Tales from the German Volume II Part 31

'You are going out again?' asked Clara, looking intently at him. 'This is not your time for guard duty.'

'The feast of to-day has disturbed all our arrangements,' stammered Alf with embarra.s.sment. 'I must actually go to the palace once more to-night.'

Clara seized his hand with both of hers, and with her mild honest eyes gave him a piercing look. His guilty conscience deprived him of the power to meet her gaze. 'Kippenbrock,' cried she, suddenly alarmed, 'are you not going for some wicked purpose?'

'You are already dreaming, from having watched so long, my child. Go to bed, pretty one,' said Alf, bending down to kiss the maiden as he wished her good night; a friendly habit in which he had for some time indulged. But Clara avoided his embrace, saying earnestly to him, 'not this evening, dear Kippenbrock, all is not as it should be.'

'You are a little simpleton!' cried he half indignantly, and hastened forth as if he wished to run away from the 'unpleasant feelings her suspicions had given him. As the third quarter after midnight struck, he stood by the stove, closely wrapped in his mantle, in the upper pa.s.sage way of the palace, watching with anxious eyes, by the dim light of the almost expiring lamps, the first door on the left. Finally, the hour struck, and still no door was opened.

'It is in reality a great wrong for me to be standing here,' said Alf to himself. 'Let the king now be what he may, and do what he will, yet I have once for all acknowledged him as my lord, and this Gertrude is his wife. It is the duty of my office to preserve order and propriety in the royal palace, which I in intention am so vile as to violate.

Moreover, I encroach upon the rights of the good Clara, who so secretly and tenderly loves me, and whom I should look upon as my affianced bride. Did she but know that I was standing here waiting for the creaking of that door, she would weep her eyes out of her head; and she even appeared to suspect some intrigue. Her manner toward me appeared very strange at my departure. Good G.o.d! with what face shall I appear before her in the morning! No! it is settled,--the beautiful Gertrude shall wait for me in vain, and thus shall we both be spared a sin.'

CHAPTER XXI.

On the subsequent morning Alf was standing in the king's anti-chamber awaiting his commands for the day. There came the high bailiff Krechting, a raging fanatic, a true second Johannes, with some soldiers who were dragging along two of the royal pages, bound. Alf perceived by their faces, which hunger and affliction had paled and emaciated, that they were the two whom he had rescued from the hands of Matthias, and compa.s.sionately asked the bailiff what crime the poor children had committed.

'We caught them in the outworks,' answered the bailiff fiercely, 'as they were attempting to escape to their old lord, the bishop. Announce us to the king, brother officer.'

'Alas! dear lord,' said one of the boys, weeping; 'we have certainly done nothing; but we could no longer hold out for hunger.'

'This affair might well be overlooked,' said Alf. 'To announce the children to the king is to lead them to death,--and I do not wish to take upon ray conscience such bloodguiltiness.'

The bailiff gave him a venomous look and hastily stepped into the royal apartment. He soon made a signal at the door, and the soldiers dragged the boys in after him. Immediately a loud noise was heard within,--the king stormed, the boys wept and plead pitifully, and amidst all arose Eliza's supplicating voice. 'For our love's sake, Johannes, only for this time let mercy take the place of justice!' Simultaneously were heard the lamentations of the two boys. Alf heard two hard falls upon the floor, and, as if drawn by some irresistible power, he pushed into the apartment.

What horrors had been perpetrated! The two boys lay dead upon the floor, the king strode before them with his sword drawn, and at his feet lay Eliza, who loosed her arms from his knees and sprang up.

Excited by the cruelty of her husband, and by her having pleaded in vain against what he had done, the proud woman now exclaimed in the bitterest tone, 'I do not believe, Johannes, that our G.o.d is served by the calamities you have brought upon this people.'

Krechting absolutely screamed with amazement at the audacious speech.

The king, however, merely gave Eliza a cold, satanic glance, and quietly said to her, 'in the market-place will I answer thee upon that matter.' Turning then to Alf, 'let my wives and my whole court be summoned hither!' commanded he him. 'Also let my trumpeters and fifers a.s.semble,--we would move to the market-place, where I have to-day to exercise my judicial office before the whole people. Thou wilt accompany me, Kippenbrock, with thy whole band.'

