words to describe, he was suddenly prostrated by a nervous disorder,
which for several days quite deprived him of consciousness. Fortunately
there was a young and right clever doctor in the place, who opposed a
stout resistance to the disease, so that the Count not only recovered
consciousness but also his health, so far that after a few days he was
in a position to continue his journey. But his heart was oppressed with
the fear that a second attack on the road might kill him, and so plunge
his wife in a condition of the most straitened poverty. Not a little to
his astonishment he learned from the doctor that the place, in spite of
its small size and wretched appearance, was the seat of a Prussian
provincial court, and that he could there have his will registered with
all due formality, as soon as he could succeed in establishing his
identity. This, however, was a most formidable difficulty, for who knew
the Count in this district? But wonderful are the doings of Accident!
Just as the Count got out of his carriage in front of the inn of the
little town, there stood in the doorway a grey-haired old invalid,
almost eighty years old, who dwelt in a neighbouring village and earned
a living by plaiting willow baskets, and who only seldom came into the
town. In his youth he had served in the Austrian army, and for fifteen
successive years had been groom to the Count's father. At the first
glance he remembered his master's son; and he and his wife acted as
fully legitimated vouchers of the Count's identity, and not to their
detriment, as may well be conceived.
The young advocate at once saw that all depended upon the locality and
its exact correspondence with the Count's statements, if he wanted to
glean further details and find a clue to the place where the Count had
been ill and made his testament. He set off with the Countess for East
Prussia. There by examination of the post-books he was desirous of
making out, if possible, the route of travel pursued by the Count. But
after a good deal of wasted effort, he only managed to discover that
the Count had taken post-horses from Eylau to Allenburg. Beyond
Allenburg every trace was lost; nevertheless he satisfied himself that
the Count had certainly travelled through Prussian Lithuania, and of
this he was still further convinced on finding registered at Tilsit
that the Count had arrived there and departed thence by extra post.
Beyond this point again all traces were lost. Accordingly it seemed to
the young advocate that they must seek for the solution of the
difficulty in the short stretch of country between Allenburg and
Tilsit.
Quite dispirited and full of anxious care he arrived one rainy evening
at the small country town of Insterburg, accompanied by the Countess.
On entering the wretched apartments in the inn, he became conscious
that a strange kind of expectant feeling was taking possession of him.
He felt so like being at home in them, as if he had even been there
before, or as if the place had been most accurately described to him.
The Countess withdrew to her apartments. The young advocate tossed
restlessly on his bed. When the morning sun shone in brightly through
the window, his eyes fell upon the paper in one corner of the room. He
noticed that a large patch of the blue colour with which the room was
but lightly washed had fallen off, showing the disagreeable glaring
yellow that formed the ground colour, and upon it he observed that all
kinds of hideous faces in the New Zealand style had been painted to
serve as pleasing arabesques. Perfectly beside himself with joy and
delight, the young lawyer sprang out of bed. He was in the room in
which Count Z---- had made the all-important will. The description
agreed too exactly; there could not be any doubt about the matter.
But why now weary the reader with all the minor details of the things
that now took place one after the other? Suffice it to say that
Insterburg was then, as it still is, the seat of a Prussian superior
tribunal, at that time called an Imperial Court. The young advocate at
once waited upon the president with the Countess. By means of the
papers which she had brought with her, and which were drawn up in due
authenticated form, the Countess established her own identity in the
most satisfactory manner; and the will was publicly declared to be
perfectly genuine. Hence the Countess, who had left her own country in
great distress and poverty, now returned in the full possession of all
the rights of which a hostile destiny had attempted to deprive her.
