FLYING FROM THE CROSS.
The burgomaster went to the office every morning at six o'clock, for
the work to be accomplished during the day was very great and required
an early beginning. Freyer usually arrived about seven to share the
task with him. On Fridays, however, he often commenced his labor before
the energetic burgomaster. It was on that day that the rush upon the
ticket office began, and every one's hands were filled.
But to-day Freyer seemed to be in no hurry. It was after seven--he
ought to have arrived long before. He had been absent yesterday, too.
The stranger must have taken complete possession of him. The
burgomaster shook his head--Freyer's conduct since the countess'
arrival, had not pleased him. He had never neglected his duties
to the community. And at the very time when the Passion Play had
attained unprecedented success. How could any one think of anything
else--anything _personal_, especially the man who took the part of the
Christ! There were heaps of orders lying piled before him, how could
they be disposed of, if Freyer did not help.
This countess was a beautiful woman--and probably a fascinating one.
But to the burgomaster there was but _one_ beauty--that of the angel of
his home. High above the turmoil of the crowd, in quiet, aristocratic
seclusion, the lonely man sat at his desk in his bare, plain office.
But the angel of Ammergau visited him here; he leaned his weary head
upon His breast, _His_ kiss rewarded his unselfish labor, _His_
radiance illumined the unassuming citizen. No house was so poor and
insignificant that at this season the angel of Ammergau did not take up
His abode within and shed upon it His own sanctity and dignity. But to
him who was the personification of Ammergau, the man who was obliged to
care for everything--watch over everything--bear the responsibility
of everything, to him the angel brought the reward which men cannot
give--the proud consciousness of what he was to his home in these
toilsome days. But it was quite time that Freyer should come! The
burgomaster rang his bell. The bailiff entered.
"Kleinhofer, see where Herr Freyer is--or the drawing-master. _One_ of
them can surely be found."
"Yes, Herr Burgomaster." The man left the room.
The burgomaster leaned back in his chair to wait. His eyes rested a few
seconds on one of Dore's pictures, Christ condemned by Pontius Pilate.
He involuntarily compared the engraving with the grouping on the stage.
"Ah, if we could do that! If living beings, with massive bones and
clumsy joints, would be as pliable as canvas and brushes!" he thought,
sorrowfully. "Wherever human beings are employed there must be defects
and imperfections. Perfection, absolute beauty, exist only in the
imagination! Yet ought not an inflexible stage manager, by following
the lines of the work of art, to succeed in shaping even the rudest
material into the artistic idea."
"Much--much remains to be done," said the singular stage manager in
pitiless self-criticism, resting his head on his hand. "When one thinks
of what the Meininger company accomplishes! But of course they work
with _artists_--I with natural talent! Then we are restricted in
alloting the parts by dilettante traditional models--and, worst of all,
by antiquated statutes and prejudices." The vision of Josepha Freyer
rose before him, he keenly felt the blow inflicted on the Passion Play
when the beautiful girl, the very type of Mary Magdalene, was excluded.
"The whole must suffer under such circumstances! The actors cannot be
chosen according to talent and individuality; these things are a
secondary consideration. The first is the person's standing in the
community! A poor servant would be allowed to play only an inferior
part, even if he possessed the greatest talent, and the principal ones
are the monopoly of the influential citizens. From a contingent thus
arbitrarily limited the manager is compelled to distribute the
characters for the great work, which demands the highest powers. It is
a gigantic labor, but it will be accomplished, nothing is needed save
patience and an iron will! They will grow with their task. The
increasing success of the Passion Play will teach them to understand
how important it is that artistic interests should supersede all
others. Then golden hours will first dawn on Ammergau. May God permit
me to witness it!" he added. And he confidently hoped to do so; for
there was no lack of talent, and with a few additions great results
might be accomplished. This year the success of the Play was secured by
Freyer, who made the audience forget all less skilful performers. With
him the Passion Play of the present year would stand or fall. The
burgomaster's eyes rested with a look of compassion upon the Christ of
Dore and the Christ personated by Freyer, as it hovered before his
memory--and Freyer bore the test. He had come from the hand of his
Creator a living work of art, perfect in every detail. "Thank Heaven
that we have him!" murmured the burgomaster, with a nod of
satisfaction.
