Conrad von Bolanden

“ And it is the venerable sire Progress that alone could have begotten the prodigy of a Hans Shund invested with honors. My Lord Progress is therefore himself a prodigy--a very extraordinary offspring of the human mind, the culminating point of enlightenment. Admitting humanity to be ten thousand million years old, or even more, as the most learned of scientific men have accurately calculated it, during this rather long series of years nature never produced a marvel that might presume to claim rank with progress. Progress is the acme of human culture--about this there can be no question. ”

“ Sire, we may bow in obedience to the monarch, who by his victorious arms has conquered Lombardy. But when tyranny reigns in the place of justice, when our rights are trampled underfoot, when our country is laid waste and her inhabitants held to ransom, when the Emperor's iron heel is placed upon the necks of a kneeling people, then, Sire, obedience becomes a crime! It is better to die free, than live as slaves! If it needs be that Italy obey you against her will, exile her population and replace it with serfs. ”

“ The modern spirit of industry has invoked a demon--or, rather, the demoniac spirit of the times has taken possession of industry. The great capitalists have built thrones on their money-bags and tyrannize over those who have no money. They crush out the work-shop of the industrious and well-to-do tradesman, and compel him to be their slave. Go into the factories of Elfeld, or England; you can there see the slaves of this demon industry--miserable creatures, mentally and morally stunted, socially perishing; not only slaves, but mere wheels of the machines. ”

“ Why destroy their vines, uproot their trees, ruin their crops, burn their villages and hamlets? I am no partisan of useless cruelty."
"In other circumstances we would agree with you, noble Duke," replied Frederic; "but we think that Milan should receive the same treatment which she has inflicted upon other cities."
The Margrave Obizzo could no longer keep silence.
"Why show mercy to the scourge of all Lombardy? Milan has shed torrents of innocent blood, and has left to her victims only the choice between death or slavery! Yes," he cried, "Milan has a thousand times merited her destruction. ”

“ Leicht, my poor fellow, I fancy I see in you a slave of Schwefel's. From dawn till late you are compelled to toil for the curmudgeon, Sundays not excepted. Your church is the factory, your religion working in straw, and your God is your sovereign master Schwefel. You are ruining your health amid the stench of brimstone, and not so much as the liberty of voting as you think fit is allowed you. It's just as I tell you--you factorymen are slaves. How strangely things go on in the world! In America slavery has been abolished ”

“ Barbarossa, on the contrary, has put about our necks a yoke from which there is no relief. We must build with our own hands the fortresses which threaten us; with our own hands we must construct for these cruel vultures--I mean for the worthy prefects of the Emperor--those nests from which they can swoop down upon us with impunity, to pillage and murder. Will you always submit to slavery? Are you willing to be oppressed until death sets you free? ”

“ The rest of the year you pass in riding about on your lands, suffering yourself to be impressed by the stern rigor of nature's laws, and concluding that human society harmonizes in the same manner with the behests of fixed principles. I shall have to brush you up a little. I shall have to let you into the mysteries of progress, so that you may cease groping like a blind man in the noonday of enlightenment. Above all, let us have no narrow-mindedness, no scrupulosity, I beg of you. Whosoever nowadays walks the grass-grown paths of rigorism is a doomed man. ”

“ The sovereign Pontiff is the rampart of liberty, the only real defence against Imperial despotism. Why is it that Barbarossa has turned all his rage against Alexander? It is because he knows that he can never accomplish his perfidious ends so long as the Christian world shall retain him whom God himself has appointed to be the guardian of right, and morality, and liberty. The Pope suffers and struggles in our cause; let us unite with him, let us bravely flock to freedom's standard. Raise your right hands, and swear allegiance to the Lombard league. ”

“ He approached the table, where he was met by perplexed looks from his aids.
"Don't you perceive," cried he, "that Holt is a hireling of the priests? Will you permit yourselves to be imposed upon by this salaried slave? Hear me, you scapegrace, you rascal, you ass, listen to what I have to tell you! Hans Shund is the lion of the day--the greatest man of this century! Hans Shund is greater than Bismarck, sharper than Napoleon. Out of nothing God made the universe: from nothing Hans Shund has got to be a rich man. Shund has a mouthpiece that moves like a mill-wheel on which entire streams fall. ”

“ On his head was a steel helmet of proof, which shone brilliantly in the sun, and a heavy two-handled sword with a double hilt, and in a plain leathern scabbard, completed his accoutrement.
At first sight, the form of the young soldier scarcely seemed to warrant his ponderous armor. Strikingly handsome, with hands of remarkable delicacy, with a bright fair complexion, and a mouth around which played a smile of frankness and amiability, it needed a second glance to discover that, under this engaging exterior, was concealed a violent energy, an iron will, and a pride without limit. ”

“ Is the sacrifice of a wish wanted? Angela makes it. Is her pure feeling offended by Richard's faults? She kisses them away and raises him to her level. My wife--is she not just the opposite in every thing? Is she not quick-tempered, bitter, loveless, extravagant, and stiff-necked? Has she a look--I will not say of love--but even of respect for me? Do not all her thoughts and acts look to the pleasures of the toilette, the opera, balls, and concerts? O my poor children! who grow up without a mother, in the hands of domestics. ”

“ The Count of Champagne leaned with a gloomy air against a tree, and the savage William of Nevers, smiling ironically, approached him.
"The Burgundian," he said, "speaks as though he meant to dispute Barbarossa's claim to the Empire."
"You seem jovial, my lord," replied Henry.
"And why should I not be? The heroic soul of the Duke of Burgundy will inspire the King. Our valiant sovereign will not keep his promise. As Alexander will not come, Barbarossa will be obliged to bring Victor. Ah! there is a worthy man for you; he thinks it no crime to rob a rich convent! ”

