Withered Leaves Volume I Part 14

Beside them lay his alb.u.m, its clasp stood open; he looked inside, and on the last page read the following verse in the same handwriting--

"Oh, bliss is but a fleeting dream, While lasting longing ling'ring stays; Oh, wise betimes 'tis to resign, And yet our souls with sadness teem, For by the side of bounteous days Long years of want are left behind."

Here, too, all signature was missing; yet, must he not now complete it?

Who but that mysterious beauty on the Lago Maggiore could have written these lines? But how in the world could she come to this most remote neighbourhood--and how inside this castle?

He should have liked best to have awoke the steward at once to obtain information; painful impatience, which he could not subdue, had taken possession of him. He went through the suite of freshly-furnished rooms. The masons and upholsterers had just completed their task; the newly-built wing of the castle was simply and comfortably arranged; while not a sign of that haunting spectre allowed itself to be seen.

He visited the guest chambers; they were all in the most perfect order.

Only once Blanden started, as close by, in the night's silence, he heard a peculiar noise. In his excitement he had quite forgotten his guest; it was Doctor Kuhl, who, snoring loudly, slept the sleep of the righteous.

From the dining-hall, Blanden went to the chapel, which adjoined it.

The former belonged to the Ordensburg, and was still well preserved. A portion of the gla.s.s paintings in the windows were dedicated to the Holy Virgin, a portion to the deeds of the Knights of the Order. One picture portrayed the latter's battle with the Poles; the Virgin hovered above it amid light clouds.

Up several steps arose a small altar; behind it a picture, which represented the elevation of Christ upon the cross. Upon the altar lay another paper, with the words: "Remember the little fisherman's church on Isola Bella!"

Now there was no longer any doubt; that Italian woman had appeared here in the Baltic country, by the remotest lakes of Masuren. She had been to his castle: was it ardent, longing, unconquerable pa.s.sion, that had urged her to follow him hither? She alone could know of that meeting in the little fisherman's church.

The ghost had long since ceased to make an eerie impression upon Blanden; but the enchanting days and nights that he had pa.s.sed on the Lago Maggiore, seemed to glow again in his soul; that intoxicating perfume of the South, that beautiful woman's picture that had appeared and vanished again so mysteriously, had bound his recollections as if with some sweet spell.

He gazed out upon the lake. How cold and lifeless it seemed to him; the moon sank behind the western woods; a chilly north wind had arisen in the middle of the summer's night, and swept over the freezing waves!

How cold these scentless trees, in their immeasurable monotony!

Before his mind lay the glorious southern lake, in the magical light of the moon, with its islands, that seemed to float upon its waves; one island sent forth its orange perfumes to another; a delicious breeze was wafted through the night.

The cold glaciers of the distant Alpine pa.s.ses might gleam in the moonlight on the horizon like steel-clad giants; they were only the sentinels who guarded the gates of this Paradise; here all was warm, enchanting life; sh.o.r.es and islands resounded with songs. It was Armida's magic-garden; and how seductive was she herself--that Armida, sparkling with soul and pa.s.sion!

Blanden called himself to order; how unseemly these recollections appeared to him just now; but despite violent efforts to ward them off, they rose ever again and again.

Impatiently he awaited the morning; but just as the red dawn cast the first pale gleam into the lake he had fallen asleep from over-fatigue, and in the morning's tardy dreams he saw mysterious figures which touched all the contents of his castle, so that a wondrous radiancy streamed forth from them, and through all the rooms he followed a closely-veiled figure, with a magnolia wreath in its hair.

It was late in the morning when he was awoke by Doctor Kuhl, who had just come out of the lake.

Blanden believed he must have dreamed the evening before. In order to convince himself that it was a real occurrence, he once more undertook a tour through the apartments which on the previous evening had offered him such enigmas.

The notes, the alb.u.m-verses remained unchanged in the light of the morning's sun, just as they had been in the lamp-light. Blanden summoned his steward.

"Who has been here during my absence?"

"I wanted yesterday, _gndiger_ Herr, to tell you," said old Olkewicz, while a.s.suming a reproachful manner, "but you would not allow me to speak!"

"Then tell me now!"

"It was a few evenings since that two ladies on horseback, with flowing veils, stopped before the castle gate. Their visit was to you, they said, and the one declared herself to be an old acquaintance of the _gndiger_ Herr; but it appeared to me that they knew quite well you were not here; they begged for permission to see the castle. And as even princes' castles are thrown open to visitors, and ours being a very grand, renowned one, and does not disgrace us, I conducted them round all the apartments; they expressed their admiration of the dining-hall and the chapel, and the beautiful arrangement of the new rooms, thanked me pleasantly, and mounted their horses once more, in order to ride through the wood to the nearest little town. It had been a sultry day; a heavy storm rose above the lake, a violent tempest lashed the waves, before a quarter of an hour had elapsed since the riders left the castle-yard. The trees in the woods crashed; the birches and pines, blown down by the wind, can still give you a token of the hurricane's violence. I became anxious about the ladies, but it was not long before they dashed into the court again, and prayed for hospitable shelter until the storm should be appeased. Your honour will deem it right that I did not refuse them this shelter."

"Certainly, old Olkewicz, we are, indeed, no barbarians."

