Benumbed, bedraggled, and bewildered, I entered Feldkirch late at night,
my wrists cut with the cords, my clothes torn by frequent falls, my
limbs aching with bruises, and my wet rags chafing my skin. No wonder
was it that I was at once consigned from the charge of a jailer to the
care of a doctor, and ere the day broke I was in a raging fever.
I would not, if I could, preserve any memory of that grievous interval.
Happily for me, no clear traces remain on my mind,--pangs of suffering
are so mingled with little details of the locality, faces, words,
ludicrous images of a wandering intellect, long hours of silent
brooding, sound of church bells, and such other tokens as cross the
lives of busy men in the daily walk of life, all came and went within my
brain, and still I lay there in fever.
In my first return of consciousness, I perceived I was the sole occupant
of a long arched gallery, with a number of beds arranged along each
side of it. In their uniform simplicity, and the severe air of the few
articles of furniture, my old experiences at once recalled the
hospital; not that I arrived at this conclusion without much labor and
a considerable mental effort. It was a short journey, to be sure, but
I was walking with sprained ankles. It was, however, a great joy and a
great triumph to me to accomplish even this much. It was the recognition
to myself that I was once more on the road to health, and again to feel
the sympathies that make a brotherhood of this life of ours; and so
happy was I with the prospect, that when I went to sleep at night my
last thought was of the pleasure that morning would bring me. And I
was not disappointed; the next day, and the next, and several more that
followed, were all passed in a calm and tranquil enjoyment Looking back
upon this period, I have often been disposed to imagine that when we lie
in the convalescence that follows some severe illness, with no demands
upon our bodily strength, no call made upon our muscular energies, the
very activity of digestion not evoked, as our nourishment is of
the simplest and lightest, our brain must of necessity exercise its
functions more freely, untrammelled by passing cares or the worries
incident to daily life, and that at such times our intellect has
probably a more uncontested action than at any other period of our
existence. I do not want to pursue my theory, or endeavor to sustain
it; my reader has here enough to induce him to join his experience to my
own, or reject the notion altogether.
I lay thus, not impatiently, for above a fortnight. I regained strength
very slowly; the least effort or exertion was sure to overcome me. But
I wished for none; and as I lay there, gazing for whole days long at
a great coat-of-arms over the end of the gallery, where a huge
double-headed eagle seemed to me screaming in the agony of
strangulation, but yet never to be choked outright, I revelled in many
a strange rambling as to the fate of the land of which it was the emblem
and the shield. Doubtless some remnant of my passionate assault on
Austria lingered in my brain, and gave this turn to its operations.
My nurse was one of that sisterhood whose charities call down many a
blessing on the Church that organizes their benevolences. She was what
is called a _graue Schwester_; and of a truth she seemed the incarnation
of grayness. It was not her dress alone, but her face and hands, her
noiseless gait, her undemonstrative stare, her half-husky whisper, and
her monotonous ways, had all a sort of pervading grayness that enveloped
her, just as a cloud mist wraps a landscape. There was, besides, a kind
of fog-like indistinctness in her few and muttered words that made a
fitting atmosphere of drowsy uniformity for the sick-room.
Her first care, on my recovery, was to supply me with a number of little
religious books,--lives of saints and martyrs, accounts of miracles, and
narratives of holy pilgrimages,--and I devoured them with all the zest
of a devotee. They seemed to supply the very excitement my mind
craved for, and the good soul little suspected how much more she was
ministering to a love for the marvellous than to a spirit of piety. In
the “Flowers of St. Francis,” for instance, I found an adventure-seeker
after my own heart To be sure, his search was after sinners in need of
a helping hand to rescue them; but as his contests with Satan were
described as stand-up encounters, with very hard knocks on each side,
they were just as exciting combats to read of, as any I had ever perused
in stories of chivalry.
