Withered Leaves.

Vol. I.

by Rudolf von Gottschall.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE FUCHS-SPITZE.

Large and full stood the moon in the eastern sky, and reflected its broken light in the troubled waves which the Baltic Sea cast upon the coast of Samland; it silvered the tangled thicket of the ravine through which here and there quivered a ray of the woodland stream, with its scanty supply of water, as with difficulty it forced its way amongst the stones onward to the ocean. The primordiate blocks of granite, which kept watch at the estuary of the streamlet, gained a venerable appearance in the light of the planets; but more venerable still appeared the primeval oaks of Perkunos, with their silvery tips, as they rose upon the rocky projection, and down whose lightning-struck stems the moonlight glided softly.

Was it a priestess of the old heathen deities who stood there, in her light robe, leaning against the trunk of the mightiest oak, her gaze turned outwards upon the wide sea, whose opposite breakers washed the land of the ancient Vikings? But no! The heathen priestesses, who sacrificed at the oaks of their G.o.ds, were venerable women, while that slender figure bore all the witchery of youth, and looked much too gentle for such a horrible craft! So much spiritual tenderness lay in her large, widely-opened gazelle-like eyes, and besides--many, many centuries ago the days of Paganism had pa.s.sed away, even although then, as now, the waves beat upon the strand, and the tops of the oaks rustled, for we live in the nineteenth century; old Herkus Monte and the other Nathang and Samland leaders of armies have long since been replaced by the commanders of the King of Prussia's regiments and battalions, and for two years this coast, like the whole land of Prussia, has been ruled over by that spirited Hohenzollern Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

"How it blows," said the Regierungsrath, as he b.u.t.toned his overcoat more closely, "I do not love these evening amus.e.m.e.nts; I find that the sea makes a much deeper impression by day, and then, one does not expose oneself to the danger of paying for these so-called enjoyments of nature with rheumatic pains."

"But, my husband," replied the Regierungsrthin, a fine woman, a thorough Lithuanian, whose cradle stood on the sh.o.r.es of Memel, "you are indeed too prosaic! One must just for once see the ocean by moonlight; besides Evchen has cherished this wish for long. Two weeks already have we been in Warnicken, and always have gone to bed as the moon rose."

"We do not go in for marine painting," replied the Regierungsrath drily, as his chin disappeared farther and farther into his enormous white cravat, "and Eva, too, will take cold. The girl has a delicate const.i.tution; you, dear wife, judge all the world by yourself; but we are not all so fortunate as to possess weather-proof giant natures. How the girl stands there in her light summer dress! Eva, wrap your shawl round you, a cold breeze from the north is blowing."

The girl awoke as if from a dream, she wrapped herself obediently in the shawl that she carried upon her arm, and hastened towards her father and mother, who were standing against the foremost railing of the projection.

"Oh, how beautiful, how enchantingly beautiful it is here," cried Eva, with her heart full, and tears standing in her eyes, tears such as only youth can shed in overflowing moods, when the charm of nature presciently awakes gloomy feelings in the heart.

The Regierungsrath could not explain these tears to himself, because every rational cause for them was wanting, and indeed every irrational one; any kind of wish denied would speedily have solved the mystery for him. Therefore he made the cold wind responsible, and folded his daughter still more closely in her shawl. Her mother, on the contrary, who had equally little sympathy with such-like emotional outbreaks, but knew better how to divine their cause, cried, reprovingly--

"Learn to wean yourself from over-sensitiveness, dear child! How often already have I been obliged to tell you so! You must learn gradually to control your feelings. All this is very beautiful: moonshine and ocean's tide, groups of trees and wooded vallies, and the steep precipitous rocks; yet one must not admire it too much; it is after all an old tale, and one must not appear too new to the world. What would people say to it? At some period one must leave school behind, and enter into life."

Eva pressed herself deprecatingly against her mother, whose gigantic form towered above the slender girl; but her father, after having taken a pinch of snuff, a.s.sumed a complacent tone of voice, and began to expound his views as to the capabilities of profit possessed by the Samland sea-bathing places. Eva had ample leisure to survey the beautiful picture of the moonlight evening, to follow the lines of the surf-surrounded coasts to the uttermost foreland, and ever again to lower her gaze into the mystery of the Wolf's schlucht, above which the most luxuriant vegetation rose and fell like green breakers in the sough of the night wind.

Then voices suddenly arose from the paths which led upward through the wood to the Fuchs-spitze; they were not the melodies of strolling singers, but the music of artists. One female voice, by its beautiful full tone, made itself conspicuous amongst all the others, and that singer's execution appeared to be by no means inconsiderable. The Regierungsrath found this interruption to his discourse the more disagreeable, because he was about to make a few propositions by which sea-bathing places, such as this romantic Warnicken, could be raised out of their rude primitive condition into fashionable watering places.