"The storm discharged itself with fearful fury, and it remained hanging above the trees, and stood firmly in the sky for a long time. And by the time it pa.s.sed away, night had set in. What remained to me, but to extend the hospitality still farther? The _gndiger_ Herr was not at home; I could then, without hesitation, grant the ladies a night's quarters without the _gndiger_ Herr's character--"

"Do not be troubled about that, it is weather-proof!"

"But it is incredible what disturbance a couple of female beings cause in the best regulated establishment. I believe if a woman came into this house, all would be topsy-turvy."

"We will wait and see, old man! But what more happened?"

"I could not sleep! A couple of strange people thus in the house--just as if one's eyes are full of dust; one has no peace! For a long time I sat under the old oak in the park and watched how the lights went from one room to another, like will-o'-the-wisps, and when they actually shone out of the old chapel's gla.s.s windows an eerie sensation overcame me, and I thought of the ghosts that dwell in such old churches. Why in the world should they pry about? Did they seek something? I should have liked to ask them; but it would hardly have been proper, they had already bid me 'good-night,' and probably hung their riding dresses upon the chairs. At last it became dark; only the moonlight, which came forth from the dispersing stormy clouds, was reflected upon all the windows.

"I decided to retire to rest also," old Olkewicz continued his relation, "and made only one more round of the castle. There--G.o.d punish me!--stood a white form with unbound hair, above upon the gallery of the tower, and gleamed as brightly as if she had intercepted the whole moonlight. I did not stir! She stood a long--long time--and stared out at the lake, her arms crossed, and then, again, as if musing, she rested her head upon her arm, and it upon the bal.u.s.trade.

She must have been visible a long, long way off, and if all had not been still as death upon the lake the sailors must have been frightened at the ghost high up upon the tower."

"Then this lake, too, has found its Lorelei," said Blanden, softly to himself.

"Early on the following morning both disappeared, after cordial thanks and considerable gifts; I felt quite comfortable again, as though we had been released from some haunting spirit."

"And how did these ladies look?"

"Well, the ghostly apparition upon the tower was worth seeing; she looked like a queen; her carriage was commanding, her voice had a beautiful ring. Whether brown or blonde, I did not study her so accurately; all colours seemed to me to play about her, she confused me so, after I had seen her up there as a spirit. The other was little, and had nothing at all ghost-like about her. She seemed to be an attendant; she resembled our housemaid, Bertha; she had a pair of small blinking eyes, and something sly about her whole person."

"It is possible that it was some spirit that sought me out," said Blanden to himself.

"If your _gndiger_ is convinced of it," replied Olkewicz, "I shall not contradict it at all! at least in our neighbourhood there is no sort of woman-kind that could ever so remotely resemble that lady."

"Say nothing concerning this visit," said Blanden, "and desire my people also to maintain silence about it. Enough thereof. To-day, wines, provisions and delicacies will arrive from Knigsberg, whence I have ordered them. Make all, preparations for a large dinner that I intend to give. Keep the Castle clean, get the guest's stables into order!"

"About the harvest, _gndiger_ Herr--"

"Agricultural matters another time! Whether the harvest be good or bad we cannot alter it. Rain and suns.h.i.+ne do their best--even although we have visited ever so many agricultural colleges."

Old Olkewicz held quite opposite views, and was least of all satisfied that the young master had done away with the rule of the rod which formerly was in vogue here; his theory was based upon the great principle that, in order to garner good corn, the people must first be more threshed than the corn afterwards; yet he ventured upon no objection.

Kuhl had listened silently to the discussion. "Then here we sit in an enchanted castle," cried he, "and adventures seek you!"

"I must confess to you," said Blanden, "that I know no solution of this enigma. Certainly I entertain no doubt that it is yonder mysterious beauty who made me look upon Lago Maggiore in a doubly entrancing light; but how she found her way to the most remote of Masuren's lakes is inexplicable to me; and if no other feeling, curiosity at least urges me most pressingly to interest myself in her again."

"And may a poor mortal, then, whose path such charming adventures do not cross, not learn what the circ.u.mstances of the case are?"

"That you shall--and on this evening. I feel a need myself to bring those days once more before my mind. Yet to do so I need leisure and quiet, which the day's bustle will not permit. Look, there comes Wegen in his one-horse trap, he brings us news how matters look amongst the Ph[oe]acians."

His lively friend came in briskly and eagerly, a cigar in his mouth.

"These wind-falls in your forest--colossal! Trees lie about like toothpicks which have fallen out of an overturned case. The storm has even played havoc with an old oak yonder upon the dam, and hurled its head to the ground, as my Friederich does the plume of feathers on his hat, when I decline some entertainment; but how are you going on?"

"Blanden has had wonderful dreams," said Kuhl.

"Nothing new, nothing new," replied Wegen, stroking his moustache, "that occurs nightly with me. Friederich says it arises from the grey peas which I am pa.s.sionately fond of eating in an evening; a man feels like an East Prussian when he sees such a dish before him. Lately I dreamed I was man[oe]uvring with the Landwehr; I had to lead a company of sharpshooters. The signal sounds; my company stands like a wall; I rush furiously upon it; the fellows stick together and I cannot tear them asunder, give myself what trouble I may. The colonel rides up--'Thunder and lightning! Wegen, what are you doing?' and I awake bathed in perspiration! Horrible dreams! But even waking one does not meet with anything pleasant."