Mistaking my zest for these readings for something far more
praiseworthy, “the gray sister” enjoined me very seriously to turn
from the evil advisers I had formerly consorted with, and frequent the
society of better-minded and wiser men. Out of these counsels, dark
and dim at first, but gradually growing clearer, I learned that I was
regarded as a member of some terrible secret society, banded together
for the direst and blackest of objects; the subversion of thrones,
overthrow of dynasties, and assassination of sovereigns being all labors
of love to us. She had a full catalogue of my colleagues, from Sand, who
killed Kotzebue, to Orsini, and seemed thoroughly persuaded that I was
a very advanced member of the order. It was only after a long time, and
with great address on my part, that I obtained these revelations from
her, and she owned that nothing but witnessing how the holy studies had
influenced me would ever have induced her to make these avowals. As my
convalescence progressed, and I was able to sit up for an hour or so
in the day, she told me that I might very soon expect a visit from the
Staats Procurator, a kind of district attorney-general, to examine me.
So little able was I to carry my mind back to the bygone events of my
life, that I heard this as a sort of vague hope that the inquiry would
strike out some clew by which I could connect myself with the past,
for I was sorely puzzled to learn what and who I had been before I came
there. Was I a prosecutor or was I a prisoner? Never was a knotty point
more patiently investigated, but, alas! most hopelessly. The intense
interest of the inquiry, however, served totally to withdraw me from my
previous readings, and “the gray sister” was shocked to see the mark in
my book remain for days long unchanged. She took courage at length
to address me on the subject, and even went so far as to ask if Satan
himself had not taken occasional opportunity of her absence to come and
sit beside my bed? I eagerly caught at the suggestion, and said it was
as she suspected: that he never gave me a moment's peace, now torturing
me with menaces, now asking for explanations, how this could be
reconciled with that, and why such a thing should not have prevented
such another?
Instead of expressing any astonishment at my confession, she appeared to
regard it as one of the most ordinary incidents, and referred me to my
books, and especially to St Francis, to see that these were usual and
every-day snares in use. She went further, and in her zeal actually
showed a sort of contempt for the Evil One in his intellectual capacity
that startled me; showing how St Jude always got the better of him, and
that he was a mere child when opposed by the craft of St. Anthony of
Pavia.
“It is the truth,” said she, “always conquers him. Whenever, by any
chance, he can catch you concealing or evading, trying to make out
reasons that are inconsistent, or affecting intentions that you had not,
then he is your master.”
There was such an air of matter-of fact about all she said, that
when--our first conversation on this theme over--she left the room, a
cold sweat broke over me at the thought that my next visitor would be
the “Lebendige Satan” himself.
It had come to this: that I had furnished my own mind with such a
subject of terror that I could not endure to be alone, and lay there
trembling at every noise, and shrinking at every shadow that crossed the
floor. Many and many times, as the dupe of my own deceivings, did I find
myself talking aloud in self-defence, averring that I wanted to be good
and honest and faithful, and that whenever I lapsed from the right path,
it was in moments of erring reason, sure to be followed after by sincere
repentance.
It was after an access of this kind “the gray sister” found me one
morning, bathed in cold perspiration, my eyes fixed, my lips livid, and
my fingers fast knotted together.
“I see,” said she, “he has given you a severe turn of it to-day. What
was the temptation?”
For a long while I refused to answer; I was weak as well as irritable,
and I desired peace; but she persisted, and pressed hard to know what
subject we had been discussing together.
“I'll tell you, then,” said I, fiercely, for a sudden thought, prompted
perhaps by a sense of anger, flashed across me: “he has just told me
that you are his sister.”
She screamed out wildly, and rushing to the end of the gallery, threw
herself at the foot of a little altar.
Satisfied with my vengeance, I lay back, and said no more. I may have
dropped into a half-slumber afterwards, for I remember nothing till,
just as evening began to fall, one of the servants came up and placed a
table and two chairs beside my bed, with writing-materials and a large
book, and shortly after, two men dressed in black, and with square
black caps on their heads, took their places at the table, and conversed
together in low whispers. Resolving to treat them with a show of
complete indifference, I turned away and pretended to go to sleep.
“The Herr Staats Procurator Schlassel has come to read the act of
accusation,” said the shorter man, who seemed a subordinate; “take care
that you pay proper respect to the law and the authorities.”
