blushed that he should receive it and make no return. With ineloquent
lips, but with looks so much the more eloquent, he took mournful leave
of her; and at the gate below found two white Steers awaiting him, as
sleek and glittering as of old the godlike Bull, on whose smooth back
the virgin Europa swam across the blue sea waves. Joyfully he loosed
them from the post, and drove them softly on before him. The distance
home seemed but a few ells, so much was his spirit busied with the fair
Libussa: and he vowed, that as he never could obtain her love, he would
love no other all his days. The old Knight rejoiced in the return of his
son; and still more in learning that the oracle of the fair heiress
agreed so completely with his own wishes. As husbandry had been
appointed by the gods for the young man's trade, he lingered not in
harnessing his white Steers, and yoking them to the plough. The first
trial prospered to his wish: the bullocks had such strength and alacrity
that they turned over in a single day more land than twelve yoke of oxen
commonly can master: for they were fiery and impetuous, as the Bull is
painted in the Almanac, where he rushes from the clouds in the sign of
April; not sluggish and heavy like the Ox, who plods on with his holy
consorts, in our Gospel-Book, phlegmatically, as a Dutch skipper in a
calm.
Duke Czech, who had led the first colony of his people into Bohemia, was
now long ago committed to his final rest, yet his descendants had not
been promoted to succeed him in his princely dignity. The Magnates had
in truth, at his decease, assembled for a new election; but their wild
stormy tempers would admit of no reasonable resolution. Self-interest
and self-sufficiency transformed the first Bohemian Convention of
Estates into a Polish Diet: as too many hands laid hold of the princely
mantle, they tore it in pieces, and no one of them obtained it. The
government had dwindled to a sort of Anarchy; every one did what was
right in his own eyes; the strong oppressed the weak, the rich the
poor, the great the little. There was now no public security in the
land; yet the frank spirits of the time thought their new republic very
well arranged: "All is in order," said they, "every thing goes on its
way with us as well as elsewhere; the wolf eats the lamb, the kite the
dove, the fox the cock." This artless constitution could not last: when
the first debauch of fancied freedom had gone off, and the people were
again grown sober, reason asserted its rights; the patriots, the honest
citizens, whoever in the nation loved his country, joined together to
destroy the idol Hydra, and unite the people once more under a single
head. "Let us choose a Prince," said they, "to rule over us, after the
manner of our fathers, to tame the froward, and exercise right and
justice in the midst of us. Not the strongest, the boldest, or the
richest; the wisest be our Duke!" The people, wearied out with the
oppressions of their petty tyrants, had on this occasion but one voice,
and loudly applauded the proposal. A meeting of Estates was convoked;
and the choice unanimously fell upon the wise Krokus. An embassy of
honour was appointed, inviting him to take possession of the princely
dignity. Though he had never longed for lofty titles, he hesitated not
about complying with the people's wish. Invested with the purple, he
proceeded, with great pomp, to Vizegrad, the residence of the Dukes;
where the people met him with triumphant shouting, and did reverence to
him as their Regent. Whereby he perceived, that now the third Reed-stalk
of the bountiful Elf was likewise sending forth its gift upon him.
His love of justice, and his wise legislation, soon spread his fame over
all the surrounding countries. The Sarmatic Princes, incessantly at feud
with one another, brought their contention from afar before his
judgment-seat. He weighed it with the undeceitful weights of natural
Justice, in the scales of Law; and when he opened his mouth, it was as
if the venerable Solon, or the wise Solomon from between the Twelve
Lions of his throne, had been pronouncing sentence. Some seditious
instigators having leagued against the peace of their country, and
kindled war among the Poles, he advanced at the head of his army into
Poland; put an end to the civil strife; and a large portion of the
people, grateful for the peace which he had given them, chose him for
their Duke also. He there built the city Cracow, which is called by his
name, and has the privilege of crowning the Polish Kings, even to the
present time. Krokus ruled with great glory to the end of his days.
