Waldfried Part 56

"The Crown-Prince of Prussia is coming."

We stopped.

The sounds of distant music were heard mingling with the joyous shouts of thousands of voices. It was the cry with which a race welcomed its brothers from whom it had long been estranged, and who were now advancing to save it. How this must have stirred the heart of the Crown-Prince!

I was so wedged in by the crowd, that I could see nothing. Martella had ascended some steps back of me, and called me to follow her; but it was impossible to do so.

I heard a carriage approach; the men who were in front of me spoke of the splendid appearance, and the calm, yet determined expression of the Prince.

"Father!" exclaimed Martella, "he looks just like him--indeed, more like Richard."

The crowd at last scattered, and cheers were still heard in the distance.

We started for home. The railway on the other side, which for some distance ran into our valley, was obstructed. They were momentarily expecting an invasion of the French, and, after that day, the other line was only to be used for military trains.

We rode on for a part of the way, and, at the intersection, met a large crowd of persons from the watering-places. They had suddenly been obliged to give up the springs and the amus.e.m.e.nts that had there been at their disposal.

The gambling banks are closed, it was said. I hoped that they might never again be reopened.

Ludwig and his servants were there awaiting me. I also met Carl, who had been conscripted, and with him were two of the meadow-farmer's servants.

Carl laughed while he told us how the meadow-farmer grumbled that he was now obliged to harness and feed his oxen himself. He cheerfully added that Marie could do the service of two laborers.

His joyous face made it plain that before leaving home he had come to an understanding with Marie. When he spoke of her he pressed his left hand to his heart. I think he must have had a keepsake there.

When Carl saw Ikwarte, he went up to him and extended his hand saying: "I forgive you. I cannot remain at enmity with any one whom I leave behind when I go forth to battle. Forgive me, too."

Ludwig asked Ikwarte, "Willem, would you like to go?"

"I am waiting until the Colonel gives me leave."

"You have never asked my permission."

"I have waited until the Colonel would speak of it himself."

"Pray speak a few kind words to my mother, for my sake," said Carl; and I saw the old spinner sitting on the lower step of the depot. She gazed into vacancy as if she were dreaming with open eyes.

"This gentleman will take you home with him," said Carl to his mother.

"Then you will not take me along? I must go home--home--home," said the old woman; and Carl told me that Rothfuss had brought the conscripts to this spot, and was in a neighboring inn where he was feeding the horses.

I endeavored to persuade the spinner to control her feelings. She murmured a few words that I could not understand, and which Carl explained to me. She had, by hard savings, gotten seven thalers together, and wanted Carl to take them with him, because he would need them while away; and that now she was quite inconsolable, because he wanted to leave the money at home with her.

I took the money from her, and promised to send it to Carl whenever he should need it, through my son-in-law the Colonel.

"And how is the great lady?" said the old spinner. "She ought to have married my Carl--she always looked at him with so much favor; and if he were now married, he would not have to go to war."

His mother's words were unintelligible to me, and it was with a sad smile that Carl interpreted them.

"Why have you not told her about Marie?"

"I have done so, but she wishes to know nothing about her."

Ludwig, accompanied by Ikwarte, started towards the Rhine. He said that he did not yet know how he could take part in the war, as he was an American citizen; but he was resolved not to remain a quiet spectator.

Carl's parting from his mother was heart-rending. She refused to get on our wagon, and Carl, with tears in his eyes, lifted her in his arms and placed her there. During the greater part of our journey home, she bewailed the loss of her son, and we drove on in silence, for we felt so sad that we could not utter a word.

Martella was the first to speak, saying, "It is, after all, the greatest happiness to have a mother."

I could well understand what it was that agitated her.

Up at the top of the mountain, where we always stopped to rest our horses, there is a large and shady beech-tree, to which was fastened the image of a saint.

While at a distance I could see a white object on the tree, and when I drew near, I recognized it. It was the proclamation of the King of Prussia, in which, in simple but well-considered words, he declared that he was forced into waging this war.

Soon after that, I met Joseph, who was delighted to see me again. He had engaged the guard of the stage-coach that pa.s.sed by there every day to fasten the "extra" papers to the tree, so that the forest laborers, who at this point separated in order to repair to their different villages, could know what was going on.

On the following day, the young Catholic pastor of the village had the words of the heretical king removed from the tree on which the holy image had been placed, and was about to lodge a complaint against Joseph for his sacrilegious conduct. But, on the advice of a lawyer who belonged to his own party, he desisted, and the tree, to this day, is known as "the newspaper tree."

I crossed the boundary line and was in our own territory. The people were busily employed in changing the bed of the stream; and the newly married stone-mason asked me whether work would be continued during the war. I told him that it would be, and that we intended to give employment to the people as long as possible.

Shortly after that, I even employed the old spinner's two sons who had been ordered out of Muhlhausen; and it was a very happy thought to do so, as the younger of the two was an excellent cabinet-maker.

I walked on. All along the roadside I had planted pear-trees; they were laden with fruit. Will the enemy pluck the fruit or destroy the trees?

I saw the young meadow-farmer. He was setting his water-gates, and appeared as unconcerned as if we were living in peaceful times. When I pa.s.sed, he looked up from his work, and said, "The war does not affect me, thank G.o.d. None of my kindred are in it."

The first house in the village belongs to the meadow-farmer. He had relinquished the farm to his son, and was now living on a pension which the latter had settled on him. When he saw me, he called out, "Now you have it! The accursed Prussian is at the root of the whole affair; but the Frenchman will give him a beating, for he has caught hold of the wrong fellow this time."

At home all were in good spirits, and for the first time in a long while, I found myself in some sort of sympathy with Johanna.

"It will soon be seen," she said, "whether the G.o.dless Frenchmen are as willing to sacrifice themselves for their country as we are."

She praised the King as a G.o.d-fearing man; but to me he was simply a righteous German.

A happy change had taken place with Johanna's daughter. She had always been sickly, and had thought herself of no use in this world; but now she knew nothing more of sickness. She had determined to join a society which had just been organized by the wife of the Privy Councillor, in order to obtain instruction in the art of nursing the sick and wounded.

I was now again in my own calm and peaceful home. Rothfuss informed me that during my absence parties had been there to buy up oats and hay,--we still had a good supply left from last year,--and Rothfuss had promised the refusal of it to Kuhherschel, whom he always favored.

The old hay was sent off, and the new was brought in. In Carl's place we engaged a Tyrolese farmer. The early barley was harvested, the ground was ploughed over again, and the potatoes were dug up. How long would affairs remain thus? The enemy might break in on us the very next day, as we were very near the border. Our enemies claimed that they were fighting in the interests of civilization, but sent Asiatic hordes against us.

The schoolmaster's wife told us that Baroness Arven had left for Switzerland, taking a great amount of luggage with her.

I was determined to await the enemy in my own home, and when Johanna asked me whether she, too, could go to the city and try to be of some use, I consented.

"But you will remain with me, Martella, for you do not fear the French?"

"Oh, I am not afraid of them," answered Martella.