Tales from the German Volume II Part 26

'If I should say,' observed Hanslein, 'that the appearance of the city was particularly pleasing to me, I should tell a falsehood. Were it not for my unlucky affair with the serjeant, I would have gone to the episcopalian camp with the field officer, in G.o.d's name.'

Finally, a certain degree of order seemed to prevail in the chaos about the market place, although like every thing there, it was of a horrible nature. To a short, ferocious yell of the populace succeeded a profound and terrible pause--then cracked a volley of musketry, and then again another pause--and so alternately screams, pauses and reports of fire-arms, until Hanslein had counted twenty volleys.

'What can that musketry mean?' asked Alf in an undertone, with some misgivings as to the nature of the proceedings.

'Master Johannes may just now be undertaking to sift his flock,' said Hanslein.

'Must it then be,' exclaimed Alf with bitter grief, 'that by every revolution, although intended to promote the welfare of the whole people, men must be placed at the head who have no hearts in their bodies, and who rule by destroying the lives of their brethren!'

'It appears so, answered Hanslein; 'Whoever is placed at the head by popular commotions, must himself be a bold demagogue who has no property, character or conscience to lose. To leap over every obstacle and ward off every danger by the destruction of a dozen or two of his fellow men, is nothing at all to him. People like you, my brother, would make right good leaders, for which nothing is really requisite but vigor, honesty and sound sense; but honest people draw back from such opportunities from a want of self confidence, and thereby give the devils free scope to do evil, which is very wrong!'

Alf, reminded by this conversation of Tuiskos.h.i.+rer's rejected crown, and of old Fabricius's prophecy, at last sorrowfully exclaimed, 'in an unhappy hour came I home, to my native city!' and proceeded to join the guard.

CHAPTER XI.

The next morning, when Alf's guard was relieved, he marched his men by the market place. Horrible was the sight which there awaited him. The square before St. Lambert's church was converted into an immense slaughter yard, and filled with human flesh. A great number of unfortunates were bound to stakes and shot through; a part of whom had bled out their lives, and a part were still writhing and twisting in the agonies of the death struggle. Others lay upon the b.l.o.o.d.y pavement, some hacked to pieces with the sword and some beheaded, The ranting Knipperdolling in his robes of office, his face flushed, with naked and blood-sprinkled arms, was continually and unweariedly swinging his broad executioner's sword over victims, who, either voluntarily or forced by armed men, were kneeling before him.

'Left wheel!' commanded Alf, averting his eyes; and he led his men through side-streets and by-ways to the company's parade ground.

As the men were separating, and Alf proceeding to his own quarters, he was met by poor Clara, who came to him, her eyes red with weeping, and with despair depicted on her countenance.

'Will you grant me a private conversation?' said she; 'it concerns my life--and though you may deem that of little consequence, still your heart is too good not to feel a sympathy for an unfortunate being, whose last hope is in your protection.'

'In G.o.d's name, what is going forward?' asked Alf, alarmed, leading the maiden into the garden adjoining the house. 'Speak, dear Clara, and open your heart to me. My blood for thee!'

'The chief prophet and the twelve judges,' answered Clara, 'have published a mandate, by which a plurality of wives is not only allowed but commanded. Not to avail one's self of this spiritual license, is deemed a crime. Spies search all houses and drag forth the marriageable maidens; who are compelled to marry instantly. I hoped to find a defence of my maiden honor in my insignificance; but the hideous Tuiskos.h.i.+rer has selected me for his third wife. Rather than consummate my ruin by giving my hand to that disgusting madman, I would jump into the river Aa, and there find an end to my life and my afflictions.'

'With G.o.d's help,' cried Alf, 'you shall neither jump into the river, Clara, nor into Tuiskos.h.i.+rer's arms; in which indeed you might find worse repose. Is the old wizard mad, that he lifts his eyes to so pretty a maiden?'