Observing that he was now near their limit, and must soon set out, he
caused a coffin to be made from the fragments of the oak which his
spouse the Elf had inhabited; and then departed in peace, bewept by the
Princesses his three daughters, who deposited the Ducal remains in the
coffin, and consigned him to the Earth as he had commanded; and the
whole land mourned for him.
When the obsequies were finished, the Estates assembled to deliberate
who should now possess the vacant throne. The people were unanimous for
one of Krokus's daughters; but which of the three they had not yet
determined. Fraeulein Bela had, on the whole, the fewest adherents; for
her heart was not good; and her magic-lantern was too frequently
employed in doing sheer mischief. But she had raised such a terror of
herself among the people, that no one liked to take exception at her,
lest he might draw down her vengeance on him. When the vote was called,
therefore, the Electors all continued dumb; there was no voice for her,
but also none against her. At sunset the representatives of the people
separated, adjourning their election to another day. Then Fraeulein
Therba was proposed: but confidence in her incantations had made
Fraeulein Therba's head giddy; she was proud and overbearing; required to
be honoured as a goddess; and if incense did not always smoke for her,
she grew peevish, cross, capricious; displaying all the properties by
which the fair sex, when they please, can cease to be fair. She was less
feared than her elder sister, but not on that account more loved. For
these reasons, the election-field continued silent as a lykewake; and
the vote was never called for. On the third day came Libussa's turn. No
sooner was this name pronounced, than a confidential hum was heard
throughout the electing circle; the solemn visages unwrinkled and
brightened up, and each of the Electors had some good to whisper of the
Fraeulein to his neighbour. One praised her virtue, another praised her
modesty, a third her prudence, a fourth her infallibility in prophecy, a
fifth her disinterestedness in giving counsel, a tenth her chastity,
other ninety her beauty, and the last her gifts as a housewife. When a
lover draws out such a catalogue of the perfections of his mistress, it
remains still doubtful whether she is really the possessor of a single
one among them; but the public seldom errs on the favourable side,
however often on the other, in the judgments it pronounces on good fame.
With so many universally acknowledged praiseworthy qualities, Fraeulein
Libussa was undoubtedly the favoured candidate, at least _in petto_, of
the sage Electors: but the preference of the younger sister to the elder
has so frequently, in the affair of marriage, as experience testifies,
destroyed the peace of the house, that reasonable fear might be
entertained lest in affairs of still greater moment it might disturb the
peace of the country. This consideration put the sapient guardians of
the people into such embarrassment, that they could come to no
conclusion whatever. There was wanting a speaker, to hang the
clock-weight of his eloquence upon the wheel of the Electors' favourable
will, before the business could get into motion, and the good
disposition of their minds become active and efficient; and this speaker
now appeared, as if appointed for the business.
Wladomir, one of the Bohemian Magnates, the highest after the Duke, had
long sighed for the enchanting Libussa, and wooed her during Father
Krokus's lifetime. The youth being one of his most faithful vassals, and
beloved by him as a son, the worthy Krokus could have wished well that
love would unite this pair; but the coyness of the maiden was
insuperable, and he would in nowise force her inclination. Prince
Wladomir, however, would not be deterred by these doubtful aspects; but
still hoped, by fidelity and constancy, to tire out the hard heart of
the Fraeulein, and by his tender attentions make it soft and pliant. He
continued in the Duke's retinue to the end, without appearing by this
means to have advanced a hair's-breadth towards the goal of his desires.
But now, he thought, an opportunity was offered him for opening her
closed heart by a meritorious deed, and earning from her noble-minded
gratitude what love did not seem inclined to grant him voluntarily. He
determined on braving the hatred and vengeance of the two dreaded
sisters, and raising his beloved to her paternal throne. Observing the
indecision of the wavering assembly, he addressed them, and said:
"If ye will hear me, ye courageous Knights and Nobles from among the
people, I will lay before you a similitude, by which you shall perceive
how this coming choice may be accomplished, to the weal and profit of
the land."
