Meanwhile in the Black Eagle a group of Schrandeners, burghers and
burghers' sons, were enjoying their morning pint together. The
Schrandeners, who had always thought the ideal of a happy life was to
spend as much time as possible in the tavern, were now at liberty to
indulge their taste from morning to night. What work they did must have
been accomplished very early in the day, judging by the hour at which
they began their recreation.
Young Merckel presided at their carousals. He had grown up into a fine,
broad-shouldered young fellow, with a cavalry moustache aggressively
curled up at the ends, which suited his cast of countenance, and a
manner, that even in bouts of clownish dissipation retained a certain
swaggering _bonhomie_. At the conclusion of the war, instead of getting
his discharge, he had come home on leave, to consider at his ease
whether or not it would be advisable to attach himself to a standing
army. His profession was not likely to interfere with his decision one
way or the other, as practically he had none.
Till his twenty-fourth year he had been employed in "seeing life" in
different parts of the world at his father's expense, and had hailed
with joy the outbreak of war as a legitimate outlet for his energy,
which otherwise might have been turned into unworthy channels.
Like Baumgart he had entered the army as a volunteer Jaeger; like him
had passed into the militia and had been promoted to the rank of
lieutenant, but unlike him, he wore as a recognition of his bravery the
iron cross dangling on his proudly swelling breast. For the time being,
he had no intention of leaving his birthplace again, where he was
perfectly content to be regarded in the light of a hero and a lion.
He drank, blustered, and helped to fan the flame of hate against the
traitor, hate which since the return of the victorious soldiers had
blazed up more fiercely than ever. At his instigation the Schrandeners
had gone forth to destroy the Cats' Bridge in order to cut the baron
off, on his island. That he would be struck dead before their very eyes
none in their boldest dreams had dared to hope, and without having
achieved their mission they had hurried back to the village to proclaim
the glad tidings.
It was a foregone conclusion that the man who had betrayed his country
would be refused Christian burial. This would put the crown on their
work of vengeance. They gloried in reflecting on it. The mayor was on
their side; the parson appeared to shut his eyes to what was going on;
and there was no reason to be afraid of the interference of higher
authority.
That a champion of the dead would arise at the eleventh hour was the
last thing any one expected.
For the _Junker_--God alone knew what had become of the _Junker_--had
he not totally disappeared, probably to die of shame in a distant
land?...
"There's some one coming, wearing a Landwehr cap," said Felix Merckel,
looking out through a crack in the blinds on to the market-place, which
lay glaring and dusty in the heat of the mid-day sun.
The sounds of revelry subsided, in expectation of the advent of a
stranger. Felix Merckel stretched out his legs and began to toy
indifferently with his medal.
The door swung back. The new-comer brought a momentary stream of
sunlight into the cool, darkened room. Without a word of greeting he
walked to the buffet, behind which a barmaid sat knitting a stocking,
and inquired if he could speak a few words with the mayor. The mayor
was not at home; he had just gone out into the fields, the barmaid told
him.
Herr Merckel was fond of leaving the inn in charge of his son, for he
found the beer disappeared twice as fast from the barrels when he was
not present. Felix adopted a method of stimulating customers to drink,
which would not have been becoming in the host. He couched his
invitations in military slang and in figures of speech learnt in the
camp; to resist them would, the Schrandeners held, be casting a slight
on their lieutenant, so it followed that Felix was the means of adding
treasure to his father's exchequer.
He was piqued at the stranger in the Landwehr cap not vouchsafing him a
salute, although he must have seen the officer's badge on his coat, and
determined to ignore him.
"Can I wait here till the mayor comes back?" the stranger asked.
"Of course. This is the tap-room," the barmaid replied.
He took a seat in the farthest corner from the topers, with his back
turned to them, put down his knapsack, and bowed his head in his hands.
Herr Felix regarded such conduct as a kind of challenge to himself.
Like the true son of his father, he was indignant at a stranger coming
in and ordering nothing to drink.
"Ask the gentleman, Amalie, what he will take," he called out, bursting
with a sense of his own importance. Apparently the stranger didn't
hear, for he took no notice. The barmaid stood behind his chair and
stammered something about the excellent quality of Schrandener beer.
