Karolina Světlá

“ There had been but one opinion for years on the whole mountainside that no two people had ever been made for each other as Lukas Paloucky and Vendulka Paloucky were. The village had been full of the tale of their unhappy love affair, of the admirable faithfulness of the girl, the deep grief of her lover who had been yoked to another woman. Every one rejoiced and was glad for their sakes that they should come together after all. Their marriage was being looked forward to with the pleasantest anticipation, as though it were a great festival. ”

“ And that is what Joseph II., whom I have honored as a perfect ruler of men, calls a great task—to take from nations that have trusted their fate to him, their language, their dress, their customs—to dictate to them how they should speak and think; to tell them how to develop; to make a bat out of a nightingale, a wren out of a hawk? Oh, do not deceive yourself, great Emperor; by the amalgamation of your various peoples you will not form one mighty nation that will dominate the world in intellectual strength; your empire will always be a conglomeration of discordant parts. ”

“ For a long while Lukas stood outside in the dark as though he had fallen from the clouds. This was not as he had pictured the evening to himself when he had sped home after Vendulka on wings of love. But he mastered the feelings that were rising in his heart, and tried to smile at what had just happened as at a jest that had missed fire. Who should have a right to jest if not a bride with her future husband? It is her prerogative to tease and annoy him a little. ”

“ Barka, lying in tears on the bed, felt as if all the nightingales which were preparing to welcome spring in the mountains had begun to sing in her bosom, all the violets which wished to pour out their fragrance in the groves bloomed in her heart. As Matýsek loved her no other man had ever loved a woman. ”

“ In Prague we will say to the masters: ‘Lords, keep your palaces, your estates; we do not covet earthly luxuries and wealth; we ask no more of you than to let us follow our way to God, speak to Him and to our fellow-men in our own tongue, and spend our lives in peace and industry. In return for our willingness to take all your work upon our shoulders and leave you to your pleasures, allow us to live in mental freedom, to enjoy justice and our rights as men, and in that way to become the strongest pillars of our country.’”
Andrew embraced the harper, and the rest warmly pressed his hand. ”

“ When Vendulka had seen the bridegroom entering the house, she had hidden herself, as a good old custom demanded of a well-brought-up girl, and had waited in her bedroom till the groomsman should call for her, to tell her the result of the preliminaries, and to lead her to the bridegroom, who would then repeat his suit to her.
Vendulka came into the room with the groomsman. When Lukas saw her who shortly would be his bride he grew quite pale with excitement. ‘Lukas,’ she said, and held out her hand to him, while the tears poured from her eyes. ”

“ After your sentence of condemnation I cannot remain as your vassal, for I should become a traitor to my people, for whom I have sworn to live and to die, just as sacredly as you have sworn to elevate the Germans. I thank your majesty for the favors thus far bestowed upon my family, and request you to transfer them to my young uncle, Hypolit of Felsenburk, for whose behoof I give up my estates, my wealth, placing them, with all my titles, rights, privileges, into your hands that you may dispose of them as I have taken the liberty to request. ”

“ Instead of answering, the girl burst into tears.
‘What has happened?’ Lukas urged in great agitation, ‘why are you standing here at this time of night? Why are you not in bed? What are you crying for?’
‘How can I help crying?’ sobbed the girl, ‘when our mistress has left us for ever? We shall never get one like her. You might go to the ends of the world to look for a better. We all of us loved her for her kind heart and her order and cleanliness. She thought of every one rather than herself, and was always ready to do you a good turn; she never was proud. ”

“ I repeat that first of all I shall try to unite all the nations of my empire into one powerful nation, in which the German language, German customs, German thought and German spirit shall dominate. Only in that way will the Austrian Empire become the great European power before which all the nations will bow and tremble. Oh, just one more decade of patient work, and I shall see that I have not lived and planned in vain. Even you, Miss Felsenburk, who look at me so reproachfully now, even you will have to admit the greatness of my undertaking. ”

“ If I stay where I am, no one will tell me of his new courtship and his marriage; no one will praise his bride to me—her beauty, his fondness for her. Fond? Could he really be fond of her? I can hardly believe it. I blame him severely, but to love another in his place—no, even spite could not make me do it! But men have quite different ideas of love from ours; unfortunately I have had to learn that. He was not like this before his marriage, though! His wife has spoilt his character.’
Vendulka was interrupted in her tearful soliloquy. ”

“ His countenance had once been rarely beautiful, but now was deeply red and bloated, proving that the Count was a stronger lover of sweet wines and rich diet than was profitable to his health. What malignity to collect, under the cloak of friendship, into such a dangerous trap, people suspecting no evil! Which of them could do something to frustrate his designs and so punish him? But such questions were banished as quickly as they had sprung up. How could they take revenge on a man who was not only a favorite of the Empress, but, as became evident that evening, also a trusted friend of her son? ”

“ To whomsoever this may not be a repetition of a well-known feature, it should be known that gossip in and out of season is as indispensable to us mountain-dwellers, as water to a fish. If anyone ever were to stop our talking and chattering, he would condemn us to death. We who live around the Jeschken Mountain would rather do without daily bread and content ourselves with dry potatoes, than renounce our sweetest habit. We will never give up gossiping; it eases life’s burdens, steels our courage, keeps us healthy—in short, gossip is as important as going to confession. ”