“Let him read away,” said I, with a wave of my hand; “I will listen.”
In a low, sing-song, dreary tone, he began to recite the titles and
dignities of the Emperor. I listened for a while; but as he got down to
the Banat and Herzégovine, sleep overcame me, and I dozed away, waking
up to hear him detailing what seemed his own greatness, how he was
“Ober” this, and “Unter” that, till I fairly lost myself in the maze of
his description. Judging from the monotonous, business-like persistence
of his manner, that he had a long road before him, I wrapped myself
comfortably in the bedclothes, closed my eyes, and soon slept.
There were two candles burning on the table when I next opened my eyes,
and my friend the procurator was reading away as before. I tried to
interest myself for a second or two; I rubbed my eyes, and endeavored to
be wakeful; but I could not, and was fast settling down into my former
state, when certain words struck on my ear and aroused me:
“The well-born Herr von Rigges further denounces the prisoner Harpar--”
“Read that again,” cried I, aloud, “for I cannot clearly follow what you
say.”
“'The well-born Herr von Rigges, '“ repeated he, “'further denounces
the prisoner Harpar as one of a sect banded together for the darkest
purposes of revolution!'”
“Forgive my importunity, Herr Procurator,” said I, in my most
insinuating tone, “but in compassion for the weakness of faculties
sorely tried by fever, will you tell me who is Rigges?”
“Who is Rigges? Is that your question?” said he, slowly.
“Yes, sir; that was my question.”
He turned over several pages of his voluminous report, and proceeded to
search for the passage he wanted.
“Here it is,” said he, at last; and he read out: “'The so-called Rigges,
being a well-born and not-the-less-from-a-mercantile-object-engaging
pursuit highly-placed and much-honored subject of her Majesty the Queen
of England, of the age of forty-two years and eight months, unmarried,
and professing the Protestant religion.' Is that sufficient?”
“Quite so; and now, will you, with equal urbanity, inform me who is
Harpar?”
“Who is Harpar? Who is Harpar? You surely do not ask me that?”
“I do; such is my question.”
“I must confess that you surprise me. You ask me for information about
yourself!”
“Oh, indeed! So that I am Harpar?”
“You can, of course, deny it We are in a measure prepared for that. The
proofs of your identity will be, however, forthcoming; not to add that
it will be difficult to disprove the offence.”
“Ha, the offence! I 'm really curious about that. What is the offence
with which I am charged?”
“What I have been reading these two hours. What I have recited with all
the clearness, brevity, and perspicuity that characterize our imperial
and royal legislation, making our code at once the envy and admiration
of all Europe.”
“I 'm sure of that But what have I done?”
“With what for a dulness-charged and much-beclouded intellect are
you afflicted,” cried he, “not to have followed the greatly-by-
circumstances-corroborated, and in-various-ways-by-proofs-brought-home
narrative that I have already read out.”
“I have not heard one word of it!”
“What a deplorable and all-the-more-therefore-hopeless intelligence is
yours! I will begin it once more.” And with a heavy sigh he turned over
the first pages of his manuscript.
“Nay, Herr Procurator,” interposed I, hastily. “I have the less claim to
exact this sacrifice on your part, that even when you have rendered it,
it will be all fruitless and unprofitable. I am just recovering from a
severe illness. I am, as you have very acutely remarked, a man of very
narrow and limited faculties in my best of moments, and I am now still
lower in the scale of intelligence. Were you to read that lucid document
till we were both gray-headed, it would leave me just as uninformed as
to imputed crime as I now am.”
“I perceive,” said he, gravely. Then, turning to his clerk, he bade
him write down, “'And the so-called Harpar, having duly heard and with
decorously-lent attention listened to the foregoing act, did thereupon
enter his plea of mental incapacity and derangement.”
“Nay, Herr Procurator, I would simply record that, however open to
follow some plain narrative, the forms and subtleties of a legal
document only bewilder me.”