'There is but one way left for my deliverance,' said Clara. 'You are to many my sister, dear brother-in-law--wherefore I beg of you to bestow upon me, out of compa.s.sion, the name of one of your wives, that it may protect me from the impudence of his hateful a.s.saults. Understand me rightly,' added she, earnestly;' I ask to be one of your wives in _name only_. This relation shall give neither to you nor me new duties nor new rights--and when the fate of this unhappy city once changes, then shall we two in no respect be bound to each other.'

'Such an apparent marriage only, will be but little pleasant to either party,' replied Alf. 'Should you not rather find in Munster some young handsome fellow, with whom you may be married in a proper and orderly manner, according to the commandments of G.o.d?'

'G.o.d preserve me from men!' cried Clara, a deep crimson suddenly suffusing her pale cheeks. 'After what I have here witnessed they have all become my detestation. Even you I select only upon irresistible compulsion, and because the connection can be so arranged that I may be called by your name without belonging to you.'

'This courts.h.i.+p is certainly not particularly polite, my little Clara,'

said Alf; 'but before you leap into the water with me, it is necessary that I should say yes. I wish I could have first explained the matter properly to your sister--I know not whether the imperious damsel will be so willing to accommodate herself to the new decree of the twelve judges.'

'The life of her sister is at stake,' cried Clara, in deep agony, 'who will most willingly remain a maiden after, as before, and renounce every right to even a friendly look from her husband.'

'It will be a strange marriage,' mustered Alf, rubbing his hands in much perplexity; 'nevertheless let us trust in G.o.d. It would be well, if these times produced nothing more wonderful in old Munster.'

'There comes the monster! Protect me, Kippenbrock!' shrieked Clara, hiding her face in Alf's bosom.

Alf looked up and saw Eliza conducting Tuiskos.h.i.+rer into the garden.

After him pressed a ragged and armed mult.i.tude.

'Whatever you may do, my brother,' howled the prophet, 'I yet cannot desert you. Our names must stand near each other in the book of the Spirit. You have contemptuously rejected the alliance which I proposed to you out of the goodness of my heart; nevertheless, to-day I propose a new band which shall bind us both in brotherhood. I ask for the sister of your betrothed, dear brother-in-law, and desire to take her home with me as my christian wife.'

'I regret, my brother,' said Alf, encircling Clara with his arms, 'that you come too late. In obedience to the new law, I have asked the maiden to become my second wife, and have obtained her consent.'

'Indeed!' escaped from the proud Eliza, while she bit her lips and darted a not altogether sisterly glance at the poor Clara.

'Heigh!' stammered Tuiskos.h.i.+rer, in a tone of mingled fear and anger.

'Your courts.h.i.+p take precedence of that of the great prophet Tuiskos.h.i.+rer!' cried one of the ragged bridal train, springing towards Clara, seizing her by the arm and endeavoring forcibly to drag her to her detested suitor. Alf instantly seized him by the body and with a powerful swing threw him over the garden fence. 'Who else will interfere?' cried he, l.u.s.tily, making after the mult.i.tude, who in great trepidation were seeking the door.

'An insolent reply was all that I wanted,' snarled Tuiskos.h.i.+rer, as he followed his retreating rabble.

'Sister and sister-in-law at the same time?' asked Eliza in a tone of bitterness, pointing towards Clara. 'I might at least have been previously informed of it,' said she, leaving the garden in a rage.

'Necessity knows no law, dear Eliza,' pleaded Alf, following her.

'It is a heavy duty which I have taken upon me,' said Clara to herself, 'to preserve the appearance of coldness toward the man whom I love better than all the world beside; but G.o.d will help me.'

CHAPTER XII.

In the course of the next week Alf had sufficiently softened Eliza's anger: she had with a heavy heart learned to share her beloved husband's name with her unloved sister, and Alf now went to his worthy kinsman, the former burgomaster Kippenbrock, to invite him to the marriage feast. He found the good man a perfect contrast to his terrible ex-colleague; in the short brown butcher's jacket and white ap.r.o.n, with his sleeves rolled up, he was standing in his shop, making sausages;--his full, red, contented face covered with glistening drops of perspiration, a proof that he pursued his occupation with right good will.

