"It is not that alone; but a secret dread possesses me whenever the creeper comes near me. I always feel as if my evil angel stood at my side, ready to plunge me into destruction."
"Psha! Superst.i.tious fancies, which do not become so sensible a woman.
Your intended shall decide."
"Well," cried Althea; "decide, dear Tausdorf. You know that a year ago Christopher Friend solicited my hand and was rejected. Now I may add, what I before concealed; in the vexation of his disappointment, he spoke of you most unbecomingly. But he now perceives his injustice, and seeks for a reconciliation."
"Forgive, and you shall be forgiven," said Tausdorf good-naturedly.
"My own words!" cried Schindel.
"Oh, for that," said Althea impatiently, "I am as prompt as willing; but he requires a formal reconciliation, and as the seal of it would have our presence at his banquet to-morrow; this I deem as superfluous as it would be disagreeable to me."
"Who says A must say B too," retorted Schindel. "Christopher will not believe in the sincerity of your forgiveness, and thinks that you scorn him if you refuse to appear at his banquet. You owe some compliance, besides, to his rich and powerful family, to which in addition you are allied."
"Still the untiring peacemaker and mediator! and inexhaustible in arguments, where the point is to reconcile the n.o.bility and citizens!"
"I can"t help it, niece, since, as a n.o.bleman and a proprietor at Schweidnitz, I have become a sort of doubtful thing, and don"t well know whether I am a bird or a mouse. I am compelled, therefore, to speak in the way of reconciliation on both sides, lest a feud should break out, and it should eventually fare with me as with the flittermouse in the fable. May I call up the pet.i.tioner?"
"Call him in G.o.d"s name, uncle," said Tausdorf: "I read my Althea"s _yes_ in her lovely and peaceful countenance."
"Excellently spoken!" cried the uncle, and hurried out.
"Heaven grant that we may never repent this _yes_," said Althea with heavy heart. "I only wish the wild Francis were not of the party!"
"Why is he so terrible to you?" asked Tausdorf, smiling.
"Because he is so rough, so fond of frays and drinking, and because he detests the n.o.bles so irreconcilably. Since too he has been forced to submit to the long imprisonment, on account of the late unlucky affair, there is no managing with him."
"I have never seen him; but I should not like to subscribe to the d.a.m.natory sentence p.r.o.nounced against him by the n.o.bles of our acquaintance. Hot-headed men are frequently the best. As I have heard from good authority, this Francis fought bravely against the Turks, and I find it natural and pardonable that a soldier should not willingly suffer himself to be played upon. His late misfortune grieved me much.
As he was absolved after all, he certainly did not belong to Bieler"s murderers; and to suffer a year"s undeserved imprisonment must embitter even the heart of a lamb."
"Heaven grant that you may never come in contact with this lamb; you would find in him a furious wolf. I tremble at the thoughts of it, for I think fire and water could not meet more hostilely than your dispositions. Your person would show him a true mirror of what he ought to be and is not; that would shame him, and shame exasperates vulgar minds. His roughness and your cultivation, his furious violence and your n.o.ble calmness, his inclination to every excess and your purity----"
"Still! still!" interrupted Tausdorf, ashamed, and gently pressing his hand upon the lips of the animated eulogist. "Do not forget that I also am no more than a frail man, and that exaggerated praise from an estimable mouth can corrupt even better than I am."
"Come along," cried Schindel, dragging in the sky-blue Christopher.
With a pitiful sinner-face he approached Tausdorf, and timidly stretched out his hand to him.
"All is forgotten and forgiven," cried the knight, shaking him by the hand; "only as a first proof of friendship, do me the favour not to speak a single syllable of the past."
"You are too good, sir," replied Christopher, smiling; "but I will not fail to requite so great a favour to the best of my power."
He then went to Althea, and, kissing her hand, said--"You owe me some reparation, n.o.ble lady, for the banquet which was put off four years ago on account of that murderous history. I may, therefore, the more boldly presume that you will this time favour me with your invaluable company at a feast, which, please G.o.d, I intend giving to-morrow, at Barthel Wallach"s, for my own house is just undergoing a thorough repair."
"Will your brother, Francis, be there?" asked Althea hastily.
"Heaven forbid!" rejoined Christopher; "We do not want this quarreller and roarer. I have taken good care not to invite him. At first I feared that he might intrude himself, unasked; but to my great delight I have learnt that he goes on this day to a drinking-party at Freiburg, so that we are quite safe from him. I have asked but a small party, a few quiet n.o.bles, and two or three honest citizens of the first cla.s.s.