“ Is all beyond this life mere emptiness, absolute nothingness? Has mind no other dwelling-place than the human head? If such is the case, how deceptive is this gift that nature has bestowed upon man, for he has not a moment in this life when he may escape the feeling of his misery and insignificance!”
And the harper suddenly straightening himself before the window, looked up with a questioning and reproachful eye, as if he wanted to penetrate the depths of heaven and see what they concealed. ”

“ It was foolish of Vendulka to turn pale at these words. She might well have known that he was only a man in a temper, and it would have been better if she had simply said: ‘Don’t talk nonsense!’ Possibly all would have been well. A woman who cannot lead a man with gentleness when he is storming and shouting with anger, will never manage him at all.
But these heartless words had barely escaped Lukas, when Vendulka behaved as if she had lost her senses. ”

“ And, besides, you would stain the honor of your nation by becoming allies with the greatest enemy of your country—the man who trampled your fields so many times, destroyed your homes, captured your sons and dragged them into his country and made of them his soldiers, the man who wanted to turn our kingly Prague into ashes. Consider once more that if he were to gain the Bohemian country, he would not deal with it as with a treasure entrusted to his care, but that it would be no more to him than a prey. ”

“ It serves you right that you should have had a taste at once of what obstinacy and bad temper lead to. In the future you will be careful not to go too far. But your anger doesn’t impress me at all. It is like thunder in the spring, short and furious; everything is the more beautiful and luscious for it afterwards. You will make no one believe that you can live without Lukas or he without you. You make me laugh. You two will attract each other for ever; as long as you live on this earth you won’t get rid of each other. ”

“ Boldly Andrew started into the narrow shaft, and the harper followed him. Dead air as well as dead silence met them there; the echo of the mad elements outside did not penetrate those dizzy depths.
But the cave into which the youths with impatiently beating hearts were descending was not a vault concealing the dead; it was a secret hearth on which was glimmering the feeble flame of the life of a whole nation, the only refuge where the spirit of the nation dared to feel, think, weep and hope. ”

“ Oh, confess frankly, as I acknowledge my suspicion against you, that you have come here to see what sort of spirit prevails among the Bohemian peasants. And why not? If the nobility thought it necessary at other times to send out spies for that purpose, why should they not think it necessary now, when repeated failures in crops drive people to despair, and when services and taxes increase every year? Hunger has long been a dweller among our mountains; and his equally terrible brother, the plague, has now joined him. They both faithfully help the nobility. Oh, tell Miss Felsenburk to rejoice ”

“ I would rather be with you than anywhere else. The neighbours know that you are either asleep or on the roads, so they don’t come to see you. Nobody will know that I am with you, and if you ask the smugglers not to tell, none of them will gossip. Lukas will think I have gone into service, and leave me in peace. I need not fear to be bothered either by him or by father; neither of them will trouble about me, they will be glad to be rid of me.’
She could not go on, her face betrayed her despair.
‘What frights you give people, you young devil!’ Martinka scolded her niece. ”

“ In its streets raged the storms that purified the whole world. Here men fought with sword and word for all humanity; here, for the divine truth, men laid their heads on the block exultingly as princes ascending their thrones, and their mothers and sisters sacrificed their beloved ones for the sacred flame that spread light over the whole world. Here was born the motto, “Equality, Harmony and Fraternity”; here the drinking cup was first used as the emblem of universal brotherhood. Every man ought to look upon this place with revverence, for here stands the cradle of humanity.” ”

“ It was said of Lukas that he had no other fault than his bad temper; apart from that he was the kindest, mildest, and. most benevolent of men, who would not hurt a creature. He now showed that people had judged him fairly. He not only took the reproaches of his own servant quite meekly, but he felt his heart warm during her tearful homily, as though he were waking from a heavy dream that had held him in its toils. The simple statement of Vendulka’s goodness by this disinterested observer did more than any arguments on the right or the wrong of his case could have done. ”

“ The Countess must not keep him in her service, nor on her estates; she must discharge him—put him in the army for life. Even that would be a slight punishment for such a terrible, unheard-of crime; she must imprison him in one of the cellars of this castle, over which he claims to have more right than she, and leave him there five, ten years—yes, let him miserably perish and rot in the dungeon. No one can forbid her doing so; a mistress can punish her impudent servant as she pleases. ”

“ When Lukas comes to his senses he will be annoyed with himself for the trick he had played on you; and if you will sit here and think about it till to-morrow morning, all sorts of things will occur to you which you ought or ought not to have said. Your wrath will go up in smoke when your blood has cooled. You will be reasonable, and the old love will come back all the more strongly.’
‘Never—never!’ Vendulka cried with all her might. She had hardly been able to contain herself to the end of her aunt’s admonition. ”

“ In the afternoon the Countess, reclining in an armchair, was resting in her chamber. The room looked more like an art gallery than the private apartment of a young lady. Its walls were covered with paintings representing all the castles, mansions, estates and cities which at that time the Felsenburk family had in their possession, and whose mistress she was to become after her father’s death. The Count had the paintings hung there that his daughter, as she rose and retired, might have her enormous wealth before her and take delight in looking at it. ”

“ Your punishment, O King, shall be that against your own will you shall arouse the Bohemian nation to new life. By your injustice you will awaken within the Bohemians their slumbering love for their country; with your dislike for their language you will arouse their old love for it. Being forced to give it up, they will love it the more. ”