"Not so fast!" replied the other, with a withering sneer. "I have told the people of the farm who you are. Do you think I am going to lose so useful a comrade?"
At that moment the grandfather of the child came up, and when he saw the little boy in the arms of him whom he had just been told was a malefactor, he s.n.a.t.c.hed him hurriedly away, in spite of the child"s tears and cries; and applying many abusive epithets to the man, ordered him instantly to leave the farm. The disturber of his peace carried him off with him, while his fiendish laughter rang around!
See! the prisoner"s chest is heaving with emotion. Hark! what deep sighs seem to rend his heart, while a few scalding tears are falling from his eyes! Of what is he dreaming now?
He sees himself, in the grey dawn of day, stealthily creeping along the hedges that surround the farm, to catch a glimpse of his little favourite. He beholds the infant"s soft cheek wet with the tears of affection; he feels his tiny arms clasped lightly round his neck; the kind words of farewell ring in his ears; he listens again for the sound of the retiring little footsteps, as the child is leaving him, and sees the little hand waving to him a last adieu from the door of his mother"s house. As he then threw himself down beneath the hedge on the dewy gra.s.s, and burst into tears, he now hides his face on his hard pallet, and sobs aloud.
But he has risen from that rec.u.mbent position. He wrings his hands, and his teeth chatter, in his solitary cell. What horror is pa.s.sing through his mind? What agonizing remembrance has seized him, and is shaking soul and body, as the roaring tempest shakes the falling leaves? Let it stand forth from its dark concealment! In vain he presses his hands on his bloodshot eyes not to behold that scene--in vain he tries to close his ears against those voices--the blackest night of his gloomy prison cannot veil _that_ picture, for it arises from the darkest depths of his inmost soul.
Listen how his evil-minded a.s.sociate tempts him, and draws him on!
"Yon old man at the farm has plenty of money--ready money--do you hear?
Do you think I lost my time there? His daughter and her husband are his heirs; they do not need his gold so much as we do. The old man sleeps in that low house near the larger one. It is but a step through the window, and we shall be rich for a long time."
"But what if he should awake, and recognize us?" asked the prisoner, with much anxiety.
The other made a gesture which shocked him. He started back.
"No, no!" he cried, shuddering; "no blood!"
His companion laughed.
"What matters it whether the old man dies a few days sooner or later?
People have generally no objection to the death of those to whom they are to be heirs. And have you forgotten how roughly he spoke to you?
How he abused you, and drove you away? At that time I am sure you thirsted for revenge. Besides, how are you going to live? Perhaps you think you may find some good-natured fool to take a fancy to you; but you forget that _I_ like you too well to separate from you."
Want, fear, revengeful feelings, got the better of him; but at night, when like two spectres they glided along the road, it seemed to him constantly as if some one saw him; and notwithstanding his companion"s ridicule, he frequently looked back. And truly there was ONE who watched him, but not with any mortal eye. They opened the window, and got in one after the other, and easily found the old man"s desk, which was in the next room. The robber"s practised hand soon opened it, and he was about to take its contents, when the door of the bedroom was suddenly thrown back and rapidly shut, and the old man, who was still hale and strong, entered, armed with a thick cudgel. A short but furious struggle ensued; he remembered having seized him by the back of his neck with both his hands, and dragged him down on the floor; he remembered having heard some dull blows, that made him shiver with horror, and then having stood in breathless dismay by a dead body. The two criminals looked at each other with faces of ashy hue; then the most hardened kicked the corpse to one side, and went to secure the booty, while the prisoner opened the door of the sleeping-room to search it.
But--oh, anguish unspeakable! oh, avenging G.o.d!--who should spring forward to meet him, clinging to his knees and imploring his protection--who but his innocent, unfortunate little favourite! He started back, speechless and powerless; but when he beheld his comrade, without uttering one word, brandish his knife, he clasped the child with one arm in a convulsive embrace, and stretched out the other to defend him against the ruffian.
"Shall he be left to betray us both to-morrow?" mumbled the wretch. "He must die, for your sake as well as mine."