“ The human mind will receive knowledge from the source of all knowledge--God, in proportion as it has been just and good. For this reason our Redeemer calls the world of the damned 'outer darkness,' and the world of the blessed, the 'kingdom of light.'"
"We sometimes see in that way even now," said Frank after a pause. "The wicked have ideas very different from those of the good. A frivolous spirit mocks at and derides that which fills the good with happiness and contentment. We might, then, say that even in this life man knows as he is known." ”

“ Clemence read his thoughts, and a mingling of love for her husband and pity for his weakness, joined to a faint hope that, even yet, he might be weaned from his determination, decided her to speak.
"Dear Henry," she began, "a wife's duty is to watch and pray, whenever a danger menaces her lord. I can no longer remain silent in the presence of the schemers who seek to beguile you. The sinful projects of the chancellor Rinaldo will destroy your eternal soul. Believe me, no motive can excuse an evil deed; nothing can make innocent that which the laws of God forbid. ”

“ These words sounded enigmatically to Richard.
"I do not comprehend the meaning of your words, Fräulein Angela."
"Grief at the death of a relative is proper for us, because a beloved person has been taken from our midst. But the church, on the contrary, rejoices because an innocent, pure soul has reached the goal after which we all strive--eternal happiness. You see, Herr Frank, that the church considers the departure of a child from this world from a more exalted point of view, and comprehends it in a more spiritual sense, than the natural affection. ”

“ Her tears ceased, and in a calmer tone, she turned towards him:--
"Without doubt, the Emperor will pardon you. The Almighty knows your innocence, and will not suffer you to die the death of the guilty."
"Let us hope so, my child!"
"For my part, I expect nothing," said Nigri. "The heart of the tyrant Barbarossa knows neither pity nor justice.--Hermengarde, resign yourself to the worst, and do not cherish a vain hope."
"Oh! Pietro," said she, turning away.
"Rather be proud of your father's death; he is a martyr to the cause of his country's freedom!"
"Enough! enough!" interrupted Bonello. ”

“ These are the heroes of modern sentiment, the advance guard of liberty, morality, and true manhood! And these heroes so far succeeded that the noble Arndt wrote of his time, 'We are base, cowardly, and stupid; too poor for love, too listless for anger, too imbecile for hate. Undertaking everything, accomplishing nothing; willing every thing, without the power of doing any thing.' So far has this boasted freethinking created disrespect for revealed truth. So far this modern civilization, which idealizes the passions, leads to mockery of religion and lets loose the baser passions of man. ”

“ Duke, what does this mean!" said the Lion, with an air of menace.
"Must I then call evil good, and good evil? No, Duke of Saxony, not yet; not even in Frederic's camp! Do not misunderstand my frankness, Henry; your divorce is a wrong, a crying injustice, a stain upon your name."
"Your interference in my private affairs is insulting to me, my lord!" said the Lion, sullenly.
"Is not Clemence my relative?"
"Too distant to warrant such excessive interest."
"The duty of every knight is to defend the rights of helpless woman," replied the Austrian. "Besides, I am fulfilling the Pope's mission. ”

“ I dispute the greatness of the so-called saints. They were men full of narrowness and rigorism. They despised the world and their friends. They carried this contempt to a wonderful extent--to a renunciation of all the enjoyments of life, to voluntary poverty and unconditional obedience. But all these are fruits that have grown on a stunted, morbid tree, and are in opposition to progress, to industry, and to the enlightened civilization of modern times. The dark ages might well honor such men, but our times cannot. ”

“ Do you call such a one a holy man, a father?--He is a tyrant, a destroyer!"
Guerrazzi at last had carried his point; the crowd was rampant with sedition.
"Death to Alexander! Down with the tyrant!"
"Forward!" resumed the tailor, violently,--"brave people, rise in your might, break your chains, and go to meet your Augustus!"
He sprang to the ground, for his task was accomplished, and the fire of sedition was spread rapidly through the masses. Rinaldo's emissaries urged on the revolt, and soon nothing was heard but wild panegyrics of Barbarossa, and curses against the Pope. ”

“ Shund, then, accurately summed up the creed of the present age when he said, 'Progress conquers death, destroys hell, rejects heaven, and finds its god in the sweet enjoyment of life.' It is to be hoped that all-powerful progress will next decree that there are no death and no suffering upon earth, that all the hostile forces of nature have ceased, that want and misery are no more, and that earth is a paradise of sweet enjoyment for all. ”

“ The monarch ascended the throne; every word, every gesture indicated unmistakably that he felt his importance, and that he considered himself the most powerful sovereign of the world. The nobles surrounded him, shining like brilliant planets around the Imperial sun. The Count Palatine Otho and the Counts of Andechs and Bogen, were on guard, before the doors of the hall, where, clad in complete armor, with their hands resting on their sword-hilts, they resembled so many statues of bronze. ”

“ In unpretending guises like these, the spirit of the age circulates among the crowd travestied in the fashionable epithet progressive. Were you, however, to remove the shell from around the kernel of progress, were you to exhibit it to the multitude undisguised as the nullification of religion, as the denial of the God of Christians, as the rejection of immortality, and of an essential difference between man and the beast--were you to venture thus far, you would see the millions flying in consternation before the monster Progress. ”

“ Thus the medieval Pontiffs--living in exile, wandering from one city to another, often in prison, rarely suffered to live in peace--were the martyrs of the highest and truest freedom. To their indomitable courage, untiring perseverance, and clear-sighted intelligence, we owe whatever idea of true freedom (that is of the existence of the rights of man independently of the permission, toleration, or concession of the civil power) still survives in modern society. ”