Some one knocked at the door. "At last," said the burgomaster: "Come
in!"
It was not the person whom he expected, but Ludwig Gross!
He tottered forward as if his feet refused to obey his will. His grave
face was waxen-yellow in its hue and deeply lined--his lips were
tightly compressed--drops of perspiration glittered on his brow.
The burgomaster glanced at him in alarm: "What is it? What has
happened?"
Ludwig Gross drew a letter from his pocket, "Be prepared for bad news."
"For Heaven's sake, cannot the performance take place? We have sold
more than a thousand tickets."
"That would be the least difficulty. Be strong, Herr Burgomaster--I
have a great misfortune to announce."
"Has it anything to do with Freyer?" exclaimed the magistrate, with
sudden foreboding.
"Freyer has gone--with Countess Wildenau!"
"Run away?" cried the burgomaster, inexorably giving the act the right
name.
"Yes, I have just found these lines on his table."
The burgomaster turned pale as if he had received a mortal wound. A
peal of thunder seemed to echo in his ears--the thunder which had
shattered the temple of Jerusalem, whose priest he was! The walls fell,
the veil was rent and revealed the place of execution. Golgotha lay
before him. He heard the rustling wings of the departing guardian angel
of Ammergau. High above, in terrible solitude, towered the cross, but
it was empty--he who should hang upon it--had vanished! Grey clouds
gathered around the desolate scene.
But from the empty cross issued a light--not a halo, but like the
livid, phosphorescent glimmer of rotten wood! It shone into a chasm
where, from a jutting rock, towered a single tree, upon which hung,
faithful to his task--Judas!
A peal of jeering laughter rose from the depths. "You have killed
yourself in vain. Your victim has escaped. See the conscientious Judas,
who hung himself, while the other is having a life of pleasure!"
Shame and disgrace! "The Christ has fled from the cross." Malicious
voices echo far and wide, cynicism exults--baseness has conquered, the
divine has become a laughing-stock for children--the Passion Play a
travesty.
The phosphorescent wood of the cross glimmered before the burgomaster's
eyes. Aye, it was rotten and mouldering--this cross--it must
crumble--the corruption of the world had infected and undermined it,
and this had happened in Oberammergau--under _his_ management.
The unfortunate man, through whose brain this chain of thoughts was
whirling, sat like a stone statue before his friend, who stood waiting
modestly, without disturbing his grief by a single word.
What the two men felt--each knew--was too great for utterance.
The burgomaster was mechanically holding Freyer's letter in his
clenched hand. Now his cold, stiff fingers reminded him of it. He laid
it on the table, his eyes resting dully on the large childish
characters of the unformed hand: "Forgive me!" ran the brief contents.
"I am no longer worthy to personate the Saviour! Not from lack of
principle, but on account of it do I resign my part. Ere you read these
lines, I shall be far away from here! God will not make His sacred
cause depend upon any individual--He will supply my place to you!
Forget me, and forgive the renegade whose heart will be faithful to you
unto death! Freyer!"
Postscript:
"Sell my property--the house, the field, and patch of woods which was
not burned and divide the proceeds among the poor of Ammergau. I will
send you the legal authority from the nearest city.
"Once more, farewell to all!"
The burgomaster sat motionless, gazing at the sheet. He could have read
it ten times over--yet he still stared at the lines.
Ludwig Gross saw with terror that his eyes were glassy, his features
changed. The calmness imposed by the iron will had become the rigidity
of death. The drawing-master shook him--now, in the altered position,
the inert body lost its balance and fell against the back of the chair.
His friend caught the tottering figure and supported the noble head. It
was possible for him to reach the bell with his other hand and summon
Kleinhofer. "The doctor--quick--tell him to come at once!" he shouted.
The man hurried off in terror.
