Rudolf von Gottschall

“ Is it impossible to resign a dreamed-of possession, a right that is dead?"
"A dreamed-of possession?" shouted the Italian, "the real right will still find its protection in the world, and when I see you thus before me, in all the magic of your charms, I long to press you to my heart and to rejoice in my beautiful possession; my blood surges up within me, like the fire-spring of Salfatora. I am no Don Juan who breaks at night into the sanctuary of the house, I am no adulterer, no seducer; I am the husband, and that word is like a king's crown and sceptre, before which all the nation bows. ”

“ If all the world sits like a dummy, the game of ombre would cease. But we in Prussia still have the best games in our hand, and will not, for a longtime yet, write the world's history in a kettle; we will not be nor remain dark men."
"That we will not, that we will not!" cried all, unanimously.
"Truly not," added Blanden, with sharp emphasis.
"Well, then, Herr von Blanden," said Milbe, with great intrepidity, and the same demeanour with which he announced a dangerous game at ombre, "that is just the point. That is the evil of it!" ”

“ When Buschmann and Böller had retired, Giulia gave way to violent tears and sobs. Beate came to her and enquired as to the cause of this despair.
"Despair, indeed! I have seen him again and all else has become worthless to me; it is the breath of this passion that extinguishes all the other lights on the Christmas tree of my life, while I, dazzled, stare fixedly into the one all-consuming flame! But he, he--how can he respect me? That love, which I as if in a dream and intoxication gave to him, I the nameless one to the stranger--does it not now speak its own verdict of condemnation upon me? ”

“ And because this happiness is short and delusive, it disposes one to sadness."
"Why these melancholy thoughts?" said Eva, "why think of others to-day? We will care for them all our life, mitigate every want, whenever we encounter them--this I have vowed to myself; but, on this one day, we have the right to think only of ourselves, to give ourselves up alone to the feeling of blissful enjoyment."
"That will we; you are right! Do I not hear, amidst the loud music, the quiet blue forest bells ring harmoniously, fairy-like, my lovely campanula! ”

“ I have friends to whom the Italian sing-song is objectionable, and who prefer a German drinking song to any aria. We will work for you, Fräulein Baute; a cavalier who makes so little of a rendezvous as this Herr von Blanden is rightly served when his night-light is blown out."
"What you say, dear Herr Doctor," said Lori, "is most objectionable in tone and manner, and really not calculated for a girl's ears. I will forget it. As to the rest, you have the right to think a singer as bad as you choose! You belong to the public, and the public is sovereign." ”

“ Now Cäcilie interrupted him hastily, her eyes flashed fire, her whole body vibrated with passion.
"So little do you know me, Paul? So little do you all know me? What are the others to me, even if they possessed the crowns of princes, and the treasures of Golconda, and united all the virtues of the world within themselves? I have learned to see everything with your eyes--I should become blind if I were to lose you! If I must leave you, I should feel as if I were thrust out into an endless desert. How lonely I should feel in, the forests of Masuren--in the orange gardens of Italy! ”

“ A proud sensation of happiness overcame her; the dream of a peaceable existence, of ensured happiness, hovered before her mind, then her hand was pressed convulsively to her heart; painfully she felt the rift that extended through her whole life--that she always experienced, even although concealed from her lover and the world, but which, when it suddenly yawned, became an abyss which must swallow up all her felicity.
She could only listen absently to Beate's chatter, "I must say it is a true Palazzo Pitti, in which we, however, are the most beautiful pictures! ”

“ Blanden was about to jump after her.
"Do not," said Eva, "she is the best swimmer in all the villages on the coast; but she is imbecile, and only seldom has gleams of reason."
"And you trust yourself to her?" asked Blanden.
"No one pulls so good an oar, has better knowledge of wind and weather and of the sea's peculiarities; she is a water spirit with her meaningless frog's eyes. I should rely most implicitly upon her in every danger of the stormy sea. Only look how she swims; she has reached the forsaken boat, swings herself into it, and grasps the oar!" ”

“ How could I curse love?"
"How poor we are though, with all our love! There where we would bring salvation, we bring ruin. Our love is like a pious wish, a powerless breath, which, hardly has it escaped our lips before it is transformed by invisible powers into a poisonous blast. I came hither with the richest treasure of blessings in my heart, although not without anxious fear; and now I shower abundant ills upon your head."
"I do not yet know what happened," whispered Eva. "I only know that I see you again, that you suffer and are unhappy, that Blanden has resigned me ”