In Nanni's eyes the advocate appeared like a hero from heaven, who had
victoriously protected deserted innocence against the wickedness of the
world. Leberfink also poured out all his great admiration of the young
lawyer's acuteness and energy in exaggerated encomiums. Master Wacht,
too, praised Jonathan's industry, and this trait he emphasised; and yet
the boy had really done nothing but what it was his duty to do; still
he somehow fancied that things might have been managed in a much
shorter way. "This event I regard," said Jonathan, "as a star of real
good fortune, which has risen upon the path of my career almost before
I have started upon it The case has created a great deal of sensation.
All the Hungarian magnates are excited about it. My name has become
known. And what is a long way the best of all, the Countess was so
liberal as to honour me with ten thousand Brabant thalers."19
During the course of the young advocate's narration, the muscles of
Master Wacht's face began to move in a remarkable way, till at last his
countenance wore an expression of the greatest indignation. "What!" he
at length shouted in a lion-like voice, whilst his eyes flashed fire--
"What! did I not tell you? You have made a sale of justice. The
Countess, in order to get her lawful inheritance out of the hands of
her rascally relations, has had to pay money, to sacrifice to Mammon.
Faugh! faugh! be ashamed of yourself." All the sensible protestations
of the young advocate, as well as of the rest of the persons who
happened to be present, were not of the slightest avail. For a second
it seemed as if their representations would gain a hearing, when it was
stated that no one had ever given a present with more willing pleasure
than the Countess had done on the sudden conclusion of her case, and
that, as good Leberfink very well knew, the young advocate had only
himself to blame that his honorarium had not turned out to be more in
amount as well as more on a level with the magnitude of the lady's
gain; nevertheless Master Wacht stuck to his own opinion, and they
heard from him in his own obstinate fashion the familiar words, "So
soon as you begin to talk about justice, you and everybody else in the
world ought to hold your tongues about money. It is true," he went on
more calmly after a pause, "there are several circumstances connected
with this history which might very well excuse you, and yet at the same
time lead you astray into base selfishness; but have the kindness to
hold your tongue about the Countess, and the will, and the ten thousand
thalers, if you please. I should indeed be fancying many a time that
you didn't altogether belong to your place at my table there."
"You are very hard--very unjust towards me, father," said the young
advocate, his voice trembling with sadness. Nanni's tears flowed
quietly; Leberfink, like an experienced man of the world, hastened to
turn the conversation upon the new gildings in St. Gangolph's.20
It may readily be conceived in what strained relations the members of
Wacht's family now lived. Where was their unconstrained conversation,
their bright good spirits, where their cheerfulness? A deadly vexation
was slowly gnawing at Wacht's heart, and it stood plainly written upon
his countenance.
Meanwhile they received not the least scrap of intelligence from
Sebastian Engelbrecht, and so the last feeble ray of hope that Master
Wacht had seen glimmering appeared about to fade. Master Wacht's
foreman, Andreas by name, was a plain, honest, faithful fellow, who
clung to his master with an affection that could not be matched
anywhere. "Master," said he one morning as they were measuring beams
together--"Master, I can't bear it any longer; it breaks my heart to
see you suffer so. Fräulein Nanni--poor Herr Jonathan!" Quickly
throwing away the measuring lines, Master Wacht stepped up to him and
took him by the breast, saying, "Man, if you are able to tear out of
this heart the convictions as to what is true and right which have been
engraven upon it by the Eternal Power in letters of fire, then what you
are thinking about may come to pass." Andreas, who was not the man to
enter upon a dispute with his master upon these sort of terms,
scratched himself behind his ear, and replied with an embarrassed
smirk, "Then if a certain distinguished gentleman were to pay a morning
visit to the workshop, I suppose it would produce no particular
effect?" Master Wacht perceived in a moment that a storm was brewing
against him, and that it was in all probability being directed by Count
von Kösel.