"Oh, let us take him with us!" prayed the other, in the deepest agitation, while he tried to keep off the knife, which, however, he did with difficulty, as the child held fast to his arm, and, in his terror at the murderous weapon, hid his little face on that breast where he had so often rested in happy confidence, his silver voice murmuring his childish love.
"You are mad," said his companion. "What should we do with the boy? Let go your hold of him, I say--we have no time to lose--let him go, or it will cost you your own life."
The quivering lips of the miserable man had scarcely uttered a prayer to wait, at least, till he could withdraw, when the child was torn from him, and like a maniac he rushed away, sprang out of the window, threw himself upon the ground, and buried his head among the long damp gra.s.s.
What a moment of agony! Such agony, that at the remembrance of it the prisoner groaned aloud, and dashed his head against the stone wall, then coiled himself up like a worm, as if he would fain have shrunk into nothing.
The dear-bought, blood-stained booty was divided, and the criminal a.s.sociates separated. But suspicion fell upon them; they were pursued, and soon taken. On being carried before a magistrate, he denied it all; yet when he was placed by the dead body of the murdered child, guilt spoke in his stiff, averted head--in the tell-tale perspiration that stood on his brow--and in his clenched and trembling hands. He confessed, and implored to be removed, even to prison, from the harrowing spectacle. His accomplice was condemned to death, he himself to imprisonment for life.
There he was now, alone with the dreadful recollections of former days. The summer came and went, without bringing any other joy to him than that the sun"s rays fell broader, and more golden in their gleams upon the wall outside that bounded his narrow view; and that now and then a bird would fly over it, quiver a few notes, then wing its flight away. That sight always awoke a voice in his heart that cried for "Freedom--freedom!" But he would hush it with the thought, that he could not be happier were he at liberty than in his dungeon cell. At other times, he would take a violent longing to see a green leaf--only a single green leaf--or a corn-blossom from the fields, or a blade of gra.s.s. Ah! these were vain wishes! When winter came, and the sun and the daylight forsook him so soon, he was still more gloomy, for he could not sleep the whole of the long, long night, and the phantoms that haunted him were terrific.
Once--it was a Christmas night--he was reflecting on all the joy that was abroad in the world, and he thought if it would not be possible for him to pray. Then long-forgotten words returned to his lips, and he faltered out, "Our Father, which art in heaven!"--but _then_ he stopped.
"G.o.d is in heaven," thought he, "how can He condescend to hear the sigh that arises from the h.e.l.l within my breast? No, no--it is but mocking Him for _me_ to pray!"
Days and years had gone by since the prisoner had inhaled the breath of the fresh balmy air, had beheld the extended vault of heaven, or wandered in the bright, warm sunshine; at length the spirit had exhausted the body. He lay ill and feeble, and death was near. Then was the narrow door of his dungeon opened, and he was removed to a more cheerful place--to a place where the blessed air and light were freely admitted, and where the voices of human beings were around him. But their compa.s.sion came too late. Earnestly did he entreat them to let him see a minister of the Gospel; and when one came, he poured out the misery of his soul to him. He listened with the deepest attention while the holy man discoursed about Him, who, in His boundless love, shed His own blood to wash out the sins of mankind, and in whose name even the darkest and most guilty criminal might dare to raise his blood-stained hands in prayer. How consoling were not these precious words to him, "My G.o.d and my Saviour! With what an earnest longing he waited to be permitted to partic.i.p.ate in that solemn rite which, by grace and faith, was to unite him to that Redeemer! And how he trembled lest the lamp of his mortal life should be extinguished before the first spark of that sacred flame was lighted, which was to be kindled for an endless eternity!
The time that his repentant spirit so thirsted for arrived. And when he had partaken of the holy communion, and tears of penitent sorrow had streamed over his burning cheeks, peace--long unknown--returned to his weary heart, and his grat.i.tude found vent in thanksgivings and prayer.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, as he looked out of his open window, "it is spring, my friends--I feel that it is spring, beautiful spring!"
"Yes," replied the superintendent of the hospital, "it is spring; even the old tree by the wall is green. See here, as I pa.s.sed it, I broke off this budding twig for you;" and he placed the little green branch in the hand of the dying man.
