Though our friend was weak from loss of blood, and though, ever since
the appearance of that helpful angel, his feelings had been soft and
mild, yet at last he could not help getting vexed at the harsh and
unjust speeches which, as he continued silent, the discontented company
went on uttering against him. Feeling himself strong enough to sit up,
and expostulate on the annoyance they were causing to their friend and
leader, he raised his bandaged head, and propping himself with some
difficulty, and leaning against the wall, he began to speak as
follows:--
"Considering the pain your losses occasion, I forgive you for assailing
me with injuries at a moment when you should condole with me; for
opposing and casting me from you the first time I have needed to look to
you for help. The services I did you, the complaisance I showed you, I
regarded as sufficiently repaid by your thanks, by your friendly
conduct: do not warp my thoughts, do not force my heart to go back and
calculate what I have done for you; the calculation would be painful to
me. Chance brought me near you, circumstances and a secret inclination
kept me with you. I participated in your labors and your pleasures: my
slender abilities were ever at your service. If you now blame me with
bitterness for the mishap that has befallen us, you do not recollect
that the first project of taking this road came to us from stranger
people, was weighed by all of you, and sanctioned by every one as well
as by me.
"Had our journey ended happily, each would have taken credit to himself
for the happy thought of suggesting this plan, and preferring it to
others; each would joyfully have put us in mind of our deliberations,
and of the vote he gave: but now you make me alone responsible; you
force a piece of blame upon me, which I would willingly submit to, if my
conscience, with a clear voice, did not pronounce me innocent, nay, if I
might not appeal with safety even to yourselves. If you have aught to
say against me, bring it forward in order, and I shall defend myself; if
you have nothing reasonable to allege, then be silent, and do not
torment me now, when I have such pressing need of rest."
By way of answer, the girls once more began whimpering and whining, and
describing their losses circumstantially. Melina was quite beside
himself; for he had suffered more in purse than any of them,--more,
indeed, than we can rightly estimate. He stamped like a madman up and
down the little room, he knocked his head against the wall, he swore and
scolded in the most unseemly manner; and the landlady entering at this
very time with news that his wife had been delivered of a dead child, he
yielded to the most furious ebullitions; while, in accordance with him,
all howled and shrieked, and bellowed and uproared, with double vigor.
Wilhelm, touched to the heart at the same time with sympathy for their
sorrows and with vexation at their mean way of thinking, felt all the
vigor of his soul awakened, notwithstanding the weakness of his body.
"Deplorable as your case may be," exclaimed he, "I shall almost be
compelled to despise you! No misfortune gives us right to load an
innocent man with reproaches. If I had share in this false step, am not
I suffering my share? I lie wounded here; and, if the company has come
to loss, I myself have come to most. The wardrobe of which we have been
robbed, the decorations that are gone, were mine; for you, Herr Melina,
have not yet paid me; and I here fully acquit you of all obligation in
that matter."
"It is well to give what none of us will ever see again," replied
Melina. "Your money was lying in my wife's coffer, and it is your own
blame that you have lost it. But, ah! if that were all!" And thereupon
he began anew to stamp and scold and squeal. Every one recalled to
memory the superb clothes from the count's wardrobe; the buckles,
watches, snuff-boxes, hats, for which Melina had so happily transacted
with the head valet. Each, then, thought also of his own, though far
inferior, treasures. They looked with spleen at Philina's box, and gave
Wilhelm to understand that he had indeed done wisely to connect himself
with that fair personage, and to save his own goods also, under the
shadow of her fortune.
"Do you think," he exclaimed at last, "that I shall keep any thing apart
while you are starving? And is this the first time I have honestly
shared with you in a season of need? Open the trunk: all that is mine
shall go to supply the common wants."
"It is _my_ trunk," observed Philina, "and I will not open it till I
please. Your rag or two of clothes, which I have saved for you, could
amount to little, though they were sold to the most conscientious of
Jews. Think of yourself,--what your cure will cost, what may befall you
in a strange country."
"You, Philina," answered Wilhelm, "will keep back from me nothing that
is mine; and that little will help us out of the first perplexity. But a
man possesses many things besides coined money to assist his friends
with. All that is in me shall be devoted to these hapless persons, who,
doubtless, on returning to their senses, will repent their present
conduct. Yes," continued he, "I feel that you have need of help; and,
what is mine to do, I will perform. Give me your confidence again;
compose yourselves for a moment, and accept of what I promise. Who will
receive the engagement of me in the name of all?"
Here he stretched out his hand, and cried, "I promise not to flinch from
you, never to forsake you till each shall see his losses doubly and
trebly repaired; till the situation you are fallen into, by whose blame
soever, shall be totally forgotten by all of you, and changed with a
better."
He kept his hand still stretched out, but no one would take hold of it.
"I promise it again," cried he, sinking back upon his pillow. All
continued silent: they felt ashamed, but nothing comforted: and Philina,
sitting on her chest, kept cracking nuts, a stock of which she had
discovered in her pocket.