Friedrich Gottschalck

“ Here a party whirled about in the light waltz, till the eyes of the watchmen grew blind in looking upon them,—there a couple of large-boned skeletons revelled apart from all the rest,—on one side a multitudinous assemblage of shroud-infolded forms stood gazing with apparent impatience on a dance which some of their number were performing,—on another sheetless skeletons, and forms whose limbs were yet infolded in their grave-clothes, old and young, tall and short, were blended together in one undistinguishable mass, beating time to the music with their arms and feet. ”

“ But the Blue Angel is quite a different thing. Counts and princes go there, and every thing is to be got at it which money can purchase. Old Weinlich knows how to manage an inn; and then he has got a daughter,—but what a girl! I knew her when she was not the height of my jack-boot, but now she is tall and slim, and straight as a taper,—and there’s not a nicer girl in Klarenburg. Why, upon my honour, I have known travellers go half-a-dozen miles out of their way to see old Weinlich’s daughter, and will you, a fine-looking young gentleman like you, go to the Golden Ox? ”

“ While the watchmen were gaping alternately at so strange a sight and at one another, a great many other graves in the churchyard opened, and the anatomies within them peeped out with their white fleshless skulls and eyeless sockets turned toward the spot where the piper stood—who was now blowing away as if nothing had happened to him—and after nodding a while to the gay measure, sprung fairly out of their coffins, and began to shake their rattling fleshless limbs in some sort of measure to the tune. ”

“ Some again have heard that the councillor is a great proficient in music, and so you cannot walk from one end of a street to another without having your ears stunned with such a rattling of pianos, thrumbing of guitars, and twanging of harps, and screaming of songs, French, German, and Italian, as would make you fancy the whole town of Klarenburg had been turned into an immense musical academy. Another account represents this great man as passionately found of dancing; so the poor dancing-masters are to be seen hurrying from house to house sans intermission the whole day ”

“ Is it to the Golden Ox you want to go, sir?” exclaimed the postillion in a tone of disappointment. “Why I cannot say how a gentleman like you chooses to think; but sure enough, I never drive any travellers to the Golden Ox but a few Bohemian merchants at fair-time, when I am driving the post-waggon, I believe every body would stare at me for a fool, and one who does not know his business, were I to drive a gentleman like you to the Golden Ox. ”

“ And it’s all in their eye; wherever you go nothing is talked of at Klarenburg but the rich young councillor; every one is teazing another about him, and every one is dreadfully afraid lest she should not prove the fortunate one. He is expected one of these days, and the dress-makers and milliners have been at work already for weeks, for every one is wanting to show herself to the best possible advantage, and aunts and mothers have been racking their inventions from morn to noon, and noon to night, and night to morn, planning how best to entrap this rare young goldfinch for a daughter or niece. ”

“ Among others came the mayor, who was in secret very well pleased with the turn which affairs had taken, for he had always some lurking suspicion about him that the old fellow would yet laugh at them all. He now ordered the body of the old piper to be buried as quickly and quietly as possible in a piece of unconsecrated ground; and when his directions were asked as to the disposal of the bagpipe, with a shrewdness which did the first magistrate of Neisse infinite honour, and saved poor heart-broken Wido some trouble, he directed it to be buried with its wicked master. ”

“ Why, is there not in the capital ten thousand equally or more surpassingly beautiful daughters of Eve awaiting the choice of a young man, who to an honourable employment, adds an honourable heart, and above and beyond all, a deal of money? And in the smaller towns and the country are there not fine young women springing up as thick as mushrooms wherever one turns his eye, to whom a residence in the capital would be an attraction strong almost as love itself? ”

“ At this critical juncture, Wido hastened to Master Wilibald and entreated him to use his soul-subduing music for the purpose of softening the irritated feelings of the mob, and thus saving the life of Emma’s father. “Doubtless,” added the youth, “he will in his gratitude offer you any reward you can name, and you will for my sake demand his daughter’s hand for me.” The piper laughed at the youth’s words, and only remarked, “we must humour a child’s follies to prevent him from crying.” ”

“ Why none other than my own niece, the daughter of my brother, lieutenant in the fourth militia. Gladly would I see her married to him, and the rich nephew would just suit his uncle’s views of things. Charlotte, I say, sir, is a darling girl; she has a pair of eyes black as any sloes; her cheeks rival the peach in softness and beauty of tint and hue; in waltzing she has not her match in all the countryside; she can chatter French so glibly that my very hair sometimes stands on end with wonderment at her. ”

“ Certainly the fear of not getting a wife to one’s mind is, in Germany at least, quite ridiculous! Besides my good grandmother lays no farther restraint upon the perfect freedom of my actions than what is contained in her declaration, that in the event of my not marrying the girl of her choice, the interest of fifty thousand crowns shall go to the poor: And shall I defraud the lame, and the blind, and the houseless of their little pittance to swell my overgrown stores? ”

“ At last a large engine came thundering down the street, surrounded by several men with torches in their hands, and I perceived my little thick friend Zwicker perched upon the top of it with a directing-pipe in his left hand, and a torch in his right. He was attired in a night-gown of large flowered print, with a round white hat on his head, and as the machine rolled on he kept incessantly bawling out to the crowd to follow him, as I understood, to Herzfelde, my own pretty little village. ”