In the meanwhile the party of male and female singers had reached the summit, their hats and coats garlanded with wreaths of leaves. They appeared to be in a most lively mood, and broke out into loud rejoicings when they had gained the point whence a view could be obtained; some clapped their hands, and at a signal, which an elderly gentleman gave with a walking-stick used as a conductor's _bton_, all began to sing a most artistically correct _Jodler_. In the faces and in the whole demeanour of the party there lay that peculiarity by which actors and actresses are unmistakable even in their exterior; an air of mental freedom, the a.s.surance and self-sufficiency of manner, and at the same time the appearance of struggling after an ideal, which even those know how to maintain who follow their art as a rather rude handicraft. In fact, they were singers from the provincial capital, who were wandering along the sh.o.r.e for a holiday excursion, but had set up their head-quarters in the favourite seaside watering place Cranz, which by its sociable doings atoned for what its desolate strand lacked in natural beauty.

It soon became apparent that the most prominent female person in the group, a tall figure with southern glowing eyes, with n.o.ble aristocratic features, and dark hair that shone amongst the green oak branches with the polish of ebony, was that accomplished singer, who, during the party's ascent, had borne away the prize of song. Leaning over the bal.u.s.trade, she warbled a melody into the night air, with trills and cadences irreproachably executed, while the fuller notes were uttered with most soul-felt intensity of expression.

"Bravo, Signora Bollini!" cried the elderly gentleman, who had previously waved the _bton_, "even the most unfavourable critic, the most venomous monster that lurks in any newspaper's crevice, would be obliged to write a laudatory criticism upon this performance. Besides you are in wonderfully good voice."

"You know, dear Conductor," replied the Signora, "that I possess an impressionable soul; here in free beautiful nature I regulate my powers quite differently from what I do when I stand behind you at the piano, looking down upon its venerable smooth surface, and the pages of music upon the lifeless paper, that I am to transpose into ringing coin. One must have illusions, best of conductors; but to sing to order, at the appointed time, as announced on the black board, for wages which themselves sometimes belong to illusions, takes away all inclination, and acts most depressingly upon one's mind. Art can only thrive in freedom!"

"It is well known to us all," said the Conductor, "that our beautiful _prima donna_ belongs to those natures, which, in the language of art, may be designated as _cappricciose_, and which only with difficulty can accustom themselves to any regular walk in life, or indeed to any rules of business."

"Now you are talking of business again," said the Signora, "naming art and business in one breath, it is enough to make all the muses take to flight!"

"Well, well," replied the Director, "everything in the world will have its season, and as regards business, _prime donne_ do not understand that so badly when honorariums for their performances, or profitable paragraphs, are concerned."

"Not seldom, dear Master," said the singer, with a winning expression of countenance, which suddenly became somewhat gentler, and more amiable. That which she had said about her impressionability, had been confirmed by the rapid change of her face's expression; yes, it betokened cordial acquiescence, most unhesitating reciprocation of everything that was friendly; the greatest readiness to follow the other's moods, the trains of thought, certainly as it seemed, without that reserve which stricter womanliness required, as the flattering speeches by which she now sought to a.s.suage the Conductor, contained something syren-like; every word was a caress, and only slight mockery, which sometimes echoed from them, showed that no real affection prompted their utterance.

This party was very disagreeable to the Regierungsrath; he did not love art, he liked to avoid all artists; in his eyes closer intercourse with them did not appear suitable to his position and he was glad to withdraw himself from the brotherly manner in which the disciples of art seek to place themselves on a footing of equality with all other mortals. He was on the point of taking flight from the Fuchs-spitze, which had suddenly become a Parna.s.sus to him, when he was prevented doing so by the greeting of a young man, who released himself from the oak-leaf-wreathed group and stepped towards him.

"Good evening, Herr Regierungsrath Kalzow," rang the cordial greeting accompanied by a hearty shake of the hand, with which the female members of the Kalzow family were also favoured.

"Ah, Herr Doctor Schner," replied the Rath, "what brings you here, then, in such jovial company?"

"You know," replied the young Doctor of Law, "that the ministry puts a stop to my political career, will not grant me the _venia legendi_ at the University. Thus I have been obliged to exchange the useful for the agreeable; I have dedicated myself as dramatic scenery a.s.sistant to the theatre, and belong to a certain extent to the strolling troupe. We have just come from Memel, where we stirred up the Jack tars to enthusiasm with our melodies; then we waded through the sand of the Kurische Nehrung; sailed across the waters of the Kurische Haff in a smoking steamboat and settled down domestically in Cranz. The opera namely, and I, who although I really live on very bad terms with the trebles and general ba.s.s, yet am more enthusiastic about the operatic than the dramatic company, and at least enjoy my holidays with the former; the ballet, too, is represented here! Look, that languishing lady there is our _premire danseuse_, does she not look something like one of the moon's rays that had been left behind? Each of her _pas_ is a danced sigh. None of these ladies will receive a part through me; therefore I believe in the disinterestedness of their love glances."