The news that the burgomaster had been stricken with apoplexy ran
through the village like wild fire. Every one rushed to the office. The
physician ran bare-headed across the street. The confusion was
boundless.
Ludwig could scarcely control the tumult. Supporting the burgomaster
with one arm, he pushed the throng back with the other. The doctor
could scarcely force his way through the crowded room. He rubbed the
temples and arteries of the senseless man. "I don't think it is
apoplexy, only a severe congestion of the brain," he said, "but we
cannot tell what the result may be. He has long been overworked and
over-excited."
The remedies applied began to act, the burgomaster opened his eyes. But
as if he were surrounded by invisible fiends which, like wild beasts,
were only held in check by the firm gaze of the tamer and, ever ready
to spring, were only watching for the moment when they might wrest from
him the sacred treasure confided to his care--his dim eyes in a few
seconds regained the steady flash of the watchful, imperious master.
And the discipline which his unyielding will was wont to exert over his
limbs instantly restored his erect bearing. No one save the physician
and Ludwig knew what the effort cost him.
"Yes," said the doctor in a low tone to the drawing-master: "This is
the consequence of his never granting himself any rest during these
terrible exertions."
The burgomaster had gone to the window and obtained a little air. Then
he turned to the by-standers. His voice still trembled slightly, but
otherwise not the slightest weakness was perceptible, and nothing
betrayed the least emotion.
"I am glad, my friends, that we are all assembled--otherwise I should
have been compelled to summon you. Is the whole parish here? We must
hold a consultation at once. Kleinhofer, count them."
The man obeyed.
"They are all here," he said.
At that moment the burgomaster's wife rushed in with Anastasia. They
had been in the fields and had just learned the startling news of the
illness of the husband and brother.
"Pray be calm!" he said, sternly. "There is nothing wrong with
me--nothing worth mentioning."
The weeping women were surrounded by their friends but the burgomaster,
with an imperious wave of the hand, motioned them to the back of the
room. "If you wish to listen--and it is my desire that you should--keep
quiet. We have not a moment to lose." He turned to the men of the
parish.
"Dear friends and companions! I have tidings which I should never have
expected a native of Ammergau would be compelled to relate of a fellow
citizen. A great misfortune has befallen us. We no longer have a
Christ! Freyer has suddenly gone away."
A cry of horror and indignation answered him. A medley of shouts and
questions followed, mingled with fierce imprecations.
"Be calm, friends. Do not revile him. We do not know what has occurred.
True, I cannot understand how such a thing was possible--but we must
not judge where we know no particulars. At any rate we will respect
ourselves by speaking no evil of one of our fellow citizens--for that he
was, in spite of his act."
Ludwig secretly pressed his hand in token of gratitude.
"This misfortune is sent by God"--the burgomaster continued--"we will
not judge the poor mortal who was merely His tool. Regard him as one
dead, as he seems to regard himself. He has bequeathed his property to
our poor--we will thank him for that, as is right--in other respects he
is dead to us."
The burgomaster took the letter from the table. "Here is his last will
for Ammergau, I will read it to you." The burgomaster calmly read the
paper, but it seemed as if his voice, usually so firm, trembled.
When he had finished, deep silence reigned. Many were wiping their
eyes, others gazed sullenly into vacancy--a solemn hush, like that
which prevails at a funeral, had taken possession of the assembly. "We
cannot tell," the burgomaster repeated: "Peace to his ashes--for the
fire which will be so destructive to us is still blazing in him. We can
but say, may God forgive him, and let these be the last words uttered
concerning him."
"May God forgive him!" murmured the sorely stricken assemblage.
"Amen!" replied the burgomaster. "And now, my friends, let us consult
what is to be done. We cannot deceive ourselves concerning our
situation. It is critical, nay hopeless. The first thing we must try to
save is our honor. When it becomes known that one of our number, and
that one the Christ--has deserted his colors, or rather the cross, we
shall be disgraced and our sacred cause must suffer. _Our_ honor here
is synonymous with the honor of God, and if we do not guard it for
ourselves we must for His sake."
