"I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE."
I was awakened by the sound of a band, and the tramp, tramp, tramp of a
regiment of soldiers--solid, rhythmical and earthshaking as the
footsteps of the Statue of the Commander.
A regiment of infantry was passing in the street below.
At Carlsruhe, at Mayence, I had heard the same sounds, and even my
childish mind could recognise the perfect drill, the perfect discipline,
the solidarity of these legions of the German army.
The sun was shining in through the window which Joubert had just flung
open; the band was playing, the soldiers marching, life was gay.
"Attention!" cried Joubert, turning from the window. "One!" up I sat.
"Two!" out went a leg. "Three!" I was standing on the floor saluting.
I declare, if anyone had put his ear to the door of my bedroom when I
was dressing, or rather, being dressed, in the morning, they might have
sworn that a company of soldiers were drilling.
Mixed with the slashing of water and the gasps of a child being bathed
came Joubert's military commands; the putting on of my small trousers
was accompanied by shrill directions taken from the drill-book, and the
full-dress inspection would have satisfied the fastidious soul of
Maréchal Niel.
After breakfast the carriage was brought to the door, the baggage
stowed, and, Joubert, taking the directions from my father, we started
for the Schloss Lichtenberg as the clocks of Frankfort were striking
eleven.
No warmer or more beautiful autumn morning ever cast its light on
Germany. By permission of the German Foreign Office, we had a complete
set of road-maps, with our route laid down in red ink, each numbered,
and each to be returned to the German Embassy in Paris on the conclusion
of our tour.
We did not hurry--time was our own; we stopped sometimes at posthouses,
with porches vine-overgrown, where I had plums, Joubert had beer, and my
father chatted to the country people, who crowded round our carriage,
and the stout innkeepers who served us.
The Taunus Mountains, blue in the warm haze of distance, beautiful with
the magic of their pine forests, lay before us. At two o'clock we passed
up the steep, cobble-paved main street of Homburg--a smaller Homburg
then--and at three we had left the tiny village of Emsdorff and its
schloss behind us.
We were in a different country here, the mountains were very close, and
the road threaded the edges of the great forest. I knew the Forest of
Sênart, which lies quite close to the Château de Saluce, but the Forest
of Sênart was tame as a flower-garden compared with this. The air was
filled with the perfume and the singing and sighing of the great pine
trees, the carriage went almost without sound over the carpet of
pine-needles, and once, in the deepest part, where all was green gloom
and dancing points of light, my father called a halt and we sat for a
moment to listen.
You could hear the leagues of silence, and then, like the rustling of a
lady's skirt, came the wind sighing across the tree-tops and loudening
to the patter of falling fir-cones, and dying away again and leaving the
silence to herself. The bark of a fox, the far-off cry of a jay,
instantly peopled the place for my childish mind with the people of
Grimm and Hoffmann, Father Barbel, the beasts that talked, and the
robbers of the forest, more mysterious and fascinating than gnomes.
"Listen!" said my father. Mournful, faint, and far away came the notes
of a horn.
"They are hunting in the forest," said my father; and, at the words, I
could see in the gloom of the tree-caverns the phantom of the flying
game pursued by the phantom of the ghostly huntsman, bugle to lips and
cheeks puffed out, a picture in the fantastic tapestry that children
weave from the colours and the sounds of life.
Then we drove on.
It was long past four, and I was drowsy with the fresh air, half drugged
with the odour of the pine trees, when we reached the gates of the park
surrounding the schloss.
They were opened for us by a jäger, an old man in a green uniform, who
saluted as we passed. Joubert whipping up the horses, we passed along
the great avenue of elm trees. The park, under the late afternoon sun,
lay swathed in light, beautiful and so spacious that the far-off deer
browsing in the sunshine seemed the denizens of their natural home.
I was not drowsy now, I was sitting erect by my father, my heart was
filled with the wildest exaltation--mystery and enchantment surrounded
me. I could have cried aloud with the wonder of it all; for I had been
here before.