“ I wish you joy from my heart, dear friend."
"And I feel my happiness, perfectly, fully! It seems to me as if I had previously only seen the world through a veil, as if I now saw it clearly and steadily in free and yet decided outlines. All gloomy over-cloudings of my life have been transformed into sunny vapour, such as lies upon a bright landscape."
"Indeed, she will relieve Kulmitten from its everlasting tedium," said Kuhl. "A splendid estate, but there in those woods one must become melancholy; a covey of wild ducks across the yawning lake alone brings animation into the lifeless scene. ”

“ This same emotion of pride fills Wegen's breast so far as anything is to be seen of his face, which is concealed under the fur cap and warm ear-covers; it beams with pleasure. His eyes, it is true, weep, but only because of the north wind, but if they were a couple of tears of joy which he shed he should not be surprised! Olga had never been more affable towards him than to-day, and when he dared to speak of the sleighing privileges, she smiled. No, it is no smile which refuses--he understands it well! The first kiss in prospect,--this point he had never attained with Cäcilie! ”

“ Kätchen was mute. No change was apparent in her features. It seemed as though she looked up at him with a triumphant smile.
"Misery of miseries!" cried Blanden, wringing his hands; "the victim of an idiot's passion! Yes, Wegen, this creature, this half-human being, this female Caliban loves me; she has pursued me with her passion even into the Forester's house; I found her several times beneath my windows; she cherished a moody, dull hatred for Eva! Heavens! Why did I not warn her! It is horrible--the girl has killed her!" ”

“ If misfortune be solemnly decreed to you by heaven and earth, if it hold you in an indissoluble spell, oh, then have courage to grasp happiness yourself; grasp that which heaven and earth would deny you. But intense love is bliss, bliss unutterable; its intensity is not measured by its lastingness--the moment is its watchword. In your arms, from your kisses I have felt what, until now, life could never give me; what only as the dream of the supreme was quickened in my soul. To every human being is granted one supreme moment--once birth and death--once the bliss of perfect love! ”

“ I was not alone here; was I in the power of an invisible enemy; or did a spectre persecute me?
"I put my hand out behind; I grasped the empty air; the hand had released my dress; I cried in a strong voice, so as to inspire myself with courage, 'Who is here?' But nothing replied, excepting one loud echo from the walls of the empty church.
"Nevertheless my heart is full of courage, and I said to myself, why this fear and alarm? What concerns you is that you have pledged your honour to save your friend; now see that you succeed whether you live or die, even if hell send its ghosts against you! ”

“ Eva rose pale, dissolved in tears, and put out her hand, as if in repudiation.
"I have nothing to forgive you, mother! I do not exalt myself so impiously as to wish to sit in judgment upon you. I could not but love you even unto death.--and you are not guilty! Oh, no--that you are not!"
"Guilty towards you," said Frau Salden, wringing her hands.
"None know what the future may bring," replied Eva; "it cannot be foretold. Human destiny is like a fleeting cloud: now it gleams in the full light of the sun at its mid-day height, or in the varying colours of its declining hour ”

“ What a sensation of security behind the stout walls of this Castle; for decades, for a whole life-time, every struggle with its necessities was banished, a life belonging to itself, one not given up to the mob! And how one must learn to love every little spot of earth which, by the habit of long association and possession, has become a portion of ourselves! Without, the trees rustled, the eastern sky glanced in the reflection of the declining sun, and the evening star, the star of love, peeped forth in the vapour-like clouds that were tinged with a delicate red. ”

“ 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 passionately fond of eating in an evening; a man feels like an East Prussian when he sees such a dish before him. ”

“ And Giulia was obliged to tell herself that such theatrical criticism only flourished upon German soil! In Italy, in England, in Spain every critic was a nobile, a gentleman, an hidalgo; even censure is offered with a polite bow, every merited acknowledgment is made to talent and beauty. Never is an artistic performance sacrificed to the unsparing spirit that delights in plucking it to pieces; never do newspapers venture to let an inquisitive ray of light fall into the interior of private life as through an open window shutter, and then to gossip about it with piquant allusions. ”

“ How melancholy to drive over these plains of ice, through the snow-laden pine forests, through these districts where sleepy Nature never seems to open her eyes, how terribly wearisome all the world here appears to one! And those passengers in mail coaches, those Polish Jews, those people from the small towns with their boxes, their baggage, their stupid faces! Thus it went on night and day, day and night. People have given themselves the trouble to find names for all these heaths, these towns through which one drives, and yet one looks like another, it is most immaterial what they are called! ”