“What for an ingeniously-worded and with-artifice-cunningly-conceived
excuse have we here?” exclaimed he, indignantly. “Is it from England,
with her seventeen hundred and odd volumes of an incomplete code, that
the Imperial and Royal Government is to learn legislation? You are
charged with offences that are known to every state of civilization:
highway assault and molestation; attack with arms and deadly implements,
stimulated by base and long heretofore and with-bitterness-imagined
plans of vengeance on your countryman and former associate, the so-named
Rigges. From him, too, proceeds the information as to your political
character, and the ever-to-be deplored and only-with-blood-expiated
error of republicanism by which you are actuated. This brief, but
not-the-less-on-that-account lucid exposition, it is my duty first
to read out, and then leave with you. With all your from-a-wrong-
impulse-proceeding and a-spirit-of-opposition-suggested objections, I
have no wish nor duty to meddle. The benign and ever paternal rule under
which we live gives even to the most-with-accusation-surrounded, and
with-strong-presumption-implicated prisoner, every facility of defence.
Having read and matured this indictment, you will, after a week, make
choice of an advocate.”
“Am I to be confronted with my accuser?”
“I sincerely hope that the indecent spectacle of insulting attack and
offensive rejoinder thus suggested is unknown to the administration of
our law.”
“How, then, can you be certain that I am the man he accuses of having
molested him?”
“You are not here to assail, nor I to defend, the with-ages-consolidated
and by-much-tact-accumulated wisdom of our Imperial and Royal Code.”
“Might he not say, when he saw me, 'I never set eyes on this man
before'?”
He turned again to his clerk, and dictated something of which I could
but catch the concluding words, “And thereby imputing perjury to the
so-called Rigges.”
It was all I could do to repress an outburst of anger at this
unjustifiable system of inference, but I did restrain myself, and merely
said, “I impute nothing, Herr Procurator; I simply suggest a possible
case, that everything suffered by Rigges was inflicted by some other
than I.”
“If you had accomplices, name them,” said he, solemnly.
This overcame all my prudent resolves. I was nowise prepared for such
a perversity of misconception, and, losing all patience and all respect
for his authority, I burst out into a most intemperate attack on
Austria, her code, her system, her ignorant indifference to all European
enlightenment, her bigoted adherence to forms either unmeaning or
pernicious, winding up all with a pleasant prediction that in a few
short years the world would have seen the last of this stolid and
unteachable empire.
Instead of deigning a reply, he merely bent down to the table, and I saw
by the movement of his lips, and the rapid course of the clerk's pen,
that my statement was being reduced to writing.
“When you have completed that,” said I, gravely, “I have some further
observations to record.”
“In a moment,--in a moment,” patiently responded the procurator; “we
have only got to 'the besotted stupidity of her pretentious officials.'”
The calm quietude of his manner, as he said this, threw me into a fit of
laughter which lasted several minutes.
“There, there,” said I, “that will do; I will keep the remainder of my
remarks for another time and place.”
“'Reserving to himself,'” dictated he, “'the right of uttering still
more bitter and untruthful comments on a future occasion.'” And the
clerk wrote the words as he spoke them.
“You will sign this here,” said he, presenting me with the pen.
“Nothing of the kind, Herr Procurator. I will not lend myself to any,
even the most ordinary, form of your stupid system.”
“'And refuses to sign the foregoing,'” dictated he, in the same unmoved
voice. This done, he arose, and proceeded to draw on his gloves. “The
act of allegation I now commit to your hands,” said he, calmly, “and you
will have a week to reflect upon the course you desire to adopt.”
“One question before you go: Is the person called Rigges here at this
moment, and can I see him?”
He consulted for a few seconds with his subordinate, and then replied,
“These questions we are of opinion are irrelevant to the defence, and
need not be answered.”
“I only ask you, as a favor, Herr Procurator,” said I.
“The law recognizes no favors, nor accepts courtesies.”
“Does it also reject common sense?--is it deaf to all intelligence?--is
it indifferent to every appeal to reason?--is it dead to--”
But he would not wait for more, and having saluted me thrice profoundly,
retired from the gallery and left me alone with my indignation.