A murmur of assent answered him. He continued: "Therefore we must make
every effort to keep the matter secret. We can say that Freyer had
suddenly succumbed to the exertion imposed by his part, and to save his
life had been obliged to seek a warmer climate! Those who _know_ us men
of Ammergau will not believe that any one would retire on account of
his health, nay would prefer death rather than to interrupt the
performances--but there are few who do know us."
"God knows that!" said the listeners, mournfully.
"Therefore I propose that we all promise to maintain the most absolute
secrecy in regard to the real state of affairs and give the pretext
just suggested to the public."
"Yes, yes--we will agree not to say anything else," the men readily
assented. "But the women--they will chatter," said Andreas Gross.
"That is just what I fear. I can rely upon you men," replied the
burgomaster, casting a stern glance at the girls and women. "The men
are fully aware of the meaning and importance of our cause. It is bad
enough that so many are not understood and supported by their wives!
You--the women of Ammergau--alas that I must say it--you have done the
place and the cause more harm by your gossip than you can answer for to
the God who honors us with His holy mission. There is chattering and
tattling where you think you can do so unpunished, and many things are
whispered into the ears of the visitors which afterwards goes as false
rumors through the world! You care nothing for the great cause, if you
get an opportunity to gratify some bit of petty malice. Now you are
weeping, are you not? Because we are ruined--the performances must
cease! But are you sure that Joseph Freyer would have been capable of
treating us in this way, had it not been for the flood of gossip you
poured out on him and his cousin, Josepha? It embittered his mind
against us and drove him into the stranger's arms. Has he not said a
hundred times that, if it were not for personating the Christ, he would
have left Ammergau long ago? Where _one_ bond is destroyed another
tears all the more easily. Take it as a lesson--and keep silence _this_
time at least, if you can govern your feminine weakness so far! I shall
make your husbands accountable for every word which escapes concerning
this matter." Several of the women murmured and cast spiteful glances
at the burgomaster.
"To _whom_ does this refer, _who_ is said to have tattled?" asked a
stout woman with a bold face.
The burgomaster frowned. "It refers to those who feel guilty--and does
not concern those who do not!" he cried, sternly. "The good silent
women among you know very well that I do not mean them--and the others
can take heed."
A painful pause followed. The burgomaster's eyes rested threateningly
upon the angry faces of the culprits. Those who felt that they were
innocent gazed at him undisturbed.
"I will answer for my wife"--"Nothing shall go from my house!"
protested one after another, and thus at least every effort would be
made to save the honor of Ammergau, and conceal their disgrace from the
world. But now came the question how to save the Play. A warm debate
followed. The people, thus robbed of their hopes, wished to continue
the performances at any cost, with any cast of characters. But here
they encountered the resolute opposition of the burgomaster: "Either
well--or not at all!" was his ultimatum. "We cannot deceive ourselves
for a moment. At present, there is not one of us who can personate the
Christ--except Thomas Rendner, and where, in that case, could we find a
Pilate--who could replace Thomas Rendner?"
There was a violent discussion. "The sacristan, Nathanael, could play
Pilate."
"Who then would take Nathanael?"
"Ah, if this one and that one were still in the village! But they had
gone away to seek their bread, like so many who could no longer earn a
support since the Partenkirch School of Carving had competed with the
one in Ammergau. And many more would follow. If things went on in the
same fashion, and matters were not improved by the play, in ten years
more there might be none to fill the parts, necessity would gradually
drive every one away."
"Yes, we are in a sore strait, my friends. The company melts away more
and more--the danger to the Passion Play constantly increases. If we
can find no help now, penury will deprive us of some of our best
performers ere the next time. And yet, my friends, believe me--I
say it with a heavy heart: if we now continue with a poor cast of
characters--we shall be lost wholly and forever, for then we shall have
destroyed the reputation of the Passion Play."
"Thomas Rendner will personate the Christ well--there is no danger on
that score."