Silence being ordered, he proceeded thus:
"The Bees had lost their Queen, and the whole hive sat sad and moping;
they flew seldom and sluggishly out, had small heart or activity in
honey-making, and their trade and sustenance fell into decay. Therefore
they resolved upon a new sovereign, to rule over their community, that
discipline and order might not be lost from among them. Then came the
Wasp flying towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your Queen, I am
mighty and terrible; the strong horse is afraid of my sting; with it I
can even defy the lion, your hereditary foe, and prick him in the snout
when he approaches your store: I will watch you and defend you.' This
speech was pleasant to the Bees; but after deeply considering it, the
wisest among them answered: 'Thou art stout and dreadful, but even the
sting which is to guard us we fear: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then
the Humble-bee came buzzing towards them, and said: 'Choose me for your
Queen; hear ye not that the sounding of my wings announces loftiness and
dignity? Nor is a sting wanting to me, wherewith to protect you.' The
Bees answered: 'We are a peaceable and quiet people; the proud sounding
of thy wings would annoy us, and disturb the continuance of our
diligence: thou canst not be our Queen.' Then the Royal-bee requested
audience: 'Though I am larger and stronger than you,' said she, 'my
strength cannot hurt or damage you; for, lo, the dangerous sting is
altogether wanting. I am soft of temper, a friend of order and thrift,
can guide your honey-making, and further your labour.' 'Then,' said the
Bees, 'thou art worthy to rule over us: we obey thee; be our Queen.'"
Wladomir was silent. The whole assembly guessed the meaning of his
speech, and the minds of all were in a favourable tone for Fraeulein
Libussa. But at the moment when the vote was to be put, a croaking raven
flew over their heads: this evil omen interrupted all deliberations, and
the meeting was adjourned till the morrow. It was Fraeulein Bela who had
sent this bird of black augury to stop their operations, for she well
knew how the minds of the Electors were inclining; and Prince Wladomir
had raised her bitterest spleen against him. She held a secret
consultation with her sister Therba; when it was determined to take
vengeance on their common slanderer, and to dispatch a heavy Incubus to
suffocate the soul from his body. The stout Knight, dreaming nothing of
this danger, went, as he was wont, to wait upon his mistress, and was
favoured by her with the first friendly look; from which he failed not
to presage for himself a heaven of delight; and if anything could still
have increased his rapture, it must have been the gift of a rose, which
was blooming on the Fraeulein's breast, and which she reached him, with
an injunction to let it wither on his heart. He interpreted these words
quite otherwise than they were meant; for of all the sciences, there is
none so deceitful as the science of expounding in matters of love: here
errors, as it were, have their home. The enamoured Knight was anxious to
preserve his rose as long as possible in freshness and bloom; he put it
in a flower-pot among water, and fell asleep with the most flattering
hopes.
At gloomy midnight, the destroying angel sent by Fraeulein Bela glided
towards him; with panting breath blew off the bolts and locks of his
apartment; lighted like a mountain of lead upon the slumbering Knight,
and so squeezed him together, that he felt on awakening as if a
millstone had been hung about his neck. In this agonising suffocation,
thinking that the last moment of his life was at hand, he happily
remembered the rose, which was standing by his bed in a flower-pot, and
pressed it to his breast, saying: "Wither with me, fair rose, and die on
my chilled bosom, as a proof that my last thought was directed to thy
gentle mistress." In an instant all was light about his heart; the heavy
Incubus could not withstand the magic force of the flower; his crushing
weight would not now have balanced a feather; his antipathy to the
perfume soon scared him from the chamber; and the narcotic virtue of
this rose-odour again lulled the Knight into refreshing sleep. He rose
with the sun next morning, fresh and alert, and rode to the field, to
see what impression his similitude had made on the Electors, and to
watch what course the business was about to take; determined at all
hazards, should a contrary wind spring up, and threaten with shipwreck
the vessel of his hopes, to lay his hand upon the rudder, and steer it
into port.
For the present this was not required. The electing Senate had
considered Wladomir's parable, and so sedulously ruminated and digested
it overnight, that it had passed into their hearts and spirits. A stout
Knight, who espied this favourable crisis, and who sympathised in the
concerns of his heart with the enamoured Wladomir, was endeavouring to
snatch away, or at least to share with him, the honour of exalting
Fraeulein Libussa to the throne. He stept forth, and drew his sword, and
with a loud voice proclaimed Libussa Duchess of Bohemia, calling upon
all who thought as he did, to draw their swords and justify the choice.