"Thank you; I will drink nothing," he replied, without looking up.
Herr Felix twisted with vigour the ends of his moustache. It was clear
that a rebuke must be administered to the stranger for his churlish
behaviour. He therefore rose to his feet, and swinging his tankard,
began in a somewhat blatant tone to address his boon-companions.
"Dear comrades and fellow-burghers and every one present, Prussia's
glorious battles have been fought. Our beloved Fatherland has risen
from the dust in new and unsuspected splendour. Most of us have bled on
the field of glory, and felt the enemy's bullets pierce our breast.
Whoever is a true Prussian patriot will now drink with me his country's
health and honour!"
With high-pitched hurrahs, the mugs with one accord were lifted to the
revellers' mouths, but before they could drink, an incisive "Halt!"
from the lieutenant stopped them.
"I see there is some one here," he cried, "who seems inclined to shirk
this sacred duty;" and he rose and walked with clanking spurs across
the room to the stranger's table.
"Sir," he asked aggressively, "do I understand you don't wish to drink
to Prussia's fame and glory?"
"I wish to be left in peace," answered the stranger, not turning round.
"What, sir? You who wear the honourable symbol of a defender of your
country in your cap, decline----"
A sudden movement on the part of the stranger, who grasped his pistols,
made him break off. The next moment he saw firearms gleam in his hand,
saw him spring up, and stood aghast, staring into a pale, overcast face
that he knew well, but from which two such angry eyes had never blazed
at him before.
He understood the situation at once; he stood face to face with a man
desperately resolved to go to any extremity if necessary.
"Look at me, Felix Merckel," said the stranger, who was stranger no
longer, "and learn that I wish to have nothing to say to you. But
understand that if you or any of your friends come too near, they will
rue it. The first who approaches within an inch of me I will shoot down
like a dog."
Felix Merckel quickly regained his composure.
"Ah! the _Herr Baron_!" he exclaimed, with a profound bow. "Now I am
not surprised that Prussia's----"
The click of the double trigger of the cavalry pistol made him stop
short again.
"I warn you once more, Felix Merckel. I am an officer as well as
yourself."
And the reiterated warning had its effect.
"Certainly, it is not my concern," Felix said, and with another low
bow, went back to his place; this time the clatter of his spurs was
scarcely audible.
The Schrandeners put their heads together and whispered, and then old
Merckel entered the room. His round, sleek, clean-shaven face beamed
with prosperity and self-satisfaction. As beseemed the village
patriarch, he passed by the common drinking-table with a dignified
gait. A heavy silver watch-chain hung on his greasy satin waistcoat,
suspended from a gold keeper in the form of a Moor's head, to which was
also attached an amber heart.
"The _Herr_ wished to speak to me?" he asked, with a profound
obeisance, which, however, he seemed to repent, when his little grey
lynx eyes remarked that the stranger had no glass before him. To be
obsequious to a non-drinker was a waste of time.
The Schrandeners kept their ears open. Felix had jumped up as if to
seize this favourable opportunity of going for his whilom friend with
his fists.
"I say, father, it's the young _Herr Baron_," he exclaimed, with a
discordant laugh.
Old Merckel withdrew a few steps. His benevolent smile died on his
lips; his fleshy fingers fumbled nervously with the Moor's-head keeper.
"Can I speak to you alone?"
"Oh! _Herr Baron_--of course, _Herr Baron_--is the _Herr Baron_ going
to stay?"
He flung wide a side door, which opened into the little best parlour
reserved for gentry. A sofa, covered with slippery oil-cloth, and a few
velvet, bulky arm-chairs, were ready for the reception of distinguished
customers. Over a cabinet containing tobacco hung a placard with the
inscription, "Only wine drunk here."
Before the host closed the door behind Boleslav, he made a reassuring
sign to his fellow-burghers as if to allay their anxiety. Then from
under his drooping lids he took a rapid survey of the newly-returned
young aristocrat's person, which seemed to fill him with satisfaction,
for again his smug, slimy smile played about his fat lips.
"How the _Herr Junker_ has grown, to be sure!" he began. "Wonderful!"
