Our friends had to continue in the place for a day or two, and it was
not long ere sundry of them got engaged in adventures of a rather
pleasant kind. Laertes in particular was challenged by a lady of the
neighborhood, a person of some property; but he received her
blandishments with extreme, nay, unhandsome, coldness, and had in
consequence to undergo a multitude of jibes from Philina. She took this
opportunity of detailing to our friend the hapless love-story which had
made the youth so bitter a foe to womankind. "Who can take it ill of
him," she cried, "that he hates a sex which has played him so foul, and
given him to swallow, in one stoutly concentrated potion, all the
miseries that man can fear from woman? Do but conceive it: within four
and twenty hours, he was lover, bridegroom, husband, cuckold, patient,
and widower! I wot not how you could use a man worse."
Laertes hastened from the room half vexed, half laughing; and Philina in
her sprightliest style began to relate the story: how Laertes, a young
man of eighteen, on joining a company of actors, found in it a girl of
fourteen on the point of departing with her father, who had quarrelled
with the manager. How, on the instant, he had fallen mortally in love;
had conjured the father by all possible considerations to remain,
promising at length to marry the young woman. How, after a few pleasing
hours of groomship, he had accordingly been wedded, and been happy as he
ought; whereupon, next day, while he was occupied at the rehearsal, his
wife, according to professional rule, had honored him with a pair of
horns; and how as he, out of excessive tenderness, hastening home far
too soon, had, alas! found a former lover in his place, he had struck
into the affair with thoughtless indignation, had called out both father
and lover, and sustained a grievous wound in the duel. How father and
daughter had thereupon set off by night, leaving him behind to labor
with a double hurt. How the leech he applied to was unhappily the worst
in nature, and the poor fellow had got out of the adventure with
blackened teeth and watering eyes. That he was greatly to be pitied,
being otherwise the bravest young man on the surface of the earth.
"Especially," said she, "it grieves me that the poor soul now hates
women; for, hating women, how can one keep living?"
Melina interrupted them with news, that, all things being now ready for
the journey, they would set out to-morrow morning. He handed them a
plan, arranging how they were to travel.
"If any good friend take me on his lap," said Philina, "I shall be
content, though we sit crammed together never so close and sorrily: 'tis
all one to me."
"It does not signify," observed Laertes, who now entered.
"It is pitiful," said Wilhelm, hastening away. By the aid of money, he
secured another very comfortable coach; though Melina had pretended that
there were no more. A new distribution then took place; and our friends
were rejoicing in the thought that they should now travel pleasantly,
when intelligence arrived that a party of military volunteers had been
seen upon the road, from whom little good could be expected.
In the town these tidings were received with great attention, though
they were but variable and ambiguous. As the contending armies were at
that time placed, it seemed impossible that any hostile corps could have
advanced, or any friendly one hung a-rear, so far. Yet every man was
eager to exhibit to our travellers the danger that awaited them as truly
dangerous: every man was eager to suggest that some other route might be
adopted.
By these means, most of our friends had been seized with anxiety and
fear; and when, according to the new republican constitution, the whole
members of the state had been called together to take counsel on this
extraordinary case, they were almost unanimously of opinion that it
would be proper either to keep back the mischief by abiding where they
were, or to evade it by choosing another road.
Wilhelm alone, not participating in the panic, regarded it as mean to
abandon, for the sake of mere rumors, a plan they had not entered on
without much thought. He endeavored to put heart into them: his reasons
were manly and convincing.
"It is but a rumor," he observed; "and how many such arise in time of
war! Well-informed people say that the occurrence is exceedingly
improbable, nay, almost impossible. Shall we, in so important a matter,
allow a vague report to determine our proceedings? The route pointed out
to us by the count, and to which our passport was adapted, is the
shortest and in the best condition. It leads us to the town, where you
see acquaintances, friends, before you, and may hope for a good
reception. The other way will also bring us thither; but by what a
circuit, and along what miserable roads! Have we any right to hope,
that, in this late season of the year, we shall get on at all? and what
time and money shall we squander in the mean while!" He added many more
considerations, presenting the matter on so many advantageous sides,
that their fear began to dissipate, and their courage to increase. He
talked to them so much about the discipline of regular troops, he
painted the marauders and wandering rabble so contemptuously, and
represented the danger itself as so pleasant and inspiring, that the
spirits of the party were altogether cheered.
Laertes from the first had been of his opinion: he now declared that he
would not flinch or fail. Old Boisterous found a consenting phrase or
two to utter, in his own vein; Philina laughed at them all; and Madam
Melina, who, notwithstanding her advanced state of pregnancy, had lost
nothing of her natural stout-heartedness, regarded the proposal as
heroic. Herr Melina, moved by this harmonious feeling, hoping also to
save somewhat by travelling the short road which had been first
contemplated, did not withstand the general consent; and the project was
agreed to with universal alacrity.
They next began to make some preparations for defence at all hazards.
They bought large hangers, and slung them in well-quilted straps over
their shoulders. Wilhelm further stuck a pair of pistols in his girdle.
Laertes, independently of this occurrence, had a good gun. They all took
the road in the highest glee.
On the second day of their journey, the drivers, who knew the country
well, proposed to take their noon's rest in a certain woody spot of the
hills; since the town was far off, and in good weather the hill-road was
generally preferred.
The day being beautiful, all easily agreed to the proposal. Wilhelm, on
foot, went on before them through the hills; making every one that met
him stare with astonishment at his singular figure. He hastened with
quick and contented steps across the forest; Laertes walked whistling
after him; none but the women continued to be dragged along in the
carriages. Mignon, too, ran forward by his side, proud of the hanger,
which, when the party were all arming, she would not go without. Around
her hat she had bound the pearl necklace, one of Mariana's relics, which
Wilhelm still possessed. Friedrich, the fair-haired boy, carried
Laertes's gun. The harper had the most pacific look; his long cloak was
tucked up within his girdle, to let him walk more freely; he leaned upon
a knotty staff; his harp had been left behind him in the carriage.
Immediately on reaching the summit of the height, a task not without its
difficulties, our party recognized the appointed spot, by the fine
beech-trees which encircled and screened it. A spacious green, sloping
softly in the middle of the forest, invited one to tarry; a trimly
bordered well offered the most grateful refreshment; and on the farther
side, through chasms in the mountains, and over the tops of the woods,
appeared a landscape distant, lovely, full of hope. Hamlets and mills
were lying in the bottoms, villages upon the plain: and a new chain of
mountains, visible in the distance, made the prospect still more
significant of hope; for they entered only like a soft limitation.
The first comers took possession of the place, rested a while in the
shade, lighted a fire, and so awaited, singing as they worked, the
remainder of the party, who by degrees arrived, and with one accord
saluted the place, the lovely weather, and still lovelier scene.