Just as the clock struck nine Nanni appeared in the workshop, followed
by old Barbara with the breakfast. The Master was not well pleased to
see his daughter, since it was out of rule; and he saw the programme of
the concerted attack already peeping out. Nor was it long before the
minor canon really made his appearance, as smart and prim and proper as
a pet doll. Close at his heels followed Monsieur Pickard Leberfink,
decorator and gilder, clad in all sorts of gay colours, so that he
looked not unlike a spring-chafer. Wacht pretended to be highly
delighted with the visit, the cause of which he at once insinuated to
be that the minor canon very likely wanted to see his newest models.
The truth is, Master Wacht felt very shy at the possibility of having
to listen to the canon's long-winded sermons, which he would deliver
himself of uselessly if he attempted to shake his (Wacht's) resolution
with respect to Nanni and Jonathan. Accident came to his rescue; for
just as the canon, the young lawyer, and the varnisher were standing
together, and the first-named was beginning to approach the most
intimate relations of life in the most elegantly turned phrases, fat
Hans shouted out "Wood here!" and big Peter on the other side pushed
the wood across to him so roughly that it caught the canon a violent
blow on the shoulder and sent him reeling against Monsieur Pickard; he
in his turn stumbled against the young advocate, and in a trice the
whole three had disappeared. For just behind them was a huge piled-up
heap of chips and saw-dust and so on. The unfortunates were buried
under this heap, so that all that could be seen of them were four black
legs and two buff-coloured ones; the latter were the gala stockings of
Herr Pickard Leberfink, decorator and gilder. It couldn't possibly be
helped; the journeymen and apprentices burst out into a ringing peal of
laughter, notwithstanding that Master Wacht bade them be still and look
grave.
Of them all the canon cut the worst figure, since the saw-dust had got
into the folds of his robe and even into the elegant curls which
adorned his head. He fled as if upon the wings of the wind, covered
with shame, and the young advocate hard after him. Monsieur Pickard
Leberfink was the only one who preserved his good humour and took the
thing in merry part, notwithstanding that it might be regarded as
certain he would never be able to wear the buff-coloured stockings
again, since the saw-dust had proved especially injurious to them and
had quite destroyed the "clock." Thus the storm which was to have been
adventured against Wacht was baffled by a ridiculous incident. But the
Master did not dream what terrible thing was to happen to him before
the day was over.
Master Wacht had finished dinner and was just going downstairs in order
to betake himself to his workyard, when he heard a loud, rough voice
shouting in front of the house, "Hi, there! This is where that knavish
old rascal, Carpenter Wacht, lives, isn't it?" A voice in the street
made answer, "There is no knavish old rascal living here; this is the
house of our respected fellow-citizen Herr Johannes Wacht, the
carpenter." In the same moment the street-door was forced open with a
violent bang, and a big strong fellow of wild appearance stood before
the master. His black hair stuck up like bristles through his ragged
soldier's cap, and in scores of places his tattered tunic was unable to
conceal his loathsome skin, browned with filth and exposure to rough
weather. The fellow wore soldier's shoes on his feet, and the blue
weals on his ankles showed the traces of the chains he had been
fettered with. "Ho, ho!" cried the fellow, "I bet you don't know me.
You don't know Sebastian Engelbrecht, whom you've cheated out of his
property--not you." With all the imposing dignity of his majestic form,
Master Wacht took a step towards the man, mechanically advancing the
cane he held in his hand. Then the wild fellow seemed to be almost
thunderstruck; he recoiled a few paces, and then raised his doubled
fists shouting, "Ho, ho! I know where my property is, and I'll go and
help myself to it, in spite of you, you old sinner." And he ran off
down the Kaulberg like an arrow from a bow, followed by the crowd.
Master Wacht stood in the passage like a statue for several seconds.
But when Nanni cried in alarm, "Good heavens! father, that was
Sebastian," he went into the room, more reeling than walking, and sank
down exhausted in an arm-chair; then, holding both hands before his
face, he cried in a heart-rending voice, "By the eternal mercy of God,
that is Sebastian Engelbrecht."