Boleslav fixed his eyes on him silently.
"And the _Herr Junker_--pardon, I ought to say Herr Baron--has come
home to find the old Herr Baron no longer alive. A pity he was not in
time to close the eyes of the sainted dead----"
He broke off, and caught violently at his amber heart, for Boleslav's
piercing, threatening gaze began to make him feel uneasy. What if this
was a desperado, who would think nothing of taking him by the throat?
"At any rate I have come in time," Boleslav burst forth at last, "to
repair the shameful scandal that has been perpetrated here in refusing
my father the last honour due to his position."
"Shameful scandal, my _Herr Baron_?"
"I advise you, my worthy man, not to put on that air of saint-like
innocence. I can read you through and through. Something has come to my
ears concerning you, for which you deserve to be thrashed on the spot."
"_Herr Baron_!" and he showed signs of taking flight through the door.
"Stay where you are!" commanded Boleslav, barring the way. Thank God
that in confronting this scum he felt the old inherited instinct of
conscious power come back to him. "Is this the gratitude you show my
house, to whose favours you owe everything?"
This was true enough. The present landlord of the Black Eagle had once
hung about the Castle in search of a situation, and had finally, as its
ubiquitous commissionaire, amassed a considerable fortune, although he
now chose to adopt an attitude of injured virtue, and rubbed his hands
self-righteously.
"Dear _Herr Baron_," he said, a paternal kindliness suffusing his broad
countenance, "I willingly pardon the insults you have just heaped on
me, and will give you the best advice, as if nothing had happened. Now,
you will surely understand how friendly are my intentions."
"I decline your friendship," thundered Boleslav. "As mayor of the
village of Schranden, you will answer my questions. Beyond that, I have
no dealings with you."
"The Schrandeners, dear _Herr Baron_, are really terrible people. I
always have said so. I said so many times to my dear wife. You knew
her, _Herr Baron_. Why, of course, she often took the little _Junker_
in her arms, little thinking that----"
"Keep to the point, if you please," Boleslav interrupted.
"'Marianne,' I used to say, 'these Schrandeners, when once they get an
idea into their heads, nothing will move them.' Once they took it into
their heads not to drink my brandy. Good, pure, beautiful Wacholder,
_Herr Baron_. In the same way they've now got it into their heads not
to bury the old noble lord, and--well, upon my word, no God and no
devil will force them to do it. It's no good _your_ trying either,
_Herr Baron_. I'll tell you why. The hearse belongs to the corporation,
and they won't let you have it. Horses, too, they wouldn't let out....
As for bearers--dear God! Go round the village and see if you can find
one, and if you can, see if he is not well flogged for it quarter of an
hour afterwards. Oh! these Schrandeners! And then there is the _Herr
Pastor_--who really in the end has the most voice in the matter. Go to
the _Herr Pastor_, and hear what _he_ says. Putting ceremonials and
paternosters out of the question, you won't even get the coffin made."
"We shall see," said Boleslav, gnashing his teeth. He felt his spirit
of resistance rise, the more clearly he saw the web that hatred and
malice were weaving around him.
"You _shall_ see," exclaimed old Merckel in badly concealed triumph,
"if you wish it, _Herr Baron_."
He opened the door of the tap-room, from whence proceeded a low hum of
many voices. Half the village seemed to have collected there during
Boleslav's interview with the mayor.
"Hackelberg! come here!" he called, and then hurriedly banged the door
to again, for he saw hands laid on it that threatened to tear it off
its hinges.
"If he has got over his debauch of yesterday, _Herr Baron_, he will
certainly come and himself give you his views on the subject." For a
moment the little lynx eyes sparkled with malignant joy. Then resuming
his benevolent patriarchal smile, he went on, twisting the amber heart.
"You have repudiated my friendship, young man. You have insulted me,
and shown no respect for my grey hairs--I don't resent it. You wouldn't
have done it if you had known how I, at the risk of my life--for if the
Schrandeners had got wind of it they would have done me to death--how I
saved many a time the noble baron, of blessed memory, from starvation.
Ask the _Fraeulein_.
"What _Fraeulein_?"
