Karolina Světlá

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Maria Felicia feared the convent bars, the life awaiting her behind them, that terrible living death, that giving up of will, activity, conviction, that dull devotion and blind obedience—and yet not for one moment did she falter or succumb. For her, just for her, such a lot was meted out—for her, whose blood ran so rapidly, in whom was such an abundance of strength, such a strong instinct and love of liberty. ”

“ Together we led our people to Prague to speak for our rights to the nobles, as you had given us the privilege to do. Dangerously wounded by your soldiers, sent against us unarmed people who trusted in your words as though they were sacred—and thinking that I was dying, at last I revealed my name to Andrew. My blood, flowing for the rights of the Bohemian people, washed from his heart all the hatred against Countess Felsenburk. The love which he now bore Maria Felicia was even greater than the hatred with which he formerly regarded her. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Seeing with surprise the way in which the Emperor estimated his daughter’s nature, the Count recovered his composure.
“She does not deserve these good words from your majesty,” he said, bowing to the Emperor with a grateful smile; “she is a bad and saucy child. She not only repels her admirers, but she is discourteous to everybody whom she does not like, and she is not only out of harmony with the fashion, but disagrees with every one and opposes everything. She delights in everlasting moral discussions, in which she does not spare herself or any one else. ”

“ The harper bent far over his harp, and remained silent and thoughtful.
“You do not see your soul,” Andrew continued, “and yet you never doubt its existence; you feel that it is stronger than your hands and feet, that it controls your body, that without it your body would be a stiff, lifeless carcass. You know that your mental eyesight is nobler than your bodily eyesight; that with your thoughts you behold a hundred times more than with your eyes; that their invisible wings can take you to the dawn of the past and the darkness of the future ”

“ It matters not what the past of the Bohemian nation was, great or small; its task is over; it is dead; and no human power can awaken the dead. I have neither the time nor the desire to think about things that are past; I am to turn my mind elsewhere, to that people who give promise of living strength and a great future. The historical greatness among the nations of the world is destined to belong to the Germans; the Germans have certainly been chosen by Providence to govern the world ”

“ 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. ”

“ But seeing at length from what source the supposed shyness came, the Count ceased to smile. The Countess, after some time, felt it her duty to return to the rigorous ways of the convent and reproach her husband for his faults; and this she did with the inconsiderate stiffness and arrogance of conscious virtue which marks both the old and the young bigot. She showed no respect for him, either before strangers or servants, and regarded him more and more as a lost sheep. Such conduct a man of even less violent temper than Count Felsenburk certainly would not have endured. ”

“ To the nobility entering the proud palace over which hundreds of wax candles poured streams of mellow light, it was not long a secret why Count Francis Václav had invited them, and what cause had so suddenly aroused his friendly feeling. Greeting his guests, he introduced to them Count Fridštejnský, a nobleman about thirty years of age, of a graceful figure, with a face full of animation, simple in dress and manners—indeed, a great contrast to the rest of the guests, so stiff and jeweled. ”

“ Crowds of people are dying of hunger while their masters’ granaries are overflowing. That longed-for moment when the nobility can fill our land with strangers is quickly coming. They will be less hated than we, for in them will not be that undying love for truth and liberty, that insuppressible desire for justice for which the Bohemians have for ages been universally hated.”
Andrew had now regained control of his mind, and he looked with flashing eyes on the harper, who listened with unfeigned surprise. ”

“ And again the harper despairingly covered his face.
“Would your sublime mistress humble herself so greatly?” said Andrew, with a scornful laugh.
“I know her; she will certainly offer the sacrifice for the honor of her family—a double sacrifice it will be, for she intended to live a single life.”
“She need not violate her intention on account of me.”
“Do not behave so proudly,” the harper angrily said, and his grief changed to indignation at Andrew’s refusal.
“You do not know her; you do not know how beautiful she is. No man has ever yet resisted her beauty. ”

“ Through oppression reduce the race to beggary, through beggary to despair, and through despair to death; such, and no other, is the motto of our nobility. To the most cruel ends they carry out their aims. You demand an example? And yet you know as well as I do that when crops are light, as they have been for several years in succession, the peasants are under obligation to take their whole year’s harvest to the nobility. The peasant is not allowed to sell his crop in the market, but is obliged to give it to his lord at his own price. ”

“ Andrew has said that you want to live among us and support yourself with work. Our Union shall be your home, and to ennoble its spirit, your work. I name you Brother-Assistant; you have the gift of speech; hearts will easily and gladly yield to your words. Your task will be to travel from one settlement to another, to strengthen the hopeless, to soothe the impatient, and to spread your ideas; in that way you will prepare our people for the task awaiting them, to demand justice for themselves. ”

“ Oh, believe me, death will be sweeter to you than your evening dream here at this window—sweeter than the song of your harp; then the cares and the turmoil of this life will seem to you more trifling than the buzzing of a fly seems now. By death you will escape this tumult, and beyond this life you certainly will not long to participate in it. ”

“ But where shall we turn and what shall we do in this hopeless moment?” the old man asked.
“Let us try depending upon our own strength,” the harper advised.
“We do not know how to use arms,” said the old man, shrugging his shoulders.
“You are mistaken, father, if you think that I would advise the Brethren to shed the blood of their fellow-creatures. I do not mean that we should take the sword to defend our rights, but that our rights should become our sword. ”

“ In that way the Hlohov people showed their indifference to his wisdom. If the fire on the hearth blazed up brightly, and the light strayed to his corner, it illuminated a face always melancholy, always deathly pale. Buried in his thoughts, he sat, giving almost no sign of life; he moved only when some trick of more than usual harshness was played on his father.
Among the talkers of the evening, the steward occupied the foremost place, being considered not only as the highest dignitary at the Palace, but also as a man of superior knowledge. ”

“ You will see that no people in your empire can comprehend you as the Bohemians can when spoken to in their own language and when invested with their old rights. That the nation does not speak to you for herself, that I am doing so without her knowledge, is because she lies chained at the feet of the nobles, who deal with her in such a way that she rightfully thinks they aim at her total destruction. ”

“ The Count, seeing that he had frightened his daughter, now tried to console her.
“Mind your father, Felicia, quietly and sensibly,” he said; “do not interrupt his words with nonsense, and do not provoke him with childish objections. You, being young and inexperienced, do not anticipate how important a period has begun in your life; that in your hand lies the power of adding to the Felsenburk name a new luster and undying glory. ”

“ Since that time the language has advanced rapidly as a vehicle of literature and science.
Johanna’s father, whose ancestors had belonged to the persecuted religious sect known as the Bohemian Brethren, was very proud of his lively, prattling, black-eyed little girl, and, being a true Bohemian, he often walked with her through the streets of Old Prague, telling her of deeds that were done there in the glorious days of old when Bohemia was free, and instilling into her young heart that undying love for her native land which has been her leading motive in her life’s work. ”

“ Is this Hlohov? There, beyond the garden, that majestic building rising to the heavens, that is Hlohov—not this miserable hut. There stands the hero with whom I want to make friends; him I wish to ask for hospitality. This is only a dwarf, in whose crippled arms I could not rest. I should choke in his embrace.”
The stewardess almost signed herself with the cross.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, trembling from head to foot. “Do you not know that everything in the old Castle is ready to tumble, that no one has slept there for ages? ”