The Doctor had only made these confessions to the Rath. Eva, with her mother, had retreated farther into the shadowy net of a Perkunos oak; but suddenly a peculiar pallor lay upon her features.

Young Schner was well known to her; she had often seen and spoken to him in a friend's house, and as he strove very eagerly to gain her good-will, she had not remained perfectly indifferent to him.

Indeed, he might well win a girlish heart by his uncommon character. He behaved much more romantically than all adherents of art; his velvet coat, certainly, had been neat and glossy when it came from the tailor; yet it was terribly receptive of everything that flies about in the air, and soon lost all its charms of freshness.

A wide, turned-down shirt collar, without any intervening neckerchief, lay extended over his shoulders, like linen upon a bleaching-ground; a student's velvet cap sat defiantly upon his brow, even although it had now forfeited the silver Albertus, the proud badge of the academical citizens of Albertina, and the thorn stick in his hand quite answered to that one which the "wild man" carries in popular pictures.

His long black hair, however, which fell down upon his shoulders, enframed an interesting face, which was sharply, but not badly cut, and was surmounted by a pair of fiery and remarkable eyes.

The young Doctor, indeed, was an aspiring young fellow, and had allowed several poetical larks to rise, whose warbling notes had been heard afar through Germany.

At two-and-twenty years of age he was a species of celebrity, and celebrity is often the easily-obtained fruit of fashion. At that time everything was the fashion that came from the Baltic sh.o.r.e, where the beacons of political freedom blazed.

Thus young Doctor Schner was deemed a genius--that is a strong letter of recommendation to a young girl, who has just left school--and, therefore, even the keen female eye does not perceive those tiny specks upon the velvet coat and that unfashionable hair, which detests the scissors.

The young poet now went towards Eva, and commenced a conversation with her about the beauty of the evening, and the beauties in the party of actresses, extolling Signora Bollini with glowing eulogy.

Eva, who leaned against the trunk of the giant oak, would have liked best to hide herself in it like a dryad, so as not to be obliged to listen to this praise, not to look at this G.o.ddess of art.

"Doctorchen, whither have you vanished?" suddenly rang the Signora's mellifluous voice, audible far around, and stepping nearer, she said, with a graceful inclination towards mother and daughter: "Ah, with the blue-bell, in the shadow of the sacred oak! You must spare my amanuensis tome to-day, ladies. He knows the road, the path, the names of all the hills on the coast, and the little bays--he is my map."

At the Signora's first words, Schner had retreated from Eva, as though he had been caught upon forbidden paths. He introduced the ladies to one another, and immediately disappeared amongst the group of actors.

After a few polite words, which she had exchanged with the Regierungsrath's family, the Signora was back again in the midst of her own people.

Again a bright song resounded, accompanied by the waves breaking still louder on the sh.o.r.e.

Annoyed at the long stay, the Regierungsrath gave the signal to return home, and as they departed Eva could still hear the singer's merry words.

"Now ladies, away into the surging tide! Who would not wish to be a moonlight-water-fairy for once? I feel like a spirit of the elements, and my adorers have long since declared me to be an Undine, because in their opinion I have no soul. All the same--souls are the cheapest things in the world, and the smallest State has many hundreds of thousands of them! Besides, one must be able to exist without a soul, if one can only offer some subst.i.tute for it."

"Bravo!" cried Schner; "long live our Undine!"

"Therefore, gentlemen, _abonnement suspendu_ for the Baltic Sea?

To-night it belongs to the ladies, and you return quietly to the hotel.

You need have no fear that I shall transform myself down below in the breaking surf into a Melusina, and perhaps, coquette with a fish's tail. I am no silvery-scaled monster, but both on land and in water a woman _comme il faut_. _En avant_, ladies! Here are no hea.r.s.es as in Cranz; here one springs from the sh.o.r.e into the waves, and the only Acton who plays the spy upon us is the moon! It shall have its horns; it will soon enter upon its last quarter!"

Ladies and gentlemen descended the Fuchs-spitze on separate paths.

Eva had not lost a word of the singer's speech; it caused her to shiver uncomfortably, and she wrapped herself more closely in her shawl.

"An intolerable party," said the Regierungsrath to his wife; "so bold, so impudent."