"Oh!" said he, with a melancholy smile and a tear in his eye, "that old, decayed, withered tree--can it put forth new leaves--fresh, green, sweetly scented as these? May I not then venture to hope that the Almighty may call forth a new life from me in another world? Oh, that such may be His will!"
And with the green bough--the proof of G.o.d"s power and goodness in his hand, and with his Redeemer"s promise on his lips, he pa.s.sed to his everlasting doom, in the blessed hope that he also might touch the hem of his Saviour"s garment, and hear these words of life--"Son, thy sins be forgiven thee!"
MORTEN LANGe.
A Christmas Story.
BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
Each midnight from the farthest Thule, to isles the South Sea laves, To exercise themselves awhile the dead forsake their graves; But when it is the Christmas time they stay much longer out, And may in the churchyard be seen, then, wandering about; And as they dance their merry rounds, the rattling of their bones Produces, "midst the wintry blasts, somewhat unearthly tones.
Poor things! For them there"s neither wine, nor punch, nor supper there, The icicles are all they have, and a mouthful of fresh air.
When shines the moon strange forms are seen, tall spectral giants some: Such sights as these might even strike a chattering Frenchman dumb.
Scoff not at my poor hero, then, though once in a sad fright-- He is a most discreet young man, and Morten Lange hight.
One Christmas night the fates ordained a journey he must make, So, for despatch, "twas his resolve a horse and sledge to take.
Dark was the hour, and in the skies the ranks of stars looked pale, While from a tower near hooted owls, as in a German tale.
And Morten Lange, by-the-by, was not unlearned, for About Molboerne"s exploits[8]--also the Trojan war, "Octavia.n.u.s," Nisses, Trolls, Hobgoblins well he knew, And all about "the spectre white," whose story is so _true_.
Too soon the sledge stood at the door, with many a jingling bell; But ah! these sounds to his sad ears seemed like his funeral knell.
Yet, though the snow-flakes fell around, of them he took no heed, But like a British runaway pair, he started at full speed.
He pa.s.sed a regiment of old trees, whitened from top to toe, And soon he gained an open plain, where nought he saw but snow.
Like Matthison"s "Gedichte," "twas very, very cold, But still our hero tried to think that he was warm and bold.
He did not care to gaze about, and so half-closed his eyes; Yet, spite of this precaution--lo! a curious sight he spies: A muster of the Elfin-folk enjoying a gay spree, The men were just five inches high, the women only three; And though "twas at the chill Yule-time, when cold reigns over all, In clothes of flimsy cobwebs made, they capered at their ball; The ancient dames, however, wore some more substantial gear, For of bats" wings their shawls were formed--but, softly--what comes here?
Twelve harnessed mice, with trappings grand, fit for a monarch"s own, They draw a car of fairy work, where a lady sits alone.
It stops, and Morten Lange sees the lady getting out-- "Heav"n help me now! Heav"n help me now!" he sighed, for he dared not shout.
"I"m no poltroon, and yet I feel the blood within my veins Is freezing fast." In mortal fear, his cold hand dropped the reins; Then stooping to recover them out of the sledge he fell, And with it scampered off the horse, whither he could not tell.
He felt that his last hour was come, all helpless as he lay-- And with such thoughts upon his mind he fainted quite away.
At length, when consciousness returned, and when his swoon was o"er, He heard a fearful buzzing sound, that frightened him still more.
What had he done to be exposed that night to such alarms?
A troop of demons round him thronged--one imp secured his arms.
Another seized his lanky legs, another caught his head-- And powerless to resist them then, away with him they sped.
They carried him to some strange place, flames shone upon the walls, Into another fainting-fit, half-dead with fright, he falls, But when the pains of death seemed past, and trembling he looked round, He saw that in the other life a sad fate he had found.
The vaulted roof was black with smoke, and awful was the heat; The devils stood with naked arms--he dared not scan their feet.
One held a hammer in his hand, and threatening, waved it nigh, And in a burning furnace there, red flames were flashing high.
Soon guessed our hero where he was, and set himself to kneel, And l.u.s.tily for mercy prayed--but they laughed at his appeal.
Then to his side an angel came, benignant was her smile, And holding out her small white hand, she said to him the while; "Well, Heaven be praised, you"re better now! But why are you afraid?"