"And if he does--if Rendner takes the Christ, the sacristan Pilate, and
some one else Nathanael--shall we not be obliged to study the whole
piece again, and can that be done so rapidly? Can we commence our
rehearsals afresh now? I ask you, is it possible?"
The people hung their heads in hopeless discouragement.
"Our sole resource would be to find a Christ among those who are not in
the Play--and all who have talent are already employed. The others
cannot be used, if we desire to present an artistic whole."
Despair seized upon the listeners--there was not a single one among
them who had not invested his little all in furniture and beds for the
strangers, and even incurred debts for the purpose, to say nothing of
the universal poverty.
New proposals were made, all of which the hapless burgomaster was
compelled to reject.
"The general welfare is at a stake, and the burgomaster thinks only of
the _artistic whole_."
With these words the wrath of the assembly was finally all directed
against him, and those who fanned it were mainly the strangers
attracted by the Passion Play for purposes of speculation, who cared
nothing how much it suffered in future, if only they made their money!
"I know the elements which are stirring up strife here," said the
burgomaster, scanning the assembly with his stern eyes. "But they shall
not succeed in separating us old citizens of Ammergau, who have held
together through every calamity! Friends, let the spirit which our
forefathers have preserved for centuries save us from discord--let us
not deny the good old Ammergau nature in misfortune."
"And with the good old nature you can starve," muttered the
speculators.
"If the burgomaster does not consider your interests of more importance
than the fame of his success as stage manager he ought to go to Munich
and get the position--there he could give as many model performances as
he desired!"
"Yes," cried another, "he is sacrificing our interests to his own
vanity."
During this accusation the burgomaster remained standing with his
figure drawn up to its full height. Only the dark swollen vein on his
weary brow betrayed the indignation seething in his soul.
"I disdain to make any reply to such a charge. I know the hearts of my
fellow citizens too well to fear that any one of them believes it."
"No, certainly not!" exclaimed the wiser ones. But the majority were
silent in their wrathful despair.
"I know that many of you misjudge me, and I bear you no resentment for
it. I admit that in such a period of storm and stress it is difficult
to maintain an unprejudiced judgment.
"I know also that I myself have often bewildered your judgment, for it
is impossible to create such a work without giving offense here and
there. I know that many who feel wounded and slighted secretly resent
it, and I do not blame them! Only I beg you to visit the rancor on me
_personally_--not extend it to the cause and injure that out of
opposition to me. In important moments like these, I beg you to let all
private grudges drop and gather around me--in this one decisive hour
think only of the whole community, and not of all the wrongs the
burgomaster may have done you individually.
"If I had only the interest of Ammergau to guard, all would be well!
But I have not only _your_ welfare to protect, but the dignity of a
cause for which I am responsible to _God_--so long as it remains in my
hands. Human nature is weak and subject to external impressions. The
religious conceptions of thousands depend upon the greater or less
powerful illusion produced by the Passion Play as a moral symbol. This
is a heavy responsibility in a time when negation and materialism are
constantly undermining faith and dragging everything sacred in the
dust. In such a period, the utmost perfection of detail is necessary,
that the _form_ at least may command respect, where the _essence_ is
despised. I will try to make this dear to you by an example. The cynic
who sneers at our worship of Mary and, with satirical satisfaction,
paints the Virgin as the corpulent mother of four or five boys, will
laugh at an Altoetting Virgin but grow silent and earnest before a
Sistine Madonna! For here the divinity in which he does not wish to
believe confronts him in the work of art and compels his reverence. It
is precisely in a period of materialism like the present that religious
representation has its most grateful task--for the deeper man sinks
into sensualism, the more accessible he is to sensual impressions, and
the more easily religion can influence him through visible forms,
repelling or attracting according to the defective or artistic
treatment of the material. The religious-sensuous impetus is the only
one which can influence times like these, that is why the Passion Play
is more important now than ever!
"God has bestowed upon me the modest talent of organization and a
little artistic culture, that I may watch over it, and see that those
who come to us trustfully to seek their God, do not go away with
a secret disappointment--and that those who come to _laugh_ may be
quiet--and ashamed.
