I give the old man's story, as nearly as I can, the way he told it
“There is a little village on the Lago di Guarda, called Caprini. My
family had lived there for some generations. We had a little wine-shop,
and though not a very pretentious one, it was the best in the place, and
much frequented by the inhabitants. My father was in considerable repute
while he lived; he was twice named Syndic of Caprini, and I myself once
held that dignity. You may not know, perhaps, that the office is
one filled at the choice of the townsfolk, and not nominated by the
Government. Still the crown has its influence in the selection, and
likes well to see one of its own partisans in power, and, when a popular
candidate does succeed against their will, the Government officials
take good care to make his berth as uncomfortable as they can. These
are small questions of politics to ask you to follow, but they were our
great ones; and we were as ardent and excited and eager about the choice
of our little local Governor as though he wielded real power in a great
state.
“When I obtained the syndicate, my great ambition was to tread in the
footsteps of my father, old Gustave Gamerra, who had left behind him a
great name as the assertor of popular rights, and who had never bated
the very least privilege that pertained to his native village. I did my
best--not very discreetly, perhaps--for my own sake, but I held my head
high against all imperial and royal officials, and I taught them to
feel that there was at least one popular institution in the land that
no exercise of tyranny could assail. I was over-zealous about all our
rights. I raked up out of old archives traces of privileges that we once
possessed and had never formally surrendered; I discovered concessions
that had been made to as of which we had never reaped the profit; and I
was, so to say, ever at war with the authorities, who were frank enough
to say that when my two years of office expired they meant to give me
some wholesome lessons about obedience.
“They were as good as their word. I had no sooner descended to a private
station than I was made to feel all the severities of their displeasure.
They took away my license to sell salt and tobacco, and thereby fully
one half of my little income; they tried to withdraw my privilege to
sell wine, but this came from the municipality, and they could not touch
it. Upon information that they had suborned, they twice visited my house
to search for seditious papers, and, finally, they made me such a mark
of their enmity that the timid of the townsfolk were afraid to be seen
with me, and gradually dropped my acquaintance. This preyed upon me most
of all. I was all my life of a social habit; I delighted to gather my
friends around me, or to go and visit them, and to find myself, as I was
growing old, growing friendless too, was a great blow.
“I was a widower, and had none but an only daughter.”
When he had reached thus far, his voice failed him, and, after an effort
or two, he could not continue, and turned away his head and buried it in
his hands. Full ten minutes elapsed before he resumed, which he did
with a hard, firm tone, as though resolved not to be conquered by his
emotion.
“The cholera was dreadfully severe all through the Italian Tyrol; it
swept from Venice to Milan, and never missed even the mountain villages,
far away up the Alps. In our little hamlet we lost one hundred and
eighteen souls, and my Gretchen was one of them.
“We had all grown to be very hard-hearted to each other; misfortune was
at each man's door, and he had no heart to spare for a neighbor's
grief; and yet such was the sorrow for her, that they came, in all this
suffering and desolation, to try and comfort and keep me up, and though
it was a time when all such cares were forgotten, the young people went
and laid fresh flowers over her grave every morning. Well, that was
very kind of them, and made me weep heartily; and, in weeping, my heart
softened, and I got to feel that God knew what was best for all of us,
and that, may-bap, he had taken her away to spare her greater sorrow
hereafter, and left me to learn that I should pray to go to her. She
had only been in the earth eight days, and I was sitting alone in my
solitary house, for I could not bear to open the shop, and began to
think that I *d never have the courage to do so again, but would go away
and try some other place and some other means of livelihood,--it was
while thinking thus, a sharp, loud knock came to the door, and I arose
rather angrily, to answer it.
“It was a sergeant of an infantry regiment, whose detachment was on
march for Peschiera; there were troubles down there, and the Government
had to send off three regiments in all haste from Vienna to suppress
them. The sergeant was a Bohemian, and his regiment the Kinsky. He was
a rough, coarse fellow, very full of his authority, despising all
villagers, and holding Italians in especial contempt. He came to order
me to prepare rations and room for six soldiers, who were to arrive that
evening. I answered, boldly, that I would not I had served the office of
syndic in the town, and was thus forever exempt from the 'billet,' and I
led him into my little sitting-room, and showed him my 'brevet,'
framed and glazed, over the chimney. He laughed heartily at my little
remonstrance, coolly turned the 'brevet' with its face to the wall, and
said,--
“'If you don't want twelve of us instead of six, you 'll keep your
tongue quiet, and give us a stoup of your best wine.'
“I did not wait to answer him, but seized my hat and hurried away to the
Platz Commandant. He was an old enemy of mine, but I could not help it;
his was the only authority I could appeal to, and he was bound to do me
justice. When I reached the bureau, it was so crowded with soldiers and
townsfolk, some seeking for billets, some insisting on their claim to be
free, that I could not get past the door, and, after an hour's
waiting, I was fain to give up the attempt, and turned back home again,
determined to make my statement in writing, which, after all, might have
been the most fitting.
“I found my doors wide open when I got there, and my shop crowded
with soldiers, who, either seated on the counter or squatting on their
knapsacks, had helped themselves freely to my wine, even to raising the
top of an old cask, and drinking it in large cups from the barrel, which
they handed liberally to their comrades as they passed.
“My heart was too full to care much for the loss, though the insult
pressed me sorely, and, pushing my way through, I gained the inner room
to find it crowded like the shop. All was in disorder and confusion.
