If our friends had frequently enjoyed a good and merry hour together
while within four walls, they were naturally much gayer here, where the
freedom of the sky and the beauty of the place seemed, as it were, to
purify the feelings of every one. All felt nearer to each other: all
wished that they might pass their whole lives in so pleasant an abode.
They envied hunters, charcoal-men, and wood-cutters,--people whom their
calling constantly retains in such happy places,--but prized, above all,
the delicious economy of a band of gypsies. They envied these wonderful
companions, entitled to enjoy in blissful idleness all the adventurous
charms of nature: they rejoiced at being in some degree like them.
Meanwhile the women had begun to boil potatoes, and to unwrap and get
ready the victuals brought along with them. Some pots were standing by
the fire. The party had placed themselves in groups, under the trees and
bushes. Their singular apparel, their various weapons, gave them a
foreign aspect. The horses were eating their provender at a side. Could
one have concealed the coaches, the look of this little horde would have
been romantic, even to complete illusion.
Wilhelm enjoyed a pleasure he had never felt before. He could now
imagine his present company to be a wandering colony, and himself the
leader of it. In this character he talked with those around him, and
figured out the fantasy of the moment as poetically as he could. The
feelings of the party rose in cheerfulness: they ate and drank and made
merry, and repeatedly declared that they had never passed more pleasant
moments.
Their contentment had not long gone on increasing, till activity awoke
among the younger part of them. Wilhelm and Laertes seized their
rapiers, and began to practise on this occasion with theatrical
intentions. They undertook to represent the duel in which Hamlet and his
adversary find so tragical an end. Both were persuaded, that, in this
powerful scene, it was not enough merely to keep pushing awkwardly
hither and thither, as it is generally exhibited in theatres: they were
in hopes to show by example how, in presenting it, a worthy spectacle
might also be afforded to the critic in the art of fencing. The rest
made a circle round them. Both fought with skill and ardor. The interest
of the spectators rose higher every pass.
But all at once, in the nearest bush, a shot went off, and immediately
another; and the party flew asunder in terror. Next moment armed men
were to be seen pressing forward to the spot where the horses were
eating their fodder, not far from the coaches that were packed with
luggage.
A universal scream proceeded from the women: our heroes threw away their
rapiers, seized their pistols, and ran towards the robbers; demanding,
with violent threats, the meaning of such conduct.
This question being answered laconically, with a couple of musket-shots,
Wilhelm fired his pistol at a crisp-headed knave, who had got upon the
top of the coach, and was cutting the cords of the package. Rightly hit,
this artist instantly came tumbling down; nor had Laertes missed. Both,
encouraged by success, drew their side-arms; when a number of the
plundering party rushed out upon them, with curses and loud bellowing,
fired a few shots at them, and fronted their impetuosity with glittering
sabres. Our young heroes made a bold resistance. They called upon their
other comrades, and endeavored to excite them to a general resistance.
But, erelong, Wilhelm lost the sight of day, and the consciousness of
what was passing. Stupefied by a shot that wounded him between the
breast and the left arm, by a stroke that split his hat in two, and
almost penetrated to his brain, he sank down, and only by the narratives
of others came afterwards to understand the luckless end of this
adventure.
On again opening his eyes, he found himself in the strangest posture.
The first thing that pierced the dimness, which yet swam before his
vision, was Philina's face bent down over his. He felt weak, and, making
a movement to rise, discovered that he was in Philina's lap; into which,
indeed, he again sank down. She was sitting on the sward. She had softly
pressed towards her the head of the fallen young man, and made for him
an easy couch, as far as in her power. Mignon was kneeling with
dishevelled and bloody hair at his feet, which she embraced with many
tears.
On noticing his bloody clothes, Wilhelm asked, in a broken voice, where
he was, and what had happened to him and the rest. Philina begged him to
be quiet: the others, she said, were all in safety, and none but he and
Laertes wounded. Further she would tell him nothing, but earnestly
entreated him to keep still, as his wounds had been but slightly and
hastily bound. He stretched out his hand to Mignon, and inquired about
the bloody locks of the child, who he supposed was also wounded.
For the sake of quietness, Philina let him know that this true-hearted
creature, seeing her friend wounded, and in the hurry of the instant
being able to think of nothing which would stanch the blood, had taken
her own hair, that was flowing round her head, and tried to stop the
wounds with it, but had soon been obliged to give up the vain attempt;
that afterwards they had bound him with moss and dry mushrooms, Philina
giving up her neckerchief for that purpose.
Wilhelm noticed that Philina was sitting with her back against her own
trunk, which still looked firmly locked and quite uninjured. He inquired
if the rest also had been so lucky as to save their goods. She answered
with a shrug of the shoulders, and a look over the green, where broken
chests, and coffers beaten into fragments, and knapsacks ripped up, and
a multitude of little wares, lay scattered all round. No person was to
be seen in the place, this strange group thus being alone in the
solitude.
Inquiring further, our friend learned more and more particulars. The
rest of the men, it appeared, who, at all events, might still have made
resistance, were struck with terror, and soon overpowered. Some fled,
some looked with horror at the accident. The drivers, for the sake of
their cattle, had held out more obstinately; but they, too, were at last
thrown down and tied; after which, in a few minutes, every thing was
thoroughly ransacked, and the booty carried off. The hapless travellers,
their fear of death being over, had begun to mourn their loss; had
hastened with the greatest speed to the neighboring village, taking with
them Laertes, whose wounds were slight, and carrying off but a very few
fragments of their property. The harper, having placed his damaged
instrument against a tree, had proceeded in their company to the place,
to seek a surgeon, and return with his utmost rapidity to help his
benefactor, whom he had left apparently upon the brink of death.