"The pretty, faithful _Fraeulein_ Regina--your deceased father's best
beloved. She is a pearl, _Herr Baron_; you ought to hold her in high
esteem, and take her away with you on your travels. Often in the
darkness of the night have I stuck a loaf and a sausage in her apron,
_Herr Baron_, and sometimes a pound of coffee, _Herr Baron_, while I
have made my own breakfast off rye-bread for fear of the embargo, _Herr
Baron_."
"Weren't you paid for your trouble?"
"Well; yes, yes. When one risks one's life one expects to be paid.
There is still a little bill due, however, _Herr Baron_, left standing
from last winter; if the _Herr Baron_ will have the goodness to----"
"Write out your account, and the money shall be sent you."
"There's no hurry, _Herr Baron_. I have confidence; can trust you,
_Herr Baron_. What I wish to say is, take the advice of an old and
experienced man, and go home now without more ado; dig a grave behind
the Castle, and lay the deceased _Herr_ in it--do it at night, mind, on
the quiet, quite on the quiet--_Fraeulein_ Regina will assist you--then
make the turf perfectly smooth, so that no one will know where you've
laid him, and before the dawn of another day ride away again with
_Fraeulein_ Regina on your saddle to where----"
He paused suddenly, for Boleslav's hand was on the butt-end of his
pistols. Then the devilish mockery beneath this suave old hypocrite's
counsel was goading him into drastic measures. While he listened to it,
a new thought had flashed across his brain with vivid distinctness. The
funeral would after all only be the first step in the work that it was
incumbent on him to complete. Never would he slink away under cover of
night like a criminal, and abandon what remained of the inheritance of
his ancestors to utter ruin. No! he would stay and endure all things.
Set at defiance all these malicious hyenas, the worst of whom stood
before him, now grinning, with greedily gleaming eyes, only awaiting
his opportunity to pounce on the masterless unowned possessions.
Endure! Endure!
Renunciation for the sins of the fathers must ever be his lot. And did
not the foul act that had laid waste his property deserve retributive
justice? He would be a deserter and renegade, indeed, were he now to
turn his back on his native place, and on the beloved, who, though she
seemed lost to him eternally, might still be cherishing timid hopes of
meeting him once more. No! for the future his flag should wave over the
ruins of Schranden Castle, with the single word "Revenge" blazoned on
it in fiery characters. And who but a cowardly cur would leave his flag
in the lurch?
He stepped nearer the mayor, and with a threatening glance that seemed
to penetrate him through and through, almost roared in his ear--
"Who set fire to the Castle?"
Herr Merckel winced as if his conscience pricked him. Every Schrandener
did the same when any question arose as to who it was had perpetrated
the crime. Every Schrandener except one, and he was the criminal
himself.
Herr Merckel was gathering up his strength for a glib answer when the
suppressed murmur in the tap-room gave place to a sound which had a
louder and more riotous note in it.
The landlord made a movement in the direction of the door, to bolt it
on coming events, but before he could take the precaution it was
stormed and burst open. A troop of wild-looking creatures led the
assault, at the head of whom was a man of puny stature, in rags and
tatters, with straight, black hair hanging in oiled ringlets to his
shoulders, a grey, stubbly beard, and a pair of glassy, besotted eyes
that rolled under red, lashless lids. He beat the air with his fists
and cried--
"Where is the fellow--the brute? Let me catch the brute and I'll
strangle him!"
Then he beheld Boleslav's tall, resolute form, and swallowed his words
with a gurgling hiss. Behind him was a phalanx of angry, heated,
inquisitive faces all turned on Boleslav as on a recently captured
beast of prey.
"Every man's hand is against me!" he thought, and his blood rose.
"Are you the carpenter Hackelberg?" he asked, holding the drunkard in
thrall with his searching glance.
He was associated with one of the dark memories of his childhood. Once
his pitiable howls had frightened him out of his quiet, boyish
slumbers, and on looking from his window he had seen him being whipped
round the courtyard for poaching. Now he stood shaking his fists,
grunting and spluttering with rage.
"You supply the village with coffins, I understand?"