In a moment hundreds of swords were gleaming through the field; a loud
huzza announced the new Regent, and on all sides arose the joyful shout:
"Libussa be our Duchess!" A commission was appointed, with Wladomir and
the stout sword-drawer at its head, to acquaint the Fraeulein with her
exaltation to the princely rank. With that modest blush, which gives the
highest grace to female charms, she accepted the sovereignty over the
people; and the magic of her enrapturing look made all hearts subject to
her. The nation celebrated the event with vast rejoicings: and although
her two sisters envied her, and employed their secret arts to obtain
revenge on her and their country for the slight which had been put upon
them, and endeavoured by the leaven of criticism, by censuring all the
measures and transactions of their sister, to produce a hurtful
fermentation in the state, yet Libussa was enabled wisely to encounter
this unsisterly procedure, and to ruin all the hostile projects, magical
or other, of these ungentle persons; till at last, weary of assailing
her in vain, they ceased to employ their ineffectual arts against her.
The sighing Wladomir awaited, in the mean time, with wistful longing,
the unfolding of his fate. More than once he had tried to read the final
issue of it in the fair eyes of his Princess; but Libussa had enjoined
them strict silence respecting the feelings of her heart; and for a
lover, without prior treaty with the eyes and their significant glances,
to demand an oral explanation, is at all times an unhappy undertaking.
The only favourable sign, which still sustained his hopes, was the
unfaded rose; for after a year had passed away, it still bloomed as
fresh as on the night when he received it from her fair hand. A flower
from a lady's hand, a nosegay, a ribbon, or a lock of hair, is certainly
in all cases better than an empty nut; yet all these pretty things are
but ambiguous pledges of love, if they have not borrowed meaning from
some more trustworthy revelation. Wladomir had nothing for it but to
play in silence the part of a sighing shepherd, and to watch what Time
and Chance might in the long-run do to help him. The unquiet Mizisla
pursued his courtship with far more vivacity: he pressed forward on
every occasion where he could obtain her notice. At the coronation, he
had been the first that took the oath of fealty to the Princess; he
followed her inseparably, as the Moon does the Earth, to express by
unbidden offices of zeal his devotion to her person; and on public
solemnities and processions, he flourished his sword before her, to keep
its good services in her remembrance.
Yet Libussa seemed, like other people in the world, to have very
speedily forgotten the promoters of her fortune; for when an obelisk is
once standing perpendicular, one heeds not the levers and implements
which raised it; so at least the claimants of her heart explained the
Fraeulein's coldness. Meanwhile both of them were wrong in their opinion:
the Fraeulein was neither insensible nor ungrateful; but her heart was no
longer a free piece of property, which she could give or sell according
to her pleasure. The decree of Love had already passed in favour of the
trim Forester with the sure cross-bow. The first impression, which the
sight of him had made upon her heart, was still so strong, that no
second could efface it. In a period of three years, the colours of
imagination, in which that Divinity had painted the image of the
graceful youth, had no whit abated in their brightness; and love
therefore continued altogether unimpaired. For the passion of the fair
sex is of this nature, that if it can endure three moons, it will then
last three times three years, or longer if required. In proof of this,
see the instances occurring daily before our eyes. When the heroes of
Germany sailed over distant seas, to fight out the quarrel of a
self-willed daughter of Britain with her motherland, they tore
themselves from the arms of their dames with mutual oaths of truth and
constancy; yet before the last Buoy of the Weser had got astern of them,
the heroic navigators were for most part forgotten of their Chloes. The
fickle among these maidens, out of grief to find their hearts
unoccupied, hastily supplied the vacuum by the surrogate of new
intrigues; but the faithful and true, who had constancy enough to stand
the Weser-proof, and had still refrained from infidelity when the
conquerors of their hearts had got beyond the Black Buoy, these, it is
said, preserved their vow unbroken till the return of the heroic host
into their German native country; and are still expecting from the hand
of Love the recompense of their unwearied perseverance.