This strange solemnity excited various evil forebodings in the mind of Alf, and with a heavy heart he proceeded to execute the king's commands.

CHAPTER XXII.

The mult.i.tude crowded the market-place, waiting to see what new thing was to be done there. Then sounded in the distance a solemn funeral march from the trumpets and horns, and duke Hanslein with his soldiers formed a wide circle to admit the king and his household.

Next came the procession. After the music followed Alf, with a division of his guards; then the king, and then the high bailiff; between them, yet in her night-gown, pale and tottering, with streaming hair and folded hands, Eliza. After these followed the stately Gertrude, the other wives, and the persons connected with the court. Another division of the guards closed.

At a signal from the king, Krechting stepped reverently back and the thirteen wives formed a circle about their lord and Eliza. 'Kneel down, ye pure!' thundered the king, and the circle of women fell upon their knees; in an instant the king's sword glistened in the air and Eliza's head flew from its b.l.o.o.d.y trunk!

'Accursed murderer,' screamed Alf, frantic with grief and terror at the wholly unexpected death of the once so well beloved woman, and sprang forward with high waving sword to hew down the king where he stood. The faithful Hanslein caught his upraised arm. 'Good colonel,' cried he, 'it was only yesterday that you were sick with a fever, and now the paroxysms have returned again. Help me, friends, to overpower him and bear him to his house where he can be taken care of.'

He was seized by the guards from all sides, and notwithstanding his furious opposition, was soon disarmed and carried away.

'The person who has been judged has blasphemed the Spirit as manifested through her king and husband,' said Johannes, to the people. 'She had in a spiritual sense broken her marriage vows, and well deserved her punishment. Give to G.o.d the glory!'

The remaining thirteen wives rose up and with clear voices sang, 'Glory to G.o.d in the highest!' The horns and the trumpets triumphantly fell in. The king seized Gertrude's hand and commenced a merry dance with her upon the open market-place. The other wives and the courtiers followed the high example. The poor infatuated people likewise joined in the dance and sprang actively about, notwithstanding their empty stomachs; and from all mouths arose the cry of jubilee; 'glory be to G.o.d in the highest!'

CHAPTER XXIII.

The disease which Hanslein had invented, in his well intended eagerness to save Alf, had seized him in good earnest. The disquiet of mind in which the youth had been kept through the most diverse and almost always terrible occurrences,--the storm, so every way affecting, which had lacerated the deepest recesses of his heart,--above all, the daily increasing conviction of the flagitiousness of the new doctrines to which he had adhered so strongly,--and the remorse of conscience for the part which he had acted,--all this had destroyed the freshness of his youthful vigor; and only the tension in which his mind was kept by the constantly recurring horrors of every succeeding day, gave him the artificial support, which had hitherto kept him up. The last act of Johannes, the tender interest which Alf still felt for the fair victim, and the frustration of his just vengeance upon the infamous murderer, had weighed down the poor youth with resistless power, and he lay many weeks in Trutlinger's house in a high fever, carefully waited upon and nursed by the pale and pensive Clara.

The energies of youth finally prevailed over the fever. When once the crisis had pa.s.sed, his strength returned as quickly as it had flown; and Alf had even left his room for the first time, to enjoy the mild air and warm sun of summer, when he encountered his friend Hanslein, who, in spite of all resistance, cordially embraced and congratulated him on his recovery.

'Go thy way!' said Alf, angrily. 'With the defender of tyrants I have no more to do in this life.'

'Always precipitate,' laughed Hanslein; 'and always letting your heart run away with your head. It was ever your way when a boy. I considered for you better than you considered for yourself. The poor queen once dead, we could do nothing more to help her. You might indeed have destroyed the king, but the fanatical people would have torn you to pieces for it on the spot; that would have been paying a greater price than his majesty's life was worth. Nor would Munster have gained any thing. Knipperdolling & Co. would have possessed themselves of the government, and it would thereby have remained the executioner's head quarters as before. I have therefore preserved you for greater things, which, now that you are so well upon your legs again, we may soon see.'