'I am rejoiced, good kinsman, that you have so easily submitted to the loss of political greatness.'

'Yes, kinsman,' answered Gerhard familiarly, laying down his sausage-knife, 'to thee I may say it; thou wilt keep clean lips, and so it will remain in the family--when I was compelled to lay down the burgomasters.h.i.+p and take off the chain of honor, I might as well have been knocked on the head with an axe, like one of my own fat oxen, and I bore my deposition not at all submissively; but as I reflected more upon the subject, I came to consider it less an evil, and now all is well with me. There was much vexation about the office also, and I oftentimes felt that I was not adapted to it. When a man once undertakes to perform duties, which his education has not prepared him for, he always continues unsuitable for the place, and often inadvertently does great injustice to the people. It was truly a fortunate circ.u.mstance, however, that my learned colleague Knipperdolling had sufficient acuteness to keep us out of difficulty, else I should have been compelled to abandon my office on the first day. Now, comparatively, I live in heaven, slaughtering my oxen and my swine, which I understand thoroughly--my sausages are always the best in Munster--and it is wholly a different thing when one is quite at home in his employment. Mark me, if the chief prophet should at any time offer me an office, so true as my name is Gerhard Kippenbrock, I would say NO, and would stick to my hatchet and chopping-block!'

Alf praised his n.o.ble renunciation of office, and then formally brought forward his invitation.

'I wish you much happiness!' cried Gerhard, heartily shaking his kinsman's hand. 'That all the preparations of the meat kind for the marriage and festival are to be my care, is already understood; and I may, moreover, take some care for the new housekeeping.'

Alf wished to protest against such great generosity; but he answered,--'I, an old housekeeper, must understand these things better than a young chicken like you,--I know what one housewife has cost me, and you take two at once. There are the rich trencher-caps, the bodices, the cloth and silk doublets and robes, and the furred cloak, and shoes and stockings, and the golden ornaments, and the bed and other white linen, all in double proportion--and, G.o.d preserve us, finally the baby-clothes and the cradle also. You will be compelled to wield your hammer merrily in the workshop, and will be too much occupied to be able to make the necessary preparations, and your old butcher kinsman will stand you in good stead.

To strike out one half of this formidable list, Alf related to him how he had come by his second bride.

'Heigh! surely! let us see!' exclaimed Gerhard: 'the child's conduct pleases me very much. To be sure it is a singular circ.u.mstance, and the prophet might make various objections to it if it were made known to him; but I rejoice heartily that it has afforded you an opportunity to obtain the maiden; who, I honestly confess to you, was the one of the two sisters whom I always wished you might have. She has an angel's heart. Eliza is not bad; but she has an imperious domineering spirit, and will often warm your head for you; particularly if the little Clara should in time excite an interest in your heart.'

Alf's a.s.severations, that he could be in no danger of so great an evil, were drowned by the noise and cries of an immense mult.i.tude of people who crowded the streets on their return from the market place.

'There has been another public day,' grumbled Gerhard, looking through the window; 'and so it goes on continually. They crowd to the public meetings and make much noise with their debates; but nothing is effected for the general good, and meanwhile the bishop is constantly diminis.h.i.+ng the limits within which he has enclosed us; so that we shall soon be unable to go outside the city walls. I am heartily tired of the whole business. So long as my oxen hold out, and I can drive them to our pasture, so long will I look on; but when that ends, G.o.d will forgive my sins if I become an episcopalian as well as others.'

'Hush, kinsman!' cried Alf, who that moment caught a glimpse of the duodecemvir Dilbek, pa.s.sing by the street window.

Gerhard clapped his hands upon his mouth as the tailor danced into the shop and embraced the stout butcher with friendly warmth.