There arose a tumult in the street, the crowd poured down the Kaulberg,
and voices in the far distance could be heard shouting "Murder!
murder!" A prey to the most terrible apprehensions, the Master, ran
down to Jonathan's dwelling, situated immediately at the foot of the
Kaulberg. A dense mass of people were pushing and crowding together in
front of him; in their midst he perceived Sebastian struggling like a
wild animal against the watch, who had just thrown him upon the ground,
where they overpowered him and bound him hand and foot, and led him
away. "O God! O God! Sebastian has slain his brother," lamented the
people, who came crowding out of the house. Master Wacht forced his way
through and found poor Jonathan in the hands of the doctors, who were
exerting themselves to call him back to life. As he had received three
powerful blows upon the head, dealt with all the strength of a strong
man, the worst was to be feared.
As generally happens under such circumstances, Nanni learnt immediately
the whole history of the affair from her kind-hearted friends, and at
once rushed off to her lover's dwelling, where she arrived just as the
young lawyer, thanks to the lavish use of naphtha, opened his eyes
again, and the doctors were talking about trepanning. What further took
place may be conceived. Nanni was inconsolable; Rettel, notwithstanding
her betrothal, was sunk in grief; and Monsieur Pickard Leberfink
exclaimed, whilst tears of sorrow ran down his cheeks, "God be merciful
to the man upon whose pate a carpenter's fist falls." The loss of young
Herr Jonathan would be irreparable. At any rate the varnish on his
coffin should be of unsurpassed brightness and blackness; and the
silvering of the skulls and other nice ornaments should baffle all
comparison.
It appeared that Sebastian had escaped out of the hands of a troop of
Bavarian soldiers, whilst they were conducting a band of vagabonds
through the district of Bamberg, and he had found his way into the town
in order to carry out a mad project which he had for a long time been
brooding over in his mind. His career was not that of an abandoned,
vicious criminal; it afforded rather an example of those supremely
frivolous-minded men, who, despite the very admirable qualities with
which Nature has endowed them, give way to every temptation to evil,
and finally sinking to the lowest depths of vice, perish in shame and
misery. In Saxony he had fallen into the hands of a petti-fogging
lawyer, who had made him believe that Master Wacht, when sending him
his patrimonial inheritance, had paid him very much short, and kept
back the remainder for the benefit of his brother Jonathan, to whom he
had promised to give his favourite daughter Nanni to wife. Very likely
the old deceiver had concocted this story out of various utterances of
Sebastian himself. The kindly reader already knows by what violent
means Sebastian set to work to secure his own rights. Immediately after
leaving Master Wacht he had burst into Jonathan's room, where the
latter happened to be sitting at his study table, ordering some
accounts and counting the piles of money which lay heaped up before
him. His clerk sat in the other corner of the room. "Ah! you villain!"
screamed Sebastian in a fury, "there you are sitting over your mammon.
Are you counting what you have robbed me of? Give me here what yon old
rascal has stolen from me and bestowed upon you. You poor, weak thing!
You greedy clutching devil--you!" And when Sebastian strode close up to
him, Jonathan instinctively stretched out both hands to ward him off,
crying aloud, "Brother! for God's sake, brother!" But Sebastian replied
by dealing him several stunning blows on the head with his double fist,
so that Jonathan sank down fainting. Sebastian hastily seized upon some
of the rolls of gold and was making off with them--in which naturally
enough he did not succeed.
Fortunately it turned out that none of Jonathan's wounds, which
outwardly wore the appearance of large bumps, had occasioned any
serious concussion of the brain, and hence none of them could be
esteemed as likely to prove dangerous. After a lapse of two months,
when Sebastian was taken away to the convict prison, where he was to
atone for his attempt at murder by a heavy punishment, the young lawyer
felt himself quite well again.
This terrible occurrence exerted such a shattering effect upon Master
Wacht that a consuming surly peevishness was the consequence of it.