The great pile of paper still lay on the table next me, and in my anger
I hurled it from me to the middle of the room, venting I know not what
passionate wrath at the same time on everything German. “This the land
of primitive simplicity and patriarchal virtues, forsooth! This the
country of elevated tastes and generous instincts! Why, it is all Bureau
and Barrack!” I went on for a long time in this strain, and I felt the
better for it. The operative surgeons tell us that no men recover so
certainly or so speedily after great operations as the fellows
who scream out and make a terrible uproar. It is your patient,
self-controlling creature who sinks under the suffering he will not
confess; and I am confident that it is a wise practice to blow off the
steam of one's indignation, and say all the most bitter things one
can think of in moments of disappointment, and, so to say, prepare the
chambers of your mind for the reception of better company.
After a while I got up, gathered the papers together, and prepared to
read them. Legal amplifications and circumlocutions are of all lands
and peoples; but for the triumph of this diffusiveness commend me to the
Germans. To such an extent was this the case, that I reached the eighth
page of the precious paper before I got finally out of the titular
description of the vice-governor in whose district the event was laid.
Armed, however, with heroic resolution, I persevered, and read on
through the entire night,--I will not say without occasional refreshers
in the shape of short naps; but the day was already breaking when I
turned over the last page, and read the concluding little blessing on
the Emperor, under whose benign reign all the good was encouraged,
all evil punished, and the Hoch-gelehrter--Hoch wohl-geborner Herr
der Hofrath, Ober Procurators-fiscal-Secretar, charged with the due
execution of the present decree.
In the language of _précis_ writing, the event might be stated thus:
“A certain Englishman named Rigges, travelling by post, arrived at the
torrent of Dornbirn a short time before noon, and while waiting there
for the arrival of some peasants to accompany his carriage through
the stream, was joined by a foot-traveller, by whom he was speedily
recognized. Whatever the nature of the relations previously subsisting
between them,--and it may be presumed they were not of the most
amiable,--no sooner had they exchanged glances than they engaged in
deadly conflict. Rigges was well armed; the stranger had no weapon
whatever, but was a man of surpassing strength, for he tore the door
of the carriage from its hinges, and dragged Rigges out upon the road
before the other could offer any resistance. The postilion, who had gone
to summon the peasants, was speedily recalled by the report of firearms;
three shots were fired in rapid succession, and when he reached the spot
it was to see two men struggling violently in the torrent, the stranger
dragging Rigges with all his might towards the middle of the stream, and
the other screaming wildly for succor. The conflict was a terrible one,
for the foot-traveller seemed determined on self-destruction, if he
could only involve the other in his own fate. At last Rigges' strength
gave way, and the other threw himself upon him, and they both went down
beneath the water.
“The stranger emerged in an instant, but one of the peasants on the bank
struck him a violent blow with his ash pole, and he fell back into the
stream. Meanwhile the others had rescued Rigges, who lay panting, but
unconscious, on the ground. They were yet ministering to his recovery,
when they heard a wild shout of derisive triumph, and now saw that the
other, though carried away by the torrent, had gained a small shingly
bank in the middle of the Rhine, and was waving his hat in mockery of
them. They were too much occupied with the care of the wounded man,
however, to bestow more attention on him. One of Rigges' arms was badly
fractured, and his jaw also broken, while he complained still more
of the pain of some internal injuries; so severe, indeed, were his
sufferings, that he had to be carried on a litter to Feldkirch. His
first care on arriving was to denounce the assailant, whose name he
gave as Harpar, declaring him to be a most notorious member of a 'Rouge'
society, and one whose capture was an object of European interest. In
fact, Rigges went so far as to pretend that he had himself perilled life
in the attempt to secure him.
“Detachments of mounted gendarmes were immediately sent off in pursuit,
the order being to arrest any foot-traveller whose suspicious appearance
might challenge scrutiny.”
It is needless to say how much I appeared to fulfil the signs they
sought for, not to add that the intemperance of my language, when
captured, was in itself sufficient to establish a grave charge against
me. It is true, there was in the act of allegation a lengthened
description of me, with which my own appearance but ill corresponded.