The carpenter shook his head, stared vacantly in front of him, and then
answered in a sepulchral voice--
"I am at work on only two coffins--one for myself, and one for my poor
erring daughter."
The Schrandeners laughed in their sleeve. This formula was so familiar.
When any one died in the village the carpenter had to be fetched by
force, locked up with a bottle of brandy and the necessary boards, and
not let out till the coffin was finished. Taken all in all, this
Hackelberg was a dangerous fellow, and no one knew it better than the
Schrandeners, who never let him out of their sight for long. He was
watched and shadowed, and many an arm was ready to strike him down when
the right moment should offer itself.
Nevertheless they courted his society in the tavern, made him drunk,
and humoured him. Sometimes they hung on his lips, at others, stopped
his mouth. Either they put him under lock and key, or allowed him to
bully them. It was as if they had endowed their own bad conscience with
flesh and blood, and allowed it to run wild amongst them in the shape
of this unkempt, half-crazed sot.
"Who else makes coffins in the village besides you?" Boleslav asked
again.
The Schrandeners burst into jeering laughter. They knew how difficult
he would find it to get any direct answer to his question.
"My poor, wretched child," he growled, fastening his glassy eyes on
Herr Merckel's amber heart, which appeared to possess a fascination for
him. Then suddenly rousing himself once more from the half-stupor into
which he had collapsed, he threatened Boleslav with his fists, and
cried out excitedly--
"What do you want from me, _Herr_? A coffin? Is that what you want?
For whom do you want it? For the scamp, the dog, who betrayed his
country--who seduced my child? Do you think I'd make a coffin for
_him_? Look at me, _Herr_. Did you ever see such a spectacle?" He
wrenched open his shirt, and exposed to view his shaggy breast. "I'm a
beauty--mere offal, that dogs would turn up their noses at. And whose
fault is that, my dear young nobleman? Why, the _Herr Baron's_, your
deceased father's. He it was who reduced me to this, and made me an
unhappy, forsaken, childless old man, such as you see." He wiped his
eyes with the ragged sleeve of his corduroy jacket, while the
Schrandeners applauded, and backed him up in his maudlin oration. "My
child, my only child, was torn from my bosom. He robbed me of my
child----"
"I believe you yourself sent her to the Castle," Boleslav interposed,
without, however, making the least impression.
"He made my child a prostitute, but what's worse, young sir--what most
lacerates my father's heart--for though I'm a blackguard, I'm a
patriot; for in Prussia even blackguards love their country--if there
_are_ any blackguard Prussians ... but my child ... ah! do you know
what he did with my child?... forced her with the lash to go out in the
dark night and---- But since then do you think I'd own her? No ... she
is my child no longer. I've cursed her--cast her off! I said to her,
'You are my own flesh and blood no longer.' That's what I said,
and----"
"But you took the wage of her sin all the same," Boleslav was on the
point of interrupting, but recollected in time that in saying so he
would be admitting his father's guilt to this pack of wolves.
"'And you are free,' I said. 'You may go where you like, and whoever
you meet may kill you outright for all I care. Go to your _gnaedigen
Herrn_,' I said, 'and ask him to protect you.' I said----"
At this juncture the shouts of the other Schrandeners became so much
louder that they drowned the carpenter's speech. They closed round him,
and he was lost in the crowd; only his rasping laugh was still audible.
"What did I prophesy, _Herr Baron_?" asked old Merckel, with his
unctuous smile.
Boleslav leant against the end of the sofa, and regarded the crew of
Schrandeners pressing ever nearer with clenched teeth and unflinching
eye.
"If one strikes me," he thought to himself, "the rest will tear me to
pieces."
He felt how imperative it was to remain calm.
"Come, you people," he said, making a passage through their ranks with
his hands, "let me pass."
And whether it was his commanding air of cool determination, or the
cross which shone in his military cap, that awed the tumultuous throng,
not one of them attempted to impede his progress. He passed into the
thick of the mob, expecting every moment to be struck a fatal blow from
behind; but nothing of the sort happened--unchallenged he found himself
in the open air. Felix Merckel had kept in the background.
The whole mob, now including women and children, surged after him down
the road.