This time the stout strong oak was shaken from its topmost branch to
its deepest root. Often when his mind was thought to be busy with quite
different matters, he was heard to murmur in a low tone, "Sebastian--a
fratricide! That's how you reward me?" and then he seemed to come to
himself like one awakening out of a nasty dream. The only thing that
kept him from breaking down was the hardest and most assiduous labour.
But who can fathom the unsearchable depths in which the secret links of
feeling are so strangely forged together as they were in Master Wacht's
soul? His abhorrence of Sebastian and his wicked deed faded out of his
mind, whilst the picture of his own life, ruined by Jonathan's love for
Nanni, deepened in colour and vividness as the days went by. This frame
of mind Master Wacht betrayed in many short exclamations--"So then your
brother is condemned to hard labour and to work in chains!--That's
where he has been brought by his attempted crime against you--It's a
fine thing for a brother to be the cause of making his own brother a
convict--shouldn't like to be in the first brother's place--but lawyers
think differently; they want justice, that is, they want to play with a
lay figure and dress it up and give it whatever name they please."
Such like bitter, and even incomprehensible reproaches, the young
advocate was obliged to hear from Master Wacht, and to hear them only
too often. Any attempt at rebutting these charges would have been
fruitless. Accordingly Jonathan made no reply; only often when his
heart was almost distracted by the old man's fatal delusion, which was
ruining all his happiness, he broke out in his exceeding great pain,
"Father, father, you are unjust towards me, exasperatingly unjust."
One day when the family were assembled at the decorator Leberfink's,
and Jonathan also was present, Master Wacht began to tell how somebody
had been saying that Sebastian Engelbrecht, although apprehended as a
criminal, could yet make good by action at law his claim against Master
Wacht, who had been his guardian. Then, smiling venomously and turning
to Jonathan, he went on, "That would be a pretty case for a young
advocate. I thought you might take up the suit; you might play a part
in it yourself; perhaps I have cheated you as well?" This made the
young lawyer start to his feet; his eyes flashed, his bosom heaved; he
seemed all of a sudden to be quite a different man; stretching his hand
towards Heaven he cried, "No, you shall no longer be my father; you
must be insane to sacrifice without scruple the peace and happiness of
the most loving of children to a ridiculous prejudice. You will never
see me again; I will go and at once accept the offer which the American
consul made to me to-day; I will go to America." "Yes," replied Wacht
filled with rage and anger, "ay, away out of my eyes, brother of the
fratricide, who've sold your soul to Satan." Casting upon Nanni, who
was half fainting, a look full of hopeless love and anguish and
despair, the young advocate hurriedly left the garden.
It was remarked earlier in the course of this story when the young
lawyer threatened to shoot himself _à la_ Werther,21 what a good thing
it was that the indispensable pistol was in very many cases not within
reach. And here it will be just as useful to remark that the young
advocate was not able, to his own good be it said, to embark there and
then on the Regnitz and sail straight away to Philadelphia. Hence it
was that his threat to leave Bamberg and his darling Nanni for ever
remained still unfulfilled, even when at last, after two years more had
elapsed, the wedding-day of Herr Leberfink, decorator and gilder, was
come. Leberfink would have been inconsolable at this unjust
postponement of his happiness, although the delay was almost a matter
of necessity after the terrible events which had fallen blow after blow
in Wacht's house, had it not afforded him an opportunity to decorate
over again in deep red and appropriate gold the ornamental work in his
parlour, which had before been gay with nice light-blue and silver, for
he had picked up from Rettelchen that a red table, red chairs, and so
on, would be more in accordance with her taste.
When the happy decorator insisted upon seeing the young lawyer at his
wedding. Master Wacht had not offered a moment's opposition; and the
young lawyer--he was pleased to come. It may be imagined with what
feelings the two young people saw each other again, for since that
terrible moment when Jonathan had left the garden they had literally
not set eyes upon each other. The assembly was large; but not a single
person with whom they were on a friendly footing fathomed their pain.