"This is the great task allotted to me, which I have hitherto executed
without regard for personal irritability, and the injury of petty
individual interests, and hope to accomplish even under stress of the
most dire necessity.
"If you wish to oppose it, you should have given the office I occupy to
some one who thinks the task less lofty, and who is complaisant enough
to sacrifice the noble to the petty. But see where you will end with
the complaisant man, who listens to every one. See how soon anarchy
will enter among you, for where individual guidance is lacking, and
every one can assert his will, the seed of discord shoots up,
overgrowing everything. Now you are all against _me_, but then you will
be against _one another_, and while you are quarreling and disputing,
time will pass unused, and at last the first antiquated model will be
seized because it can be most easily and quickly executed. But the
modern world will turn away with a derisive laugh, saying: 'We can't
look at these peasant farces any more.'
"Then answer for robbing thousands of a beautiful illusion and letting
them return home poorer in faith and reverence than they came--answer
for it to God, whose sublime task you have degraded by an inferior
performance, and lastly to yourselves for forgetting the future in the
present gain, and to profit by the Passion Play a few more times now,
ruin it for future decades. You do not believe it because, in this
secluded village, you cannot know what the taste of our times demands.
But I do, for I have lived in the outside world, and I tell you that
whoever sees these incomplete performances will certainly not return,
and will make us a reputation stamping us as bunglers forever!"
The burgomaster pressed his hand to his head; a keen pang was piercing
his brain--and his heart also.
"I have nothing more to add," he concluded, faintly. "But if you know
any one whom you believe could care for Ammergau better than I--I am
ready at any moment to place my office in his hands."
Then, with one accord, every heart swelled with the old lofty feeling
for the sacred cause of their ancestors and grateful appreciation of
the man who had again roused it in them. No, he did not deserve that
they should doubt him--he had again taught them to think like true
natives of Ammergau, aye, they felt proudly that he was of the true
stock--it was Ammergau blood that flowed in his veins and streamed from
the wounds which had been inflicted on his heart that day! They saw
that they had wronged him and they gathered with their old love and
loyalty around the sorely-beset man, ready to atone with their lives,
for these hot-blooded, easily influenced artist-natures were
nevertheless true to the core.
The malcontents were forced to keep silence, no one listened to
them. All flocked around the burgomaster. "We will stand by you.
Burgomaster--only tell us what we are to do--and how we can help
ourselves. We rely wholly upon you."
"Alas! my friends, I must reward your restored confidence with
unpalatable counsel. Let us bear the misfortune like men! It is
better to fell trees in the forest, go out as day laborers--nay,
_starve_--rather than be faithless to the spirit of our ancestors! Am I
not right?" A storm of enthusiasm answered him.
It was resolved to announce the close of the Passion Play for this
decade. The document was signed by all the members of the community.
"So it is ended for this year! For many of us perhaps for this life!"
said the burgomaster. "I thank all who have taken part in the Play up
to this time. I will report the receipts and expenditures within a few
days. In consideration of the painful cause, we will dispense with any
formal close."
A very different mood from the former one now took possession of the
assembly. All anxiety concerning material things vanished in the
presence of a deeper sorrow. It was the great, mysterious grief of
parting, which seized all who had to do anything connected with the
"Passion." It seemed as if the roots of their hearts had become
completely interwoven with it and must draw blood in being torn away,
as if a part of their lives went with it. The old men felt the pang
most keenly. "For the last time for this life!" are words before whose
dark portal we stand hesitating, be it where it may--but if this "for
the last time" concerns the highest and dearest thing we possess on
earth, they contain a fathomless gulf of sadness! Old Barabbas, the man
of ninety, was the first, to express it--the others joined in and the
greybeards who had been young together and devoted their whole lives to
the cause which to them was the highest in the world, sank into one
another's arms, like a body of men condemned to death.
Then one chanted the closing line of the choragus: "Till in the world
beyond we meet"--and all joined as with a _single_ voice, the
unutterable anguish of resigning that close communion with Deity, in
which every one of them lived during this period, created its own
ceremonial of farewell and found apt expression in those last words of
the Passion Play.
