The cocks had already crowed before I fell asleep, and when I awoke Ann
was sitting in front of the mirror, plaiting her hair. I knew full well
what had led her to quit her bed so early, and, as she met her lover at
breakfast, her form and face meseemed had gained in beauty, so that I
could not take my eyes off from her. My aunt and his Excellency marked
the wonderful change which had taken effect in her that night, and the
gentleman thenceforth waited closely on Ann and sued for her favor like
a young man, in spite of his grey hair, while worthy Master Besserer
followed his ensample.
At the first favorable chance I drew Herdegen apart. Ann had already
told him that I had been witness to their first meeting again; this
indeed pleased him ill, and when I asked him as to how he purposed
to demean himself henceforth towards his betrothed, he answered that
matters had not gone so far with them; and that until he had taken his
Doctor’s hood we must keep the secret I had by chance discovered closely
hidden from all the good people of Nuremberg; that much water would flow
into the sea or ere he could bid me wag my tongue, if our grand-uncle
should continue to bear the weight of his years so bravely. For the
present he was one of the happiest of men on earth, and if I loved him
I must help him to enjoy his heart’s desire, and often see the lovely
violet which had bloomed so sweetly for him here in the deep heart of
the forest.
His bright young spirit smiled upon my soul once more as it had done
long ago. Only his unloving mention of our grand-uncle, who had been
as a second father to him, struck to my heart, and this I said to him;
adding likewise, that it must be a point of honor with him to give and
take rings with Ann, even though it should be in secret.
This he was ready and glad to do; I gave him the gold ring, with a
hearty good will, which Cousin Maud had given me for my confirmation,
and he put it on his sweetheart’s finger that very day, albeit her
silver ring was too small for his little finger. So he bid her wear it,
and solemnly promised to keep his troth, even without a ring, till the
next home-coming; and Ann put her trust in her lover as surely as in
rock and iron.
Many were the guests who came to the forest that fair autumn tide; there
was no end of hunting and sport of all kinds, and Ann was ever ready and
well content to share her lover’s fearless delight in the chase; when
she came home from the forest the joy of her heart shone more clearly
than ever in her eyes; and seeing her then and thus, no man could doubt
that she was at the crown and top of human happiness. Albeit, up on that
height meseemed a keen wind was blowing, which she did battle with so
hardly that through many a still night I could hear her sighs. Withal
she showed a strange selfishness such as I had never before marked in
her, which, however, only concerned her lover, with constant unrest when
apart from others whom she loved; and all this grieved me, though indeed
I could not remedy it.
Strangest of all, as it seemed to me, was it that these twain who
erewhile had never spent an hour together without singing, would now
pass day after day without a song. But then I remembered how that the
maiden nightingale likewise pipes her sweetest only so long as her bosom
is full of pining love; but so soon as she has given her heart wholly to
her mate, her song grows shorter and less tender.
Not that this pair had as yet gone so far as this; and once, when I gave
them warning that they should not forget how to sing, they marvelled
at their own neglect, and as thereupon they began to sing it sounded
sweeter and stronger than in former days.
Among the youths who at that time enjoyed the hospitality of the
Waldstromers, Herdegen’s friend, Franz von Welemisl, held the foremost
place. He was the son of a Bohemian baron, and his mother, who was dead,
had been of one of the noblest families of Hungary. And whereas his name
was somewhat hard to the German tongue, we one and all called him simply
Ritter Franz or Sir Franz. He was a well made and well favored youth in
face and limb, who had found such pleasure in my brother’s company at
Erfurt that he had gone with him to Padua. His father’s sudden death
had taken him home from college sooner than Herdegen, and he was now
in mourning weed. He ever held his head a little bowed, and whereas
Herdegen, with his brave, splendid manners and his long golden locks,
put some folks in mind of the sun, a poet might have likened his
friend to the moon, inasmuch as he had the same gentle mien and pale
countenance, which seemed all the more colorless for his thick, sheeny
black hair which framed it, with out a wave or a curl. His voice had
a sorrowful note, and it went to my heart to see how loving was his
devotion to my brother. He, for his part, was well pleased to find in
the young knight the companionship he had erewhile had in the pueri.
After the young Bohemian’s father had departed this life, the Emperor
himself had dubbed his sorrowing son Knight, and nevertheless he was
devoid alike of pride and scornfulness. When, with his sad black eyes,
he looked into mine, humbly and as though craving comfort, I might
easily have lulled my soul with the glad thought that I likewise had
opened the door to Love; but then I cared not if I saw him, and I
thought of him but coldly, and this gave the lie to such hopes; what I
felt was no more than the compassion due to a young man who was alone in
the world, without parents or brethren or near kin.