Alf looked inquiringly at his friend, and suffered himself to be led by him back to his own sitting room and to be seated upon a stool.

'The affairs of Munster stand badly,' said Hanslein. 'The famine increases, and I see the moment very near when the unhappy people will be driven to despair. Succor is not to be expected. At Bolswart in Friesland, the strongest power of the anabaptists had been collected, and would soon have marched to our aid; but the governor of Friesland surrounded the place with his forces, and after four a.s.saults forced it, putting almost the whole population to the sword. In Amsterdam, von Kempen and von Seelen have done their best to bring us aid. As the council and chief burghers of the cross-guild retired from the council-room, our people stormed the city hall, overpowered all who opposed them, and the burgomasters, Peter Colyn and Simon Bute, were left dead upon the spot; but the burgomaster Goswin Rekalf collected the citizens, a severely contested battle ensued, and our people were slain, or taken and executed, including poor Kempen, who had caused himself to be declared bishop of Amsterdam. Seelen exposed himself upon the tower of the city hall, where he was afterwards shot down and fell dead upon the market place. With him expired our last hope.'

'Oh G.o.d, will these horrors never end?' sighed Alf, casting his eyes toward heaven.

'Here probably soon,' said Hanslein; 'but it will be a fearful end. The city must shortly surrender, and then the lord bishop Franciscus may not treat us more mildly than king Johannes has. .h.i.therto done. I have least reason to hope for pardon then, and have therefore determined to go back to my old master immediately. I have discovered a place through which an escape from the city can be made. By the same way I trust I can lead the troops of the enemy into Munster, and with this secret I intend to purchase my peace with the bishop. Will you make the experiment with me this night? The sentinels now upon the night posts sleep away their hunger and will not hinder us.'

'My father's house is a house of prayer,' said Alf, after musing a long time; 'but you have made it a den of murderers. Yes, the originally pure doctrine of the anabaptists might perhaps have been a glorious gift from the merciful hand of G.o.d;--but the monsters, who preach it to us, have so perverted it according to their own wicked purposes, and shed so much blood in its name, that its n.o.ble image can no longer be recognized. A doctrine which empowers a Johannes to rage among mankind like a famished wolf among defenceless lambs, cannot come from G.o.d. I disclaim it. May G.o.d forgive me that I also have labored and fought for a cause which must have been wicked, since it elevated the bad and destroyed the good.'

'Thou wilt accompany me then!' asked Hanslein, giving his hand a friendly pressure.

'If Clara can and will go with us,' answered Alf. 'I have loved her uncle, whom they shot, and cannot leave her behind in a city upon which all the horrors of war are soon to fall.'

At that moment Clara entered the room to set before the guest what the house afforded at a time when provisions outweighed gold,--a cup of water and a slice of bread with salt.

'You come to us too confidingly, young lady,' said Hanslein jestingly, while he helped himself. 'We have evil thoughts concerning you,--we have an idea of taking you out of Munster.'

'Ah, would to G.o.d!' sighed the maiden.

'The jest is earnest,' said Alf. 'This night I and my friend intend to leave Munster, if you will accompany us, my little Clara.'

'Through the whole world!' cried Clara with heartfelt fervor. 'Whom have I on earth beside you?'

'So then the thing is settled,' cried Hanslein. 'Prepare yourselves for the journey; but do not enc.u.mber yourselves with needless baggage. No armor, Alf. A short sword will be sufficient for all emergencies. Clara had better put on male attire--there will be some places difficult to climb, and I cannot allow any thing that might prove an obstacle to the rapidity of our movements. Hold yourselves in readiness; for I shall come for you precisely at midnight.' He departed. Intoxicated with joy at the near approach of her deliverance, Clara threw her arms affectionately around the youth and cried, 'with you out of this place of torment, dear Alf! Now for the first time I have reason to hope that there is earthly happiness in store for me yet.'