Then they shook hands with one another, exchanging a life-long
farewell. They knew that they should meet again the next day--in the
same garments--but no longer what they now were, Roman governor and
high-priests, apostles and saints. They were excluded from the
companionship of the Lord, for their Christ had not risen as usual--he
had fled and faithlessly deserted his flock, ere their task could be
fulfilled. It was doubly hard!
Old Judas, the venerable Lechner, was so much moved that they were
obliged to support him down the stairs: Judas weeping over Christ! The
loyal man had suffered unutterably from the necessity of playing the
traitor's part--the treachery now practised toward the sacred cause by
the personator of Christ himself--fairly broke his heart! "That I must
live to witness this!" he murmured, wringing his hands as he descended
the steps. But Thomas Rendner shook his handsome head and mournfully
repeated the momentous words of Pilate: "What is truth?" With tears in
his eyes, he held out his sinewy right hand consolingly to Caiaphas.
"Don't take it so much to heart, Burgomaster; God is still with us!"
Then he cast a sorrowful glance toward the corner of the room. "Poor
Mary! I always thought so!" he muttered compassionately, under his
breath, and followed the others.
The burgomaster and Ludwig were left behind alone and followed
the direction of Rendner's glance. There--it almost broke their
hearts--there sat the burgomaster's sister--the "Mary" in the corner,
with her hands clasped in her lap, the very attitude in which she
waited for the body of her Crucified Son.
"Poor sister," said the burgomaster, deeply moved. "For what are you
waiting? They will never bring him to you again."
"He will come back, the poor martyr!" she replied, her large eyes
gazing with prophetic earnestness into vacancy. "He will come, weary
and wounded--perhaps betrayed by all."
"Then I will have nothing to do with him," said the burgomaster in a
low, firm tone.
"You can do as you please, you are a man. But I, who have so long
personated his mother--I will wait and receive and comfort him, as a
mother cheers her erring child."
"Oh, Anastasia!" A cry of pain escaped Ludwig's lips, and, overwhelmed
by emotion, he turned away.
The burgomaster, with tender sympathy, laid his hand upon his shoulder.
"Ah, sister, Freyer is not worthy that you should love him so!"
"How do I love him?" replied the girl. "I love him as Eternal
Compassion loves the poor and suffering. He _is_ poor and suffering.
Oh! do not think evil of him--he does not deserve it. He is good and
noble! Believe me, a mother must know her child better," she added,
with the smile that reveals a breaking heart.
She looked the drawing-master kindly in the face: "Ludwig, we both
understand him, do we not? _We_ believe in him, though all condemn."
Ludwig could not speak--he merely nodded silently and pressed
Anastasia's hand, as if in recognition of the pledge. He was undergoing
a superhuman conflict, but, with the strength peculiar to him,
succeeded in repressing any display of emotion.
The burgomaster stood mutely watching the scene, and neither of the
three could decide which suffered most.
He gazed in speechless grief at the clasped hands of his sister and his
friend. How often he had wished for this moment, and now--? What
_parted_ alone united them, and what united, divided.
"Aye, Freyer has brought much misery upon us!" he said, with sullen
resentment. "I only hope that he will never set foot again upon the
soil of his forefathers!"
"Oh, Brother, how can you speak so--you do not mean it. I know that his
heart will draw him back here; he will seek his home again, and he
shall find it. You will not thrust him from you when he returns from
foreign lands sorrowing and repentant. God knows how earnestly I wish
him happiness, but I do not believe that he will possess it. And as he
will be loyal to us in his inmost soul, we will be true to him and
prepare a resting place when the world has nailed his heart upon the
cross. Shall we not, Ludwig?"
"Yes, by Heaven, we will!" faltered Ludwig, and his tears fell on the
beautiful head of the girl, who still sat motionless, as if she must
wait here for the lost one.
"Woman, behold thy son--son, behold thy mother!" stirred the air like a
breath.