One morning I went to seek Herdegen in the armory and there found him
stripped of his jerkin, with sleeves turned up; and with him was the
Bohemian, striving with an iron file to remove from my brother’s arm a
gold bracelet which was not merely fastened but soldered round his
arm. So soon as he saw that I had at once descried the band, though
he attempted to hide it with his sleeve, he sought to put off my
questioning, at first with a jest and then with wrathful impatience
flung on his jerkin and turned his back on me. Forthwith I examined
Ritter Franz, and he was led to confess to me that a fair Italian
Marchesa had prevailed on Herdegen to have this armlet riveted on to his
arm in token of his ever true service.
On learning this I was moved to great dread both for my brother’s sake
and for Ann’s; and when I presently upbraided him for his breach of
faith he threw his arms round me with his wonted outrageous humor and
boisterous spirit, and said: What more would I have, since that I had
seen with my own eyes that he was trying to be quit of that bond? To get
at the Marchesa he would need to cross a score of rivers and streams;
and even in our virtuous town of Nuremberg it was the rule that a man
might be on with a new love when he had left the third bridge behind
him.
I liked not this fashion of speech, and when he saw that I was
ill-pleased and grieved, instead of falling in with his merry mood, he
took up a more earnest vein and said: “Never mind, Margery. Only one
tall tree of love grows in my breast, and the name of it is Ann; the
little flowers that may have come up round it when I was far away have
but a short and starved life, and in no case can they do the great tree
a mischief.”
Then with all my heart I besought him that, as he had now bound up the
life and happiness of the sweetest and most loving maid on earth with
his own, he would ever keep his faith and be to her a true man. Seeing,
however, that he was but little moved by this counsel, the hot blood of
the Schoppers mounted to my head and thereupon I railed at his sayings
and doings as sinful and cruel, and he likewise flared out and bid me
beware how I spoke ill of my own father; for that like as he, Herdegen,
had carried the image of Ann in his heart, so had father carried that of
our dear mother beyond the Alps, and nevertheless at Padua he had played
the lute under the balcony of many a blackeyed dame, and won the name
of “the Singer” there. A living fire, quoth he, waxed not the colder
because more than one warmed herself thereat; all the matter was only
to keep the place of honor for the right owner, and of that Ann was ever
certain.
Sir Franz was witness to these words, and when presently Herdegen had
quitted the room, he strove to appease and to comfort me, saying that
his greatly gifted friend, who was full of every great and good quality,
had but this one weakness: namely, that he could not make a manful stand
against the temptations that came of his beauty and his gifts. He, Franz
himself was of different mould.
And he went on to confess that he loved me, and that, if I would
but consent to be his, he would ever cherish and serve me, with more
humility and faithfulness even than his well-beloved Lord and King, who
had dubbed him knight while he was yet so young.
And his speech sounded so warm and true, so full of deep and tender
desires, that at any other time I might have yielded. But at that hour I
was minded to trust no man; for, if Herdegen’s love were not the truth,
whereas it had grown up with him and was given to one above me in so
many ways, what man’s mind could I dare to build on? Yea, and I was
too full of care for the happiness of my brother and of my friend to be
ready to think of my own; so I could only speak him fair, but say him
nay. Hardly had I said the words when a strange change came over him;
his calm, sad face suddenly put on a furious aspect, and in his eyes,
which hitherto had ever been gentle, there was a fire which affrighted
me. Nay and even his voice, as he spoke, had a sharp ring in it, as
though the bells had cracked which erewhile had tolled so sweet a peal.
And all he had to say was a furious charge against me who had, said he,
led him on by eye and speech, only to play a cruel trick upon him, with
words of dreadful purpose against the silent knave who had come between
him and me to defraud him; and by this he meant the Swabian, Junker von
Kalenbach.
I was about to upbraid him for his rude and discourteous manners when
we heard, outside, a loud outcry, and Ann ran in to fetch me. All in
the Lodge who had legs came running together; all the hounds barked
and howled as though the Wild Huntsman were riding by, and mingling
therewith lo! a strange, outlandish piping and drumming.
A bear-leader, such as I had before now seen at the town-fair, had made
his way to the Lodge, and the swarthy master, with his two companions,
as it might be his brothers, were like all the men of their tribe. A
thick growth of hair covered the mouth below an eaglenose, and on their
shaggy heads they wore soft red bonnets. One was followed by a tall
camel, slowly marching along with an ape perched on his hump; the other
led a brown bear with a muzzle on his snout.
