gun lay by him in the snow; he took it up and wished to discharge
it, but it missed fire. Watery clouds lay like solid masses of snow in
the crevasse; Giddiness sat there and lured on her helpless prey, and
under her there was a sound in the deep crevasse as if a huge rock
were falling, crushing and sweeping away everything that would stop it
in its fall.
But in the mill Babette sat weeping. Rudy had not been near her for
six days--he who was in the wrong, he who ought to ask her
forgiveness, because she loved him with her whole heart.