As he reached the parsonage garden, whose white walls blazed in the
rays of the mid-day sun, he was aware of an aching sensation at his
heart, that rose in a lump to his throat. His last hope rested in the
hands of the old pastor. Would he too spurn him from his threshold? But
at this moment that was not his only anxiety. How could he help feeling
anxious as to what _her_ reception of him would be, she in whose power
it was to exalt him from the mire of shame and misery into a world of
peace and purity. If she saw him in his present condition, dirty and
dishevelled, with this escort of hooting ruffians behind him, would she
not recoil in horror?
And she did.
A terrified hand threw back the glass door of the veranda. It was
she--it must be she! For a moment he saw the glimmer of a white,
slender figure; saw her raise an arm, as if to wave off the approach of
him and the mob: and then, before Boleslav could give one questioning,
imploring look at the beloved features, she vanished with a faint cry
of alarm.
There was a mist before his eyes. Half stunned, he went up the steps of
the veranda, closed the door behind him, and awaited the next turn in
the course of events.
The Schrandeners blockaded the veranda, and some flattened their noses
against the glass in order to see better what passed within. A pane
fell out; one of them had pushed his neighbour through it, whereupon
the revered voice of the old pastor was heard raised in remonstrance.
He appeared on the veranda flourishing a thick, notched walking-stick.
His white hair blew about his lofty temples. The nostrils of his
hawk-like nose dilated furiously as if they snorted battle. Beneath the
snow-white shaggy projecting brows his eyes glowed like fiery torches.
Such was the venerable Pastor Goetz, who, in the March of the year 1813,
had gone from house to house, holding the big cross from the altar in
his hand, followed by a drummer, and had beaten up recruits for the
holy war. And had he not been left fainting by the roadside on the
march to Koenigsberg, in all probability he would have accompanied his
soldier-parishioners into the field of action.
The Schrandeners stood in no little dread of his discipline, and no
sooner did they catch sight of his formidable stick than they retreated
quickly from the windows, and tried to regain the garden gate.
"You hell-hounds, craven sheep!" he shouted from the glass door. "Come
to God's house on Sunday and I'll give you a dressing."
Then turning on Boleslav, he measured him from head to foot with a
scowling glance. His eye rested on the military cap he held in his
hand.
"You were in the campaign?" he asked.
"Yes."
"If it were not for the cross I see on the brim of your cap, I should
ask was it for or against Prussia?"
Boleslav, whose thoughts had followed the fleeting vision of light he
had seen on the veranda, at first did not understand him; then he met
the insinuation with signs of passionate resentment. But the old pastor
was not the man to be easily intimidated, and while they both glowered
at each other, he cried--
"Boleslav von Schranden, am I, or am I not, justified in cherishing
such a suspicion?"
Then Boleslav's eyes fell before the condemnation in those of his
former master. He opened the door of his study, where between the
book-shelves hung pipe-racks and fire-arms, and said--
"Out of respect for the cap I will not refuse you entrance here. But
make what you have to say as brief as possible. In this house no
Schranden is a welcome guest."
He put his stick in a corner, and drawing his flowered dressing-gown
close about his loins, paced up and down the room.
Boleslav cast about for words. He felt like a criminal in the presence
of this man, whose speech was like molten brass. Of a truth it was no
easy matter, this taking the guilt of another on to one's own guiltless
shoulders.
"_Herr Pastor_," he began, stammering, "can't you forget for a moment
that I bear the name of Schranden?"
The old man laughed bitterly. "That's asking a little too much," he
murmured; "a little too much."
"Regard me simply in the light of a son who wishes to bury his father,
and who is prevented from fulfilling that most sacred duty by the
wickedness and malice of the _canaille_."
For answer the old parson contracted his shaggy brows without speaking.
"I appeal to you as a priest of the Christian Church. Will you suffer
such a scandal in your parish?"
"Such a thing cannot happen in my parish," the old man declared.
"Wherever it is my duty to lead souls to God, every one must be granted
a decent burial."
"And yet they dare----"
"Stop! Whose burial is in question!"
"My father's."
"The Freiherr Eberhard von Schranden?"
"Yes."
