Waldfried Part 23

And Victor called out, "For shame! Uncle Ernst is a coward! For shame!

Uncle Ernst is a bad man!"

Martella raised the scythe and was about to hurl it at Victor, but Rothfuss fortunately parried the stroke. Martella now wrestled with Rothfuss, and called out to Victor, "You soldier's child! Keep quiet, you soldier's child!" She seemed to use the words reproachfully.

Suddenly she exclaimed, "I know where Ernst is! I am going to him--away, away from all of you!"

She started on a brisk run, but was caught in the arms of Richard, who was just coming up.

When Richard told us all this, his voice seemed broken, and, for some time, he stood with his eyes cast on the ground. Then he went on to tell us that Martella had become quiet and gentle, and had willingly consented to ride home again, when he told her that mother wanted to see her; and that now she was down in the barn, and was sitting on the clover, waiting until she was sent for.

Martella was called up to the house. When she entered the room, my wife requested us to leave. I have never learned what pa.s.sed between them.

I was quite surprised at what Rothfuss told me.

When Richard caught Martella in his arms, she cried out, "No, no; you shall not kiss me!" and pushed him from her with such force, that he would have been thrown to the ground if Rothfuss had not come to his a.s.sistance.

Richard had told us nothing of that.

CHAPTER V.

When Edward Levi, the iron merchant, came to out village, he cautiously went, first of all, to my nephew Joseph; he then sent for me, and handed me a letter from Ernst. It was written in a firm hand, and read as follows:

"To my parents I say farewell. I leave my so-called Fatherland forever.

"It grieves me to know that I must grieve you, but I cannot help it.

"If thousands had done what I did, it would have been praised as a n.o.ble deed. Must we sacrifice ourselves to this degenerate Fatherland?

"I cannot murder my compatriots, nor do I care to allow them to murder me.

"Take care of Martella for my sake. I will write to her myself.

"YOUR LOST SON."

"You must pluck such a child from your heart--you must forget him entirely."

These were Joseph's words after he had read the letter. Many others spoke just as he did. But he who has ever heard the word "father" from the lips of his child, knows that this is impossible. From that time I always said to myself, "No day without sorrow." Do you know what it means never to have a pure, bright, happy day?--"no day without sorrow?" And yet, I admit it, I was not without hope. I felt a quiet a.s.surance that Ernst would be all right in the end. How it was to be brought about, I did not know; but I felt that the seeds of indestructible virtue and purity were yet lurking amidst this ma.s.s of ruin and rottenness. There might yet be a turn in the tide of affairs, that would draw the current of my son's life into the proper channel.

My wife mentioned his name only once after that. But her love for the child was stronger and firmer than her resolution.

She took pains to be about and to keep up an interest in all that was going on: but, from the moment that she was shocked by the news of Ernst's desertion, it was evident that it cost her an effort to control her will.

She seemed constantly tired. She rarely went out--hardly ever as far as the garden, where she would walk but a short distance before sitting down on a bench. She would often sit in an absent manner, gazing into vacancy, and when addressed would seem as if hurriedly collecting her thoughts.

Martella had also received a letter. It contained a ring; but she would not show any one, not even my wife, what Ernst had written. Edward Levi, the iron merchant, acted with great good sense and delicacy. He attempted neither to explain things nor to console us; but gave us the simple account of how the affair had happened. If it had not related to my own son, and had not been so full of sadness, Ernst's ingenuity in the matter would even have afforded us amus.e.m.e.nt.

It was late in the evening when he arrived at the town in which Levi resided. He went to the police-office at once, and ordered a forester whom he found there to produce Edward Levi, who arrived shortly afterward, and to whom Ernst used these words:

"You have been a soldier and can be trusted. I shall confide my secret to you."

He then informed him, with an air of great secrecy, that he had been ordered to enter the Prussian lines as a spy, and requested him to provide him at once with some French money and the dress of a Jewish cattle-dealer; and also to bring to him a cattle-dealer provided with a correct pa.s.sport.

After all this had been successfully accomplished, Ernst wrote the two letters and handed them to Levi, with instructions not to deliver them until three days had elapsed.

He started off with his companion. On the way, he asked him to show him his pa.s.sport: it was handed to him but not returned. He carefully instructed the cattle-dealer to address him by the name of Rothfuss.

"Why, that is the name of the old servant that your father thinks so much of!"

"That is the very reason I have chosen it; you will have no difficulty in remembering it. What is my name?

"The same as the servant's."

"No--but what is it?"

"Rothfuss. Why, every child knows the name. Might I inquire--"

"No; you need ask no questions."

They journeyed on together as far as Kehl, where Ernst suddenly disappeared. The drover waited all day, in the vain hope of seeing him again, and at last returned home.

Ernst had in all likelihood gone to my sister, who lives in the Hagenau forest, or to my brother-in-law, the director of the water-works on the Upper Rhine. Before leaving, he handed a bag of money that belonged to the state to Edward Levi, for safe-keeping.

Joseph, who was always ready to a.s.sist others, at once offered to journey after Ernst, in the hope of overtaking him and consulting with him as to his future.

I had instructed Rothfuss to make up a package of the clothes that Ernst had left behind him, and I was at Joseph's house when he brought the bundle there.

Martella wanted to accompany Joseph; but, finding that he would not consent, she turned around to her dog, and said: "Pincher, go with Joseph and hunt your master!"

The dog looked up at her, as if knowing what she said, and then ran after Joseph.

While I was yet with Joseph, a copy of our newspaper came to hand; it had been sent to me marked.

The marked pa.s.sages read as follows:

"Father Noah, the Prussian lickspittle"--I recognized Funk by these very words--"has allowed a dove to desert from his ark.

"We cannot but regard the rumor that the father had urged his son to take this step, because of his own aversion to fighting against the beloved Prussians, as a malicious invention.

"We do not believe the party of these beggarly Prussians, or this weak-minded old gray-beard, endowed with the requisite firmness.

"But the n.o.ble Caffre's pride in his virtue must have received a fearful blow."

I must admit that this low personal attack gave me much pain. I was, however, more grieved to think that party hatred could induce men to indulge in such abuse.