After the cloth is taken off, we"ll have a little dance amongst ourselves."
"We will come," said Althea with lightened heart.
"Excellent!" cried Christopher, rubbing his hands, while a singular piercing glance of triumph fell from his eyes upon the fair widow, who immediately changed colour. "Now I can set about the preparations for my feast with a right joyful heart. I thank my dear friends for their courtesy, and commend myself to their recollection."
He made a profound bow and departed, accompanied out by Schindel and Tausdorf; but Althea looked after them anxiously, and sighed--"Oh that I could recall my word!"
The morrow of the 27th of July was come. In Barthel Wallach"s great room on the ground floor, just before the entrance, sat Christopher Friend with his guests at the epicurean banquet, while the upper seat was graced by the betrothed pair. The first course was removed; the strong dark Hungary went unremittingly about the table in the great cups; and while the females, according to the good old custom, seemed only to kiss the goblet, the men drained it frequently till their faces glowed, and many a broad jest cast the reflection of this red upon the delicate cheeks of the ladies. Tausdorf only sat still and wrapt up in himself, and with his fork scratched letters on the pewter-dish before him.
"What ails you?" said the mild Althea sportively, and pa.s.sed her white hand across his eyes. "You are not yourself, and cannot plead in excuse that your thoughts are absent with the object of your pa.s.sion, for she sits by you in her honoured person, and you trouble yourself but little about her."
"My good Althea!" sighed Tausdorf, and with a mournful smile kissed the hand that caressed him.
"And what are you graving so earnestly upon the plate? I must see it, and woe betide you if it should be the name of a fortunate rival."
She bent down more closely to read what he had written.
"_Memento mori!_ For G.o.d"s sake, how is it that you are seized on a sudden with these death-thoughts at a pleasure-banquet?"
"It is a way of mine to think on death in the midst of enjoyment. I deem it pardonable at least, as in return one can blend with death the thought of the eternal joy that waits us in the world beyond."
"My worthy Herr von Tausdorf," interrupted Christopher with a disagreeable laugh, "I do not doubt your oratorical powers, or your piety, and am convinced that you could, if you pleased, make an excellent funeral sermon extempore; but that would be too dull an entertainment with the full goblet: therefore take up the gla.s.s before you, and pledge me as fairly as I pledge you to the health of your n.o.ble bride."
Tausdorf seized the goblet, but again lost himself in a sea of thought, and forgot to pledge.
"Well, dreamer," said the intended bride with good-humoured reproach, "do you hesitate to drink the health of your Althea?"
He raised the cup mechanically, drank, and set it down again. Schindel, who sat near him, was surprised.
"What is the matter with you, Tausdorf? I never saw you thus before?"
"I do not comprehend myself. An anxiety has possessed me, as if I were to commit a murder. It must have been so that the poor king, Saul, felt when the evil spirit was upon him. I am ashamed of this childish feeling, and yet I can so little master it, that I shudder every time the door opens, thinking that some great misfortune must enter under a dreadful form."
"All this comes only of thick blood," replied Schindel; "you must be bled."
As he spoke the word, the door was flung open, and Francis Friend burst into the room with his usual impetuosity.
"Ah, woe!" cried Althea.
Schindel clasped his hands in terror, while Christopher asked piteously, "Why, whence do you come, brother? I thought you were long ago at Freiburg, and enjoying yourself?"
"He is a fool," replied Francis, "who hunts after pleasure miles off, when he knows where to find it at once. I heard yesterday of your present feasting, upon which I thought directly of surprising you, and put off mine."
"Well, all that"s true," said Christopher; "you have surprised us all, and most agreeably: so let us draw together. Set yourself here at my right hand, and enjoy with us the meat and drink that G.o.d has sent us."
"Spare all this idle talk," cried Francis, "I"ll find out a good place for myself;" and he carried his chair to the upper part of the room, seating himself between Tausdorf and Schindel, and saying to the former, "I see by your place near my cousin that you are the knight Tausdorf. I"m glad to have an opportunity of knowing you, for though I do not in general care much about the n.o.bles, you please me well. There is a command and intelligence about you such as one does not usually see in your knights. For the rest, I am the wild Frank Friend, of whom no doubt you have heard all manner of stories, and more bad than good.
In troth, I am a mad companion, but I mean it fairly with him who means it fairly with me, and I now heartily wish you joy of your marriage with my handsome cousin Althea here."