"That man has been dead for seven years."
"_Herr Pastor_!"
"For seven years he lived ostracised from the society of his
fellow-creatures. Seven years he practically rotted in the earth.
Therefore, don't trouble me about him further."
"_Herr Pastor_, I was once your pupil. From your lips I first learnt
the name of God. I always thought you a brave, upright man. I retract
that opinion now; for what you have just been saying are lying,
cowardly quibbles."
The old man drew himself up. His beard worked; his nostrils expanded.
With lurid eyes he came nearer to Boleslav.
"My son," he said, "do I look like a man who would countenance a lie?"
Boleslav maintained his defiant attitude. But, much as he struggled
against it, he felt the old, long-forgotten sentiment of respect for
the schoolmaster awaking in him once more.
"My son," went on the old man, "a word from me, and the rabble that
waits for you on the other side of that hedge would lynch you, but, as
I said before, for the sake of the cap you wear, I will be merciful. If
you like, I can prove that what I said just now is no lie."
He went to a cupboard, where stood a long line of ragged folios,
containing church and parish documents, took out a volume, and, opening
it, pointed to a page dated 1807.
"Here, my son, read this."
And Boleslav read--
"On March 5th, died Hans Eberhard von Schranden. _Ex memoria hominum
exstinguatur_."
Beneath were three crosses.
"That is a forgery!" exclaimed Boleslav.
"Yes, my son," the old man answered solemnly, "that is a palpable,
shameless forgery; a stain on my office; and if you choose to report it
to the magistrates, I shall be suspended and end my days in prison. Do
exactly as you think fit. My fate lies in your hands."
A shudder of mingled horror and reverence passed through Boleslav. He
had himself experienced too often the wild _elan_ and reckless delight
of making sacrifices for the love of his country, not to understand
what impulse had driven the old clergyman to this insane confession.
"With those crosses," he continued, "I buried the man seven years
ago--the man who, in spite of his cruelty and ungovernable passions,
had till then been my friend. From that day, whoever dared to breathe
so much as his name in my house was sent out of it. Then came that
night of arson, when these walls were illumined by the reflection of
the burning Castle. I jumped out of my bed, and, throwing myself on my
knees, prayed God to forgive the incendiaries, for it began to burn at
all four corners at once, a sure proof that the fire was not an
accident. Now, I thought, not only the deed, but the scene of it, will
be erased from men's minds. I didn't concern myself in the least about
the spectre that was doomed to haunt the ruins of Castle Schranden. And
now you come, my son, and tell me that that spectre was no spectre, but
a living creature, who only a few days ago gave up the ghost, and now
awaits interment. Well, I forbid it Christian burial, on the strength
of this register. I never bury any one twice. Report me, and--and I
shall be tried for my offence. But you know I am prepared. Do as you
like. Bury the corpse with all the honours you consider due to it; have
a procession grander and more imposing than an emperor's, but kindly
leave me out of the show."
He settled himself in his green-cushioned armchair, supported his face
with his wrinkled, muscular hands, and stared vacantly at the open
register. There was nothing to hope from this iron-willed man of God.
It would be madness to keep up any illusion on the subject, and that
other illusion, that the loved one might still be won on earth after
long waiting and renunciation, must be abandoned too. All the shy
dreams and hopes that he had yet dared to cherish in his embittered
heart now seemed finally wrecked.
"So this is the divine grace, the forgiveness of sins, you preach!" he
cried, tears of wrath filling his eyes.
The old man rose slowly and let his hand fall heavily on Boleslav's
shoulder.
"Because of your cap, my son, I will reason with you, although the
sight of you is hateful to me. Listen! It is a year and a half now
since there came here from Russia a rabble of ragged French beggars,
starving and frost-bitten. The Schrandeners would have felled them to
the earth with their scythes and pitchforks, and perhaps would have had
right on their side, for they were mere carrion-serfs in the pay of
Napoleon. But I opened the church door to them that they might take
refuge in the shelter of God's altar. I kindled a fire for them on the
flagstones, and had a hot supper cooked for them and gave them straw to
lie on. I told the Schrandeners that, though they were enemies, they
were human beings like themselves, bearing the cross of human suffering
as the Saviour once bore it on His shoulders. I told them to go home
and pray that God might spare them as they had spared those miserable
Frenchmen. So you see I can be pitiful and show mercy.... To return to
the subject of the funeral. I have never refused any sinner his lawful
resting-place. If I could have my will, even suicides should not be
excluded from the churchyard. That those who have been unhappy in their
lifetime should be comfortable in death has always been my principle.