The master’s wife, and a dark-faced young wench, were walking by the
side of a little wagon having two wheels, to which an over-worked mule
was harnessed. A youth, of may-be twelve years of age, blew upon a pipe
for the bear to dance, and inasmuch as he had no clothes but a ragged
little coat, and a sharp east wind was blowing, he quaked with cold and
shivered as he piped. Notwithstanding he was a fine lad, well-grown, and
with a countenance of outlandish but well nigh perfect beauty. He had
come, for certain, from some distant land; yet was he not of the same
race as the others.
When we had seen enough of the show, my uncle commanded that meat should
be brought for the wanderers; and when pease-pottage and other messes
had been given them, they fetched, from under the wagon-tilt, a
swarthy babe, which, meseemed was a sweet little maid albeit she was so
dark-colored.
Ann and I gazed at these folks while they ate, and it seemed strange to
us to see that the well-favored lad put away from him with horror the
bacon which the old bear-leader set before him; and for this the man
dealt him a rude blow.
After their meal the master went on his way; and when we likewise had
eaten our dinner, my dear godfather and uncle, Christian Pfinzing, came
from the town, bringing a troop of mercenaries to the camp where they
were to be trained that they might fight against the Hussites. He, like
the other guests, made friends with the strangers, and in his merry
fashion he bid the older bear leader tell our fortunes by our hands,
while the young ones should dance.
The man then read the future for each of us; my fortune was sheer folly,
whereof no single word ever came true. He promised my brother a Count’s
coronet and a wife from a race of princes; and when Ann heard it, and
held up her finger at Herdegen for shame, he whispered in her ear that
she was of the race of the Sovereign Queen of all queens--of Venus,
ruler of the universe. All this she heard gladly; yet could no one
persuade her to let her hand be read.
At last it was the woman’s turn to dance; before she began she had
smoothed her hair and tied it with small gold pieces; and indeed she was
a well grown maid and slender, well-favored in face and shape, with a
right devilish flame in her black eyes. It was a strange but truly a
pleasing thing to see her; first she laid a dozen of eggs in a circle on
the grass, and then she beat her tambourine to the piping of the lad and
the drumming of one of the men who had remained with her, and rattled it
over her head with wanton lightness till the bells in the hoop rang out,
while she turned and bent her supple body in a mad, swift whirl, bowing
and rising again. Her falcon eyes never gazed at the ground, but were
ever fixed upwards or on the bystanders, and nevertheless her slender
bare feet never went nigh the eggs in the wildest spinning of her dance.
The gentlemen, and we likewise, clapped our hands; then, while she
stayed to take breath, she snatched Herdegen’s hat from his head--and
she had long had her eye on him--and gathered all the eggs into it with
much bowing and bending to the measure of the music. When she had put
all the eggs into the hat she offered it to my brother kneeling on
one knee, and she touched the rim of her tambourine with her lips. The
froward fellow put his fingers to his lips, as the little children do to
blow a kiss, and when his eyes fell on that wench’s, meseemed that this
was not the first time they had met.
It was now a warm and windless autumn day, and after dinner my aunt was
carried out into the courtyard. When the dancing was at an end, she,
as was her wont, questioned the men and the elder woman as to all she
desired to know; and, learning from them that the men were likewise
tinkers, she bid Ann hie to the kitchen and command that the
house-keeper should bring together all broken pots and pans. But now,
near by the wagon, was a noise heard of furious barking, and the pitiful
cry of a child.
The Junker, who had set forth early in the day to scour the woods, had
but now come home; the hounds with him had scented strangers, and had
rushed on the brown babe, which was playing in the sand behind the
wagon, making cakes and pasties. The dogs were indeed called off in all
haste, but one of them, a spiteful badger-hound, had bitten deep into
the little one’s shoulder.
I ran forthwith to the spot, and picked up the babe in my arms, seeing
its red blood flow; but the elder woman rushed at me, beside her wits
with rage, to snatch it from me; and whereas she was doubtless its
mother or grand-dame, I might have yielded up the child, but that Ritter
Franz came to me in haste to bid me, from my Aunt Jacoba, carry it to
her.
Who better than she knew the whole art and secret of healing the wounds
of a hound’s making? And so I told the old dame, to comfort her, albeit
she struggled furiously to get the babe from me. Nay and she might have
done so if the little thing had not clung round my neck with its right
arm that had no hurt, as lovingly as though it had been mine own and no
kin to the shrieking old woman.
But ere long a clear and strange light was cast on the matter; for when
we had loosened the child’s little shirt, and my aunt had duly washed
the blood from the wounds, under the dark hue of its skin behold it was
tender white, and so it was plain that here was a stolen child, needing
to be rescued.