“ If your heart is not fairly captivated, return quietly home to the capital; just act as if you were totally unconscious of the matter of the sealed paper, and in doing so you may be sure that you are exactly fulfilling your grandmother’s intentions.”
The prospect of the ball did not lessen my anxiety. To have had an opportunity of reviewing the fair faces of Klarenburg by myself would have been excellent sport; but now I was to be under the eye of Mrs Waldmark, who, of course, would observe me so narrowly that I would not be able to act with any degree of freedom or ease of manners. ”

“ On these occasions he played with so much skill and taste, that old and young were charmed with his performances; and their piper never wanted a well-stored flagon and trencher. The beau of Neisse applied to him for new scores from which to serenade their mistresses in the soft twilight,—the graver citizens invited him to their feasts and festivals,—and not a bride within the limits of the township would have thought her marriage-ceremony properly performed, unless Master Wilibald had been present and played his bridal-dance on the occasion. ”

“ And again, with the exception of some trifling love-adventure when at college, I have really never thought seriously of marriage at all; and had that stupid fellow of a Recorder not come out with his silly story about the seven girls, it is highly probable the matter of matrimony would never once have entered into my head during my stay at Klarenburg. I am quite sure that were I to confess the truth I am desirous of remaining a little longer an unfettered man; ten years hence there will be time to think of changing; and there will still be plenty young women to pick and choose a wife from. ”

“ I observed that the postillion had recommended the Blue Angel, whereupon the exciseman grew more, warm in his praise of the Golden Ox, abusing the landlord of the Blue Angel for a low worthless character, who never failed to fleece all strangers smartly that placed themselves under his roof, and whose daughter was such an insufferable flirt as rendered it quite impossible for any young man aspiring to keep company with the genteel society of the place to live at the Blue Angel. ”

“ During this harangue I observed the odious creature—whom I now began to hate almost beyond endurance—cast several significant glances at Bernhardine, who either for awhile did not understand, or pretended not to know their meaning; but at last when his countenance had assumed a quite furious expression, the poor girl timidly rose, and collected together a few plumbs and pieces of cake and sugar, the fragments of their repast, which she deposited in her reticule, while her father placed himself before her to conceal so shabby a proceeding from the waiter. ”

“ Fortune she has none, of course; but Mrs Milbirn has provided her with a handsome legacy.—In tertio, there is Julia, the youngest daughter of my most honoured chief and patron, the first councillor. She is one of those sort of beauties who look quite fascinating at a distance. When you observe her more, observe her more closely, you discover some traces of small pox,—but they do not signify a whit,—the girl is quite above them,—she has something grand in her manner,—looks like an empress,—every where takes or rather receives precedency ”

“ I exclaimed. “What then, is the major a married man?”
“To be sure is he!” rejoined Lewis. “His wife has been living here with her sister since Easter, for the benefit of medical advice; and the major visits her every fortnight. But she is a great deal better now, and is to go away with him in a few days. Did you not observe her this morning? She was in the first carriage with her sister.”
I could now have whipped myself for a jealous fool and blockhead. It was with his own wife that I had heard the major conversing the previous evening, and Florentine’s honour was still unimpeachable! ”

“ I would have an opportunity of personally observing the real or pretended merits, not only of the seven adjutants, but of every pretty girl in the town; and though doubtless there would be a good deal of assumed complaisance shown towards the intimate friend of the rich young councillor, yet there was reason to hope that I would at least see things under a less artificial colouring than they would have presented to the heir himself, against whom so many designs and complots were hatching. ”

“ I will give a ball, and invite the whole circle of your grandmother’s acquaintances. And now when I think of it I am glad you have come incongnito, otherwise we should have been tormented with schemes upon you. Well, in a week then, and by the bye it will just be your birth-day, I shall introduce you to the fair citizens of Klarenburg. There are several of them certainly who may make an impression on you; but do not give way to the feeling that you must make your election from among them. ”

“ When a stranger gentleman comes to an inn, and finds nobody at all caring for him, or perhaps every body looking cross, why look you now, would he not rather seek his lodgings in the poorest tavern in the village so that he might meet with something like a smiling welcome? ”

“ Why, do you think that the young gentleman when he comes, will not instantly turn his back upon you, when he sees you ogling his hand with one eye, and his foot with the other at the same moment!’—It is currently reported that the young heir speaks French remarkably well: so there is such a parlezvouing, and chattering in every house from morning to night, as makes your ears tingle all the time you are within hearing. ”

“ There was an assurance of manner and boldness about the latter which indicated something very impertinent, if not alarming; and to avoid all risks of unpleasant collision with such personages, the more pacific citizens earnestly entreated their mayor to put a stop to these midnight frolics of the dead, by fulfilling his promise to their piper. But the mayor was deaf to all entreaty, and even threatened to burn the young painter as art and part in his friend the musician’s cantrips. But the following night the churchyard troop behaved much worse than ever they had done ”

“ The fifty thousand crowns mentioned in Article 65th of my testament, and now deposited at the bank of Klarenburg, are to be disposed of by my grandson, Robert, in benevolent purposes. But if he should happen to marry the person among my acquaintances to whom I have already in my own thoughts wished to see him married, as she is the prettiest, the gentlest, the most pious, and the best informed young lady I know, I declare it as my wish and intention, that he and his wife shall life-rent the said sum of fifty thousand crowns deposited as aforesaid. ”