And if the body of a man who had murdered his mother was brought here
from the scaffold, I would go to his graveside in full canonicals and
pray the King of kings 'to forgive him, for he knew not what he did.'
Yes, I'll extend mercy to all, only not to your father. For he who sins
against his country outrages every law human and divine; he disgraces
the mother who bore him and the children he propagates. Such a one is a
social outcast. He is like the leper who brings death and corruption
with him wherever he goes, or a mad dog who spurts poison from his jaw
on every living thing that comes in his way. And do you realise the
extent of your father's guilt, the mischief it has worked? It is not so
much the lives of those two or three hundred Pomeranian youths whose
bones lie buried there on the common that are to be reckoned against
him. They would probably have met death somewhere, later. The grass
grows high on their graves; even their parents have long since become
reconciled to their loss. No, it is not on their account that I bear
the grudge. But----come here, my son----"
He clutched Boleslav's hand and led him to the window.
"Look out--what do you see on the other side of the garden hedge? A
gang of turbulent wild animals thirsting for the blood of their prey,
and yet too craven-hearted to spring on it, even when they have it
within their reach. And look at me, my son. I am here, appointed by God
as His minister to preach the gospel of love, and I preach hate. Words
sweet as honey should flow from my lips, and instead, scorpions spring
out of my mouth directly I open it, for I too am become a wild animal.
And this is what your father's crime has made us. There is no goodness
left in Schranden; the venom of your father's hate ferments in us, is
inoculated into our children and children's children. So will it ever
be till the Lord not only wipes the scene of infamy, but your accursed
name with it, from off the face of His blessed earth. Amen!"
He stood with raised hands like some anathematising prophet of the Old
Testament, and foam rested in the corners of his mouth.
Boleslav, half-dazed and horror-stricken, turned in silence to the
door. The old man did not call him back. As he crossed the hall he
started violently, for he was sure he heard the rustle of a woman's
dress behind a half-opened door. But not for the world would he meet
her now. Not in this dark hour, when he was completely overpowered by a
sense of having had the remnants of all that was good and noble in him
shattered and laid in the dust.
"If _they_ are become wild beasts, I can become one too," he thought,
as he thrust his hand in the breast-pocket that held his pistols, and
walked towards the Schrandeners. The old pastor was right. Though they
danced, whooped, and jostled around him with the lust of murder
gleaming in their savage eyes, they dared not lay a finger on him.
* * * * *
When he reached the drawbridge, behind the palings of which a girl's
figure crouched, awaiting his return, he was full of a desperate
resolve. His father should be carried to his last resting-place by an
armed force.
"Are you ready to earn another large sum of money?" he asked the girl,
who flushed and stood up quickly at his approach.
She looked at him for a moment in reflective surprise, and then, as his
meaning dawned on her, she shook her head violently.
"Why not?" he demanded.
She began to tremble. "What's the good of money to me, _Herr_?" she
asked, in subdued, bitter tones. "They would only take it away from
me."
"Who?"
"People--those people. Please, oh please, give me no money."
"Her mind is clearly unhinged," thought Boleslav.
"Besides, there is money enough," she continued in a whisper, glancing
round her timidly, "in the cellar--great boxes full--where the wine is.
I used to take what I wanted from there--for him, I mean--the _gnaed'ger
Herr_. For myself I never want any, unless it's to buy a new jacket
with."
"Will you earn a new jacket?"
"There's no need to earn it, _Herr_. Next time I go to Bockeldorf--for
the _Herr_ must have food--I can get one."
So, unreasoning as a beast of burden, she performed her duties, and
expected no return except her food!
"Will you, then, without earning anything, go a long way for me this
very night?"
"Oh, won't I, _Herr_, if you wish it?"