I was described as of middle age, of a strong frame and muscular habit,
and with an expression that denoted energy and fierceness. How much of
that vigor must they imagine had been washed away by the torrent, to
leave me the poor helpless-looking thing I now appeared!
I know it is a very weak confession,--I feel as I make it how damaging
to my character is the acknowledgment, and how seriously I compromise
myself in my reader's estimation; but I cannot help owning that I felt
very proud to be thought so wicked, to be classed with those Brutuses of
modern history, who were scattering explosive shells like bonbons, and
throwing grenades broadcast like “confetti” in a carnival. I fancied how
that miserable Staats Procurator must have trembled in his inmost heart
as he sat there in close proximity with such an infuriate desperado as I
was. I hoped that every look, every gesture, every word of mine, struck
terror into his abject soul. It must also unquestionably do them good,
these besotted, self-satisfied, narrow-minded Germans, to learn how an
Englishman, a born Briton, regards their miserable system of government,
and that poor and meagre phantasm they call their “civilization.” Well,
they have had their opportunity now, and I hope they will make much of
it.
As I pondered over the late incident, as recorded in the allegation,
I remembered the name of Rigges as that of the man Harpar mentioned as
having “run” or escaped with their joint finances, and had very little
difficulty in filling up the probable circumstances of their rencontre.
It was easy to see how Rigges, travelling “extra-post,” with all the
appearance of wealth and station, could impute to the poor wayfarer
any criminality he pleased. Cunningly enough, too, he had hit upon the
precise imputation which was sure to enlist Austrian sympathies in the
pursuit, and calling him a “Socialist and a Rouge” was almost sealing
his fate at once. How glad I felt that the poor fellow had escaped, even
though it cost me all the penalty of personating him; yes, I really was
generous enough for that sentiment, though I perceive that my reader
smiles incredulously as I declare it. “No, no,” mutters he, “the arrant
snob must not try to impose upon us in that fashion. He was trembling to
the very marrow of his bones, and nothing was further from his thoughts
than self-sacrifice or devotion.” I know your opinion of me takes this
lively shape; I feel it, and I shrink under it; but I know, besides,
that I owe all this depreciating estimate of me to nothing so much as my
own frankness and candor. If my reader, therefore, scruples to accord
me the merit of the generosity that I lay claim to, let him revel in the
depreciating confession that I am about to make. I knew that when it was
discovered I was not Harpar, I must instantly be set at liberty. I
felt this, and could, therefore, be at any moment the arbiter of my own
freedom. To do this, of course, would set in motion a search after the
real delinquent, and I determined I would keep my secret till he had
ample time to get away. When I had satisfied myself that all pursuit of
him must be hopeless, I would declare myself to be Potts, and proudly
demand my liberation.
My convalescence made now such progress that I was able to walk about
the gallery, and indeed occasionally to stroll out upon a long terrace
which flanked the entire building, and gaze upon a garden, beyond which
again I could see the town of Feldkirch and the open Platz in which the
weekly market was held. By the recurrence of these--they always fell
upon a Saturday--was I enabled to mark time, and I now reckoned that
three weeks had gone over since the day of the Herr Procurator's visit,
and yet I had heard nothing more of him, nor of the accusation against
me. I was seriously thinking whether my wisest plan might not be to take
French leave and walk off, when my jailer came one morning to announce
that I was to be transferred to Innspruck, where, in due course, my
trial would take place.
“What if I refuse to go?” said I; “what if I demand my liberation here
on the spot?”
“I don't imagine that you 'd delay your journey much by that, my good
friend,” said he; “the Imperial and Royal Government takes little heed
of foolish remonstrances.”
“What if the Imperial and Royal Government, in the plenitude of its
sagacity, should be in the wrong? What if I be not the person who is
accused of this crime? What if the real man be now at liberty? What if
the accuser himself will declare, when he sees me, that he never met me
before, nor so much as heard of me?”
“Well, all that may happen; I won't say it is impossible, but it cannot
occur here, for the Herr von Rigges has already set off for Innspruck,
and you are to follow him to-morrow.”