“ Wherever she reigned there this spirit must impress itself upon all who approached her, who stepped within her spell! What a guarantee for happiness, for peace, lay in such dominant grace, in such exquisite euphony! All discordant elements must remain aloof; the recollections of the past could have no power before the magical might of such a presence.
That was the thread which Blanden twined mentally around the nosegay of woodland flowers which Eva presented to him! He had firm faith in his own felicity, if he should ensure it by speedy, decisive choice. ”

“ Blanden knocked at the bedroom door of the Forester's servant, and pretended Kätchen was a messenger who had come at night, and must have some place to rest in.
"The idiot child loves me," he said to himself, "her frog's eyes receive a gleam of intellect when she looks at me! And then she crouches behind the sloe hedge, treated in as step-motherly a manner as that unhappy fruit which would gladly be a plum, but which tarries for ever in sour immaturity. Nothing is more touching than these half-human beings, with their distorted souls! An evidence of the poverty of Creation's plan! ”

“ Olga has left us, you have remained true to me, you shall not suffer for it. Verily, I am not Blanden's inferior in courage, and yet that duel has given me much to think about. He offered up his life for his beloved one's good name. I cannot, I must not, look on and see them insult you. Blanden has often already said so. I would not believe it; to-day I see it with my own eyes. No, no, no! He was right, ten times right! I may sacrifice myself to my convictions, but not a girl who loves me! ”

“ I cannot bear to see shadows suffuse your brow--your eyes close as if expiring! I would see you happy, quite happy, and your name honoured like those of the noblest patriots, a Stein and Schön!"
"That word shall never be forgotten by me," cried Blanden, "it finds an echo in my soul; it tells of perfect unanimity of feeling, and if there is a cabala in life, you have thrown open the page on which the magic sentence stands, which now governs my days. ”

“ Blanden started as a chance glance in the mirror showed him his own worn-out reflection.
Doctor Kuhl had merely interrupted his friend's tale now and again by a question or a remark, now he flung his finished cigar aside with the words, "The poor child!"
"And can you see no means of escape?" asked Blanden.
"No, one may bid defiance to laws, but not to one's personal feelings."
"Never have I been so helpless," cried Blanden, "so desperately helpless; I wander about like a criminal; I dare not approach either the mother or the daughter. May she learn the truth? ”

“ Giulia hid her face as she drew back.
"Yet do not believe that it is the same old love, as beneath Italy's orange and myrtle trees when you were my Madonna, when my heart beat for you, when I looked up to you as to a queen of heaven floating amid a bright halo. And even then, when you parted from me as from one unworthy who might not follow in the ascending paths of your life, even in the desolate existence that I led, still I always looked up as one looks up at a heavenly orb through a crevice in a grotto. ”

“ Käthe, without waiting for orders, guided the boat back to the shore. And the billows, rearing themselves up ever higher, came rolling on like serpents behind the young betrothed couple, tossing the skiff up and down. Eva's blooming features and cheeks paled, dizziness and discomfort took possession of her; it was time that the boat should reach the shore. Blanden was obliged to exert all his strength in assisting Käthe to land.
"The storm has put our young love to the test," said Blanden, "but we hold to one another in trouble and in joy, and defy danger." ”

“ It is not the obstinacy of the idiot sailor girl that guides the skiff ever farther out into the sea; it is the mute, proud will of the other, who rejects all chance of meeting him.
Can he follow her then, as he once followed her, when he conquered the bride with daring corsair courage?
Is that figure, pale as marble, the same as that of the blooming girl, who, once adorned with the wreath of woodland flowers, greeted him with merry smiles?
Between then and now lies an abyss--that campanula had withered in his hands, old love had become new guilt. ”

“ No, it was the storm which had risen, sweeping through the tops of the pines, and stirring up the waves of the northern water mirror.
Fancy often erects a bridge of dreams from one summit of life to another, and deep below in oblivion lie all its other paths.
Giulia was absorbed in a vision, in a self-delusion; the pictures of the past and present became mixed up, but the confusion was agonising; her hand trembled in Blanden's. ”

“ The heather, which grew wild upon it, was bathed in the evening's crimson, which also flooded the quivering bowed branches of the weeping willows.
Eva did not take any notice of it; she was quite absorbed in her conversation with the stranger.
"Oh, you cannot think, my Fräulein, how a man's mind develops, not only with his wider aims, but also with his more extensive travels. So much weighed upon me; my fatherland had grown too small for me; I was a dreamer and an enthusiast; and as such, had laden myself with guilt."
"It pleases you, doubtlessly, to accuse yourself," said Eva. ”