The old musket my father had carried for many a year, and which had hung
over the chimney as an heirloom, lay smashed in fragments on the floor;
some wanton fellow had run his bayonet through my 'brevet' as syndic,
and hung it up in derision as a banner; and one--he was a corporal--had
taken down the wreath of white roses that lay on Gretchen's coffin till
it was laid in the earth, and placed it on his head. When I «aw this,
my senses left me; I gave a wild shriek, and dashed both my hands in his
face. I tried to strangle him; I would have torn him with my teeth had
they not dragged me off and dashed me on the ground, where they trampled
on me, and beat me, and then carried me away to prison.
“I was four days in prison before I was brought up to be examined. I did
not know whether it had been four or forty, for my senses had left
me and I was mad; perhaps it was the cold dark cell and the silence
restored me, but I came out calm and collected. I remembered everything
to the smallest incident.
“The soldiers were heard first; they agreed in everything, and their
story had all the air of truth about it They owned they had taken my
wine, but said that the regiment was ready and willing to pay for it so
soon as I came back, and that all the rest they had done were only the
usual follies of troops on a march. I began by claiming my exemption as
a syndic, but was stopped at once by being told that my claim had
never been submitted to the authorities, and that in my outrage on
the imperial force I had forfeited all consideration on that score. My
offence was easily proven. I did not deny it, and I was lectured for
nigh an hour on the enormity of my crime, and then sentenced to pay
a fine of a thousand zwanzigers to the Emperor, and to receive
four-and-twenty blows with the stick. 'It should have been
eight-and-forty but for my age,' he said.
“On the same stool where I sat to hear my sentence was a circus man,
waiting the Platz Commandant's leave to give some representation in the
village. I knew him from his dress, but had never spoken to him nor he
to me; just, however, as the Commandant had delivered the words of my
condemnation, he turned to look at me,--mayhap to see how I bore up
under my misfortune. I saw his glance, and I did my best to sustain it.
I wanted to bear myself manfully throughout, and not to let any one know
my heart was broken, which I felt it was. The struggle was, perhaps,
more than I was able for, and, while the tears gushed out and ran down
my cheeks, I buret out laughing, and laughed away fit after fit, making
the most terrible faces all the while; so outrageously droll were my
convulsions, that every one around laughed too, and there was the whole
court screaming madly with the same impulse, and unable to control it.
“'Take the fool away!' cried the Commandant, at last, 'and bring him to
reason with a hazel rod.' And they carried me off, and I was flogged.
“It was about a week after I was down near Commachio. I don't know how
I got there, but I was in rags, and had no money, and the circus people
came past and saw me. 'There's the old fellow that nearly killed us with
his droll face,' said the chief. 'I 'll give you two zwanzigers a day,
my man, if you 'll only give us a few grins like that every evening. Is
it a bargain?'
“I laughed. I could not keep now from laughing at everything, and the
bargain was made, and I was a clown from that hour. They taught me a
few easy tricks to help me in my trade, but it is my face that they care
for,--none can see it unmoved.”
He turned on me as he spoke with a fearful contortion of countenance,
but, moved by his story, and full only of what I had been listening to,
I turned away and shed tears.
“Yes,” said he, meditatively, “many a happy heart is kindled at the fire
that is consuming another. As for myself, both joy and sorrow are dead
within me. I am without hope, and, stranger still, without fear.”
“But you are not without benevolence,” said I, as I looked towards the
sleeping girl.
“She was so like Gretchen,” said he; and he bent down his head and
sobbed bitterly.
I would have asked him some questions about her if I dared, but I felt
so rebuked by the sorrow of the old man, that my curiosity seemed almost
unfeeling.
“She came amongst us a mere child,” said he, “and speedily attached
herself to me. I contrived to learn enough v of her dialect to
understand and talk to her, and at last she began to regard me as a
father, and even called me such. It was a long time before I could bear
this. Every time I heard the word my grief would burst out afresh; but
what won't time do? I have come to like it now.”
“And is she good and gentle and affectionate?” asked I.
“She is far too good and true-hearted to be in such company as ours.
Would that some rich person,--it should be a lady,--kind and gentle and
compassionate, could see her and take her away from such associates, and
this life of shame, ere it be too late! If I have a sorrow left me now,
it is for her.”
I was silent; for though the wish only seemed fair and natural enough
on his part, I could not help thinking how improbable such an incident
would prove.
“She would repay it all,” said he. “If ever there was a nature rich in
great gifts, it is hers. She can learn whatever she will, and for a
word of kindness she would hold her hand in the fire for you. Hush!”
whispered he, “she is stirring. What is it, darling?” said he, creeping
close to her, as she lay, throwing her arms wildly open, but not
removing the handkerchief from her face.
She muttered something hurriedly, and then burst into a laugh so joyous
and so catching, it was impossible to refrain from joining in it.
She threw back the kerchief at once and started to her knees, gazing
steadfastly, almost sternly, at me. I saw that the old man comprehended
the inquiry of her glance, and as quickly whispered a few words in her
ear. She listened till he had done, and then, springing towards me, she
caught my hand and kissed it.
I suspect he must have rebuked the ardor of her movement, for she hung
her head despondingly, and turned away from us both.
“Now for the road once more,” said Vaterchen, “for if we stay much
longer here, we shall have the forest flies, which are always worse
towards evening.”
It was not without great difficulty I could prevent his carrying my
knapsack for me, and even the girl herself would gladly have borne some
of my load. At last, however, we set forth, Tintefleck lightening the
way with a merry can-zonette that had the time of a quickstep.