It is therefore less surprising that the fair Libussa, under these
circumstances, could withstand the courting of the brilliant chivalry
who struggled for her love, than that Penelope of Ithaca could let a
whole cohort of wooers sigh for her in vain, when her heart had nothing
in reserve but the gray-headed Ulysses. Rank and birth, however, had
established such a difference in the situations of the Fraeulein and of
her beloved youth, that any closer union than Platonic love, a shadowy
business which can neither warm nor nourish, was not readily to be
expected. Though in those distant times, the pairing of the sexes was as
little estimated by parchments and genealogical trees, as the chaffers
were arranged by their antennae and shell-wings, or the flowers by their
pistils, stamina, calix and honey-produce; it was understood that with
the lofty elm the precious vine should mate itself, and not the rough
tangleweed which creeps along the hedges. A misassortment of marriage
from a difference of rank an inch in breadth excited, it is true, less
uproar than in these our classic times; yet a difference of an ell in
breadth, especially when rivals occupied the interstice, and made the
distance of the two extremities more visible, was even then a thing
which men could notice. All this, and much more, did the Fraeulein
accurately ponder in her prudent heart; therefore she granted Passion,
the treacherous babbler, no audience, loudly as it spoke in favour of
the youth whom Love had honoured. Like a chaste vestal, she made an
irrevocable vow to persist through life in her virgin closeness of
heart; and to answer no inquiry of a wooer, either with her eyes, or her
gestures, or her lips; yet reserving to herself, as a just
indemnification, the right of platonising to any length she liked. This
nunlike system suited the aspirants' way of thought so ill, that they
could not in the least comprehend the killing coldness of their
mistress; Jealousy, the confidant of Love, whispered torturing suspicion
in their ears; each thought the other was the happy rival, and their
penetration spied about unweariedly to make discoveries, which both of
them recoiled from. Yet Fraeulein Libussa weighed out her scanty graces
to the two valiant Ritters with such prudence and acuteness, on so fair
a balance, that the scale of neither rose above the other.
Weary of this fruitless waiting, both of them retired from the Court of
their Princess, and settled, with secret discontent, upon the
affeoffments which Duke Krokus had conferred on them. They brought so
much ill-humour home with them, that Wladomir was an oppression to all
his vassals and his neighbours; and Ritter Mizisla, on the other hand,
became a hunter, followed deer and foxes over the seed-fields and fences
of his subjects, and often with his train, to catch one hare, would ride
ten acres of corn to nothing. In consequence, arose much sobbing and
bewailing in the land; yet no righteous judge stepped forth to stay the
mischief; for who would willingly give judgment against the stronger?
And so the sufferings of the people never reached the throne of the
Duchess. By the virtue of her second-sight, however, no injustice done
within the wide limits of her sway could escape her observation; and the
disposition of her mind being soft, like the sweet features of her
face, she sorrowed inwardly at the misdeeds of her vassals, and the
violence of the powerful. She took counsel with herself how the evil
might be remedied, and her wisdom suggested an imitation of the gods,
who, in their judicial procedure, do not fall upon the criminal, and cut
him off as it were with the red hand; though vengeance, following with
slow steps, sooner or later overtakes him. The young Princess appointed
a general Convention of her Chivalry and States, and made proclamation,
that whoever had a grievance or a wrong to be righted, should come
forward free and fearless, under her safe-conduct. Thereupon, from every
end and corner of her dominions, the maltreated and oppressed crowded
towards her; the wranglers also, and litigious persons, and whoever had
a legal cause against his neighbour. Libussa sat upon her throne, like
the goddess Themis, and passed sentence, without respect of persons,
with unerring judgment; for the labyrinthic mazes of chicane could not
lead her astray, as they do the thick heads of city magistrates; and all
men were astonished at the wisdom with which she unravelled the
perplexed hanks of processes for _meum_ and _tuum_, and at her unwearied
patience in picking out the threads of justice, never once catching a
false end, but passing them from side to side of their embroilments, and
winding them off to the uttermost thrum.