Then the house-stewardess, the widow of a forester whose husband had
been slain by poachers, and who labored bravely to bring up her five
orphan children, with my aunt’s help--this woman, I say, now remembered
that when she had made her pilgrimage, but lately, to Vierzehnheiligen,
the Knight von Hirschhorn, treasurer to the Lord Bishop of Bamberg
at Schesslitz, not far from the place of pilgrimage, had lost a babe,
stolen away by vagabond knaves. Then Aunt Jacoba bethought herself that
restitution and benevolence might be made one; and, quoth she, this
matter might greatly profit the housekeeper and her little ones,
inasmuch as that the sorrowing father had promised a ransom of thirty
Hungarian ducats to him who should bring back his little daughter
living; and forthwith the whole tribe of the bear-leaders were to be
bound. The old beldame gave our men a hard job, for she tried to make
off to the forest, and called aloud: “Hind--Hind!” which was the young
wench’s name, with outlandish words which doubtless were to warn her to
flee; but the serving men gained their end and made the wild hag fast.
Ann was pale and in pain with her head aching, but she helped my aunt
to tend the child; and I was glad, inasmuch as I conceived that I knew
where to find Herdegen and the young dancing wench, and I cared only to
save his poor betrayed sweetheart from shame and sorrow. I crept away,
unmarked, through the garden of herbs behind the lodge, to a moss but
which my banished cousin had built up for me, in a covert spot between
two mighty beech-trees, while I was yet but a school maid.
Verily my imagination was not belied, for whereas I passed round the
pine-grove I heard my brother cry out: “Ah--wild cat!” and the hussy’s
loathsome laugh. And thereupon they both came forth, only in the doorway
he held her back to kiss her. At this she showed her white teeth, and
meseemed she would fain bite him; she thrust him away and laughed as she
said: “To-night; not too much at once.” Howbeit he snatched her to him,
and thereupon I called him by name and went forward.
He let her go soon enough then, but he stamped with his foot for sheer
rage. This, indeed, moved me not; with a calm demeanor I bid the wench
follow me, and to that faithless knave I cried: “Fie!” in a tone of
scorn which must have made his ears burn a good while. Before we entered
the garden I bid him go round about the house and come upon the others
from the right hand; she was to come with me and round by the left side.
I now saw that there were shreds of moss and dry leaves in the young
woman’s hair and bid her brush them out. This she did with a mocking
smile, and said in scorn: “Your lover?”
“Nay,” said I, “far from it. But yet one whom I would fain shield from
evil.” She shrugged her shoulders; I only said: “Come on.”
As we went round to the front of the house the elder woman was being led
away with her hands bound, and no sooner did the young one descry her
than she picked up her skirts and with one wild rush tried to be off
and away. I called Spond, my trusty guard, and bid him stay her; and the
noble hound dogged her steps till the men could catch her and lead her
to my aunt. The lady questioned her closely, deeming that so young and
comely a creature might be less stubborn that the old hag who had grown
grey in sins; but Hind stood dumb and made as though she knew not
our language. As to Herdegen, he meanwhile had greeted Ann with great
courtesy; nevertheless he had kept close to the dancing wench, and took
upon himself to tie her bonds and lead her to the dungeon cell. He sped
well, inasmuch as he got away with her alone, as he desired; for Sir
Franz delayed me again, and such a suit as he now pleaded can but seldom
have found a match, for I was bent only on following my brother, to
rescue him from the vagabond woman’s snares; and while the knight held
me fast by the hand, and swore he loved me, I was only striving to be
free, and gazing after Herdegen and Hind, heeding him not. At length he
hurt my hand, which I could not get away from him; and whereas he was
beginning to look wildly and to seem crazed, I besought him to leave me
free henceforth and try his fortune elsewhere. But still he would never
have set me free so hastily if an evil star had not brought the Swabian
Junker to the spot.
Sir Franz, without a word of greeting or warning, went up to him and
upbraided him for having caused a mischief to a helpless babe through
his heedless conduct. But if Sir Franz knew not already that he, to
whom he spoke as roughly as though he were a froward serving man, was
in truth son and heir of a right noble house, he learnt it now. His
last words were: “And for the future have your savage hounds in better
governance!” Whereupon the other coolly answered: “And you, your
tongue.”
On this the other shrugged his shoulders and replied in scorn that to be
sure his tongue was for use and not for silence like some folks’. And I
marvelled where the Swabian, who was so slow of speech, found the words
for retort and answer, till at length it was too much for him and he
laid his hand on his hanger as a second and a sharper tongue.